Born of Vengeance

  Jullien laughed when he saw that while Bastien had trimmed his beard down to shadowed whiskers, he'd kept his long hair and wore it pulled back into a messy ponytail. "What is this?" He tugged playfully at it.

  Bastien shrugged. "A reminder that I'm no longer civilized, and I have no intention of ever again playing by anyone's rule book."

  "I understand. And I take it by your presence here that you're no longer tagged?"

  "No," he said gratefully. "Syn Wade pulled it out of me. Finally."

  Jullien's jaw dropped in shock. "Really?"

  Nodding, Bastien clapped him on the arm. "Really long story short, they ended up on Oksana with The League hot on their ass, and I got caught in the cross fire. After a lot of bruising and damage and a couple of near-fatal catastrophes, it ended well for me." His gaze went to the exceptionally beautiful and pregnant female standing beside his cousin.

  Even without an introduction, he had no doubt that this was Jullien's wife--the Gorturnum Tavali's vice admiral. Her white-blond hair was identical to Vasili's and her silvery-white eyes and fangs definitely marked her as one of the rare Andarion Fyrebloods who'd been exiled from their empire by Jullien's grandmother.

  Jullien stepped back. "My much better half, Ushara. Shara, my cousin Bastien."

  He inclined his head and bowed respectfully to her. "Impra turu, Ger Tarra Samari."

  She gaped at Bastien's formal Andarion greeting. "You speak Andarion?"

  Straightening, Bastien winked at Jullien. "Not really. Just a few key phrases here and there that Julie taught me when we were kids."

  "Impressive, nonetheless." Ushara gestured to the tall, dark-haired man beside her. "And this is Trajen."

  Surprised that the high admiral of the Gorturnum Tavali would deign to be here, Bastien didn't miss the way those dark eyes probed everything about him.

  Yeah, nothing got past this man. He had the mark of a well-trained soldier who'd been through hell and lived to tell about it. There was also a refinement to him that said he'd been noble born. That innate grace and bearing that seemed to come from their genes.

  Bastien held his hand out to him. "Pleasure to meet you."

  Trajen hesitated before he shook his hand. "And you ... Highness."

  Bastien shivered. "Please, don't. I was never all that into the pomp and ceremony, anyway. It's just Bastien or Bas. Asshole, if you really must."

  "Ah God, there are two of you in this universe," Trajen muttered as he passed a knowing stare toward Jullien that said he and Bastien were far too alike. "So what brings you here?"

  "To beg a favor from my favorite cousin, which I know I shouldn't. But..." He flashed another grin at Jullien. "Dancer Hauk blew up my base without warning."

  Jullien gaped at that unexpected disclosure. "Pardon?"

  Nodding, he sighed at the memory. "The whole bloody damn thing. I got nothing left. Not even my porn collection Thraix gave me. And I need that database I shared with you, if you don't mind."

  Jullien gave him an equally gimlet stare. "You're going after Barnabas?"

  "Hell yeah. He killed my family. Be damned if I'm going to let him sit on my father's throne in peace. I don't care who rules, just so long as it's not him or any bastard he spawned."

  Jullien dropped his gaze to the Alliance patches on the sleeve of Bastien's borrowed Sentella uniform. They had designed a new badge that stood for the empires who'd aligned themselves with Darling and Nykyrian to war against The League. It was basically The League insignia with a giant X through it. He had to give them credit. Nyk and crew were a ballsy lot.

  "The Sentella helping you?"

  "They offered me a position with them. I'm not interested in that. All I took was the clothes on my back and the ship, which I intend to return once this is over--provided I don't die. My mistress is Vengeance, and she's the only one I'm cuddling up to for now."

  He knew if anyone could relate, Jullien definitely understood the sentiment. "I'll get you a copy of the database. Is there anything else you need?"

  "No. Just the files on the family. Once I have those dossiers, I'll be out of your hair. Sorry I dropped in unannounced." His gaze went to Ushara's distended belly. "Congrats, by the way. I didn't realize you had another one on the way. Is Vasili excited, or afraid of having more spiders he has to hide his things from?"

  As soon as the question was out of his mouth, Bastien caught the startled look from Jullien as he remembered that they had told him about the baby.

