Sentinel Of Khoth

by Brenda Trim

  All the fear and fight left her. She laid there star­ing at the ceil­ing above, mak­ing a men­tal note to tell Elysia there were cob­webs. The movie reached a crit­i­cal point. She wanted to cheer for them to beat Thanos but couldn’t find her voice.

  Spots danced in her vi­sion as her oxy­gen de­pri­va­tion hit a crit­i­cal level. As if sens­ing she’d given up, Troy’s hand left her throat and cool air rushed into her lungs. For a sec­ond, Izzy con­sid­ered try­ing to tele­port again, but knew noth­ing would hap­pen. No way could she con­cen­trate enough to get out of the predica­ment.

  Sud­denly, Troy yanked her bra, split­ting in open in the front. With him hov­er­ing over her, he twisted her flesh once again. Pain burned along ev­ery nerve end­ing, and she couldn’t stop the scream that left her throat that time.

  Troy’s fist pulled back and be­fore she re­al­ized what he in­tended, it con­nected with her cheek bone. Her head flew to the side and she bit the in­side of her cheek. Blood welled in her mouth, but there was no time to fo­cus on that.

  Troy lifted his hips and reached for the but­ton of her pants. It was like light­ing a match to her anger. Izzy yelled at him and once again started fight­ing him. Her fists pounded on his chest while she pulled her knees to her chest, or tried to, any­way.

  Izzy’s next fist missed its mark when Troy went sail­ing through the air. The sound of glass break­ing and hit­ting the stone floor, cou­pled with the ces­sa­tion of the movie told her Troy hit the screen.

  Stunned, but un­will­ing to be in a vul­ner­a­ble po­si­tion any longer, Izzy jumped to her feet. At first, she as­sumed her telekine­sis kicked into gear and threw Troy off her.

  A fu­ri­ous Dono­van told her that didn’t hap­pen. Izzy’s gaze met Dono­van’s fa­mil­iar blue eyes and she knew help had come. She was safe. He would pro­tect her now. She sagged against the wall and tried to catch her breath. When Dono­van’s eyes trav­eled down her body, she re­al­ized her top was torn, along with, her bra.

  With a loud roar, Dono­van flew at Troy. Izzy clutched the sides of her top to­gether and winced when her breast throbbed. Troy par­tially shifted but couldn’t take his dragon form in the small room. Talons and hu­man hands clashed vi­o­lently.

  Dono­van shoved Troy and his fist con­nected with Troy’s face. Troy slashed Dono­van’s chest with a talon, slic­ing the flesh open in a di­ag­o­nal line. Blood welled im­me­di­ately and dripped to the floor.

  “Stop it!” Izzy screamed to be heard over the fight­ing. She wasn’t con­cerned for Troy, but she feared what might hap­pen to Dono­van. Nei­ther male lis­tened to her, and kept hit­ting and kick­ing each other.

  Jump­ing into the air, Troy aimed his body to­ward Dono­van. A sec­ond later a loud snap, like a branch break­ing was fol­lowed by Dono­van howl­ing. “You will fuck­ing pay for hurt­ing her,” Dono­van promised as he limped on one leg. Izzy had no doubt his other leg was bro­ken, yet that didn’t stop him from at­tack­ing Troy.

  “She be­longs to me, ass­hole,” Troy coun­tered. “And, I will do what­ever the fuck I want to her.”

  That set Dono­van into a rage. Izzy watched as Dono­van bent down and picked up a large piece of glass from the bro­ken screen. Be­fore she could process what he was go­ing to do, sev­eral things hap­pened.

  Keira, Pema, and Dono­van’s step­mom rushed into the room at the same mo­ment Troy lunged for Dono­van. The two grap­pled with each other. Troy aimed a talon at Dono­van’s throat, and Dono­van used the glass while duck­ing. Troy’s talon barely cut a slice down the side of Dono­van’s neck while the glass landed in the side of Troy’s neck. Blood spurted from the griev­ous wound.

  Isis screamed, “No!”

  Keira came run­ning up to Izzy and reached for her. “Oh, Gods. You’re bleed­ing. Are you okay, Iso­bel?”

  Pema chanted a spell that froze Troy where he landed in a heap of his blood.

  Izzy looked up from Troy to the Cuele­bre Queen and burst into tears. “No. I’m not okay. I want my mom.” As sobs wracked her body, Izzy felt Dono­van’s arms wrap care­fully around her waist. She turned and buried her face in his chest.

  “What hap­pened?” Isis de­manded. Sev­eral thud­ding foot­steps could be heard in the hall­way and Izzy tried to turn away so no one could see her.

  A soft hand landed on her back, mak­ing Izzy lift her head from Dono­van’s chest. It was Isis and her sis­ter, Pema. Keira was next to the door shout­ing or­ders to get Dyson.

