Dark Stranger Read online

  EVERYBODY LOVES

  THESE DARK AND PASSIONATE STORIES FROM

  NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY

  BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  SUSAN SIZEMORE

  DARK STRANGER

  “Aliens, vampires, adventures, and passion all wrapped up in a can’t-put-down thrill ride. I loved it!”

  —Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling

  author of Seduce the Darkness

  “An underground prison world and a man and a woman with dangerous secrets—and even more dangerous desires—launch readers into Sizemore’s futuristic. This story is sure to enthrall and entertain Sizemore’s fans once again.”

  —Linnea Sinclair, RITA Award–winning

  author of Shades of Dark

  PRIMAL NEEDS

  “Sizemore pours on the passion and danger!”

  —Romantic Times

  “Susan Sizemore’s vampire series just keeps getting better and better….”

  —Fallen Angels Reviews

  PRIMAL DESIRES

  “Sizemore’s expanding alternate world adds layers of complexity and sizzling passion to an already rich blend…. Outstanding reading!”

  —Romantic Times

  PRIMAL HEAT

  “An intriguing alternate reality with absorbing characters and touches of humor makes this series one of the best and most consistently appealing around.”

  —Romantic Times

  “Passion, danger, and mystery fill the pages of Primal Heat … an intense and satisfying read.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “This world grows more fascinating as each new chapter unfolds. Politics, power, mystery, and romance make for a heady combination….”

  —Huntress Reviews

  MASTER OF DARKNESS

  “What a bad boy charmer! Definitely Sizemore’s most fun and original hero to date…. Once again, Sizemore serves up a terrific blend of edgy humor, passionate romance, and thrilling danger.”

  —Romantic Times

  “… great action, snappy dialogue and powerful prose…. Susan Sizemore’s Master of Darkness is engaging from beginning to incredible end.”

  —A Romance Review

  I HUNGER FOR YOU

  “Sizemore’s sizzling series gets more intriguing…. Hot romance and intense passions fuel this book and make it a memorable read.”

  —Romantic Times

  “An alluring plot, page-turning excitement, and scrumptious romance.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “Sizemore’s vampire world is among the best … out there…. This is one book that belongs on your list of keepers.”

  —Huntress Reviews

  “Plenty of vampires, sexual tension, and action to go around.”

  —A Romance Review

  I THIRST FOR YOU

  “Passion, betrayal, and fast-paced action abound in this sizzling tale….”

  —Library Journal

  “Edge-of-your-seat thrills combine with hot romance and great vampire lore!”

  —Romantic Times

  “An action-packed, suspenseful roller-coaster ride that never slows!”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  I BURN FOR YOU

  “With her new twist on ancient vampire lore, Sizemore creates an excellent and utterly engaging new world. I Burn for You is sexy, exciting, and just plain thrilling. It’s the perfect start for a hot, new series.”

  —Romantic Times

  “I adored I Burn for You and really hope it’s the beginning of another wonderful vampire series from Ms. Sizemore.”

  —Old Book Barn gazette

  “[A] sexy read laced with laughter, the first in a burning new series.”

  —Booklist

  “Sizemore’s hunky vamps can visit me anytime! I was so sorry to see this book end. This one is a must-buy.”

  —All About Romance

  ALSO BY SUSAN SIZEMORE

  Primal Needs

  Primal Desires

  Primal Heat

  Master of Darkness

  Crave the Night

  I Hunger for You

  I Thirst for You

  I Burn for You

  ANTHOLOGIES

  The Shadows of Christmas Past

  (with Christine Feehan)

  Moon fever (with Maggie Shayne, Lori Handeland, and Caridad Piñiero)

  SUSAN

  SIZEMORE

  Dark Stranger

  The sale of this book without its cover is unauthorized. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that it was reported to the publisher as “unsold and destroyed.” Neither the author nor the publisher has received payment for the sale of this “stripped book.”

  Pocket Star Books

  A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2009 by Susan Sizemore

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  First Pocket Star Books paperback edition November 2009

  POCKET STAR BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected].

  The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Designed by Jill Putorti

  Cover: illustration by Craig White, design by Lisa Litwack

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  ISBN 978-1-4165-6213-9

  ISBN 978-1-4391-6580-5 (ebook)

  For: Jacqueline lichtenberg—who once

  asked me to write a story about a good guy vampire.

