a hand squeezed on the younger gunner’s shoulder.
“Weapons,” Andi said.
The girls lined up side by side, Andi with her swords, Gilly with her gun. Breck unveiled a black short-whip that crackled with light. Lira stood with her fists clenched, appearing weaponless to those who did not know the ways her body could move, lithe as a predator on the hunt. Her scales flashed as she glared at the bridge’s exit.
They waited, determination the only thing keeping them on their feet. On the deck below, the main door of the Marauder opened.
Andi heard the echo of heavy footsteps moving through the narrow halls, climbing up the stairwells. A faint male voice mingled with the footsteps, whispering a command as they drew closer.
Andi saw the first man’s head as he came around the corner. Others followed close behind, soldiers filling the hallway that led to the bridge, all clad in blue Arcardian bodysuits, the white three-triangle badge of the Mirabel Patrolmen on their chests. They held silver rifles against their stomachs and satisfied grins on their faces.
Andi was all too familiar with those rifles and the small electric orbs they released. One shot would paralyze its victim, rendering them helpless against capture by the Patrolmen.
“Hello, boys,” Andi said.
Arcardian or not, she’d see the badges of those who wouldn’t back down stained with blood. It was her crew or her past and—her soul be damned—she would always choose her crew.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” the soldier in front said, his voice calm and cool, as if he were making pleasant conversation.
“Ah,” Andi laughed. “But see, you just interfered with my ship. I don’t take too kindly to that.”
Her attention was pulled away from the man in front of her by the sound of boots tapping against metal. The Patrolmen turned sharply to attention as their commander approached.
This was the man who’d bested her.
This was the man she’d have to kill today.
As he approached, Andi’s chest tightened at the sight of him, tall and muscular and perfectly honed for fighting.
It’s him, said a small, frightened voice in her mind.
Then, as if confirming her suspicions, he stepped out of the darkness, like a demon emerging from hell.
The purest shock spiked in Andi’s veins. Then it melted into fury.
“You,” she growled.
“Me,” Dex said with a shrug.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” Andi whispered. “I left you...”
“Left me to die?” Dex lifted a brow.
She remembered every inch of the angular white constellation tattoos twisting their way across his brown skin, the feel of his strong hands on her body. The memory of him, the pain of her shattered heart. It all twisted into boiling rage as she stared at him, alive and free, on her ship.
Andi’s swords crackled, purple light arcing around the fierce blades. Beside her, the rest of the Marauders tensed and readied themselves for a fight.
“I’m going to kill you,” Andi whispered.
“You can try,” Dex said, shrugging, his once-captivating brown eyes sparkling with laughter. “But we both know how that will turn out.”
She screamed and charged straight at him, not giving a damn if there were twenty or even a hundred heavily armed Arcardian soldiers blocking her path.
She was going to drown Dex Arez in his own blood.
DEX
IT WASN’T EXACTLY the reunion Dex had hoped for.
It’s not like he’d imagined Androma running into his arms and kissing him with the passion of lovers parted for years. Their last moments together hadn’t exactly gone well, what with the whole “Andi soaring away with Dex’s ship, leaving him bleeding and dying on a barren moon” thing.
Then again, he had sold her out to the Patrolmen for her crimes, knowing she’d be sentenced to death upon returning to her home planet.
Love was all well and good, but money was the true key to Dex’s heart.
Still, for what Androma did to him, he should hate her, should want her dead.
But seeing her before him, melting into rage and riot, the smooth metal implants on her cheekbones reflecting the electricity that swam around her swords...
Godstars, she was magnificent; a creature who had released her wrath on the world. It would be worth every drop of blood about to be shed to be the one who finally brought her to the general’s feet.
But as her blades crackled in the too-quiet room, and waves of electricity spiraled around them, Dex wondered if he’d made a mistake. He hadn’t seen her in years, but he’d heard the rumors. He hadn’t known if she truly could wield those weapons with a glory and grace that drew blood and split bones.
But now, as Androma rasped, “I’m going to kill you,” and her words sent a slice of regret cutting through Dex’s heart, he knew.
Gone was the young woman he’d once known, that shivering thing he’d found bruised and broken in the markets of Uulveca.
In her place stood the warrior he’d trained and hardened and turned into something devilishly delicious.
Dex reached for his gun as the Bloody Baroness attacked.
* * *
The world slowed, but Andi moved like a flash of light.
She hurtled her way through the first wave of Patrolmen before they could blink, lashing out her swords, removing smoking limbs from bodies as they screamed and succumbed to the trademark agony of the Bloody Baroness.
Her white hair sprung loose from its braid, the dyed purple streaks almost a blur as she whirled and leaped. She knocked her varillium cuffs into faces, drawing bursts of blood, and kicked her legs out, toppling her opponents like stars falling from the sky.
The Patrolmen finally regained their wits and lifted their rifles to shoot.
An unfortunate weapon they’d chosen. For as soon as they loosed their bullets, the girls dove behind Breck’s towering form. The bullets pinged off her skin, flattening and falling to the floor.
Bless her New Vedan blood, her bulletproof skin.
“You’re going to have to do better than that, gentlemen,” Breck said, hands on her hips, the girls still protected behind her. “What? You’ve never shot at a New Vedan before?”
“Take them out!” Dex shouted. “Save Androma for me.”
His words sent a spike of rage straight through Andi’s heart.
He’d threatened her crew. For that, his life—and the lives of the Patrolmen—were now forfeit.
“Forward!” she shouted. Breck moved, and the girls followed behind as bullets continue to barrage her chest, useless.
A ball of white light shot past Andi’s shoulder. An enemy was blasted backward, already a corpse as he slammed into the door frame.
“Oh, that was a good shot,” Gilly said, giggling and brandishing her double-trigger gun. One trigger killed, one disabled. She blew smoke away from the barrel and grinned as she ducked back behind Breck.
“I want the floor stained with their blood!” Andi yelled to her crew above the chaos.
Gone were her emotions, gone was her heart.
The