“Pull back. Keep them after me and away from my family until reinforcements arrive.” He pinned Bastien with a hard stare. “If I die, go out with a major body count.”

“My kind of plan.”

Hauk took a few minutes to siphon fuel from the two airbees on board the skimmer and add it to the ones they’d ridden in with.

“If you need a good defensive place to lead them to, there’s an old abandoned base not that far from here where I make my home.”

“Bredeh’s?”

Bastien furrowed his brow. “You know it?”

Hauk laughed at the bitter irony. “Yeah, I do. It’s where I sent my family.”

“Oh. Damn. Hope they don’t find my porn.”

Hauk arched a brow.

“I’m kidding. I have it all locked up.”

Laughing again, he shook his head. “You have been alone far too long.”

Bastien sobered. “Yeah, I have. It’s good to be around people again.”

“Not people, human.”

“Not human, either, brother. Lost my humanity a long time ago when I got betrayed into this hell of a life.” Bastien glanced back to where they’d left the majority of bodies. “The caves will give us some cover, but trap us in an attack.”

“Yeah. We’re in the middle of the great Oksanan desert. Not a lot here, period.”

“Nothing but buzzards and raiders,” Bastien agreed. “Look, I know you don’t want to chance leading them to your family. But I’m thinking that we can use the old transmitter at the base to signal your girlfriend’s transport back from the city.”

Hauk went cold at those words. “What do you mean?”

“The blond who joined you? I couldn’t really make out her features, but she came in locally, right?”

“You saw her arrive?”

Bastien nodded. “She was dropped off a little ways from your camp a few days ago… You look like you had no idea.”

That’s because he hadn’t. “What all did you see?”

Bastien shrugged nonchalantly. “It was a small transport. Looked like it came out of one of the cities here. Didn’t appear space-worthy. It lacked shielding and…” His voice trailed off as he met Hauk’s gaze. “Why are you so pissed now?”

His breathing labored, Hauk felt sick. “Because I think I just handed my kids off to my worst enemy.”

And when he got his hands on Sumi, he was going to show her exactly what happened to people who ran afoul of an Andarion’s wrath.

CHAPTER 16

“Can’t we stop yet?” Darice whined as he intentionally dragged his feet in the sand.

Again.

And again Sumi shook her head. Even though it was late and she was exhausted herself, she didn’t dare make camp right now. “We have to find someplace to sleep that’s not out in the open.”

“But I’m so tired.”