THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

hidden from the world. Grief welled up in his throat until he couldn’t breathe.
    His amazing, gifted brother, the one expected to take over the Warrior House. The one who possessed all the attributes of a leader his people would follow.
    Not me . But Callan would do whatever it took to protect these children and find a way home. Too many had died. No more.
    “Callan.”
    When he shook off the suffocating grief, he found Rayen squatting in front of him.
    For the past year, he’d worked himself twice as hard as any other warrior he trained for the simple reason that it kept him from thinking. And feeling.
    This strange girl had done this to him. Made him feel.
    He lifted a calloused thumb to stroke the soft skin on her cheek.
    The sound of her voice soothed the beast that wanted out to rampage and kill his enemies. She whispered, “I understand your pain. I’d probably feel the same way if I lost a brother or sister that way.”  She lifted her hand and touched his arm. “I’m not judging you. I only wanted you to think twice before condemning an innocent person.”
    Callan lifted his other hand to her face, holding it there in indecision. He wanted to touch his lips to hers, to feel the warmth radiating from her.
    “Are you at a disadvantage, Callan?” a young voice called from the doorway. 
    Rayen stood quickly and backed away.
    Callan took a breath, shaking off the strange feeling that had come over him and called out, “No, I’m ready to meet.”  He stood, angling his head toward the door and said, “This is V’ru of the Records House. He’ll tell me who you are.”

CHAPTER 29
     
    Staring at wonder boy V’ru, I wanted to ask Callan if he was the one playing games now. Was he serious about taking advice from some boy whose head didn’t reach my shoulder and who wasn’t even in his teens yet?
    V’ru was gangly stick arms and legs, huge brown eyes and a toothy smile that fell away the minute he stared up at me. He wore a cloth wound around him that brought the word “toga” to mind, but he was so skinny the loose clothing looked as though someone had wrapped a stick with a napkin. His thick black hair fell mop-like into his face as one small hand kept shoving it out of his eyes.
    This was the all-knowing wise one?
    “V’ru, this person is known as Rayen,” Callan said, by way of finishing introductions.
    “How old is he?” I muttered, seeing my fate in the hands of a kid who would topple over if I blew on him. Not just my fate, but Tony’s, too, if Mathias showed up with the Jersey Jerk captured.
    “ He is eleven years of age and prefers to be spoken to directly rather than treated as though he does not hear you,” V’ru said, as though admonishing a small child.
    I lifted my hands and struggled to keep a straight face. “No insult meant.”
    V’ru merely dipped his head slightly, accepting the apology, which caused his hair to slip into his eyes again, then stepped forward to ask Callan, “How may I assist you?”
        “We found Rayen and two other unknowns at a new transender location today. We have determined the other female in the trio to be Hy’bridt.”  
    That garnered a slight slant of V’ru’s eyebrows in surprise before Callan continued. “We suspect the male with them to be TecKnati.” Callan glanced at me as if to say, see, I can be fair, too .
    Even though I now better understood his rabid hatred of his enemies, I still couldn’t allow anyone to take the life of someone who had not personally caused harm, or judge him based on what others had done. I was betting my life that Tony was not TecKnati. Sure, the Jersey Jerk could be a pain, but that didn’t warrant a death sentence.
    I considered it a move in the right direction that Callan had used the word “suspect,” but that may only have been to prevent me from protesting further.
    V’ru held himself very straight, his fragile hands now clasped behind his back. He spoke as if he stood before elders six times his age. “And what do you know of this one?”
    This one? I lifted a hand. “Stop right there. I’m not this one . If you don’t want me to refer to you as if you aren’t here then call me by my name. Rayen.”
    V’ru’s eyes rounded even more at the order. “I see what you have had to suffer, Callan.”
    What did that mean?
    Callan gave V’ru a friendly look unlike anything I’d seen cross his face since meeting me. He clearly had a fondness for this kid. “It’s not so bad,