Rathan had never enjoyed a feeding more.
****
Kindara kept her eyes closed as her heart rate stilled and the tremors shaking her body relented. The demon lay beside her, his breath equally as ragged as hers. He’d been right, she had enjoyed what they’d done. And that filled her with a sense of shame, unlike any other she’d ever felt.
He kissed her forehead. “Thank you.”
She said nothing. What could she say? Kindara curled on her side, facing away from him. He nestled into her back, one hand stroking her side. He was warm and large and she felt dwarfed by his body. His arm slipped around her waist and he pulled her close to his chest. His lips nuzzled her hair.
She could almost pretend the affection he exhibited was real but wasn’t an Incubus incapable of such emotion? Weren’t they consumed with only the thought of feeding? Kindara didn’t know much about his species, her brother only mentioned the demons he’d killed, not the type of demons they were. What she knew of his kind had come from novels and rumors. “Why did you and that wolf stop our car?”
Chapter Four
Her voice was low, flat, and Rathan pulled her closer though she kept her back to him. He arranged the grass blanket over the both of them, not wanting her to get chilled. He breathed the scent of warm woman and sex in again, feeling his body tighten in response. “I told you, vengeance.”
“For what? What did Dhar Rydere and the others do?”
“Murder.” The four women’s images flashed into his mind. Shy Mickey, fiery Mallory, quiet Josey, and determined Emily-four women who were wonderful and who had welcomed him from the moment he’d met them in a way that had nothing to do with him being a demon, merely a friend of Rand’s. They’d become part of his family.
“No. They wouldn’t.” She shook her head, sending blonde strands into his eyes. He pushed them away, then let his hand linger. Women were so soft, she was so soft. “Who?”
“Rand’s sisters and cousins. Human women taken from their homes and killed.”
“They don’t kill humans, especially women.” He heard the puzzlement in her words, but he understood it. Why would her men folk let her know of their evil deeds? Women were to be protected.
“Then where is Rand’s sister Mickey, or his twin—”
“Mal? Oh gods, the wolf is a Taniss? A Taniss has my baby?” She fought against his hands, then jumped to her feet. “Oh Gods, no. No. Not Jierra, not her, too.”
She snatched her clothes and pulled them on, all the while sobbing. Rathan just watched her, puzzled by the panic, by the terror. What did this little creature know of the Taniss family? When she rushed to the tunnel that led out of the cave, he flashed himself into her path. “Stop.”
“No. Get out of my way. I have to get to her!” She hissed at him, revealing Dardaptoan fangs. Her eyes burned the orange characteristic of an angry member of her race. This was when the Dardaptoans were the most dangerous.
“We had a bargain, remember.” She feinted around him, and he extended his arm, stopping her again. “And you must live by it.”
“Not when my daughter is at stake!” She lunged at him, taking him by surprise. Teeth sank into the naked flesh of his shoulder, ripped his skin before she pulled away. “Get the hell out of my way!” “Stop! Now!” He infused his voice with all the command he could muster.
It had no effect. He had no other choice, she must be calmed down before she hurt herself. He touched one horn then flashed himself behind her.
Before she could react, he had his arms around hers, pinning them to her sides. She fought like her life depended upon escaping him. Finally, when he sensed she was calming from exhaustion, he slipped the hand still coated with Mesmus over her lips, then whispered the command to send her to sleep once again.
****
He removed her clothing and placed it high upon a rock he knew she’d not be able to reach easily. He wanted no more attempts to escape him. What had triggered such panic? He sensed she wasn’t one to normally engage in such hysterics-hadn’t she kept her head when he’d taken her from the highway? When she’d made her bargain? So why now? She’d known a Lupoiux wolf had had her daughter, so why did it matter that that wolf was also a Taniss?
He lit two more hell-lights and set the orbs to join the first. The three balls bobbed over her head, illuminating her. Rathan, still naked, sank to his knees beside her.
Her hair was tangled, from their fighting and his feeding. He pushed it out of her eyes, tucked a strand behind her ear. She lay on her side, and he rolled her onto her back to study her. She was slim and delicate; she needed some extra flesh, especially around the ribs. One of her hands was clenched in a fist and he took her wrist gently. He uncurled her fingers, feeling the sharp contrast between her hand and his. He trailed a finger over her palm, then up and down each of her fingers, surprised at the calluses he found. What was it she had done in order to form them?
He looked closer. It was then he found the first scar. A faint line about the width of his thumbnail encircled her entire wrist. He studied it for a moment, then grabbed her other hand. An identical mark was just visible. He knew what it was; she’d been tied and suspended from something. Tied tightly enough to scar the skin of a Dardaptoan. Dardaptoans rarely scarred, only the most extreme injuries left a mark.
Who or why would someone do that to her? He lit another hell-light, then instructed it to hover a foot above his head. He studied every inch of her front closely, but found no more marks.
He rolled her on her back.
He hissed at what he found. Her lower back was a mess of scars, white lines that he readily identified. Someone had sliced her delicate skin in more than two dozen places. Most of the lines were a minimum of three inches in length. The worst started just below her shoulders and ran down her spine, ending above her tailbone.
