by Cara Lake
Irina stopped struggling. “You bastard son of a bitch!” Her voice a low, trembling vibration cutting through his flesh, her eyes glistening liquid gold with unshed tears. “Did you ever care?”
“Irina, calm down,” he cautioned.
“Well, well, War and Peace together again, although you’d be hard-pressed to tell which is which. Not very peaceful is she, Tyr?” Abrasax broke in and at the same time signaled Rusalka, who was looking to charge at Irina again, to stand down. She slunk into the corner to lick her wounds, seething with indignation.
Abrasax pulled Irina away from Tyr. The frozen expression on her face sent a stab of ice straight to his gut, but he had to continue the façade. Irina had stopped struggling the minute Abrasax took hold of her, the fight all but gone, her body left trembling in the aftershock of dissipated fury. He couldn’t bear that Abrasax had his hands on her. Tyr’s nails drew blood as he clenched his fists with barely restrained fury.
Abrasax drew a long nail down Irina’s cheek. “I must thank you, Tyr. Not only did you bring us the pendant but you brought us the lovely Peace as well and she really is quite lovely.” He turned to Cassi, still being held by Moloch. “And we have the added bonus of this particular Eunomi warrior. You’ve been quite a thorn in our side for a while now.”
“Love you too, Abrasax. I didn’t realized I held such a warm place in your heart. If I had I would have come sooner,” said Cassi with a smile.
“Ah, Cassiopeia, you certainly have spirit. I am sure that Choronzon will be quite taken with you. Have you ever been to Chthonia?”
“No, but I hear it’s pretty lively at this time of year and I’ve wanted to meet Choronzon for a long time. They say he’s quite the ladies’ man.”
“Yes, he loves to eat them, my dear. You might be lucky. Your fire might help you survive longer than most of the others. Moloch, take them back to the cells until the transport is ready, Choronzon is expecting them.”
Tyr tried to appear nonchalant. “Abrasax, you have the pendants. You don’t need them. They are unnecessary. Let them go.” He needed to know Irina was safe.
“I beg to differ, Tyr. We will keep hold of them both. I am a little alarmed at your concern for them. I hope you are not thinking of changing allegiance.”
“My allegiance is the same as it’s always been,” said Tyr. To myself and now to Irina.
“Good,” said Abrasax, appraising Tyr with a calculating glint in his eye. “Right now I need you to go with Rusalka while I attend to some other business.” He turned to Cassi with smug satisfaction. “I have to put in place some welcoming gifts for your Eunomi friends.”
Tyr saw the revulsion in Cassi’s eyes. “What goes around, Abrasax—remember karma’s a bitch and she’s a good friend of mine. We’ll both be seeing you.” She blew him a kiss as Moloch pushed her and Irina toward the door.
Tyr had no option but to follow Rusalka, turning away from Cassi and Irina, going left as the women went right. Rusalka draped her arms over him as they exited the office, her eyes focused on Irina in triumphant glee. Irina ignored them both completely, her gaze steadfastly fixed ahead. He couldn’t blame her but he had wanted to try to give her some signal, some reassurance. Every step that increased the distance between them was like a death knell, a barbed dart piercing his heart, each stab an agony that bit into his resolve. He was so close to Melanie and Delora. If he gave in to his protective urges now, the game would be lost.
The fact that Cassi was with Irina gave him a small amount of comfort. She was a two-thousand-five-hundred-year-old warrior, so she must have some survival tricks up her sleeves. Plus he knew Borealis was on his way. As long as he could locate the girls quickly he would be able to go back for Irina before their transport came. He would bide his time, play a waiting game and do something that didn’t come naturally—place his trust in others. He had to have faith in the Eunomi Alliance.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Cassi stared at Irina. They were now alone in the cell. The other two girls were gone, taken away by guards just as Cassi and Irina returned. It broke Cassi’s heart to see her friend in pieces, a torn, pale shadow of herself and Cassi had no words to soothe her. She understood her utter desolation. Irina had given her heart to Tyr, allowed herself to believe in him and he had betrayed her trust completely.
