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  FIERCE RADIANCE

  Space Confederation 1

  Tymber Dalton

  MENAGE AMOUR

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Amour

  FIERCE RADIANCE

  Copyright © 2010 by Tymber Dalton

  E-book ISBN: 1-60601-782-9

  First E-book Publication: February 2010

  Cover design by Jinger Heaston

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2010 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter from Tymber Dalton

  Regarding Ebook Piracy

  Dear Readers,

  I love writing and taking my readers on a ride through my imagination. I’m also blessed that this is my “evil day job.” Unfortunately, file sharing and file piracy seriously impacts my ability to make a living at what I do. For those of you who have legally purchased this as an e-book from my publisher, thank you from the bottom of my heart. For those of you who didn’t, please remember that if I can’t continue to earn a living doing this, I’ll have to get a “real” job. Frankly, I’d rather continue bringing you the stories you love to read. So please support me and other authors by only legally purchasing electronic copies. If you want to share your copy, wait until the print version comes out and buy that.

  Please educate yourself about file piracy and help spread the word to protect your favorite authors.

  With deep gratitude,

  Tymber Dalton

  DEDICATION

  For the only man in my life, who wears many hats, holds my heart, and suffers his way through reading my m/m scenes all in the name of love.

  FIERCE RADIANCE

  Space Confederation 1

  TYMBER DALTON

  Copyright © 2010

  Chapter One

  Long, reddish-brown hair, matching the little girl’s large brown eyes, flowed past her shoulders. She giggled as her older brother, Agnath, playfully held a cookie just out of reach over her head.

  “Jump for it, Little One. Aine, jump!” He teasingly drew out the first syllable of her name in his usual playful way. Annnnnnya. Their parents had given them old family names. He quit counting the times he corrected people who wanted to spell hers “Anya.” She lived up to her name’s meaning—radiant. She was a radiant child, bringing smiles to those around her. Never petulant or bratty, always sweet and well behaved.

  She giggled as she snatched the treat from his hand, quickly drawing her arms in as he scooped her up and gave her the usual tickling.

  He spun her around. “You will be a whole four years old next week, Little One. I’ll have to give you a birthday spanking.” He’d talked to his parents and found a simple recipe for a birthday cake. Her presents were already safely wrapped and stashed in a compartment in their parents’ closet.

  “Nooo, Aggie! No spanking!” she squealed as he spun her. At sixteen, Agnath knew she saw him as an adult through her little eyes. With his basic studies completed until the new dependents’ college campus opened in three years, his only responsibility while their parents worked as mine engineers was to care for his little sister and the house.

  Not that he’d ever admit it to his friends, but he didn’t mind in the least. He loved his baby sister. He wanted her to have the carefree childhood he didn’t get.

  He kissed the top of her head before gently setting her on her feet and holding out his hand. “Come on, Little One. We need to go start dinner.”

  Their parents would return home in an hour. The Apaphax 4 diryllium mines ran around the clock, but because they had young children on-planet with them, Margo and Lyrill Padron could work the same shift during the day and be with their family in the evenings.

  The two siblings walked down the hill from the bakery shop. Agnath carried a small cloth bag of fresh bread for their evening meal and his parents’ lunch the next day. They were almost home when a loud rumbling sound, followed by an earth-quaking explosion, broke the relative quiet of the residential neighborhood kept separate from the mining company’s harsher processing and freight districts.

  Aine jumped and let out a terrified scream. “What was that?”

  He immediately scooped her into his arms and ran back up the hill. In the distance, beyond the barren valley that marked the start of the mining sector, an ominously large, dark cloud of smoke arose from behind the foothills.

  From the direction of the mines.

  Others stepped out of the shops and small company houses. Agnath walked over to Mr. Tansy, who ran the produce market.

  “What happened?” Agnath asked.

  Grim-faced as the faint sound of warning sirens drifted across the valley to them, the grocer shook his head and glanced at the little girl cradled in Agnath’s arms. “Take her home, Aggie. Lock your doors.”

  Agnath’s face drew tight. There’d been rumors of raiders hitting diryllium mines throughout the sector. With Confederation forces too far away to render assistance, the mining company hired mercenary fighters to help. They were slow to arrive.

  Aine dropped the remains of her cookie and wrapped her arms around her brother’s neck. “What’s wrong, Aggie?”

  He nuzzled her nose with his. “Don’t worry, Little One. I’ll keep you safe. I promise.”

