by Honor James
“We are an hour out from your home, my lord. If you would like you can shower and get ready to disembark, or you may come up here and sit with me. Your choice.” Her voice was very chipper, but it sounded brittle to his ears. Something was off.
“Yeah,” he said softly, letting his head fall back to the pillow as he stared at the ceiling. He was nearly home, and that should have thrilled him. He’d be able to feed and yet. Pushing to a sitting position, he eased from the bed and had a quick sonic shower before he dressed. Moving slowly, dragging his feet really, because he didn’t want to leave her behind. Not exactly the thoughts he should be having, and yet he was and they were depressing. Entering the flight control room, he kept his gazed lowered just in case she had the view screen operating and, sitting in the copilot’s chair, spun it so he was facing the doors.
“The screen is down. I don’t really need it, not when I have the sonic radar.” She was trying to be considerate for him, interesting. “You will be careful? Safe, you will be safe here, won’t you?” Raven could hear the worry in her voice, and it seemed odd to him that anyone, especially someone that knew next to nothing about him, was worried.
“As safe as anywhere, I suppose,” he said with a shrug, sliding down in the seat and propping his boots up onto the unused console. “I’m not exactly the golden child,” he pointed out, though why he said it he couldn’t figure out. “But I have my uses, so I will take a few days, heal, and then return to what I do best. What about you?” he asked, glancing to her, and knew it for the mistake it was. “Will you be continuing on and bring home the lost sheep once more? Your husband must be a very generous man to be so at ease with you always away.” Yeah, that had definitely not been very subtle.
She snorted and shook her head. “No, no husband.” She wasn’t going to expand on that. Sure, she had bed partners from time to time, but no one ever made her feel. “As for that, no. I think that you were my last case.” She was tired. She was tired of trying to always find the missing, the lost. Using her abilities actually took a lot out of her, and she was done with it. “I think it’s time for me to retire.” There was a hesitation. “You can’t tell anyone that I am the one who found you. I don’t know how your mother knew that I was who I am, but she did.” And that was dangerous in and of itself. “So, if you don’t mind, forget you ever met me?” She wouldn’t forget him, though.
“I doubt that will ever be possible, but if that is your wish I will try,” he said quietly. “Mayhap you will be truly lucky and I’ll be killed on my next mission.” He shrugged as he got to his feet. “At least then your secret will be forever safe, my lady. Let me know when we land, and I’ll get out of your hair as quickly as possible so that you may have the life you want without one such as I am in it.” That said, he left the cabin. She watched him, leaving and walking toward the back of the craft and the ramp to get out as soon as she touched down she knew.
She was a royal fuck-up and she damn well knew it. As they were landing she waited to extend the back ramp and, when they touched down, locked it out before opening the comms once more. “Just so that you know one thing before you go off for your happily ever after, my lord.” She pressed the release so that the ramp would slowly lower. “There is one person who would give a damn if you died. Take care of yourself, Raven, if not for you, for me.” It was the first time she said his name with some of the emotion she felt deep inside for him. Looking to the feed from the ramp, she could see him.
He was fisting his hands at his sides over and over again, and then he shook out his arms and shook his head. “You’re wrong,” he murmured. “In time you, too, will wish me dead, everyone does.” Shaking his head once more, he stepped forward and moved down the ramp. She watched as he stopped at the bottom and appeared to take in a deep breath. A moment later he shot a look over his shoulder before jogging off. She soon lost sight of him in the darkness covering the land.
She sighed and shook her head. He was wrong. He was very, very wrong on that. Closing the ramp, she lifted off and leaned back in her seat and wiped at the tears with frustrated fists. “All right, Raven, it’s time for me to break the news to your dear old mom that you aren’t coming back into the fold.” She had a feeling that was going to be a wonderful chat.
* * * *
Thirty hours later Jamison stepped from her craft, resplendent in her full station gown and jewelry. Walking toward the woman who was waiting for her on the landing platform, she bowed her head respectfully. “Hello, my lady.”
The lady tipped her head in a regal manner, her eyes searching behind Jamison. “Where is my son?”
“He has chosen to not come back. He doesn’t want the title and is fine with it going to another.”
The lady screamed and narrowed her gaze on Jamison. “You will go and get him. You will bring him back here now.”
“No, I won’t. I liberated him and took him where he wanted to be. He is an adult, he is a High Lord, and it’s what he wanted.” She stopped and looked down at the netting that had been tossed around her. “What are you doing?”
“No one ever backs out of a deal with me,” the older woman said and nodded to the guard holding the netting. “Take her to the dungeons. Treat her as you would any other thief.” Lady Kato smiled at Jamison as the man began to chuckle, not a nice sound. “Yes, you can do with her as you will. I will arrange for her little ship to explode and relay the terrible news to her parents. Good bye, Jamison. You will enjoy him, until he splits you in half.” She turned and walked away even as Jamison began to scream and fight the bonds she was wrapped in.
* * * *
“She did what?!” Raven roared, coming to his feet as he stared down at the quivering and sobbing maid.
