“Pull back. Keep them after me and away from my family until reinforcements arrive.” He pinned Bastien with a hard stare. “If I die, go out with a major body count.”
“My kind of plan.” And the kind that used to send Ember into apoplexy. Hence one mission when she’d shot him herself before battle even began to keep him out of the fray.
Not to mention the kind of plan that used to make his mother and sister break out in hives.
Dancer took a few minutes to siphon fuel from the two airbees on board the skimmer and add it to the ones they’d ridden in with.
Bastien hesitated, then realized that he might as well tell Dancer everything about his situation. After all, he had the only safe place for them to stay in the entire desert. There was no need in being selfish with it. “If you need a good defensive place to lead them to, there’s an old abandoned base not that far from here where I make my home.”
“Bredeh’s?”
Bastien furrowed his brow. “You know it?” That stupid question was out before he could stop it. Of course Dancer would know it. Being a part of The Sentella and one of Nyk’s friends, he’d probably been in with the run that had bombed it to oblivion.
“Yeah, I do. It’s where I sent my family.”
Should have known…And strangely, he had an odd feeling of being violated, knowing that there were strangers with his personal stuff. Not that he had much, but still… Been a long, long time since he’d shared a place with anyone else or had to worry about someone going through his things.
“Oh. Damn. Hope they don’t find my porn.”
Dancer arched a brow.
“I’m kidding. I have it all locked up.”
Laughing again, Dancer shook his head. “You have been alone far too long.”
Bastien sobered. “Yeah, I have. It’s good to be around people again.”
“Not people, human.”
“Not human, either, brother. Lost my humanity a long time ago when I got betrayed into this hell of a life.” Bastien glanced back to where they’d left the majority of the bodies. “The caves will give us some cover, but trap us in an attack.”
“Yeah. We’re in the middle of the great Oksanan desert. Not a lot here, period.”
“Nothing but buzzards and raiders,” Bastien agreed. “Look, I know you don’t want to chance leading them to your family. But I’m thinking that we can use the old transmitter at the base to signal your girlfriend’s transport back from the city.”
Dancer went ramrod stiff at those words. “What do you mean?”
“The blonde who joined you? I couldn’t really make out her features, but she came in locally, right?”
Dancer’s demeanor turned darker. “You saw her arrive?”
Bastien nodded. “She was dropped off a little ways from your camp a few days ago.… You look like you hadnoidea.”
Dancer didn’t comment on that. “What all did you see?”
Bastien shrugged nonchalantly. “It was a small transport. Looked like it came out of one of the distant cities here. Didn’t appear space-worthy. It lacked shielding and…” His voice trailed off as he met Dancer’s gaze. “Why are you so pissed now?”
His breathing labored, Dancer curled his lip. “Because I think I just handed my kids off to my worst enemy.”
CHAPTER7
Once they’d returned to Dancer’s camp, Bastien hung back with the airbees while Dancer walked toward the woman as if he could kill her. Though he had no idea why Dancer was this upset, given how many days they’d been here. Bastien had assumed they were long-time friends or family.
Obviously, that assumption had been wrong. There was something else at play here that he didn’t know about. ’Cause that was one seriously pissed off Andarion, and he was grateful to God he wasn’t the one who’d enraged him.
Dancer cornered the woman with a feral grimace that would have caused most folks to wet themselves instantly. To the woman’s credit, she didn’t flinch. She stood toe-to-toe with him.
“What have you done with them?” Dancer demanded in a deep, terrifying growl.
