Born of Rage (League: Nemesis Rising)

by Sherrilyn McQueen

  Adron touched her arm and tried to memorize her features before he died. He should never have provoked Jayce. His brother had always had a hair trigger on his temper.

  Just like him.

  But now it was too late. Jayce had finally done the one thing he was supposed to have done when he found him lying in the Dumpster.

  He’d killed him.

  Adron reached up and placed a hand to Livia’s soft, creamy cheek. His angel of mercy. At a time when he’d wanted to die, she alone had given him a reason to live.

  He didn’t want to leave her. Couldn’t stand the thought of not having her with him.

  But it wasn’t meant to be.

  Her face faded from his sight, and then everything went black.

  “No!” Livia screamed as his hand fell from her face and he went limp in her arms. “Don’t you dare leave me!”

  But it was too late. His skin was already discoloring.

  Jayce laid him on the floor and prepared to resuscitate him.

  “Damn it!” The agonized cry tore through her as Jayce realized he couldn’t give him CPR. Adron’s body couldn’t sustain it.

  In that instant, Livia did the only thing she knew to do. She reached down deep inside her and summoned all the power she possessed. She didn’t care what it cost her. She couldn’t live without Adron. And if it meant her own life, so be it.

  Almost instantly, her hands were hot. Hotter than they’d ever been before. She placed them against Adron’s chest and willed her life force into him.

  Jayce shielded his eyes as an unbelievably bright orange halo surrounded Adron’s body.

  Adron came awake with a jolt. At first, he thought he was dead. There was no pain anywhere in him.

  His body felt strange. Different.

  It felt whole.

  Then he became aware of Jayce touching his face and of a strange weight on his chest.

  “Adron?” Jayce gasped in disbelief.

  Looking down, Adron realized the weight on his chest was Livia.

  His heart pounding, he sat straight up with an agility he hadn’t possessed in eight years.

  And in that instant, he knew what she’d done. She’d healed him.

  Again.

  As he pulled her into his arms, he saw his blood-covered hand and scowled at it in disbelief. His scars were completely gone.

  Not even the scars on his knuckles remained. What had she done?

  “Livia?” He held her against him.

  She didn’t answer. It was like she was . . .

  Dead.

  Adron tilted her head and saw the ghostly paleness of her face.

  “Livia?” He tried again, shaking her gently.

  She didn’t respond.

  Jayce tried to help, but he pushed him back. He didn’t want anyone touching her. “Livia? Please talk to me. Please.”

  The MTs came in, and he reluctantly released her to their care.

  More terrified than he’d ever been in his life, he followed them out of the restaurant and to the lift that would take them to the hospital and climbed inside.

  Helpless, he went with them, watching them work on her to keep her alive and then was banned as they carried her into the hospital and refused to let him pass through the doorways where they took her.

  For the first time in years, Adron sat in the antiseptic waiting room while Theo tended Livia. He finally understood some of what his parents had felt while they waited for word of his multiple operations.

  The fear and uncertainty tore him apart. And he and Livia had known each other only a short time.

  How much worse must this have been for his parents?

  His siblings?

  “Adron?”

  He looked up as his parents joined him. His mother’s eyes brimmed with tears as she took his face in her hands and touched his undamaged cheek. “What happened to your scar?”

  Jayce, who’d followed them separately to the hospital and had stayed like a ghost in a corner while he waited in silence, answered. “Livia cured him. I don’t know how she did it, but one minute he was practically dead and the next, he was perfectly fine.”

  His father frowned. “What did the doctor say about you?”

  Adron pulled back from his mother’s touch. “He wants to do tests on me later.” But he didn’t give a damn about himself.

  Livia was all that mattered.

  His mother nodded. “Did you call her parents?”

  Adron’s chest tightened at the memory. “I tried. Her father told me she was no longer his concern and he didn’t care what happened to her.”

  Disgust contorted his mother’s beautiful face. “How could he?”

  Adron shrugged. He didn’t really want to talk at the moment. Then again, Livia was the only person he liked talking to, period.

  Please don’t die . . .

  The pain of the thought of being alone again was all he could focus on. Everything else was insignificant.

  Maybe that was selfish, but it just seemed wrong that someone as precious and giving as her should die like this.

  Saving an asshole like him.

  It wouldn’t be right.

  His father smiled as he passed a glance from Adron to Jayce. “It’s good to see the two of you in the same room without bloodshed.”

  Adron exchanged a wary, shamed look with Jayce. This was all his fault. If he’d just left Jayce alone, none of this would have happened.

  I killed her . . .

  Jayce turned away.

  His parents went to get something to drink.

  Once they were alone, Jayce finally approached him. “I’m really sorry about all this.”

  Adron glared at him, wanting to restart the fight now that he was able to hold his own and give Jayce the beating he really deserved. He was tired of his brother’s excuses. “If you’d killed me when you were supposed to, none of this would have happened.”

  Jayce curled his lip as his eyes blared a cold, harsh rage. “Tell me honestly, could you have killed me if you’d found me lying half-dead and helpless?”

