He’d never had those weapons out of his hands before. Death had come quickly to anyone dumb enough to try to take them from him.
Cocking his head, he listened. Someone was crawling on the ground not that far away.
Hauk rose to his feet and lowered his head to scan the area around him. Then he heard it. The distant whine of an airbee engine. Lightweight airbikes, they were the choice for this terrain.
Walking slowly, he headed for a small copse of desert trees to use for cover while he mentally ran through all the weapons he’d kept. For once, he wished he’d taken explosives training from Darling. His friend had begged him countless times to do it. But after what had happened with Keris, Hauk had no use for anything that could blow up in his face and rain debris down around him. All he knew how to do was build the switches and timers. He’d never wanted anything to do with the explosive minerals or compounds themselves.
But that was okay.
He could kill well enough without it. At least that was the thought until he heard more engines approaching.
And more.
Shit. Were they planning a festival? The annual Hunt Hauk’s Head Event? Exactly how many were coming to this little soiree? It sounded like an army mobilizing. Who the hell hates me this much?
Okay, a lot of beings. Still… he would be impressed by their determination and number if it wasn’t his life they were here to claim. Damn.
Had Kyr finally figured out he was one of the prison raiders?
The prime commander was the only one he could think of who bore this amount of animosity toward him.
If Kyr had no proof that Hauk was part of The Sentella, but suspected Hauk’s ties… he might resort to this. Maybe.
Too bad he didn’t have a working link to check on it.
No, he chided at himself. It can’t be Kyr. If Kyr put out a contract of this magnitude, even a civ one, one of their spies would have intelled it and Nyk and the others would have beelined here to pick up the kids.
This was much more covert. It had to come from someone who knew of his illegal allies and ties. Someone who didn’t dare let anyone know he had assassins after him.
Dariana…
As Hauk positioned himself to watch his pursuers regroup to come after him, he paused to let that possibility play through his mind.
No. He was being stupidly paranoid. She wouldn’t do that. Well, she might do that if he were here alone, but not with Darice in his company. No matter how much she might hate him and not want to marry him or release him, she wouldn’t dare endanger her son.
Yet she had been close enough to implant him.
Many times.
Then again, so had countless others he’d fought with and against. For all he knew, it was the bar brawl he’d been in a couple of weeks back. He, Chayden, Ryn, and Fain tended to get rowdy whenever they drank. Fights were their stock-in-trade, especially when they were in some of their “finer” pubs.
Yeah, but these guys after him were seriously motivated. He watched in awe as they unloaded a small ion cannon and headed for his position.
Time to move.
Dropping gear weight, he only kept what he had to. They launched two probes to set eyes on his location. He stood up and batted the first one to reach him with the stock of Sumi’s rifle. The other probe shot a laser. He barely ducked it before he returned fire and sent it to the ground.
Not that it mattered. He was now firmly in their sights. No sooner had that thought entered his mind than all hell erupted around him as they rained down everything they had.
CHAPTER 14
“I hear engines.” His brow tight with worry, Darice started back toward Hauk’s last location.
Thia caught his arm. “Uncle Hauk can handle it.”
“What if he doesn’t?”
Sumi arched a brow at the sound of tears in Darice’s voice. The little booger actually did love his uncle.
Who’d have thought?
Tears glistened in Thia’s eyes as well. “Sumi? Tell him we can’t fight them. We’re better off here.”
“As much as I hate to admit it, Darice, she’s right. While I’m trained, you two are not ready for a professional strike force. You’d endanger your uncle by getting hurt, and would probably cost him his life as he tried to save yours.”
“You’re a coward!”
Sumi glared at him as she struggled with a fierce desire to give him exactly what he needed. A takedown he’d never forget. “Darice. I’m not Dancer or Thia. I have no familial love for you. What I am is a trained assassin who is one step away from cutting out your tongue. Think about it before you continue down this path that will lead you to a short lifetime of utter misery.”
His breathing ragged, he fanged her. “He better not die!”
Those words caused all semblance of humor to fade from Thia’s eyes as she picked up her pace even more.
Sumi ran to catch up and pull her to a stop. “Thia, you won’t do Dancer any good if you break something or collapse from exhaustion or heatstroke. You’re the only one of us who knows where we’re going. We need you with us one hundred percent. Dancer’s life depends on it.”
Darice snarled at her. “Only family calls him Dancer. He’s Hauk to you, human!”
He should be on his knees in gratitude that they couldn’t afford stunning him. If Dancer wasn’t under fire, she’d shoot him just on principal.
Sumi glared at him. “Do you talk to your mother like this?”
“No. She’d beat him till he bled.”
Sumi cringed as she heard a cannon’s blast. “Is that —”
“Ion cannon fire,” Thia finished for her. “I know that sound. Intimately.”
The lorina hissed and started toward the battle sounds, but Thia caught her collar. She looked expectantly at Sumi.
It took everything Sumi had not to run back for Dancer. That was her natural instinct. Only the sight of the kids kept her focused on the fact that she needed to protect them more than a trained soldier. Unlike Dancer, the kids wouldn’t survive an attack, and he’d never forgive her if they were hurt.
For that matter, she’d never forgive herself. Neither of these kids needed another nightmare added to their memories.
But with every step they made toward the base, terror consumed her more. How could anyone survive the thunderstorm behind them?
Alone.
She made herself remember Dancer attacking the prison as one of their two lead points. The Sentella had been significantly outnumbered, at least twenty to one. By heavily fortified League forces. No one should have survived such a reckless assault. Yet they had taken minimal casualties and put a major hurt on League guards and trained assassins. Dancer and Darling had led the others in. The TAM had paved the way for their troops.
But Dancer hadn’t been alone then. She kept returning to the fact that he was fighting this battle today with no one on his six.
Please be all right.
Even Darice was growing paler by the heartbeat as he kept looking back over his shoulder. “Thia,” he breathed, his voice cracking. “Tell me a story to give me hope.”
Thia had to practically drag the lorina with her. “Um… okay. Let me think.” She bit her lip before she drew a ragged breath. “Uh, there was this time on Broma, back when Uncle Syn lived there. It wasn’t long after he and Uncle Hauk had become good friends. To celebrate the fact that Syn had just finished his first residency, they went out drinking. After they’d been there for a while and were… let’s say consumed by excess, this really gorgeous woman came up and decided to give Uncle Syn a lap dance.”
Sumi arched a brow at where this story was headed. “Thia! They really tell you these things?”