Tracking Trisha (34 page)

Kelan listened as
Trelon let out
a sharp chuckle as he thought of the mischief his little mate was causing for her captors. Kelan moved away heading for the docking bay doors which were reopened. Valdier warriors and their symbioses were swarming the warship. Kelan ordered any man who fought at all to be executed without mercy. The only one he wanted alive was N’tasha. He would be the one to kill her…but, only after she told him where his mate was. He did not care if their enemy was a female. She committed treason when she acted against the royal family. The penalty was death.

Kelan moved stealthily through the corridors fighting beside the warriors who would lay their lives down for their people. They took the ship one level at a time. Kelan was surprised to find many of the levels were already under control; by the warriors on board. The crew of the warship was at a crucially low level to start with and the surrender of almost half the warriors came as a surprise until he was informed many were there as prisoners themselves. The only warriors who fought back were members of Raffvin’s elite force.

N’tasha let out a long string of expletives as the lights dimmed before going out. The eerie glow of the emergency lights kicked in as all power to the warship was knocked offline. A short time later, N’tasha screamed out in frustration as all the men on the bridge walked off. The tiny human bitch had escaped her cell and was causing malfunctions through the warship’s systems. She should have killed the bitch when she had the chance.

Nothing was going as she planned. Raffvin left
me
to rot in space with a bunch of idiots
! She fumed.
She was in command of this ship. She told them what to do! She was the one who organized everything over the past year and gathered information on the defense systems Trelon was working on. If Ben’qumain hadn’t let Zoran escape none of this would be happening! Zoran Reykill brought back those foul alien women, one of which captured Trelon’s heart. She was the reason her warship was now dead in space.
N’tasha muttered insanely under her breath.

N’tasha pulled a laser pistol out of the storage compartment in the officer’s conference room off of the bridge and checked the charge. Zoran killed her lover, Ben’qumain. Ben’qumain promised her royalty, power, a chance to rule Valdier as his queen if she helped him kill the royal family. Now, it was all in ruins. The only thing left was to find Trelon’s tiny bitch and kill her. With her and the other one Raffvin ordered taken dead, at least two of the brothers would be sentenced to a slow, agonizing death. It was the beginning of the end for the royal family. If she was lucky, she would be able to use one of the escape pods to get out of this mess. Raffvin would not be happy but he never was anyway.

N’tasha was exiting the conference room when some sixth sense warned her she wasn’t alone anymore. Her eyes jerked around the dim interior of the bridge. She started to raise the arm holding the laser pistol when she felt a huge, clawed hand wrap around her throat.

Kelan leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “Where is my mate?” Kelan asked softly letting one of the tips of his transformed hand pierce the soft skin of N’tasha’s throat.

N’tasha whimpered. “I don’t know.”

Kelan’s grip tightened enough N’tasha gasped as she could feel the claw sink deeper into her flesh. “I won’t ask again.”

N’tasha nodded her head. As the grip loosened, she jerked her arm around firing wildly with the laser pistol. Kelan roared in outrage as the blast scored his lower leg. He used his grip on N’tasha’s neck to pick her up and toss her across the room watching dispassionately as her body hit the far wall with a loud thump. His dragon was beyond furious. Kelan let it surface, shifting as he moved towards N’tasha who was moaning on the floor. Kelan’s symbiosis divided into two forming gold armor over Kelan’s dragon while a smaller section changed into a smaller version of a Werecat. It moved silently to N’tasha, its body shimmering in aggravation as she tried to crawl to where the laser pistol landed several feet away from her.

Kelan’s dragon moved swiftly, grabbing the pistol with his tail and launching it in the opposite direction. N’tasha, realizing she was doomed, whimpered as she scooted back against the wall. She was surrounded by a furious dragon on one side and his Werecat shaped symbiosis on the other. She knew there would be no mercy. Her thoughts flew to Raffvin and her hatred towards him and all men blossomed as her insanity finally overtook the last rational thoughts from her diseased brain.

It
was
Raffvin who convinced Ben’qumain to attack
Zoran. Raffvin who insisted he was the
‘True King’
of Valdier
. Ben’qumain
, was the step-brother of the King of the Curizans. He
was
too stupid to realize Raffvin was just using him and his resources.
It was Raffvin who convince Ben’gumain to use N’tasha.
She should have killed them both months ago!
Instead, she made plans of her own to destroy Raffvin and the Valdier royal family
. She wanted to show
Ben’qumain that she was a powerful force who would hand delivered Valdier to the Curizans.
She should have made sure the poison she gave the tiny bitch killed her! The bitch should have been dead after she blasted a ton of rocks on her. Now, not only would N’tasha be the one to die but the human females were all still alive unless Raffvin managed to kill the one he took. It wasn’t fair! She was the one who was supposed to rule!

“My lord…” Gunnar’s voice broke through the haze of red covering Kelan’s mind as he moved towards N’tasha who sat rocking on the floor muttering to herself.

