Chapter Thirty-four
“Please,” Sophie gasped, backing away. “Please don’t!”
“I’m doing you a favor.” Xairn’s voice was distant, his red-on-black eyes calm and emotionless as he approached her with the long, curving knife. “Do you know what your fate would be if I took you back to my father as he commanded?”
“But…but I’ve got Blood Fever,” she said desperately, groping for any excuse to live just a little while longer. “So I’m going to die anyway even if you just…just leave me alone.”
He laughed humorlessly. “So that is what the marker detected. Well, then I am saving you from two unpleasant deaths.” With a quick lunge he caught her arm and drew her close. “Come, Sophia, I’m not going to violate you,” he said quietly. “Those urges are still buried in me—never to awaken, I hope.”
“So you’re just going to kill me instead? No thanks!” Fighting with all her might, Sophia struggled to get away. Kicking and squirming, she twisted in his grip. She fought so hard she almost broke free…until Xairn swept her feet out from under her. With a cry, she landed flat on her back with a bone-jarring thump on the hard metal floor.
The fall knocked the breath out of her and for a moment all she could do was gasp, trying to get air into her lungs. She was going to roll away from him, to try and buy more time, but a moment was all it took. Before she could move, Xairn was on her, pinning her down.
“Please…” Sophie could barely speak and now tears were forming in her eyes, making it hard to see. “Please, no. I…I need to live. I need to tell him…”
“Tell him what? That you love him?” Xairn’s eyes were flat as he raised the knife again. “I’m sure he knows.”
“But I never got a chance to tell him.” Suddenly that seemed like the worst thing—worse even than the fact that she was about to die. Oh Sylvan, I spent so much time fearing you for one reason or another that I never let myself love you. Oh please, God—if you’ll give me one more chance I swear I won’t waste it! I’ll tell him how I feel. I’ll let him bite me and bond me—anything so that we can be together. Together one more time…
But the gleaming black edge of the alien knife grew in her vision and no one seemed to be listening to her prayers.
Then, for some reason, Xairn withdrew the knife. “Let me look at you,” he demanded, leaning over her.
“What? Why?” A thought suddenly occurred to her—was he the Scourge commander who had demanded that Sylvan surrender her when they’d been caught in the energy net? His voice sounded the same. Sophie closed her eyes as the memory of his words echoed in her ears… We will strip her naked before we take her to the AllFather. Strip her and take her in front of you where you stand, helpless to do anything but watch as she begs for release…
Xairn seemed to sense her fear because he spoke very softly. “I told you I wouldn’t violate you, didn’t I? Now open your eyes, I need to see them.”
“Why?” He didn’t seem to have the same kind of power in his voice that the AllFather did, but Sophia found herself looking up at him anyway. His eyes were terrible—pure black where they ought to be white, with oval red pupils. For some reason, he appeared to be studying her eyes as well.
“ Green,” he murmured at last, his face twisting. “Why do they have to be that exact shade of green?”
“What?” Sophie blinked back the tears that kept threatening to blind her. “What are you talking about?”
“Hold still.” He lifted the knife again but this time it was directed below her waist.
“What are you doing? Let me up! Let me go!” Sophie thrashed wildly but his grip was unbreakable. Suddenly there was a sharp, stinging pain along the side of her knee—the feeling of cold metal slicing through flesh. My God, he’s like a serial killer! He’s going to cut me up into little pieces! Panic rose up and overwhelmed her and for a moment everything went gray.
When she came to—only a few seconds later, she was sure—he was leaning over her again with something in his hand.
“Do you see this?” he demanded, showing her a small chunk of bloody metal.
Sophie nodded doubtfully. At least it’s not the knife—but what is it?
“It’s a marker,” he said, answering her unspoken question. “It’s how we were able to track you even after my father lost his lock on your warrior’s mind.” With a contemptuous flick of his wrist, he threw it away and Sophie heard it clatter and clang off the metal wall.
“Why…why did you do that?” she whispered through numb lips. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I.” He shook his head. “But as you’re not the one we’re looking for, I see no need for you to die in agony and torment just because my father demands it.” He frowned. “The murderous bastard has enough pain to feast on—he doesn’t need to glut himself on yours too.”
She felt numb all over. “So instead you’re going to kill me quickly.”
“I’m not going to kill you at all.” His face twisted again and for a moment his red-on-black eyes looked almost human. “I can’t. You look too much like her.”
There was real pain in his tone and for a moment Sophie almost felt sorry for him. Who was the woman he was talking about and what had happened to her? And what must it be like for him to have the horrible AllFather as his father? How had he stayed sane, being raised in the presence of such evil and terror? Then her instincts of self preservation kicked in.
“Please,” she whispered, barely daring to hope. “Does that mean you’ll let me go? Will…will you take me back to Tranq Prime? Will you—”
A grinding, shrieking noise, like metal being ripped apart, cut through her words.
Xairn gave her a humorless smile. “I would, but it appears I won’t have to. Your warrior has arrived. Though the gods alone know how he found you.”
The shrieking noise ended with a resounding clang— the sound of metal bouncing off metal. And then…
“ Sophia!” The deep, furious roar sounded like something that might come from a male lion on the African veldt. It was Sylvan’s voice—she was sure of that—but so thick with fury it was barely recognizable.
