Born of Fire (55 page)

When he spoke, it was with a ragged whisper that set her heart pounding even harder. “How about we find a bed and then a priestess?”

She laughed. “Quit talking, convict, and give me another kiss.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

And this time when his lips met hers, she knew that it would be forever.

Two years later

Syn paused as he saw Shahara brushing her hair while she sat on his bed. He still couldn’t believe how lucky he was that he’d taken a chance on her, and it’d paid off in ways he couldn’t have imagined.

Thank the gods for Nykyrian. Had his friend not been so harsh with him, he wasn’t sure if he’d have ever come to his senses where she was concerned.

Once again, he owed his life to an assassin.

“You know, I was thinking . . .”

Shahara paused to meet his gaze. “About what?”

“We don’t have to do this. I can tell Kip that I’m not feeling well.”

“Why?”

Because he knew how much it upset her to be around Kiara and Nykyrian’s children when they couldn’t have their own. She didn’t say it, but he always saw the pain in her gaze that she tried so hard to hide.

It was so unfair. He’d never seen a woman more maternal or kinder than her, and yet all she could do was love other people’s babies. He hated that for her.

They’d tried everything, including adoption, both infants and older children, but with his past . . .

No one would let him near a child.

She came off the bed and approached him. “I don’t mind, Syn.”

“You always say that.” He pulled her close and held her. “I’m so sorry, Shay.”

“There’s no need to be sorry, sweetie. Besides, I need to see Kiara and ask her some things.”

Pulling back, he frowned. “What kind of things?”

“Parenting advice.”

His frown deepened. “Why?”

“Well, I kind of screwed up raising Kasen, Tessa, and Caillen. And you screwed up raising Vik. I’m really hoping that we can do better with our baby.”

It took a full minute for those words to sink in.

She flashed a bright smile at him as she went to her top drawer and pulled out a pregnancy test.

It was positive.

“Your treatment worked, Syn. We’re going to have a baby.”

He couldn’t breathe as he stared at the test and then looked at her.

She was pregnant.

His hand shaking, he reached out and touched her stomach. “How far along?”

“You’re the doctor. But I think about seven weeks.”

Laughing, he picked her up in his arms and swung her around. “I’m going to throw you the biggest baby shower you’ve ever seen.”

“I think Kiara’s supposed to do that.”

“I don’t care.” He slid her down his front so that he could cup her face in his hands. “Thank you, Shay.”

“For what?”

“For looking into the eyes of nothing and seeing a man you could love.”

Shahara wanted to weep at his words that touched her deep inside her heart. “You were never nothing, Syn. And you will always be
everything
to me.”

Read on for an excerpt from
the next League book

BORN OF ICE

“That right there is the meanest son of a bitch ever born.”

Devyn Wade Kell jerked his head up from his paperwork as he heard that deep, familiar voice coming from across the room.

No. It couldn’t be . . .

He barely bit back his smile as he instantly saw the newcomer through the group of soldiers who separated them in the mess hall.

Adron Quiakides. Braggart. Womanizer. Lunatic . . . and his best friend since birth.

Only a handful of years older than him, Adron had snow-white hair that fell in a braid down his back. As a League Assassin, Adron wore the uniform well. So black it absorbed light, it was a stark contrast to his hair and molded itself to every muscle the assassin possessed.

His eyes were covered by a pair of opaque shades, but even so, Devyn knew their color better than his own. As a kid, he’d saved the right one from blindness after they’d had a race through a briar patch that had all but ripped it out.

Devyn had won the race. But Adron claimed it was only because he’d almost lost his eye.

As if the loss of a limb could ever slow one of them down . . .

He hadn’t seen Adron in almost six months, but he was definitely glad to see him now.

“You mean Kell?” Devyn’s commanding officer choked as Adron draped his arm over Quills’s shoulders. “Are you high, Commander? He’s a friggin’ doctor. The only part of me he scares is my tonsils.”

Adron tsked at Devyn’s CO, who’d done nothing but rag on him for the last two months since he’d been reassigned to this unit. The man really was lucky Devyn had learned to control his temper.

