Born of Shadows (17 page)

“Not without you.”

“Princess—”

“Not without you,” she enunciated each word sharply, letting him know that he was the one wasting their time with a useless argument. She pulled as hard as she could against the hot metal that pinned him to the floor. “I’d already be dead if not for you. I’m not about to leave you after that. Now shut up and help!”

Caillen smiled at her sharp command. Only a sick bastard like him would find that amusing, especially given his circumstances. But they didn’t have long.

He growled as she lifted the burning beam where his leg was trapped. He slid his foot free and grabbed the pack. But not before he could hear the tank whine and whistle.

It was about to go. Their time could only be measured in heartbeats now.

Even though his foot felt broken, he grabbed her hand and his pack and ran with her from the pod.

Still they weren’t safe. The shrapnel would blow out for yards and could very easily pierce them. Tightening his hand on hers, he pulled her toward a copse of trees that would hopefully offer some protection.

They’d only made it halfway there before the pod blew. The shock wave of the explosion pitched them forward, causing them to tumble. All Caillen could do was try to protect his head as he rolled and fragments rained down all around them.

He came to rest on his stomght=/font>

Desideria lay a few feet away from him, on her back. Unmoving.

A sick feeling of dread constricted his stomach. “Princess? You alive?”

“No,” she groaned.

“Me either.”

A second explosion sounded. Caillen cursed as he saw more shrapnel heading for them, including a sizable chunk of the door. Grabbing Desideria, he barely made it behind a fallen log before the door impaled itself upright in the ground right where she’d been. Small fires burned all around them.

Her face pale, she looked up at him in awe. “Thank you.”

Letting out a long breath in relief, Caillen laid his head on the ground and did his best not to whimper from the pain that was tearing through every single inch of his body. He felt like he’d been run through a compactor. The last thing he wanted was to move, but he needed to check on her and tend the long gash in his leg. His luck it’d turn to gangrene and he’d lose it if he delayed treatment.

“Any time, Princess. But really, we have to do something about these near fatal interactions of ours.” Bracing himself for the pain, he sat up.

She glared accusingly as she shoved at his shoulder. “Don’t you dare blame me for this. What the hell was so important that you had to go back for it and risk our lives?”

“I only risked
my
life. You’re the loon who came back for me.”

She rolled her eyes. “I couldn’t agree more. Now why would you go back?”

He held his pack up.

She gaped at him, then glared as if she could murder him herself. “You almost killed us for a stupid backpack?”

“Not a backpack, baby. It’s a survival pack.”

“I would comment on the irony of you almost dying for that, but right now I really ache too much to bother.”

He laughed as he rifled through it. Until he heard the soft whir of an engine drawing near. That sobered him fast. “Someone’s coming.”

Her face lit up with relief. “Oh please, God, let it be a rescue crew… one with a clean bathroom.”

He didn’t share her optimism. Instead, cold dread weighed heavy in his gut. “C’mon.” He pulled her toward the tree line, deeper into the woods.

She dug her heels in and slowed him down. “What are you doing?”

“We don’t know where we are or who they are. They could be our friendly assassin or an accomplice. Until we know for sure, let’s not be seen.”

Desideria wanted to scream in frustration at his paranoia. But not so deep inside she knew he was right and unl they discovered the intentions of whoever was coming, they did need to keep a low profile. “I really hate you.”

“Hate you too, babe.” He gave her a charming grin and a wink that managed to be adorable even though she wanted to kick him some place that counted. “Now, c’mon.”

Desideria groaned as she forced herself to run after him. How could he move on that busted leg of his? Did the man not feel pain? She glanced to the woods and winced. It looked so far to those trees…

Caillen doubled back to try and carry her.

She stopped him. “You’re injured too and I can walk. I am
not
helpless or weak. I’m simply pissed,” she growled.

He held his hands up in apology. “Fine, but we need to hurry.” He jerked his chin to the sky where she could see the craft almost on them.

Run!

They barely made it to the trees before the hovercraft came in. It hesitated over the remains of their pod for several minutes as if the occupants were photographing the area or conducting some kind of test or evaluation.

Caillen scowled as he tried to figure out what they were doing. Normally, they’d be out and scanning the ground on foot. But these…

They had a separate protocol that deviated from the norm, which meant he had no idea what to expect. Damn.

“Can you tell anything about them?” Desideria whispered.

“They’re Andarions.”

“How do you know?”

He pulled his FVG out of his pack and held it to his eyes so that he could see the pilots in the cockpit who were scanning the ground and talking to each other. “Style of the craft. It’s an older Andarion model S10-B60. Most humans are too short to pilot it. And now that I can see them, they’re definitely NHL.” Non Human Life forms.

“Is that good or bad for us?”

Caillen sighed. “Depends on their intentions.”

“You’re not funny.”

“Not trying to be.”

The craft descended until it was on the ground. As the door opened, Caillen motioned for her to be quiet while he shoved an amplifier into his ear so that he could hear their conversation even from this distance. Luckily it only amplified voices and not ambient noises, otherwise his hearing would have been blown out by their hovercraft’s engines.

