“You bastard…” Ky took a step forward but the Councilor’s grip on Dani tightened.
“Stay back, Kindred,” he snarled. “Or my pretty little bride-to-be will die right before your eyes.” The blade he held to Dani’s throat looked horribly sharp. Even as Ky watched, he pressed it a little deeper and a tiny dimple of crimson blood appeared on her smooth brown skin.
Dani made a muffled cry but it was clear she didn’t dare struggle. Tornk could cut her throat before Ky could reach her.
Ky’s hand went for his blaster but Councilor Tornk saw the motion and shook his head.
“I don’t think so, Kindred. If you value your life and hers, you’ll hold completely still while the guards come to claim you—for the second time.” He eyed Kyron. “Apparently you’re harder to kill than I’d thought.”
As he spoke, the small courtyard was suddenly crowded with guards, shouting and brandishing pain-spears.
“What’s all this, Councilor Tornk?” Another male, tall for a Goshan, came out, pushing his way through the guards and glaring. He was wearing what looked like green and orange leaves wrapped around his waist and a tall headdress of gold, feathers, and tropical looking flowers.
“Nothing which cannot be controlled, my Lord Warro,” Tornk said grimly. The Head Councilor looked at Jontu, who was glaring at him defiantly, an arm around the trembling Lavi’s shoulders. “I suspected something was wrong when Jontu here came begging for the honor of being the Valued Attendant. He is in love with your bride to be, I am afraid, my Lord. I suspected he was plotting to steal away with the Princess Lavinia but I never dreamed he would collude with alien enemies in order to do it.”
“He tried to steal my bride?” Warro’s muddy gray-brown eyes narrowed. “Kill him!” he told the guards.
“No!” Dani’s little sister threw herself in front her male, her hands outstretched in terror. “No, don’t hurt him!”
“I don’t fucking think so.” Merrick took a step forward and raised a blaster. “Stand back, the lot of you if you don’t want a hole in your guts.” His finger tightened on the trigger.
“Stop!” Tornk shouted. “The moment any of you Kindred fires a weapon of any kind I’ll slit Princess Dannella’s throat—I swear it!”
The situation was rapidly deteriorating and Ky knew it was all his fault. He never should have persuaded Merrick to come here without an entire battalion of warriors to back them up. And yet, a thousand warriors would have done them no good. Not when Tornk had a knife at Dani’s throat.
If only she’d come to me right away! If only I had called her to me!
But that brief moment of hesitation had cost them. The old bastard had been able to sneak up the dark hallway and grab her before Ky could do a thing. And now he was going to hurt or kill Dani right in front of Ky’s eyes and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
Oh yes, there is, whispered a soft, angry voice in his head. You know what you can do, Kyron—and you must do it.
A red curtain of fury dropped over his vision—a murderous anger so thick and savage there was no denying or evading it. Though he had never experienced it before, Ky knew what it was—Rage—a state of protective anger so intense it turned a Kindred warrior into a kind of berserker, capable of doing anything in order to protect his female. Anything at all.
Rage…I’m going into rage. No, must fight it…can’t let myself…can’t think…
But the thoughts were cut off when he saw Tornk’s blade bite deeper into Dani’s vulnerable throat. As a crimson bead of blood broke free and ran down her slender neck in a tiny rivulet, Ky lost himself completely.
Another kind of Kindred—a Beast or a Blood Kindred—might have rushed forward and tried to knock the knife from Tornk’s hand. But Ky retained enough understanding to know that course of action could be deadly for Dani. And besides, he had a weapon no other Kindred had…his Touch sense.
Ky sent his whisper fingers out but though they had always been soft and gentle when he touched Dani with them, now he made them hard and strong. He pictured cruel, long talons, as thin as blades, tipped with steel.
He aimed them—these deadly whisper talons—at Tornk’s heart.
Even in the depths of his Rage, part of him knew this wasn’t right. The vow—your vow to both the Council and the Goddess! If you break it—
Ky cut off the thought, refusing to consider the consequences.
“Let her go,” he rasped, his voice low and strange in his own ears. “Let her go or by all the Gods that ever were and ever will be I will kill you, Tornk—I swear it!”
Tornk only laughed, a braying sound that scraped against Ky’s nerves like a knife and deepened his Rage. How dare this bastard laugh at his threats?
“I don’t think so, Kindred. How do you think to threaten me? I have control of this situation because I have control of the Princess.”
“Not anymore you don’t,” Ky growled. Narrowing his eyes, he slid his whisper talons between the arrogant bastard's ribs and found the beating muscle of the other male’s heart. It was easy, part of his brain thought in surprise. As easy as sliding a sharp knife into softened butter. Who knew killing could be so effortless? Effortless and deadly…
“Wha—?” Tornk’s eyes grew wide and the knife he held to Dani’s throat dropped. “I don’t…don’t understand,” he muttered and a bubble of blood formed on his lips.
“Understand this—she’s mine.”
With a convulsive squeeze of his whisper talons, Ky pulped the bastard’s heart
* * * * *
Dani gasped as the knife fell away from her throat. What had just happened? Why had Tornk let her go for no reason?
