Daniel gave another long look at the deep forest, his foreboding deepening, then turned to move toward Clara.
CHAPTER 9
Bracus and Matthew stood shoulder to shoulder, their quivers pressing against their sides.
Matthew's eyes tracked the one of the fragment as he spoke to Clara, noting his posture, which did not seem straight and angry. His nerves were shredded as he spoke to Bracus, “For the tenth time, we must act now and get her back to us!”
Bracus pressed a palm on his shoulder and turned him to face him. “Do you not think that I wish for that very thing? Count their number, Matthew!” he hissed. “Even such as we do not have sufficient number to dispatch that!” He stalked away, pacing the small space amongst the forest where they had tracked the fragment in parallel. When they moved, the Band crept alongside in the forest, hidden by the gloom.
It had been a tense number of hours. Watching Clara's handling by the fragment. Also her horrible position atop the steed. Bracus shook his head.
“I cannot stand this!” Matthew moved to evacuate the forest and Philip held him fast.
“Do not, my brother!” he said in a quiet voice.
“You are not my brother!”
Philip and Matthew stared into each others eyes. “You kill her if you go now. Think on it. They will fight to keep her and that lot will kill her before they see you resume possession of her again.”
“Do you not think that I long to be with Sarah? That Joseph wishes to carve his name upon their flesh? Wait for the eve. We will butcher them as they sleep. They will be as lambs underneath our blades.”
Matthew shrugged off the huge hand that restrained him and stalked deeper into the forest and Joseph sighed. “We feel the same. Matthew is more...”
“Vocal,” Bracus said.
“That did not used to be the way of it,” Philip said.
They nodded. Much had changed Matthew since his taking of Clara. For one, he made no secret of his intent to be her mate.
Bracus had not given up and for every intimacy that Matthew gained, Bracus struggled to assert his own.
Ultimately, she would have to choose. Right now, she was in the bosom of their enemy and Bracus' first priority was to obtain her safely. Where Matthew would go off half-cocked and fueled by emotion, Bracus would use those same emotions to finely hone his plan.
It had been the worst moments of the Band when the game had turned terribly wrong. The women hidden all around them while the fragment came upon them before the women could be safely gathered. The best the Band had been able to manage was to hide until the females had been taken. Then follow, fashioning a plan to reacquire them.
Of course all of that would be moot if the violence vested against them would be too great. Then caution would go to the wayside.
Bracus sighed and called to the one of the Royal Guard which remained, Clarence.
Clarence came, stiff, formal and wary.
“What say you?” he asked.
“We wish for you to be party to the plan,” Bracus said.
“We move tonight, Captain Bracus?” he asked hopefully, thinking of Sarah, Bracus had not doubt. He gave a subtle look at Philip and noticed him frowning at Clarence.
Tempers ran high.
Bracus nodded and looked into the murky depths of the forest, whistling like a bird for Matthew. He reappeared soundlessly before him, his face in grim lines of determination.
Bracus outlined the plan and the men pressed their heads together. All the Band assembled and one Royal Guard.
Bracus hoped the element of surprise would gain them their females' return.
In the end, hope had very little to do with it.
Savagery was the order of the day.
Or the night, as it were.
****
Matthew could not quiet the churning in his guts as he watched that male of the fragment speak with Clara, another with his hand upon her arm.
The urge to move away from the woods and tear said offending limb off of the male's body was almost unbearable.
And the prince! He would be one of the first they would dispatch. But he was wily. He had escaped their grasp once before. However, Bracus' plan was sound in that regard. As long as that one lived, Clara was not safe. Matthew remembered, thinking on how he had chased her behind the horse (the fool), then had received a nice hoof to the chest. A perfect move executed by Clara. She was beautiful, Matthew thought for the thousandth time, but she was clever as well. He had seen her deliberate and act out many decisions with alacrity.
In this situation, she had given herself a respite. The viper of a prince would be coddling himself for a few hours hence. Matthew's mouth turned up at the corners and Philip saw his expression.
“What amuses you?”
Matthew swung his face to Phillip, the biggest of them all, steady. A terrible warrior if one was on the wrong side of his aggression. “Ah...I was thinking of the prince getting taught a lesson by the fragment's horse.”
Philip chuckled. “Yes, most excellent. He is without a brain to move behind a horse in that way.”
Matthew nodded and Bracus, having heard that last said, “She is an apt pupil. She takes to the horse quite naturally.” He gave a pained expression, no doubt remembering with fondness the many riding lessons he had bestowed on her.
“Do you think that she manufactured the incident?” Philip asked.
Bracus nodded. “Aye, I do. She is a clever female.”
“It is a sad state of affairs when a female must use a horse as a weapon of defense.”
They were quiet at that for a few long moments. Matthew clenched his fists. He would beat that horrible male into a bloody blight upon the ground.
Bracus put a hand on his shoulder and a look of understanding flowed between the two men.
Prince Frederic would suffer.
As would the fragment.
*
Tucker watched the princess visit with Daniel and narrowed his eyes. The fire blazed about them. The others had grabbed as many rocks from the forest as they could manage and built a great stone pit and the heat from the fire baked their group.
