Born of the Night (34 page)

him to his own defenses. "Walk with peace," Hauk said quietly before dragging Kiara out of the room behind him.

Nykyrian thought over the old League phrase. He finally understood how an assassin

could walk in peace. With a sigh, he welcomed the peaceful slumber of death. He gave

them a good head start. Hauk would take care of Kiara.

This was the only solution.

"Walk with peace," he repeated and opened the door. Nykyrian ran down the hallway

back toward the bay.

"Kip, to the right!" Darling's voice shouted.

Nykyrian whirled, his hand drawing his blaster. Too late. The shot ripped through his

shoulder with a painful sear. Returning the fire, Nykyrian watched the soldier crumple.

Alarms blared and flashed all around him. Nykyrian ran full speed, trying to get to his

ship before the area was sealed off. The blast shield to the bay rumbled closed. Falling

into a roll, Nykyrian barely made it under the heavy steel before the huge door slammed

shut with a loud crash.

Unfortunately, he stopped rolling right at Aksel's feet.

"Still predictable," Aksel sneered, clicking back die release of his blaster as he looked at Nykyrian disgustedly. "I knew one day your sense of valor and fair play would be your

death."

Nykyrian rose slowly to his feet.

"Kiara's safe," Darling said in his ear. "Detonation in four . . . three . . ."

"You're so disappointing," Aksel said, leveling his blaster at Nykyrian's head.

The gun and dummy charge fired simultaneously. Nykyrian dodged the blaster's shot, then rushed Aksel. Catching Aksel about the waist, he tumbled to the ground. Aksel

brought his legs up and kicked Nykyrian back. Aksel threw himself on top of Nykyrian at

the same moment Hauk launched his fighter.

Nykyrian took advantage of the distraction and landed a solid fist into Aksel's jaw. With

a curse, Aksel reeled backward. Not waiting to see Aksel land. Nykyrian bolted to the

Malta.
As quickly as he could. Nykyrian climbed up the small manhole underneath the

craft.

"Shields up!" Caillen called.

Nykyrian lay on the floor, his shoulder throbbing.

"They're scrambling fighters," Darling warned.

Forcing the pain from his mind, Nykyrian knew he had to launch before they went after

Kiara.

Within seconds, he was inside the
Arcana,
his engines roaring. He launched and flew off in the opposite direction from Hauk.

"Fighters are changing course and heading straight for you. Three remain after Hauk,"

Darling said. "It looks safe for us, we're out of here."

Nykyrian's heart pounded. He knew Jayne could handle three fighters with little trouble,

but his scanners glowed almost solid white from the amount of ships trailing him.

"Surrender!" Aksel's voice snarled through his comlink.

Nykyrian slowed his speed. This was what he had always wanted. A warrior's funeral. He

would die like a man, in a brief burst of light. "I don't think so."

"You're outnumbered," Aksel said. "I have twenty ships after you!"

Nykyrian snorted in bitter amusement. "Do you want me to applaud your math skills?

You have to catch me first, and I don't think you have one pilot capable of it," Nykyrian goaded, knowing Aksel would break away from the squadron and engage him one on one

"Talk about predictable," Nykyrian whispered as Aksel's fighter broke formation and

dropped in behind him.

He turned his ship about and prepared for the fight. Kiara would be safe. An icy, calm

lucidity descended on him. Aksel shot first.

Nykyrian barely had time to dodge the blast of color that skidded past his ship into the darkness of space. Three more shots were fired in rapid pulses. Nykyrian gripped his

shifter, the leather of his gloves creaking.

The other fighters were moving in. He had to destroy Aksel first. Only then would Kiara

be safe. Taking the opening, Nykyrian fired his ion canon.

In one brief flash of orange light, Aksel's ship disintegrated. Nykyrian took a deep breath.

The rest of the fighters surrounded him.

* * *

Kiara twitched in Hauk's lap. "We have to go back!" she shouted, her limbs trembling in fear.

"My orders are to get you to safety," he reiterated for the fifth time and for the fifth time, Kiara wanted to choke him.

"Don't you care?"

