Page 37 of Blade
As one, they turned and began walking toward the ship, still silent. Margie held Jeval’s hand tightly. Talon and Jessica checked each other’s weapons. Marik and Jenny carried bags filled with medicines and as Tara watched Marik lifted a hand and placed it on the back of Jenny’s neck for just a brief second.
Renall had stayed behind in order to help get the city’s shattered systems backup in place so that the survival of its citizens would be more assured. Drake was there, though. He strode directly ahead of all of them. Tara studied him covertly. He was taller than Blade, and slightly less broad of shoulder and chest, but equally lean of hip and waist. His hair was the same jet-black color, and his face bore a striking resemblance to Blade’s, but there was a sense of aloofness and reserve about Drake that was not present in Blade.
Blade did not trust his brother.
Drake trusted none of them.
How she knew that, she was not sure, but every instinct told her that this was a thing that was not based on trust, but on duty, and that if anyone was the betrayer she had dreamed of, it would be Drake.
That made her shiver again, and she swore a silent vow. If Drake did anything to harm Blade, she would kill him herself and do it without a shred of guilt.
They reached the ship. They walked up the short steps through the bay doors. Tara paused and turned around. Death and destruction was everywhere, but there were also survivors there, all of them eager and willing to continue the fight. All of them eager and willing to rebuild the city and to make it into something better than what it had been before. That gave her hope and a determination that she had not known she could have. She would not fail these people. She could not fail them.
The bay doors closed and the ship shuddered and then began to lift upward off the ground, its engines vibrating and its outer walls tightening into place as the shields went up.
Blade’s arm went around her waist and pulled her closer. They stood there together at the windows watching as the planet fell away into the distance and the darkness of space surrounded them.
The ship zoomed into the first of a series of wormholes as it headed toward its uncertain destination.
