that ridiculous amount of time wasted, where any minute she expected someone to come through the door, she was able to start on the lock. Which took almost as long before she felt the click and saw the door swing open.
Serenity blew out a careful breath and poked her head out enough to see that the halls of her prison were clear of watchers. She stepped out.
Two ways to go, she picked one at random and turned right. She slowed down when she heard voices and stopped altogether and pressed herself closer to the wall when she heard one she thought she recognized.
She was still straining to hear when a voice she definitely recognized growled low, close enough behind her that she almost felt his body heat at her back. “Running again, little healer?”
She closed her eyes and thunked her forehead against the wall she was leaning against. Then turned so that her back was to the wall and she was looking up into the assessing eyes of Nolan Rand’s hunter.
“Just trying to figure out how much trouble I’m in this time,” she assured him, her voice resigned. “I take it the rebellion was behind the attack on Cronos.”
“A few bombs in strictly military areas,” another voice said from the hall behind her, she turned her head to see Nolan Rand himself, looking much more put together than the last time she had seen him. Both men were dressed in all black and she had a feeling if they threw a uniform jacket like her own over the black skintight undershirts and black trousers tucked into shiny black boots they could pass for OIP soldiers quite easily. “A mere distraction. Just enough damage to cause the Order to come running,” he assured her.
“You killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds of others,” she said, appalled by his apathy. “You call that a mere distraction?”
He shrugged, his mage eyes assessing her even as he spoke. “It served our purpose and had the unexpected benefit of bringing my favorite healer to Cronos.” He smiled, a charming curve of his lips for her benefit. “An unexpected bonus. I had thought we would have to go all the way back to Earth to find you again.” He stepped closer and took her hand, bowing over it with a squeeze as if they were old friends. “Whispers of a beautiful angel that healed a legion of wounded with a wave of her hand reached us almost too late.”
Serenity blinked at the description but let it go. “The medaids that were with me?” she asked fearing the worst. The way they had hovered she doubted Meg and Marte left her alone to be taken while she was vulnerable.
“Knocked unconscious but otherwise unharmed,” he assured her. “We do not make war on noncombatants.
Serenity blew out a relieved breath. “And now?”
“Now?” he asked with a raise of an eyebrow over eyes that crackled with satisfaction and power. “Now we get you out of that ridiculous uniform and you start healing for the right side.”
“And if I would prefer just to return home. Earth, I mean?” She added in case he was under the impression she meant the OIP.
He was silent as he studied her before he spoke with finality, though not unkindly. “I am afraid Earth is no longer safe for you Serenity. Not when the Order has seen what you can do, and we can’t risk such a powerful healer working for the enemy.”
Serenity looked from the silver eyed mage to the hunter that had been strangely silent and unmoving while she talked with his leader. There was a determination in his eyes that matched Nolan Rand’s. No help there, not that she had expected any. She raised her chin and met Nolan Rand’s eyes again.
“My father once told me there was no real difference between the Order and the resistance when it came right down to it,” she said, her words coated the cold banked anger she knew they could see in her eyes. “Looks like he was right again. How disappointingly predictable.”
Chapter Thirteen
There were a few perks to taking over healing for the Resistance as opposed to the Order. In the twenty days she had been working at the hospital no one had tried to constrict her movements. She was free to wander around outside in the tropical greenery that surrounded the small base. Being on land again was nice, especially as most of those manning the small settlement were wary of the wild beasts