Fated Blades
- Автор: Эндрюс Илона
- Серия: Kinsmen #3
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: Montlake
- ISBN: 9781662500435
- Жанр: Любовно-фантастические романы
Электронная книга - «Fated Blades». Краткое содержание книги:
At first glance, the planet Rada seems like a lush paradise. But the ruling families, all boasting genetically enhanced abilities, are in constant competition for power―and none more so than the Adlers and the Baenas. For generations, the powerful families have pushed and pulled each other in a dance for dominance.
Until a catastrophic betrayal from within changes everything.
Now, deadly, disciplined, and solitary leaders Ramona Adler and Matias Baena must put aside their enmity and work together in secret to prevent sinister forces from exploiting universe-altering technology. Expecting to suffer through their uneasy alliance, Ramona and Matias instead discover that they understand each other as no one in their families can―and that their combined skills may eclipse the risks of their forbidden alliance.
As the two warriors risk their lives to save their families, they must decide whether to resist or embrace the passion simmering between them. For now, the dance between their families continues―but just one misstep could spell the end of them both. (less)
Lukas collapsed in a gush of blood and entrails. Behind her Varden’s body crumpled to the ground, his hands on his neck in a futile attempt to stem the blood spilling from a second mouth Matias had opened in his throat.
It was over. She was so fucking tired.
The silence was deafening.
A moment passed. Another . . .
The crowd roared.
Matias offered her his hand. She gripped it and rose to her feet.
Matias stepped toward Varden. The fallen secare was still alive, clamping his throat.
“Nicola convoy. Eight years ago.”
Varden’s eyes bulged.
“Kurt Sommers and his crew are waiting for you on the other side. Tell them I said hello.”
He slashed Varden’s throat. His head and severed fingers rolled clear.
Fifteen meters away the line of Vandals stared at their beheaded commander.
“Kill!” a voice roared from the balcony.
Ramona jerked her shields up a fraction of a second before the energy fire from the Vandals hit them.
“Ramona?” Matias asked, blocking the barrage next to her.
“How bad?”
“I’m fine. You?”
She gritted her teeth against the pain vibrating in her arm. “Never better.”
“Good. Let’s fucking end this.”
They moved in unison, carving into the Vandal line in front of them, shielded from the crossfire by the mass of the soldiers’ bodies. They worked their way through, turned, took out the group by the other wall, doubled back, and sliced through the front doors. They cut their way up the stairs and burst onto the balcony.
Varden’s two officers and a third soldier to their left, Gabriel and Cassida all the way to the back, on their right.
The huge Vandal soldier hauled a massive cannon to his chest. The plasma launcher fired with a telltale twang. She dashed right, Matias sprinted left. The plasma load landed between them in a brilliant burst of white.
She raced forward, veering in a zigzag. On the right, Matias tore past the group and doubled back. They fell on the three remaining Vandals like blades of shears closing. All three had combat implants. None put up a decent fight, and when she sliced the last of them in half, watching him fall to the ground was almost an afterthought.
Matias dismissed his seco and straightened. His shoulder hurt like hell. The seco had only lightly kissed his skin, but it had left behind a ten-centimeter-long gash that burned like fire. A few millimeters to the side and he would have bled to death by now.
Ramona stabbed the first aid syringe into his arm. He saw her coming and let her do it. A cool current flowed through his veins, soothing the pain.
“Ow,” he said.
She rolled her eyes. Blood drenched her right forearm and caked the back of her hand. Anger punched him the same way it had during the fight, when he’d first realized they’d hurt her. He would not let anyone hurt her again.
She saw him looking at her arm and shrugged. “It happens.”
“Let me see.”
She raised her arm. It didn’t look good.
“You need a medic.”
She made a fist. “It’s fine. I pumped it full of coagulant and painkillers. Same thing I gave you. Stop staring at my arm, Matias. We have unfinished business.”
What?
Oh.
He pivoted toward his wife. The bodyguard next to her held his firearm by the barrel with two fingers and gently lowered it to the ground. “I’m out.”
Matias looked at the remaining guard. “You?”
“Out.” The bodyguard took off nearly running, skirting the bloody bodies. His buddy followed.
Cassida stared at him, her face white as a sheet.
“Hello, dear.”
Her gaze flickered to the bodies. “You . . . you killed all of them. You’re a butcher.”
“Yes.”
“You can’t kill me, Matias. My father—”
“Has left the system by now, I would imagine. In disgrace. Or don’t you watch the news?”
“It was you,” she whispered. “You ruined everything.”
“Yes.” He felt a lot of cold satisfaction from uttering that one word.
She stared at him. “How are you still alive? So many people tried to kill you.”
Her tone was bewildered, as if she truly couldn’t understand why he was standing in front of her. There was no frustration, no anger, just stunned surprise. She was in shock, he realized.
His wife wanted him dead. A week ago, he would have felt something, some splash of bitter emotion, but today it no longer mattered.
“You were supposed to die. Why aren’t you dead?”
He nodded at the plaza below painted red with blood. “Because I killed everyone.”
Slowly she turned to the plaza, then flinched.
“Look very carefully,” he told her.
“I don’t want to,” she whispered.
“This is what secare are. This is what we do. You and your family never understood that.”
She took a step back. Horror twisted her face. Compared to the people she’d gotten in bed with for this deal, he was a saint. But now wasn’t the time to explain it to her.
“The files.” He held out his hand.
She offered no resistance. “I gave them to Varden.”
He stepped to the balcony’s rail. Below, his people and Ramona’s were moving through the bodies strewn over the plaza. He called to Solei’s implant. “Our data banks are on Varden’s body.”
Solei walked out of the crowd and headed for Varden’s corpse. From the other side, Karion did the same.
Matias turned back to his wife. A bit of color had come back to Cassida’s face.
“That’s all you care about, isn’t it? Your stupid company. Your demented research. I ran away with another man, and you don’t even care.”
“On the contrary, I care a great deal.”
“You—”
“Quiet,” he told her.
She winced and clamped her mouth shut.
Solei emerged from the staircase onto the balcony, carrying a tablet. He brought it over and nodded. “Data recovered.”
Karion had performed the same maneuver, offering his own tablet to his sister. Ramona took it. Her face had shut down. Her stare was flat.
Matias wanted to walk over, put his arms around her, and whisper in her ear that they were alive, and everything was going to be fine. Instead, he called up the divorce agreement on his tablet and put it on the table in front of Cassida. “Sign.”
She raised her chin. Her hands trembled. “And if I don’t? Will you kill me?”
“Do you really want to be married to a butcher who ruined your father?”
She shut her eyes, clenched her fists, and faced him. “I want a settlement. It’s in our contract. I’m entitled—”
“No.” Fury sparked in him, but he kept it in check.
“Matias . . .”
“You stole from my family. You betrayed me. You’ll get nothing.”
She recoiled.
“Don’t worry,” Gabriel said. “Varden’s payment should be enough.”
Cassida turned to him. “The transfer never went through.”
Gabriel frowned. “What do you mean?”
“There is nothing in the account,” she told him. “I’ve been watching it, and there is nothing. There was no transfer.”
This was painful.
“There would have been no transfer,” Matias said. “They might have honored their word if your father had remained useful, but without him, you have no leverage.”
“These men slaughter children for personal enjoyment,” Ramona snapped. “They massacre civilians. Why should they pay you when shooting you in the head is so much cheaper and likely more satisfying? Did you not do any basic homework to research the people you were dealing with?”