Hand over hand he climbed then let go, free falling until the vine jerked taut, and embedded deeper into his flesh.
Again he ascended. Fifteen feet off the ground, Max dove straight down. And again he was jerked at the bottom. He reached up to climb once more, but the vine snapped.
Thwump.
His left side hit the ground. He felt nothing. Not from the fall or the noose or the ring of blood around his ankle. It would hurt like hell later, but he’d suffered worse pain. He snatched his rock and sprinted toward Addy and the beast he would slaughter.
M
ax made it to the forest’s edge before Regan pulled something from his boot and wrenched Addy to her feet, jerking her back against his chest. He thrust a knife to her throat.
Max skidded to a halt when he saw the familiar Flesheater. Regan and his Hyborean master must have caught up with the poachers and the HGC. Damn, not only was Xanthrag or Ferly Mor somewhere close by, but two Hyborean agents might be as well.
Trapped between the bastard and the blade, Addy’s body shook. Her teeth chattered, making the blood from her split lip zigzag down her chin. Her white shirt, soaking and torn down the middle, clung to her heaving breasts.
On the rocky ground behind her, Noah lay still, no doubt unconscious. The baby's stomach rose and fell with each breath, and his body was covered in red blotches from his earlier hysterics. Max’s pulse was pounding, and he could taste vengence. Regan would pay for this. He forced himself not to rush in and engage Regan in battle. He had to be smart about it.
Shit. He never had to factor in another’s life during combat. Let alone two more.
If he attacked, Regan would cut Addy’s throat. With her out of the equation, he could slay the bastard, but her death meant he’d either have to bring her to the Hyboreans to be reawakened and ultimately taken back to HuBReC, or bury her.
Neither scenario was acceptable.
Regan sneered. “You give up your location then run toward danger unarmed and without a plan? You forget how to be a gladiator?”
He wasn’t fighting as a gladiator, he was fighting as a father. That gave him the strength of ten gladiators. With the rock concealed in his fist, Max stepped one cautious foot in front of the other. Every muscle bunched in a readiness to fight.
“The closer you come, the deeper I cut.” A thin crimson bead streaked down Addy’s pale skin.
She whimpered and Max halted. “Release her, you bastard.”
“I wonder,” Regan said in mock curiosity, “if I slice her open, will you carry her to Ferly Mor yourself? It would save me time and trouble. Two birds with one blade, and all that. Or perhaps you’ll leave her and run chickenshit to the refuge?”
“You kill her, and I’ll kill you and dump your fucking body in the rapids.”
“Ahh,” said Regan, as though he had an epiphany. “So the loser warrior has fallen captive to a bitch and her whelp. How pathetic.”
“Max, get Noah,” Addy cried.
“I can’t.” He kept his voice calm, stoic. He couldn’t let Regan see this was killing him inside. He didn’t need to give him anymore advantage.
“That’s right,” Regan rasped in her ear. “He knows if he so much as flinches, you’re dead and back to HuBReC. Yet, look at the fool, he’s dying to bash my skull in. Too bad your insignificant life renders him powerless.”
Regan should have killed her by now. Why was he stalling?
“Hey, Gramps,” Regan shouted, his stare never leaving Max’s. “I know you’ve caught up. I can hear you sucking wind.”
Leaves rustled behind Noah as Duncan stepped out of the forest. His eyes widened. “Regan, what are ye doing man? Dinna hurt the lass.”
“Take the whelp to Ferly Mor.”
“No,” Addy cried, clawing Regan’s arm.
Max saw the knife press into her neck. She cried out and stopped struggling. Her jaw quivered. Tears slid beneath closed lids. Blood slid down her neck.
He couldn’t stand her bravery. His heart wrenched. His soul ached for her. He wanted to mutilate Regan but couldn’t risk Addy’s life. “Don’t listen to him, Duncan.”
“I said take the whelp! Do it or I’ll make HuBReC your daughter’s living hell.”
Duncan hesitated before picking up Noah and cradling him to his chest. Looking neither at Addy nor Max, he said,” I’m sorry, me hands are tied.” He disappeared back into the woods.
“Duncan, no!” Addy screamed.
“Ferly Mor,” came Duncan’s voice through the brush, “is thirty minutes due north.”
“Yet Duncan’s running northwest,” Max said, enticing Regan to take a peek.