  “H…h…he,” Izzy stam­mered as tears flowed from her eyes unchecked. “He tried to…he wanted to…”

  “Shhh. It’s okay. You don’t have to ex­plain right now,” Keira re­as­sured her. “Let’s get you cleaned up and then we will talk.”

  Izzy nod­ded her head and tried to sti­fle the pain in her body from be­ing tossed around by Troy. She had no de­sire to re­live the most hor­rific mo­ments of her life. She wanted to go home to her par­ents and never talk about this again.

  When Keira was lead­ing her away, Dyson rushed into the room and crouched next to Troy. He did a quick as­sess­ment then glanced at the queen who had paused in tak­ing her leave of the room. “There’s noth­ing I can do for him,” the Mundunugu an­nounced.

  Dred filled Izzy’s heart. Not for the male that tried to hurt her in the most de­spi­ca­ble way, but be­cause that didn’t bode well for Dono­van. That hol­low numb feel­ing swal­lowed Izzy, mak­ing her stum­ble. By the time Dono­van caught her, dark­ness took over, and she passed out. The last thing she heard was Dono­van mur­mur­ing, “I’m so sorry I didn’t pro­tect you.”

  * * *

  Chap­ter 19

  Finn strug­gled to shove his legs through the pants Leg­ette threw to him when he landed with Elsie and the baby, Cian, a few sec­onds ago. Elsie shoved the baby into Zan­der’s arms the sec­ond he slid off Blaine’s back then took off like a bul­let shot from a gun.

  “Where’s my daugh­ter?” Zan­der de­manded of Leg­ette with­out paus­ing in his haste to catch his wife. Jace was off Slate and right on their heels, and Finn no­ticed the leather bag bounc­ing on his hip. He winced and prayed the male didn’t lose the an­ti­dote.

  Finn stom­ach was in knots from the mo­ment they set down on the cas­tle wall. The Maa­hes pa­trolling called Leg­ette, and Finn’s boss met them when they landed. That didn’t bode well for the sit­u­a­tion.

  It was ob­vi­ous from the royal cou­ple’s haste to ar­rive in Khoth that some­thing was se­ri­ously wrong. Finn was care­ful while fly­ing due to his pre­cious cargo, but he pushed his wings as fast as he was able.

  The en­tire trip Finn’s senses were on high alert, scan­ning the for­est and search­ing for any sign of an at­tack. He was cer­tain Cyril pulled an­other stunt and Izzy paid the price. When there was no sign of a prob­lem, he re­laxed slightly. Now, that as­sump­tion seemed ridicu­lous.

  If any­thing, Elsie was even more fran­tic. Her fear, anger, and con­cern left a bit­ter smell in Finn’s dragon nose. Shift­ing to avoid more of the acrid scent that went along with the Vam­pire Queen’s emo­tions was a bless­ing.

  “Izzy is alive,” Leg­ette as­sured Zan­der and Elsie. That was an odd choice of words, Finn thought.

  “I want to see my daugh­ter now!” Zan­der de­manded.

  Elsie was cry­ing now and shak­ing as she en­tered the cas­tle. “We never should have left her. It’s all my fault.”

  “Nay, a ghra. ‘Tis no’ your fault,” Zan­der promised. The vam­pire king was cradling their son to his chest and pat­ting the baby’s back. It was clear the in­fant was sen­si­tive to the sit­u­a­tion as he started cry­ing softly and reach­ing his tiny hands to­ward his mom.

  Tak­ing the stairs at a rapid pace, Finn’s anx­i­ety in­creased when he heard a com­mo­tion and shout­ing on the next level. They weren’t far from the throne room. Finn hur­ried to get in front of the royal cou­pl
e but stopped when he caught sight of the sit­u­a­tion.

  Isis was scream­ing at a pair of Maa­hes while Dono­van car­ried an un­con­scious Izzy. The vam­pire princess looked like a troop of Bug­gane at­tacked her. Bruises cov­ered her face and neck while her shirt ap­peared to be ripped and was bloody. It wasn’t clear if Dono­van’s blood cov­ered her, or of it was hers.

  Elsie screamed and ran for­ward. “Iso­bel! Oh, sweet­heart.”

  Zan­der turned to Finn and thrust baby Cian into his arms and was tak­ing Izzy into his arms be­fore Finn could open his mouth to ob­ject. Hold­ing the in­fant in his arms, Finn fol­lowed the group in­side the throne room.

  Dono­van ig­nored ev­ery­one around him and stayed glued to Zan­der’s side as the king car­ried his daugh­ter. Finn had never seen An­gus so up­set in his life. The Cuele­bre King was livid.

  “Zan­der,” An­gus be­gan.

  “Shut the fuck up, An­gus. I doona want to hear your bull­shit right now. I am barely hold­ing my shite to­gether,” Zan­der barked.

