Born of Shadows (37 page)

A tic started in Caillen’s jaw as he looked at her, then locked a glare on Chayden. “You’re not planning on a payback, are you?”

Chayden held his hands up in surrender. “Absolutely not. I promise you.”

Desideria wasn’t sure what their vague conversation was about, but she had a bad suspicion that she was the subject at hand and that Chayden might have just insulted her. Great. That was all she needed to feel worse.

Chayden gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. “I’m going to go find the head. I’ll catch you two later. Buzz me when you interrogate the assassin.”

Desideria watched him leave. Still that nagging sensation was there. She knew him from somewhere. “Is he famous?”

“Only if you travel with a lot of outlaws or hound the bounty posts. He’s extremely notorious there. But all in all, he keeps a low profile. Why?”

“There’s something about him that’s so familiar… I can’t place it. It’s like I know him somehow.” Her gaze sharpened as she pierced him with a malevolent glare. “And I’m still not speaking to you.”

Caillen squelched his smile before he made her any angrier. He adored the fact that she was incapable of giving someone the cold shoulder. Unlike Kasen who could freeze a star. “I wanted to apologize about what happened.”

She held her hand up in a sharp gesture. “Oh don’t even go there. I’m done. Okay? I didn’t expect you to like me. That’s fine. But did you have to embarrass me in front of everyone?” It was something her mother or sisters would have done and she was tired of being publicly humiliated and ridiculed. She’d expected better from him and the fact that he’d disappointed her cut so deep that she couldn’t stand it. “Especially after—”

He interrupted her words with a fierce kiss.

She kneed him in the groin. Not hard, but enough to make him pull back and cup himself. “Next time, I won’t be so gentle.”

Caillen cursed under his breath as she stalked away. “You don’t know where you’re going,” he called after her, wanting her to come back so that he could explain.

She didn’t even pause her gait. “Don’t care.”

I told you what to say. Did you listen? No. Idiot. Why couldn’t you say you cared about her?

Because it would have been an admission of weakness.

No, that wasn’t the truth and he knew it. He wasn’t ready to be with one woman forever. Especially not someone so hardheaded and irritating.

And yet as he watched her head out of his sight, all he could remember was how good she’d felt in his arms. How much he wanted to go to her right now, strip her naked and make her beg him for mercy.

He took a step toward her, intending to apologize.

One heartbeat later, an explosion ripped through the bay. The force of the blast literally picked him up and slammed him into the wall. Pain tore through his entire being as he looked down and saw the nasty piece of twisted shrapnel embedded in his thigh. He tried to pull it out, but the gushing blood made it too slippery.

Chaos erupted as techs and Sentella members rushed to put out the fire and prepare for the possibility that there might be another blast coming.

Caillen didn’t care about that. No more than he cared about his injuries. He had to find Desideria and make sure she was all right.
That
was his only concern.

But as he tried to walk forward to find her through the flames, something hit him from behind. His legs went numb. His vision dimmed.

An instant later, everything turned black.

20

Desideria saw Caillen go down. Everything moved in slow motion as her world came to an end. He hit the wall with such force, there was no way he could live through it.

None.

Unable to breathe, she ran for him with everything she had while images of his death tore through her.
Don’t you dare die. Don’t you dare.

She couldn’t stand the thought of it. Not after they’d fought.

Why had she fought with him?

Suddenly, nothing mattered to her. Not her mother’s death. Not her standing.

Nothing.

All of that paled in comparison to losing him. She slowed as she drew near. Caillen lay on the ground, covered in blood, completely unmoving. This wasn’t like he’d been on the outpost. His features were so pale…

Tears blinded her.

Qillaqs don’t cry
. Yet, she couldn’t stop herself. “Caillen?” She sobbed, falling to her knees. She pulled him into her arms and held him close. “Don’t you leave me.” Not after he’d taught her to depend on him. Not after he’d made her want something she knew she couldn’t have.

“Caillen, please open your eyes.”

He didn’t.

“Desideria?”

She heard his sister’s voice, but didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Images of Caillen’s teasing smile haunted her. The way he’d felt when he made love to her earlier. The sound of his voice.

I need you. Please, please don’t die. Not like this. Not with the last words I said to you…

Shahara pulled her back. “You have to let him go.”

She started to argue until she saw the medics. Her entire body quaking in fear, she released him to their care. Syn and Shahara were saying something to her, but she couldn’t understand them. Not through the painful haze that shredded everything.

“We’ll meet you at the hospital.”

She inclined her head to them, knowing that wasn’t where she was headed.

First, she had someone to kill.

Caillen came awake to the sound of whispering voices nearby. He opened his eyes to find himself lying on a sterile hospital bed, hooked to monitors in a small room. It took a full minute before he remembered everything that had happened.

The explosion. His leg.

Desideria!

She\d been ahead of him. Right in the line of fire…

Fear seized his heart as he sat up and started to leave the bed to find her.

Shahara stepped out of the shadows to catch him. She refused to allow him to put his feet on the floor. “Don’t you dare.” She hadn’t used that tone with him in a long time.

A tic started in his jaw as he locked gazes with his tiny sister. If she honestly thought she could keep him here, she’d need a lot more backup than Syn who stood behind her. “Where’s Desideria?”

