The appearance of Teran Five black ops hadn't surprised her. The Brotherhood had pushed its luck, and now the TIF had begun a campaign to take them down. Rina was infamous, her killings spectacular feats of theater. They all required meticulous planning, and this meeting on Muerte had been no different.
Plan B was in place. Carina found a vidphone. She dialed the required number and waited for an answer.
"What do you require?” a voice asked.
"Team location and a nontrac handheld.” She glanced down the side street, her senses alert, her gut churning. It was unusually quiet. There were no people, no movement at all. Even at this time of night, there should be someone.
"Maintain your position, Assassin Rina,” the voice instructed.
Her instincts screamed that something was wrong. Had she had visual clues from the person on the other end of the vid call, she might have seen something, but the screen was deliberately blank.
The attack, when it came, was quick and decisive. She got two blows in before she was overcome.
By her own team.
Xandros fell to his knees, pain ripping through him. A red haze dropped over his vision, and he clenched his fists. The anguished cry torn from his throat was completely out of his control. What the hell?
Rage. Need. Kill. His mind shut down every thought except one. Rina. Someone...touched her?
"Look at his eyes,” Leo said, his voice far away. “Xandros? Can you hear me?"
Xandros jerked his gaze to the man, his anger needing a place to land, a fist to sink somewhere.
"It's the rage,” the princess said softly. “I've never seen it across this much distance, this soon,” she said. “Usually, the marked mate has to be in the same room in close proximity."
"Something's wrong,” Leo said sharply. “Xandros? Where is she?"
It couldn't be. He'd always thought the Nyral rage was a myth, a fairy tale. Romantic but completely false. Yet, he couldn't deny that he had an intense need to rush after Rina, find her, protect her, and kill the ones who touched her.
Danger! Danger! Danger!
He sensed her peril, the smell of death. “I have to find her. She's—” Pain struck him, fresh and new. They were hurting her. Why? What could he do?
He didn't wait. Frantically, he sprinted to the door of the hotel room. Blocking his way was Shaun. “Get out of my way,” he shouted.
"No. It's a trap. You'll be—"
Xandros attacked. His mind focused on Rina's pain, her confusion. Everything else was fuzzy. Then something odd happened. For a brief moment, his head cleared.
In the grip of the rage, he had lashed out at Shaun, but the man countered his moves and gripped his neck. Shaun jerked him closer. Xandros forced Shaun against the door, his fingers tight around the man's wrist.
Shaun's held Xandros close, taking all the emotion that rolled through them both. Energy poured from Xandros, and Shaun seemed to absorb it. Cerebrally, Xandros knew the rage was a surge of adrenaline, a force of energy, some holdover from Nylar's ancient history when protecting one's mate was a matter of life or death. But subconsciously, he
needed
to find his marked mate.
The red curtain over his vision seemed to clear slightly. He sensed Carina was no longer conscious.
Calmer, he leaned his forehead against Shaun's. “I have to go after her."
"I know that,” Shaun answered.
"I'm not sure I understand what's going on here,” Leo said behind them.
When Xandros released Shaun and turned to face Leo, he wasn't sure he could explain it either. So much had happened that he hadn't planned. The mark wasn't supposed to mean anything. It just meant he'd fucked her. The rage had been a joke men told to keep women from cheating on them. To find out that he'd been so wrong for so long was difficult to face, much less put into words.
Princess Sera's forehead wrinkled with worry. “Shaun?"
"He needed me. That's all,” Shaun said. “The rage is a surge of adrenaline, and I defused it.” When Xandros turned his head and stared at Shaun, the man met his gaze steadily. “Xandros and I understand each other, I think."
Did they? How many men had Xandros fucked? He could count them on one hand, and none of them had been Nyral males. They'd been submissives, and Xandros dominated them. The fucking was just part of it.
This? This was different. What was their connection? “You've fucked her."
Shaun's gaze slid away. “We used each other."
Xandros should have been angry or jealous...something. Instead, he accepted Shaun's role in Carina's past. It still didn't explain why Shaun posed no threat to Xandros's primitive rage response. He had some connection to all this, some part to play that Xandros didn't understand. “Why didn't you mark her?"