  Damn. How could he have forgotten that? But then when you lived a life where the vast majority of your conversations took place with imaginary people in your head, you tended to forget what was real, what was memories, and what you fabricated to keep yourself from going bat-shit crazy. There were some of them so real, that he swore they'd happened, only to learn that it was nothing more than his mind struggling to make sense of his forced isolation.

  Ushara gaped. "You know Vas?"

  "He's made a few stops with his father on my rock to drop off food and ammo."

  She tsked at Jullien. "Someone's been keeping secret missions from me."

  "Only to protect Bastien. I didn't want any logs of that particular landing, or anyone wondering why we kept going to the desert for no apparent reason. Just in case."

  And that was why he loved and trusted his cousin.

  "Makes sense." She smiled at Bastien. "Why don't you stay for dinner, then? Meet the girls and say hi to Vasili? I'm sure he'd love to see you."

  Bastien would love to as well, but ... he looked to Jullien. His cousin was nothing if not a private beast. "I don't want to intrude."

  "Just don't flush my head down the toilet, and we're good."

  Bastien burst out laughing at the mention of what Lil used to do to Jullien when they were kids and she'd get aggravated at him. "Gah! You think you had it bad? I was the one who lived with her. And Quin. Plus, she ended up as my wingman. How the hell I survived my childhood without being drowned, I do not know. Can you imagine how much better a human I'd be if I hadn't suffered severe oxygen dep and brain trauma as a child?"

  Trajen laughed, then spoke to Jullien. "I see now why you like him." He held his hand out to Bastien. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Bas. I've got a lot of things I need to take care of, so I'm heading out, but I'll make sure and clear you for any future visits you want to make here. Consider yourself welcome anytime. I know Jules would appreciate having some family around who doesn't want to hang him or screw him over."

  Yeah ... he wasn't the only one.

  As Trajen left with Ushara, Jullien led Bastien through their bay and to the residential area of their base.

  Bastien glanced back over his shoulder. "You're a lucky male, Jullien."

  "Believe me, I know. I'd be dead had she not saved my life ... in more ways than one." He paused to glance sideways at Bastien. "How's my brother?"

  "Good. Aside from the stress of the war, but he hides that well." Bastien noticed that he didn't ask after his parents--both of whom had been on Bastien's rescue flight when Nykyrian had picked him up on Oksana. "I saw your father."

  Jullien's stralen eyes darkened. "Couldn't care less."

  "Yeah, don't blame you there. No love lost here for him, either. He didn't have much to say to me that bears repeating."

  "Sorry."

  Bastien shrugged. "As you once said, we black sheep need to stick together."

  As soon as Jullien opened the door to his condo, an ear-splitting shriek sounded.

  "Paka's home!"

  Two small, dark-headed blurs came running to assault Jullien. One launched herself into his arms while the other latched onto his leg and squeezed it tight. Laughing, Jullien held his twin daughters. He kissed the cheek of the one in his arms. "Viv, meet your cousin Bastien."

  "Hi, Bastien!"

  "Nice meeting you, Viv."

  The one on Jullien's leg looked up at Bastien with a fierce frown.

  Bastien knelt down to hold his hand out to her. "You must be Mira." r />
  Mira left her father's leg to pull at Bastien's lips so that she could inspect his teeth. "But if you're Paka's family, why don't you gots fangs, too?"

  "And black hair?" Viv chimed in as Jullien set her down. "Don't all Ixurianir have black hair?" She slapped her hands to her face as if completely exasperated. "I'm so confuzzled."

  Laughing, Jullien picked her up again and kissed her cheek. "My paka's human, and he's the older brother of Bastien's mother, who is also human. So a lot of folks on Andaria, and in some other places, don't consider me Andarion."

  Bastien nodded. "Yeah, and I'm completely human. Sadly, I have no Andarion blood in my veins at all."

  Mira sighed heavily before she patted Bastien's cheek in sympathy. "I am very sad for you. But we loves you anyway, kyzi. Even though you gots no fangs."

  Laughing, he smiled at her. "Thank you, Mira. I deeply appreciate that." He ruffled her hair and flashed a grin at Ushara, who'd just come through the door to witness her daughters' reaction to him. "They are precious. I can't believe anything so sweet came from Julie's surly, irritable hide."