Xairn scooped up the now bloody knife again. “You’d better stand clear—he’s coming. I hope he doesn’t have a blazer with him—if he slices through the ship’s walls we’ll all be space dust.”
He started to stand but before he could, Sylvan was already in the room. Blood red pupils took in the tableau before him and suddenly Sophie understood how it must look. She was naked on the floor with a strange male crouching over her, holding a bloody knife. Of course Sylvan thought she was being attacked.
“Sylvan, no—” she started to say, but he was already on Xairn, the two of them rolling over and over on the metal floor, fists and boots clanging and pounding as they struggled.
Sophie gasped and leaped to one side. She wanted to stop the brawl before Sylvan killed the other male, but she didn’t know how. There was no way to get between them without risking serious injury and besides, she was completely naked and unprotected. She tried shouting Sylvan’s name several times but he didn’t seem to hear her. The protective rage must be blinding him right now—and keeping him from hearing anything but his enemy’s cries.
The fight didn’t last long. Xairn was every bit as big and muscular as Sylvan but he had no female to protect, no rage to fuel his struggle. After a short, brutal scuffle, Sylvan had the other male down on the ground with both hands locked around his throat.
“Go ahead.” Xairn’s red eyes bulged from their sockets as he gave a strangled laugh. “Choke the life from my body. You’ll be doing me a favor.”
“Oh, I’m not going to choke you—that’s too painless.” There was a murderous glint in Sylvan’s crimson eyes. “I’m going to rip your fucking throat out—just like I promised.”
His mouth contorted in a grimace as he bared his fangs. They glittered like white daggers in the cold, artificial light but Sophie knew they wouldn’t stay white for long—soon they would be red with blood. If the Scourge have red blood, that is, she thought with distant horror, remembering the black ichor that had come from the urlich.
As Sylvan crouched over the other male, he seemed to grow bigger somehow, more menacing than Sophie had ever seen him. Suddenly her paralysis broke. I have to stop him! Xairn was going to let me go.
“Wait!” she said desperately, daring to touch his shoulder. “Sylvan, wait.”
He turned on her with a snarl—a beast disturbed while it crouched over its prey. For a moment Sophie cringed back. At that moment he was everything she feared in a man—everything that haunted and terrified her. There was nothing left of the sweet, gentle male who had carried her when she couldn’t walk and healed her wounds when she was hurt. There was only a huge alpha male with needle sharp fangs and blood-red eyes waiting to attack.
Run! screamed the primal part of her. Get away! He’s dangerous right now. You can’t stop him. You can’t do anything but hide and hope he comes back to his senses before he kills you too!
But Sophie was done running.
“I…I’m not afraid of you,” she said in a low voice, uncertain if she was trying to convince him or herself. “And you need to stop what you’re doing right now, Sylvan.”
“After what he did to you?” His voice was still thick and distorted with rage . “Never. He deserves to die.”
“He didn’t do anything ,” Sophie said firmly. “He didn’t…didn’t try to touch me. Not like Burke,” she added in a softer voice, trying to make him understand.
“She’s right.” Xairn nodded as well as Sylvan’s hands around his throat would allow. “I was under orders to bring her back for the AllFather to despoil, but I did nothing myself.”
“There, you see?” Sophie asked.
Sylvan tightened his hold, making the Scourge commander’s face go a strange, dusky grey color. “He was taking you away to be raped and killed,” he said harshly. “Whether he touched you or not, I will show no mercy.”
“But he wasn’t,” she protested. “He was going to let me go. Look…” She pointed to the small wound on the inside of her knee. “He even cut out the, uh, tracking device thing they’d implanted so they could find me.”
The sight of her wound had a definite effect on him. Sophie could see the urge to kill warring with the urge to heal in those blood red eyes—she only prayed the latter won out.
“Sylvan,” she murmured, daring to touch his shoulder again. “Please—can’t we just get out of here? I feel…wow, I really don’t feel good.” She put a hand to hear head and wobbled unsteadily. It wasn’t an act—suddenly she was dizzy and faint. She stumbled and would have fallen if Sylvan hadn’t caught her with one hand.
He pulled her close and looked at her anxiously. “Sophia?”
“Want to go. Please,” she whispered.
Sylvan uttered a low curse and looked down at Xairn. He still had the Scourge commander by the throat with one hand, but his grip wasn’t nearly as tight as it had been. It didn’t need to be—Xairn was completely still. Whether he was dead or unconscious Sophie couldn’t tell. She thought she saw a faint motion of his broad chest but then Sylvan let him go and turned to swing her up into his arms.
“Thank you,” she whispered, laying her head on his shoulder. “And thank you for coming for me, Sylvan.”
“I will always come for you, Talana,” he said hoarsely. “No matter what happens or who stands in the way. You’re mine.”
“Sylvan…” She wanted to say more but her head was swimming again and then she started shivering.
Sylvan looked at her with obvious concern. “Let’s get you back to the ship.”
She caught one last glance at the still form of Xairn, lying on the floor, and then he carried her away.