Chained (Brides of the Kindred) (4 page)

She shed tears for my
pain. She tried to save me—to help me. She even shared my torment.

No female had cared for him in such a way
in more years than he cared to count. Not since before he had become the trained,
deadly killer he was today. Pope’nose had told her all that—had told her about
his past, his kills—and still she had defended him.

Why?
he thought, remembering the look in her big eyes. He
longed to know their color.
Why did she care? Was it because she dreamed of
me too? Will she ever come back?

But even if she did, what good would it
do? He was nearly at the end of his strength—his power and stamina completely
sapped by the damned verium. In fact, the extra scoop Pope’nose had sprinkled
over him before she left might well mean his death. As strong as he was, the
thirst and weakness were stronger—slowly they were killing him.

He was already on his knees but now he
sank lower, ignoring the jolts from the pain collar as he went. Finally, he lay
on his back with his head in the stream. He could feel the cool water running
through his hair but it did nothing to wash away the deadly verium. Nothing
could do that until the seal was broken. Until he got at least a mouthful of
the life-giving water past his lips, the barrier of the dust was complete and
unassailable.

And since there was no way to break the
barrier without someone willing to help him—to give him the kiss of life—he was
probably going to die.

As his eyes closed, his last thoughts were
of the lovely girl with the sad eyes and the honey blonde curls. He hoped he
would dream of her, just once more, before he went. Truly, she was a lovely
sight—a beautiful last vision to rest his weary mind on before he crossed the
threshold to the other world.

“Goddess have mercy on me,” he croaked
through parched lips.

Then his eyes closed and he knew no more.

Chapter Four

Shouldn’t be doing
this,
Maggie thought to herself as she crept
along the corridor that led to the dungeon.
This isn’t part of the plan at
all. I’m just supposed to get the documents and go—that’s all.

But even though the remote to the collar
had been found and she now had the Kindred documents in her possession—they
were in fact in the compressed form of a pill-sized pellet and stuffed down the
front of her bra—she found she couldn’t just leave. When Lady Pope’nose had
politely asked if she wished to spend the night, Maggie had agreed without even
thinking about it. She had lain in the plush bed she was given until the early
morning, arguing with herself but she couldn’t talk herself out of the plan
that had formed in her mind.

Somehow, she was going to set the prisoner
free.

This is stupid,
Maggie,
she told herself even as she checked to
see if the coast was clear outside his door. It was hard to tiptoe around in
the tight green dress and ridiculously high heels and for a moment she wished
she had left the shoes behind. But if she was caught, she wanted to say she was
just out for a stroll. It would look bad for her to be sneaking around in her
bare feet. It looked, well…sneaky.

He’s a murderer—maybe
even a psycho,
she thought, as she
surveyed the prisoner’s unguarded door.
He might kill you if you let him go.

But that was just what Lady Pope’nose had
told her. Probably she was lying or exaggerating. But even if she wasn’t,
Maggie couldn’t forget the look on his face as he had nodded to her. Had she
been imagining the respect and gratitude she saw there? She didn’t think so.
Are
you willing to bet your life on that?
asked a little voice inside her head.
Maggie didn’t know.

She got to his door, expecting to find it
locked. Instead, it opened easily with only a little creaking. Wow, Lady
Pope’nose was
really
confident in her security system. Either that or
some careless slave had left the door unlocked.

Somehow Maggie doubted that. Considering
that even a minor infraction could result in mind-bending agony, it didn’t make
sense for the slaves to be anything less that super scrupulous about every task
they did.

No, it was more probable that the door was
unlocked for the same reason that Lady Pope’nose left the key to the prisoner’s
chains inside the cell with him—it was just another form of torment. A way to
taunt him with the freedom which was so close and yet so maddeningly out of
reach. A way to—

Maggie’s thoughts cut off abruptly when
she got a look inside the cell. The prisoner was sprawled on his back with his
head in the stream, unmoving.

“Oh my God!” Quickly she closed the door
and ran to kneel beside him, almost tripping over her high heeled shoes. “Hey,”
she whispered as loudly as she dared. “Hey, you. Uh…” She didn’t know what to
call him. “Hey, wake up!”

To her intense relief, his eyelids
fluttered open, revealing those strange, pale blue eyes.

“You,” he murmured again, just as he had
when he first saw her.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Maggie told him. “And I’m
going to get you out of here if I can. Just hold on a second, okay?”

She hopped up again, nearly tripping on
the shoes again, and ran to get the key. When she got back to him, she realized
she would have to roll him over since his hands were chained behind him and he
was lying on his back. But this was easier said than done.

“Oof,”
she gasped as she shoved at one broad, muscular shoulder.
“You weigh a
ton!
And I thought
I
ate too many cupcakes.”

“Haven’t eaten…much of anything lately,”
he groaned and gave a hoarse laugh. “Sorry…not much…help.”