  Jullien snorted as he went to the kitchen to get them drinks while Vasili gave Bastien a bashful, welcoming hug. "Thanks a lot."

  "Well, you have to admit, you were never this cute." Stepping away from Vas, he tickled Mira until she squealed and jumped from his arms to run to her brother for protection.

  "Neither were you."

  "True. I was too busy being the baby brat. A job I relished quite seriously." He took the ale from Jullien's hand and lifted it for a swig. "You remember that god-awful summer camp when Barnabas was trying to make us run the obstacle course?"

  "Remember? Hell, my dignity's still on that wall, pinned next to my left testicle."

  Bastien laughed as he turned toward Ushara and Vasili to explain the scenario for their benefit. "My uncle's a total scabbing prick. I loved my dad, but he had some weird parenting techniques, which included occasional weekend maneuvers, and summers every year spent at Camp Hernia for a full six-week program of survival training. And poor Julie got roped in one year when you were what? Thirteen?"

  "Fourteen. I was supposed to have been on my Andarion Indari."

  "Indari?" Bastien scowled.

  He took a drink of ale, then explained the term for Bastien. "It's an Andarion coming-of-age ceremony where an elder of the family takes a younger one on a quest to teach them how to survive on their own. The youngster goes out a kid and supposedly returns as a capable adult, ready to take their place in Andarion society."

  "Ah ... Endurance." That was the word Dancer had used for it--which made sense. It would be the Universal translation for the Andarion term Indari, and Dancer wouldn't have known that Bastien had any exposure to the Andarion language.

  Which made him wonder something as he made a peculiar connection. "Is Indari and Andaria related linguistically?"

  Jullien saluted him with his bottle. "Impressed that you caught that. Most don't. But yeah. Andari was the ancient word for endure."

  "Says a lot about your maternal race, drey."

  "Don't it though." Jullien scratched at the scar on his neck his grandmother had given him as a boy.

  Wanting to quickly change the subject, Bastien returned them to the previous topic. "So how'd you end up on Kirovar for your Endurance?"

  "Because I was half human and fat, none of my Andarion relatives wanted the embarrassment of being seen with me when I failed the family quest. So my aunt shuffled me off to my father, who promptly sent me to yours, who then shunted me to your uncle. Fun times."

  Yeah ...

  "Indeed."

  Ushara paused in her dinner preparations. Bastien caught the glint in her eyes that said she thought as much of Jullien's parents as he did.

  They were scum.

  But Jullien didn't seem to care as he winked at her and Vas, who was suddenly interested in the story.

  "So there we were," Jullien continued the story. "The hottest summer in Kirovarian history, on maneuvers with these massively heavy backpacks Barnabas had loaded with heat-absorbing rocks, where it was eight hundred degrees in the shade. Not that there was any shade to be found on that course, mind you."

  "He's not exaggerating. It was so hot, it melted my granola bar."

  Vas scowled. "How do you melt a granola bar?"

  "Exactly!" Bastien said with a laugh. "I swear the heels of my boots melted off."

  "Yeah, and unlike Bas and his siblings, I was overweight, with atrophied muscles from a period of--" He paused as he glanced to Vasili. "--confinement, and I wasn't used to their atmosphere. At all. It's a lot thinner than what we have on Andaria, with different gravity and allergens. So I'm disoriented, choking and wheezing, and doubled over, puking."

  Screwing his face up at the memory, Bastien nodded. "Not a pretty sight. I don't know what they'd fed your paka, but it was gross. My brother and sister stood there yelling at poor Julie because my uncle's threatening to make us run extra laps if he doesn't get back on the course and finish it. And I give him credit, he's on his hands and knees, trying his damnedest to push himself to his feet. Hell, he's even crawling in an effort to get to the end. I'd never seen anyone so determined to get up in my life, but it's just not happening. He's choking and sweating so badly that I'm expecting Julie to die any minute."

  "So," Jullien says, interrupting him. "In true Bastien form--and keeping in mind that he's only seven at the time--he yanks off his helmet, throws his backpack down, and lies on the ground, using the helmet for a pillow, and says to them, and I quote verbatim, 'Later, bitches. I'm done for the day. Y'all can carry me home or call for a lift. Either way, I ain't moving from here. My ass is too precious for this abuse.'"