  Elsie was openly sob­bing, and Isis and Pema were try­ing to con­sole her. Finn wanted to hand her the baby, hop­ing that would help the Vam­pire Queen. Queen Keira’s gaze shot be­tween An­gus and Zan­der.

  Finn was shocked when the Cuele­bre Queen stepped up to the Vam­pire Queen and wrapped her arms around her shoul­ders while they shook.

  “Oot,” An­gus or­dered in a threat­en­ing tone. “I want ev­ery­one ex­cept those in­volved to get oot right now,” he de­manded as he mo­tioned Dyson to­ward Izzy.

  Pan­icked, Finn glanced around. No way was he tak­ing Cian from the room. He de­cided to melt into the wood­work and took a seat on the other side of the ta­ble. Blaine shot him a sym­pa­thetic look and closed the dou­ble doors be­hind him.

  The ten­sion thick­ened fur­ther when the room cleared. “Zan­der,” An­gus be­gan again.

  “I want to know how the fuck you let this hap­pen to my nighean. I trusted you to care for her, and pro­tect her,” Zan­der ac­cused.

  An­gus flinched with each of the Vam­pire King’s words as if each one was a knife. An­gus’s gaze trav­eled to Izzy who was cra­dled in her fa­ther’s arms. “I have no words, Z. I have cared for her. I am gut­ted over this in­ci­dent. I doona know all the events, but I can see she was hurt and I canna apol­o­gize enough for my fail­ure.”

  “It’s not An­gus’s fault,” Dono­van in­ter­jected.

  An­gus shot rage-filled eyes to the young cam­bion. “I’d close my mouth if I were you. As of right now, you are un­der ar­rest.”

  “What the ac­tual fuck?” Isis blurted and sev­eral bulbs shat­tered. For­tu­nately, the lights in the throne room were can­dles, so they re­mained in­tact. Finn couldn’t say the same for the ones in the hall­way. Shouts echoed along with the sound of break­ing glass. Zan­der took a seat when the ground be­neath them rum­bled.

  “Mom, calm down,” Dono­van urged. “De­stroy­ing Tate­nen won’t help mat­ters.”

  “Some­one start from the be­gin­ning,” Elsie in­ter­jected as she ran her hand over Izzy’s hair. “And, get Jace in here. I want him to heal Izzy. I don’t want her feel­ing any of this when she wakes up.”

  Keira crossed to the door and re­turned with Jace at her side. The Cuele­bre Queen snatched a blan­ket she kept folded in the cor­ner and draped it around Izzy’s shoul­ders.

  “Can you heal her, Jace?” Elsie asked.

  The healer opened his mouth and looked from Zan­der to An­gus. “I will, but I need to know if fur­ther doc­u­men­ta­tion of her in­juries is needed.”

  Elsie sobbed harder and Zan­der looked ready to rip the war­rior’s spine out with his fist. Isis ap­proached Elsie and guided her to a seat at the ta­ble. If Finn thought Elsie’s fear and anger was bad be­fore, now it nearly choked him. Even Cian fi­nally qui­eted in Finn’s arms. The baby kept his eyes glued to his mom.

  Keira cleared her throat and spoke. “I can­not imag­ine your pain, Elsie. I feel re­spon­si­ble. How­ever, I know why Jace is ask­ing. We don’t need ev­i­dence for what Troy did to Izzy. It is clear. You can heal her.”

  Jace nod­ded his head and placed his hands over Iso­bel’s chest. Noth­ing seemed to hap­pen for sev­eral sec­onds, and then Izzy’s bruises turned from deep pur­ple to yel­low­ish-green then dis­ap­peared. The fe­male moaned, and shifted in her dad’s em­brace.

  Dono­van jumped to his feet with Isis and Elsie be­hind him. Izzy started scream­ing and flail­ing her arms the next sec­ond.

  “Shh, Iso­bel,” Zan­der cooed. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

  Izzy’s eyes opened and trav­eled from her dad to her mom. She burst into tears and wrig­gled out of his arms. Elsie wrapped her in her arms and held her daugh­ter close while she sobbed.

  Dono­van stood, watch­ing the scene. As Izzy’s sobs less­ened, the male’s shoul­ders re­laxed. How­ever, the dev­as­ta­tion ev­i­dent on his face never went away. Finn was cer­tain the male would be haunted for the rest of his long life.

  While Finn didn’t have a clear pic­ture of what went down, he sur­mised some­one tried to force Izzy into sex. That much was ob­vi­ous by her torn shirt and bra.

  “Mom, it was aw­ful. Troy…” Izzy said be­tween hic­cups. “He…he told me I be­longed to him and then he…” No more words came out of Izzy’s mouth as she cried even harder.

  “I’m so sorry sweet­heart. I never should’ve left you here. And, I’m not leav­ing you again,” Elsie vowed to her daugh­ter.

