Chapter Twenty-nine
Deep was suspiciously quiet during their flight to the Scourge home world. He barely spoke except to warn Kat to be sure she was buckled in safely when they went through the deep red fold in space. And since Lock was too sunk in misery to say anything and Kat wasn’t feeling too chatty herself, their journey was mostly silent. She still had the nagging feeling that there was something she ought to know or remember and every time she glanced at Deep, it grew stronger. But whatever it was, it stayed in the back of her mind and refused to come forward.
At last Deep broke the silence as he piloted the ship into the smoggy atmosphere of the gray-green planet. “Here we are—Zlicth.”
“What?” Kat asked, as the oily black ocean whizzed by under their ship. “What’s a zlickt?”
“Zlicth, is the name of this planet in the ancient tongue of the Scourge,” Lock explained as the ship left the water behind and landed on a brown beach. “The same way you call your planet ‘Earth.’”
Oh,” Kat said as they all unsnapped their safety harnesses. “But if this is their home world, why did they abandon it?”
“Take a look outside and you’ll see.” Deep pressed a button and the door of the shuttle slid smoothly open.
Kat stepped out onto the metal steps descending from the small silver craft to survey the planet. Standing on the topmost step, she looked out across a beach of grimy brown and gray sand and put a hand to her nose. “Ugh, what’s that smell?” It was like a combination of car exhaust, sulfur, and a cat box that badly needed to be changed.
“The sweet smell of Zlicth, of course,” Deep said with a touch of his old sarcasm. He came to stand behind her. “The Scourge weren’t terribly particular about the welfare of their planet, as long as there was a profit to be turned.”
“They ruined their world for gain,” Lock explained. “This planet contains vast quantities of verinium—which gives tremendous amounts of energy when burned.”
“But also releases noxious fumes into the air and chemicals into the water,” Deep said, nodding at the oily waves lapping at the brown sand. There was a thin grayish scum on the water that looked toxic.
“It’s disgusting,” Kat said, still holding a hand over her nose. “I mean—oh!” Her foot slipped and she started to fall from the steps. Only Deep’s strong hand under her arm saved her. He pulled her back to her feet and gave her a quick shake.
“Try not to injure yourself while we’re here—all right, sweetheart?”
Kat stiffened and lifted her chin. “What do you care what happens to me? You just want to be free of me, right?”
Deep’s black eyes flashed. “Just because I don’t want to be bonded to you doesn’t mean I don’t care if you—”
“If I kill myself?” Kat finished for him, without thinking. To her surprise, instead of snapping out a sarcastic retort, Deep turned pale.
“Don’t say that.” His voice was low and hoarse and for a moment, his eyes looked almost haunted.
“Why not?” Kat stared at him, again having that niggling feeling that there was something important she ought to remember.
But Deep only shook his head, and the moment passed. “This may be a deserted world but there are still plenty of dangerous things lying around—the Scourge weren’t very careful where they left their toys.”
“Deep is right,” Lock said, unexpectedly agreeing with his brother. “This is a dangerous place. Which is why we should leave and go back to the Mother ship right now.”
“Nice try, Brother,” Deep drawled. “But I don’t think so—we’re going to do what we came here to do. Besides, don’t you have another little job while we’re here?”
Lock frowned. “Olivia did ask me to see if I could find any clues to her cousin’s whereabouts. Although what we can find on a planet that’s been abandoned for fifty cycles, I have no idea.”
“The prophesy,” Kat reminded him, walking carefully down the steps to the greasy sand below. “If we can find out the exact wording we might have a clue as to what they want her for and where they’ve taken her.”
“Possibly,” Deep agreed, his boots crunching on the sand. “Although I think we all know what they want her for.”
Kat frowned at him. “What do you mean by that?”
Deep shrugged. “What does any Scourge want with a female?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know but I take it they’re not interested in romantic candlelight dinners and long walks on the beach. Especially not this beach.” She made a face.
“They’re depraved in every way,” Lock said, stepping down to join them on the sand. “It’s one of the reasons many of our forefathers wanted to block the genetic trade with them.”
“Hold on.” Kat put up a hand. “You’re telling me the Kindred actually made a trade with them? With the Scourge?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” Deep nodded. “A small faction of Kindred, anyway.”
“It was only about a hundred and fifty cycles ago that we came across them,” Lock explained as they began to walk up the beach. “We observed them first, of course. They had the physical characteristics and DNA to make a genetic exchange possible. But the majority of the Council was against the trade from the start.”
“Why?” Kat asked, fascinated despite herself. Who could have guessed that the Kindred’s greatest enemy had at one time been an ally?
“The things they had done to their world for one thing.” Lock gestured at the dirty beach and oily black water. “To so pollute and ruin a planet showed a blatant disregard for the blessings the Mother of All Life had bestowed on them in the first place. But more importantly, the forefathers didn’t like the way the Scourge treated their females.”
Kat’s breath seemed to catch in her throat. “How…how did they treat them?”
“They’re sexual sadists.” Deep’s black eyebrows were pulled low, his face like a thundercloud. “They enjoy inflicting pain and they demand complete submission at all times.”
Kat raised an eyebrow. “So the whole planet was into BDSM? Kinky.”
“Not just ‘kinky’—depraved,” Lock corrected her sternly.
“Lock’s right.” Deep nodded. “I’ve seen vids about your sexual practices on Earth—I know a few of your people are into games of sexual control. But it’s no game for the Scourge—it’s a dominant gene, hardwired into the genetic makeup of every Scourge male. Dominance and submission isn’t play to them—it’s life or death.”
“They can’t take a female unless they’re dominating her completely,” Lock said quietly.
“And they practice and enjoy forms of sexual torture that would turn your stomach,” Deep said darkly. “The Goddess help that girl if the Scourge really do have her. I don’t like to think of the torment they must be putting her through.”
