Born of Shadows (The League Gen 1 #3)(30)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Hauk answered before Fain could. “Obviously the assassination was in place and they sped it up after you guys evaced so that they could frame you.”

He just couldn’t make himself buy Hauk’s explanation. It just didn’t fit. There was something more here. Something they didn’t know about.

To his amazement, Desideria backed his position. “Caillen’s right. It’s too convenient and two well executed to be pulled off by two independent parties. Why would they both strike right at that same time? It smacks of collusion.”

Caillen pulled the clip where his uncle was being notified of his father’s death. The man actually stumbled from the weight of the news and had to be held up by his guards.

Could he be that good an actor?

It was possible and yet…

Why would his uncle want to kill Desideria’s mother? Aside from the fact she was a roaring bitch, he had nothing to gain by killing her too.

But who did?

Caillen stepped back. “I need to talk to my uncle.”

“Are you insane?” Hauk’s jaw went slack. “He’ll have you arrested if not executed on sight. The man either thinks you killed his brother, or, and more to the point, he knows for a fact you didn’t and doesn’t want you to talk and expose him.”

Hauk was right, but Caillen refused to listen to reason. Why should he start that bad habit now when he’d never listened to it before? “Work with me, Hau. Let’s say for a minute that my uncle’s not behind this… that means his life will be in danger too. The more I think about this, the more it’s looking like some kind of coup.”

Fain frowned. “But why would the Qills lie about—”

“Would you stop using that term?” Desideria snapped, cutting him off. “We don’t like it. We’re Qillaqs not Qills.”

Caillen admired her temerity, especially against Fain who was known to gut people for glancing at him askance.

Fain passed her an annoyed look, but true to form, refused to apologize. “Why would they lie?”

“I don’t know.” Caillen sighed. “But why hit both the Qillaqs”—he stressed the word to let Desideria know that he was trying not to insult her—“and the Exeterians? There has to be some connection.”

Hauk scratched his chin. “Maybe it has to do with the fact that the queen was about to start a war with your allies?”

Caillen sifted through more data. “There’s some vital something here that we’re missing.”

Fain sighed. “I think you’re giving it too much credit. No one says the two have to be connected. Weird shit happens. Trust me. I’m usually its favorite victim.”

Desideria narrowed her gaze as if she was still thinking it all through. “When I overheard them plotting to kill my mother, there was no mention of your father or you. Maybe it is coincidence.”

Caillen shook his head. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”

Hauk exchanged a wary look with Fain. “You said your uncle’s been a total bastard to you since you started living with your father. Maybe he’s the one who hired your kidnappers to kill you as a kid to get you out of the way so that he could inherit.”

That was just dumb, but he wasn’t about to say it to Hauk and start a fight. “Why wait to seize the throne then?” Had his uncle done that, he would have killed his father years ago and seized power.

No. Something else was going on here. He just needed to find out what.

“We’re onto something.” Caillen breathed. “I just don’t have enough pieces to put it together yet.”

Hauk let out a low growl as if he was as frustrated as Caillen. “First thing is to find the shooter, then, and question him.”

Caillen agreed. “Just don’t let Nykyrian interrogate him. We need the hitter capable of speech.”

Desideria frowned as she thought more about it too. “Wouldn’t it be better to talk to my mother’s Guard? They were trying to kill me and set us both up. You think they would know something about all this?”

“Princess Pain has a point,” Fain said.

She glared at him. “And could you please stop calling me that? My name’s Desideria.”

“But I like Princess Pain. It has a nice ring to it.”

Desideria barely resisted the urge to choke him. He was so much taller she’d be lucky if she could even get her hands around his throat. “It was bad enough when there was just Caillen. Now I have his friends to irritate me too. Gods save me.”

The words were barely out of her mouth before something struck the side of the ship.

Hard.

All of a sudden, a gruff voice rang out. “Open up! We’re detecting unauthorized heat signatures and weight in your ship.”

