Kiara trembled in apprehension. When her father was this angry, he was completely unreasonable. Never had she seen so many soldiers.
Her father strode out in the middle of them to glare up at their hatch. "Send Kiara down first!" he shouted.
Nykyrian's strong hands unstrapped her helmet and her safety harness. "It's all right," he whispered. "Do what he says. Just move slowly and keep your hands away from your body so that none of the others get nervous or mistake your intent."
Kiara nodded. Her head light with panic, fear, and anger, she stepped out and descended the ladder. Like Nykyrian had instructed, she moved slowly toward her father, with her hands held out at her sides.
She glared at her father as she reached him. "What is the meaning of this, Father?"
Keifer placed two icy hands on her cheeks, then drew her into his arms in a crushing embrace. She hugged him back, thinking he must be calmer now that he was sure she was fine.
Letting out a relieved breath, she stepped back and smiled up at him. "As I told you, I'm all right." She turned back to see the guards hauling Nykyrian out of his ship at gunpoint.
They snatched his helmet off and held a blaster to his temple while he kept his hands behind his head and his fingers laced.
Anger tore through her at his treatment.
He could fight them and get away, but because of her, he was submitting. His humiliation on her behalf made her want to claw their eyes out.
Glaring at her father, she snarled, "It's time you stopped this madness."
"You're right, angel." He smiled at her. "It is time to put a stop to this. Someone has to." His arms tightened around her as he looked up at his men. "Shoot him!"
Her father's order tore through her.
"No!" she screamed, trying to pull free.
Her father's grip tightened as she fought against him. He held her by her arms, preventing her from running to Nykyrian.
Light erupted inside the bay as the soldiers opened fire on him. Terror and disbelief tore through her as everything seemed to slow down.
Nykyrian recoiled from the shots and fell to the ground where he lay unmoving. Blood ran out from under his body, staining the light gray pavement.
Kiara went cold. No sound would leave her lips as she crumpled to the floor, unable to cope with what had happened. A denial screamed inside her soul. Nykyrian was dead.
Dead.
Because of her.
No, because of her father.
Her father's hands were still locked on her, preventing her from running to her husband.
She couldn't breathe. All she could do was stare at Nykyrian as a soldier moved forward to feel for a pulse.
"He's dead, sir."
Tears flowed down her cheeks as sobs racked her body. It couldn't be. It was a nightmare. It had to be.
Wake up!
But she didn't. She wanted to die as excruciating agony tore through her soul.
The look of prideful satisfaction on her father's face nauseated her. "Dispose of the body. Troops dismissed."
When he moved to help her to her feet, she slapped and shoved at him. "I hate you, you bastard!" she screamed. "I hate you! I hate you!"
But those words were weak in comparison to what she really felt. She wanted to kill her father.
Wailing, she lay on the ground, too weak to move or to really fight.
All she wanted was to have this go away.
But it was too late. Her father scooped her up in his arms and carried her away from the one man she'd promised never to leave.
Nykyrian did his best not to breathe deeply as he watched his own blood pooling around his hand. He ached more now than he ever had in his entire life. At least four shots had hit him at point-blank range. And there was no telling how many more had torn through him.
Gah, it hurt . . .
Why couldn't some of those bastards have missed?
"We're so dead," Tameron whispered as he draped a sheet over Nykyrian's head to help shield him from the others. "If Zamir finds out about this, he'll have my balls."
"He won't know unless you tell him," Nykyrian whispered, thankful for the loyalty of his Sentella members. There were times when spies were extremely valuable.
This was definitely one of them.
Tameron cursed as he scanned the bay and the handful of soldiers who were still milling about. "Just how the hell are we supposed to get you and your fighter out?"
Nykyrian closed his eyes against a wave of pain. "Tell control you're driving my fighter out on remote to get rid of it and me."
Tameron smiled. "Brilliant."
That's why they pay me the big credits.
Nykyrian forced himself to remain limp as Tameron and Jayde picked him up and dumped him into the seat of his fighter. He had to bite back a curse at their roughness. But they all had to make it look real or die.
Kiara's screams echoed in his ears and he wished for a way to let her know he was still alive.
Unfortunately, if he tried, he really would be dead.
Tameron threw his helmet against his stomach. Pain erupted through his body and for a moment, he feared he might pass out.
One, two, three . . . breathe.
He focused on the rhythm to distract himself from the physical misery. From the emotional damage of hearing Kiara's sobs.
And yet a part of him treasured the sound. She wouldn't have cried like that had she not cared about him. Those sounds couldn't be faked.
She did love him.
The thought warmed him as they jettisoned his fighter out by remote.
Still, he wasn't out of danger. Blood covered him to the point that he couldn't figure out where he was wounded. If he didn't get help soon, he'd bleed out.
He waited until he'd cleared orbit before he sat up and took control of his craft. Pain clouded his mind, dulling his thoughts. Every second seemed to bring more throbbing agony than the one before it.
By the time he reached home, it was all he could do to move at all.
Get out and get in. C'mon, boy, you can do it. He had to stop the bleeding.
Nykyrian staggered out of his ship, his eyesight dimming. He had to call Syn and get help with his wounds. He didn't have much time left . . .
