by C F Rabbiosi
Kassien grabs him by the shoulder, and Drakon rips away. “Kassien, we have dethroned you before, we can do it again.” He signals toward Arek and Vaerynn, and the other Koridons follow. They form a half circle around Finn and the girls.
“Don’t let them hurt Finn,” I cry out, wishing Kassien had the weapons to decimate them again.
“They won’t,” he snarls and snaps his hand around Drakon’s neck. The Koridons break their guard on the women to draw close to the new threat. Kassien jerks Drakon into the air. “I could kill your defiant leader with the flick of my wrist.” He slowly turns his head toward them. “You will not chain these humans.”
A scream pierces the night and I run to the door, my legs tingling from the terror. Blond Alice’s hands drag the ground as she disappears into the trees. “Kassien! Something’s got Alice!”
“Kjartonn!” Arek’s cries shatter the darkness as he disappears after her.
“Kjartonn took Alice!” shouts Mary-Shelly.
“Get her back, please!” I touch Kassien’s shoulder. Drakon stops struggling and lifts a snide brow, daring Kassien to choose. “I am going to subdue your son and lock him up for taking the woman.” He drops him. “I may not have permission to end you, but you will be going in a cage with him when I return. Run, Drakon.” He turns to leave, and I release the breath I’ve been holding. Kjartonn will torture and destroy blond Alice, and I don’t trust anyone to get her back except him. Fear immediately replaces my relief as the predators around me gear up to follow their orders.
“Kill the boy and get the women in chains,” says Drakon. “We will take no more chances. The ones who have not taken hold of seed will be mated by all males from now on to increase the chances of conception.”
“No!” Finn rushes him, the girls’ horrified cries in the background. Drakon cracks a fist into his head and sends him careening to the ground. The females grab Mary-Shelly, black-haired Alice, Jane, and Sybil, their desperate cries cut off abruptly as they’re slapped to the ground.
Drakon reaches for Finn, splayed out on the floor, and I slam into him. “You touch him and I’ll find a way to make you die.” I grab Drakon’s wrist and use the pain from our collision to fuel the strength behind my grip.
The female Koridons dig into my back as they rip me away, and Drakon pulls with us in my vicious grasp. One of them smashes her fist into my forearm and my fingers pop open.
He circles Finn. “You all have been entertained for longer than you deserve.” He kicks into Finn’s side and he groans but doesn’t go down. He kicks back, landing a foot into the commander’s groin.
“You underestimate us,” Finn says, landing a sharp elbow into Drakon’s back as he doubles over.
“You always have,” I back Finn up. “Even if you abuse us, torture and chain us, we will find a way to beat you!”
“When Kassien gets back,” Drakon pulls Finn up by the throat, his feet dangling, “don’t stop until you have vanquished him,” he says to his crew. “Erdat enclaveasor.”
Game over.
Finn’s neck makes a popping sound and my emotions surge. Desperation shreds me to pieces. Kassien is so outnumbered. I imagine all of my beloved village mates broken and bleeding like Glenda. I see Finn face down in the dark sea, floating forever. I scream and something inside me explodes, sending all the females flying off as though they’d been struck by lightning.
I pick myself up from the ground, a strange weakness affecting my limbs, and blink Vaerynn into focus. She cracks Drakon in the head and Finn falls in a heap to the floor. Drakon drops next to him, a stream of red trickling over his brow.
Vaerynn brings Finn to sitting and his eyes shutter open. “Are you hurt?” she asks.
He cocks his head to the side. “Aaahh.” He rubs his reddening throat. “He gave me a good pop. That was nice.” He reaches around her long braid and latches onto the back of her neck. She lets him draw her near.
“Thank you,” Finn says softly, his coldness bending into a heated glow. Her oval eyes sparkle, reflecting Finn’s deep emeralds as she takes his domination, and their mouths come so close they could touch at the slightest shiver.