His hand jerked the throttle, the ship listed sideways in response. "I care more than you can imagine, but I also made a promise to him, and I'd open a vein before I'd break it!"

With another angry jerk, he righted their craft.

Kiara sat back, her tears scalding her cheeks. "He's out there alone," she whispered, feeling sick to her stomach.

"Jayne's gone back for him. He'll be all
right."

Kiara heard the doubt underlying his words
.
She prayed as hard as she could. Nykyrian

had to come back, he had to. She blinked in semi-relief as Gouran finally came into view.

"Commander Biardi?" Hauk asked.

"Yes." Kiara recognized the worried voice of her father.

"I have Kiara, but I need a squadron of fighters. One of our pilots is in danger. If I send you the coordinates, will you assist us?"

Silence greeted the request.

Kiara's anger built to a dizzying height. "Father, if you love me at all, you will do what he asks."

"Very well."

In unison, they breathed a sigh of relief.

Hauk programmed the information into the computer. As they neared Gouran's bay, they

were passed by a squadron of fighters on their way to help Nykyrian.

Tiarun met them in the hanger after they docked. Kiara threw herself into his arms,

grateful for the support, but wishing it was Nykyrian who held her.

Hauk jumped down from his ship and approached her father in steady, predatorial strides.

"Sir, I request another ship to join your troops. I haven't the fuel to return in mine."

Her father glanced at her, his arms tightening around her shoulders. To her relief, he

nodded. "There are three ships fully fueled on the other side of yours."

Hauk gave a curt nod before heading off to them.

"Hauk!" Kiara ran after him.

He paused and waited until she caught up to him. Her lips trembled as she stared at his

Andarion eyes. There was only one thing she wanted, one thing left to wish for. "Bring

Nykyrian back to me."

He looked past her shoulder to where her father stood. Reaching into his pocket, he

pulled out a griata ring and handed it to her. "Nykyrian wanted me to give you this."

Kiara bit back her tears as she stared at the beautiful wedding ring Hauk dropped into her

palm.

"He also wanted me to tell you he loves you."

Her tears broke into a soul-wrenching sob. "Please save him," she cried, throwing her arms around Hauk's neck. "He has to come home!"

Hauk nodded, then unwound her arms and darted to the nearest fighter.

Kiara slid the cold ring onto her third finger, her fears and worries choking her. The ring

was a perfect fit, just like Nykyrian's love.

She turned around and joined her father, wishing she were a little girl again and he could

make everything all right just by kissing her hurt and holding her close. But to her

deepest regret, those days were long past.

"Let me take you home," her father said quietly, draping his arm over her shoulders.

Kiara shook her head. "I have to know what's going on. Take me to the control room."

Despite a skeptical look, he did as she asked.

Silent, Kiara sat listening to the pilots' voices as they engaged Aksel's men. She prayed

for a miracle.

Hauk thought he would never get to the battle. In a weird way, he was right. By the time

he met up with the squadron, the battle was over. His heart thundered as he surveyed the

ships, looking for Nykyrian's.

Flicking open the channel to ask Jayne about Nykyrian's fate, he spied the
Arcana.
Four Gourish fighters surrounded the disabled craft.

"Nykyrian?" His heart lodged painfully in his throat.

". . . Fine . . . Hurt . . ."

Frowning, Hauk surveyed the damage done to Nykyrian's ship. Sparks popped, only to be

extinguished in the vacuum of space. From what he could see, it appeared only one

engine was functioning. He had no idea how Nykyrian could land the ship in its current

condition. "Do you need a tractor beam to help you land?"

"No . . . Ship . . . Destroy . . ."

Hauk could barely understand the broken, garbled words. He let out a fierce curse,

remembering the ship couldn't be pulled in. If they tried, it would self-destruct.

One of the Gourish fighters almost hit the
Arcana
as it listed to one side. Hauk clenched his teeth. Nykyrian wasn't going to make it back.

Nykyrian remained silent. His communications system was malfunctioning and he could

only catch snatches of conversations from the pilots around him. He couldn't believe he

was still alive. After he had killed Aksel, the rest of Aksel's men had blasted a dozen or

more holes in his ship.

