Stealing Kathryn

by Jacquelyn Frank

  This new room was like pitch all around them, except for…

  No, Kathryn thought, she had to be seeing things. Or dreaming them. Yes. Definitely dreaming. Before her was an arced table, too high for her to see the surface, and seated at it were six beings, most of whom were made purely of light. Like ghosts. She could see through five of them as they all, one by one, lifted their eyes to stare at her.

  “Adrian,” one intoned deeply, “what is the meaning of this?”

  “He has brought a human here,” one of the females said with obvious surprise.

  “Adrian, you had better explain yourself, and quickly. We’ve no patience for this kind of misbehavior. You have not been given leave to bring any human women across the planes.”

  The more they disdained his actions, the tighter his grip grew on her body. It reached a point where she squeaked out a sound of pain because his fingers were pinching at her so hard. Of course, there was also an element of fear included in it as she felt the pain. If this were a dream, would she feel pain so sharply?

  “Wait,” another said, but instead of being a ghost, this one was as real and solid as she was. He stood from his high seat and leaned forward to peer at her more thoroughly. “Can you not sense the energy aura on her? It’s overwhelming.”

  Now they all seemed to take new interest in her, and as they narrowed their translucent eyes on her, she began to feel like a butterfly pinned to a board.

  “Have you brought us a gift, then, Adrian?” one of them asked, almost proudly. As if his son had come home from a hunt with a mighty trophy. “Let us see your treasure more closely.”

  “No!” Adrian’s voice was savage, barely human, just like the rest of him. “This is my treasure and mine alone!”

  “Hey!” Kathryn shouted as his grip tightened to punishing levels of pain. “I’m no one’s damn treasure!” She tried struggling against his hold on her, but she’d known even before she started that it wasn’t likely she’d make any headway against his brutal strength.

  “Explain yourself, Guardian,” the same male as before boomed out in a terrible and now angry voice. “You do not dictate to the Ampliphi, Guardian, but you follow its rules and dictates. You were not given leave to seize a human female.”

  “She is mine. Mine.”

  It was as though he couldn’t say anything else except to lay claim to her over and over. Kathryn didn’t know who to be afraid of more, the ghosts or the beast who held her.

  “Adrian.” The solid male spoke up again, this time much more gently, as if he were coaxing a wild creature to come closer. “Why don’t you explain to us why you are here and why you have brought this woman with you?”

  “I have a better idea,” Kathryn snapped. “Why don’t you let go of me so I can march my ass back home!” She reached out and pressed both hands against his chest, struggling for her freedom like a fly in amber. But it was utterly useless.

  “I am come to retire from my position so I may take my leisure with a mate.” Kathryn heard the words with disbelief, but more amazing was that he cleared his throat as if he were unsure of something. Well, he should be unsure, damn it, because she was nobody’s mate, especially not the mate of this monster who’d stolen her from her family and her life!

  “Are you telling us this woman is kindra to you?”

  Rennin demanded the answer with no lack of disbelief dripping from his words and expression. Adrian’s mentor was shocked by his audacity and the sheer unlikelihood that something as twisted and dark as he was would ever be deserving of something as precious as kindra.

  But Adrian had not considered the question of kindra before the Ampliphi had mentioned it. He stood there blinking and trying to remember what he knew of the connection of kindri to kindra. It was supposed to be overwhelming, soul deep and irrepressible. The male was often driven to extremes to capture and cleave the female to his side. And wasn’t that what he had done? From the very moment he had seen her? Her pull on him had been an overwhelming thing; it still was. Even as he stood there in front of the panel of his people’s leaders and faced down their displeasure and disbelief, his body was raging with need and demand. All he could think of was taking her somewhere so he could be alone with her. He wanted to explain what was happening so she would not be frightened. He wanted to touch her and woo her in sweet and rough ways until she learned to ignore the filth of his outside appearance and saw only the image of the man he once had been. If that was what she truly desired, he would struggle to find a way to be that man once more. No matter what it took. No matter how long he had to try.

