"You would." Bastien snorted. "How 'bout we save it for beating on our captors?"

Ignoring him, Hauk kicked the door again.

Bastien jumped back as he saw the dart come flying toward them. It struck Dancer in his arm.

And was quickly followed by three more.

To his credit, Dancer glared at the women who joined the first one. He fought against the drug's effects with everything he had, but in the end, he blacked out.

Bastien tsked at him. "And that's why I said don't do it. Don't envy you the headache you'll be having when you wake up ... dumba.s.s."

Dancer came to again, cursing life and everyone in it. Most of all, he cursed the irritated smirk on Bastien's face as he eyed him from where he lay on the ground beside him.

"Told you not to kick that door, didn't I?"

Dancer ignored his sarcastic taunt. But the expression on his face said he wanted to make Bastien eat his own teeth.

He tried to move, only to discover that he, like Bastien, was in the middle of their camp, on his belly and hogtied. All courtesy of the little fit the Andarion had thrown. They'd also chained their hands to their feet behind their backs.

If I get out of this alive, Hauk, I'm so going to kick your a.s.s.

With a lot of help.

Growling, Dancer tried to break free.

Bastien rolled his eyes. Like that was going to work ... and like he hadn't already had his own hissy fit and learned it was a bad idea. Hence their current undignified situation. "Calm down, Hauk. All you're going to do is hurt yourself."

He glared at Bastien. "If you want to see exactly how angry someone can get, tell them to calm down when they're already p.i.s.sed off!" Bellowing, he tried his best to break free.

Bastien arched a brow at his insistence on being stupid. "Is that helping? I just gotta know."

"When I get loose, Cabarro, your a.s.s is the first one I'm kicking."

"Oh good. Hope you get out soon. Been a while since I had a good a.s.s-kicking." Bastien made a kissy face at him.

"Says the man who's so bruised, he looks like a two-year-old banana."

"Now that's just mean and hurtful."

"Telise! He's awake again."

She moved forward and kicked Dancer in the face.

Bastien cringed at that particular brand of imbecile. "I wouldn't do that," he warned. "Don't motivate the Andarion for murder. It ain't going to work out well for any of us. 'Specially me, since mine's the first a.s.s he's planning to come after. Let's all calm down, people."

Dancer licked at the blood on his lips as he grimaced at the harita through his braids.

"Learned anything yet?" she asked him.

He spat the blood out of his mouth. "Other than those pants make your a.s.s look fat?"

Bastien had to bite back a laugh. Ah, man, the Andarion wanted to die painfully.

She kicked him hard in the ribs.

That was actually kinder than Bastien had expected given the severity of that insult. 'Cause he knew what his sister would have done had he ever made the mistake of saying that to her and he didn't even want to contemplate what Ember would have done to him.

Suddenly, a blast of color shot within an inch of Telise's face. "Touch him again and the next one goes right between your eyes."

Sumi! Thank the G.o.ds. Someone with a brain Dancer would finally listen to.

Telise reached for her blaster.

Sumi let fly a shot straight into her shoulder. "Hands up or lose your head."

Telise glared at her. "You don't know who you're dealing with."

"Neither do you." Sumi held her hand up to show the brand on her wrist that told them all she was a trained League a.s.sa.s.sin.

Bastien's jaw dropped as he realized he'd been helping his enemies.

Again.

f.u.c.k me....

And with that revelation, he vaguely recalled her mentioning that she was League trained before she took off with Darice for their little adventure up the mountain, but with his thoughts on Ember, it'd blown right past his attention.

Now, too late, he remembered that vital detail. s.h.i.t! That kind of carelessness could cost him his head.

He was lucky Sumi hadn't already gutted him.

"Unless you've got another League a.s.sa.s.sin in your camp, I suggest you free them, or I will bathe in the blood of every wh.o.r.e here."

Bastien saw one of the others coming up behind Sumi. With the expert training that marked all her breed, she spun and shot the woman, then caught another one he hadn't seen at all.

And her blaster wasn't set to stun. She killed them both without flinching.

I'm so screwed. Bastien saw his future and knew he wouldn't make it out of this alive.

Sumi now had both weapons drawn as she surveyed the women. "Anyone else want to die today?" she called out to them. "Please! I'm so in the mood for it." She turned back to Telise. "What about you, harita?"

Glaring at her, Telise reached into her pocket. Instead of keys, she drew a dagger and moved for Dancer.

She was dead before she took more than a step.

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.

Dancer 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?"

Not sure why she hadn't taken him into custody, or killed him, he wiped at the blood on his wrists. "All good. At least until Hauk keeps his promise to beat my a.s.s."

Or Sumi decided to get a rank advancement by taking his scalp.

Sumi turned back to Pheara. "Where are our weapons?"

Pheara gestured toward Telise's tent. "In there."

"I'll get them," Bastien offered. The sooner he had a means to protect himself, the better he'd feel.

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 Dancer's weapons to him, and made sure to keep his senses alert to what Sumi was doing and where she was positioned. He was not about to go down without a fight. Ever.

And given how Hauk felt about his woman, Bastien would most likely have to take them both out to save his own a.s.s.

"Before we leave, I want to do something." Dancer went to Pheara and jerked the keys from her hand. "Is this the biofeed bypa.s.s?"

"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, making sure to keep Sumi in front of him, followed Dancer to the cage where the other 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, Dancer draped his arm over Sumi's shoulders so that she could lead him away while Bastien stayed to the rear. While Dancer might trust an a.s.sa.s.sin at his back, Bastien wasn't about to, now that he knew who and what she was.

That being said, though, she didn't seem concerned about him at all. Maybe Dancer hadn't told her he was Ravin and maybe she didn't know.

Even so, Bastien had no intention of dropping his guard now that he knew who and what she really was. He had no desire to die. Today, at least.

"Where are the kids?" Dancer asked.

"Armed to their teeth and hiding with Illyse."

Dancer nodded. "Good."

Sumi smiled until she noticed Dancer wasn't completely with them. He'd started swaying a bit and looked unsteady on his feet. "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. He figured it was just a matter of time before Dancer went down again.

"With what?"

Bastien shrugged. "Really didn't get a chance to ask what they were using, or for any other recipe, either. But I would a.s.sume something strong enough to take down a huge-a.s.s Andarion."

Hauk ignored him while he tugged her forward. "Thank you, by the way."

"For what?"

He gave her a shaky smile. "I'm usually the one doing the rescuing. It's been a long time since anyone's pulled my a.s.s out of the fire." His words slurred an instant before he sank to his knees.

s.h.i.t ...

If he went down, it would be a ma.s.sive b.i.t.c.h to handle his weight.

"Dancer!" She knelt by his side.

He held on to her, but didn't seem to be able to speak.

Bastien glanced over his shoulder, hoping they weren't being followed, then met her gaze. "We need to get out of here before they give pursuit. You take one arm and I'll grab the other."

And G.o.d help them both, 'cause this b.a.s.t.a.r.d weighed a ton.

He reached for Dancer.

Suddenly, a deep, growling male voice came out of nowhere. "Hands up or die."

Sumi bit her lip in indecision. Bastien saw the same desire to fight their latest attackers in her eyes that he 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, any more than he could. Their attackers were using some kind of cloaking device.

Bastien cringed as his worst fear manifested. This group of a.s.sa.s.sins was much higher-tech than the previous ones. Most likely, they were League and had yet to realize she was one of them.

He ran every scenario he could think through his mind.

All ended with him dead, maimed, or captured.