Sought...Book 3 in the Brides of the Kindred series (42 page)

“No,” he said shortly. He shifted and she
could feel his hard muscles bunching with tension.

Lauren wasn’t sure what to say. “Am I too
heavy? Do you need me to get down? I can walk now.”

“Of course not—you’re very light.” For the
first time he seemed to focus on her totally. “And this is the last
time I’ll ever get to hold you,” he added in a low voice. “I would
rather not put you down until I have to.”

“All right then,” Lauren said softly. “I
don’t mind. I’m just worried about you.”

He shook his head and the distance returned
to his eyes. “I’ll be fine. I just need to be certain you’re safe
before I leave.”

“But I don’t
want
you to leave,”
Lauren protested. “I…I don’t like the idea of never seeing you
again.”

“It’s for the best.” Xairn began walking
rapidly in the direction they’d last seen Kat and her Kindred
warriors. “It is better if I don’t see you—safer.”

“How could it be safer for us to be apart? I
don’t understand.”

He closed his eyes briefly, a look of almost
agony passing over his strong features. “I would rather not
explain. I don’t want your memory of me to be…tainted.”

“If you’re thinking I’ll hold your father
against you, you’re wrong,” she said quietly. “People don’t choose
their parents. You can’t help what he’s like or what he did.”

“It’s not that.” He shook his head. “Please
do not ask me to explain. I don’t wish you to think me a
monster.”

“A monster?” Lauren looked at him in shock.
“Why would I ever think that? How could—”

A sudden sound behind him made both their
heads turn.

“Oh my God!” Lauren put a hand to her mouth.
“The guards—they’re back!”

It was true. Two of the AllFather’s immense
guards were closing in on them rapidly. Only their great size and
bulk kept them from running faster.

“Do you still have the stunner I gave you?”
Xairn asked, backing away from the approaching guards warily. “If
you do, shoot. I can’t reach my own weapon without putting you down
and that would not be safe at this moment.”

Lauren fumbled in the folds of the black
cloak. She’d hidden the tiny weapon in a small pocket sewn on the
inside but now she couldn’t seem to find it. “I can’t…can’t find
it. God, Xairn, what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know.” He turned his head to look
behind them briefly. “But here comes another one.”

“I thought they were all dead!” Lauren
looked at the approaching guards fearfully. “Or at least disabled.
How can they just get up and walk after the way we shot them?”

“They’re probably being animated by my
father—he’ll stop at nothing to get you back.”

Lauren’s heart froze in her chest. “No! Oh,
no—please, Xairn, don’t let him have me!”

“Didn’t you hear me before?” His deep voice
was fierce. “I’ll die before I give you up. Damn it to the seven
hells, where are those Kindred?” He craned his neck, obviously
looking for Kat and her men, but there was nothing to see but
junked and abandoned ships. And in the mean time, the three guards
were closing in. One of them opened its lipless mouth and the voice
of the AllFather filled the air.

“Come back, my ssson. Return the girl to me
and all ssshall be forgiven. You ssshall rule at my ssside as you
were always meant to do. Come back and bring my bride…”

“Xairn—they’re getting closer!” Lauren
clutched his shoulders—they were being surrounded. They were
trapped.

Xairn swore blackly in a harsh, guttural
language. He looked at Lauren, frowning fiercely. “I am sorry but
there is no more time to find your human friend—you’ll have to come
with me.”

Turning, he jogged to the nearest silver
ship and slapped his palm to its side. “Open!” he shouted and then
repeated the command in another foreign language.

A hatchway slid to one side smoothly,
revealing an opening into the ship. Xairn boosted Lauren in and
then climbed in after, just as the first of the AllFather’s guards
reached them.

“My ssson,” it began in the AllFather’s
high, evil voice.

“No longer.” Xairn kicked the possessed
guard in the jaw, knocking it to the ground. Another was already
coming but by then he had closed the hatch and was giving the ship
directions in the same, foreign tongue he’d spoken in earlier.

Lauren scrambled into a seat which was much
too large for her—it seemed to have been built for people Xairn’s
size, not humans. Xairn took the seat beside her and began working
the controls. “Strap in,” he directed. “This will not be a smooth
flight.”