A strange catharsis had formed in his mind after the battle, and somehow all his past sins

ceased to bother him.

He stared at his control panel which was lit up by every warning system on board. It was

a miracle he even had enough directionals left to fly with.

He thought about Kiara and their baby. If he could have one wish, it would be to see his

baby born, to hold Kiara one last time. He sighed, a knot forming in his chest. From the

beginning, he had known some things were not his to have.

The planet loomed before him.

He rubbed his hand down his injured arm. Blood soaked his uniform, but it no longer seemed to ache. Nykyrian stared at Gouran, wondering if Tiarun would order him

detonated before he neared the bay. Most governments would. It was standard practice to

prevent damage to valuable bays.

Nykyrian leaned his head back on the seat. His ears buzzed from the radio's static, but

even so, he could swear he heard the tender, dulcet tone of Kiara's voice calling his name.

He headed into the bay, his hands automatically running through the landing procedure.

Flipping switches and pulling gears, he couldn't get the fighter to slow at all. A chill ran

over him as he entered the hanger at full speed.

In one last effort to save his life, he pulled the ejection switch over his head. The force of the seat's propulsion shot him up, but not fast enough for him to clear the rear stabilizer.

The impact sent him into blackness.

Kiara came to her feet with a scream, her mind unable to believe what her eyes

registered.

Nykyrian's ship embedded, then tore a hole through the bay's outer wall. Burning red and

gold flames licked the craft and the length of the bay's floor and walls, explosions

erupting all over. Fire units descended to extinguish the blaze.

"I knew I should have detonated that ship," her father growled beside her.

Horrified, Kiara gaped at him, then ran from the room. Her feet carried her into the heat

of the bay as she shook from the emotions tearing at her. The scorching blaze stung her

nose with its pungent odor and made her eyes water. She coughed, searching the

wreckage with desperate eyes. Pieces of Nykyrian's ship were scattered everywhere. For

a moment, she thought she would collapse.

There was nothing left whole. Nothing. Kiara fell to her knees, gripping the edge of the

wall until her hand was numb. Pain racked her soul and she wanted to die. This couldn't

be real. It wasn't supposed to end this way!

Her gaze drifted over the scattered pieces, the fire-bots, the flames, down the bay to the

opening. Kiara blinked. It couldn't be.

A glimmer of hope sprouted as she saw Nykyrian lying at the opening of the bay. He was

alive! Finding strength from an unknown source, she ran to him.

"Oh God!" she gasped, standing over his body. Kiara sank to her knees by his side, afraid to touch him. He lay on his back, perfectly still. His helmet was cracked and blistered.

Kiara reached a trembling hand out to touch the gaping wound in his side. Nykyrian's chest didn't appear to be moving at all. There was so much blood. Her lips twitched as

panicked terror engulfed her.

Hauk knelt on the opposite side. He didn't look at her while he unfastened the lines

securing Nykyrian's helmet to his uniform. When he removed it, her world tilted.

"No!" she cried, seeing the bluish tinge to Nykyrian's skin. She grasped his cold hand which had somehow come free of its glove, to her breast and wiped the blood from

Nykyrian's icy cheek.

A medical unit surrounded them, forcing Kiara away. In a daze, she staggered back, her

mind too overwhelmed by grief and pain to think.

Hauk began shouting, but his words were unintelligible to her, as was everything

happening around her. A fog clouded her hearing, her sight, and for a moment, she

wondered if this was what death felt like.

Suddenly, her father was there, holding her.

For some reason, her tears stopped and a strange lucidity invaded her grief as she

watched the medics rip open Nykyrian's uniform and attach a series of machines to him.

It was like watching actors in a play moving to a script she didn't know the ending to.

None of it seemed real.

Kiara looked at her father. "You should call his parents and tell them," she said in a hollow voice. "Emperor Aros and Princess Cairistiona. Please tell them. I ... I don't think I can."

By the look on her father's face, Kiara knew he thought she had gone mad. Maybe she