Born of Vengeance Read online

  "Only the monidar can grant it. And I have no intention of doing so. Now..." He turned toward Kindel and took the Gyron axe off her belt as they landed in the port just inside the main city with paperwork Syn Wade had forged for them.

  She frowned at Bastien's actions. "What are you doing?"

  "I swore to bury my Gyron axe in Barnabas's head. Since I don't have one, Kindel's will have to do."

  And with that, he lowered the battle shield on his helm and led the way from the landing bay to the palace.

  Lacking the easy confidence he exuded, Ember followed with her sisters in tow. How he managed to make this look so easy, she had no idea.

  But he was right, no one questioned their presence or the validity of their uniforms that The Sentella had provided for them. They appeared as all the other palace guards. And as Bastien had always said, act like you know what you're doing, no one questions it. They didn't even garner a second look.

  As if testing his theory, Bastien walked room by room through the elegant Kirovarian palace that had been his home. And Ember tried not to think of the parties she'd attended here where his mother, sister, and Quin had made her feel horrible.

  Made her feel lacking and unwanted.

  No, that wasn't true. She'd allowed them to make her feel that way. Bastien had never seen her as less. Had never treated her as anything other than his monidara.

  Her sister was right. She should never have allowed her own doubts and insecurities to come between them. His family hadn't run her off.

  She had.

  Bastien could sense Ember's nervousness on this mission. Brand's too. But Kindel, Ash, and Cin were rock steady. Tasi fell between them. She was a bit of both.

  His only aggravation came at the fact that he had yet to find Barnabas.

  Where was that bastard hiding?

  They entered the courtyard where his cousins were playing a chasing game of some kind.

  Bastien paused to watch them. Barnabas's granddaughters. Cala would be nine now ... right around his son's age. The other two were younger and would have been born after his exile.

  That sent a wave of fury through him that his cousin, Neville, had been allowed to continue on with his life in happy bliss. Spawning children and living in luxury.

  Through the blood of Bastien's family.

  His vision turned dark as he left the children in peace and headed away from them, back into the palace toward the bedrooms. It was the only place left that Barnabas could be.

  And he wasn't there alone.

  The moment he entered the master bedchambers, Bastien ground his teeth at the sight of a girl who couldn't be any older than fourteen. She was in tears.

  Half-dressed, Barnabas turned on them with a growl. "What is this? I didn't request security!"

  Bastien glanced over his shoulder to Brand.

  She immediately locked the door behind them.

  Barnabas went pale. "Open that door!"

  Bastien tsked at him. "You know the hardest part about finding you? The eight palaces my father frequented ... you changed up when the emperor occupied them." He pulled his helmet off.

  Barnabas's eyes narrowed threateningly. "You! You don't scare me! You were never anything more than your mother's pampered brat."

  Bastien nodded. "I was that. And I cherished every moment of it." He waited until Cin had the girl out of harm's way and isolated in a corner. "You should have never gotten greedy, Uncle."

  "None of you deserved to rule. And none of you will!" He lunged at Bastien.

  Bastien caught him with his fist. And he'd intended to continue it with his fists, until Barnabas pulled a blaster from his boot.

  He grabbed Tasi and held it to her head.

  Ember gasped.

  Bastien went cold. A part of him was pissed that he'd allowed Barnabas to get the drop on them.

  It wouldn't happen again.

  "You don't want to hurt her," Bastien warned.

  "You don't order me around." He glanced about frantically. "All of you! Out of my way!"

  Bastien nodded at them to obey. "I'm not the same boy I was, Barnie."

  "Don't you dare call me that!"

  Bastien held his hands up. "Fine. Asshole works better for me, anyway."

  A palace alarm sounded.

  "You know what that is?" Barnabas laughed. "It's all of you heading for your executions!"

  He was wrong. It was the countdown on his life. But the bastard was too stupid to realize it.

  Bastien shook his head. "Do you remember what I said to the Overseer?"

  "It doesn't matter."

  His guards began pounding on the door with a battering ram.