  * * * *

  Agnath did as Mr. Tansy suggested. Praying all was well despite the disturbing development of finding communications lines inoperable, the teen set about keeping his little sister occupied as he prepared their evening meal and kept her on her normal routine. When his parents didn’t arrive at their usual time, he tried to distract Aine from looking out the windows by activating the protective shutters and setting the replacement vids to an undersea program. The fish usually distracted her.

  Not tonight.

  She sat in her chair at the table, her brow furrowed with worry. He sat next to her and curled a lock of her long hair around his finger. “Your face will freeze like that, Little One.”

  “Are they hurt?”

  Nearing dark and still no word from his parents. He’d heard the rumble of large vehicles pass in the street outside th
eir house, a discordant and unusual sound at any time of day, and especially eerie now.

  “I don’t know, Little One. Let’s not think that. You need to eat.”

  He finally coaxed her into eating half of what she normally did and bribed her with an extra helping of fruit pudding for dessert. Three hours past sunfall, a soft knock sounded on their door.

  Aine was distracted watching a vid in the den. Agnath took hold of the plasma pistol before he looked through the peephole. Their neighbor, Jahn Darxon, stood on their stoop and looked nervous and filthy.

  Agnath quickly let him in and quietly shut the door behind him. In his heart he knew. If his parents were safe they would have found a way home or sent word for their children not to worry.

  “Tell me,” the teen demanded without hesitation.

  Jahn grimly shook his head. “I’m sorry, Aggie. Raiders. Me and ten others got out because we were on the far side of the complex near a transport vehicle. Bastards blasted the main shaft.” He swallowed hard. “Your parents were still inside, on their way up. The hit destroyed the lift system. I’m so sorry. Everyone else died besides us. Over three hundred.”

  Agnath nodded tersely, trying to remember the secret talk his father had with him not weeks earlier. What to do, how to best care for the baby. How to be the man should something happen to them. His father suspected a possible raider strike on the mine but hadn’t been able to evacuate their family without available outgoing transports.

  “What’s going on? There’s no news at all.”

  “A group of mercenary fighters arrived and drove most of the raiders off, but there’s talk of the raiders coming back with reinforcements, maybe some left here planet-side. The mercenaries are a very small troop. The merc leader told the district president that their back-ups are several days away. Confederation forces at least two weeks or longer.”

  “Are they evacuating the families?”

  “They can’t yet. The raiders destroyed the main transports at the passenger depot. Freighters aren’t allowed to take us since the raiders were mostly driven off. Confederation doesn’t consider it a ‘dire emergency.’ The mercs are in a small troop jumper. They’re hoping they can get us all out in two days, but you need to get over to the east freight depot. They’ve got it heavily guarded. All the families are assembling there for the evac.”

  “That’s on the other side of the district!”

  “I know.” He looked past Agnath to the den doorway. Agnath turned and saw Aine standing there, clutching her stuffed bear in her arms.

  “They’re not coming home, are they?” she asked.

  When he knelt down and motioned to her, she slowly drifted across the kitchen floor and took refuge in his arms. He hugged her tightly and closed his eyes as he fought his tears. He shouldn’t cry in front of her. She needed him.

  He promised his father to protect her with his life.

  Jahn dropped his voice. “I’m going across to Parton’s house. They both died. He once told me where he stashed his weapons. I’ll bring you something.”

  Agnath nodded. “Thanks.” All he had was the customary plasma pistol. His father wasn’t a huge believer in weapons.

  Hadn’t been, he corrected himself.

  Jahn let himself out. Agnath stood, Aine in his arms, and backed against the door before fumbling for the lock.

  Aine hadn’t cried yet, but her soft sniffling signaled the impending storm.

  “Please don’t leave me, Aggie.”

  His tears slipped down his cheeks. He kissed her forehead, her cheeks. “You’re all I’ve got, Little One. You think I’ll leave you alone to finger paint the ceiling, think again.”

  She laughed, but her tears started and they cried together until Jahn knocked again.

  Agnath let him in. The man set a plasma rifle and three boxes of cartridges on the table. “I’ve got the rest. I need to find my brother’s kids.” He studied Aine, watching Agnath stroke her long hair. “Do you want some of my son’s old clothes for her?”

  Agnath’s eyes snapped open in shock. Jahn’s grimly calculating look told the teen more than his unspoken words.

  “Is it that bad?”

  Jahn nodded. “I’ve heard some reports. Or rumors. I don’t know. Better safe than sorry.”

  Agnath nodded.

  Jahn left again and returned less than an hour later with a small satchel. “I wish I could take you kids with me, but now I have mine, my brother’s, and my wife’s sister’s kids to take care of. Thank the gods my wife had the day off.”

