Mesmerized by Lauren Dane

from their sector. Bright, quick boys whose talents were wasted by the way things were for them. At first it was fun and silly, but the older they’d all gotten, the more some of them began to resent the way their future was so narrow. That resentment had sent more than one of them to lockup.
    Kenner had learned his lesson after Andrei had disappeared, thank the gods. With a sigh, she flopped onto her side, trying to get comfortable. Andrei had been part of her life, part of every single day, and then he hadn’t. Kenner had been thoroughly dissuaded from that potential violent life by that absence. Until that afternoon, anyway.
    But what happened that afternoon was not common. Not anything she wanted in her life. Thieving was one thing; killing was another thing entirely. Her sum total of experience with authority was hiding what she did from them. But these men, these soldiers sent from the Imperium were out to kill everyone in her compound. People she and her brothers felt responsible for.
    Andrei had protected them. All of them. He didn’t seem comfortable with the praise Taryn and Kenner had sent his way, but they all knew what he’d done. What would have happened had he not come along when he did?
    All about Andrei, connected to him on some level. His return had only underlined just how empty her life was outside work. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been excited by a man’s presence.
    And agitated. Enraged. Begrudgingly charmed by the nearly wild boy transformed into a quiet, watchful man who carried death in his hands like it was common. He was dangerous. It came off him in waves.
    Gods help her, she liked it. She should run the other way, but she knew she wouldn’t.
     
     
    A ndrei sat at a table near the door, one leg on the surface, the chair tipped, an ale at his left hand. A book in his right. For all outward appearance, a man with not a care in the world. Some might take him for an easy mark here in this bar full of criminals. But most would wonder just what he had to make him so confident in his stance. So utterly unconcerned with danger.
    The smart ones would realize that for the threat it was and give him a wide berth. The rest were dealt with easily enough that he didn’t need to give them much thought.
    What he was thinking about, however, was just how woefully inadequate the security and basic infrastructure at the compound the Roundtrees lived in was. He made a mental note to look around that next sunrise. The guard towers weren’t even manned when he’d come through the gates. They needed more than one cistern, that was for sure. He hadn’t failed to miss Taryn’s blush of guilt when he’d told Andrei they only had the one.
    They sure as seven hells needed to be training two or three of their residents to be medtechs. Being so far from a clinic and medical help, it was a necessity to have personnel capable of triage in case of an emergency. Storms didn’t care if a body broke a leg or received a bad burn. Moreover, the compound had several women of childbearing age and several children. Basic surgical skills would be a welcome thing to have.
    Andrei had been adding to his mental list when he caught movement near the door. Andrei lit a smoke as he waited for Benni to see him there.
    The young man’s gaze casually took in the space as he swaggered in. He caught sight of Andrei far quicker than he had the last time they had worked together. Andrei smiled, satisfied, as he leaned forward and grabbed his ale.
    Benni tossed his bulk into a rickety chair across from him within a few minutes, a fresh ale in his hand.
    “Seems there’s some hiring going on out in the Wastelands.”
    Interest sharpened his wits. The Wastelands were a day’s long drive wide. A vast expanse of the harshest environs Asphodel served. Dust storms skittered all over the basin with winds so high they’d strip flesh from bone in seconds. The heat was extraordinary during half the year and frigid the other