Do Or Die [Nuworld 4] (49 page)

in Bryton? Yet, the man just claimed that she was one of his bastards. There was no way

that could be true. Her mama died birthing her and she knew her papa loved her mama

dearly and mourned her death for many winters.

“I refuse to acknowledge blood from the likes of you. You disgrace your bloodline

and then falsely claim more bastards. You disgust me.” Gilroy didn’t even react to the

blow one of the men gave him in his back.

Meah flinched. “If he’s your son why are you treating him like this? Let him stand.

Does he not get his warrior blood from you? Take him on as a warrior instead of having

all these men do your dirty work for you.”

Arien curdled her blood once again with an evil laugh. “Is she this feisty under the

blankets, my boy?”

Gilroy spat at him.

Arien shrugged. “It doesn’t much matter whose seed it was. She carries my

grandchild either way. Don’t you see, Gilroy? You’re played for the fool to that

lawbreaking scoundrel. Look at the two of you, I say. It’s obvious you’re of one blood

with your coal-black hair and fair eyes and skin, it is. Andru made his choices carefully,

oh yes. If he sires your children or if you sire his children, no one will be the wiser. The

children will look like their parents, they will. Oh, don’t look at me like that, no. I got

word of the Bachula. Our spies are deep, they are. But we’ll stop this, I daresay. There’s

too much power with the Runners attached to the Gothman. It was wrong for Darius to

chain our race to them and now is the time for sovereignty, it is. The Blood Circle Clan

will go down, and with it all ties to Gothman will be dissolved. I’m not the one who’s

tainted my bloodline. Lord Darius claimed a Runner, he did. His heir to Gothman is a

half-breed and now he claims a Runner? Another generation or so and we’ll have a full-

blooded Runner leading Gothman, we will.”

“Is that what this is all about?” Meah half whispered. “You’re going to try and take

out the Bryon clan?”

Arien pointed at Meah and looked at Gilroy. “Do you see it, my boy? The Bryon

clan, she says. Gothman don’t have clans. Already the races are turning into one race,

they are. Do you want your woman to have all the rights that she has? Shouldn’t it be

you that leads the Runners since you’ve claimed the heir? Of course not, it will be her

brother, because he would have claimed her if he could. You’re a pawn, boy. Join me.

Denounce Lord Darius and his heir. Look, claim your bastard sister here. Rumor has it

she could carry your child anyway, yes.”

Meah heard about all she could stomach. She couldn’t stand there and allow Gilroy

to be berated by his papa. By standing here, she was acting no better than the Gothman

woman they wanted her to be. She made a conscious decision at that moment. It was a

painful decision but one she was faced with and knew once she started there would be

no turning back.

Her back was to the table she’d been sitting on and no one was behind her. Slowly,

she worked a small knife up from the back of her pants. The small weapon was easily

concealed in her hand while she waited for Arien to turn. There would only be one

chance and she couldn’t make it a bad one.

“Who leads you?” Gilroy asked as he spat blood.

“This is my army, son. It could be yours, yes. We’ll help fight this war and then take

back Bryton for Gothman, we will. It will be a glorious battle.” Arien leaned forward

and grabbed Gilroy by the hair pulling his head up so he could look at him. “Join me.

Claim this woman and take your place by my side. No other laws apply to you

anymore, I say.”

“No one claims me unless I say they do,” Meah shouted. “Now, let him go.”

Arien threw Gilroy’s head back and turned on Meah. He grabbed her by the neck

and lifted her off the ground. “You’ll learn real fast where your place is, wench. Half of

your blood is Gothman and it’s high time you learned how a Gothman woman behaves,

yes.”

“If you were so worried about how I behaved then I think you would have taken

me under your wing a long time ago.” Meah could hardly be heard as Arien squeezed

her neck. She had one hand on Arien’s hand and her other hand close to her waist.

“Don’t think of yourself as anyone special. If Gilroy won’t claim you then you

might do nicely as a mistress but that’s about it, I’m thinking.”

Meah made her move. She slid the small knife forward in her hand and then thrust

with all her might right into Arien’s genitals. Surprisingly, he didn’t release her neck

right away. The large Gothman bent over slightly and his eyes grew wide as he stared

at her. As his grasp lightened and his strength weakened, her feet slowly found the

ground. She pulled her laser from her waist and immediately took out two of the

guards. One of the guards let go of Gilroy and lunged for her but she dived behind

Arien’s massive body and fired again.

As another guard fell, Gilroy freed himself and with several hard punches into the

side of one man’s head, he eliminated another guard. Then he pulled his laser and

eliminated the remaining men. Arien coughed and held his groin while blood streamed

down his leg, soaking his brown pants with a blackish-red stain. Gilroy walked over to

him and kicked him so he fell to his side, still holding his groin. He fell with a loud thud

and a low moan from the pain.

