by Marie Dry
“He’s breaking out, get the guns.”
Azagor grinned, jumped out, and landed crouched on his feet. They wouldn’t take him unawares again. This time, he’d dodge their darts. He smiled at them, knowing all they saw were his elongated teeth. He made sure to lengthen his teeth and claws slowly. Knew how intimidating that looked to his enemies. The breeders frequently said that a Zyrgin smile was the most frightening thing they’d ever seen. He extended his claws.
“Fuck, it’s true, they have claws.”
They fired on him, and he ignored the slight sting of the bullets. He killed two humans but incapacitated the rest. He’d deal with them later. Some of them tried to shoot him with darts again, but this time he expected the darts and easily evaded them. He picked up the darts and put them into his pocket. Azagor enjoyed their fear when they realized they dealt with a warrior they couldn’t defeat, that he was capable of taking all of them on his own.
He slapped the weapon out of a tall human’s hand. The man had brown hair and an enormous belly. “Where is she?”
The man shook so hard his teeth rattled. “In the--the barn on the other side of the--church.”
Azagor sneered down at him. “Not so brave now that I’m not paralyzed, are you? A brave man like you who can use women for slave labor must be strong. I’ll give you a chance to get out of this alive. Fight me and stay on your feet for five minutes, and I’ll let you live.” He wouldn’t waste five minutes of the time he wanted to get to Susannah on this miserable human, but he enjoyed the terror on his face.
He killed the man while he cried and pissed himself. It didn’t event take a minute.
If they’d hurt Susannah, he’d torture them for years.
“ETA five Earth minutes,” Zacar said in his ear.
Azagor acknowledged that and ran for the barn. The farm that had been deserted before was crawling with humans running from him. He informed Zacar of the humans trying to get away. He killed the ones who tried to stop him and only paused when he saw Joseph walking out of the church.
Azagor grabbed him by the neck and lifted him. “Where is she?”
“I--I don’t know.” Joseph’s eyes rolled back, and he shook so much his teeth rattled.
“If even a hair on her head is harmed, you will beg for death.” Azagor casually swatted a human who tried to stab him in the back with a pitchfork. The man crumpled against the wall of the church. Joseph shook even more in his grip.
Azagor looked back at Joseph who looked terrified. “You, human, you will talk, or I will cut off your hands and then tear off your arms.” He shook him but was careful not to accidentally snap his neck. “I will ensure you do not die. That escape will never be possible for you.”
The human couldn’t talk, but he gestured with his eyes. Still holding him by the throat, Azagor walked in the direction he’d pointed. Azagor disliked having his hand occupied like this, but he didn’t want to put Joseph down. If Susannah wasn’t in that barn and in perfect health, he’d make the human suffer.
He didn’t bother trying the handle of the door to the barn. He simply kicked it in. The woumber he had by his neck whimpered when some of the wood got stuck in his skin, Azagor ignored him.
His claws dug into Joseph’s neck. Chains held Susannah suspended from the beam of the barn. Her feet barely touched the ground, and her fingers appeared bloodless. She was conscious, but her pale cheeks were stained with dust and tears. She shivered and moaned around the dirty rag stuffed into her mouth.
“It wasn’t me, the others strung her up,” Joseph babbled.
Azagor threw Joseph against the wall. “If you move, I will cut off your legs,” he snarled at the terrified human.
He ran to Susannah and took the dirty rag out of her mouth. Tears streamed down her face. “Azagor, you’re alive.” In spite of her obvious joy at seeing him, there was something wrong, a deadness in her eyes.
“I am alive, my breeder, I will break these chains off you.”
Joseph made a derisive sound, and Azagor turned toward him. “Patience, human, I will get around to dealing with you soon enough.” He enjoyed the way the human blanched.
He turned back to Susannah, and she didn’t protest his intention to torture Joseph. That told him something more than physical pain was wrong with her.
