Between Two Tiron (23 page)

transport for the captured men seemed to take an eternity to arrive. He wanted to get to camp, to

go to Lina.

“Ten men attacked the camp with stunner pistols. Jaksen used the Sendar‟s weapons to

provide cover fire while men slipped out of camp and behind the attackers. All ten men are alive.

They were merely stunned, although Jaksen said there were men who wanted to kill them

immediately. The cleanup should be almost finished by the time we get back to the camp.” Trane

leaned against a tree.

Now Lina‟s compliance with their orders made sense to them. Only the knowledge that

those she left had an advantage over their attackers would have induced her to leave so readily.

They knew she wouldn‟t have been so willing without that knowledge. Lina was a protector. Her

compliance with that order would always be questionable.

A shuttle flew over the area before finding a small clearing in the trees and landing in a

spot that would have been impossible for any but the most skilled pilots. The unconscious men

were carried aboard the shuttle and secured with neural cuffs. These men and those who had

attacked the camp would be taken to the
Ovian
for interrogation before a Central Command

shuttle was called to deal with the scum.

Kaleb dispatched two men to try to follow the men‟s trail back to their hideaway. After

losing eighteen men in today‟s attack, the remaining men would be very few in number. They

had to have been very certain of their success or very desperate to have sent that many men in

one assault.

The large camp almost seemed normal by the time that Kaleb and Shard arrived on the

skimmers. There were a few holes in the Dura-tents caused by the rays of the stunners. Those

would be easily repaired. A few of the storage crates were singed. Some of the men wore

bandages on wounds received during the fray. They saw Jaksen at one of the tables and walked

toward him to get a full report on the attack and the damage.

Spirits around the camp were high and Jaksen was fascinated with the computer in front

of him. He hadn‟t even noticed that Shard and Kaleb had arrived. He tensed in surprise when

Shard laid a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

“Ardin, I didn‟t realize you were back.” Jaksen flushed and then looked back down at the

computer.

“You were engrossed in the display on that screen.” Kaleb‟s easy smile and the flash of

white teeth showed amusement rather than anger at the lack of awareness.

“She has everything connected to this computer. It fascinates me that she can do so much

from it. Until she shoved it at me and told me to use the Sendar‟s weapons, I hadn‟t even paused

to think about what she could do with just this console.” Jaksen gestured to the slim computer, an

awed expression on his face.

“Did she give you any argument about going to her haven?” Shard leaned his hip against

the table as he looked at the computer screen.

“No, I merely told her once to go to her haven, she shoved the computer at me and she

was gone.” Jaksen shrugged. “Did you know she has a link to the
Ovian
on here? It‟s not as

extensive as the one she has constructed for the Sendar, but she could contact them if she

needed.”

“I had guessed that she could probably arrange such a connection if she wanted to do so. I

didn‟t realize that she‟d already done it.” Kaleb chuckled as he moved away from the table.

Having such connections made Lina feel safe. He would have to talk with her about informing

him of such connections. She had spent a lot of time alone, able to rely only on the technology

she created and used in dire situations.

“If the shuttle from the
Ovian
gets here before we get back with Lina, I want those men

secured and watched. Strip them and give them new clothing. They won‟t get the chance to take

their lives. We‟ll question them in the security of the
Ovian
‟s brig.” Shard pushed away from the table, the staccato instructions delivered as he walked over to Kaleb.

The moment he finished speaking, he and Kaleb disappeared.

Lina sat on a large, warm gray rock by the clear, rock-bottomed pool. Her eyes were

glued on the clearing and had been since she had arrived in the haven.

What was taking those men so long? Had they been hurt in the battle when they had

come to help fight those who had attacked the camp? She was going insane just sitting here and

waiting. The possibilities swamped her, each worse then the last.

She blinked and then they were there on the other side of the grassy clearing. Their

durable, brown camouflage clothing was dirty and there was a tear in Kaleb‟s shirt. Shard‟s hair

had pieces of leaves in it. Kaleb‟s hair was wild, tangled. They had never looked more handsome

to her than they did at that moment. She lunged to her feet and ran to them. She flung herself at

them. They both caught her, wrapping her within their embrace.

“I was so worried.” She pressed her face to Kaleb‟s chest, then to Shard‟s, inhaling their

scent, taking comfort in the solid bulk of their bodies. “What took you so long? I‟ve been going

insane, not knowing what had happened.”

“
I’ma
, that is a complicated story and we don‟t have all the details yet.” Shard‟s arm

tightened around her waist as he savored the feel of her against his body. Relief soared through

him. She hadn‟t been in any danger.

“Well, tell what you know of it. We‟re not going to be interrupted here.” Lina looked

from one dark-haired man to the other, waiting for their answer.

“Demanding little
rah’ki
,” Shard chuckled and ruffled her hair.

“We were attacked as well. They ambushed us after we had left the skimmers to trek to

the site we were searching. It took us some time to deal with the men.” Kaleb‟s breath feathered

through her hair.

“You‟re only just getting here from your battle?” Her fingers tightened on the material of

his shirt. She‟d thought they‟d rush back, running straight into a battle, not that they‟d been

attacked.

“We discovered only after we had stunned the last of them that our communications were

blocked. We had to wait until someone had reached the edge of the dampening field to call for

transport for those we had captured.” Kaleb leaned back and looked down into her amber eyes.

“It was only when Trane, the man who had contacted camp, returned that we learned that

the camp had also been attacked.” Shard‟s hand slipped around her waist, pulling her against

him. She felt his hard muscles against her and the fast, hard beat of his heart against her

shoulder. “I‟ve never known fear such as I experienced in the mere moment before I knew you

were safe in your haven. If anything had happened to you, I think I would‟ve gone crazy.”