Why?
This was systematic torture. That was the only explanation for how the wounds had scarred. He traced each line slowly, wanting to soothe the long ago hurts. If he found the monsters responsible for such abuse, he’d rip them into a thousand pieces without breaking a sweat. Even a demon knew women were to be protected, cherished. Where were her men folk when this was happening?
He touched one globe of the most feminine backside he’d ever seen, smoothing his fingers over the flesh. A blemish caught his eye, located on the bottom of her cheek. He leaned closer, then recoiled in horror.
Tattooed on her skin, more on the top of her leg than her backside, was ‘T.I. Specimen Number 211.’
****
Kindara woke, disoriented and naked. Her eyes popped open and immediately caught on the demon sitting three feet away from her, stirring a small pot over some sort of battery-operated burner. At the smell coming from the pot, her stomach rumbled. Though she needed blood to survive, she only needed it once or twice a month. The rest of the time, Dardaptoans ate meals similar to humans.
He still wasn’t dressed. He turned to her with a smile, yet the expression didn’t quite reach his eyes. Memories of the moments before she’d slept crashed in on her. Jierra, in the hands of a Taniss. Kindara sat, dislodging the natural grass blanket. “My daughter...”
The demon frowned as he continued to stir. “Is fine. I flashed to Rand to check on her while you slept. She’s fine; he was feeding her fish.”
“Flashed? You can do that?” Of course he could, hadn’t he moved to block her from leaving the cave earlier? “Can you take me to her?”
“No. It’s too far away to take you safely. Flashing a second person is incredibly dangerous, to begin with.”
“Has he...” Kindara shivered as she remembered the things the eldest Taniss had done to her, to Iavius. “Has he hurt her yet?”
“Definitely not. Rand won’t hurt a female. Ever.” The demon sounded offended that she’d even suggested it. “What do you know of the Taniss family that frightened you so badly earlier?”
****
She sank back to the pine bedding, then pulled he
r knees to her chest. “That they are evil. More so than you...at least the men are.”
Rathan stopped stirring for a moment. “None of the ones I’ve met are anywhere close to evil.”
“They are.” She pulled the blanket over her, huddled under it. “They are evil killers who will stop at nothing to get what they want.”
“Who’d they kill?” The stew was finished and he carried it and his canteen of water to her side. He’d feed her first, then finish what was left. “Do you have proof?”
“Proof I have to look at every day.”
“Who hurt you?” Rathan pulled the blanket over her exposed shoulder, then leaned her into his chest.
He held the camping spoon to her lips. “Eat, pet.”
“I’m not hungry.” She pushed the spoon away, but he knew she was lying. He easily felt the hunger in her mind.
“Starving yourself won’t get you to your daughter any sooner. Now eat.” She needed to eat, if she didn’t, he’d compel her to. “Then we’ll talk.”
He fed her until she pushed the spoon away. “No more.”
He ate the remainder. “Tell me how you got those scars. All of those scars. Even these.” He ran a hand down her back.
“Thirty years ago, Leo Taniss took me and my Rajni to his laboratory where he tortured and killed my
Rajni and nearly did the same to me. Had my brother not arrived when he had, I’d be dead. The end.”
Her summation chilled him. “I’m sorry.”
Rathan knew Leo Taniss—Rand’s grandfather—was not well-liked. In fact, the man was hated by most of his family, including Rand. But to capture and torture two Dardaptoans was no easy feat.
“The tattoo...what does it mean?”
“Taniss Industries Specimen 211. Can’t you figure it out? He branded us like cattle.” “Why 211?”
“Because I was the 211th Dardaptoan held and tortured in his lab. My Rajni was number 210.” “But why?”
“He drained us of nearly all our blood, then refused us more. To make a drug he’d invented. D-Palitren used as a damned vaccine for humans since the seventies. Worse, he wanted to study us like rats. He’d cut me, with a knife he’d dipped in something to make it scar, then stand there and watch me scream. Watch Iavius try to get to me as I bled and bled. And then it was my Rajni’s turn. And I watched.”
The flat voice she delivered her tale in chilled him the most. Rathan didn’t think, he scooped her into his lap and pulled the blanket tighter. He placed a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll kill him for you. This I swear. And I will make him hurt as you have hurt.”
Her tears were hot against his skin as she turned her face into his neck. Rathan did something he’d never done before—he comforted a woman.
****
What was she doing? She wrapped her arms around the demon’s neck as she asked herself that question over and over again. But had anyone held her since that day? Since Cormac had stormed Taniss’s compound and found her still clutching Iavius’s body? Since her partner Barlaam had tried in vain to save her unborn babe?
She couldn’t remember.
He rocked her, and she sensed the movements were unnatural to him. He’d not held many upset women, that was evident. Still, it touched her that he’d even try.
Maybe demons weren’t the evil monsters Cormac painted them? “What did you plan to do with us? In exchange for what you think happened to Mickey and the others?”
“Not harm you. Never harm you.” He shook his head emphatically. “Just keep you until we could lure them to us. That is all.”
“I see.” And she did. They were the bait, in a cycle that would never end. “And when they come for us, you would kill them. Including my brother.”