“The agreement still stands!” Vaerynn yells, ripping away from Finn. She moves like a god of war as she commands. “These women will not be chained, they are free beings. They will still uphold their betrothals as well despite the tragedy today.” The commander stirs, and she smashes a foot into his temple. He stops moving. “And take Drakon to the holding quarters.” She comes face to face with Efaelty. Vaerynn lifts her chin and dares the female to move against her orders, the daughter of the commander, a vision of equal splendor.
Efaelty grips Vaerynn’s hand. “I am with you.”
I stand beside my sister and take her hand in mine as well. We create a stronghold together, and the Koridons that remain follow us without question and drag Drakon out.
Vaerynn dips her head in respect at Efaelty and I before moving toward the door. “And the boy is not to be touched!” she yells as Finn mourns over Glenda’s body.
I come up behind her outside. “Can you see them?” I ask as she squints into the darkness.
She shakes her head. “I will go after them.”
“Kassien and Arek surely must have taken him down by now. He can’t beat both of them.”
Vaerynn’s forehead scrunches with worry lines. She launches herself towards the trees.
“He’ll come back, won’t he?” Scarlet says from behind. She limps through the sand, and the sight of her so weak and sickly, yet still my lover’s mate, is a contradiction that enrages and confuses. A floodgate bursts, washing away the last of my strength.
“I have to go help Finn with Glenda.” I can’t look at her as I turn on my heel and race back through the door.
Inside the mansion is silent, the girls having gone up to their rooms, and only Finn and a female sit beside the bodies. Kraetorr appears so blue compared to Glenda. The scaling effect of his skin is incredibly pronounced as well, now that his heart has stopped forever. They truly look like a different species in death: a demon and an angel.
“He was perfect just as he was,” says the sharp-featured female at Kraetorr’s feet. “He is dead because of what she turned him into.” She rises and stalks away. “And what a travesty to die such a pathetic creature!”
Finn’s mouth twists into a sneer, and I see the female’s painful death playing out behind his eyes.
“And we’ve just met Kraetorr’s rightful mate,” I say, breaking Finn’s murderous trance. “Come on old friend. Let’s prepare a grave for her.”
We wander into the back, two spirits drifting, nothing seeming real, not even ourselves amongst a forest of dark trees touching the inky sky. I struggle to find hope to hang onto. As long as they refuse to kill Drakon, he’ll push to take us in violence. These creatures are wicked by nature, bestial, and Finn is right. We have the ability to destroy each other with the giving of our hearts and the offering of our bodies. And I worry about my child. I hope he can be raised differently.
“How ‘bout here?” I ask and force my fingers into the earth. It’s cold and damp, and the thought of putting Glenda deep within it makes me yank away.
Finn, utterly defeated, doesn’t answer or even move as he stares through the spot I’ve picked and into nothingness. I collapse onto my back. The leaves and dirt fly as Finn falls beside me. I count the stars, marveling at how each one of those suns could have an earth-like planet nearby. Or several. Millions of brilliant stars splash the sky, and I wonder if any of them will belong to me one day, to my planet, when I reoccur out there somewhere.
The minutes tick by as we lay with our desperate thoughts and silent cries, slipping farther away from reality and deeper into dreams from exhaustion.
A back door flings opens and Jane’s voice rings out. “They have her!” I wake up shaking and dash inside to find Arek, bruised and bleeding, clenching blond Alice to his chest.
“Help her,” he says to Gerak
on who rushes in behind them. He lays her on the floor and blood pools underneath her.
Kassien bursts through the door. “We found her like this. Kjartonn is still out there.”
“Did he—” Tears cloud my vision as Kassien nods, confirming that Kjartonn did just as he’d promised.
Vaerynn and Gerakon work together, scanning her body for breaks and tears, and move quickly to introduce the nano-healers into her wounds. “Alice?” I say, ignoring Vaerynn’s warning glance. I shake my head slowly and bite back the ache in my throat that begs to give way to sobbing. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” My tears fall on her chest and leave a trail down her dried blood.