He was a good liar; she had to give him that. Cassi had even believed him herself when he had said what he feared most was losing Irina. It was no wonder she’d never fallen in love herself. Dealing with ill-fated Esseni was a life lesson in how love could be a futile endeavour. Could true love ever exist? Then she would remember her parents. They had an amazing bond that had lasted thousands of years! What would it be like to be loved like that? Cassi shook off her morbid thoughts. She was a warrior of the Eunomi and they didn’t wait around to be rescued. Time to get out of here.
“Irina,” she said gently, “we need to go. We can’t let them take us to Chthonia. Better to escape, then we can plan your revenge on the bastard.”
Irina turned amber eyes toward her. They were dry, tears unshed, sudden determination evident. “Just get us out, Cassi. I don’t want to think about him again. Ever.”
Irina’s heart was broken and Cassi could do nothing to ease her pain. She had been shocked watching the cool, calm, collected Irina she had known for years explode in anger at Tyr’s betrayal, but seeing the blank emptiness in her expression now was worse.
“How do we do this?” Irina asked.
Cassi held up a lipstick. “Luckily they were not very thorough when they were searching me for weapons.”
“That’s a weapon?”
“Oh yes. A very good one.”
Cassi pulled the top off the lipstick and fiddled with the pieces until it was about the length of a pen. She then pulled a zip down on her boot to reveal three small sharp darts.
“The poison will knock them unconscious for hours. I’ll stay behind the door while you get their attention. If you get the chance, grab a weapon.”
Irina did as she was told, banging on the door and shouting, “Hey, need some help in here. My friend’s collapsed!”
A guard arrived, keys rattling as he opened the door. The moment he entered, Cassi blew a dart into his neck and smiled in satisfaction when he felt the sharp sting, slapping his hand at the spot, falling to the floor, eyes wide in shock.
“Hurry! Look out for others,” said Cassi, quickly searching him and snatching a gun and a knife that was hidden in his boot. “You take that.” She passed the knife to Irina. “Anyone else coming?”
“No it’s clear,” said Irina, eyes scanning the corridor.
“Ok then, let’s go!” Cassi led the way. The corridors were empty and they were able to reach the lifts undetected but Cassi thought it better to take the stairwell. “We need to get up to the basement car park.” It seemed too easy. In no time at all they opened a heavy door, exited the stairwell and Cassi was leading Irina to a car. She unlocked the door with another handy gadget that appeared to be a bone-shaped comb. “Skeleton key, courtesy of Tegid,” she explained. “The wiccani are great at creating magickal objects. He gave me this for my last birthday.”
They had just opened the doors and were in the process of sliding into the car when booted feet sounded from the direction of the stairwell. Within seconds, four burly guards carrying semiautomatic rifles surrounded them. The guards were pushed unceremoniously aside and Cassi was confronted by the familiar figure of a Lyrani that she was very keen to talk to. However, she would have preferred the circumstances of their meeting to be rather different.
“Hello, ladies.” The tone was sour. “Were you thinking of going for a jaunt? I don’t think Abrasax would like it. He has other plans for you.”
“Alcina,” replied Cassi turning to face a female she had once considered a good friend and ally. “Fancy meeting you here. I didn’t realize you’d taken to slumming with trash.”
“Look who’s talking, Cassi darling!” Alcina raised
an eyebrow. “You seem to have a penchant for the weak and pathetic Esseni. You always did have bad taste.”
“You were my mother’s best friend,” broke in Irina. “Why are you doing this?”
Alcina eyed her with a vicious expression. “That was a long time ago,” she hissed, “before she stole the man I loved. I saw him first but just like always she had to take what I wanted away from me!”
“What are you talking about? She loved my father. There never was anyone else.”
“I know,” said Alcina bitterly. “It was your father she stole from me. We came to Earth together. I was the one he met first, but she had to take him, the bitch! So I bided my time, and then she had you. Right away, I knew you were an Esseni but then she disappeared with you. I know she was suspicious of me but nothing was going to stop me from getting my revenge on them both.”
