Desideria cocked a brow at his authoritative tone. "You're a doctor too?"
He didn't respond. By the look on his face, she could tell she'd inadvertently hit a nerve, though she had no idea how.
Ignoring her, he pulled back the leg of his pants to tend his own wound.
She watched in silent awe as he stopped the bleeding, cleaned and then wrapped it like a pro.
"How is it a prince knows so much about field dressing and medicine? You said you'd made runs into the Andarions' territory. Were they mercy missions?"
He scowled at her. "I thought you knew."
"Knew what?"
Scratching at the whiskers on his face, he snorted. "You must live under a rock on the most back-ass planet in the universe to have missed the news."
She ignored his insult--it was so mild compared to what her family gave her that it didn't even register. And for once, she actually agreed with his summation. Qillaq was rather backward compared to other worlds. "What news?"
"I was kidnapped when I was still a baby and raised as a pleb. I didn't know I was a prince until a few months ago when a DNA test identified me."
That stunned her. "Really?"
"Yeah, really."
That explained the dichotomies she'd noticed. Why he held that feral quality to everything he did. His worn-out clothes and his ever changing syntax that went from royal dialect to street slang. "Were you shocked when they told you?"
"Still am. Not exactly something you expect to learn about yourself. Hey, kid, your parents weren't your parents and by the way, did you know you're a prince and heir to a major empire?"
Very true. And it also explained about his sisters. "Your sisters belonged to your adoptive parents?"
He fell silent as he returned to putting things back in the pack. After a few seconds he spoke again. "Don't worry. I am housebroken. I might not be as refined as the rest of the aristocracy, but I won't crap on the floor either." His tone was dry and even. Still, she understood the pain thse words betrayed and knew why he'd said them.
Like her, others had been judging him.
"My people aren't like the other aristos. Hence why I'm in the Guard. Nothing in my world is given to anyone. Everything is earned. It's not how you start in life that matters. It's how you finish."
The look he passed to her was cold enough to make her shiver. "No, your people just accuse others of crimes they don't commit."
"I had nothing to do with that."
He scoffed. "I'd like to believe you, but I don't know you well enough for that. I've had people I trusted implicitly come at me. So you'll have to forgive my mistrust."
"Again, I understand. Trust, like everything else, has to be earned and I have yet to gain it. I get it."
Caillen hesitated. He wanted to believe her. Yet he didn't dare. Too many memories surged inside him. Partners who'd turned on him when he least expected it. "Friends" he'd put at his back who'd knifed him so hard he still felt the burn of it. Most of all was the bitch who continued to come at him for no good reason at all.
People were treacherous by nature. And Desideria was a stranger--one he was attracted to.
That made her deadlier than most.
He moved away from her. "I've got minimal food and water. Enough to hold us today. Tomorrow we'll have to scavenge."
Agitation creased her brow. "We have no time to dawdle with inconsequentials. Every minute that ticks by is one my mother could be slaughtered."
His father too. But that knowledge didn't change their circumstances. "Let me lay this out for you, Princess. We are on a hostile planet with natives who will eat us if they catch us. Our pod is no longer transmitting a homing beacon which while it keeps the natives from identifying our origins and the assassin after us from finding our exact location, it also keeps our allies from rescuing us. And while your mother's life really doesn't matter much to me, my father's does, so don't think for one minute that you're even an edge more motivated than I am. Because you're not. However, if we die, it's over for all of us and believe it or not, I'm doing my best to make sure we all survive. Body parts intact."
She narrowed her gaze on him. There was no missing the shadow that hung heavy there in those dark eyes. "What aren't you telling me?"
Her questions caught him off guard. "What do you mean?"
"You're holding something back. I can tell by the look in your eyes. What is it?"
Caillen hesitated. Damn, she was perceptive--like his sister Shahara. She'd always had an uncanny ability to read him too.
He started to tell her nothing, but why lie? She needed to know and if she betrayed him here, she'd be cumake sher own throat. Andarions didn't play and they didn't tolerate offworlders--especially him. "I'm a wanted felon by the Andarions. While it's technically been repealed by their prince and heir, I'm not about to trust a colony not to carry out my death sentence without notifying the capital government before I'm dead--they have a nasty tendency that way."
All the color drained from her face. "What did you do?"
Caillen sighed. Again he started not to tell her. It was so stupid really. But if he didn't answer her question, she'd probably assume him a rapist or something even more vile. "I'm housebroken, okay? But I don't heel well. Prince Jullien grabbed my sister inappropriately and had trouble understanding the no word when she said it forcefully, so I busted loose a few of his teeth. Nykyrian repealed my death warrant when he was crowned, but, as I said, I don't trust their government. And while I know Nyk would bail me out, he has to know about it first and since Jullien still has a hard-on for me over my assault, I'm not betting that these colonies have the most current wanted list--Jullien's vindictive that way. My luck, the bounty for killing me's even tripled."
She gaped at him. "Surely Jullien would have something better to do than worry over a fight, especially if they're anything like my people. That's to be expected."
Yeah, right. "Jullien isn't a warrior and given the ass-whipping I gave him and his pompous arrogance, he definitely would leave it in place. That slimy bastard is the worst sort of scum."