As soon as Regan craned his head to look, Max whipped the rock at his temple. Upon impact, Regan dropped the knife and stumbled backward with Addy.
Max sprinted forward but couldn’t reach them before Regan punched her. She crumpled into the river. For a moment he couldn’t breathe. Cold sweat covered him.
“Addy!” Changing directions, Max raced the current downstream watching for her to surface. She hadn’t come up for breath. If Regan knocked her unconscious, she’d be lost forever in the rapids.
Come on, Addy. Come on, Addy. Where are you, dammit?
Addy broke to the surface.
Relief flooded him as he watched her find her bearings and deftly swim for shore.
Thwump.
Hard ground slammed into Max’s chest. Rock scraped his mouth and he tasted dirt. Regan’s full weight crushed into his spine. A fist pounded his eye before his attacker yanked his head back. Cold steel pressed against his throat.
“Nothing,” Regan said, “would give me greater pleasure than ending your life a second time.”
“So do it,” he rasped.
“Except for the pleasure of plunging myself deep inside your woman.” The knife left his throat and ripped through the back of his shoulder.
Max cried out.
“Again.” Stab. “And again.” Stab. “And again.”
Pain shredded his shoulder apart. Darkness started at the corners of his eyes. No. He couldn’t black out. Addy needed him. He tried rolling Regan off.
Something hard—a knee probably—dug into his kidney. Molten heat tore through his shoulders as Regan jerked his hands behind his back and pinned them under his weight.
He struggled but couldn’t break free.
Regan tore off Max’s sleeve. “Though I crave finishing you off,” he said, tying Max’s wrists together with the blood-soaked material, “I may need you alive to control the bitch.”
Once his circulation was cut, and the 240-pound beast removed himself from his back, Max strained and squirmed to get free.
Multiple kicks landed in his side. His legs. His head.
“Stay put while I hunt down my broodmare.” Footsteps retreated two paces and halted. “Shall I bring her back here and let you watch us before I kill you?”
Max gasped for breath. “Fuck...you.”
“Sorry, I have something better to fuck.” Another kick to the head before Regan’s footsteps retreated into the woods.
Max coughed, wheezed, and spit blood and dirt. He curled into the fetal position on his side and managed to roll up onto his knees. Head spinning, he collapsed. His vision clouded.
He blinked his eyes back into focus. He had to stay awake. He had to find Addy before Regan did. Or before she tried to retrieve Noah. If Duncan, Regan, or Ferly Mor saw her, she’d be gone in a Hyborean minute.
He managed to get to his knees again before he felt it.
It came to him like it always had, slowly at first, then a rush. The burning.
The stinging.
The shooting.
The throbbing.
God damn, he hated when the pain caught up with him.
H
aving spent three-quarters of her life in the woods, Addy thought she knew how to creep through vegetation making minimal noise, but now each time her arm brushed a leaf or a twig snapped underfoot, fear amplified the sounds.
Hearing the fight before she saw them, she hid behind a thicket and peered through it. From this distance she could only see Regan repeatedly kicking something—or some
one
—on the ground.
Get up, Max. Get up and fight.
He didn’t get up. Her stomach pitched. Regan was killing him as she watched. She had to stop him. Addy jumped up.
Regan moved two steps from Max and turned back. She ducked behind the thicket. Had he seen her already?
Regan gave Max another kick, turned his back, and strutted off in the opposite direction.
Had Max provoked him for that final kick? If he did, he was alive. Or at least he was a moment ago. Addy waited until Regan disappeared fully into the trees before running to Max, staggering on her iron legs.
By the time she reached him, he had managed to get to his knees, thank God. He looked like living death. Blood mixed with dirt and forest debris saturated his shirt, face, and arms. His hands were bound behind his back. Kneeling at his side, hesitant to touch him for fear of causing more pain, Addy’s heart broke.
“You okay?” he croaked.
She nodded and began untying him. “My God. There’s so much blood.”
“It’s not all mine. I think.”
“The knot’s too tight. I need something sharp.” She found a rock and used it to saw through the fabric.
The instant Max’s hands were freed, he turned and pulled her to him, burying his face in her hair. “I’m so sorry. If I hadn’t gotten caught in that fucking poacher trap, that bastard would never have laid a finger on you.” He peeled her away to examine her, pushed the wet strands from her face, tucking them behind her ears.