Most days anyway.

Adron clapped the CO on the back so hard, Quills actually staggered from the blow. “Yeah, that’s what he
wants
you to think. But trust me.
I
know his skills firsthand. His father was the notorious filch and assassin C.I. Syn. His mother the legendary Seax Shahara Dagan.”

Devyn clamped his jaw tight to keep from drawing his blaster and shooting his best friend for letting out a secret he’d done his damnedest to keep.
You asshole.

Quills gaped at them both. “
He
is their son?”

“Oh, yeah. And I’ll do you one better. He was trained from birth to fight by the best assassin The League
ever
created.”

Quills scoffed. “You mean there’s someone out there better than your father?”

Adron shook his head as he shoved Quills away from him. “No, idiot. My father trained him.” He flashed an evil grin at Quills. “Just FYI, my father is also his
god
father. So you want to be real nice to Dev. All of us take it personally when people aren’t.”

Devyn rose to his feet as Adron closed the distance between them. He held his hand out and let his friend
pull him into a tight man-hug. “It’s good to see you again, aridos. But really . . . some discretion would have been nice. Out of character for your rotten ass, but nice.”

Adron laughed good-naturedly as he released him. “C’mon, Dev. You need to let these assholes know what you can do. Who you really are. They think you’re weak, they’ll step all over you.”

A true assassin’s philosophy, but it wasn’t in Devyn’s nature to push people around. He was too easygoing for that.

Well . . . again, most days.

Devyn glanced around the room, noting they were the recipients of way too much attention.

Yet true to Adron’s words, the soldiers around him held a respect in their gazes that they’d never had before. “Being an arrogant braggart just doesn’t work for me.”

Adron took his insult in stride. “You should try it. It really does grow on you, trust me.”

Devyn laughed at his friend who was much more like an older brother to him. “So what brings you here?”

“People need killing.” Adron’s tone was completely stoic about his brutal trade. “I was actually on my way back to The League and heard your unit had been dropped here. I just wanted to say hi before I left.”

“Who was your target?”

Adron leaned in to whisper so that no one else would know who he’d killed. “Emperor Abenbi.”

Devyn was surprised by the name. “The Probekein leader?” Abenbi had once ordered the rape and death of Adron’s mother. It was a story they all knew well and it was how Adron’s parents, as well as his own, had met. “Was it personal?”

“It was an assignment . . .” A tic worked in Adron’s jaw. “And it was personal for what he did to my mother. Too long in coming, in my opinion, but it was legal so my father should be proud.”

“He’s always proud of you, Adron.”

Adron didn’t comment. “How long are you here for?”

“We’re evacing troops out of a hot zone and have some supplies for the civs. A few days and we’re clear.”

“Good. I don’t want to be taking your body home to your mother.”

“Yeah, she’d probably hurt you if you did.”

“Probably so.” He grinned roguishly. “In all the universe, your mother is the only thing that truly scares me, especially where you’re concerned. I don’t
ever
want to be on that dark side.”

“Ha-ha. And need I remind you my mother wasn’t the one screaming at the pool when you got shoved in?”

“Yeah, all right, so we both have screwed-up, irrational mothers. Anyway, I’ve got to get out of here. I took a little longer on assignment than I should have and if I don’t make check-in . . . I don’t want to be hunted and have to take out another assassin dumb enough to come at me.” He gave Devyn another quick hug. “Take care, little brother.”

“You, too, A. I’ll see you around.”

Adron inclined his head to him before he made his way back toward the doors.

As soon as Adron was gone, Quills stepped forward. “Was he full of total shit, Kell?”

“No, sir.”

“Then if your parents are Syn and Dagan, why is your name Kell?”

Because he was the grandson of one of the most ruthless criminals ever born, and his parents had done everything they could to shield him from people who would judge him based on his name alone.

But that was none of Commander Quills’s business. “Have to ask my father, sir. I didn’t pick my name. He and my mother did.” Gods, how he hated being obsequious to these pricks. Why had he joined the military again?

To help people
. . .

