Born of Vengeance Read online

  He laughed at the unexpected exuberance. It was more than he'd ever hoped to experience from them. Honestly, he'd expected them to hate him as much as everyone else did. "My cousin Jullien did that for me so that they'd stop hunting me."

  Cin leaned against his back, making him the middle of their sandwich. Which reminded him of what he'd suggested to Alura that had sent her spiraling into a special level of pissed off she probably had yet to come down from.

  Florian made a rude noise. "Not so fun when you're the one getting squished, is it?"

  Bastien laughed. "I disagree. This is awesome! Sign me up and leave me here."

  Pursing his lips, he glanced over to Ember. "You failed to tell me my father was mental."

  Iskander laughed at that. "I could have told you, kid."

  "And speaking of..." Tasi glanced to Ember. "By the two of you being here, I'm assuming this isn't a social call."

  "No." Bastien stepped back so that he could touch his son. "I'm going after Barnabas. We're here to meet Florian and then I'm going to finish this."

  Iskander's eyes widened at those words. For the first time, he looked at Bastien with something other than contempt. "Brother! Good friend, buddy, oh pal of mine! You are my new best friend. Where you go. I go."

  Bastien took another step away from him at those peculiar words. "What kind of distemper do you have?"

  "The same one you do. Barnabas Cabarro. He killed my mother too, and he damn near killed me. You're going after him ... I plan to help."

  "You know that this is most likely a one-way trip."

  Iskander shrugged. "So long as he goes with me to the grave, I can die with that."

  Florian gasped at his words. "No. No, you can't! Neither of you can die." He turned to Ember. "Mom! Stop them!"

  How she wished. Sadly, she'd never been able to stop either of them from being stupid.

  Bastien opened his mouth to reassure him, but before he could, an alarm sounded. He grimaced at Ember.

  Suddenly, there was a voice over an intercom. "League ships are sighted and heading in. Battle stations!" Then it switched over to an air raid siren.

  Confused, Bastien watched as members of the Dread Reckoning came out of the hallways at a dead run to prep their ships for a scramble. "I'm not tagged anymore. How are they..." His voice trailed off as a sick feeling went through him. "Anyone have a scanner?"

  "For what?" Tasi asked.

  "The ship. I think it could be tagged."

  Ember arched her brow. "What are you thinking?"

  "Nykyrian mentioned that he thought they might have a spy in The Sentella who's working with The League. I'm wondering if they tagged the ship."

  "Yeah, it is." Iskander showed him the readings on his link. "It's hotter than a dwarf star."

  "Oh, it gets worse." Tasi pulled her link out of her ear and turned it to speaker.

  They heard The League commander addressing Tasi's mother, who was the leader of the DR.

  "While we don't condone the Dread Reckoning, we are willing to overlook your unsanctioned, criminal base of operations. But only if you hand over the felon we're after."

  "And who is that?"

  "Bastien Cabarro. Return him to us and we'll leave peacefully. Protect him or allow him to get away and we'll level your base and leave no survivors."

  CHAPTER 12

  Bastien cursed at the confirmation of a spy. "There you go. As far as The League knows, I'm dead and buried. My file showed termination two years ago. Only people who knew I was still around were in The Sentella."

  Minus the guard he'd told when they rescued Kalea Hauk. But that had been weeks ago. Had the guard filed a report outing him, The Sentella would have picked it up and warned him to run. No one got past Syn Wade's alerts or bypassed them.

  No one. He was the best tech in the Nine Worlds.

  Not to mention, The Sentella had their own crew of spies who would have instantly relayed that intel.

  This definitely came from the suspected spy Nykyrian had warned him about.

  And with the thought of his hidden enemy, his old familiar battle calm came over him. There was one way to stop this and protect what he loved.

  "Where's a comm link?" he asked them.

  Ember went cold at that tone of voice she knew a little too well. Bastien had a battle plan. And while his plans were always innovative, they were usually highly risky, and often explosive.

  If not downright stupid.

  "What are you thinking, Cabarro?"