  An­gus moved closer to the fam­ily. He clutched Keira’s hand like a life­line. “Iso­bel,” An­gus mur­mured, draw­ing the princess’s at­ten­tion. “Your mother isna to blame. ‘Tis my fault. I should’ve pro­tected you. Noth­ing I say can make this bet­ter, but I am more sorry than I can ex­press.”

  Izzy looked at the Cuele­bre King through wa­tery eyes but said noth­ing. To Finn, Iso­bel’s gaze lacked some­thing vi­tal. She looked numb. The once ex­u­ber­ant young woman was gone.

  “How are you feel­ing, nighean?” Zan­der asked.

  Izzy clung to her mom and shook her head. “Noth­ing hurts, if that’s what you’re ask­ing. At least not phys­i­cally,” she mur­mured then sobbed against her mom’s shoul­der.

  Jace put his hand on Izzy’s shoul­der, mak­ing her flinch. “I was just go­ing to send more heal­ing en­ergy into your sys­tem.” If looks could kill, Elsie would have in­cin­er­ated them all.

  The room re­mained silent for long min­utes while Izzy cried, and her mom com­forted her. Zan­der crossed to Finn and took Cian from his arms then joined his mate and daugh­ter.

  Finn stood to leave but de­cided against it. An­gus and Keira were alone in the throne room with some pissed off su­per­nat­u­rals. He didn’t want to think they would harm An­gus, but ten­sions were high. If Zan­der lashed out it would be on Finn for walk­ing away. He re­mained quiet, wish­ing he could help the sit­u­a­tion.

  “What’s go­ing to hap­pen now?” Dono­van asked as he sat next to Izzy. He kept his dis­tance but re­mained close. He imag­ined the male didn’t want to leave her at risk again.

  “We’re go­ing back to the Tehrex Realm,” Isis spat.

  “You may go, but Dono­van will be taken into cus­tody,” An­gus replied. The king widened his stance and had his fists at his sides, clearly ready for a fight.

  “What? No!” Izzy screamed as she jumped to her feet. The blan­ket dropped to the floor and her top gaped open. Finn glanced away from the sight of her torn cloth­ing. Zan­der was up and wrap­ping his daugh­ter in the blan­ket be­fore she con­tin­ued ob­ject­ing.

  “Dono­van de­fended me. He didn’t do any­thing wrong.”

  “I know what Troy did was rep­re­hen­si­ble, Izzy, but he is no longer here to be pun­ished. Dono­van took ex­ces­sive mea­sures against your at­tacker,” An­gus ex­plained.

  Is
is and Izzy both yelled at the same time, mak­ing it im­pos­si­ble to un­der­stand what was be­ing said. Dono­van stood up and faced Izzy. “Stop, Iz. An­gus is right. I should never have plunged that glass into his neck like I did. I was just so pissed about what he did that I acted with­out think­ing. There was an­other way for me to en­sure your safety, and I went way be­yond that.” Dono­van looked from Izzy to his mom and over her shoul­der to his dad who had just walked into the room.

  From the look on Brae­den’s face he was brought up to speed by some­one out­side. Or, per­haps he over­heard the con­ver­sa­tion. “Son,” Brae­den said and laid his hand on his shoul­der.

  “I’m sorry, Dad. Some­thing came over me, and I couldn’t stop my­self.”

  “This can’t be hap­pen­ing,” Izzy wailed.

  Elsie and Zan­der hugged their daugh­ter close while Zan­der spoke to An­gus. “You are the fuck­ing king, An­gus. You can de­cide a dif­fer­ent pun­ish­ment.”

  “I am de­cid­ing a lesser pun­ish­ment, Zan­der. By law, he should be put to death for killing Troy. We take this be­hav­ior verra se­ri­ously on Khoth. I could or­der his death, but I refuse to do that when he acted in de­fense of Iso­bel,” An­gus replied.

  “We need to get Izzy cleaned up, and we could all use some rest,” Elsie in­ter­jected. “Dis­cussing this now will only make mat­ters worse.”

  “They can’t ar­rest Dono­van, Mom. It’s my fault. If I had kept my mouth shut, he wouldn’t have come to my res­cue,” Izzy protested.

  Dono­van turned and grabbed Izzy’s hands. He dropped them when she flinched. It was go­ing to take time for the fe­male to heal, Finn thought. “Never apol­o­gize. I wish you’d yelled louder. I don’t re­gret killing Troy. I would do it again for what he did. You are never to blame for this. That piece of shit is the one re­spon­si­ble,” Dono­van de­clared.

  Zan­der nudged his mate and Izzy from the room. Finn bet he didn’t want his daugh­ter to see Dono­van hand­cuffed and taken away. Finn watched Izzy walk out of the room, her head down and the blan­ket tight around her shoul­ders.