  “Yes,” he said, sealing his fate. “She is kindra to me.” And he knew a sense of real and terrifying fear when he said it. He had just put his entire life on the line by saying so. Anyone who falsely claimed kind was punished with death.

  He would have to make it the truth.

  “Will you put me down!” Kathryn barked suddenly as she kicked her feet and twisted her body. Her contortions slipped her free of his hold and she slid down the length of his body as both his hands clamped down on her shoulders to hold her tightly to him. She was facing the Ampliphi, straining toward them. “Listen, I don’t know what the hell is going on around here, but you can’t just let this beast kidnap me and manhandle me! Do something! Make him let me go!”

  She kicked back into his shin for good measure, disappointed when he didn’t make a single sound of pain. He was so big she was probably no more significant to him than a mosquito. But she felt better for doing it, just the same. At least she felt like she was fighting to get free instead of falling for tricks or crying like an idiot. She might not be the strongest or bravest woman in the world, but she had her moments. And now that she had seen Adrian with a more human face, she found she wasn’t as overwhelmingly frightened of him as she had been the first time she had seen him. Now he didn’t even look half as scary as he had before, bulging body and claw-tipped fingers aside. What was scary, though, was that he was laying some kind of medieval claim on her ass as if she were a prime piece of livestock, and the six beings in front of her were just humming and nodding about it as if it made perfect sense to them!

  “We are sorry,” the one who looked like a normal man spoke up. He was actually pretty damn handsome if she thought about it, but she wasn’t in the mood to admire the scenery. “Unfortunately, we cannot let you leave here. No human being who comes Beneath can be trusted to leave and never speak of what they have seen.”

  “B-but I haven’t seen anything!” she exclaimed, trying to ignore the fact that glowing, see-through people qualified as anything. “I don’t know anything about where I am! I wouldn’t have even known what it was called if you hadn’t said anything!”

  “You came through a portal to this world, and that is enough,” he said regretfully. “As I am sure Adrian intended, you are beholden to this plane for the rest of your life no matter what else may come afterward. Here you are and here you must stay. That is the law here and there is no changing it.”

  “But…” She said the word so softly, unable to help the sudden tears of shock and dismay that filled her eyes. “What about my family?”

  “Are you wed, with children?” he demanded, flicking hard eyes up to Adrian.

  She wanted to lie and say yes, grasping on to the hope that it would change their minds and let her go home. But Adrian knew the truth about her family, and she knew with a sinking sense of dread that he had no intention of letting her go back to them.

  “No, she is not.” Adrian answered for her when she couldn’t bring herself to speak the words that would seal her fate. “She is innocent of men.”

  Kathryn gasped and her entire face and chest heated with embarrassment as they all leaned forward as though to check out the freakish little virgin. How the hell had he known that?

  “You didn’t have to tell them that!” she hissed at him, trying to hide her face under anything she could. “How did you know?”

  “I’ve always known,” he rumbled i
n her ear. “I know anything you dream of.”

  That only made her blush deepen so darkly it was a wonder her face didn’t catch fire. She closed her eyes with a mortified moan.

  “Then perhaps you cannot be trusted with something so delicate and precious.” One of the females spoke up at last—finally, someone taking her side in this mess! Her eyes flew open and she fixated on the speaker. She was so beautiful that, had she been solid flesh and blood, it might have been painful to look at her. Next to the planes of her gorgeous face, the long snake of thick hair over statuesque shoulders, and the fullness of lips that would give Angelina Jolie a proper showdown, Kathryn suddenly felt very dumpy and small. “It is no secret that your work in the nightmare realm has corrupted you deeply, Adrian. You are more beast than the man you once were. Even if she is kindra, I am afraid you cannot be trusted not to hurt her.”

  As if on cue, Adrian’s grip on her tightened to agonizing levels, mostly because his claws had punctured her clothes and were now pressing deeply into her skin.