“I‟m safe.” She rolled her hips against his, holding him, wanting to reassure him. That

admission tore through her. His voice had been raw and there was no doubt that he‟d meant the

words. “I can‟t say that I liked leaving the others when there was trouble. I had real thoughts

about staying to help.”

“You did go.” Kaleb‟s breath whispered over her ear. “That is what counts, not that you

might have wanted to stay. You obeyed orders and kept yourself safe. The thought of you in

danger…it rouses the beast within me.”

“I hate the waiting. I don‟t know how easy it will be to continue to do as you say in the

future. The delay tonight gave me so much time to think.”

Shard pulled her back into the warmth of their embrace.

“This place is our haven, only for our mate, for enjoyment, pleasure and, as you have

found, discipline.” Kaleb smoothed his hand along her back and up to cup the back of her head.

“Now we have to go back to the camp. We have to see to the prisoners‟ interrogation.”

* * * * *

Shard sat at the table across from the unshaven, brown-haired man dressed in a gray

one-piece uniform that had replaced the clothing he had worn. He was filthy and he still reeked.

The man‟s body hadn‟t touched water in over ten days by the smell.

Shard‟s fury burned hotly, but he controlled the desire to jettison the man out of an

airlock. Kaleb had left the room a moment ago, too angry to remain and leave the man in one

piece. He‟d come close to ripping out the man‟s throat and needed time to calm down before he

returned.

This man was one of the worst forms of scum. Shard had nothing against mercenaries as

a group. Most of them had some principles. This man would do anything as long as he could be

assured of the pay. It was what he had been prepared to do today that had the
tiron
roaring for release, fur and sinew rippling beneath his skin.

“What were your exact orders?” Shard focused his eyes on the man across from him. The

man seemed unaware of his jeopardy.

“The men wanted us to go to the camp and kill everyone there. They didn‟t care how we

did it or if we left any of the lovelies alive for a little while so we could have fun.” The man

shrugged and sneered. “They just wanted us to make sure that there was no one alive by the time

they got there. The other team was supposed at the very least to delay those who had left the

camp, but they preferred it if everyone was dead.”

Shard gripped the table and held on to his control by a thread. The man was either

suicidal or stupid. Shard felt his claws burst from the ends of his fingers. Taking a deep breath,

he reminded himself that they were trying to cooperate with Central Command. Handing these

prisoners over to them alive would be a step in that direction.

“Why are they targeting us?” Shard forced himself to focus on the questions, not on their

unsuccessful plan.

“They‟re looking for some kind of proof.” The brown-haired man shook his head in

disgust. “All we‟ve done is sit and wait.”

“How many of them are left? Are any of your men still with them?” Shard gave the man

a hard look as Kaleb came back into the room.

“None of my men, there were only sixteen of us,” The man laughed. “They didn‟t want to

pay for all my men. They should have. We could‟ve taken care of this if we had had more

people. As to them, there aren‟t many. They kept us split into small groups until we came

together for this job.”

“Where are they now?” Shard leaned forward and snarled, revealing the lengthened

canines.

The man slammed back against the chair. “I don‟t know where they went. The last time I

saw them was when we gathered before the mission.”

“Give us a number.” Kaleb had control now.

“Maybe four or five,” the man said in an uncaring manner.

Shard shook his head. This man showed no loyalty to those who had hired him, but it was

typical of some mercenaries. As they‟d been caught, they wouldn‟t be paid for their services and

thus felt no qualms about revealing their knowledge.

Kaleb could see the tension radiating off Shard. The man across the table didn‟t know

how close he was to feeling the claws of a
tiron
tearing into his body. He sat there, unafraid and seemingly saying anything that came to his mind. Most men would watch their tongue when

confronted by two male shifters just on general principles.

Lina sat at the table, working at her computer on some vid-images for one of the

sim-games with a complete storyline. Nerisa strolled over to the table and sat in one of the chairs

arranged around the table. She braced her elbows on the table and propped her chin on her hands,

heaving a large sigh.

She‟d been listening to intermittent reports of what the men were talking about, brought

by any woman who happened to wander close enough to them to hear any information. The talk

of those who had remained to guard the camp was all that they knew of the events after the

battle. Shard and Kaleb as well as a few others were on the
Ovian
, conducting the interrogations of the captured men. They had been gone for hours.

“They were talking about how strange it was that those men knew precisely when and

where to attack us today. That was all I managed to overhear before they asked me if I needed

something.” Nerisa imparted her news in a low whisper.

“It‟s not only strange that they knew that. It‟s rather amazing.” Medina frowned as she

gave it some thought. “The men had only switched to that site late in the afternoon yesterday.”

“Who outside those in this camp knew of that switch?” Lina discounted anyone in the

group of Santir as the one who had given these scum aid. Any shifter out of adolescence knew

that they would find no shelter among those who hated them. Looking up as she heard the light

hum of an engine, she watched as a shuttle swept in for landing.

“The lead researcher was told. The man who informed him hadn‟t yet heard that he‟d

been ordered to cease his research. Vedix had been kept informed to prevent the two groups from

trying to work the same site. He might have told others in his group.” Medina idly turned the

mug of
dorin
in her hands.

Lina‟s lips curled into a snarl at the mention of that man‟s name. “Vedix was very angry

when he left here yesterday. He knows that he‟ll lose his reputation and probably his position at

the museum because of this fiasco. He could‟ve hoped for some revenge.”

“You don‟t like him very much, do you?” Nerisa tilted her head and smiled at the