Yeah, but it was getting harder and harder to take their crap and thank them for ramming it down his throat.

His CO narrowed his gaze at him. “Are you being smart with me, Captain?”

Devyn arched a sardonic brow. How stupid was he that he couldn’t tell that was a major affirmative?

Before he could answer, Quills’s comlink went off. “Commander? There’s an attack on the road twelve miles down. We have orders to move out. Now.”

Quills took off and left Devyn alone with the lieutenant who’d joined them. The young man’s face was pale and drawn.

Devyn frowned at him. “You all right?”

“I’ve never been in a battle before.”

Poor kid, but he’d learn. “Don’t worry, Lieutenant. Your training will kick in and you’ll be fine.”

“And if not, I’ll have you there to patch me back up. Right, Doc?”

“Absolutely.”

Inclining his head, the kid took off.

Devyn grabbed his pack and weapon. He didn’t like battle any more than the rookie, but this was what he’d signed up for . . .

* * *

This was so not what he’d signed up for.

Devyn was furious as he knelt down on the ground where a boy lay in a bloody mess. No older then ten, his body had been shredded by a mine as the kid and his town had been caught by League troops trying to flush out a group of rebels. One arm was missing and his left leg would never be the same again . . .

Provided he didn’t lose it.

“I don’t want to die,” the boy cried. “I want my mommy.”

Unfortunately, Devyn was pretty sure she lay among the bodies that littered the road and village.

His hands shook as he tried to slow the boy’s bleeding. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Omari.”

“How old are you?”

“Nine.” He sobbed, trying to rub the blood out of his hazel eyes. His dark brown skin was ragged from his injuries. “My birthday’s next month. I’m not going to die before my birthday, am I? My mom said I could finally have a puppy.”

Devyn’s throat tightened at the boy’s panic and fear. He had to get him calmed down. “You go to school, Omari?”

He shook his head. “The League blew it up. I was home that day, but all my friends were killed.”

Devyn had to bite back a curse. He’d joined The League to protect people. To keep predators from doing what their own soldiers had done.

Anger burned through him so raw and fetid that he could taste it.

“Kell? What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

He looked up at his CO. “Trying to save a life.” He
had to force himself to finish the sentence. “Sir.” But there was no way to keep the venom and disgust he felt out of his tone.

Quills kicked dirt at them. “He’s nothing to us. We have soldiers bleeding. Get your ass moving and tend them.”

Devyn glanced to the men who were hurt, but nowhere nearly as bad as the kid in front of him. If he didn’t stop the bleeding, the kid didn’t stand a chance. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

“You will do as you are told, soldier. Now move!”

Devyn refused to budge. “In a minute.”

Then Quills made the worst mistake of his life.

He pointed his rifle at Devyn. “Move or die.”

Devyn laughed bitterly as his mother’s wisdom went through his head. He narrowed his gaze at his CO. “Never give a man a choice that doesn’t bode well for you.”

“What?”

“You want me to move?” Devyn shot to his feet and had the rifle out of Quills’s hands faster than he could blink.

“Arrest him!”

League enforcers came at him from all directions. But Devyn didn’t care. The only thing that mattered to him was the kid at his feet.

Omari.

He hadn’t donned his uniform to slaughter innocents. To cut off town supplies and punish innocent miners who were protesting The League’s cruelty to them. This was wrong and he refused to be a part of a system this corrupt.

He slammed the butt of his rifle into the first man to reach him. Another shot at him. He dodged the blast
that cut down two other men before he blasted the man aiming for him. He pulled out his knives and went for the next one who tried to kill him.

Turning around, he caught one in his chest and the next in his arm and throat.

One by one, using the skills his parents and uncles had taught him, he brought down every soldier dumb enough to attack him until he stood alone.

His conviction solid steel, he moved back to his commander. “You should have listened to what Adron said. I am the meanest son of a bitch ever born. And you . . .” He shot his commander into unconsciousness. “Are so not.”

He paused as he looked over the men he’d wounded. Those who weren’t dead anyway. They lay holding their wounds, but made no more moves to attack.