Born of Fury

  The lorina licked her chin, then nuzzled her.

  And with every heartbeat, Sumi became more and more furious. "Dancer!" she screamed out again, knowing it was useless.

  Someone had taken him.

  Fear, worry, and grief tangled inside her. But instead of reducing her to tears, it stoked a rage the likes of which she'd never felt before.

  How dare they!

  And with that fury came the training she'd mastered over these last three years. She wasn't a woman right now.

  She was a feral assassin.

  "You better not have harmed a single molecule on his body." If Dancer had so much as shed a single skin cell while in their custody, she was going to take it out of their entrails.

  CHAPTER 21

  H

  auk winced as he woke up to a splitting headache. The light burned his eyes. Frowning, he found himself inside a steel cage with Bastien and two other men. He pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead while he sat up to get his bearings.

  "Do you speak Universal?" the guy on his right asked.

  Hauk nodded then scowled as he checked Bastien to make sure he was unconscious and not dead. Thankfully, he was still breathing.

  "Good. Just do what they say and don't argue."

  Hauk turned an are-you-serious sneer at the man that caused him to gasp and scamper to the other side of the cage where the other man stared at him as if he terrified him.

  "What the hell are you?" the man who'd been talking to him asked.

  "Pissed. Off." Hauk rose slowly into a feral crouch. While the human men could stand inside the cage, he couldn't.

  This was bullshit!

  Ready for war, he got up and went to the door to examine the biolock. He kicked it in anger.

  A woman gasped then fired a blaster at him. He ducked the charge and hissed, exposing his fangs.

  "Pheara! You gotta come see this. Fast!"

  He wouldn't call the woman's gait hurried as she came around the side of a wheeled transport to eye him. An inch or two shorter than Sumi, she was well muscled with short, dyed red hair and the swagger of a woman used to fighting for what she wanted.

  The instant her dark brown eyes focused on him, she froze. "What the hell are you?"

  He ran his tongue over his fangs, emphasizing the fact that he wasn't human. "Let me out of here."

  She shook her head. "I don't think so." She pressed a button on the cuff at her wrist. Pain shot through him instantly.

  But he wasn't human. Instead of weakening him, it sent a charge of adrenaline through his body. Furious, he kicked at the door again, hard enough to bend part of it.

  Both women backed up.

  "What the hell?" Pheara breathed.

  "He's an Andarion."

  Hauk cut his glare to another woman who joined the first two. Tiny and petite, with short blond hair, she was dressed in animal skins.

  "I thought he was human when we stunned him. No wonder it took so many darts to take him down."

  "Yeah," the blond snorted. "You're lucky you got him down at all. They are a savage breed and don't react to stimuli the same way we do." She hit the cage with a prod that sent electricity through it.

  The men whined and screamed as they tried to avoid touching the metal. Bastien came awake with a foul curse.

  Hauk didn't flinch as he curled his lip at her and defied her to keep doing it.

  "See." She balanced the pole on her shoulder and swept her gaze over the other two women. "And we have a problem. Andarions eat humans. Raw. Leave him in that cage and he'll devour the others."

  The men behind him began begging for release while Bastien laughed.

  Hauk ignored them. "Let me go and I'll leave here without any drama."

  The blond tsked at him. "It doesn't work that way, cutie. You have too big a bounty on your head. Eat the others if you must. You're worth a lot more than they are."

  Great. They were slavers as well as assassins. Just what he needed.

  Hauk glared at the women. "I will get out of here, and when I do --"

  "Don't make me kill you, Andarion. While you have one hell of a bounty on your head, I'm thinking there are a lot of people who'd pay a fortune to have an Andarion slave." She raked his body with a hungry smirk. "Now be a really good boy and I might send you off with a smile on your face."

  He exposed his fangs to her. "You're really going to let me eat your heart?"

  She scoffed.

  Hauk grabbed the bars over his head and used his entire body weight to kick at the door again.

  The other two women took three more steps back.

  Eyes wide, Pheara gulped. "I don't think that's going to hold him, Telise."

  "If he kicks it open, blast the shit out of him. Price-wise, given the scars and wounds already on him, it won't matter if he's banged up a bit more."

  Roaring in frustration, Hauk pressed his face between the bars to glare at Telise. "When I get out of here, I'm going to feast on your organs."

  She pressed the prod to his stomach and blasted him.

  Hauk growled as a violent shock went through his entire body. But he refused to give her the satisfaction of seeing his pain. He stayed on his feet, glaring at her.

  That succeeded in putting fear in the bitch's eyes.

  Unsettled, she stepped back and turned toward her friends. She handed the prod to the smaller of the two. "If he gets out, open fire and call for backup."

  Hauk fanged them again as he cursed himself for allowing the women to get the drop on them. "Hey!" he called to the two who eyed him like the vicious predator he was. "There was a woman with me. Where is she?"