  Barnabas smiled even wider. "They'll be through it in a minute, and when they are, you'll all be arrested."

  "What are we doing?" Kindel asked in a panicked tone. "Shouldn't we be running?"

  "No," Ember said calmly. "They'll catch us. Just wait here." She gave him a knowing look that said she knew exactly what he was thinking and doing and that she was behind him completely.

  "For what?" Cin held a hysterical note in her voice.

  "You'll see." Ember smiled.

  "What I see is all kinds of crazy!" Brand glared at Ember. "Do something with your husband!"

  Ember screwed her face up as she watched Bastien closely. He had a plan. She didn't know what, but she trusted him. "It's okay."

  "Not okay," Ash said with a note of panic in her tone.

  And still Bastien was completely calm.

  Even when the door splintered and guards poured into the room to surround them.

  "Arrest them!" Barnabas shoved Tasi toward the guard nearest him.

  The instant he did, Bastien let fly his axe, faster than anyone could blink.

  Faster than a single guard could shoot.

  With unerring aim, it embedded straight between Barnabas's eyes.

  Tasi shrieked as his blood splattered all over her.

  The guards took aim for Bastien.

  "Drop it!" he snarled at them. His regal Cabarro tone was filled with so much inherited command that they obeyed instinctively.

  He glared at them. "Now you will bow before your monidar. Long reign His Royal Eminence Bastien, High Monidar Cabarro!"

  They hesitated.

  Until Ember's sisters took up the chant and bowed to him. The others followed suit immediately.

  Bastien held his hand out to her. "My monidara?"

  That title sent a chill down her spine. And she had no idea how to address him in turn.

  But she took his hand.

  He tucked it into the crook of his elbow, then turned toward the captain of his uncle's guards. "Get the body out. Call housekeeping and have this room cleaned and fumigated." He jerked his chin toward the girl. "Call her parents and make sure she's returned to them safely. I'll have my attorneys contact them in the morning. Round up the rest of the former tyrant's family and bring them to the throne room. If Neville so much as sneezes, kill him with impunity. And find the bitch Alura Cabarro."

  With those words, he led Ember and her sisters to the throne room.

  Every step of the way, she kept waiting for someone to stop them.

  They didn't. In her heart, she knew that he was their leader. Rightfully so.

  Still, this was terrifying.

  More so because he was under a League death sentence.

  As soon as they entered the throne room, Kindel cast her gaze around the enormous, gilded walls that were decorated with thousands of formal portraits of Bastien's ancestors. "Uh ... is it just me or was this too easy?"

  Bastien let out an evil laugh. "Day's not over, love. League will order me arrested as soon as this is reported, and Neville will report it immediately."

  "Then why are we here?" Cin asked, wide-eyed. "Shouldn't we be fortifying our positions? Arming ourselves? Running?"

  Bastien headed to the computer nearest him. "So that I can send this over the official network...." He played the file he'd videoed of his brother's outburst that showed Quin was alive and that Barnabas had been the one to orchestrate the murders of their family. "Once the Overseer sees that, she'll open a formal inquiry. I should be absolved and my Ravin status removed. But only if Neville is dead."

  They heard shots fired.

  Ember and her sisters drew their blasters.

  Bastien didn't.

  "What was that?" Brand asked after a few minutes when no one came to arrest them.

  "Neville being the idiot. So we no longer have to worry about him testifying."

  A few minutes later, a guard came and verified that indeed, Neville had fought against them and had been shot and killed.

  "Does this mean we're good?" Ember asked hopefully.

  "We're good," Bastien lied. He still had doubts, but he wasn't about to let her know that. Not until he had his son's future secured, and Xander's.

  And most of all, Ember's.

  One thing was certain. He'd either won a throne today.

  Or ended his life.

  Yeah, his father had been right. He was forever a reckless gambler with one foot in the grave. But as he looked to Ember, he knew that she was his one anchor in life. And that whenever those suicidal tendencies kicked in, she was the only force in the universe capable of pulling him back from it.