“I beg you, my lord,” she whispered, her voice shaky as she sank to her knees and rocked back and forth. “She will kill me if she finds I came here to tell you this, but I could not let this go, not this time. Your Lady mother has no sanity left and is too used to being the absolute power. She has the girl, the one that helped you escape and she has let.” She shivered. “She has let her Master Torturer have her to do as he will.” Her voice held information, information gained from something very similar he was sure.
“Where is she being kept?” He bit out the question through his long incisors as he fought pure unadulterated rage.
“In the dungeons, my lord.” The maid lowered her head more. “She is chained, she is beaten, she is.” Again she shuddered. “No one should undergo such indignities, no one.”
Raven’s mind blanked at her words, a near mirror image of what he’d been through not too long ago. “Return to the house and prepare,” he told the maid. “I will be there in two days’ time at the sun’s height. You will let me in and then you will leave immediately,” he said.
“My lord, she will kill the girl and then she’ll have you, too.” The maid looked up in shocked horror, unable to believe what he’d just said clearly.
“That you do not need to worry about.” No one could hold him if he didn’t want it to happen. “Go now,” he said softly. “And if you can get to her, even for a moment, tell her that the bird that flew is returning to roost.” Gods he hoped that Jamison would understand the message. He couldn’t give the maid too much just in case she ended up breaking under his mother. Watching as she scraped and bowed away, he let out a breath and then went to prepare for war.
* * * *
It had been four days. Four days of horror and things that a weaker woman would have broken under. But she wouldn’t break, refused to break.
Gathering blood in her mouth, she spat at the man as she laughed. “I said—” Her voice was hoarse from the tears she refused to let loose. She refused to give them that power. “Fuck you.” Her teeth hurt, everything hurt but she was past numb.
“We will see how well you feed.” Again the pliers. “We will see how well you feed. With only one fang.”
The thought of only having one fang broke her.
Jerking her h
ead away from the pliers, she screamed, sobbed, and begged for it to just end. “Just kill me.” She was done. Perhaps Raven had been right, perhaps no one would miss him, because she was soon going to be very dead.
“Tell Lady Kato that you will send word for Raven Kato, tell her that you will bring him here and I will put you out of your misery.” His hot, fetid breath brushed against her cheek. The pliers were back up before her face, the threat clear in his eyes as he licked his lips. He clamped them tightly to one of her fangs and waited, with a sick grin on his face. She couldn’t do it, and he must have seen it in her eyes. He did it, he removed her fang, her scream echoing in the room. It was nearly enough to break her if not for the thought of Raven.
If they were doing this to her, she couldn’t imagine what they would do to him, and she, damn her, she loved him and never would give him up. “No,” she whispered on a sob. Pulling herself back together, she stared at him, her chin coming up. “Continue,” she ordered softly. She wasn’t giving up Raven for anything. If that meant losing everything, her life included, so be it.
“I wouldn’t if I were you.” Raven’s voice came from the shadows before he stepped into view. As the man turned, Raven drew his arm back and hit him with his large fist, hard. Moving quickly, he cupped Jamison’s face. “Jamison, are you all right?” he asked as he worked at the chains, holding her and catching her as she fell against him when they loosened. Easing her to the ground, he pulled out a shirt from his bag and pulled it over her head to cover her blood soaked and tattered clothing.
She let the tears fall and knew that either she was dead, or the gods had finally decided that she might have done something to be released from the pain. She couldn’t lie and say she was, because she wasn’t. Shaking her head, she whispered, “I think that you might be too late.” It was the last thing she said before she passed out in his arms. She wasn’t built like him. The pain was simply too much for her, the blood loss too much.
“Shit,” he cursed and, with a quick movement, sliced his wrist open to pour his blood down her throat. “You are not going to die, Jamison,” he told her softly. “You will not die. Hear me in this, my lady. It is not your time,” he whispered against her ear as he continued to force blood down her open throat. Gods let her live, take me, she is innocent, he thought as he watched her for any sign of life. “Come on, Jamison, wake up damn it,” he whispered.
Her eyes didn’t even open as she whispered, “My head hurts, my lord. If you are going to yell can you please not do it in front of me?” She curled in closer to him and shook her head. “I’m sorry for all they did to you, my lord. I didn’t truly realize what you went through. I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not going to yell,” he said quietly, his eyes closing in silent thanks to whatever being had spared her from death. “But I am going to get you out of here if you are willing,” he said, gently shifting so he could see her face, bringing a hand up to touch her cheek. “Will you trust in me for a time to see to your safety this time around, my lady?” he asked carefully.
“I’ve always trusted you, my lord.” Her breathing slowed, and she grumbled at him. “Trust isn’t given easily by me, and love is nearly impossible, but you got both damn you. I need sleep, my lord. I haven’t been allowed to sleep as our people do and my body has been damaged badly. I need the sleep of our people, my lord, let me go?” Her words were pleading, begging with him to let her go.
“Not now and likely not ever, my lady,” he told her honestly. “Sleep, Jamison, I will watch over you and keep you safe from harm.” He stroked her cheek lightly. He needed to get her to the shuttle that, unbelievably, he’d actually and willingly brought to collect her. Once there, he’d seal her in to keep her safe and then come back and deal with the man that had caused her to bleed from parts of her body no one should. Pressing a light kiss to her forehead, he held her gently. “Sleep, Jamison,” he whispered to her.