Daniel had always been soft toward the females. He wasn't sure why. They were breeders, nothing more. He was a formidable fighter and Tucker enjoyed the confidence his skills afforded him in the skirmishes that occurred with other fragment. But this one weakness of his was an Achilles’s heel. Survival inside the confines of the fragment hinged solely on trusting no one, loving no one.
Tucker stood and turned to Robert. “Get the females.”
Clara stopped talking with Daniel and stood. “I thought that Evelyn was the only one of us that was taken,” her voice quavered slightly and Tucker was glad. There was something about this female that set his teeth on edge. He wished to hurt her, cause her to submit. In that way, he and that stupid prince saw things equally. An idea lit his mind and he embraced it. Why hadn't he thought of it before?
She swiveled her head to Daniel, her eyes pleaded with him as she asked, “They will not hurt the wee one, Evelyn?”
But Daniel did not give her encouragement. He knew Tucker too well. It would be all he could manage to keep Clara safe. He had already resolved in his mind that he would die trying to keep her safe. But the other females, it would be he against many. They may face...a horrible end. Maybe he could appeal to Tucker's greed.
It was legendary.
Without females, there would be no babies. He had to outline his debate carefully. Tucker was naturally suspicious of everyone's motives.
Even his.
Of course, in the case of Clara those suspicions may be valid. She made him want to be a better man.
Daniel straightened. “What's going on, Tucker?”
Robert and a few others brought a struggling Evelyn.
And Anna and Sarah.
Clara's heart fell within her breastbone. She had thought she had only herself and Evelyn to concern herself with. Now it appeared that there was more
that she need protect.
Tucker walked toward her and she instinctively moved back, stumbling against Daniel, who pressed her against him.
Tucker noticed, his eyes flicking to the semi-protective grip that he had on Clara.
“Princess,” Tucker began, “we are not brutes.”
Clara held her tongue. She had been present in the battlefield the day that two of the fragment had been absolutely brutish.
“However, it has come to my attention from Prince Frederic that you are quite concerned,” he let that word lengthen, “with your people. Now, that includes both peoples', eh? The savages and the sphere-dwellers alike.” He waited for her to respond.
“They are clan, Mr. Tucker, not savages,” Clara clarified.
“You are so wrong,” he said, waving away her comment. “You're savage. They're ordinary but necessary.”
He moved toward Sarah and she glared at him as he reached out and grasped a hunk of her wheaten hair.
“Do not touch me,” she hissed as she jerked away and he slapped her face, her head slamming into the male that held her. She spat blood onto the ground and her eyes met Clara's. Clara shook her head slightly.
“Tell her to remain still or I will make what I just did look like affection.”
Daniel squeezed Clara's shoulder and she quickly said, “Sarah, try to remain calm. Do not antagonize this man.”
Tucker turned to look at her. “I don't think I like the way you say man, Princess.”
Clara shrugged the shoulder Daniel's palm rested on. “I care not. I followed your command. Now do as you said you would; cease this abusive behavior.”
“I'm going to enjoy the breaking of you, Princess. Very much,” his jaw clenching as he said it.
Clara was struck by how much he reminded her of the prince.
Daniel saw the plan form in Tucker's eyes and had an inkling of what it might be, having seen him brutalize whatever female he took a liking to.
That would not be the purpose for Clara he promised himself. Somehow, she would escape that end.
Clara looked on in despair, her fate and those of her subjects uncertain. She was fast losing hope for The Band as an avenue of assistance. She was at once back in the bowels of her childhood. At the mercy of others, no one her advocate save herself. She trembled as the familiar suffocation of futility and helplessness overwhelmed her.
Then her gaze was captured by Anna, Sarah and Evelyn. Hope rode their expressions with surety.
They believed in her.
She straightened, resolve to fight like a rod of steel keeping her rigid.
Tucker saw her resolve and smiled. She returned his gaze silently.
She wasn't rising to the bait and Tucker relished the challenge, determining to goad her further. “Bring them forward. I want a closer look at our new breeding stock.”
“No! This is absurd!” Clara said, almost tearing out of Daniel's grasp. He held her fast, whispering in her ear, “He's playing with you. Don't react. Just stand here. When he can't get a rise out of you, he will stop.”
“A rise?” she whispered.
“Illicit your temper?” he guessed at words she would understand.
“Oh, I understand.” She rolled her lip underneath her teeth and nibbled, preparing herself to witness the degradation of her friends. A thing she was certain would not come easily.
He approached Evelyn first and she bucked and fought. He grasped her chin and jerked her head to the left and right. His gaze went to her hips and a look of distaste crossed his face. “Too young. We'll have to wait on that one ripening a bit more.”
Robert stroked her blond head and she was powerless to get away, held as she was by one of the other men. “Not too young boss. Let's take a chance.”
Tucker deliberated and Clara bent at the waist, retching at her own feet, the thought of those animals touching Evelyn more than she could bear.
Tucker laughed. “No, we have to save her up for a little while. But I appreciate your enthusiasm. It is worth it to see how it affects the princess.”
Clara raised her head, pressing a shaky hand against her mouth as Daniel supported her.