  That old charming grin that had melted her heart more than once split his face. "Not sure I want to disclose it at this time, Major."

  Yeah, stupid for the win.

  Her stomach knotted to a sickening level at the thought of what he might do. "Don't even."

  But Tasi, who had no idea what level of carelessness Bastien was capable of, handed her link over to him.

  Ember cursed her silently.

  Bastien turned to Badger. "Load my fighter with enough explosives to detonate whatever they have. Tonde!"

  Her jaw dropping, Ember arched a brow at that last order, which was the Kirovarian military term for tel-ass.

  "Bastien..."

  And still the irritating beast ignored her as he activated the link. "Put me on with The League MCO."

  She gaped even wider as he demanded to speak to the mission's commanding officer. Was he out of his Kirovarian mind? This cannot be good. Bastien and commanding officers didn't mix. And she said that as one of his former commanding officers.

  A bad feeling went through her. And Rian must have felt it too, because he came to stand beside her so that he could whisper, "What's he doing, Ma?"

  "No idea. Now you see why I tell you not to act like your father?"

  Rian ignored her.

  Just like Bastien.

  When the MCO picked up, Bastien didn't flinch or show any emotion whatsoever. "Hello, Dumbass ... back your troops off this station. I'm coming out and turning myself in. But only if you withdraw."

  "No!" she gasped before she could stop herself. Surely he wasn't planning to commit suicide.

  But to protect them, he might. Bastien had a fanatical need to do the wrong thing for the right reasons. And with a son to protect, his suicidal level would be ratcheted up even more.

  Bastien turned on the mute and glared at her. "Do you mind not interfering with my noble act of extreme stupidity, Major? Please?" Then he turned the mute off so that he could continue his conversation with The League. "Yeah, I'm on my way as soon as you pull back. I'll be in my fighter. You can't miss it. Sentella ship. Has The League flag with a big X going through it on a black field. Will need clearance to land it, though."

  Holding on to Rian, she ground her teeth, wanting to thrash Bastien. If he thought for one minute that she was going to allow him to do this, he was even more delusional than normal! Which was saying something.

  And still Bastien ignored her as he made plans to die.

  Her sisters were all gaping, too. But they didn't speak until he had the coordinates and cut the link.

  He blinked innocently at all of them while Ember made a sound of supreme disgust in the back of her throat. "What are you thinking, Bas?"

  With a devilish wink, he headed straight for his fighter. "Not thinking at all. According to you and my father, I never do."

  "Bas! I'm not letting you do this!"

  He gave her a coy glance. "Does this mean I'm forgiven?"

  "No, it means you're an idiot!"

  He tsked at her vim. "You know, that's what I missed most all the years we were apart. Your unfailing support and sweet-talk. It humbles me."

  "Don't be an ass."

  "See! That's what I'm talking about. No one else could ever insult me the way you do. And I still have one testicle left you haven't kicked."

  "Mom?"

  Only then did Bastien take pity on them. "Don't worry, champ. I've got this." Without a word, he jogged to the fighter and shot up the ladder, but instead of getting inside it to launch, he opened the engine bay.

  Following after him, Ember frowned as she watched him work on who knew what. Though as she saw him scrambling about she began to have some idea of what he intended.

  Yet there was one major problem....

  "You know, they'll scan for life forms. If you send it up on autopilot, they'll detonate it before it can cause harm."

  "That would be true in most cases."

  "Meaning?"

  "That I've had years and years alone to hone my skills and plot my revenge. They've no idea what they're dealing with. But I'm about to set them up for some hostile lessons."

  Brand scratched at her ear as she watched him working. "You think he can do it?"

  Ember shrugged. "We didn't call him Ghost Gadget without cause."

  "True."

  Still, she did have doubts.

  Pulling away from her, Rian ran to climb up the fighter behind his father. She started to grab him, but Bastien reached down to help him move to stand by his side so that they could work on it together.

  The sight of them like that ... of Bastien's patience with their son as he explained to him what he was doing and why ... it made her strangely weepy.

