When one of them started running for cover, an explosion rocked the camp and drove the woman to the ground.
Sumi tsked. “I have charges set all over this place. Enough to blow us all to the outer atmosphere. Don’t push me, people. Now who wants to be my friend and free my male for me?”
Pheara came forward with the keys. She kept her hands out so that Sumi wouldn’t mistake her intentions. “We weren’t going to hurt him.”
Sumi stalked forward. “Then why’s he bleeding?”
She swallowed hard. “Telise did that. We… we had nothing to do with it. Just take him and go.” She freed Dancer, then Bastien, and stepped back.
Hauk pushed himself to his feet and retrieved Telise’s blaster from her body.
Sumi’s gaze skimmed him from head to toe. “You okay, baby?”
He shot two of the women with a stun blast. “Better now.”
“Bastien?”
He wiped at the blood on his wrists. “All good. At least until Hauk keeps his promise to beat my ass.”
Sumi turned back to Pheara. “Where are our weapons?”
Pheara gestured toward Telise’s tent. “In there.”
“I’ll get them,” Bastien offered.
Moving so that her back was against Dancer’s, Sumi kept her gaze on the women until Bastien came back and belted his holster around his hips.
He tossed Hauk’s weapons to him.
“Before we leave, I want to do something.” Hauk went to Pheara and jerked the keys from her hand. “Is this the biofeed bypass?”
“Yeah.”
He met Sumi’s curious gaze. “Round the women up and follow me.”
“You heard him. Haritas on parade. Let’s go.” Sumi and Bastien followed him to a cage where two men were being held.
Dancer opened the door and released them before he made the six remaining women file inside it. He locked the door and tossed the keys to one of the men. “Happy birthday.”
And with that, he draped his arm over Sumi’s shoulders so that she could lead him while Bastien pulled up their rear.
“Where are the kids?” Hauk asked.
“Armed to their teeth and hiding with Illyse.”
Hauk tightened his arm around her as his vision clouded. Never had he been prouder of her, or more grateful that he’d ignored his common sense and saved her. “Good.”
Sumi smiled, grateful that she’d found them in one piece. But as they left camp, she noticed he wasn’t completely with her. “Dancer?”
He tightened his grip on her before he kissed the top of her head. “I’m all right.”
“You don’t look good.” She pressed the back of her hand against his cheek. “You’re very clammy.”
“They drugged him,” Bastien said from behind them.
“With what?”
Bastien shrugged. “Really didn’t get a chance to ask them what they were using, or for any other recipe, either. But I would assume something strong enough to take down a huge Andarion.”
Hauk ignored him while he tugged her forward. “Thank you, by the way.”
“For what?”
He gave her an unsteady smile. “I’m usually the one doing the rescuing. It’s been a long time since anyone’s pulled my ass out of the fire.” His words slurred an instant before he sank to his knees.
“Dancer!” She knelt by his side as terror filled her. He was so cold. Like ice.
He held on to her, but didn’t seem to be able to speak.
Bastien locked a frightened gaze with hers. “We need to get out of here before they give pursuit. You take one arm and I’ll grab the other.” He reached for Dancer.
Suddenly, a deep, growling male voice came out of nowhere. “Hands up or die.”
CHAPTER 22
Sumi bit her lip in indecision. She saw the same desire to fight their latest attackers in Bastien’s eyes that she held. But they didn’t know who or what they were facing now.
Or how many.
A flash of color narrowly missed her face. She glanced around, but couldn’t see anyone. They were using some kind of cloaking device.
This group of assassins was much higher-tech than the previous ones. But they were in for one hell of a fight if they tried to take Dancer from her.
Slowly, she held her hands up and put her body between Dancer and Bastien, and where the shot had originated. Hoping Bastien would follow her lead, she decided to play stupid to get the numbers and locations of their adversaries. “Look, we don’t have much. But take whatever you want. Just be quick about it. We need to tend our friend. He’s badly hurt.”
Dancer and Bastien collapsed behind her and hit the deck hard.
With a gasp, she turned to help them.
Something flickered on the other side of Dancer.
Afraid of their intent, she launched herself at where it’d come from and hit a solid wall of muscle. With everything she’d been taught, she attacked.
Until someone humongous and strong picked her up from behind and effortlessly stepped back with her.
“No!” she screamed, trying to break free of the man’s hold. “He’s unconscious. He’s no threat to you. Please, just take our supplies and go!” Shrieking in anger, she picked all her weight off her feet. The man holding her didn’t even flinch or stumble.
Damn, he was strong.
Bastien tried to fight, too, but he was slammed to the ground and cuffed so fast, it was terrifying. He growled threats and spewed profanity at them.
“Please!” Sumi begged, praying they weren’t here to kill Dancer. “We just want to help our friend.”
Another shimmer appeared next to Dancer as the soldier turned his cloaking device off to show an unmarked black battlesuit. He shrugged off his backpack and removed his helm to reveal an unbelievably handsome man with long dark hair tied back into a ponytail. His dark Ritadarion eyes were ringed with black eyeliner, but she knew that face from Dancer’s photos and stories.
“Syn?”
He scowled at her. “I don’t know you.”
She looked over her shoulder. “Nykyrian? Are you the one holding me?”
Syn opened his pack. “How do you know us?”
“Dancer.” Only then did the tight grip on her waver the slightest degree.
“Are you Sumi?” His was the voice that had originally threatened them when they stopped.
“Yes.”
He released her immediately and decloaked. He gestured to Bastien, who was fighting against the cuffs that held him. “Is that one Bastien?”
“He is.”
Another man, who was standing beside where Bastien lay on the ground, decloaked. Kneeling down, he uncuffed Bastien’s hands. “Sorry about that.”
Glaring his displeasure, Bastien cursed him and his parentage as he rubbed his wrists. Amused by the insults, the man pulled off his helmet. His short red hair held the royal harone of the Caronese emperor. Darling was only slightly taller than her and was a lot more attractive in real life than he’d been in Dancer’s photos.
Nykyrian, however, was every bit as scary and intimidating as both Dancer and Thia had claimed. No wonder everyone was so terrified of facing Nemesis.
But he wasn’t important to her at present. Sumi ran to Dancer so that she could kneel beside him and give Syn a rundown on his condition. “He said they drugged him with something while they held him. He was poisoned two days ago from a Partini blade and he has several injuries from other attacks.”
Syn gaped in disbelief. “What the hell did you do to him?” His question offended her.
“I’ve kept him alive.”
Nykyrian pulled his helmet off and held it under one arm. His white-blond hair was cut stylishly short. Unlike Dancer, he had green, human eyes and his face was covered with scars. “Where’s my daughter and Darice?”
“They’re hiding near camp, with Illyse. There’s a cave just to the south of the climbing approach.”