That motivated him. He practically flew into Devyn's chair to start the flight prep. "Ah, damn, my head hurts. I swear I'm going to kill him for this."
"I'm sure he did it to keep you out of trouble."
"Yeah, but damn... I'm seeing stars... Oh wait, I am seeing stars. I'm looking at the course trajectory. Heh."
Alix rolled her eyes as she scanned the core system and mechanics to make sure the Talia was ready to roll. She heard the motor of the ramp. Devyn and the others must be inside.
A few seconds later, they were on the bridge.
"Jump up, Baby Judy. Jump up." Devyn nudged Omari aside.
He slid out of the chair and sat on the floor, hissing as he cradled his head in his hands. "Next time, just knock me unconscious. This stunning crap hurts."
"Sorry." Devyn fired the lifters.
The ship rose and slammed into the ceiling.
Sway sneered as he buckled himself to his chair. "We're not cleared for launch."
"No shit." Devyn turned to Nero. "Can you get the door?"
"Already on it." A weird yellow glow emanated from his body as he stared intently at the bay doors. "I swear you are your father's son."
Alix strapped herself in as Devyn gunned the engines and flew toward the closed blast doors. Cringing, she expected to slam into them and disintegrate.
Devyn didn't back off the speed even a little. He shoved the throttles forward with a gleam in his eye that said he was barely one half-step from insanity.
We're going to die. We're going to die.
Alix braced herself for the impact.
Just as they reached the doors, they snapped open and the Talia flew straight out.
Nero staggered back, cursing as he put his hand to his head. "That's some painful mojo. Thanks for the migraine, Dev. Appreciate it."
Devyn gave him a fierce, droll stare. "You were told to take Omari out of this. Had you done what I asked, you wouldn't have a headache now."
"Yeah. That lasted a few seconds until I heard their plans for Ms. Gerran there. I knew you'd never let them take her so I had no choice except to come back and save your rank ass. Besides, I know Fido, and Fido would be out of it for a few while I rescued you guys."
Omari glared at the Trisani. "I'm not a dog, Nero."
Nero ignored him. "By the way, you guys seriously screwed up just now."
"We know," they said in unison.
Nero locked gazes with Devyn. "Yeah, well, what you don't know is how grateful your girl is to you. I just thought you should know that you guys are a hero to her... and she thinks we're all idiots."
Alix gave him a peeved glare. "Thanks for outing me."
He winked at her. "Anytime, cupcake. Now I'm taking my psychic ass to bed. That door spanked me. Get me up when The League comes to arrest us."
Sway's head snapped from his console to Nero. "Is that a premonition?"
He gave Sway a duh stare. "I don't need to be psychic to know they're coming. You guys just cold-cocked them--they tend to take that kind of thing personally." He vanished.
Devyn met her gaze. "We need to get that tracer out of your arm immediately."
Before she could respond, a man flashed up on the screen in front of them.
Alix froze at a face she was sure belonged to Devyn's father. His hair was longer, worn to his shoulders, and he had a small goatee. But those dark eyes, black hair and features were unmistakable.
"What did you do?" His accusatory voice was thick with a Ritadarion accent.
Devyn cleared his throat. "This isn't time for a lecture, Dad. I'm kind of busy."
"Yes, you are. I located your bug with Vik and he's deactivated it. Now you need to get the chip out of the woman. Immediately."
"That's what I was about to do." Devyn frowned. "Where's Mom?"
"Don't ask questions you don't want answers to." Then he switched topics. "Right now, Merjack has called out everyone for your arrest. There's a three-million credit bounty on your heads... each ... for you to be delivered to him. The good news is he wants you alive. The bad news--"
"For that amount of money everyone will be after us."
He nodded. "Land that damn ship before you're blasted out of the sky."
"Dad--"
"Don't give me no lip, boy. You haven't had to really run from the authorities. Take it from an expert. Get the chip out of her now and set down. I have another unmarked runner for you at Trinaro and a crew willing to cover you. Get to it."