Fain let out a foul curse. “Ding-dong, children. The authorities are here.”

18

Hauk groaned audibly at the sound of the Enforcers firing on their door hatch, trying to break in. He met Caillen’s gaze. “For the record, it’s a death sentence to anyone caught helping you guys. Just so you know.”

“Appreciate the IFO update, pun’kin.” Caillen made that strange clicking noise with his tongue at him. “And that’s new for us how?”

Hauk sighed heavily. “I hate you, Dagan. I really do.”

“Know you do.” Caillen started flipping switches over his head. “Now pucker up, baby, you’re about to have to kiss my ass for saving yours.”

Fain snorted as he pulled his mask back into place. “I’ll get the engines fired. May the gods be with us. This has all the markings of a very short trip.”

Caillen smirked with a nonchalance Desideria definitely didn’t feel as he took over the controls and did a prelim check. “Who wants to live forever?”

Actually, she wouldn’t mind a small dose of immortality. The concept worked well for her.

Fain muttered as the engines roared to life, “Yeah, but no one said I wanted to die today.”

In spite of the danger and her racing heart, Desideria laughed at his dry words. Normal men would be terrified, but Caillen, Hauk and Fain seemed to thrive on imminent danger. Their attitudes were infectious and it brought the warrior in her to the forefront and made her ready to fight to the bitter end. “Where are the guns?”

All three men turned to her with curious stares that annoyed her. “I know how to fight, boys. I am Qillaq.” She narrowed her gaze at Caillen. “You might be able to fly anything with wings. I can shoot anything with a trigger and if it can be aimed, I can use it to maim.”

He did a charming sweep of her body that turned her body strangely hot. It also made her feel very feminine and desirable. “Baby, I never doubted you for a minute.”

Fain jerked his chin to Hauk. “Take her up and don’t get hurt. I’d have to kill your ass if you did.”

She didn’t even want to comment on the oddity of that particular threat. Hauk inclined his head to Fain before he pulled Desideria toward the rear of their ship.

Caillen slid gracefully from the navigator’s into the pilot’s chair as an ion cannon blast struck the shuttle so hard it caused it to rock. Just like old times for him—it wasn’t a launch unless he was under massive local fire. The steel around them squealed in protest, but lucky for them it held. They only had a few seconds before the authorities were in and they were dead.

Really, it would be impossible to fly a shuttle with a giant hole in the door and he ought to know since he’d tried to do it on more than one occasion.

The good news was, he’d actually succeeded in doing it.

Once.

Don’t go there. Some memories just needed to be purged.

Fain arched a brow as he took the con. “You going to jerk my guts out?”

“Probably.”

Another loud blast rocked the craft.

“Now that’s just rude.” Caillen flipped another switch over his head which generated a pulse shield. He heard the soldiers curse and whine as it knocked them flying.

Good, you little bastards. I hope it leaves a mark and ruins your sex plans for at least a week.

He did the final sys check and felt the blood pick up its pace in his bloodstream. The ship was ready to launch.

Except for the fact that the hangar bay door was still closed and reinforcements were arriving by the dozens to keep it blocked and them from leaving.

“That don’t look promising,” Hauk said through the intercom.

All of a sudden, blasts shot from their ship to the Enforcers. The authorities scrambled for cover as the bright color bursts exploded around them and left marks all over the walls of the bay.

Putting the mic in his ear, Caillen grinned at Desideria’s precision. She nailed everything she aimed for which wasn’t the soldiers. She blasted close enough to keep them down or scatter them away from the exit, but not enough to kill.

Go, baby. He respected her mercy and it said a lot about her that she wasn’t gunning them down.

While she did that, Fain hammered the hangar door with their cannons. The hole he created wasn’t that big, but Caillen should be able to squeeze through.

Unless he sneezed. The slightest miscalculation would kill them faster than the Enforcers.