  “I understand.” Agnath looked into the living room. Aine lay on the couch, where she cried herself to sleep a few minutes earlier.

  Jahn dropped his voice. “Get to the east freight depot. It’s rough going on foot, but you can make it in less than a day. They’ll keep you with her since you’re her only family. That’s another reason I can’t take you with us, you know that.”

  Left unsaid, the Confederation rule that in emergencies where merc forces had been called in, healthy male residents sixteen or older could be forcibly conscripted—unless the sole caretaker of a minor child.

  With both sets of grandparents dead, and with no aunts and uncles, they were alone.

  * * * *

  By the next morning, after a sleepless night packing and preparing, Agnath whittled down what he had to take into a knapsack. Knowing the little girl and that he’d probably have to carry her at some point, he didn’t take anything but bare necessities—the electronic cards holding all their family pictures and vids, their identity and custody documents, and extra plasma cartridges for the weapons. That would leave him able to carry their gear and her.

  When he awoke her before sunrise, he gave her a quick bath, a light breakfast, and dressed her in Jahn’s son’s clothes. They were a little big on her, but once he bound her hair into a knot on top her head and stuck a cap on her, she could pass for a young boy.

  Her face looked solemn. “Can I take my bear?”

  “Of course you can.”

  She threw her arms around his legs. She hadn’t asked him for details about what happened to their parents, hadn’t cried since last night. “I love you, Aggie! I’m never leaving you!”

  He scooped her into his arms for a hug and a kiss, then set her on her feet. “I’m never leaving you, either, Little One.” He took one last look around before he shouldered the knapsack, holstered the pistol on his hip, and slung the rifle across his back. “Ready for adventure?”

  She hugged her bear and grabbed his hand. “We leaving?”

  “Yes.” He sighed. “We have to.”

  He studied maps after packing and realized they could make the east freight depot in half a day if they cut through the processing sector. It would be more dangerous, but in the long run it would lessen the risk to them both if it reduced their travel time and got them to the depot faster. There were no available land transports. His parents had taken theirs to the mine.

  After an hour, he heard explosions and deep rumblings in the distance. They saw no one on the streets, the district eerily still around them. In the growing heat of the day, sweat ran down his back and darkened his shirt where it touched his skin.

  Aine clutched her bear and huddled close to Agnath’s leg. Then he heard the sound of a vehicle.

  He grabbed her hand and ducked around a fence behind an abandoned processing plant. A minute later, a loud, open rover carrying six well-armed men rolled by. From the looks of the vehicle and its occupants, they weren’t mercs.

  Raiders.

  They stopped half a block down and backed up.

  “This way, I think. I know I saw something on the sensors.”

  Agnath tried to stay calm. He unshouldered the pack, deactivated the safety on the rifle, and turned to Aine. “You know our hide and seek game?”

  She nodded, her eyes wide in fear.

  “This isn’t a game anymore. You must be totally silent and stay here. Do not move. Understand?”

  She nodded
again.

  He crept around the corner and tried to keep his anger from ruining his aim. He laid the rifle barrel over the top of a packing crate and sighted on the back of the driver’s head. The first shot took him out. The vehicle spun out of control into a concrete barrier.

  Seven more shots quickly finished off the other five men before they could free themselves from the rover. For extra measure Agnath put an extra shot into the head of one who didn’t look badly injured, even though he wasn’t moving.

  It felt good. At least the class in weaponry the year before paid off.

  Aine, wide-eyed and trembling, huddled in her hiding spot. Agnath reshouldered the pack but left the rifle at the ready. Scooping her into his arms, he kissed her forehead. “It’s okay, Little One.”

  “Are they gone?”

  “I took care of them. We must stay totally silent from this point forward. Understand?”

  She nodded.

  He forced a smile and rubbed noses with her. “My radiant little sister. You’re a very good girl, you know that?” Her hair had come loose and flowed down her shoulders, but he couldn’t take time to rebind it.

  She straightened her cap. “I love you,” she whispered.

  “I love you, too, Little One. Let’s go.”

  * * * *

  They found a merc checkpoint on the other side of the processing sector. One man stepped forward. He had nasty grey eyes and wore a dirty, ragged merc uniform. Agnath didn’t like the way he eyed his baby sister.

  “Where are you going, kid?”

  Agnath turned slightly, putting himself between the man and Aine on his hip. “To the east freight depot. I was told we had to go there to wait for off-planet evac.”