  “Rather than see you suffer what I have, yes.”

  Jayce entire face went blank. “Then you’re a better assassin than I am. Because I would never have been able to live with myself had I killed my own brother who I love more than my life.”

  “Adron?”

  He turned as Theo joined them.

  Theo hesitated in front of him. “This is weird, isn’t it? I’m not used to having discussions with you while you’re dressed and upright.”

  “You’re not amusing.”

  Theo looked apologetic. “Sorry, nervous humor.” He cleared his throat and a feeling of dread washed over Adron.

  Theo was avoiding something bad.

  “Well?” he prompted.

  “She’s firmly in a coma. Whatever she did, it caused a great deal of neurological damage to her. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s as if she burned up part of her brain.”

  Like her grandmother . . .

  Adron choked on a sob as he thought of her lying helpless in the dark.

  Alone.

  It was her worst fear.

  Why had she done it?

  For you, you asshole . . .

  Because she loves me.

  Oh gods, he couldn’t breathe for the agony in his heart. He wanted to scream out at the injustice. Wanted to rail against everyone and everything.

  He wanted to hate Jayce for this, too.

  But in the end, he knew the only one really to blame was himself, and that stung most of all.

  This was his fault and he had no one to blame.

  He leveled a fierce stare on Theo. “Will she come out of it?”

  “Honestly . . . I doubt it. There’s too much damage. She’s only alive right now because of the machines.” Theo gave him a hard, cold stare. “My professional opinion is that we should turn everything off and let nature take
its course.”

  Adron fell back against the wall as his heart shattered into a thousand pieces. He felt the tears in his eyes, felt the bitter, swelling misery that overwhelmed him.

  He couldn’t let her go.

  Not after everything she’d done for him. Everything she’d come to mean to his entire world.

  But then, he couldn’t let her live when he knew she wouldn’t want to. It was too cruel.

  And all he felt was a desolate agony so deep, so profound, that it made a mockery of the one he’d learned to live with over the years.

  He grabbed Theo by the shirt. “Don’t you dare let her die. You hear me?”

  Theo looked aghast. “All we have is the shell of her body, Adron. Her mind is already gone.”

  “Only half of it, right?”

  “Well . . . yes. I guess. Honestly, we don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  “Then, there’s a chance.” And half a chance was better than none. “You keep her heart beating until I get back.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  And so would he.

  Releasing Theo, Adron ran from the hospital with a strength and agility he hadn’t known in years. Livia had one chance for survival, and no matter what, he was going to give it to her.

  Even if it killed him.

  With no other thought, he ran to Jayce’s fighter and boosted it.

  What he was about to do was illegal and dumber than shit.

  Good thing I don’t have brains.

  That had always been his one flaw in life. The one thing his parents had railed against him the most. It’d been what had driven him into the League against all their warnings and threats.

  No son of mine is joining that mess! I started a war to bring it down! Why the hell would you want to be a part of it?

  Adron would never forget the fight he and his father had when he’d told him that he’d intentionally enlisted. “It’s too late, Paka. I start training tomorrow.”

  It’d been the only time in his life when he had truly feared that his father might kill him.

  “Have you lost your minsid mind?”

  But it was all he’d ever wanted. As far back as he could remember, he’d heard the stories about his father, Nemesis. One of the greatest assassins ever trained by the League.

  About his uncles Jinx, Drake, Thraix and Saf, and his aunts Shahara, Maris, Sumi, Jayne and Eve.

  Assassins so incredibly skilled that their legends were recounted and retold throughout the United Systems.

  All he’d ever wanted to do was make them proud. To add his own name to their heroic list.

  Together, they had brought down the old League and overthrown its stranglehold. The organization he’d joined was nothing like the one his father and uncles had been trained under when Aunt Maris’s brother, Kyr Zemin, had been the prime commander.

  He’d arrogantly looked his father in the eye and smiled. “I’ll be fine, Paka.”

  And when he’d spent those days being tortured and torn apart by a different Kyr, all he could think was how right his father had been. That he should have listened.

  He hadn’t been prepared for what awaited him. Unlike the elder members of his family, he’d been sheltered and blissfully ignorant of just how cruel and sick so-called sentient beings could be.

  While his League training had been harsh, it was nothing like how they’d trained assassins during his father’s time.

  He flinched at the stories he’d overheard of his uncles, Jinx and Bastien, who’d been sold to the League to be used as targets for assassins to hunt and kill. While Bastien had been a grown man, a trained military officer at the time the League had marked him as a Ravin, Jinx had been a child.

  A scared boy.

  Who had survived against all odds.

  Because of the skills he’d shown, the League had spared his life and trained him. But Adron knew the scars his uncle bore.

  Inside and out.

  “Damn it, Adron! That hard head of yours will be your death!”

  He’d ignored his father’s angry words that night. Mostly because he’d heard them so much growing up that they were a joke.

  In the end, they’d been prophetic.