Shaun glared at him. “Because to mark her would expose what she was. The Brotherhood has no idea she's a Nyral female.” He clenched his fists. “And judging by your rage, I'd say they've discovered it."
Fuck. He tried to shoulder past Shaun to leave, to find her, to save her. Once again, Shaun stopped him. “We have to work together to save her."
Xandros tightened his lips and met the man's intense stare. “I might kill you."
"You won't kill me,” Shaun said steadily.
"Shaun,” the princess said quietly, “are you in love with this man?"
"No. He isn't for me, Princess. He belongs to her.” Gently, Shaun brushed back a stray strand of hair from Xandros's forehead. Then, he turned to look at Leo and the princess. “But this is what I'm meant to do."
Leo shook his head. “This isn't about you, Shaun."
"I left them, Leo,” he said calmly. “I walked away, never looked back. Aron and Finn were in the same boat I was in before you saved me. I could have rescued them, brought them home the way you did."
Xandros heard the pain, the guilt in Shaun's voice, and he couldn't stand it. Xandros had never given a rat's ass about another man's guilt, another man's burden, but it ate at his gut that Shaun would blame himself for something out of his control. It had been a long time since he'd had a friend, someone he truly cared about. It was odd that Shaun had come back into his life and filled that role.
He gripped Shaun's shoulder and held it. Shaun glanced at him but talked to Leo. “Instead, I hid. I was afraid of what people would say, how they would judge me because I let you dominate me."
"No one knows about that,” Leo insisted.
"They do,” Shaun said firmly. “It was inevitable.” He shifted beneath Xandros's touch. “Xandros is like me. He is exiled from our people, and the only way back is unacceptable to him. Just as it was to me."
Xandros stared at him. “I chose this path, Shaun. You didn't."
Shaun's hazel eyes were bright. “How many times did you petition the council to let you come back?"
Twenty-eight times. The number popped into Xandros's mind. He'd tried to come back, go straight. He'd longed for home, for his people. But the stigma of being Anton Ivanovitch's son would never be gone. “So what? I chose to walk away. No one blackmailed me."
"Didn't they?” Shaun stared at him. “Your father's betrayal was well-known. Didn't most people assume you were just as guilty even though you were four when he sold those secrets to the Primarians?"
"My father paid his debt."
Shaun nodded. “Sure he did. He did his time with the Mistresses. They broke him until he was a good little submissive."
"Shut the fuck up, Shaun."
"And everyone taunted you, judged you as his son. Your mother was dead, and your father was broken. What choice did you have, Xandros Jasper?” Shaun's voice was relentless.
"We don't have time for this,” Xandros snapped.
"Listen to me.” Shaun gripped his arm. “You have no idea what you're walking into. I do. The Brotherhood knows all about you. Everything. Your father. Your mother's death. Your life on the edge of crime. They'll use it to fuck with you."
"I'm going to find her.” Xandros tried to yank his arm away, but Shaun kept hold of him.
"Not like this. Not without a plan."
It pissed Xandros off that the man was right. He knew better than to go into any negotiation without a plan. He shook Shaun's hand off his arm and ran a hand through his hair. Damn it. The sensation of pain and fear he'd felt from her, from whatever happened, it had ripped him apart. Apparently, all that bullshit about being marked was true. He should have been scared shitless by that thought, but for some reason, he wasn't. He was determined to find her and keep her with him. “Okay. Not without a plan."
"If we're lucky, they don't know who marked her,” Leo stated.
Shaun shook his head. “They have the same vid streams we do. They saw Xandros at the club."
"They're counting on him to go after her.” The princess frowned. “Why?"
"The prophecy,” Shaun said firmly.
"Someone want to fill me in?” Xandros said impatiently.
"Sit down, Captain.” It was the first sign of respect from Leo. Xandros sat in one of the overstuffed chairs in the hotel room. Leo sat on the couch, and the princess sat on the floor at his feet. Shaun sat across from them.
"The first Star Prophecy was written by a Dormrelian named Sindar. Have you ever heard of Dormrela?” Leo asked him.
Xandros froze. “I've heard of it."