  She was and would always be his lifeline.

  EPILOGUE

  In full emperor's robes, Bastien entered the throne room with Ember by his side. This was the day they'd been waiting for and dreading.

  Kyr Zemin, the League prime commander, stood there, waiting with his crew and the Overseer.

  Ember's hand trembled in his, but she showed no other sign of her nervousness.

  And Bastien showed no emotions whatsoever as he met Alia's cold gaze.

  "Well?" he prompted.

  "You kept your word," Alia said with a light note in her voice. "I will give you that."

  Bastien didn't find any humor in her words. "And how do you find now, Overseer?"

  "Everything you said has been proven. I've ordered Prime Commander Zemin to remove your name as a Ravin. You're free, Emperor. Congratulations."

  Congratulations? Was she fucking kidding, after everything they'd put him through?

  He wanted to bury the axe in her skull.

  But he caught himself and, as he'd promised Ember, he inclined his respectfully head to the Overseer, even though it galled him through and through. "Thank you, my lady."

  Kyr stepped forward. "Now that you've been exonerated of killing your family, I'm here to accept your loyalty oath to The League and the United Systems."

  Yeah, right.

  Bastien sucked his breath in sharply. "Mmm ... sorry, Kyr. 'Fraid I can't do that, punkin."

  His jaw went slack and the scar around his eyepatch turned whiter. "Pardon?"

  Bastien moved to shield Ember with his body and pulled his blaster on Kyr. "Consider yourself arrested by order of the Alliance."

  Kyr's one eye flared. He lunged at Bastien, but Bastien caught him and countered the strike. It took him several minutes, but he finally subdued the prime commander and cuffed him.

  "This war ends. Today. I've buried enough people I love. I'm not burying any more."

  Kyr laughed. "You've no idea what you're doing, Cabarro. You've just made the worst mistake of your life."

  "No. I just ended a war that never should have started." He shoved Kyr into the hands of his guards. "Take him to lockup while I call Nykyrian Quiakides to let him know we have Kyr waiting for him."

  Alia went pale. "What of me?"

  "That's for the Alliance to decide.... I hope your son has more mercy on you than you had on him when he stood before your judgement." Bastien jerked his chin at his captain. "Take her."

  Ember didn't breathe until they were gone. "I can't believe that worked."

  "I told you it would. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a call to make."

  Ember bit her lip as she watched her gorgeous husband head for his war room. She still couldn't believe the last few weeks. So much had happened that it all seemed like a dream most days.

  "Alodara?"

  She turned at the hesitant sound of her secretary's voice. "Yes?"

  "You have an old friend outside who wants to meet with you, but she won't give me her name."

  Ember wished she could say that was weird, but since her coronation, old friends had been turning up everywhere. Wanting money, favors ...

  Souvenirs.

  It gave her a whole new respect for how normal Bastien had always been, given the attention he'd been exposed to from birth.

  With a heavy sigh, she went to her receiving room, expecting to find an old school chum.

  But when the petite blonde turned around, all the air left her lungs.

  It was Alura.

  "What are you doing here?"

  Alura raked her with a snotty glare. "So you won after all."

  Ember screwed her face up. "This wasn't about winning. My God, Alura! Bastien's a person. And I'm your zusa!"

  "None of you ever treated me like family. You were all so jealous of me. My beauty and the fact that I was sa-sa's favorite."

  "Is that why you had him killed?"

  She hissed at Ember. "I tried to help him. Tried to warn him. He wouldn't listen!"

  Yeah, right. Alura never served anyone but herself. Even now, she was impeccably dressed and it was obvious that she'd suffered no hardship while in hiding.

  "Why are you here?"

  "Tell Bastien I'm dead. Get him off my back. You owe me that much."

  Was she insane? "I don't owe you anything!" Other than maybe a severe ass-whipping.

  "I'm your zusa!"

  "Yeah. And as you said, you never acted like it. You lied and took my husband from me. You knew I was pregnant and you stole even that! And you think I owe you?"