  “You cannot and will not take this away from me,” he snarled at them. “I have the right to my kindra no matter what I am! I gave up the man I was in order to serve you and our people’s needs. I sacrificed everything to give you what you needed!” His teeth gnashed above her head and she could sense his control slipping more and more. In the end, he would prove them right.

  Kathryn didn’t know why she did it, but she brought a hand up to cover one of his, trying to soothe him with her touch. It wasn’t until she felt him stiffen sharply that she remembered her acts of pity and kindness caused him physical agony.

  But this time he didn’t react as strongly as before. In fact, whatever he felt must have been like a bracing slap in the face. He eased his painful hold on her. She exhaled with relief. She didn’t want to be taken away from Adrian and thrust into an unknown future. At least she knew how to handle him if she needed to. It was much wiser to stick with the devil she knew than to risk facing these ethereal devils she didn’t. Maybe it was the most insane idea she’d ever had, but she didn’t want to leave him.

  And besides, if this was some kind of governing body over him, if even one thing went wrong she could run screaming to them, couldn’t she? She was half convinced this was all a dream anyway. Soon she’d wake up and…

  Oh, who the hell knew where she’d be the next time she woke up.

  “I want to stay with Adrian…f-for now,” she said, her voice becoming less confident as she went. She could tell by the shock and surprise on their transparent features that it was the last thing they had expected her to say. Added to it was the way Adrian caught his breath in obvious disbelief.

  She didn’t blame them. She had to be out of her mind.

  “Very well, Adrian. You may return her to your home in the Barrens. We will assign Aerlyn to watch over you, to watch over every moment of your treatment of your kindra. If you slip in even the smallest way or come even close to harming her, we will take her from you where you can no longer do so and she will serve the needs of our people.”

  “Never,” he spat. “I will never let that happen.”

  “Then see to it you treat her well.” The female spoke again. “And remember, you have very little time before you must prove she is what you claim she is. Although I think in this instance we will extend your deadline due to the…circumstances.” She shook her head and it was more than clear by her expression that she didn’t think he would succeed at whatever this proof positive was. “You have a week. No more. We will not be this flexible in any other way.”

  “I understand,” he gritted out between tight teeth, obviously working hard at containing the rage Kathryn could see was in his eyes.

  “Then go. We will see you back here in a week.”

  There was a backhanded gesture of dismissal and Adrian bent to scoop her from her feet. He turned with her and she watched as he stepped up to and then through the creepiest-looking mirror she’d ever seen in her life.

  Rennin turned and glared sulkily at his counterparts. Julian ignored him at present and instead confronted the female who had done all of the talking.

  “Sydelle, what game are you playing?” he demanded to know. “You know as well as I do that the girl is much too fragile to withstand Adrian in his present state. You may as well have sacrificed her life on an altar!”

  “What’s done is done,” Sydelle said with a careless shrug. “No use arguing over it.”

  “There is a use. I want to know what you are playing at!”

  “None of us believes for a moment that Adrian has found his kindra,” she scoffed. “He doesn’t even believe it. But he came here with the claim all the same, knowing the consequences of his actions. If that is the case, why shouldn’t we oblige him? Face facts, my fellow Ampliphi, Adrian has been becoming more and more volatile as time has passed. He is a monster we let loose in the nightmare plane and he is growing more reckless and more out of our control every passing day. If he wants to hand us the method of his own destruction, then why shouldn’t we let him?”

  “Because that monster used to be a man,” Julian said. “A friend to many of us. He is what he is only because we asked him to make that sacrifice for us. Now you want to murder him for it?”

  “Our wants and desires mean little,” Sydelle remarked. “He came to us, remember? He came with this claim of kindra. I have even been so kind as to give him extra time in which to prove the claim. He—”

  “Could rip that innocent girl to shreds!” Julian burst out.

  “Are you saying he doesn’t deserve the right to prove kindra? You had your chance and proved Asia was your kindra, why would you deny it to another man?” Rennin asked crankily. “Is it because he is my Guardian that you think he should be denied?”