  Pheara cleared her throat. "We took her weapons and left her where she fell. Why? Is she yours?"

  "My niece, and if any harm comes to her, I swear by every god who protects Andaria that I will rain down a hell on you so severe you will beg me for the mercy of death." He kicked the door again.

  They backed up.

  "I'm going for more guards." Pheara took off running, leaving the other woman to watch him with a bug-eyed stare that would be hysterical if he wasn't so enraged.

  Wanting blood, he turned toward the men behind him. They were even more afraid of him than the women. He rolled his eyes at the typical human reaction to his kind.

  Bastien shook his head at their fear. "Don't worry. We fed him earlier. He's not hungry. Right, Hauk?"

  He glared sullenly at them all. "Feeling a bit peckish, suddenly."

  That only frightened them more.

  No wonder Fain couldn't stand living among humans for long. His brother constantly risked his life to live on Andarion outposts and colonies so that he wouldn't have to deal with humans wetting their pants in fear every time he cleared his throat.

  Stupid bastards.

  Returning to the door, Hauk eyed the woman with menace. When he went to kick it again, Bastien stopped him.

  "Why don't we try something a little less violent and more productive?"

  Hauk eyed him irritably. "Blood. Mayhem. Violence. That's my go-to happy place."

  "How 'bout we try to find a new one?"

  "Such as?"

  He plucked a wire out of his cuff. "Picking the lock."

  "I'd rather kick it open."

  "You would." Bastien snorted. "How 'bout we save it for beating on our captors?"

  Ignoring him, Hauk kicked the door again. Suddenly, something sharp stabbed him. With a hiss, he looked down to see another dart in his arm.

  Crap. Three more hit him.

  Hauk glared at the women who joined the first one as his anger mounted. He fought against the drug with everything he had, but in the end, he blacked out.

  Hauk came to, cursing life and everyone in it. Most of all, he cursed the irritated smirk on Bastien's face as he eyed him from where he lay on the ground beside him.

  "Told you not to kick that door, didn't I?"

  Hauk ignored his taunt. Pain pounded through his body with such ferocity that he knew they
must have beaten him while he'd been unconscious. More than that, the drugs played havoc with his system.

  His stomach lurched. He tried to move, only to discover he was in the middle of their camp, on his belly and hogtied. Like Bastien. Someone had chained his hands to his feet behind his back.

  Yeah, that didn't help his temper in the least. Growling, he tried to break free.

  Bastien rolled his eyes. "Calm down, Hauk. All you're going to do is hurt yourself."

  He glared at Bastien. "If you want to see exactly how angry someone can get, tell them to calm down when they're already pissed off!" Bellowing, he tried his best to break free.

  "Is that helping? I just gotta know."

  "When I get loose, Cabarro, your ass is the first one I'm kicking."

  "Oh good. Hope you get out soon. Been awhile since I had a good ass-kicking." Bastien made a kissy face at him.

  "Says the man who's so bruised, he looks like a two-year-old banana."

  "Now that's just mean and hurtful."

  "Telise! He's awake again."

  She moved forward and kicked Hauk in the face.

  "I wouldn't do that," Bastien warned. "Don't motivate the Andarion for murder. It ain't going to work out well for any of us. 'Specially me, since mine's the first ass he's planning to come after."

  Hauk licked at the blood on his lips as he grimaced at the harita through his braids.

  "Learned anything yet?" she asked him.

  He spat the blood out of his mouth. "Other than those pants make your ass look fat?"

  She kicked him hard in the ribs.

  A blast of color shot within an inch of Telise's face. "Touch him again and the next one goes right between your eyes."

  In spite of the pain, a slow smile spread across Hauk's face at the sound of the most beautiful voice in the universe.

  Sumi.

  Telise reached for her blaster.

  Sumi let fly a shot straight into her shoulder. "Hands up or lose your head."

  Telise glared at her. "You don't know who you're dealing with."

  "Neither do you." Sumi held her hand up to show the brand on her wrist. "Unless you've got another League assassin in your camp, I suggest you free them or I will bathe in the blood of every whore here."

  Hauk saw one of the others coming up behind Sumi. He opened his mouth to warn her, but before a single sound could come out, she spun and shot the woman, then caught another one he hadn't seen at all.

  And her blaster wasn't set to stun.

  Sumi now had both weapons drawn as she surveyed the women. "Anyone else want to die today?" she called out to them. "Please! I'm so in the mood for it." She turned back to Telise. "What about you, bitch?"

  Glaring at her, Telise reached into her pocket. Instead of keys, she drew a dagger and moved for Hauk.

  She was dead before she took more than a step.

  When one of them started running for cover, an explosion rocked the camp and drove the woman to the ground.

  Sumi tsked. "I have charges set all over this place. Enough to blow us all to the outer atmosphere. Don't push me, people. Now who wants to be my friend and free my male for me?"