Kelan’s head swung around and he let out a roar at Gunnar who stood inside the door to the bridge, Palto and Kor next to him. All three men stood their ground, studying the furious dragon as if waiting to see if Kelan could get control back. He let his gaze shift back to the figure on the floor again and he snarled in a deep, low rumble letting the heat of his breath roll over her.

Calm,
Kelan repeated over and over to his dragon,
calm. We need to know where Trisha is. We cannot do that if you eat her.

I don’t eat filth.
His dragon snarled back.
Where my mate?!

Let me shift back and I will find our mates.
Kelan promised gently.
I promise, my friend. I need her too.

Gunnar let out a deep breath as Kelan’s form shifted back to his two-legged form. “Sir, the warship is secure. All warriors who surrendered have been taken to the docking bay. Do you want us to escort the female down there?”

Kelan continued to stare at N’tasha as she muttered incoherently on the floor. “No, I will escort her myself. Make sure all data records have been uploaded to the
V’ager
. I want to know everything that was ever recorded, sent, or received from this ship.”

“Yes, sir.” Palto said barking out the orders in his comlink.

Kelan reached down and jerked N’tasha up. He felt his symbiosis moving over the wound on his leg and felt it as the tissue resealed itself. Wrapping one hand around her neck and gripping her wrists tightly in his other hand, Kelan ignored N’tasha’s cry of pain as he pulled her in front of him.

“Move.” He growled in a low voice. “Either on your own two feet or I drag you by your arms.”

N’tasha whimpered and continued to talk in disjointed sentences as she moved in the direction of the docking bay. It took a few minutes before he finally understood what she kept repeated under her breath. ‘At least one bitch is dead. At least one bitch is dead.’ She kept saying under her breath. Kelan didn’t know who she was talking about, Cara or Trisha. The closer they got to the docking bay the colder it seemed his heart turned.

“Where is my mate? Where is Trisha?” Kelan snarled as he jerked on N’tasha’s arms.

Kelan’s eyes flew across to where his brother was standing. In his arms was his tiny mate. Unable to stand it any longer, Kelan jerked brutally on the wrists he was holding pulling N’tasha’s arms far enough back he could hear the joints protest at the strain.

“Wh
ere is she?” Kelan thundered, ignoring N’tasha’s screams of pain.
“I will show you no mercy unless you tell me where she is.”

N’tasha
head came up and she
stared at Cara and Trelon with hatred in her eyes. She gave an insane cackle before replying, “She’s dead! She’s dead and so are you! At least I killed one of you. Do you want to know how I killed her? I made sure she screamed as I cut her into little pieces.” N’tasha said with a snarl.

Kelan roared out in pain
. The hand he wrapped around her neck tightened as his rage and grief overwhelmed him and his dragon. W
ith a quick twist
, he
snapped N’tasha’s neck
letting her lifeless body fall to the docking bay floor
.
He vaguely heard
Cara
’s cry of horror before she buried her face
in Trelon’s neck with a wild sob. He took two steps before his knees gave out and he sank to the floor with his head hanging and his breaths coming in harsh gasps.
Kelan could hear his dragon’s howl of despair and feel the icy chill from his symbiosis; both testament to their grief at the loss of their mate. Kelan drew in a shuddering breath wondering how his heart still beat when it felt so shattered.

One of the older men who surrendered pushed forward from where the group
was being
detained. The crew of the warship
was
basic at best. The warship needed at least a hundred men to run at full capacity. There
were
half that many on board. Out of the fifty men, thirty surrendered peacefully.

Dulce walked forward with the man. “My lord, this man says he has information about the other human female that was captured.”

Trelon nodded to Dulce before looking at the man through narrowed eyes. “Speak.”

“My name is Dantor. The other men and I were brought aboard to serve…” Dantor nodded in distaste at N’tasha’s prone figure on the floor “…the female against our will. Raffvin has members of our family and has threatened to kill them if we do not do what he wants. We could not disobey since there were also members of his elite army on board. I wanted you to know that we regret any harm that has come to your mate but we had no choice.” Many of the men standing behind him, Curizan and Valdier alike, were nodding in agreement.

Trelon cut his hand through the air. “I don’t care about your excuses. You said you have information about the other human female that was taken.” He said harshly
. He only cared about the information on his brother’s mate, nothing else at this time
.

Dantor cleared his throat. “She is not dead.” He began softly.

Kelan’s head jerked up at the softly spoken words.
He stared at the man for a moment wondering if he heard him correctly.
He slowly climbed to his feet. “What do you mean she is not dead?” He demanded
. When the man didn’t answer fast enough, Kelan strode over and gripped the front of Dantor’s shirt tightly in his fists
.

“What do you mean she is not dead?” Kelan repeated, shaking Dantor until the other man’s head snapped back and forth.
Kelan could feel his own strength mixed with his dragon as he fought to contain his impatience at know if what he was saying was true.

Trelon reached out one hand and rested it on Kelan’s shoulder. “Hear him out before you end up killing him.”