Born of Fire

Syn paused as he watched Shahara take down the rest of their attackers with an ease that was impressive and a little frightening.

Damn, she was good.

A slow smile curved his lips as she emerged over the bodies. Her torso twisted slightly, it was a stance of power and skill.

And it was sexy as hell.

She met his gaze and returned his grin.

“That’s what I’m good at.”

Yes, she was.

Her gaze narrowed on something behind him. Before he could move, she flew past him to kick at one of the bastards who’d been trying to lunge at his back.

She knocked him to the ground and stomped him in the tenderest part of his anatomy. Falling back, he whined like a baby.

Syn sucked his breath in sharply between his teeth as he involuntarily jerked and cupped himself. “You’ve got to quit doing that.”

She rolled her eyes. “Why are you bitching? It wasn’t you this time.”

“Let’s just say your last kick at my jewels is still fresh in my memory.” He walked over to the guy and tsked at him. “I know that hurts. She kicks like a mule, huh?” He shook his head.

“What are you going to do to me?” the man asked, his voice trembling.

Shahara frowned while Syn dug around his pack until he found an injector. He held it up in front of his face as if inspecting the dosage. When he looked back at the cringing man, his expression was glacial, deadly. “I’m going to kill you.” He shot him full of the contents.

Shahara’s heart stopped. Was he truly that cold-blooded?

He moved to inject another man on the ground.

Grabbing his arm, she pulled the injector away from the unconscious man’s throat. “What are you doing?”

He looked up with a startled gaze. “C’mon, don’t play the innocent with me. You shot me while I was unarmed.”

“I didn’t kill you.”

He shoved a vial into her hands. “And I’m not killing them. Relax, it’s just a sedative to make sure they don’t come after us for awhile.”

Still skeptical, she glanced at the container in her hand. A slow smile curled her lips as she read the label. He was being honest. “Then why did you lie to him?”

“Why not? He’s lucky I didn’t kill him. Anyone else would have.”

More footsteps approached. Shahara held her breath, waiting to see if it was more attackers. She tossed Syn his blaster, which he caught with one hand before he stepped back into the shadows.

Bracing herself, she waited for them to approach.

Instead of rugged men out to kill them, the two priestesses returned. Mother Anne stayed back while the other one rushed to Syn and drew him into a tight hug. “I know it was foolish to come back, but we had to make sure that you weren’t hurt.”

Syn tightened his arm around her and the expression of appreciation on his face brought a lump to Shahara’s throat. He let go of her and stepped back. “It’s good to see you again, Mother Omera.”

Mother Anne cast a worried grimace over the men on the ground. “Are they dead?”

He scratched his cheek. “Resting. They’ll be up and about in six or seven hours.” He looked at Shahara. “Which doesn’t give us that much of a head start. So if you’ll excuse us?”

“Sheridan?” Mother Omera put her hand on his arm to keep him from withdrawing. “You have done us proud.”

Syn paused at words that meant a lot to him, but they were wholly untrue and undeserved. “No, but I intend to.” With that, he led Shahara back to the end of the catacombs and pulled the release for the secret entrance so that they could leave this place.

Shahara frowned up at him. “Are you all right? I’m getting a weird vibe from you.”

“I feel about normal.” He stooped to crawl through the opening.

Shahara sighed. Well, that was certainly ambiguous enough. As she followed him through the entrance, she stopped. This time she knew the odor that filled her nose with a rotten, sour smell. “We’re in a sewer?”

“Did I forget to mention to you that we’d have to go through the sewers to reach the landing bay?”

She narrowed her gaze at him, wanting to beat him to the ground. “You forget to mention a lot of things.”

He laughed.

Vik came to rest on her shoulder. “Don’t feel bad, Lady Bones. He forgets to tell me things, too. Like the fact that he wasn’t going to come back and get me.”

Syn turned away from them. “I’m obviously outnumbered, so before you two combine forces and kill me, I’m walking this way.” He paused to look back at her. “You want Vik to light the way again?”

She paused as she heard creatures scurrying in the darkness. “Depends. How many furry, little critters will I see run away when he turns it on?”

“Let’s just say, if the thought of them makes you squeamish, you might want to wait.”

Her stomach dropped. She’d just been kidding but now that she thought about it . . .

A hundred horror stories of vile things in sewers flashed through her mind. Were they rodents or something far more sinister? “Do they attack?”

“Not as long as we keep moving.”