Charlotte Boyett-Compo- WIND VERSE- Hunger's Harmattan (23 page)

Afterward, she had left him there with the
lights out to help alleviate the massive headache throbbing at his
temples—mercifully taking the lumbering cybots with her. The room was cold but
his body was shot with fever still. Thankfully she had ordered the ’bots to
unshackle him and now he lay on the table in a fetal position, shivering.

* * * * *

Rory Quinn was just as cocky as ever as he
greeted Shanee on the bridge of the
Raptor
. The
Scaan
known far
and wide as the Phantom had once been her lover but was married now to the
Healer Kendall Byrne.

“Pirated any ships lately, Quinn?” Leveche
asked as he took the reformed thief’s hand.

“Just yours,” Quinn joked. “Oops. Guess I
wasn’t supposed to tell you that.” His smile slipped away. “Did Ryden tell you
those bitches on R-9 managed to pilfer Storian technology?”

“Aye, he told me,” Leveche snarled. “That’s
how they got the ghoret into Shanee’s quarters. Makes me mad as hell that one
of my people helped Cean and when I find out who it was, I’ll drain him dry.”

“Makes my gods-be-damned blood boil,” Quinn
commented. “If they ever got their hands on the Maze, I’d be a freaking basket
case!”

Shanee shook her head. Though the Phantom
was a very handsome man, he could not hold a candle to her Ailyn. He was more
boyish and filled with irreverent humor, though in a crisis, he was all
warrior.

“How’ve you been, Shanee?” he asked.

“I have been great, Phantom,” she replied.

“We’ll get him back for you. I promise.”

She nodded. “Just do your job. That’s all I
can ask.” She glanced at Ryden Bakari and saw her mother dogging his every
step. “I think an intervention is needed.”

“Burgon?”

Bakari turned to see Shanee coming toward
him as she hailed him. “Aye?”

“May I speak privately with you?” she
asked. “In your office?”

Polemusa shot her daughter an annoyed look.
“The Burgon and I were having a discussion, Shanee.”

“It will have to wait, dearling,” Bakari
told the defense queen. He reached out and took Shanee’s upper arm in a tight
grip and began walking at a fast clip. “This way, Colonel.”

Leveche fell into step behind them. When
Shanee glanced back at him, he smiled. “I think I know what you want.”

“I’m sure you do,” she said.

Once they were in Bakari’s office, the two
men turned to face Shanee.

“It will have to come from me, not Ryden,”
Leveche said. “He hasn’t had his hellion that long and his nestlings aren’t
mature enough for what you’ll need.”

“And his fledgling will be more powerful
than the one now inside Ailyn’s mother since Gabe’s parasite is a direct
descendant from Morrigunia.”

“Well, from Morrigunia’s hand at any rate,”
Gabe corrected. “The gods only know whose parasite I was given. The reason mine
is more potent is because it will be third generation. Since Ry’s fledgling
came from me, it would be fourth generation. The closer the nestling is to the
original, the more powerful it is at Transference. Ailyn’s is second generation
from Tariq so his mother’s is third. Do you follow?”

“Aye,” Shanee said. She swallowed. “Can we
do it now?”

“We’ll have to go down to the containment
cell because as soon as the hellion is inside you, you’ll begin to change,”
Leveche said. “Ry can escort you and I’ll stop off in the lab to have my blood
drawn for your initial intake and for the subsequent first Sustenance you’ll
need.”

Though her stomach rebelled at the mention
of consuming blood, Shanee didn’t let on. She knew Bakari—at least—knew how she
must feel.

“You are sure now that this is what you
want?” Leveche asked. “Ailyn is going to be royally pissed.”

“Were you pissed when your lady became a
Reaper?” she asked.

“It was the only way my lady could lead a
normal life,” Leveche replied. “She would have been left without sight or
hearing had I not intervened. Ardor is a warrioress and she would not have
wanted to live as a helpless invalid.” He shrugged. “And she has never truly
regretted what I was forced to do.”