“He threw me on the ground.” Alice’s wavering words cut through my horror. “A sharp pain went through the back of my head.” She sniffs. “I remember blackness and pressure, almost to the point of pain. I kept moving in and out of dreams, my face shoved in the dirt. I kept hitting against him so hard.” He wasn’t even careful with her. She winces as she bends a bloodied knee.
The floor shakes as Arek drops beside her. “I am going to tear him apart.” He carefully runs his fingers down her cheek, afraid he’ll hurt her. “You will live, but he will forever be taken from the world.” He leans over and touches his cheek to hers.
She squeezes her eyes shut and shakes Vaerynn’s scanning light away from her forearm. Reaching up to Arek with a small cry of pain, she touches his face, wanting to say something to him but knowing she doesn’t need to.
Kassien reflects their pain as he speaks to me quietly. “Kjartonn knew exactly where he was going to take her when he had the chance. He lost us both out there, and Arek only found her when he smelled the blood.”
“This isn’t working, Kassien,” I say. “We’re not safe here.” Glenda’s covered body catches my attention, and the crack when she broke against the wall echoes through the memory. We dreamed once in each other’s arms and were willing to sacrifice ourselves before an unknown altar. But the dream’s been shattered, and the shards have left fatal wounds.
“Drakon is locked up as you commanded,” one of the females tells Vaerynn. “What do we do now?”
Vaerynn hands over the scanners and shakes her head sadly. “I do not know.” She throws a questioning look at Finn, but he doesn’t seem to know anymore either.
24
Kassien
“What am I to do with you?” I stand with my hands behind my back and look down at a seething Drakon. I’ve let him rot inside the seclusion chamber of his own ship for a month before coming to speak with him, and that gives me such joy. The sovereign made it clear that Drakon’s family is incredibly powerful and harming him will bring on a war that could destroy everything we’ve built here. It isn’t much, but the children that grow within two bellies is everything that keeps me from taking the risk. I sigh heavily, thinking of Scarlet and the strong heartbeat of the little life I can hear when laying my ear to her stomach.
Drakon rises slowly then lands a fist into the force field, making it sizzle and glow a pretty blue. “You cannot keep me in here forever. Or have you forgotten that I have a right to rule just as you do?” A low growl rumbles from his throat.
“You will stay in there forever and as long as you are entertaining the thought of binding our women to be used as sex slaves.”
“And my children?”
I put an inquisitive finger to my chin. “Well, one tore his own throat out, and your other son will be thoroughly tortured to death when I find him.”
Drakon blows an indignant breath. “Over a little bitch that has as much right to live as the hogs in the forest?”
I square up in front of his invisible cage and let him feel my size. My ferocity. “You still do not see them. You are incapable of knowing their beauty.”
He steps back casually and straightens his worn, leather collar. “You have two of them, don’t you? One that will surely die and the other pregnant with another man’s spawn. Such beauty.”
The blood boils in my veins, but my face remains calm. Love, the word Calypso taught me, beats within my ribcage in new ways, and though I cared for the son I lost beyond anything, these women have taught me to love completely. And I already love my child. My baby. I have always been taught that caring about anything but the battle was a weakness, and though I believe it still, I won’t go back.
“Goodbye, old man.” I turn and walk away, the sound of Drakon’s cries a captivating blend of angst and despair. I’ll keep him alive, but he won’t ever leave that room.
I stop around the corner from Brekter’s room and peek in.
His hair has grown in three inches and the muscle stimulators have kept his build intact while he heals. I deactivate the forcefield and step inside the doorway. “Your pieces are healing back together well,” I say, taking a seat next to him. He sits up with some effort. “You only look mildly disproportionate.” I smile a thousand watts to hide my disappointment.
He rests an elbow on his knee to keep himself from shaking, and I shove him to watch as he knocks off balance so easily. He groans and scoots himself back against the wall. “Why have you come?”
“To ensure our new order is followed once you join the pack again.”
His jaw tenses. “And what of Calypso?”
“You won’t be going near her again.”
His nostrils flare. “You cannot stop me from being with my child.”