A tic worked in Devyn's jaw as he held a look that said he wanted to argue but knew it was useless. "All right. I'll change out."
Relief shined bright in his father's eyes. "And Devyn?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you." His gaze went to Omari and then Sway. "I love all of you. Don't make me regret teaching you loons how to fly." He cut the transmission.
Devyn swung around in his chair to issue orders to them. "Omari, take the helm. Vik, scan and let us know if someone starts after us. Sway, check the guns and make sure we're ready for anything." He motioned for Alix to follow him.
He led her down the hallway to the infirmary.
And as soon as the door closed, she grabbed him and kissed him passionately. She still couldn't believe what he'd done for her. What he'd risked.
"Thank you, Devyn."
Devyn held her close as he breathed her in. "I'm the biggest idiot ever born."
"No. You're a hero. You could have let them take me and you didn't." She tightened her arms around him. "I can't believe you did that for a nothing like me."
"You're not nothing, Alix, and I'm only this stupid for people I care about."
Those words hit her like a blow. Dare she believe it? "What?"
Devyn hesitated as he stared into those blue eyes that seared every part of him. Tell her you love her.
I don't even know her.
It didn't matter to his heart. To the confusing feelings inside him. Whether he'd meant to or not, he'd made a giant commitment to her tonight. Hell, he may have just consigned himself to slavery.
He kissed her lips, then forced himself to step back. "We have to get you detagged."
She left him to lie down on the examining table so that he could pull her tracer out.
"Do you know where it is?"
She pointed to a scar on her arm. "I should probably tell you that they messed up when they put it in. It's embedded in the bone."
Devyn grimaced. "How old were you when they did it?"
"Three."
That made him curse. No one under the age of sixteen was supposed to be tagged. The risks were too great. But obviously her father had never wanted a daughter.
Only property.
"I'll have to break the bone."
"Whatever it takes." She met his gaze. "I trust you, Devyn."
He didn't know why, but those words made his chest ache. Kissing her cheek, he stepped away and prepped the room for surgery.
Alix lay in silence as she struggled with her fear. Not for herself. She didn't really care what happened to her. It was the ones helping her who mattered.
And most of all... "What do you think they're doing to my family?"
Devyn paused beside her to look down at her as she watched him closely. "Nothing."
"Don't patronize me. I'm not stupid. I saw the way Whelms turned on me. I've now put my mom and sister in the line of fire."
"Listen to me, Alix. I have a friend who's watching over them from inside the jail. If anyone comes near them, they won't live long enough to regret it."
"What?"
He smiled. "I come from a family of assassins, and not all of them are tied to The League. Believe me, no one's going to hurt them. We'll make sure they're not caught in the crossfire." He put the mask over her face.
Alix inhaled the anesthesia as her thoughts drifted. She wanted to believe him, she did.
But Merjack was trickier than that.
And while Devyn might know how outlaws and assassins lived, he didn't know a
nything about slaves.
Please, please don't let them rape my sister.
"How bad is it?"
Nero grimaced at the loudness of Syn's voice in his ear while his head felt as if it were about to explode. He should never have answered the link while he was "napping." But he'd known his old friend was beside himself with worry and had stupidly thought to make him feel better. "You wouldn't be asking me that if you didn't already know."
Syn cursed. "I don't understand this. Why would he risk everything for her?"
"You know that answer, too. He loves her."
"Yeah, and the last woman he loved almost killed him."
"This isn't your fight, Syn. It's Devyn's."
He could sense the turmoil, anger and fear that Syn's stoic voice hid.
"Tell me about her. Do we need to execute her?"
That comment would be harsh coming from anyone else, but Nero understood his friend and what had made him that cold-blooded. And the truth was, Nero would be every bit as harsh about his child, too.
"She loves him."
"So did Clotilde."
"No. Clo loved herself, which I tried to tell him and he didn't listen.