  Ushara gasped. "How did that go over?"

  Bastien snorted as his ass twitched in response to the memory. "Like sacrificing a fluffy kitten on a high holiday. My uncle set my precious ass on fire. But it got the attention off poor Julie."

  "Yeah, but you bought yourself a world of hurt that day."

  Bastien shrugged nonchalantly. "You weren't there when my mother saw the ass bruises after we got home. I promise you, what he did to me pales in comparison to her reaction on him when she saw them. But for my father's lightning-quick reflexes, I'd be shy a few cousins. I actually owe you. Because of that particular fun adventure, I didn't have to go back to summer camp until I was a teenager. And I went with bodyguards my mother had ordered to shoot my uncle if he, or anyone else, so much as raised an eyebrow to me." He grinned at Ushara. "As I said, my ass was quite precious."

  Jullien laughed. "Your mother was something else. Until Shara, I'd never seen anyone so protective of her young. I'm amazed she ever allowed you to join the military."

  "Again, you missed the fireworks. Holy Jacob ... she actually tried to shoot me to get me out of it."

  "I would say bullshit, but knowing your mother ... it sounds about right."

  Ushara gaped. "Seriously?"

  Bastien sobered as he remembered the vicious fight he'd caused for his mother and father after boosting a transport that had belonged to a friend's parents.

  "He's going into the military, Lia! He needs discipline and you won't let me give him any! You cradle and coddle the boy like he's still in nappies. I've even seen you cut his meat up when it's served to him ... and that was just last night!"

  "I swear to the gods, Newie, if my baby gets hurt because of your selfish stupidity and rampant insistence on this folly, your balls are the first set I'm coming after!"

  That was as close to profanity as his mother had ever come. 'Course that was his special talent. Driving his saintly mother to curse and his stoic teetotaler father to drink.

  Bastien cleared his throat. "Yeah, my mother loved us. We definitely lucked out when it came to parents. They didn't deserve what Barnabas did to them, and I won't rest until I make this right."

  Jullien reached for a handful of the carrots Ushara had just cubed. "You going after the throne?"

&
nbsp; Bastien glanced over to where the twins were playing on the floor. They were so innocent of the horrors of the world. How he wished he could keep all children that way.

  And it made him long for the days when he'd played with his brother and sister like that.

  "I don't know. I was never supposed to be ruler.... Third born. It should never have come to me. I was supposed to be the fun-loving playboy of the family, who screwed up and gave the others something scandalous to talk about at cocktail parties."

  Swallowing, he locked gazes with Jullien. "How did you handle the guilt when everyone thought Nyk was dead?"

  "Didn't. Like you said, I never wanted the throne. But after a few years, when I realized that my mother wasn't going to sober up and have more children, and that my father had no intention of remarrying or fathering another heir, I threw myself into school to learn as much about politics, history, and diplomacy as I could. Not because I cared. Just felt like I owed it to my brother's memory to be the ruler I thought he'd have been."

  Bastien frowned as he considered those words. All this time, he'd felt guilty. But this was a new perspective. "Never thought of it that way."

  "That's because you were supposed to be the playboy. I was the spare."

  He laughed and clapped Jullien on the back before they carried dinner to the table.

  They bantered through a relaxed, laughter-filled meal the likes of which Bastien had never thought to have again. Here, unlike his time with Nykyrian and The Sentella, he didn't feel like an outsider or lonely.

  This felt like home. Jullien's family felt like his.

  For the first time, he was tempted to forego his vengeance and stay with Jullien.

  If only he could....

  Sadly, his conscience would never allow him peace if he let this go.

  After dinner, he helped Ushara clean up while Jullien put the girls to bed and Vasili went to play online with his maternal cousins.

  The normality of it all was almost more than he could handle. But beneath that was something he hadn't felt in a long time.

  Jullien had been written off by the world. By all their families. Yet here, among an outlaw Nation, he had the very things Bastien would have sold his soul for.

  Love. Peace.

  Family.

  "Ushara?"

  She paused in her cleaning to glance up at Bastien. "Yes?"