He broke the chains, carefully lifted her down, and knelt on the floor, holding her in his arms. Two more humans tried to shoot him in the back and, without looking away from Susannah, he drew his laser and wounded them both. Dying would make it too easy for them. He rubbed her arms to bring life back to her, worried when she didn’t scream with pain.
Susannah pressed her face against his chest, but didn’t make a sound.
“Susannah?”
Midnight eyes looked up at him. “You’re safe,” she said. She had that look, the one she had whenever she whispered, “Magic.”
He watched as it drained out of her eyes--that belief in magic, the relief that he was alive--everything sapped out of her in front of his horrified gaze.
“Yes, these humans cannot hurt me.”
“You have blood on you.”
The toneless way she said it worried him, made him want to kill a few thousand brothers. “It is not my blood.”
“They have more people coming,” she said, again in that lifeless way.
“The others are here and will deal with these woumbers.”
He helped her to sit against a crate. She drew her legs up and put her arms around her knees.
He walked over to where Joseph cowered and lifted the human male until they were eye to eye. Joseph’s eyes widened, and his legs kicked empty air. “You chained my breeder.” His thumb hovered over the man’s throat, the need to break his neck overwhelming.
Azagor lowered the man to the floor. “Try and escape, little man. It would please me to catch you and cut off your feet.”
Before this day, Susannah would’ve protested him cutting off anyone’s feet. Even an enemy’s. Now she simply looked on, as if nothing mattered. What did they do to her? To her Noah?
Azagor sneered when Joseph pissed himself. “You’re pathetic.” He used the chains and strung him up the way he’d done to Susannah. “Stay alive, human, I am looking forward to coming back for you.” Azagor leaned forward and bared his teeth, making sure his eyes flashed red. The human stank of fear.
Joseph whimpered. “Susannah, we’re kin. Please talk to your demon. Tell him he has no reason to hurt me.”
She turned her back on him. Azagor picked Susannah up and walked out of the barn, Joseph’s screams following them. Again, Azagor’s heart contracted. What did they do to her? She didn’t even react to anything Joseph shouted at her.
Outside, the door he set her down and carefully touched Susannah’s wrists where the chains had cut into them. She gave him a shaky smile. “I’m okay, they didn’t have time to hurt me before you came. I was mostly upset that they had you.” She was holding something back. She said all the right things, but her eyes didn’t sparkle at him. She didn’t ask questions. Didn’t ask about Noah.
“Come, Susannah, I will take you to the shuttle.” Maybe holding her pet would help her.
She bent down, picked up the weapon lying on the ground, walked back into the barn, and shot Joseph. The man jerked in the chains and shouted. She crumpled and Azagor caught her. She’d missed her target, and he could see a relieved smirk on Joseph’s face. Azagor would wipe it off soon.
Susannah stared up at him, and horror stared at him from her eyes. “I don’t have a son.”
“What do you mean?”
“He told me Noah died soon after they took him away from me. He didn’t bury him. I don’t even have a grave to go to.” Large, loud sobs broke out of her body. “He didn’t even bury him,” she whispered through the sobs.
Azagor didn’t know what to say to her. She cried soft, heartbroken tears. He couldn’t fathom having another male in his household, no matter how small and weak. But now he wished that, for
her, he would’ve tolerated it. That he’d told her Noah was welcome in his dwelling.
Azagor carried her to the shuttle. He’d have to leave her alone while he helped Zacar and the others. He settled Susannah down on one of the benches on the shuttle and placed Killer in her lap. “You will be safe here. I have to go back, but I will not be long.”
She didn’t react, simply sat staring in front of her and holding Killer.
Azagor returned to the farm.
Zacar and the other warriors had already disarmed and captured all of the men and were going through the site. Azagor went to Zacar and saluted. “I have the darts they shot at me. It shouldn’t have been able to penetrate my skin. It could be some of Parnell’s technology from the human golden age.”
Parnell was a government agent who had abused his power to start raider camps. He’d hoped to use the raiders to bring himself into power. The Zyrgins had captured him, and because he’d hurt Zurian’s breeder, he would be tortured for a very long time to come. The same would be done with Joseph.