Anguish filled his eyes. Barely touching her, his fingers lightly brushed down her throbbing cheek and jaw, across her split lip and down her neck like soft threads of a spider’s web. Had her pain vanished by magic? Or perhaps it lay forgotten beneath her flesh as it trembled from his soothing touch. He pulled the two drenched ends of her shirt together, tying them Daisy Duke style.
As he did, Addy used the wadded shirtsleeve that had been his restraint only a minute ago to blot his cut brow, his broken nose, his mouth. She tied the material around his shoulder wound, wondering how much blood a man could lose before he’d be rendered unconscious.
“We have to go,” he said.
She didn’t know how he stood of his own volition, let alone helped her to her feet, but she thanked God he could. Maybe all that blood really wasn’t his. Strong fingers interlaced with hers as he led her upstream, keeping inside the forest’s edge for cover. He stopped when they came to their vine over the river.
“Once we’re across, I’ll cut the line to buy us time. We’ll lose Regan in the refuge. If we’re lucky we’ll find Kedric’s clan before Regan finds us.”
“What about Noah?”
“We have to save ourselves right now, Addy.”
She jerked her hand free. “Like hell. We have to save our son.”
“When Regan brings him to Ferly Mor, the Hyboreans will know we’re close. I don’t know how many there are, but every one of them will be looking for us. We have to level the battlefield. No Hyborean can go to the refuge, and I’ll guarantee Duncan won’t cross, which leaves Regan. Our chances of survival are greater on the other side.”
“No. We have to find Duncan. If he ran northwest, that means he’s hiding Noah for us. He’s on our side.”
“Regan’s no fool. He knows Duncan’s loyalties are with you. Why do you think he took off upstream instead of retrieving you downstream? He went to get Noah—”
“I know.”
“—and he’s not barefoot or injured. He’ll find Noah before we do.”
“Because we’re wasting time arguing. I’m going after my son.”
“The hell you are.”
“I won’t give up on my baby.” She started to run but was jerked back by Max’s hand gripping her bicep.
He forced her around to face him and held her gaze. “I won’t let you run smack into Regan’s trap. You’re going to the refuge. Once Regan is dead we can devise a plan to get Noah.”
“What if Ferly Mor takes Noah back to HuBReC while we’re in the refuge?”
“That’s a chance we’ll have to take.”
Addy shoved him away from her. “No way am I chancing that. I could never live with myself knowing my son is somewhere out there being tortured and starved and trained to be some survival race gladiator slave, killing men, raping and terrorizing women. I refuse to live in freedom while they turn our son into a beast like Regan. You of all people should understand this. After everything they’ve done to you, how can you turn your back on your son? Why won’t you fight?”
“Hell, woman, because I can’t win!” Max drew in a breath and let it out slowly. He moved close, his fingers found hers and curled around them. He spoke softly as if it pained him to control his words. “At nineteen I lost my home. As a gladiator I lost my life, my humanity, and my soul. Today I lost our son. If we go back and fight, I’ll lose you.” He brought his forehead to rest on hers. “And I can’t bear that torture again. I can’t.”
His anguish ripped her heart into shreds. He loved her. He was scared to death to lose her. And here she was telling him that she had to go back. She hated seeing the distress behind his moist eyes, especially knowing she was the reason. She loved him too much to cause him pain or grief. She palmed his stubbly cheeks and brought his lips to hers, then kissed him, soft and tender.
Max drew his mouth away only so far as to look into her eyes. “Please go to the refuge.”
“I want to, Max. I really do, but I can’t leave our son. I have to protect him.”
“You can’t protect him. If you’re forced back to HuBReC, there’s no guarantee Noah will even live there. Anyone could buy him. Don’t you understand? We can’t win on this planet. We can only survive.”
“Surviving isn’t living. Fighting for what you believe in is. Even if it means giving up the very things you want most. Live free or die, Max. Live free or die.”
Freeing her fingers from his, she turned and ran barefoot and weaponless into the woods, following the trail of broken branches and upturned leaves she knew Duncan had been responsible for leaving.
* * *
The pain in Max’s body didn’t compare to the torment in his heart as he watched the forest swallow the best part of him. He glanced back to the vine rope running across the river. Two hundred yards stood between him and the refuge. The closest he’d ever come to freedom.