She exchanged a nervous glance with Syn over her shoulder that did nothing to help his terror. Oh God… Desideria was hurt.

Maybe dead. Why else wouldn’t she answer the question?

Unimaginable pain slammed into him as he struggled to breathe. Their last words had been a fight. Of all people, he knew better than to let someone leave angry.

Why hadn’t I been faster?

Why hadn’t he apologized?

“Where is she?” he demanded.

Shahara cringed.

He felt tears sting his eyes as unimaginable grief tore through him. How could he have failed to protect her? How? “She’s dead, isn’t she?”

All the color drained from her face before her cheeks turned bright red. “Good Lord, child, no! I swear you get the most bizarre ideas sometimes.”

Relief poured through him. Desideria was alive. He could finally breathe again.

At least a little bit. “Then where is she?”

Syn grinned evilly as he moved closer. “Locked up at present.”

Caillen scowled in confusion. “What? How? Why?”

Syn let out a low laugh. “You remember the explosion?”

How could he forget it? His ears were still ringing.

Caillen sat back on the bed as he tried to figure out how that related to Desideria being locked up. Surely they didn’t think she had any part in the explosion…

Did they?

“Of course I do. Was she caught in the blast?”

Syn shook his head. “No. She was clear, but she ran back to you when you hit the wall.”

“She was hysterical,” Shahara interjected. “And worried sick about you. Just like us. She barely beat us to you and she threatened our lives if
we
hurt you.”

Syn snorted. “Yeah, she was impressive in her rage and she didn’t budge from protecting you un="3">Synhe medtechs arrived. Once you were stabilized and ready for transport, we thought she’d follow us to the med center. She didn’t.”

Caillen’s frown deepened. “Where’d she go?

Shahara let out an annoyed breath. “Your little bunny headed over to lockup, forced her way in and then damn near killed the assassin who’s been following you.”

That didn’t make sense to him. “Why would she do that?”

Shahara picked at the lint on his hospital gown before she smoothed over a wrinkle. “He was the one who’d set a trap on his ship that the techsperts accidentally set off while trying to see if the ship was wired to detonate. Since you were hurt by the blast, she wanted his head in the worst sort of way.”

“And she got it too,” Syn said with a hint of laughter in his voice. “Damn, boy, I thought your sister had a temper on her. I do believe you’ve found the only woman alive with one worse than—hey!” he snapped as Shahara popped him on the stomach. Grimacing, he rubbed the area where she’d hit him. “See what I mean? She’s brutal to live with.”

“Anyway,” Shahara continued after she passed one last malevolent glare at Syn, “she got information out of the assassin, but not before she almost killed him during the interrogation. And she wasn’t beating him for answers. I swear, she hit him twice as hard when he answered her correctly as she did when he didn’t. I take it the Qills don’t instruct their people on the fine art of interviewing prisoners.”

Syn laughed again. “Yeah, it looked like she went to the School of Nykyrian for that.”

Caillen wasn’t sure if he should be amused or appalled by what they described. In the end, he was flattered that he meant enough to Desideria that she’d come back to check on him and then had decided he was worth breaking someone’s ass over. On the other hand, he definitely didn’t want her questioning
him
. Especially after their fight. “And you locked her up?”

Syn shrugged. “Had no choice. She was planning on heading to Exeter to beat the crap out of your uncle’s advisor. We thought it best to confine her until her sanity returned… or they died of natural causes. Whichever comes first.”

Caillen shook his head. “Good call. So what did she find out?”

Shahara’s gaze turned grim and deadly. “The assassin was hired by your uncle’s primary advisor to kill you and your father. Then after you escaped, he was to make sure you didn’t return alive.”

He winced at the confirmation of his worst suspicions. “So it’s true. Talian purchased the contract on my father’s life.”

She nodded. “That’s what it looks like.”

“What about Desideria’s mother?”

Syn passed a sympathetic glance to Shahara. “He claims he knows nothing about that at all. He was only after you and your father.”

But that didn’t go with what Caillen had heard… “The two are tied together. I know they are.”

Syn continued to contradict him. “I’ve searched through every League database and every contract server I could find.” Which was impressive since information was what Syn excelled at. “Nothing has the two related. I think it’s just damn bad luck that the two of them were together at the time they died.”

Maybe Syn was right. Coincidences happened, but…

Something just didn’t seem right. It was too pat and too ironic. Caillen refused to believe that it was all happenstance.

He glanced to Shahara. “Can I get up now?”

“You’re not supposed to, but there’s really no way to stop you, is there?”

“Depends on how much fire power you’re carrying.”

She rolled her eyes. “I worry about you, Cai. All the time. But you know, I saw the look in your eyes just now when you thought Desideria was dead and I saw how insane she went when you were hurt and the anger she broke on the one who’d harmed you. I don’t know what’s between the two of you, but from the outside it looks pretty real and pretty fierce. I just want you to always remember that feeling you had a minute ago whenever you think of her. That desperate choking sensation you had when you thought you’d never see her again and that she was gone forever.”

She cut Syn a gimlet stare. “Relationships aren’t easy. Some days they don’t even seem tolerable. Especially when a Dagan’s involved. There will be times when she’ll make you mad enough to murder her and it’s usually over something truly stupid.”