Irina was staring at her in open-mouthed horror echoing Cassi’s own shock as Alcina’s words sank in and she realized the truth. Alcina, as she had suspected, was the traitor, but her betrayal went so much deeper. Her vendetta had caused the murder of Irina’s family, which meant that Alcina had been betraying the Eunomi for at least fifteen years, perhaps longer.
Cassi was the first to recover. “I guess you have a welcome party for Borealis then?” she asked coolly.
Alcina snorted. “Of course. That’s why we were here, waiting. And then you two showed up. It’s just like Christmas. Get out of the car. I’m taking you up to Abrasax. He may decide not to send you to Chthonia after all. I might just ask him to give you both to me. It would be fun to see what some of my Discordant friends would do to you”
They had no choice but to move. Cassi’s weapon was no match for the four guards. “We’ll see who has the last laugh, Alcina,” said Cassi. “Eunomi warriors are not stupid. They will be expecting a trap.”
“Maybe,” said Alcina, “but by that time, you two will be long gone.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Tyr had finally managed to persuade Rusalka to take him to her playroom but to his disappointment there were no current inmates. The room itself was a BDSM lovers’ fantasy with every kind of bondage restraint, whip and flogger imaginable. Tyr eyed the room in distaste. He didn’t want to imagine that Melanie and Delora had been subjected to this but it seemed all too likely. “What happened to your playmates?” he asked.
“Oh they became useless,” Rusalka sighed. “I had them shipped out to Ophiuchus. Someone there will find a use for them and if not…” She shrugged. “But now we’re here, perhaps you would like to play with me?” She purred again reminding Tyr more and more of a cat but then she would wiggle her hips and her moist skin had him thinking of fish. Maybe that’s what she was, a catfish. Whatever she was, she was beginning to bore him and he wasn’t getting any answers. Clearly the girls were no longer here.
Tyr decided to end the game. He still needed to get to Ophiuchus but he calculated that the most pressing concern now was to liberate Irina and Cassi. Surely the Eunomi would be able to give him the help and resources to locate Sal’s girls. He also needed to get both pendants back even if it meant revealing his true allegiance to Abrasax.
“No thanks, Rusalka. If I wanted to play, you’d be the last person I’d ask.” He watched as her jaw dropped and she struggled to grasp his meaning.
“Are you turning me down again?” She glared at him, a dangerous glint in her eye. “Is it because of that brown-haired bitch, the one with the ugly freckles? Because if it is I can make sure that she suffers. I owe her payback for earlier but I’m willing to forget about her if you are.”
Closing the distance between them, she stared up at him under golden-yellow lashes, her hands gliding over his chest. Tyr put his hands over hers. She was smiling at him as he bent his head close to her ear. “Rusalka, if you ever touch Irina I will make sure that you suffer a hundred times anything you inflict on her. And believe me when I say that this is not a game.” His grip on her hands intensified has he spun her around and shoved her away.
Tyr felt immense satisfaction as Rusalka twisted back to face him, her expression one of vicious outrage. She must have imagined he was a sure thing. He felt no compunction in doing what he did next. Rusalka was an evil bitch. She had already hurt Irina and threatened to hurt her more.
The female launched at him with sharp nails flexed but his weight and strength presented an obstacle she couldn’t overcome. He let her attack then simply grabbed her by the throat, choking her into unconsciousness. She was evil but he couldn’t bring himself to kill her. He left her tied up in one of her own restraints, regretting for a moment that he wouldn’t be there to see the expression on her face when she awoke to experience a taste of her own medicine.
Tyr made his way back to Abrasax’s office. No more games now. He needed to find Irina and get the pendants. Somehow he would track Melanie and Delora but first he needed Irina to be secure. Reaching the door of the office, he paused before entering, hearing a familiar voice. Peering through the gap in the door he spotted Alcina. He was surprised, thinking she had been captured as well, imagining she had been so worried about Irina that like Cassi she had foolishly come after her. Those thoughts soon vanished in a haze of shock as he watched Alcina calmly walk to Abrasax and kiss him. “Look what I brought you, darling,” she said as she curled her arms around his neck, “for the second time.”