  "So this will work?" Rian asked.

  "It should. Or it'll piss them off and they'll kill us." Bastien pulled out his link and handed it to their son. "Please, hold the light so that I can see a little better."

  "Okay. And for the record, I don't want to die."

  "For the record, I don't intend to let you. I'd never hear the end of it from your mom. And she really scares me most days."

  Rian glanced at her, then whispered, "She scares me, too."

  Ember sighed as that tweaked her heart, in a psychotic kind of way. Bastien made it so hard to stay angry at him. But then that was nothing new. The entire time they'd dated, she'd been on the verge of wanting to choke the life out of his body and then he'd surprise her with an act so incredibly kind or thoughtful that she'd instantly forget her rage.

  His mother had complained of the same thing. And so had Lil. In fact, she could hear his sister's voice in her head to this day--"It's the only reason I didn't drown him while he was still in nappies...."

  "So what are you doing now?" Rian asked excitedly.

  "This is the heater for the ship. If we scramble things about, it'll heat up the seat and make it appear as if there's someone in it."

  "You can do that?" Rian gaped.

  "Sure can. Then we need to rig the drive so that it can pilot out on remote. And the sensors so that they'll think they see a phantom body in the seat."

  "That's awesome. How will you land it?"

  "Won't have to. SOP for The League is they'll tractor beam the ship in. They won't chance my ramming their facility out of suicidal tendencies." Bastien flashed a charming grin down at her. "Of which I have many, according to your mother."

  "Wow ... how do you know all this?"

  "Studied hard in school."

  Rian screwed his face up at his father. "Not what Mama says."

  This time, Bastien glanced down to her and smirked. "What lies has she been telling on me?"

  "She says you're where I get my slackness from. That you charmed your way through school and negotiated grades with your teachers like you were running for political office. You never studied for anything, other than how to avoid responsiblity."

  Bastien feigned being offended. "Why she tell you that?"

  He shrugged. "Don't know."

  Bastien grimaced down at Ember. "Why you tell my boy those stories?"

  "'Cause he's little Bastien, all the way. Just look at him. He's not your son so much as your clone."

  Rian was digging around the engine, toying with various belts. Just the way Bastien tinkered whenever he had a new toy. He looked up with a charming smile that was identical to the one his father used whenever he got caught doing something he wasn't supposed to.

  Bastien grinned proudly.

  Ember groaned and then had to smile at the two of them and the trouble she was in while facing their combined force.

  Cin wrapped her arms around her. "I like seeing you with that expression on your face."

  She leaned back against her sister. "It's not happiness. I'm imagining creative places to hide Bastien's body should my child be harmed."

  Brand laughed.

  Until Badger returned, with Kindel in tow, hauling enough explosives that it made her sick to her stomach. Ember couldn't believe how much he'd found.

  Or how quickly.

  Good Jake, you are Bastien's brother.

  How had their family ever survived to become rulers of anything?

  Bastien forced Rian down the ladder and away from the ship while they wired the explosives.

  Against the child's protests, she had Brand take him home so that if something went wrong--like she maimed his father over this "brilliant" plan, he wouldn't be here to witness it.

  Or worse, get caught in the blast range.

  Crossing her arms over her chest, she watched the men running around to rig the explosives. Bastien was a little too cavalier with the highly volatile compound for her tastes. As was Badger. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

  "Not at all," Bastien said with a laugh. He scowled at Badger. "Is it the red and green wires you're not supposed to cross?"

  "Um, yeah. So please don't forget that. Especialy while I'm in range."

  Bastien nodded. "I guess this would be a bad time to tell you I'm color blind?"

  Badger turned stark white. "Are you effing kidding?"

  "He's joking, Xander." Ember laughed.

  Bastien flashed that evil grin. "You feel more alive now, though, right?"

  The expression on Badger's face said that he wanted a place to hide Bastien's body now. "I swear I'm going to murder you."

  Bastien laughed again as he finished wiring the ship.

  Once they'd jumped down, Bastien scowled at the remote. "Boy, I hope I didn't fuck up those connections."

