Harry's Sacrifice by Bianca D'Arc Read Free Book Online

to join the Zxerah Brotherhood fully. Most women come to the Zxerah with little or no self-defense skills, but they’re taught right along with everyone else in the clan. They are trained to the best of their abilities. Since I came in with some skill, I’ve been able to add to that knowledge to the point where I’m now an operative.”
    “Lin is modest. She is one of our best,” the Patriarch added. “She, and others like her, convinced me that emotion—in certain circumstances—can make a good fighter great.”
    The woman blushed, her high cheekbones flushing a dark red under her dusky skin. She was a lovely creature, exotic and skilled, and obviously in love with her partner. Rick saw the little looks, the unspoken communication between them. It was obvious to him that the human pair who’d been spying on them were a couple.
    “She telling the truth?” Rick asked Callie privately.
    “Oh, yeah. She’s really passionate about the Zxerah.”
    “And about her partner if I’m not mistaken.”
    Callie’s mental chuckle warmed his mind. “Good observation, Rick. Those two are putting out waves of heat that are downright combustible.”
    “You are welcome among us,” Callie said out loud to the woman and her partner. “I look forward to learning more now that you’re out in the open.”
    The woman inclined her head. “The way of the Zxerah is the way of the shadow. We have been watching you for a long time. Everything we’ve seen leads me to believe we can be friends. The work you’ve been doing here with humans isn’t very different from what the Patriarch has been doing for many years.”
    “Well.” Callie shifted uncomfortably. “We don’t turn them into assassins.”
    Her tone was laced with steel but was still respectful, which Rick knew had to be a hard thing for her in this particular company. Assassins scared everyone, and these people had undeniable skills. They even gave Rick a creepy feeling.
    “For the record,” Lin said, laying her hand on the table and leaning forward to emphasize her point, “human members of the Brotherhood are not sent on assassination missions. In fact, any Zxerah can refuse a mission if it goes against their personal beliefs. The human Brethren talked about this early on and we all agreed we wouldn’t participate in murder. Certain Alvian members of the clan feel differently—or perhaps I should say, they don’t feel anything really. Maybe that’s why they can still fulfill the rare requests of the Council.”
    Rick, Callie and Davin met her declaration with surprised silence.
    “I didn’t want you to operate under the wrong assumptions,” Lin concluded, clearly done saying what she’d wanted to say.
    The conversation turned to different things, but the specter of assassins remained, along with the choices made—and allowed to be made, if these people were to be believed—by the human members of the Brotherhood.
    Davin sent the Patriarch on his way shortly thereafter, with a satchel of untraceable communication crystals. They were simple crystals that communicated only with each other and could be used by whatever groups of humans they managed to find. Davin also gave the Patriarch a special code for a direct channel so they could talk freely without monitoring. A small amount of trust had already formed. A true alliance might not be very far behind. And where that would lead, Rick had no idea.

Chapter Three
    When Ronin got back to his base in what had once been called California, a report from the operative he’d sent to check the old NORAD site in Colorado was waiting for him. Gina was a human adoptee of the Zxerah clan and one of their most gifted martial artists. She’d been trained by her father—an Olympic Gold Medalist—before the cataclysm and had proven herself many times over among the Brotherhood.
    Ronin had sent her out a few weeks before to make contact with the enclave of human survivors holed up in an old military base inside a