  Pheara came forward with the keys. She kept her hands out so that Sumi wouldn't mistake her intentions. "We weren't going to hurt him."

  Sumi stalked forward. "Then why's he bleeding?"

  She swallowed hard. "Telise did that. We... we had nothing to do with it. Just take him and go." She freed Dancer, then Bastien, and stepped back.

  Hauk pushed himself to his feet and retrieved Telise's blaster from her body.

  Sumi's gaze skimmed him from head to toe. "You okay, baby?"

  He shot two of the women with a stun blast. "Better now."

  "Bastien?"

  He wiped at the blood on his wrists. "All good. At least until Hauk keeps his promise to beat my ass."

  Sumi turned back to Pheara. "Where are our weapons?"

  Pheara gestured toward Telise's tent. "In there."

  "I'll get them," Bastien offered.

  Moving so that her back was against Dancer's, Sumi kept her gaze on the women until Bastien came back and belted his holster around his hips.

  He tossed Hauk's weapons to him.

  "Before we leave, I want to do something." Hauk went to Pheara and jerked the keys from her hand. "Is this the biofeed bypass?"

  "Yeah."

  He met Sumi's curious gaze. "Round the women up and follow me."

  "You heard him. Haritas on parade. Let's go." Sumi and Bastien followed him to a cage where two men were being held.

  Dancer opened the door and released them before he made the six remaining women file inside it. He locked the door and tossed the keys to one of the men. "Happy birthday."

  And with that, he draped his arm over Sumi's shoulders so that she could lead him while Bastien pulled up their rear.

  "Where are the kids?" Hauk asked.

  "Armed to their teeth and hiding with Illyse."

  Hauk tightened his arm around her as his vision clouded. Never had he been prouder of her, or more grateful that he'd ignored his common sense and saved her. "Good."

  Sumi smiled, grateful that she'd found them in one piece. But as they left camp, she noticed he wasn't completely with her. "Dancer?"

  He tightened his grip on her before he kissed the top of her head. "I'm all right."

  "You don't look good." She pressed the back of her hand against his cheek. "You're very clammy."

  "They drugged him," Bastien said from behind them.

  "With what?"

  Bastien shrugged. "Really didn't get a chance to ask them what they were using, or for any other recipe, either. But I would assume something strong enough to take down a huge Andarion."

  Hauk ignored him while he tugged her forward. "Thank you, by the way."

  "For what?"

  He gave her an unsteady smile. "I'm usually the one doing the rescuing. It's been a long time since anyone's pulled my ass out of the fire." His words slurred an instant before he sank to his knees.

  "Dancer!" She knelt by his side as terror filled her. He was so cold. Like ice.

  He held on to her, but didn't seem to be able to speak.

  Bastien locked a frightened gaze with hers. "We need to get out of here before they give pursuit. You take one arm and I'll grab the other." He reached for Dancer.

  Suddenly, a deep, growling male voice came out of nowhere. "Hands up or die."

  CHAPTER 22

  S

  umi bit her lip in indecision. She saw the same desire to fight their latest attackers in Bastien's eyes that she held. But they didn't know who or what they were facing now.

  Or how many.

  A flash of color narrowly missed her face. She glanced around, but couldn't see anyone. They were using some kind of cloaking device.

  This group of assassins was much higher-tech than the previous ones. But they were in for one hell of a fight if they tried to take Dancer from her.

  Slowly, she held her hands up and put her body between Dancer and Bastien, and where the shot had originated. Hoping Bastien would follow her lead, she decided to play stupid to get the numbers and locations of their adversaries. "Look, we don't have much. But take whatever you want. Just be quick about it. We need to tend our friend. He's badly hurt."

  Dancer and Bastien collapsed behind her and hit the deck hard.

  With a gasp, she turned to help them.

  Something flickered on the other side of Dancer.

  Afraid of their intent, she launched herself at where it'd come from and hit a solid wall of muscle. With everything she'd been taught, she attacked.

  Until someone humongous and strong picked her up from behind and effortlessly stepped back with her.

  "No!" she screamed, trying to break free of the man's hold. "He's unconscious. He's no threat to you. Please, just take our supplies and go!" Shrieking in anger, she picked all her weight off her feet. The man holding her didn't even flinch or stumble.
r />   Damn, he was strong.

  Bastien tried to fight, too, but he was slammed to the ground and cuffed so fast, it was terrifying. He growled threats and spewed profanity at them.

  "Please!" Sumi begged, praying they weren't here to kill Dancer. "We just want to help our friend."

  Another shimmer appeared next to Dancer as the soldier turned his cloaking device off to show an unmarked black battlesuit. He shrugged off his backpack and removed his helm to reveal an unbelievably handsome man with long dark hair tied back into a ponytail. His dark Ritadarion eyes were ringed with black eyeliner, but she knew that face from Dancer's photos and stories.