Two officers came out of the back to investigate the crash site while the two pilots remained inside.

Desideria opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off with a fierce head shake. One thing about the Andarions, those bastards could hear for miles even without an amplifier. They’d be lucky if the soldiers didnnt hear them breathing.

And what they were talking about was making his stomach shrink.

No, they hadn’t landed on a penal colony. This one was worse.

Much
worse.

12

Caillen grabbed Desideria’s arm and pulled her back, deeper into the woods. Every time she opened her mouth to speak, he motioned for her to be quiet. Something that was beginning to really annoy her. He made other gestures that she couldn’t even begin to identify in a way that said he thought she should understand them too. She only hoped they weren’t obscene because if they were, he was going to be limping even worse than he already was.

It wasn’t until he found a cave that he allowed her to stop moving. He sent her in deeper before he set the pack on the ground and pulled out two devices she couldn’t identify. Frowning, she watched as he attached one to each side of the small opening, then turned them on. A low-frequency hum started and the devices caused the light in the cave to darken even more. She could barely see in front of her.

Without breaking stride, he pulled a light stick from the bag and snapped it, then shook it hard before tossing it on the floor so that it landed not far from her. Everything was bathed in a dull purple glow as he picked up the pack and moved toward the back of the cave where she was waiting beside a monstrous black stalagmite that shimmered from the light.

Only then did he let out an elongated, audible breath.

Can I speak?
She mouthed the words.

“Yeah, but keep your tone low,” he whispered.

“Why?”

He wiped his chin against the back of his hand in a gesture that was an odd mixture of little boy and all-sexy, rugged male. “Andarions have supersonic hearing and I’m not completely sure my dampeners will work against it, especially if they’re using any kind of amp.” He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder to the opening of the cave. “Those guys out there… they’re not your usual crew. You and I hit the mother lode of bad luck. We didn’t just land on an Andarion planet. We landed on one of their colonies.” He pulled a small device out of his pocket and put it in his ear.

Call her stupid, but she didn’t see what the big deal was. The Andarions were members of the council, subject to the same laws as anyone else. Why was he freaking out? “Meaning what?”

“Their colonists are under martial law. Any offworlders caught without proper papers, visitation passes and authorizations are automatically marked as spies, especially human ones. And prosecuted as such. Standard practice is to lock us up and leave us there to die without ever notifying anyone that we’ve been taken. In fact, if ever asked, they’ll deny all charges. Bastards are good at that.”

She lifted her chin at his ridiculous far. “We’re royalty, they can’t do—”

“They can do anything they want,” he said, interrupting her. “Someone has to prove we were here, and since the only person who knows our whereabouts is an assassin out to kill us, I don’t think he or she’s going to be real chatty trying to save us should we be captured.”

“Can’t we explain or even offer them a reward?”

He laughed out loud. “Have you ever been around an Andarion?”

“Well… no.”

“Then take my word on this. They can’t be bribed. I have several Andarion friends. One of them was born their crowned prince, but because he has some human features, his own biological grandmother sent him to a human work home where he was kept beaten, chained and declawed and raised like an animal. You don’t ever want to know what was done to him. Suffice it to say, if they won’t protect their own prince, you and I are, pardon the pun, royally screwed. They won’t care about us and if it means war? What the hell? Again, they make your people look like pacifists. A war to them is the bonus fun round they live for.” He raked his hand through his hair. “This is why you pray to the gods you never get stranded on foreign soil. One wrong battle, one foul landing and your entire life is forever screwed up or ended.”

Like her father.

He’d been a pilot who’d crash-landed on Qilla. Taken as a war prize, he’d never been allowed to contact his people or family. His only shot at freedom had been one battle, which he’d been forced to fight while wounded. After that, her mother had never allowed him another chance to let his family know what had happened to him.

For the first time in her life, she understood the real horror that had been her father’s existence.

“There’s a whole universe out there, Daria, where your mother doesn’t rule. A universe of diverse people and experiences. Promise me when you grow up, you’ll take time to visit them and learn that though we might be different on the outside, inside we all want the same things. Safety. Love. Family. And peace.”

As a child, she’d thought the peace part made him weak. But now she understood what he meant. He wasn’t talking about peace from war. He was talking about the inner calm that she’d never known. That comfort that came with understanding who and what you were, accepting your limitations. With being comfortable in your own skin.

Instead all she heard internally was the constant criticisms of her mother, aunt and sisters. If there was one thing in life she knew, it was every shortcoming she possessed.

What was strange to her was that Caillen had the same inner peace her father had always held. That ability to be calm under duress and chaos.

Not wanting to think about those uncomfortable comparisons, she turned her attention back to their current situation. “So what do we do?”

Caillen paused as he considered his options. None of them were stellar.

< was taheight="0em" width="27">They couldn’t stay here too long or they’d be found. Since there weren’t any bodies in the wreckage, the Andarions would comb this area until they found them. Andarions were, unfortunately, a tenacious species who would be itching for a fight.