"Why do you hate him so?"
"Aside from him trying to rape my sister, he traded his own twin brother's pregnant wife to his brother's enemies so that they could kill her. And we, including me, almost lost our lives getting her out. That's nothing compared to what he's done to others. He's a total scabbing bastard. The only reason he hasn't been executed is that he's royal and his grandmother has paid a fortune to the League to keep him breathing."
He could see in her eyes that she was trying to understand Jullien's crimes, but couldn't quite mentally grasp them any more than he could. The man's cruelty was only surpassed by his stupidity. "Their grandmother did nothing to him for betraying his own brother?" she asked.
"No. But believe me, Nyk did and I'm still amazed Nyk's beating didn't kill him. That being said Jullien will limp for eternity. Officially though, Jullien wasn't punished except that he's been removed from the line of succession. Which I guess to him is probably a fate worse than death. But in my opinion, he got off light."
She shook her head. "And I thought my family was screwed up."
"Yeah... Mine have their problems, but the worst thing I can say about my sisters is they're self destructive... or in Kasen's and Tess's case, fatally stupid. The damage they've done to me was never intentional. The pry bar incident notwithstanding."
Desideria paused at that last bit, curious about it. "Pry bar incident?"
He paused putting the things backullien was pack and let out a long suffering sigh. "When we were kids, I made Kasen mad enough, she threw a pry bar at me." He pointed to the scar above his left brow. "Eight stitches."
That had to hurt. "What did you do?"
An unexpected blush colored his cheeks. How strangely becoming even in his disguise. "In my defense I was six."
Oh now this had to be good for him to be that embarrassed and to make excuses. "What did you do?"
He was actually bashful
about it. "She refused to play court ball with me, so I burned down her dollhouse."
She gaped at his disclosure. No he didn't... "You burned down her dollhouse?"
He pointed to his scar. "I was adequately punished."
"But you burned down her dollhouse? That's so cold."
"So's bashing your little brother in the head with a pry bar. I could have lost an eye that day and I think my recent death warrant while protecting her from her latest bout of supreme stupidity more than makes up for it."
She scoffed at his indignation. "It was a flesh wound, you big baby."
Caillen started to respond, then caught himself as he realized he enjoyed her teasing.
She was charming him...
Crap. That he couldn't allow. Not until he knew what her real loyalties were. She was her mother's daughter.
And they were framing him.
Desideria saw the veil come down on his face, changing it to a mask of seriousness. For some reason, it felt like a blow to her sternum. Don't be ridiculous. Yet there was no denying what she felt.
It hurt.
She liked the teasing, fun Caillen a lot more than the serious prince who was guarded.
I've lost my mind. He was all kinds of irritating.
He's all kinds of sexy.
And when he teased and his eyes sparkled, he was all the hotter. Licking her lips, she watched as he returned to the backpack to pull out another item.
This one made her gasp.
It was a subspace link.
Joy exploded through her. "We can call someone?"
"Let's hope. But if we can, we can't talk for more than thirty seconds. Any longer and it'll be traceable. I don't know how high tech this place is. So for now, I'm erring on the side of not getting disemboweled." He tried to hail his sister.
Nothing. The call wouldn't go through.
Growling in irritation, he looked at Desideria. "Either we're too far inside or it's jammed. I'll try again in the morning."
"What if they kill my mother tonight?"
"What if they kill my father? You're not the only one taking a risk here. This shit bites both ways."
She ground her teeth as more frustration burned through her. "I can't believe there's nothing we can do."
"Well we can go out there and let them find us. That is if they don't already have something that can read through my mirrors. If they have that, we're screwed."
She cocked her head at his use of a word that didn't belong in that sentence. Mirrors. "Is that what you placed at the opening?"
"Yeah. It emits a pulse to anything that scans us saying there's nothing inside. No heat signature, no signs of life. To my knowledge nothing can breach it. But technology changes faster than the skin on a rodalyn lizard. So the colonists might be able to find us here." He winked at her. "Let's hope not, shall we?"
Desideria rubbed her head that was starting to ache as she ran over everything that had happened to them and how much danger they were in. "What a day."
"Yeah. I have an assassin running loose after my dad and you now have one after your mom. The only reason I agreed to attend that sanctimonious stratiotes was that I'd hoped the assassin would make a move on my father and I'd be able to capture him on the ship where the escape routes would be limited."
"Strat... what was that word you used?"
"Stratiotes. It means a collection of morons. Is that really all you got out of my tirade?"
"No, it wasn't. It was just the part I didn't understand. Just like I don't understand who's trying to kill my mother."
He snorted. "Motive, baby. It's all motive and that usually leads back to cash flow... Personally, I think it's my uncle after my father. My father thinks I'm insane. But my uncle is the only one who makes sense."
"Why would your uncle want your father dead?"
"Only one who has something to gain if both my father and I die. First blood law: follow the money. It always leads you home."
She considered his words as she remembered meeting his uncle many times since her birth. The man had seemed extremely mild and unassuming. "You don't really believe that, do you?"