Tucker stared at Daniel, studying him closely. “You will not have her. Do not think for a second that it's going to happen. She will be put into the pool of breeders like the others.”
“She is savage. She may breed true and then where are we? We do not need male breeders. Think of the history, Tucker. One throw back and all that the fragment has is threatened.”
Clara watched the wretched man consider Daniel's words and could not believe they were discussing her this way. Her eyes sought Sarah's, a hand print embedded on her fair skin, her blond hair all about her. Clara's eyes skipped to Anna's great chocolate orbs as saucers in her face, the male that held her cautiously sniffing at her neck.
Clara exactly understood her panic.
Tucker moved from Evelyn and made his way to Anna, who had begun to breathe in ragged gasps, no doubt thinking of the male that had abused her almost two years ago. The memories floating in her expression like dust motes in the air.
“This one is already terrified. Why is that, Clara?” He turned his attention to her. Clara feigned as much indifference as she could muster.
“I know not. It may be your foulness,” she said with thinly veiled contempt.
Tucker smiled and swung his gaze to Robert. “Get her companion. Now!”
Clara looked around and noticed something she had not before:
Charles was not in attendance.
Robert and another of the fragment drug the lifeless body of Charles and the breath stilled in Clara's throat.
Charles!
This time she did tear free of Daniel and ran to Charles, almost falling over the hem of her skirt in her haste. She dropped to her knees and the men left him there for her inspection while Tucker circled her like a shark.
Oh no...Clara mourned. Have they killed Charles?
Ignoring everything around her she threw her ear to his chest, the only spot that had no blood and listened for his heartbeat.
At first, there was nothing and a pit of grief, the likes of which she had not experienced since her father's passing, choked her. Then, very faintly, she detected a thready pulse, a slight rise to the chest.
She looked around for a place to touch him that was unharmed and settled for moving the hair away from his face, his nose broken.
Twice.
She stood so suddenly that Tucker took a step back. Then realizing how it looked, he stepped forward again.
Clara could think of nothing else but hurting him. Oh...how she wished for the physical menace of the Band in that moment.
Instead she took her finger and jabbed it into his chest. “You will pay for what you have done here this day. I swear it.”
Tucker looked at her for a moment then threw his head back, howling laughter.
Clara longed for his death.
When he finally gained a measure of control he said, “You're not in any position to negotiate terms of conduct, Princess. You're a unique breeder, no more. But I'd have to concede that severe discipline will have to wait until we gain control of your sphere. However much the prince and I share the same inclinations.”
Clara knew that which he inferred and was sickened beyond words. Although she admitted that there was not a grain of surprise. If he were willing, as much of the fragment appeared to be, to degrade human beings in all the various forms, he would be willing to do anything unspeakable.
Prince Frederic chose that moment to make an appearance. He put a casual foot atop Charles chest. That one action caused a fissure of rage to explode within Clara and she felt it as an integral shift within her. One moment she was standing in front of Tucker and the next her foot had connected with Frederic's groin and he slumped onto the ground, holding his nether regions in a most satisfying way.
Daniel picked her up from behind and got her away from him as Jabez came at her on a run and too late she
realized incapacitating the prince did not stop retribution.
Daniel put her behind him. Jabez moved around him to get to Clara and with a sweeping motion to his left he threw a leg out as he wrapped Clara's right wrist, jerking her to his side as Jabez flew to his left to land on the patch of grass behind them.
He rolled and sprung to his feet, his eyes flicking to the six inch blade that lay naked in Daniel's hand.
“No,” he intoned quietly to Jabez.
“You have heard your leader. She is nothing but a breeder,” he spat as he looked at Clara. “She will be a whore for the fragment soon enough. A perfect end for her. She was never good enough for my prince in any event.”
Prince Frederic moaned in the background and Clara smiled. He could ascribe whatever name to her and still she would remain who she was.
Jabez's face darkened as he noticed her disregard of his low esteem.
Tucker laughed again. “Not that this isn't amusing but we have other things to attend to.” His look took Clara in, starting at her feet and rising to her head. Clara tried in vain not to blush but the blatant appraisal was immodest at best, perverted at worst.
It was definitely the latter.
Tucker's eyes flitted to Daniel, giving him a mock salute. “Sharp moves there, Daniel. Remember she is yours to coddle until we reach the sphere. That does not mean that there may not be sport to be had.”
Daniel frowned.
“She is not to be marked where the eye can travel,” Tucker elaborated.
A horrible sense of déjà vu overcame Clara at his words. Memories surfacing of how careful Queen Ada had been to keep interested subjects uninformed about the abuse of her daughter.
Supposed daughter.
Tucker studied her. “Hit a nerve, Princess?”
She did not understand the talk of one's nerves but the gist was clear and she viciously locked down her expression. The less this excuse of a man knew about her, the better.
Daniel broke the awkward moment, “Let's get them under guard and work at setting up camp.”
Tucker tore his gaze away from Clara. One thing he was sure of: she was a problem. He'd already wasted too much time dealing with her. He was not happy with the concern that Daniel displayed. It was a complication he didn't need with one of his best men.
The Savage Blood (Savage Series, Book 2) Page 6