“If he is the king’s adviser, then yes.”
“Even though they’ve not killed or harmed, the Taniss women in any way?” Although they had been converted and mated.
“Even though. Have they harmed them?”
“No...”
“But there is something you are not saying.” His hands tightened on her arms and he pulled her back slightly to stare at her.
“The Taniss women have been converted into Dardaptoan. They have all found Rajni, as well. Emily is the Rajni of our king, even. They have not harmed them, I swear.”
“I see.”
“So you can take me to my daughter, then let us go.” Kindara heard the pleading in her voice again.
“I am taking you to her.” He shook her chidingly. “I have sworn that. But it will take time. Whether or not he lets you return to your people so quickly will be up to Rand. It is his vengeance we sought.”
“Even though his sisters and cousins were probably taken for our people’s vengeance? Leo Taniss has killed nearly a thousand of our people now, did you know that? So what if my brother took his granddaughter? Doesn’t he owe our people something? And it’s not like they killed them! Cormac didn’t hang her from a wall and cut her, drain her dry!”
“Cormac is your brother? Which Taniss woman is he mated to now?”
“Josey.” Sweet Josey, who Kindara thought would be a perfect partner for her hard, harsh brother. Kindara had had a difficult time reconciling the sweet young woman with the evil grandfather at first. But if Josey could make her brother happy, Kindara had decided to welcome her into the family. “It is good because he can read her mind and speak to her in her head.”
****
Rathan nodded. That was good, for Josey was deaf. But it changed nothing. Rand’s territory had been invaded, his females taken. But if they were true Rajni to these men, killing these men would not be wise. It would only hurt Josey and her cousins to lose their mates.
Like this poor little creature had. “We must sleep now. I want to start out again as soon as the sun is set.
You need rest, my pet. It has been a long day for you, and I will need to feed before we go.” He didn’t miss the little catch in her breath or the stillness of her body. “I see.”
“Part of our bargain, was it not?”
“Yes...”
“Come then, lie down. Do you wish me to assist you in sleeping?” He motioned to his horns.
“No. I don’t like you doing that.” She slid down on the pine needles, looking up at him with clear vulnerability on her face. He settled beside her, something he’d never done with the women he’d fed from in the past. Had he ever slept beside a woman for a full night—or day, as the case may be? He didn’t think so.
Still, it was cool in the cave and she’d need his body heat. He’d gladly give whatever she needed. He pulled the blanket over their bodies, then pulled her onto her side. Her blonde head was pillowed on his chest and he kissed the silky strands again. He held her to him. “Kiss me goodnight, pet.”
“My name is Kindara, not pet.” But she obliged him, kissing him quite sweetly before pulling away. He didn’t insist on more, knowing that if he did, he’d take her again. And again. And she truly did need to rest.
“Ah, but I love petting you.” Rathan demonstrated once before tucking his hand into the curve of her waist and snuggling his captive closer. “Now sleep, understand.”
Chapter Five
He’d forgotten to utter the protection spell.
Rathan mulled that over several hours later while leading his little captive up the rocky terrain of the mountain. Without that spell, she most likely already carried his spawn. He’d never forgotten to use birth control, not in twenty-three hundred years. Yet he knew that nestled within her tiny belly his spawn was taking root. It was inevitable and it tied her to him forever. Despite the vow he’d made, he’d have to find a way to keep her with him.
Unlike many of his brethren, he’d never spawned before. His first child, after all, would be the king or queen of his people. And not just his tribe, but of all the demon tribes. He was the High King. He’d never taken that knowledge lightly. The child would have to be born of a female worthy of being the queen. Was she? She’d been brave, protective, and intellige
nt since he’d taken her from the highway. That was a plus.
But how would she react knowing she carried a demon child? Would she care for his child as much as she did the daughter she’d shared with the Rajni she’d obviously loved and adored? Would she fight and protect this babe?
Or would she hate the child because it was not of her choosing or of her kind? If it were male, it would be Incubus. If female, Dardaptoan like her. That was the way with the humanesque beings and the Demonkin. Halflings took after the same gender parent, with only a few traits of the other parent mixed in. But would she hate and resent it because it was his? Like his mother had hated him for being his father’s? He would not let that happen to his spawn, he wouldn’t. That was a vow he’d made centuries ago.
He pulled her closer, keeping a guiding hand on her back. He could not have her falling, not while carrying the spawn. It could be dangerous for her even though demon spawn were extremely hardy and almost always guaranteed to survive birth. Mothers weren’t so guaranteed, especially of other species. Demon babes were often too large, too demanding to go full-term, especially for delicate-built females like her.
That worried him more than he wanted to admit.
He lifted her over a fallen log, his hands lingering on her waist. What would she look like, her belly swollen? “Are you tired, pet?”
“No.”
“Let me know if you need to rest. We will stop as long as you need.”
“Why are you hovering? You’re the most solicitous kidnapper I’ve ever heard of.”
Rathan stopped. “I prefer to think I am not just your kidnapper.”
“What would you call it, then?” She stumbled on some loose leaves and he grabbed her, pulling her hard against his suddenly rapid heartbeat.
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