“I find it rather ironic that one of your bastards should do this to you.” Gilroy’s

voice was oddly calm. He added with a chuckle, “Especially a female who certainly

isn’t smart enough to learn how to fight like a true warrior.”

“I’m not your bastard,” Meah said as she moved in on him and aimed her laser at

his head. “Admit that I’m not your bastard.”

Arien shook his head and coughed. “A little less than twenty winters ago, we came

across a small group of Runners tracking the land for their clan. They were mostly

women and we surely didn’t know anything about Runners.” The large man managed

a chuckle but blood spilt from his mouth and he choked out several congested coughs.

“We thought we’d have some fun. And we did. What a surprise we were in for. Those

women took us on. Your mama told me to come back the next day.”

“Liar,” Meah hissed and straightened both of her hands as she aimed for Arien’s

nose.

“Adri was so beautiful and wild. I never knew a woman…could be like that. She

wasn’t too much further with child than you are now when she told me she carried my

child. I went to her again but found she’d died and left a daughter.” Arien was barely

able to spit out the words when Gilroy aimed his laser and blew Arien’s head clear off

his body and slammed it up against the tent behind them. He reached down into his

papa’s shirt pocket and pulled out the man’s comm then wiped the blood that got on

his hand off on his papa’s shirt.

“Come on, I’m sure we’re not safe here.” He grabbed Meah’s wrist and ran down

the row of tents before dodging in between two of them.

“Gilroy, I’m…”

“Not now,” he ordered and put the comm over his ear. He didn’t want her

sympathy and he sure didn’t want to discuss the possibility of them being related, not

right now.

As soon as the comm was over his ear, he realized it was on an open transmission.

Shit! Not only had he kept his transmission open so his soldiers would know where

they were, his papa apparently had done the same thing. He heard something through

the comm and shot a look at Meah. She was focusing on their surroundings, her laser

pulled. She caught his glance and looked up at him questioningly.

“Who is this?” Gilroy’s tone was no more than a low growl.

“Son of Arien, I assume.” A deep baritone voice came through clearly. “You were a

fool not to accept your papa’s offer, Gilroy. Contact your people and tell them to

prepare for surrender. We’ll be quick and merciful, but you are surrounded.”

“Who is this?” Gilroy spat but the words out, but to no avail, the transmission went

dead.

“What is it?” Meah asked, but just then laser fire shot through the air and both of

them dived to the ground.

Quickly, Gilroy ripped Arien’s comm from his head and replaced it with his own.

“Andru…where are you?” Gilroy still spoke in his comm. “Yes. We’ll work our way

through here. The leader of this camp is dead.” A short pause. “Arien,” he said and was

glad Andru didn’t show any sign of aggravation or sympathy over the knowledge that

Gilroy’s papa had proven traitor.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The Gothman camp turned into a battle zone within minutes. Chaos seemed to be

everywhere. Gilroy was actually surprised his papa didn’t do a better job of organizing

his troops. There appeared to be no second-in-command, and if there was, he’d

abandoned his men or they were ignoring his commands.

“Stay behind me,” Gilroy barked to Meah and held his arm out as a protective

shield as they ran from their hiding place and through the maze of tents.

Meah had no intention of letting Gilroy fight single-handedly through this campsite

and protect her at the same time. They’d never make it out alive. She pulled the

skintight mask back over her head and straightened the cape so that it fell around her.

She pulled her comm out and stuffed it underneath the mask so the thin wire moving

down to her mouth was barely visible. She then ran after Gilroy with her cape flying

out behind her.

Laser fire plummeted from the sky and they both looked up to see a rather large

army on gliders swarming toward them. Eliminators shot up from several locations in

the camp.

“That’s one of my troops,” Meah howled as a handful of her warriors fell to the

ground and bounced.

“Where are you going?” Gilroy screamed through the growing noise of disturbing

confusion.

Meah fired relentlessly on the Gothman who managed the eliminators. Gilroy

caught up with her in time to take out one of the two men holding the large weapons.

“They don’t want anything to do with Runners but they’ll use our weapons.” Fury

showed in her eyes, the only part of her face that was visible. She tossed one of the

eliminators to Gilroy and struggled to put the other one under her arm.

“Are you going to be able to run with that thing?” Gilroy frowned as he watched

the small woman in front of him try and navigate the large weapon under her arm and

still hold a laser in each hand.

She looked up at him, her frustration showing through her determined gaze. He

didn’t bat an eye as he took the second eliminator from her. “Crator made our bodies