"Yes, I do." There was no missing the sincerity in that gaze. "So what about your mom? Who stands to inherit the most with you and her out of the way?"
"My sisters." Her stomach heaved as she rose to her feet. "Oh my God. It's Narcissa. She's the one who kill" wy other two sisters in training accidents."
And she'd tried to kill her just two weeks ago. She'd even made threats against her...
Narcissa had always been ambitious. When I'm queen, you'll all bow down to me. But don't worry. You can both serve in my Guard like Kara used to for Mother.
How many times had her sister said that? Yet Desideria had always assumed she was joking or wishing.
What if she hadn't been?
Dear gods, how could she have been so stupid as to miss that? Of all the people she'd suspected of being behind this, the most obvious had eluded her until now. Panic consumed her at the thought.
Unable to stand it, she started pacing as the horror of it all raced through her mind. That was why the Guard was backing her sister and helping to assassinate her mother. If her mother was murdered, Narcissa, as their next queen, would have the power to pardon them and spare their lives.
Suddenly, it all made sense. It was insidious and cold, and it came hard on the heels of her being promoted to adult status. That made her the heir apparent over her older sister. Yes, she'd have to fight for it, but she would be the one challenged. If she survived the fight, she'd be queen.
Narcissa wouldn't even be eligible to try for the crown. But if both Desideria and her mother died, Narcissa would rise to heir status even as a minor and could fight to be queen...
And why was her mother's Guard backing her sister? Because they all thought Desideria was the dirt under their feet. A crossbred mongrel that the Guard resented breathing their air. Of course they'd back her purebred sister over her.
And cheer when she died.
Suddenly, Caillen was beside her, pulling her into his arms. "Shh... it's all right. I know it's a shock. You'll get used to it."
She would push him away, but honestly it felt good to be held while her world unraveled itself and she was faced with a harsh reality she didn't even want to contemplate. She was alone in the universe with no one to rely on. No one to turn to.
Her own family was trying to end her life. And no one knew the truth except her.
"How can you cope with the thought of your uncle trying to kill you?"
He shrugged. "I'm only surprised when people don't try to kill me."
"Well, I can understand that. You are annoying."
He smiled at her and that expression made her feel a little better for reasons she couldn't even guess at. "If you don't like the thought of your sister coming for you, is there anyone else you can think of?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
She nodded. No one else made any sense. "My mother has two sisters, but one married an offworlder, so she can't rule so long as she has a foreign husband, and my other aunt was removed from succession when my mother defeated her in combat for the throne. Kara could rule as a regent, but never as a full queen and she would be replaced as soon as one of us was skilled enough to challenge her."
"Then it is what it is. Your sister's a self-serving bitch out to collect your heads--sorry. My father keeps telling me it's an enemy after him, but I don't believe it. An enemy would gain nothing other than personal satisfaction. And while I can understand that motivation, it wouldn't lead them to me. If both my father and I die, his brother takes the throne and right now, his brother is his chief advisor which means none of the laws would be changed. If it is one of his enemies after him, no reason to risk prison or execution for something that wouldn't affect them at all. They'd be trying to take out his brother too so that they could change things. I've run through a thousand scenarios, but all of them lead straight back to my uncle wit
h no side roads."
Just like all of hers led back to Narcissa... "My mother will never believe me."
No one would believe them.
"I know. We have to find evidence. It's the only way to save their lives."
She opened her mouth to speak, but Caillen motioned her to be silent. He stepped back and drifted toward the front of the cave while hugging the wall.
At first she thought it was more of his paranoia until she heard the soft whir of a motor. Her heart stopped beating as a shadow fell over the entrance.
It was a military prober and it was scanning for life forms...
13
Probers were small, electronic scanning devices that checked for living organisms and reported back to a search force. Desideria had no doubt that she and Caillen were the target of this one. If that thing picked up even the smallest trace of their presence, the Andarions would swarm all over them.
Move slowly, Caillen mouthed to her. Get against the wall.
She did exactly what he told her to. She focused on her heartbeats to keep from panicking. Any little sound might be detected...
Even her breathing.
Time stretched out like an arthritic snail before the prober finally pulled back.
She started to move, but Caillen motioned subtly for her not to.
Sure enough, another prober popped up from the ground and scanned for several minutes more. Only after it left did Caillen inch his way back to her. He stood between her and the door, shielding her. He was so close that she could feel his body heat.
"Are we safe?" she whispered in his ear. "We'll know in a few minutes." His breath tickled the skin of her cheek and his warmth went a long way in soothing her ragged nerves.
They stood right beside each other, waiting. And she didn't miss the fact that he was protecting her with his body. Though whether he did it out of habit or on purpose, she couldn't tell. Yes, she could take care of herself, but she found his actions sweet and unexpected.
Most of all, she found them strangely endearing.
Caillen glanced down at Desideria to make sure she wasn't panicking.
She definitely wasn't. Her lips were parted while she stared past him, toward the entrance. But that wasn't what held his interest. It was the deep cleft between her breasts. Her top was so tight, it pushed them up to the point it appeared that even the slightest breath would spill them out.
Sneeze, baby, sneeze.
Born of Shadows Page 13