Leo lifted his lips in a small smile. “Sindar recorded a prophecy handed down for generations on his planet. The prophecy stated that a Nyral male named Eyler would mate with a woman and create a new power, a new religion. He pinpointed the decade when this mating would occur.” He took a deep breath and shot a glance at the princess. Xandros noted her mouth had tightened. Clearly, she didn't like the conversation. Xandros wondered if it had anything to do with the rumored death of her mother or the attempts on her life. Leo continued. “The Brotherhood has studied the prophecies. When I was mated to Shanie—"
"They assumed she was the one Sindar referred to in the prophecy. And that's why Shanie died,” Xandros said. It made sense. From what Xandros had gathered, the Brotherhood wanted the princess dead because she was Leo's mate, not because she was the leader of some outcast population. It had something to do with the creation of a religion or some other mystical bullshit. Xandros sighed. “What does this have to do with me or Carina or the men you have me looking for?"
Leo ran a hand over his face, and Princess Sera touched his knee. “After Father Pestori revealed the prophecy, Sera and I tracked it down.” He gazed at Xandros. “Not only does Sindar name me in his prophecy, he names Carina. His prediction is that my mate is the beginning and Carina is the messenger. He states that she will be recognized by the mark of a bird on her arm. I tried to warn her, but she's determined to get revenge for Shanie's death.” His nostrils flared. “Shanie was Carina's only blood family. But it's clear that the Brotherhood intended to corrupt Carina from the start."
"Shit.” He rose to his feet. “Why are we sitting here? We have to find her, save her."
"Sit down, Xandros,” Leo snapped out the order, and Xandros sat. “They won't kill her."
Xandros glared at the other man. “How do you know that?"
"Because the prophecy has a warning. To kill Carina would hasten the very destruction of their organization. It states that the one who owns the messenger's soul will rule the Stars.” Leo stared at Xandros. “They want to own her soul, Captain."
"Over my dead body."
"That may be the idea,” the princess said. “Think, Xandros. If they kill you, her marked mate, she'll be destroyed, isolated, vulnerable. We must have a plan."
"Shaun?” Leo turned an inquiring glance on the other man.
"I say the same thing I said about Aron and Finn. Pelios."
Pelios. Fuck. That planet was barren and miserable. The surface was too hot to survive on. But the Blueshift Brotherhood used that planet, burrowed deep and created a maze of caverns. Near the surface, they placed
weferies
, creatures that could stand temperatures of up to two hundred degrees. They guarded the only two entrances to the tunnels leading to miles of corridors.
Food was dropped into these holes, and prisoners had to fight the weferies for it. It was survival of the fittest. Every two or three months, the Brotherhood would replace their guardians since the prisoners killed the animals eventually.
No one knew how prisoners were transported to Pelios. It was a one-way trip. If the Brotherhood took Carina there, getting her back would be impossible.
Anyone involved with the Brotherhood knew the risks. The threat of Pelios was always part of the bargaining process, and Xandros had made it his business to find out what he was threatened with before he made any deals. So far, he'd managed to keep on the Brotherhood's good side, but if they'd sent his mate to Pelios—
"We have to stop them.” He rose again to his feet.
"I think I know how they're transporting them.” Princess Sera stood up. She glanced at Leo. “Remember the Star Blessing?"
Leo nodded. “You transported all those artifacts on Teran Three back to Placido."
"It's only one of many such spells.” She tightened her lips. “I think the leader of the Blueshift Brotherhood is very familiar with Placido."
"And has your power?” Leo shook his head. “How is that possible?"
Her perfectly sculpted eyebrows rose. “You do."
Leo frowned. “True. So you think it's someone who understands the power, who can use it the way I can?"
"I don't think he's from Placido.” She stared at the three men. “I think he's from Nylar."
Shock rippled along Xandros's nerves. A Nyral? It couldn't be. There'd been traitors, including his father, but could the leader of the Brotherhood be from Nylar? He could scoff at it, but after all that had happened, he wasn't sure he knew anything anymore.
Leo didn't look surprised. He looked grim. “We'd better come up with that plan quickly."
A drip hit her in the face.
Splash. Splash
. She blinked and tried to adjust her vision to the darkness around her. Confusion made her dizzy. Her mouth was dry and sticky. What the hell had happened? Where the hell was she?