  Alura hissed. "You're such a bitch. Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you."

  "Warn me about what?"

  She didn't answer. Instead, she headed for the door.

  And ran straight into Bastien.

  His eyes flared with instant recognition. But before he could reach for her, she turned and ran in the opposite direction with an ear-piercing scream.

  Bastien exchanged a fierce frown with Ember as Alura headed for the balcony. There was no place for her to go.

  Unless ...

  They both had the exact bad feeling at the same time.

  Running together, they reached the doors just as Alura jumped over the edge and plunged to the street below. Traffic screeched to a halt and horns blared.

  When she started to look over the edge, Bastien took her arm and pulled her back. "Don't."

  Instead, he glanced to the scene below.

  "Is she..." Ember couldn't get the word past the painful knot in her throat.

  "Yeah. She's dead. I'm so sorry, Ember."

  Ember burst into tears.

  Bastien held her close and let her cry. He wished he could feel the same, but every time he tried to feel bad for Alura, he saw an image of his mother and sister lying dead and couldn't. In his mind, she'd deserved a far worse fate.

  But he wouldn't begrudge Ember her grief.

  Or her love. Family was family. Even when they hurt you. Even when it was done intentionally. Though he'd never understand why some were born so broken they couldn't be fixed. Why some people could only find happiness by lashing out at others and ruining their lives.

  All he could do was be grateful that he wasn't counted among their numbers. Life wasn't about misery. It wasn't about spreading pain.

  His father had always said that life was a balance. Good and bad. The goal was to make sure that when you left the world, you left it with the scales shifted as much to the good column as you could.

  And so he made himself remember the times with Alura when she hadn't sought to hurt them.

  Forgiveness was the only way to heal. And the only way to make sure her poison didn't spread was to forget that she'd ever planted it.

  In the end, that was the only way to deal with such creatures. Give them no fertilizer to grow their evil. Let it die with them. Let them pass from the world with no memory that they'd ever walked it.

  So he would think no more of their bitter, pain-filled past. Only the future that was Ember and Rian.

  And the new life that was growing inside her.

  "Bastien?"

  Kissing Ember's head, he looked up at Xander's call from inside the room. "Yeah?"

  "I hate to bother you."

  He rubbed Ember's arm as sirens began to blare from the streets outside. "We know. We saw her jump."

  Xander winced. "Not that tragedy. Another one. Kyr."

  His stomach tightened as bile rose up in his throat. Please, gods, no. "What about him?"

  "He just escaped custody."

  Bastien cursed as he realized that the war wasn't over. Rather it'd just taken a more sinister bend.

  And this time when Kyr returned, he'd be out for all of them....

  BONUS STORY

  Jullien couldn't have been more stunned had his fraternal twin brother demanded a testicle from him. At least that he'd have expected, given the past animosity between them that had resulted in years of the two of them trying to kill each other. He was actually surprised Nykyrian hadn't gelded him before now with a rusted-out spoon.

  But this ...

  This was one fucked-up turn of events he'd have never conceived in his most vivid nightmare. Or drugged-out delusion. Obviously the gods were seriously bored and had chosen him for their daily amusements.

  Standing in Nykyrian's Triosan office, he arched a brow and tried to keep a straight face as he did his best to wrap his head around his brother's shocking question. "You're sure about this?"

  "It's what she wants." Nykyrian swallowed hard as he rose from his desk and slowly approached him. The pain-filled sincerity in those green, human eyes stunned Jullien, as his assassin-trained twin so seldom showed any emotion whatsoever. It just wasn't in Nyk.

  Or him, either, for that matter.

  And those eyes weakened him even more. Eyes that were so similar to Jullien's and at the same time, served to alienate them both from their birth mother's Andarion culture that hated all things human.

  That mutual tragedy was the one tie that bound them and allowed the two of them to put their own mistrust of each other in the past and build a shaky alliance. While they had a long way to go before they were whole with each other, they were slowly making strides to at least become friendly for once.

  And that was the biggest miracle of all.

  For both of them.

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