“Poor Lauren!” Kat suddenly felt for Liv and Sophie’s cousin as she never had before. Before she’d been sympathetic to her plight and worried about her, but now she felt Lauren’s pain like a fist to the gut. Lock and Deep’s words brought home what the kidnapped girl must be enduring in a visceral way that nothing else had. “I don’t understand, though,” she said. “If the Scourge are so horrible, why did the Kindred trade with them?”
“A small faction disagreed with the ruling of the Council,” Lock explained. “The Scourge were the first new species suitable for a trade that we’d seen in hundreds of years. And they argued that the Kindred genes were dominant—a new generation of Scourge could be raised who had no wish to torment or inflict pain. Who loved and revered females, as we do.”
“They pointed out that the savages from Rageron had been tamed and taught to worship the Goddess,” Deep said. “But the Beast Kindred never had the genetic need to dominate that the Scourge do. It turned out to be impossible to breed that out of them.”
“So what happened? How did you guys become mortal enemies?” Kat asked. “Was it because they wouldn’t stop mistreating their women?”
“Their continued sexual practices led to a lot of friction, yes,” Lock said. “But it wasn’t until it became common knowledge that the Scourge were experimenting on and torturing abducted Kindred warriors and their brides that all-out war broke out between us.”
Kat made a face. “But why would they do something so horrible?”
“They claimed that they were looking for the connection between the Kindred and their mates—the connection they themselves seemed to be lacking,” Deep rumbled. “But nobody really believed that—what they were doing was all about revenge.”
“Revenge?”
Lock nodded. “You see, from the genetic trade, the Scourge got the Kindred size and musculature and prowess in battle but they also inherited our greatest weakness.”
“Our inability to breed females,” Deep clarified. “With our people, only five percent of pregnancies result in female children. But in the Scourge, the trait was worse. Only one fifth of one percent of their pregnancies resulted in girls.”
“They hated us for it—they still do,” Lock said. “They blame us for the decimation of their race.”
Deep made a sound of disgust in his throat. “They had something to do with it too—right here in fact. During the Battle of Berrni. You can see the results.”
They were climbing a ridge that ran along the top of the greasy brown dunes as he spoke. What she saw when they made it to the top, took Kat’s breath away.
There, on a vast field of barren gray dirt, lay the wreckage and remains of hundreds of space ships. Some of them looked a little like the shuttle they had come in and she assumed they must be of Kindred design. Others were completely alien with strange, gleaming black skin that her eyes kept wanting to slide away from—apparently Scourge ships.
“This is the Field of Berrni—it was the final testing ground,” Lock said quietly, gesturing to the wrecked and abandoned ships. “We had broken into their medical complex and rescued the prisoners they had taken and we were about to wipe them out completely. In desperation, the Scourge deployed a viral bomb designed specifically to cause spontaneous combustion in anyone with Kindred DNA.”
Kat put a hand to her mouth. “Oh my God—so they burned them alive?”
Deep nodded. “Look in any of these abandoned ships and you’ll see little piles of black ash—all that remains of the pilots.”
“But the Scourge didn’t count on one thing—they themselves had Kindred DNA,” Lock said. “They thought that they had modified their virus enough so that it wouldn’t affect them—but our dominant genes are incredibly strong. The survivors of the battle escaped aboard the Father ship but not wholly intact.”
“It sterilized them,” Deep explained. “All but a few who were completely shielded from the initial blast.” He looked grim. “We think the AllFather was one of them.”
“So he might be looking for a way to replenish his race?” Kat guessed. “Do you think that’s what he wants Lauren for?”
“It’s entirely possible,” Lock said. “Though we won’t know for sure unless we can find the exact wording of the prophesy.”
Kat shook her head. “Oh, poor, poor girl. I really feel sorry for her now.”
“We’ll do what we can to help find her,” Lock promised quietly. “We’re not just here to dissolve the bond between us.”
“Of course not,” Deep agreed dryly. “We have much more noble ambitions in mind than simply separating our souls.”
“If you say so.” Kat gave him a look. “But are you sure it’s safe for us to be here? Especially you two—I mean, with the spontaneous burn-you-to-death-if-you’re-Kindred virus running around?”
“Why do you think we landed so far from the Complex?” Deep asked, nodding to the gray spikes and spires rising in the distance. The sprawling building was apparently where they were headed. “Lock and I are both wearing monitors that will detect any stray virus strains that might be harmful long before they become concentrated enough to hurt us.”
“The virus has had years to dissipate so we don’t expect any trouble,” Lock explained. “But we’re moving in slowly, just in case.”
Kat sighed. “All right—as long as you two are safe.”
“Why, Kat.” Deep put a hand over his heart. “I didn’t know you cared.”
Kat refused to rise to the bait. “You know I do,” she said quietly. “And just because you don’t, doesn’t mean I can turn it off just like that.” She snapped her fingers to illustrate her point.
For a moment, Deep looked stricken. “Kat,” he said, stopping in his tracks. “Kat, I…”
“What?” Kat stopped beside him and looked up at him, her heart pounding. Was he going to admit that he cared after all? From the corner of her eye she could see Lock’s face filled with hope.
But Deep just shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice. “Sorry it has to be like this. But it does.”
“All right.” Kat nodded stoically and began walking again. Let him do what he wanted—she wasn’t going to beg. And she wasn’t going to remain bonded to a man who didn’t want and love her—not even halfway bonded. It’s for the best, she told herself as they trudged closer to the monstrous gray building that Deep had called the Complex. We all need to be free of each other—it’s the only way.
But her heart was sore and she found she couldn’t look at Deep as they walked. Not if she wanted to keep from crying.