Born of Defiance

“Good job, Lieutenant. Protect them.” And with that, Talyn gave the order to move on Chrisen and his brother.

Talyn led his troops into the house. Cautious and alert, he made his way down the back staircase, until he heard them watching the news, and commenting on what they intended to do to Cairie, Tylie, and Talyn’s mother once this “nonsense” ceased.

His gaze turning red, Talyn moved in first. One of their bodyguards started to draw on them, until he realized how many soldiers were with Talyn.

The guard fell back.

As they swarmed in, Talyn saw that it was four bodyguards and Merrell. One target was missing.

“Where’s Chrisen?” The words were barely out of his mouth before he felt something hot slide in through the plates of his body armor and pierce his side.

“Right here, you son of a whore!” Chrisen growled in Talyn’s ear. Still, there was no sign of the male. Nothing that registered visually or through their equipment.

“Cloaking device,” Talyn gasped as he staggered back. Unwilling to risk one of his soldiers being harmed, he latched on to Chrisen and held him fast so that he couldn’t escape or wound another.

Chrisen twisted the blade, but Talyn wouldn’t allow him to pull it out of his body. His sight dimmed.

And as Chrisen tried to knock Talyn away, Talyn grabbed his head with one hand and wrenched the helmet off, exposing Chrisen for the others to find in the event he passed out.

Yet that was all he could manage before his legs buckled. His soldiers closed rank and subdued Chrisen as they called for medics.

Talyn had been wounded enough in his life that he knew how bad this wound was. Blood poured out of the injury, like an artery had been nicked. Everything swam as he tried to focus and maintain consciousness. He sprawled on the floor and rolled to his back. The room tilted even more. Darkness was coming so fast, he wasn’t sure he’d make it to the medics’ arrival.

He pressed his voice dial and called the one person he needed most.

“Talyn?”

In spite of his pain, he smiled. “Hey, baby.” He pressed the link deeper into his ear so that he could savor every syllable of her precious contralto.

If he had to die, he wanted the last sound he heard in this life to be Felicia’s tender voice.

She hesitated. “What’s wrong? You don’t sound right.”

He groaned as the medics arrived to cut open his armor and they pressed against his wound. “Love you, mia.”



“Talyn!” Felicia shouted as she heard the chaos over his link. Tears blinded her. “Baby, if you can hear me… I love you, too. Please be okay!”

Suddenly, another voice came over the link. “Who is this?”

“The commander’s female, Felicia. Who are you?”

“Ger Tarra, I’m a medic. He’s wounded and we’ll be taking him to North Eris ER.”

“I’ll meet you there. Thank you.” Her hands shaking, Felicia hung up and told Qory what had happened.

Lorens met her in the hallway of the command center. “You heard?”

She nodded. “Talyn called me. What happened?”

“Chrisen was cloaked. Coward ambushed him. He would have probably taken out more of our men, but Talyn, even wounded, subdued the slimy bastard. C’mon, I have a transport at the entrance.”

She ran to the front of the building as fast as she could.

Once she was inside the transport with Lorens and Qory, Felicia started to call his mother, but didn’t want to upset her until she knew more details about Talyn’s condition. Terrified, she clutched her link and prayed as they rushed through the streets that were still littered with remnants of the political shift in power.

Much of the rioting had stopped once word of Tylie’s official ascension had reached their media. While no one shed a tear for Eriadne or Jullien, many respected both of the tizirahie. Tylie because of a vicious attack her own sister, Irenie, had made against Tylie when Tylie was only thirteen, and Cairistiona for being the one who’d saved Tylie’s life by brutally slaughtering Irenie for her treachery.

Now all that appeared to be left of the overthrow was the cleanup.

As soon as they reached the hospital, Felicia ran inside. She reached the nurses’ station at the same time the doors opened to admit Talyn and the medics who were trying to save his life.

She rushed to his side.

A soldier started to push her back.

Talyn held his hand out to her. “Felicia?”

Only then did the soldier let her pass. Tears blurred her vision as she took his hand. “You’ve got to find a safer, saner occupation.”

He choked on a laugh.

“I love you, Talyn.”

He squeezed her hand. “Love you.” And then they took him into the OR, leaving her there to stare after them and pray.

Lorens pulled her against him.

She wanted to cry. But this wasn’t the time for tears. Felicia forced her emotions down as she called a nurse over. “We have the same blood type. If he needs a transfusion —”