  “Stand down, Commander. We have a team in place. We’ve got—”

  Adron had jerked the earpiece out so that he couldn’t hear his CO. Like the fool his father had always accused him of being, he went in against orders and offered to swap places with a woman he didn’t know.

  Because he wanted to be a hero.

  What’s the worst that could happen?

  Because he’d spent his whole life surrounded by fierce assassins who’d sparred and trained with him, he thought himself invincible. He’d been trained by Talyn Batur, the Iron Hammer, and Fain Hauk. Two of the most respected and most successful Ring fighters in Andarion history. Talyn’s records still remained unbroken.

  What could a second-rate criminal do to him?

  Youthful arrogance . . .

  He forgot that even the mighty War Hauk, Talyn Batur, had lost a leg in battle.

  “But I won’t lose Livia,” he whispered. Whatever it took, he had to make sure that this time, he didn’t screw up. Because it wasn’t just his life he was risking.

  It was hers.

  “What are you doing here?” Livia’s father demanded the minute Adron forced his way into the throne room where he was holding court.

  Oblivious to the room full of men who gaped at him, Adron approached his father-in-law. “I have to see Livia’s mother. Now!”

  “It is forbidden.”

  That wasn’t good enough. “The hell it is. Livia’s dying, and her mother is the only one who can save her.”

  Her father’s face was stoic. He seemed completely immune to the news. “If she dies, so be it. That is the will of God. She has disgraced us with her disobedience. I told you and her that she was forever severed from this house, and so she is. Her affairs are your problem, not ours.”

  “I need to see her mother.” Adron started for the side door.

  “Guards!” her father called. “Remove him immediately.”

  Adron knocked the guards back until they called for reinforcements. Seriously outnumbered, he fought as best he could, but eventually they seized him and dragged him back in front of her father.

  “You can’t let her die.” Adron struggled against their hold.

  The smugness on her father’s face disgusted him. “Had you wanted her to live, you should never have shamed her.”

  “Damn you!”

  “Remove him from this planet.”

  Against his will, Adron was pulled back from the throne, but as he fought against the guards, he saw a teenaged servant girl watching him from the shadows with concern and pity on her face.

  Adron met her frightened gaze and hoped that she could get a message through. “Tell her mother Livia needs her. Please . . .”

  “Krista!” Livia’s father snapped. “Get out of here. Now!”

  The girl scampered off, and the guards threw him out of the palace.

  Adron struck the closed door with his fist as more guards came to escort him back to his brother’s ship. He bellowed in rage. “So help me, if she dies, I’ll see all of you in your graves!”

  But no one heard him, or if they did, they didn’t care.

  Defeated, he turned and headed back to spend as much time with Livia as he could before death stole her completely away from him.

  Adron paused in the doorway of the hospital room as he listened to the familiar monitors beep and hiss. Only this time, they weren’t connected to him.

  He knew from his own experience that Livia could hear them. Knew what it felt like to lie there, unable to communicate. Alone and afraid.

  How he wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all.

  His throat tight, he crossed the room and sat on the bed beside her.

  “Hey, sweet,�
�� he whispered, taking her cold hand into his. He cupped her face with his other hand and leaned over her to brush his lips against her cool cheek.

  “Please open your eyes, Livia,” he whispered as tears blinded him. “Open your eyes and see what you did. I’m actually sitting here without grimacing. There’s no pain at all. But you know that, don’t you?”

  Adron traced the outline of her jaw. And then he did something he hadn’t done in a long, long time.

  He prayed.

  He prayed and he yearned to feel her sweet arms wrapped around him. To hear the precious sound of her voice saying his name. Just one more time.

  Why wouldn’t she open her eyes and look at him?

  Hours went by as Adron stayed with her, talking more than he’d ever talked before.

  Sitting by her side, he held her hand to his heart and willed her to wake up. “I don’t know why you stayed with me. God knows, I wasn’t worth it. But I don’t want you to leave me alone, anymore. I need you, Livia. I can’t live without you in my life. I can’t . . . I’m not that strong. Please open your eyes and look at me. Please.”

  “She can hear you, you know?”

  Adron tensed at the voice behind him that intruded on his last few precious hours with his wife. Assuming it was a nurse, he didn’t bother to look. “I know.”

  “Are you going to unplug her?”

  He choked at the thought. And for the first time, he understood exactly how Jayce had felt when he’d pulled him from the Dumpster.

  God, he’d been such a fool to hate his brother for loving him.

  His throat tight, he was blinded by tears. “I can’t let her go. Not while there’s a chance.”

  “It’s what she wants.”

  “I know.” He knew it in a way no one else ever could. He’d been there.

  The nurse came forward and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “She wants me to tell you that she is with you. And that you were well worth it. She loves you more than her life.”

  Frowning, he looked up to see a small woman wearing a cloak that completely shielded her identity from him. “Who are you?”

  She lowered the cowl to expose familiar angelic features. He knew her in an instant. She was Livia’s mother.

  And he saw the silvery-green eyes of a race that was more myth than reality. “You’re Trisani?”