“Watch me.” Remembering the limp in Calypso’s gait and the marks on her face, I have to force down the aching in my fists to break his skull in two.
His mouth curves up on one side and he runs a hand down his chest. “Have you ever felt her clench and pulse around your cock?”
“Brekter, when your body was in thousands of tiny pieces, how did it feel?” I shoot him a look that promises there will be no reassembling the next time I zap him into oblivion. I smile inwardly, thinking about the location of the obliterator, given to me after sending word to Eladia about the disaster that had befallen us. And now it lies hidden again, just within reach of the one I would see protected the most.
He grimaces and pushes himself to the end of the bed. “You may have her heart, but I own her body. She fights me and gives in. Every time. I feel the begging beneath her skin.”
I snap my hand around his neck and lift him from the bed. The tendons in his throat snap in my fingers, and his gasps fuel my flames. “She will never be yours, and even though I am forbidden to kill you upon pain of death, I will. I will kill you if you even utter her name. They can hang me by my own entrails and I will welcome it.” I throw him into a crumpled ball in the corner.
His crazed laugh fills my ears. “And what you do not seem to understand is that I welcome it also! She has destroyed me. You cannot see it, but she has destroyed you as well.”
I’m sure the sovereign will understand. I whip out the knife at my side and slash his cheek, enjoying the drip of crimson before I move the blade to his throat.
“Kassien,” comes a voice from behind, and I spin around. “She has awaken,” says Gerakon.
I sigh and engage the force field on the way out. Brekter will have to live yet another day, regretfully.
“Is she faring all right?” I ask, rushing to Scarlet with Gerakon struggling to keep up.
“The child is strong. Too strong perhaps.” His voice trails off with a note of pain that unsettles my stomach.
I stop in front of her door, my finger poised before the entrance button.” Only a few months remain before my child is viable enough to survive outside the womb, but every day Scarlet grows paler and thinner. A Koridon child can’t survive the flora of this planet without having a human mother, and now it tortures the vessel that nurtures it.
“I am running tests, but—”
I squeeze my eyes shut, then trigger the door open. Scarlet smiles, her arms shaking as she sits up. I rush to her side, telling her to stay lying down, and catch a pillow before it falls. “I’m okay, I’m fine,” she tells me, but her voice is
as weak as her heartbeat.
“Are you having any—”
She retches, and I jump up to get a rag. “I’m so sorry,” she whimpers. “I’m trying not to lose your baby, Kassien,” she says breathlessly. “I promise, I will never give up.”
Gerakon cleans the mess, and I carefully take her into my arms. “No, no of course you would never.” I stroke her hair as she quivers. “I will stay with you from now on, as much as possible, by your side.” I throw a desperate look at Gerakon, but what he’s reflecting unsettles me.
Gerakon asks her to lay down and scans her extended belly. “The child is quite large for only the second trimester. Ten pounds. That would be much even for a Koridon female.” She shifts her spine with a little grunt, struggling to breathe, and Gerakon jumps to finish another test. “I apologize, Scarlet. Just one more thing to check and we will assist you into a more comfortable position.” His fingertips trail her side, the briefest touch that sparks furiously nonetheless.
He coats the large needle in a numbing agent and slides it through her abdomen. I stroke her head, still fearing her discomfort, but she doesn’t budge. A vivid hologram of the small child projects from the top of the needle, and I lose myself in the perfect image of my boy. His small hands open and close slightly as he floats, the umbilical cord connected to his smooth little belly.
Scarlet clutches my wrist and forces a smile. “You love him already, don’t you?” She wipes away a tear. “I do too.”
Gerakon removes the device and turns his back. “Your blood nutrients are normal, but your kidney tests show a rise in toxins, and your blood pressure rises also as your heart fights to beat adequate blood to you and the child.” He keys something into the air log and orange symbols glow as he translates the information. “If her body fails, we must remove the pregnancy.”
My heart trembles beneath the cage enclosing it, and I shake off the disturbing emotion. “When will he be able to survive outside the womb?”