“We found the guns that shot them. It’s definitely Parnell’s lost technology,” Zacar said.
“Every time I think Zanr found it all, something else crops up,” Azagor said.
“Do you wish to interrogate the human in the chains,” Zacar asked.
“I need some information from him now, then I want to take him to the holding cells. He hurt my breeder. I will torture him until he dies.” He smiled at Zacar. “A very long time into the future.”
Zacar didn’t ask any questions, merely nodded. “We’ll deal with these humans. When you’re done with the one in the chains, go to your breeder. We will take him to the holding cell.”
“Thank you, my leader.”
Azagor went to the barn and came to stand in front of the human who shook so much the chains made a loud rattling noise. Joseph’s eyes were opened wide, darting around, desperately looking for an escape Azagor would never allow it.
“She is braver than you. The chains did not make that sound when she was hanging here.” She’d been shivering with shock, but this pathetic human, smelling of piss and sweat, shook with fear.
Joseph tried to spit in his face, but Azagor easily dodged it. “Tell me about Susannah’s son.” He saw the crafty look in the human’s eyes. Azagor grinned. “I am not killing you today. You will not be that lucky. I am keeping you alive, and every day that I think I don’t know everything about Noah, I will come and visit you.”
Azagor didn’t think it was possible, but the human sweated even more. “Y--you can’t do that. I’ll tell you where Noah is if you let me go.”
“This is not a negotiation. You will wish many times for many years that you were dead.”
“If you don’t let me go, I won’t tell you where he is,” Joseph shouted.
Azagor reached out and pulled off the man’s ear. When the screaming and sobbing stopped, he said, “Tell me about Noah.”
Joseph couldn’t talk fast enough now, and it took every bit of self-control Azagor had not to kill him. “Why did you leave her alone on the farm?” It never made sense to him.
“She wanted to stay behind.”
“Do I take off your other ear?”
“All right, all right, Ruth didn’t like the attention I gave her. I was going to go back and visit her. I wanted to keep her for myself.”
“You are a miserable excuse for a male.”
Fifteen minutes later, Azagor went to the shuttle, disturbed at the information he’d gotten from the evil little man. Zyrgins had the terrible instinct to kill the weak and helpless, but now they rarely acted on it. Their honor kept them from reverting to being like their forefathers. Many humans seemed to have no honor, even when it came to their family.
Susannah still sat where he left her with Killer sitting in her lap. She didn’t look up when he came in and, after a short hesitation, he went to the controls and flew them home. He needed to get her home. While he flew, he called Viglar and asked him to send his breeder to their dwelling. After a while, he contacted Viglar again and told him to come as well. He’d prefer that Madison healed Susannah, but Viglar was the best doctor in all the known galaxies, and Susannah would have the best. Even if it meant allowing another warrior near her.
They landed, and Azagor picked her and Killer up in his arms. As if he knew she needed him, Killer stayed still in Susannah’s arms while Azagor carried her to their dwelling.
Viglar and Madison waited outside his dwelling, Madison carrying her big equipment case. “She told me she was all right immediately after I rescued her, but she’s been quiet and unresponsive ever since,” he said to Viglar in Zyrgin.
“It sounds like shock. Sit her down, but let her keep your rat while I examine her.”
“It’s not my rat.” Azagor sat her down on the couch and Killer burrowed into her lap.
She didn’t seem to notice him, didn’t react to the sounds Killer made. Madison went to sit next to her and put her arm around her while Viglar scanned her.
“Susannah, can you tell me where you hurt?” Madison asked softly.
“My heart,” Susannah said, her lips barely moving.
“You have a pain in your chest?” Madison asked.
“It shouldn’t ache. I don’t have a heart anymore. It was shredded and plucked out of my chest. How come it still hurts?” Susannah said, eerily emotionless.