In spite of the sweat covering his body, he was freezing. He opened the door to his house, blood smearing over the white controls.
He let his helmet fall from his numbed hands. The lorinas ran forward, confused by the smell of blood. Think of Kiara. You can't die. Not right now.
She's still not safe.
You have to live to stop Aksel.
Nykyrian took a step forward and fell to his knees.
Get up, asshole.
He tried to rise, but the pain was too much. He had to move, he had to.
Instead, he collapsed against the floor. His last conscious thought was of a tiny dancer who had promised never to leave him.
CHAPTER 23
"The Probekeins repealed their contract on your life! You're safe!"
Kiara barely heard Tiyana's jubilant shout. Honestly, she didn't care. Her life had ended eight weeks ago when her father had killed Nykyrian right in front of her eyes.
Nothing else had mattered since.
Nothing.
Tiyana squatted down beside the chair where Kiara sat in the palace's garden, wrapped in her mother's old woolen shawl--something she always wore whenever she was upset. It made her feel like her mother was still with her.
Every day, her father had her marched out here to the garden by his soldiers, thinking the beauty would soothe her and create some freakish miracle that could drive Nykyrian's memory from her.
But all it did was sicken her, body and soul. How could she see any form of beauty when her heart had been shattered?
"Kiara, didn't you hear me? You can return to the theater and dance again."
Like she cared. How could Tiyana think that something so trivial would make her happy? In truth, she hadn't danced since she'd held Nykyri
And she had no desire to ever dance again without him. The memory was more than she could bear.
"I heard you."
Sighing, Tiyana took a seat in the identical white, wrought-iron chair across from her.
Kiara used to love sitting in the well-manicured garden behind the palace, breathing in the scent of all the flowers blooming around her, sunlight warming her skin, not doing anything except enjoying the sweet air, gossiping with Tiyana.
But those days were gone.
I don't think I'll ever smile again.
Tiyana looked past Kiara's shoulder and shook her head. By that action she knew her father must be standing behind her. She didn't bother to look. She really couldn't care less where her father was.
"Tiyana," he said roughly. "Could you excuse us for a moment?"
"Sure, Your Excellency." She stood and touched Kiara's hand. "I'll be back in a minute. Do you want anything?"
Kiara shook her head, stifling a sob. The only thing she wanted was her husband and nothing could bring Nykyrian back from what they'd done to him.
With a trembling breath, Kiara looked away from her father as he took Tiyana's chair.
"Angel?"
"Don't call me that anymore." Every time she heard it now, it made her think of her father calling out for Nykyrian's death, and of the countless other horrible things he'd put her through since then--in the name of "protecting" her. He'd made her take a rape test and marched her through countless psychologists who came up with all kinds of names for her "condition."
"It makes my skin crawl," she snapped.
He took a deep breath and extended a long, manila folder toward her. "Your medical report came back. I wish to God I could kill all those bastards for what they did to you."
Kiara ground her teeth, wanting to claw his eyes out for that statement--she was so sick of him calling down the wrath of all incarnations to destroy The Sentella when all they'd done was protect her. Of course, it would help if the psychologists would stop calling it Captive Syndrome--the victim learns to identify with her captor and in time will even begin to think that she cares for him.
How stupid could they be? But they were experts and so her father listened to them and their psychobabble instead of hearing her when she spoke.
She refused to take the folder from his hand. She didn't want anything from him. Ever.
Her father believed that she'd been raped by all of The Sentella men, and no matter how much she tried to explain what had happened between her and Nykyrian, her father kept saying she'd been brainwashed.
Why wouldn't he listen to her? How many times had she tried to tell him no one did anything to her she didn't want done?
When he spoke, his voice was full of bitterness. "You're pregnant."
Those words hit her like a sledgehammer.
"What?"
"You're pregnant," he sneered as he repeated the word.
Kiara gasped as reality hit her. For the first time in weeks, she felt like laughing.
She carried Nykyrian's baby . . . The miracle of that floored her. Placing her hand over her flat stomach, she tried to imagine the child forming there.
And in her mind, she imagined telling Nykyrian . . . imagined him wrapping his arms around her as he gave her that dimpled smile and shared her happiness over what they'd created together.
She grabbed the folder, opened it and searched the documents until she found the sonogram of her infant. The baby looked like a tiny bean of a creature, but there was no mistaking it. And to think she'd assumed her illness and lethargy were from her grief.
How could she not have known?
"The doctor said he can terminate the pregnancy without any problems."
She glared at her father. "Absolutely not. No one touches my baby."
Keifer stood, his face dark and foreboding. "Be reasonable. A child will end your career. Is that really what you want after you've worked so hard and for so long? To lose your career over this? Why would you want to give up your life because of some bastard seed?"
Kiara trembled in rage. Never in her life had she wanted to strike her father, but at the moment she doubted anything else would give her more satisfaction. She rose to her feet to confront him. "It was my husband you killed. My baby is not a bastard! It's all I have left of Nykyrian. How dare you insult either of them. I . . ." Her words broke off into a sob. Why should she even bother?
He never heard her.