  It was her turn to go pale. "Meaning?"

  "You might want to stand back a few miles while I do this."

  "Bastien..."

  He calmly flipped the switch. "Oh hey, it's all right. I'll be damned. Works. That's a first!"

  Xander screwed his face up. "He always like this?"

  "Yes," she growled. "You should have been in the field with him."

  "I'm surprised his own troops didn't shoot him ... in the back ... of the head."

  "They tried," Kindel said with a laugh. "Bastard moves fast for an aristos."

  Meanwhile Bastien continued to chuckle at them while he launched the ship. "Time for that spectacular enema."

  A few minutes later, they heard The League commander telling Bastien to drop shields.

  Bastien's face lost color. "Ah, minsid hell, I forgot that part...."

  "Ha, ha," Badger mocked. "You're not funny, Cabarro."

  "He's not joking this time." Ember stepped forward. "What do we do?"

  Bastien glanced around at all of them. "Run!"

  "Not without you."

  He grimaced at her. "You don't even like me."

  "I know. But it would traumatize my son if I let you die right now."

  "Great." Bastien started to argue, but there wasn't time. He met Badger's gaze. "Don't scramble fighters. Withdraw everyone into whatever bomb shelters you have. Tonde!"

  Issuing orders, everyone evacuated in expectation of a League assault.

  Ember took Bastien's hand and ran toward the condos where her sisters lived with Rian. There would be shelters there.

  They heard the fighter detonation over their links.

  It was followed by sirens blaring to warn them of an impending strike.

  "Cabarro!" The League MCO shouted. "You've damned them all by your actions!"

  Bastien cursed under his breath.

  An instant later, bombs fell against the station, jarring them off their feet.

  Bastien grabbed Ember and threw her under a reinforced beam as another shock wave went through the building and brought down sections of the roof and walls around them. "You always rocked my world. Nice to know things haven't changed."

  She moaned at his cheesy lines. "Not the time."

  Suddenly, there was a massive strike against the base. One that lit up the sky like a nuclear device had detonated. The wave from it was so fierce that it knocked all of them from their feet.

  The whistling sound of engines and bombings deafened her.

  Amidst the smoking debris, Bastien rose slowly and helped her up.

  Terrified of what was going on, Ember grabbed him and held fast. She let the scent of his skin ground her. But most of all, it was his strong arms and the slow gentle beating of his heart that soothed her.

  That was one of the things she'd missed most about him. His calmness when everything was falling apart. Nothing ever rattled him. Not even a bombing run. It was just like the day they met when he'd jumped headfirst in after Alura.

  His gaze warm, he kissed her forehead and gave her a light squeeze to reassure her. "It'll be fine, Ember. I'll die before I allow them to harm you or Florian."

  She fisted her hand in his hair and let his whiskers scrape against her cheek. Tears filled her eyes as she realized that they might not make it out this time. And if they died, she didn't want him to go not knowing the truth of how she felt for him.

  How she'd always felt about him. He'd lived too long doubting her and that was her fault.

  No more.

  "I still love you, Bastien."

  "I know." He pulled back with a playful grin. "How could you ever stop loving all this sexiness?"

  Snorting, she wanted to beat him for his facetious humor, which she didn't appreciate right now. But it did succeed in making her laugh. "You're a beast!"

  Bastien winked at her. "But I'm your beast."

  And he wished he believed the lies he was spewing for her benefit. The truth, however, was that he had no idea what was going on or how to help her or her people out of this disaster. How could I have brought this down on them? He should have remembered that damn shield....

  "How many fighters can we scramble?" he asked her.

  "You said not to."

  "Circumstances have changed my mind."

  She bit her lip as she considered it. "I don't know. Not my base." She looked around for her sisters, but they seemed to have vanished during the attack.

  Until Kindel popped up from the rubble on her left. "Ember? Do you know the call sign Merksaker?"

  She shook her head.

  Kindel tapped her link. "Blast him out."

  "Wait!" Bastien stopped her. "Give me the digits."

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