  Dark Stranger

  Dear Reader:

  I’ve been living with the Primes for some years now, and there are times when they drive me crazy, almost literally in the case of this book. Although this paranormal romance series is my creation, sometimes I just do what the characters tell me—or maybe I write down what they tell me they’d actually do instead of the way I think the story ought to go. We’ve had some pretty serious arguments along the way, and a few compromises have had to be made. Like in any relationship—though you can’t exactly go into couples counseling with imaginary friends.

  You see, Zoe and Doc wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote down their story, even though it doesn’t come in the linear order that I’ve set up for the Primes series. Dark Stranger is what I call an attack book. Zoe and Doc jumped into my head and would not quiet down until their romance was written. They were not going to wait their turn. Telling this story wasn’t a choice, it was a necessity—one that my disconcerted agent and editor have dealt with with grace and understanding. I truly thank them for their support.

  Once this futuristic tale of the Primes vampires was written, I had to figure out just what it meant in the larger scope of the Primes universe. Which is how the Vampire Book Club came into being as a new way of sharing the Primes world.

  It’s hard to describe, but writing is an interactive process between me and the universe that I theoretically create. With every
character, setting, and situation I’ve introduced to the mix, the Primes universe has evolved. One thing leads to another. Questions arise and demand answers. A culture has formed—actually, it’s three interlocked vampire cultures, a bunch of were-folk cultures, a culture of mortal vampire hunters, and subcultures within all of these interactive groups. And all of these folk interact as a sort of ethnic minority within the larger melting pot of modern culture.

  The Primes share a common history, customs, cuisine, religion, legends, myths, ceremonies, literature, language, and, it turns out, their own popular culture. The Primes have their own distinctive fashions—they prefer black, of course. They have Coyote, their own vampire rock band. There’s a vampire movie star. It turns out that they have a novelist writing stories for and about the Primes universe. Up until now this writer’s stories have been shared privately among the females of the Prime Clans and Families. But since the musicians and the actor share their talents with the mortal world, it seems only fair that this vampire-created fiction be shared with mortal readers. Dark Stranger is the first selection of the Vampire Book Club to be disclosed to the mortal world.

  They made me do it.

  I hope you enjoy it.

  1

  “Not again,” Zoe muttered as the ship shook from another direct hit.

  This had been going on far longer than usual, and it was getting worse. Though her quarters were deep within the center of the command ship’s many hulls, she could still feel the energy blows against their heavy shielding, and how that shielding was fading. The communications stem in her ear let her know that the whole task force was in trouble and on the run. And not only their ships, but Asi ships were also scattering under the Hajim attack.

  “Damn!”

  She knew her exasperation was inappropriate, as good people were fighting and dying on the ships around her. She honored their sacrifice, but she wasn’t supposed to be in battles, and this was the third time in five years.

  She’d ended up piloting a fighter during the first battle, and a freighter full of refugees the second time. She was a good pilot, but she functioned best as a diplomat. At least she tried. She left her quarters to make her way to the bridge.

  The corridors were almost empty; the well-trained crew were all at their battle stations in response to the general quarters alarm. She was probably the only person not where she was supposed to be, but the need to be useful drove her. She might not be assigned to this ship, but she knew she was the best pilot in the whole Byzant Empire. It had little to do with natural talent and much to do with the enhancement modules that took up almost microscopic space in her brain. She was simply wired better than anyone else on board.

  Why did this have to happen just as the talks were beginning to make progress? She smiled grimly at the naïveté of her own question, knowing full well that the attack was likely happening because the negotiations were proceeding. No matter how tight security seemed to be, leaks were always possible.

  That the war had gone on for five years told her that she and all the other diplomats were failing at their jobs.

  They failed not only the human worlds of Byzant, but the aliens of Kril, Denthera, and Asi. Only the Hajim did not know failure, for they refused to negotiate. They simply fought. Sometimes they forced others to fight for them, if not with them, but they made no true alliances. This war went on and on, the battle lines swinging back and forth across system after system.

  Now the Hajim fleet had appeared to break up yet another attempt at negotiation.

  The deck shook beneath her with another hit, knocking Zoe to her knees.

  As she got to her feet, a side door cycled open. Jazoan, Zoe’s bodyguard and the head of security detail, stepped to Zoe’s side and steadied her as the strongest shock so far rumbled through the ship, then stepped back quickly.

  She could tell by his grim expression that things were not going well at all. “Status?”

  “That last explosion was a direct hit to the shuttle bay. The Denthera ambassador was boarding her shuttle at the time.”

  Zoe shook her head sadly at the loss of the enigmatic alien woman she’d sat across the table from a few hours before. “So now we’ll never know if the Denthera betrayed the conference to the Hajim. What about the Asi ambassador?”