Caillen dropped the grav weights and held the throttle wide open as he headed for the opening at full speed—a fool’s pace indeed and one he was famed for.

He scowled at the angry voices from the Enforcers’ open channel that echoed in his ear. “Is my Andarion rusty or did they just call us the ass of a dung beetle?”

Hauk laughed over the intercom. “You’re an idiot. They said they’re launching fighters to come at us.”

“Ah. I think I like being called a dung beetle’s ass better. Guess we better go, huh?”

“Nah, let’s sit around and invite them for tea.” Fain’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

Caillen activated the ship’s force field to the max. “Hold tight, kids. We’re going out hot and we’re staying that way until we either escape or end up as a bright burst of flaming fuel. I hope someone remembered the marshmallows. Just in case. We might as well go into paradise with a sweet taste in our mouths.”

“You’re a sick bastard, Dagan.” Fain took up the navigator’s position. “You know we won’t be able to jump. They’ll have your drive jammed.”

Caillen laughed at his dry, dire tone. “Oh ye of little faith. You ain’t with some run-of-the-mill pilot, giakon. You’re with a Dagan. There’s not a wormhole in this sector I’m not dating tight.”

“Incoming!” Hauk warned.

Caillen saw the ships hovering right outside the door with their cannons locked on the shuttle. He charged the front shields and headed straight for their pursuers. “Give them everything you got, Desideria. And get ready to toss your shoes in too.”

Desideria laughed as if she was as thrilled with the prospect of a fight as he was. She and Hauk sprayed fire all through the bay and on top of the patrols coming in.

The ships tried to block their exit for several heartbeats before they realized just how suicidal Caillen really was. He’d slam into them before he’d yield. In a game of header, he refused to blink or swerve.

Fuck them. If he was going to die, so were they.

Just as he would have hit them, they veered off sharply, out of the way.

Laughing from his adrenaline rush, he flew out and up at such a climb that a lesser pilot would have lost consciousness.

Hauk groaned in his ear as Fain adjusted their fuel levels to give the engines the juice they needed to surpass escape velocity. But it wasn’t that easy. The fighters turned to give chase, shooting cannons the whole way after them.

Oh to have his ship or anything that was more maneuverable than this crate. At least that was his thought until he took notice of Desideria’s competence.

Damn to have had her as his partner all these years instead of Kasen who’d be screaming by now that they were going to die. Not a peep came out of little Qill as she reloaded and laid down more fire.

Fain shot a vid to his lower left quadrant for him to see. “Cruiser moving in on port aft.”

“Got it.” Caillen dropped low and spun out of the line of fire.

“Tractor beam pulse,” Fain warned.

He sent a fierce glare at Fain. “You going to give me play by play every time they twitch?”

“Want to make sure you don’t miss anything.”

He snorted at the Andarion. “Only thing missing here is my sanity.”

More ships came in for them. Caillen kept his eye on the scanners as he made numerous calculations in his head and on the con. He needed a few more minutes to get to a wormhole.

C’mon, baby, don’t fail me now…

Desideria backed off as she saw their cannons overheating. Designed to be a passenger transport, the shuttle didn’t want her using so much fire power and it was straining with her efforts. The guns were merely a precaution and not meant to defend for any longer than it would take for a backup patrol to come save them.

Oh to have that backup right now…

She leaned to the side so that she could check Hauk’s status in order to verify her dread. Unfortunately, she’d been right. Hauk’s cannon was already out of commission.

The Andarions were still coming after them.

She tapped the link in her ear. “Caillen, we’re in an overheat situation.”

“I need a couple of minutes.”

She squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened.

Cringing, she exchanged a concerned look with Hauk. “We don’t have a couple of minutes, dearest.”

“Then you better start kicking off those shoes, sweetling.”

He wasn’t funny in the least. Especially as she watched the Andarions gathering a force that stunned her. But it was the one fighter that concerned her most…

One she’d hoped to not see again.

“Our assassin’s back and he looks determined.”