Or was there a reason?
One look at the distorted sneer of anger on Ky’s face and the red glare in his eyes told her there was more to this situation than could be seen on the surface.
Suddenly Tornk fell, slumping backwards into a boneless heap. The guards around him shouted and jumped out of the way and Dani turned to see him lying on the ground, blood bubbling from his lips and his eyes staring at nothing.
“Ky?” she asked uncertainly, turning to face the big Kindred. “Ky, what…what did you do?”
“Dani, come here!” He motioned urgently and she ran to him, just as a guard was grabbing for her. “Stand behind me,” he told her, his voice a low, menacing growl she’d never heard before.
“A sha-gra!” Warro’s shout rose above the tense muttering of the guards. To Dani’s horror, she saw he was pointing at Ky. “This alien is a sha-gra—he murdered Councilor Tornk with his witch powers,” he roared. “He and the other aliens must be killed—including the traitor Jontu who led the sha’gra into our midst.”
“But Lord Warro—” one of the guards began uneasily. But the Chieftain of the Thuggors would brook no opposition.
“Kill them, I said!” he shouted. “Spare only the females—I will marry both the Princesses myself.”
Ky’s red, glaring eyes narrowed.
“Like Hell you will,” he growled.
Dani felt something go out from him—a sudden gust of energy almost like a physical punch. Suddenly the Thuggor leader gasped and grabbed his chest. His muddy eyes went wide and he croaked a single word.
“Sha…gra…”
Then he, too, collapsed and blood began to leak from his nose and mouth as he fell in a heap on the ground.
The guards brandishing their pain-spears began to fall back, looks of uncertainty and dread on their faces.
And then the Monarch stepped out onto the courtyard.
Dani saw that her father was dressed in his purple and gold encrusted court robes—his finest raiment on the day when both his daughters were to be wed.
“What is this?” he demanded and his eyes flickered to Councilor Tornk and Warro, both of them obviously dead. “Who has done this?” He raised his voice when none of his guards would meet his eyes. “I said, who has done this?”
“I did,” Ky growled, stepping forward. “Because I am a sha-gra. That’s right.” He glared at the cowering guards, all of whom were shrinking away from him. “I killed both Tornk and Warro with the power of my mind,” he snarled. “And I’ll kill you too—I’ll kill any male here who dares to try and stop me from leaving with Dani and her sister.”
“You cannot take my daughters.” Dani’s father looked angry. “How dare you even suggest such a thing?”
“How dare I?” Ky snapped. “Maybe I dare because you dared to force my ship down and chain me in your cell. Then, instead of coming to see why I was here in the first place, you ordered me beaten and starved. If it wasn’t for your daughter, Dani, I might have died. I love her—clearly more than you do since you were planning to give her to this old bastard here.” He nudged Tornk’s limp form with one boot. “So I’m taking her with me now.”
“Never!” Dani’s father proclaimed. “Guards—” Then he gasped and clutched at his chest, just as Warro had.
Suddenly everything clicked for Dani. He said the power of his mind but it’s his Touch sense—he’s killing them with his Touch sense and now he’s going to kill Papa the same way!
“No!” She grabbed Ky’s arm, dragging at him, trying to make him stop. “No, Ky—not my father! Not him! No matter what he did, he’s still my father!”
For a moment she thought the big Kindred was past hearing her. There was a distant look on his face, a rage so intense it seemed to transcend any kind of thought at all and his eyes…his eyes were glowing blood red.
“Please!” Dani begged. “Please, Ky—stop. I…” She became aware that she was crying. “I can’t love you if you kill him. I can’t.”
Slowly, Kyron seemed to come back to himself. The anger cleared from his face to be replaced by something like confusion and his eyes lost their red glare.
“Dani?” he asked in a low voice. “Oh Goddess, Dani…what have I done? I’m so sorry…”
“Never mind apologies,” the huge Kindred with the mismatched eyes growled. “It’s time to get the fuck out of here!”
He grabbed Dani with one hand and Ky with the other and dragged them towards the empty end of the rounded courtyard.
At least, Dani had thought it was empty. As they got closer, she saw a shimmering in the air which made her dizzy.
“Elise, baby, get the hopper ready for lift off,” the huge Kindred growled. “We need to get out of here fucking fast.”
The tiny female with long brown hair nodded and made a motion with her hand. Suddenly, a doorway opened in mid-air. It looked like magic—as Warro and Tornk’s deaths had looked like magic, Dani thought—but it was probably just more Kindred technology.
The small woman went through the door and then the huge Kindred pushed Jontu and Lavi through as well.
“No!” It was a little more than a whisper but Dani still recognized her father’s voice. He was on his knees but still alive, one hand reaching out to her. “No, Dani,” he gasped. “No, you can’t…can’t leave me.”
“I have to, Papa.” Dani felt the tears which had gathered in her eyes spilling over her cheeks in a hot flood. “I’m sorry but I can’t stay here. I have to go.”
And then the big Kindred was pushing both her and Kyron through the doorway which had opened in the air and her father’s face was gone…gone forever.
Because Dani knew that whatever else happened, she was never coming back.