“There is that other thing though,” Bakari
said, his cheeks blazing with color.

“She doesn’t need to know that,” Leveche
snapped. “It’s a moot point.”

“Know what?” Shanee asked.

The two men glared at one another. It was
Bakari who explained. “His lady was unconscious when they did the Transference
so she didn’t have any of his blood before the procedure was done.”

“Is this really necessary?” Leveche
growled.

“She should know,” the ex-Burgon said.

Leveche threw his arms into the air. “I
don’t want to hear this. I’m going to the lab.”

Shanee watched the Storian stomp out of the
office then gave Bakari her attention. “He’s angry.”

“He’ll get over it,” Bakari said. “He just
learned the hard way what happens when you don’t prime the pump—so to
speak—when a man Transfers a parasite to a woman.” He spiked his hand through
his thick salt-and-pepper hair. “As he says it’s a moot point since you are already
mated to Ailyn but I firmly believe you should know everything you can about
what you’re about to undergo.”

She didn’t like the sound of that. “Go on.”

“Well, without having partaken of Gabe’s
blood before she had her first Transition, when she drank it afterwards Ardor
was a bit…well, she sort of…” His cheeks went darker. “She kind of…”

“What?” Shanee asked, irritated.

“She all but raped him because she was so
aroused,” he stated.

Shanee’s eyes widened. “Are you saying I’ll
throw myself on Gabriel Leveche and…?”

“No!” Bakari was quick to say. “And he
wouldn’t allow it anyway. You’ll never be able to mate with anyone other than
Ailyn after the Transference but I just thought you should be told…”

She lifted her arms and crossed them
several times in front of her to get him to shut up. “I don’t want to hear any
more,” she declared. “Tell me afterward else I’ll not have the courage to do
this, Burgon!” She headed for the door. “The con cell is on Five, isn’t it?”

Bakari acknowledged that it was and started
after her.

* * * * *

It was just the three of them in the
containment cell. Leveche had ordered a crewman to transport a rolling
stainless steel table into the cell.

When Leveche joined them—unable to look
into Shanee’s eyes now that she knew what had happened between him and his lady
after Ardor’s Transference—he carried a small tray upon which set a large
beaker of his black blood along with a small glass of the viscous liquid as
well as an empty beaker. He handed the glass to Shanee and the tray to Bakari.

“What does it taste like?” she asked as she
stared down into the tarry substance. She saw him smile and her eyes narrowed.
“Why are you grinning, Leveche?”

“Everyone asks that,” he replied. “It can’t
be described, wench. It is what it is.”

She snorted and before another thought
could deter her, she lifted the glass and drank. The expression on her face
said it all.

“You get used to it,” Bakari said. He set
the tray down on the floor but took up the empty beaker.

“By the gods I hope so,” she said as she
lowered the glass.

Leveche went over to the table and hopped
up, turned and stretched out on his belly. He reached behind him to tug his
black silk shirt from his leather pants. “Is your blade sharp, Ry?” he asked.

“Does a Diabolusian warthog stink?” Bakari
quipped. He withdrew his obsidian dagger from the sheath at his thigh and went
over to Leveche. “Three-inch cut, right?”

“Just above the kidney,” Leveche agreed.

“I remember,” he said. “Here, Shanee. Hold
the beaker for me.”

She came to stand across from the
ex-Burgon. When he made the incision on Leveche’s back then dug his fingers
into the cut, she felt her knees grow weak—especially when she heard Leveche
gasp.

“For the love of the gods, Bakari, stop
wiggling your fingers inside me! The queen will direct one to you,” Leveche
growled. “Hold your gods-be-damned hand still! You’re killing me here!”

“Wimp,” Bakari said.

“I’ll wimp you when I get up,” Leveche
warned.