And she wasn't about to let him ruin this moment for her. Tightening her mother's shawl around her shoulders and wishing she were here to comfort her, she left him to his brooding and returned to her room.
All she wanted was to go back to their last day together. To touch Nykyrian one more time and to see the look on his face when she told him he was going to be a father.
Instead, she touched her stomach where the last piece of him flourished. She would give their baby all the love she'd wanted to give Nykyrian--all the love Nykyrian had been denied his entire life.
Her baby would never doubt the love of its mother. She would make sure of it.
"You have to return to the theater, Kiara. It's miserable there without you."
Kiara sighed heavily as Tiyana continued to beg her while they walked down a busy street. It was the first outing she'd been on and she wanted to look for baby items. She'd already found a beautiful layette and placed an order for the baby's crib.
Honestly, she couldn't remember the last time anything had excited her more.
And Tiyana seemed as eager to ruin her joy, and she was determined not to let her. She suspected her father was putting Tiyana up to the incessant begging. "I've told you a thousand times I'm through dancing. I don't want that life anymore. I have a baby to think about now."
"How can you walk away from your fame at the height of your career? Do you know how many people, myself included, would kill to have what you're throwing away?"
And therein was most of the problem. She knew and she was sick of dodging those digs and smiling while they clawed pettily at her for no other reason than they were jealous.
Nykyrian had shown her a world where she was free of that misery. And now she had a much better reason to live.
Kiara placed her hand over her belly, which was just barely starting to round, longing for the day when she would see real proof of her baby. "There are other things more important to me now."
"Such as?"
She stiffened. "My baby, for one."
"You can dance for a few more months, you know? Return to the show and finish out the run."
"I am not going to put my body through those rigors and risk hurting the baby. I'm retired, Tiyana. Accept it. And for the love of heaven, stop with the nagging before you suck the rest of the joy out of my day."
Her friend growled at her. "It just kills me, Kiara. I would sell my soul for your fame."
She opened her mouth to reply that she would sell her soul to have Nykyrian back, but as she looked up, she saw Darling eating lunch inside the cafe they were passing.
Shock riveted her to the sidewalk as she stopped midstride.
He looked so good there . . .
A happy thrill rushed through her. Without another word to Tiyana, she doubled back and entered the cafe. But as she drew near him, she hesitated in uncertainty. Surely he grieved as much for Nykyrian's loss as she did. She didn't want to hurt him, and yet, she wanted to touch that part of her brief past.
Darling looked up and caught sight of her standing in the doorway. A smile spread across his face as he rose slowly to his feet. "Kiara?"
She closed the distance between them. Darling grabbed her into a fierce hug.
He placed a kiss on her cheek as he tightened his embrace, then released her. "It's so good to see you. I've been wondering how you were doing."
She returned his smile. "You look great. I've been wanting to talk to you guys, but I didn't know how to get in touch with any of you." Apparently The Sentella didn't believe in passing messages to them from women. "What are you doing here?"
"Waiting on Caillen, as usual. I swear that man's going to be late to his own funeral."
She laughed at his dire tone.
"Kiara?" Tiyana was hesitant as she joined them.
"Tiyana, this is my friend, Darling."
They shook hands and Darling pulled a chair out for Kiara to join him. "It's really good to see you. After the way Nykyrian's been acting lately, I'd started to think--"
"What?" Kiara gasped, interrupting him as her stomach hit the floor.
It couldn't be possible. Surely she'd misheard that.
Darling looked at her and his face turned the shade of his hair. "I probably shouldn't have said that."
Her mind spun with the knowledge as her emotions spiraled out of control--something not helped by her pregnant hormones. "Nykyrian's alive?"
Darling nodded.
She shook her head in disbelief. No, it wasn't true. If Nykyrian lived, he would have come for her. He wouldn't be so callous or cruel as to leave her in so much pain for no reason.
"I saw him killed right in front of me." The soldiers had been adamant.
Darling glanced at Tiyana. "He was severely wounded, but a couple of Sentella members shielded him from your father's soldiers and helped him get home."
Kiara struggled to breathe as that reality slammed into her.
Nykyrian was alive and he didn't want her.
All this time, she'd told herself he loved her, yet he hadn't even bothered to tell her he was alive. Oh, how she wished she were a man. She'd hunt him down and beat him within an inch of his worthless, cold life.
The bastard!
Darling swallowed. "Are you all right?"
She lifted her chin, unwilling to let him know how much pain she was in. Be damned if he'd report that back to his boss. "I'm fine," she said, her voice as icy as the bitter feeling consuming her. "It was nice seeing you today." She extended her hand to Darling. "I wish I could spend more time with you, but I'm afraid I have to call my manager and accept a job. Give my best to the others."
Kiara sensed Tiyana's confusion as she turned and made her way back to the street with a calmness she definitely didn't feel. Right now, she wanted to pummel someone.
A tall, blond asshole!
"What gives?" Tiyana glanced back in the direction of the cafe. "Who was that guy?"
Kiara seethed in humiliation and hurt. "He's no one." How could Nykyrian do this to her? How could he put her through this? He was inhuman, and she was through wasting her life, pining for him.
-->