Abrasax had his arm around her waist. “Thank you, Alcina. You have again shown your loyalty to us. I think we will have to speed up our plans for these two. The transport is here to take them to the nearest starportal and Choronzon has decided to meet us on Ophiuchus. He has some business to attend to there and said he could kill two birds with one stone as it were.”
Realizing he needed to act fast, Tyr scoped out the rest of the room, his heart jumping fearfully in his chest at the sight of Irina and Cassi, held immobile in the grip of two guards. Alcina! He now understood what a double game she had played. He wanted to kill her. He knew without doubt that Irina hadn’t received his message, that she must believe that he had betrayed her. No wonder she’d been furious with him and Rusalka! He weighed all his options. There was only one. So game on. Tyr entered the room.
“Ah, Tyr, back with us again and just in time,” drawled Abrasax. “We were just discussing traveling arrangements. It’s time we performed the ceremony to harness your essences. How would you like to see Ophiuchus?”
“I could make the time.” He nodded to the traitor. “Alcina.”
“Hello, Tyr. You managed to access the starportal then. I hoped my instructions would work for you.”
“They did, but you could have just told me that you and Abrasax were friends.”
“Ah, but I didn’t know if I could trust you then.”
He acknowledged the hit with an incline of his head, his mind more focused on the chasm that lay between himself and Irina. She was studiously ignoring him, the torn threads of the connection they had once shared scattered between them, Tyr willing her to gather them up. She remained impervious. Cassi however was eyeing him with pure vengeance in her blue eyes. “You do understand what that means, don’t you, Tyr?” she spat at him. “The Discordants will destabilize The Balance with your essences, causing chaos, death and destruction and in order to use Irina’s essence, they will kill her.”
His eyes flew to Irina’s face, her amber gaze frozen on his in fear and shock. Trying to remain impassive, he replied, “I know.”
Irina’s pain was intense. She couldn’t believe her day could be any worse. She had barely recovered from Tyr’s betrayal and then discovered the bloodstained night forever etched into her brain had been orchestrated by Alcina—and now this! Her focus on his eyes faltered as the full weight of his reply crushed her. Not only had he betrayed her, he didn’t actually care if she died! Oh my god! Irina felt her body go numb. It was the only way she could deal with the shock, the agonizing reality that someone she had trusted, had felt for so intensely had coldly, cruelly dismissed he
r existence with two words. He knew. Knew she would die! That thought left her utterly destroyed. The shattered shards of her broken heart began slicing through the last fraying threads severing any remnants of their connection. The last tendrils withering and dying, leaving a gaping empty chasm, a black hole of dark matter the color of Tyr’s eyes. Darkness. She hoped never to see those eyes again. If she could only wipe them from her consciousness every time she shut her eyes!
Tyr was still staring at her, his obsidian eyes boring into her soul. What was he trying to do to her now? There’s nothing left! She wanted to shout and scream, You’ve taken it all! Irina gritted her teeth, determined to fend off the intrusion. It was then that she sensed it, a small filament of a thread, an electrical pulse, weaving its way tentatively toward her. She batted it away but it persisted. It was molten heat, probing and pulsing, a warmth spreading desire, arousal…love? Her brain was confused. It felt as if the thread was coming from Tyr. The warmth knocked again, a jolt of incandescence, a fluttering of wings, like a…like a dove! It was Tyr. A message! He was trying to tell her something. The dove fluttered again, flying along the cord cradling a message under its wing.
I Love You.
She could actually hear the words in Tyr’s voice, although he’d never said those words to her before. I. Love. You. Little dove. Believe.
The room faded away, dissolved into nothingness and all she could see was Tyr, standing in front of her in a white space, arms outstretched. Magnet. Attract. She ran. Arms enfolding. Encircling. Entwining.
She answered. I understand.
Tyr stood in that same white space, his heart pounding in his chest, Irina in his embrace.
Soft. Warm. Safe. I understand. Two words that sustained his soul. His relief was immeasurable.