  This remark made all the heads of the Ampliphi turn in unison to face Julian. It was well known that Julian held Rennin in some measure of contempt for his coldhearted ways. But Rennin’s sudden benevolence toward his Guardian didn’t ring true. Julian put narrowed eyes on the other Ampliphi, trying to figure out what his game was.

  “He is no longer your Guardian,” Julian reminded him. “He has just retired his position. I no longer have to hold that against him,” he added smugly.

  The barb visibly rankled the more powerful Ampliphi.

  “This is mere academics,” Rennin volleyed tightly. “Kindra or no, Adrian cannot pull off a mating with that fragile little human. He will fail either way. That will open the way for me to train a new Guardian and rid us of this encumbrance once and for all.”

  “Rennin, he just retired! There’s no need to obliterate him in order for you to train a new Guardian!” Julian protested. “You’re free to do that now.”

  “And what, Julian?” Sydelle broke in. “Are we supposed to let Adrian run around freely the way he is? Let him come back to his village Beneath? He could never reintegrate with mainstream society. Even if this girl was his kindra, even if she somehow miraculously survived his monstrous attentions, it wouldn’t change the facts. There is no place in any world for a creature like Adrian.”

  Adrian stepped through the mirror once more and brought them into his dank workshop. He suddenly wished it was lighter and drier, something worthy of his fine treasure. Instead it was the same dark hole it had always been; in truth, the way he’d always preferred it before now. He’d held no love for his work from the beginning, and then, as it had taken him over, it had reflected in every other corner of his existence. With one exception. His treasures. Even his treatment of his beloved sister had fallen to the wayside under the darkness of what he must do every night, but the one true beauty and one pristine thing he’d held pure in his life had been that room full of baubles and one-of-a-kind items that no one saw but him.

  And Cronos.

  He thought of the little toady instantly because he was standing in the circle of torchlight awaiting them. The minute she saw him, Kathryn gasped and flung her arms around Adrian’s neck, clenching him t
ightly. He might have enjoyed her hold on him, but it was tainted by his knowledge that she did it out of fear. She remembered that Cronos had brutally struck her…and that he had allowed it to happen.

  “Cronos, what are you doing here?” he demanded of the underling.

  “Awaiting your pleasure, Master.” He bowed so low he scraped against the floor, head and shoulders tucked down in total submission.

  “I have no need of you! Never come unless you are called. And you are never to come within sight of Kathryn again. If she ever reports to me she has seen you, that will be the end of you!”

  Cronos never stopped kowtowing to his Master as he moved back and away, the shadows swallowing him up. Adrian could feel the fine, continuous tremors running through Kathryn and instinctively he squeezed her tightly to himself. But he was as gentle as he could possibly manage, unwilling to hurt her as he already knew he had done in Justice Hall while the Ampliphi had challenged his claim to her. He didn’t know how to keep himself under control from one moment to the next, his volatile nature taking the reins much too often. In the past he would have indulged in that gladly, but now there was Kat’s safety to be considered. He had to stop hurting her.

  To the end of caring for her, Adrian left the morbid little room he worked from and carried her upstairs, just as he had when he had first captured her. Only this time she was wide awake and alert and he felt her looking around with interest as they went. But he barely made it to the first floor before Aerlyn confronted him, stepping in his path, her eyes snapping with anger and her face etched with betrayal.

  He heard Kat gasp with surprise as she saw Aerlyn in her true form and not the watered-down version they had provided for her in the dream they had tried to trick her with. His sister was stunningly beautiful in any form, but more so in this true rendition. Plus, the black curtain of her hair was peppered with stars that winked and glimmered with her every movement. It was something about the dream dimension she worked in and the goodness of the dreams she manufactured that made it so. It didn’t happen to him, only to her, and that was what told him the nature of her work made all the difference. It was a unique effect that only added to her beauty.