Alix is entirely different. She barely thinks of herself as human."
"So what do we do?"
"Keep them safe."
Syn paused before he spoke again. "Can you do it?"
"Not right now, asshole. My head is killing me. I've got to recharge my powers or I'm going to be more worthless than tits on a boar hog."
"Fine. But are you sure about her feelings for Devyn?"
"I know you didn't just ask me something that stupid. If I thought for one minute she'd betray him, you better believe I would have left her to the Rits."
"All right. You recharge. The gods know you're going to need every ounce of your powers to protect my boys. Merjack is pulling out everything to come after the lot of you."
And he knew the one thing Syn wasn't saying. Merjack's grudge against Nero made a mockery of the hard-on he had for Syn. Syn had only brought down the bastard's family.
In his case, it wasn't something he'd done to Merjack's father and grandfather.
It was personal.
Devyn removed the mask from Alix's face and let her breathe normally again. He'd removed her chip and destroyed it. Then he'd knitted her bone back and sealed the wound. Whoever had implanted the chip had been clumsy and stupid.
But then, everyone in her life had been that way toward her. That was something he was grateful he couldn't understand. He'd always been a priority to his parents. Even when they yelled at him and punished him, it'd never been done maliciously. Never done with anything other than love and their wanting him to be safe and a better person.
He brushed the hair back from her pale face. "I wish I could take it all away from you."
But right now, both of their lives were in jeopardy.
"Dev?" Sway's voice came out of the intercom. "We need you. Now."
"On my way. Can you come watch over Alix while I take the helm?"
The door opened for Sway. "Done. We have a shitload of fighters out there with your name on them. Go give them hell."
Devyn inclined his head to him. "Thank you, by the way."
"For what?"
"Being my friend. You didn't have to help her back there."
Sway scoffed. "I wasn't helping her. I was helping you, buddy. I still think you're an idiot. But I know what I'd do to keep Claria safe and I know that you'd be there with me to the bitter end." He held his hand out. "Brothers forever."
Devyn took his hand and pulled him into a quick man-hug. "Watch her."
"Get the assholes off our backs."
Nodding, he ran for the bridge, where he saw Omari and Manashe already strapped in.
He slid into his seat as the warning alarms started blaring through the ship.
"Attention, Talia crew, you are all ordered into League custody, effective immediately. Prepare to be boarded."
"Board this." Devyn opened fire on them.
Vik cursed through the intercom as he released the controls so that Devyn could fly manually. "Oh, that's not smart."
"And I'm not about to let them board us, Vik. Remember, we have contraband they're looking for and no real manifest for it. The League gets on this ship, and helping a runaway slave is the least of our crimes."
"Oh, yeah."
Omari let out a hiss. "There's more of them coming in. Dang, Dad, looks like the entire West Fleet Armada has been sent after us."
Devyn banked hard left as the other ships returned his fire. Several shots landed on the hull, dimming their lights and shaking the entire ship. His stomach lurched as they lost gravity.
"They're targeting our directionals," Vik warned.
He banked again, trying to flee the range of their ion cannons. Something much easier said than done as three more cruisers came out of hyperdrive.
One of them materialized directly in front of them.
"Shit!" Devyn hit the retros and swerved to miss the newest addition, but it was too late. Their sides struck.
Hard.
The sound of the collision, breaking titanium and circuitry, echoed loudly as their lights failed.
"Shields are down to one percent." Vik's voice belied the pain he was in. He must have taken a hit along with the ship.
Devyn tapped orders to the ship. "Status?"
"Screwed."
"Vik! Dammit, answer the question."
"We need our engineer to lock down the core, which was ruptured. Oh, wait, she's still unconscious. Our hydros aren't leaking, they're flowing. We're losing life support, and unless Nero can do some major mojo, you'd better surrender before they blast us again."
Nero flashed onto the bridge. "I can't touch this. If I were at full strength, maybe. But right now..." He shook his head.