She just nodded slightly. “Be safe, my lord. I would miss you if you were gone.” She was repeating her words to him from when last they were together. Then, thankfully, she fell into the sleep of their people. Her body shut down in order to attempt to heal from the damage caused to her, and she was slowing but still there if one knew what to look for.
“You keep saying that and yet I still don’t believe it,” he murmured, laying her down. Grabbing the male, he moved him into the place she’d been moments before and chained him. Lifting his head by his hair, Raven growled. “I’ll be right back to deal with you,” he promised and let go so his head smacked down hard. Picking Jamison up gently, he carefully made his way back out to the shuttle. Laying her on one of the long seats, he wrapped her in several blankets and put a folded one under her head. Kissing her cheek lightly, he crouched by her for long moments before he stood and sealed her in, locking the shuttle down so that no one could get in. After that Raven Kato went to deal with the man that had harmed the woman that was to be his mate, in a very permanent way.
Chapter 7
Three hours later he had Jamison in his bed, cleaned, checked, over by a doctor, and resting as peacefully as possible. Sitting at her side in a chair, he just watched her as the sun moved higher into the sky and then began its slow descent. He didn’t move at all during the day, unable to leave her alone to possibly awaken in a strange room with no one familiar around. Glancing up as a guard came in with a message that the border of his lands had been attacked and that the attackers had been killed and shipped back to his mother, he nodded thanks before looking back to Jamison.
Her eyes began to twitch, and as much as she wanted to open her eyes and take in the heaven she seemed to be in, she couldn’t. Fear rode her hard. She had to have been hallucinating when she dreamed Raven came for her. She knew better. He would never come for her, she had just been a ride home, and even that he was pissed off about because it had broken his mission.
Her fingers so very lightly, slowly, touched the silk sheets beneath her, and she felt the hot tears burning a path down her face. It was another form of torture the mad woman was using and she knew it. Even in this pain she couldn’t give him up, so without even opening her eyes and seeing the reality of the dungeon room she whispered, “I say again, fuck you.” And now she waited for the softness to be yanked back, waited for the beatings. Now, she simply waited for the pain to start once more.
Closing off her mind, she had to hide the woman who fell in love with a man behind millions of walls and doors, all in an attempt to be able to keep that one small good piece of herself, that small happiness she had, if only briefly.
The sound of movement from her side came a moment before a finger lightly touched her cheek, wiping at the tears. A hand gathered up hers, cradling it in a gentle and warm hold. “Jamison, open your eyes so I know that you know where you are.” Raven’s voice, soothing, so amazingly deep and another torture the bitch was using. Groaning softly at the feel of lips to her forehead, she nearly whimpered at the scent that came with the light touch, Raven again. “You are safe, my lady, no one here will hurt you. Open your eyes, Jamison. Please.”
She loved his voice, hearing him saying so much to her simply seemed to be like a river flowing through her. “My lord?” she whispered and opened her eyes. “You aren’t another holographic image? This isn’t another ruse to learn where you are, my lord?” It was a shaky hand that reached out and touched his cheek, gasping as she felt the heat of skin. “I’m no longer there,” she whispered, not so much in question, but realization. “You shouldn’t have come for me, my lord. She wants you and would do anything to get you.” Not that she wasn’t incredibly happy that he did come, but she was upset about the what ifs.
“It matters not since you’ve been in my home for the last fourteen hours, and the men she sent when I didn’t appear at the prearranged time have been terminated and sent back to her. I set up a time with a maid that was nothing more than an obvious agent working for her.” He drew back so she could see him clearly but stayed close enough to let her fe
el truly safe. “I was there hours before my arrangement with the maid and took care of business. No one can get onto my lands, I am extremely paranoid.” Like she didn’t know that already. “You are safe here, Jamison. Take the time you need to heal, and when you are better you can leave if that is your wish.” It wasn’t his wish. She was his mate, he had realized that and even saying she could leave hurt him deeply. For her and her alone however, Raven would give over that last scrap of his heart and allow her to leave.
“Why would you come for me?” she asked before she could stop herself. She didn’t really want that answer and she knew it. It was repayment for a debt, but if she heard him say that, it would fracture something inside of her that her torturers couldn’t get to, her heart.
“Because you are innocent of the battle between my mother and I.” She couldn’t stop the flash of hurt she felt at his words. “But mainly because I didn’t want you hurt. I can’t stand the idea of you being hurt, especially by the sadist that gave birth to me. You are mine to protect.” His words were a whisper, soft and so wonderful to hear.
She watched him and then nodded after a moment. “Just as you were mine to protect.” And she had. She had protected him, no matter what they had done to her she hadn’t given him up. He would never know that, of course, but she did and that was all that mattered. “She’s insane, my lord. Your mother is absolutely and completely insane. She will ruin the house your ancestors built and topple it with her madness, my lord.” She hated to see such an ancient house suffer as it was. “You have to stop her, my lord.” She couldn’t call him Raven. He had never given her permission, and she knew that if he had, she wouldn’t ever be able to leave him, give him up.