  “The Asi have vowed not to be taken alive.”

  Zoe knew all too well what that meant, and she had to fight down nausea.

  Jazoan took her by the wrist as the ship shook again. “It’s time for you to go.”

  She wanted to say that she would not abandon the ship as long as her people fought on, but by a new law passed since those other battles the decision at such a time of crisis was not for her to make. Jazoan was head of the security detail.

  “Our shuttle was parked next to the Dentherans.”

  “It’s time,” was all he said.

  Silence stretched tautly between them while he waited. While the decision was his, he wasn’t going to force her. Not yet. Zoe longed to do something, but she knew it was too late when the “abandon ship” alarm began to sound.

  Jazoan hustled her back to her quarters, where she changed into the blue uniform of a navy lieutenant and made other necessary preparations as quickly as possible. The decks rattled and shook constantly while she was occupied; he stood with his arms crossed, his back braced against the door. Alarms blared, and by the time she was ready, the “abandon ship” warning had changed to a siren that sounded a harsh, doomed-sounding tone in her ears. Finally, she inserted a fresh ID chip into her right wrist.

  While the pain of the insertion still stung, Jazoan took her by the elbow and led her into the controlled chaos in the corridor. There were people everywhere now, in navy, marine, and civil service uniforms. The pair of them blended into the crowd heading for the escape pods, and Jazoan guided her quickly to the front of the line. By now, the shaking from enemy fire had turned into the constant fatal shuddering of a ship about to disintegrate. The ship would self-destruct into its component atoms once everyone was off, leaving no evidence of the secret conference for the Hajim. She and Jazoan would be the only ones left with any information at all.

  Zoe noted the fear on every face, but people calmly responded to the safety routines that had been drilled into them. It was well known that the Hajim took prisoners, but no one knew where the captives were sent. The important thing right now was to reach an escape pod and get off the dying ship.

  To stay alive.

  Escape would be better, but Zoe knew that she’d have to wait and watch and be patient until an opportunity presented itself.

  Jazoan, with years of experience at dealing with crowds, got them to the pod deck quickly. Then the unexpected happened at the entrance of the vast hangar.

  The young officer directing the loading looked at her in surprise, and stammered, “Porphyrgia! What are you doing—”

  “Lieutenant Alynn Ryan,” she said, accessing information on the young man from the vast database implant in her brain. He was one of hundreds of service people she’d spoken to on a hospital visit a year before. She managed a smile for the brave young man now. “I see your wound has healed well.”

  His eyes shone. “You remember me? What are you doing here?”

  He was flattered and flustered, but there was no time for it. Besides, she could see that Jazoan was not at all pleased at this unexpected turn. He considered anonymity crucial for her security. She didn’t like the way he looked at the young officer. She gave a faint shake of her head, hoping this was enough to keep her protector on his leash.

  “We have our duties, Alynn,” she reminded the lieutenant, and touched him on the hand reassuringly.

  “Of course,” he answered. “This way.”

  He led her forward into the hangar bay, with many others crowding behind and then surrounding her. The ship gave the most violent shake yet, and the emergency lights went from yellow to red. Sirens howled, barely audible above a scream of crunching metal.

 
Zoe made it into an overloaded pod, one of the last on board before the hatch cycled shut. But by the time she was in the escape vehicle, Jazoan was no longer at her side. She hoped that he hadn’t turned back to deal with the hapless young man, for her guard could be dauntingly ruthless in the name of the empire.

  There was nothing Zoe could do but struggle to a free seat, strap herself in, and hope for rescue as the lifepod was ejected from the dying ship.

  “Bad news, Doc,” Corporal Arco said as he came up to Matthias in the middle of the wide dirt floor at the bottom of the central shaft. Arco pointed upward, where faint, filtered light flowed down through a haze of dust motes. “They’ve got another eighty in the processing camp up top.”

  Dr. Matthias Raven took the news with a fatalistic shrug. He was the highest-ranking Byzant officer in Camp Five, a brigadier general in the Space Marines, which put him in charge of the human POWs. He was also the only medical officer for humans in the prison camp. He had to deal with the prisoners, the Kril who ran the camp, and occasionally, the Hajim who forced the Kril to do their dirty work for them.

  This wasn’t what he’d signed on for when he joined the marines, but duty took many forms. He’d been in the vast underground dungeon of Camp Five for sixteen months now. At least he wasn’t afraid of the dark, like so many others. There was a part of him that just wanted to take his chances and walk out. But—duty …

  “I assume you mean eighty humans, Corporal?” he questioned.