Devyn took a deep breath as he stared at the ships out there. Ships with crews who were determined to kill all of them.
But it all came down to one simple thing. "I don't believe in surrender."
Vik cursed. "Devyn. They are going to kill us."
"Balls to the wall." He slammed up the three throttles and pushed the ship as hard as he could. They careened forward as he flew through debris and blasts.
The sudden acceleration knocked Nero to the floor. Without fear or comment, Omari joined him at the helm, manning the guns to destroy anything that got in their way. His Trisani powers helped him to aim and see the traps coming before they arrived.
"The engines are failing," Vik shouted.
Devyn ground his teeth in raw determination. "Keep her together for fifty more seconds."
"Why?"
"Because then we'll be in the gravitational pull of that M-class planet over there."
Omari frowned at him. "We're crashing?"
"Yeah," Devyn said ominously. "We're crashing."
* * *
CHAPTER 12
Omari pointed to the monitor in front of Devyn's face. Not that he hadn't already seen it, but the boy was rightfully concerned. "They're falling in behind us."
"I know." He'd have to be blind to miss the number that was so massive it looked like a blob moving toward them.
Devyn glanced up at the intercom. "Vik? Any more shields you can give the rear?"
"Generator is dead and gone."
"They're firing," Nero's voice was calm, but the underlying panic was hard to miss.
Devyn cursed as he banked and the rear engine sputtered, then failed. The ship shuddered around them.
The League commander hailed them again. "This is your last chance, Kell. Surrender your crew or lose them."
Devyn looked around at the faces that were dependent on him for their freedom and, more importantly, their lives. He was the only hope they had.
She turned sixteen in jail...
He looked at Omari and made his decision.
Devyn kicked the thrusters with everything they had. The ship lurched forward and tilted.
But that motion finally propelled them into the planet's gravitational pull. He let out a relieved breath.
No matter what, they couldn't be taken. None of them.
The League ships diverted immediately. Their battle starships were too big to land and the fighters were space-class three, which meant they didn't have the coating they needed to land. Any attempt to enter the atmosphere would have them breaking up.
The Talia, though ...
She was a tough lady. But at the moment, she was limping and wounded. Even though she was designed to land anywhere, he wasn't sure she'd make it in her current condition.
Devyn opened the channel to let Sway and Vik know what was coming. "Batten down. It's going to be a rough landing."
Sway buzzed him back. "Dev, are you trying to say we're about to crash?"
"Yeah, we're crashing."
Sway had one last surly comeback to that. "Asshole."
Shaking his head, Devyn prepared himself as best he could. The atmospheric friction against the hull made it feel like they were traveling through steel. Without the dampeners, the sound was excruciating.
Sparks flew from the damaged circuits as Manashe whined in response to the sound. Nero fastened himself in.
Was that a precaution, or did he know something they didn't?
With no time to think about that, Devyn did the best he could with what he had. But by the time they broke through into the planet's normal atmosphere, he could barely steer.
"Let's try for someplace soft," Omari suggested.
Devyn snorted. "How about I try to avoid the mountains?"
"Even better idea."
But there was no way to avoid slamming into the trees. Everything seemed to slow down as they popped, spun and tumbled through them until Devyn lost all sense of orientation. Right now, they could be flying upside down for all he knew.
Finally they landed with a harsh jolt in the middle of the woods.
Devyn cursed as his body's full pain hit him. The wound in his side tore even more, but he knew he didn't have time to worry about it. He looked to Omari. "How you doing, kid?"
"Not dead yet."
He nodded. "Nero?"
His tone was dry and sarcastic. "You haven't helped the migraine."
Manashe barked.
"That helped even less."
Devyn ignored him. "Vik?"
Silence answered him.
Devyn's heart stopped as raw panic set in. Had the mecha been hurt in the crash?
Or worse... killed?
"Vik!"
Again nothing.
Nero looked up from where he was cradling his head in his hands. "Communications might be out."