“All right.” Lauren was fumbling with the
unfamiliar, too-large safety harness when something big and heavy
thumped against her side of the ship. A dent appeared in the metal
just beside her thigh. “Oh!” she gasped, jumping away. “What—?”

“They’re trying to get in.” Xairn was still
concentrating grimly on the control panel. “Don’t worry, they
won’t. The Kindred build their ships well.”

He did something else to the controls and
they started to rise straight up into the air. There was another
mighty
thump
which made the small ship sway alarmingly in
mid-air, and then they were apparently above the reach of even the
massive guards.

They rose higher and higher and Lauren
watched in the viewscreen as the dark, polluted planet receded into
the distance. When it was no larger than a dirty tennis ball
hanging in space, Xairn held the ship still for a moment and sat in
silence, staring at it.

Though his face was impassive, Lauren
thought she understood what he must be feeling. Reaching out, she
rested her hand lightly on his knee. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.
“It must be hard—saying goodbye to your home planet.”

“That place was never my home.” Xairn’s
voice was cold but when he looked at her his eyes were burning. “I
have no home. No people. No father. I have nothing.”

“That’s all right.” She tried to smile. “You
can come home with me—if you want.”

“Eventually.” His voice was remote. “But I’m
afraid it will be some time before you see Earth again.”

“What do you mean?” She tried to keep the
fear out of her voice but he was acting so strangely it scared her.
“Why—?”

“You will understand in time.” He looked
down at her hand, still resting on his knee. “I thought I asked you
before not to touch me.”

“I’m sorry.” Lauren removed her hand
hastily. “I just thought…I wanted to comfort you.”

“I need no comfort. And I do not want your
hands on me. It isn’t safe.”

“Isn’t safe? What do you mean?”

He turned his head to look at her and she
thought again that his eyes looked like they were on fire. The
savage look on his face was like nothing she had ever seen before.
There was nothing but hunger in his gaze. No compassion, no
pity…just the naked desire to devour. “Please, Xairn,” she said,
her voice trembling. “Please, you’re scaring me.”

He took a deep breath and the fire in his
eyes died down a little. Some of the tension eased from his broad
shoulders and the hunger left his face. “Forgive me, Lauren.” He
shook his head. “But I wish very much that you were not with me
right now. It would have been better if you had gone with the
Kindred and their female. Better and far safer.”

“I’m safe with
you.
” Lauren touched
his arm for emphasis and then remembered he didn’t want her to and
drew back. “It’s all right,” she said, holding his eyes with hers.
“Everything is going to be all right because
I trust you
.
And I know you’ll keep your promise to see me safely home.”

“I did promise that, didn’t I?” Xairn
pressed a hand to his eyes briefly and took another deep breath.
“Yes, I did. And I will keep my word. Even if it kills me to do
so.”

Lauren didn’t understand what he meant by
that, but as the small silver ship turned away from his home world,
she
did
understand that it would be a while before she saw
Earth again.

She didn’t know where Xairn was taking her,
but it wasn’t home—not yet.

“Am I going to die now?” Kat tried to keep
her voice even and nonchalant but she couldn’t help the little
tremble that crept in as she stared at the poisoned knife in Lock’s
hand. “Because I don’t
feel
any different.”

“The effects of the
kusax
are not
immediate,” Lock said in a low voice. He threw the dagger away with
a quick, jerky motion, like a man getting rid of a deadly snake.
“But we should not speak of that now. We need to get back to the
ship.”

“Lock’s right.” Deep spoke slowly, a
stricken expression on his face. “We…we need medical attention. We
must go.”

“All right, let’s go then.” Kat got
unsteadily to her feet, shaking off the helping hands of both
brothers. She wanted to know that she could still get up and move
around on her own—wanted to feel that she was still all right, no
matter what they said about the stupid Scourge knife that had
scratched her. She headed in the direction of the beach and then
stopped. “Wait a minute, what about Lauren?”

There was a suddenly muted roaring sound and
a rush of wind. From further down the abandoned battlefield a small
silver Kindred ship rose into the air. It hovered for a moment and
then shot straight up, disappearing into the smoggy sky.

“There’s your answer,” Deep said, pointing.
“Xairn has gone and he’s taken Lauren with him.”