Chapter 19
Her heart is in perfect condition, I believe she is talking about feelings,” Viglar said in Zyrgin.
Madison held Susannah’s strong hands, the hands of a woman who’d worked on a farm her whole life. Now they appeared fragile, bloody, the skin raw around her wrists where the chains had held her. “Why don’t you tell me what happened, Susannah? What hurts you so much that it feels as if your heart is shattered?” Madison asked, soft and slow, her gaze sympathetic.
Susannah looked up, at last, and the smile she gave Madison was ugly, macabre, and sad. “Maybe later, now I just want to be left alone. Please.”
Madison nodded and rose. “Nothing is broken. I will clean your wounds and leave you to rest. Will you allow Viglar to give you an injection? It will give you some strength.”
For a long time Susannah didn’t react, then she nodded. “Yes.”
Azagor stepped closer until he stood next to Susannah, and narrowed his eyes at Viglar, who sighed. He pressed the injector against her skin and then stepped back. “Make sure she rests, and do not leave her alone for the next few days. Get one of the breeders to stay with her when you go to your duties.”
Azagor nodded.
Viglar and his breeder left, and Azagor turned to Susannah. She still sat on the couch staring in front of her, convinced her son had died. He didn’t know if that was the truth. If he told her there was a chance that the child still lived and then found a body, she’d never recover.
He picked her up with her still holding her rat and took her to their sleeping place. In their room, he put the rat on the thick carpet he’d gotten from the storeroom and unbuttoned Susannah’s shirt. She stood docile while he undressed her and went into the shower without complaint.
Azagor stepped out of his dirty uniform. It said a lot about her condition that she hadn’t complained about the smell or the blood and gore that clung to it. The smell reminded him of rats crawling over him, eating his flesh, the stinking carcasses of the rats he’d killed. He stepped into the warm water and washed her body and her hair as well. Tears ran down her cheeks. Silent tears that she cried, as if she’d lost all hope, as if she didn’t even realize he was there.
“He said I was a bad mother because I didn’t recognize Noah’s footprints.”
“He said it to hurt you. Nothing that human says is the truth.”
He washed himself with quick efficient moves, helped her out of the shower, then carefully dried her. He combed and dried her hair and then put her in bed. “I will bring you some food.”
Normally, he didn’t tolerate the rat where they
slept, but he picked Killer up and placed him next to her.
He prepared food, and she ate a little without protest. He took away her empty plate and, returning to her, he got into bed and pulled her into his arms. With a glare at Azagor, Killer scrambled to find a spot.
She touched his hand, traced the wounds that were already fading. “They bit you.”
If she was concerned because of his wounds, maybe the life would come back to her midnight eyes. Her voice was still toneless, but at least she’d noticed the bite marks on his skin.
He nodded. “It will take a few days to heal.”
She remained silent, but he knew she didn’t sleep.
“I told them about the rats because he said he’d kill Noah. But Noah was dead all the time. I betrayed you, and my baby is still dead.”
He smoothed a strand of hair, as dark as a Zyrgin night around his finger. It glowed against his skin. “I understand, Susannah. They bit me, but my skin is already healing. I won’t have scars.”
“They carry disease.”
“Viglar gave me a shot. I won’t get sick.”
Her hand on his chest fisted. “I don’t want to be the cause of your death as well.”
As well? “Why would you say that? You are not the cause of anyone’s death.”
“I sinned. If I was married when Noah was born, he’d still be alive.”
“Joseph would’ve found a way to separate him from you and to hurt him, even if you’d been married when he was conceived.”
He had to gnash his teeth together to talk of these things. He couldn’t tolerate the idea of her with another man. A human. Should he tell her there was a chance that Noah was still alive?
They lay quiet for hours. He’d given up on her talking when she said, “Tell me one of your tall tales.”
He smiled in the darkness. Maybe she’d be all right. “I built a time machine, and we sent warriors back in time.”
She tried to laugh, but he heard the tears. “That is a very tall tale. What are they supposed to do in the past?”