The blood Shanee had ingested was doing
strange things to her body. It hadn’t tasted all that bad but it had been thick
and much hotter than she would have imagined. As she stared down at the black
blood trickling from Leveche’s wound, she was beginning to feel aroused and
that really concerned her. But as soon as Bakari pulled the fledgling from the
Reaper’s body, all thought of sex evaporated.

It was the ugliest thing she’d ever seen in
her life that Bakari dropped into the beaker she was holding. Instinctively she
thrust the beaker away from her as far as her arm would extend and just stared
in horror at the monstrosity that was whipping and flopping like a beached eel
within the glass beaker.

The abomination was covered with horny
scales that were the color of green pus. On its back was a ridge of sharp
hooked red spines. Beady red eyes that were elliptical in shape like a viper’s
bored through the glass at her as it flexed the tip of its forked tail.

“Accept Me, warrior. Protect Me and I
will protect you!”

“It spoke to me!” Shanee said, her eyes
like saucers. She couldn’t tear her gaze from the creature’s forked tongue
inside the triangular head. She saw row after row of sharp little teeth inside
the maw of its red mouth.

“Everyone has that reaction too,” Leveche
said, and she glanced at him in time to see the wound on his back close as
though by magic.

“Take Me unto you, warrior, and I will
make you invincible!”

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Shanee
said and—to her mortal shame—felt a trickle of urine escape between her legs.

Some kind of milky substance was dripping
from the eel-like thing’s mouth and where it fell in the beaker, it sizzled.

“Is that acid?” she questioned.

“Aye,” Leveche said. “You won’t feel it
inside you.” He got up from the table and tucked his shirt back in. “Up you
go.”

Shanee took a step back at that command.
She was staring at the hideous thing in the beaker. “It looks like a tomato
hornworm,” she complained.

“My thought exactly,” Bakari said, taking
the beaker from her. He looked at Leveche. “Are you going to do it or do you
want me to?”

“I’ve been through this before,” Leveche
said. “Once I make the incision you can leave. I’ll see to her.”

“I can do it,” Bakari said though his voice
said he’d just as soon not.

“Go,” Leveche commanded. “But don’t go far.
You and I are going to have a little talk about your wimp insult, Burgon.”

Bakari grinned. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He
reached out to pat Shanee’s shoulder. “It’ll be all right, dearling.” He patted
the table.

Shanee wiped a hand over her mouth. She was
sweating as she cocked a hip onto the table then slid her butt along the steel
surface that was still warm from Leveche’s high body temp.

“Lie down on your tummy,” Bakari
instructed, “and pull up your tunic for us or do you want me to?”

“I’ll do it,” she said. She lay down on her
side then shifted to her stomach. She had to reach both hands behind her to
pull the heavy wool material up to bare the small of her back.

“It will sting,” Leveche said. His own
black volcanic glass dagger was now in his hand. “When the parasite is dropped
on you, it will feel cold and slimy. Try not to move. It will sense the cut and
shoot down into it under the first layer of skin. As soon as it burrows to your
kidney, it will attach itself there.”

“And that will hurt like hell,” Bakari
said, only to frown when Leveche flung him an annoyed look.

With her hands to either side of her head,
her fists clenched, she felt the initial sting as Leveche made his incision.
She heard him tell Bakari to drop the parasite.

The slimy weight plopped on her and she
felt it crawling. Goose bumps popped out all over her.

“Go, Ry!” Leveche snapped, and she heard
the con cell door close.

The parasite wriggled on her back.

“Here we go,” Leveche said in a soft voice.

She knew it was going to hurt. She’d seen
the vid-seqs of Transferences on the Reapers on R-9. She understood that the
creature would sink its sharp fangs into her organ and begin sucking her blood.
She thought she knew how bad that pain would be but nothing could have prepared
her for the gnawing, tearing misery that came as soon as she felt the creature
slither down into her body.

Leveche quickly sheathed his blade and
scooped her up in his strong arms. He carried her across the cell to the
opposite wall and slid down to the floor with her, his legs wrapped securely
around hers.