“How can you be sure he took her with him?”
Kat demanded. “What if she’s still here, wandering around in this
horrible place?”

“He would not have left her,” Lock said
quietly. “He loves her, my lady—could you not tell?”

“I know that
Lauren
seemed to be very
fond of
him
…” Kat frowned. “But Xairn’s still a Scourge. And
I don’t know if I could tell that
he
loved
her.”

“His heart was given,” Deep said. “It was
clear—at least to another male who has given his heart.”

“And how would you know? When did you ever
give anything to anyone but pain?” Lock asked but his voice was
more weary than angry.

Kat held out her hands. “Don’t start guys,
okay? Let’s just do a quick search to make sure Lauren’s not here
and
then
we can assume she went with Xairn. All right?”

“A
very
quick search.” Lock frowned.
“We need to get you home, my lady. To see if there is
anything…anything Sylvan can do for you.”

Kat put a hand on her hip. “Do me a favor
and stop acting like I have one foot in the grave, okay? For your
information I feel perfectly
fine.
In fact I don’t have a
bit of pain and—”

At that moment the alpha guard sat straight
up and began laughing. The black knife blade still protruded from
the center of its massive chest—there was no way it could still be
alive. But somehow it was—or at least it was moving. The high,
eerie cackle that came from its dead, lipless mouth froze the blood
in Kat’s veins.

“Of course you do not have pain yet, sssweet
little human,” the thing said. “That comesss later, after the
weaknesss has ssset in. After the green linesss reach your heart
and delve deep to find your very sssoul…”

“Oh my God!” Kat gasped as the reanimated
Alpha Guard began to get up. “It’s alive. How the hell—?”

“The AllFather is directing it, just as he
was before.” Quickly, Lock scooped her into his arms. “Shoot it,
Deep, and let’s be on our way. We’ve overstayed our welcome
here.”

“I think you’re right.” Pulling his weapon,
Deep took careful aim and released a bright red beam of energy.

The deadly laser blast took off the
monstrous Alpha guard’s head as easily as a knife slicing through
cheese. It fell from the broad shoulders and rolled on the ground
at their feet, the eyes still blinking and the lipless mouth still
laughing. “Die,” it whispered, so faintly Kat could barely hear it.
“Sssoon you ssshall die, little human…sssoon…sssoon…” Then the
guard’s body fell to its knees and collapsed slowly, its dead hands
still reaching out, the thick fingers grasping the air.

“Crap!” A chill swept over her and Kat felt
like she might be sick. “That’s…that’s the creepiest thing I’ve
ever seen. I can’t believe it just kept
moving
and
talking
like that even after…” She shook her head, unable to
finish.

“Come on. Let’s get the hell out of here!”
Deep led the way, his hand still pressed to his side.

“But
Lauren!”
Kat protested. “You
promised we’d look for her!”

Lock turned reluctantly and then they saw
three more of the massive guards lumbering toward them. “I’m sorry,
my lady,” he told her. “But we must go now. You and Deep are both
wounded. I cannot protect you both and fight off three more guards
on my own.”

They ran through the ships on the
battlefield and crossed the polluted beach, the oily brown sand
crunching under the twins’ booted feet. The guards behind them were
gaining rapidly, probably because none of them was A—wounded or
B—carrying a plus-sized woman, Kat thought, staring over Lock’s
shoulder as he ran. Deep staggered along beside them, his face
white and one hand fisted at his side. There was blood leaking down
his leg in a dark rivulet. God, she hoped all this running wasn’t
making his wound worse, though she didn’t see how it could possibly
be helping any. She still didn’t even know how he could be
functioning after receiving such a serious injury—did Twin Kindred
have extra special healing ability? Lock had said something about
self sealing organs but what did that even mean?

Finally they reached their ship and piled
inside. “I’ll pilot,” Lock said, sliding into the driver’s seat.
For once, Deep said nothing. He only nodded and settled himself
carefully in one of the other seats. Kat did the same and started
to buckle herself in. She felt terrible about Lauren but Lock and
Deep didn’t seem overly concerned.
Maybe they’re right
, she
comforted herself.
Maybe Xairn took her with him and he’s so in
love with her that he’ll take care of her no matter what
happens.