“It’s okay,” Maggie told him. With a final
shove she rolled him up on one side, exposing his bound wrists. A very tight,
muscular ass was also exposed and she realized, to her embarrassment, that he
wasn’t wearing any kind of underwear under the ragged loincloth.
Well, what
did you expect—silk boxers?
she asked herself, quickly pulling the cloth
back in place.
It’s not like Lady Pope’nose’s dungeon is a five star resort
hotel! He’s lucky to have anything on at all.

Trying to put the glimpse of his naked
flesh out of her mind, she got back to the problem at hand. His wrists were
chained together and connected to the wall behind him by an even longer,
thicker metal chain. But there didn’t seem to be any kind of keyhole or locking
mechanism in either part of his restraints. Maggie looked at the chains and
then at the strange, knobby key in her hand. How the hell was this supposed to
work?

Experimentally, she waved the gray metal
knob key over his bound wrists. To her relief, the chains parted immediately
and simply fell off with a clank and a clatter.

Perfect—now to deal with the collar.

Maggie was a little afraid to touch it
after the huge jolt she’d gotten earlier but she set her teeth and forced
herself to reach for the latticed metalwork with its blinking yellow lights. To
her relief, she felt nothing but a mild tingling in her fingertips as she
touched it. It had a complicated series of rods and levers holding it closed
but Maggie loved puzzles. After a few moments of fiddling with various
components, she found the pattern and was able to pull the horrible thing off
him. It fell with a clatter and a splash into the little brook and the blinking
lights went out.

Good riddance!
Maggie turned back to the prisoner and noticed that he
had yet
another
collar on. This one was a plain, flat black leather one
with no lights but it still made her fingertips tingle when she touched it.
Hmm…well, that one would have to go too.

“Wouldn’t do that,” the prisoner growled
softly as she set to work, trying to find the opening to it. “That’s
my…inhibitor. Dangerous…without it.”

Maggie paused but only for an instant. “Is
it giving you pain?” she demanded, still tugging on the collar.

Slowly, he nodded. “Always.”

“Then it has to come off.” She reached
into the pocket in the folds of the ridiculous green dress and produced a
small, sharp pair of nail scissors. She hadn’t had any idea what she would do
with them when she stuck them into the hidden pocket—maybe she’d imagined using
them as a lock-pick of some kind. But now she was glad she had them.

“Hold still,” she warned the prisoner. “I
don’t want to slip and cut you.”

“All right.”

“Uh…” She hesitated again, the scissors
poised to cut.

“What?” He looked up at her, one eyebrow
arched in question.

“It’s just…I mean…you’re not going to kill
me once I set you completely free, are you?” Maggie blurted. “I mean…I really
don’t want to die. I’m only twenty-five and—”

He surprised her by laughing hoarsely.
“Don’t you think… you should have thought of that… before you started stripping
off my chains?” He spoke haltingly, as though his tongue was too thick in his
mouth.

“I…I guess so,” Maggie whispered.

“You must think I’m a real bastard. No, blondie,
I won’t…won’t hurt you. I’m…in your debt…” He looked up at her, his eyes
meeting hers. “And you…you’re in my dreams.”

“I dreamed of you, too,” Maggie whispered
as she snipped the black leather collar from his neck. Was it her imagination
or did those strange, pale blue eyes turn briefly red? “For the past few weeks.
I…I don’t know why.”

“Neither…do I.” He coughed weakly.
“Water…please.”

“Oh, of course!” Remembering how thirsty
he had always been in her dreams, Maggie cupped one hand and scooped up some
cold, refreshing water from the little brook. Then she tilted it carefully into
his mouth…or tried to anyway. Because try as she might, the water wouldn’t go
past his lips. It slid past his mouth and over his cheeks but something always seemed
to keep it from going in. Maggie tried again and again until he shook his head.

“No use. Must…break the barrier.”

“There’s a barrier around your mouth?”
Then she remembered what the evil Lady Pope’nose had said. “Of course, it’s
this damn dust, isn’t it?”

She stopped trying to tilt the water into
his mouth. Instead, she scooped up a handful of water and tried to wash the
verium dust off his face.

It didn’t work. Though she tried first
with her hand and then with one of her dress's ridiculously trailing sleeves
soaked in water, the silver-gray dust wouldn’t come off.

“What the hell is going on?” she muttered
at last in frustration. “Why won’t this damn stuff come
off?”

“Told you…must break the barrier.”

To her alarm, his voice sounded weaker
again and his eyes were fluttering closed.

“Break the barrier? But how?” she begged,
patting his cheek. “Hey, come back to me. Tell me how to help you!”

His eyes opened again, their strange, oval
pupils so much like a cat’s looking into hers. “Kiss…of life.”

“I don’t understand. You want me to kiss
you? Why?”

“Must give water…mouth to mouth. Only skin
unpolluted…by the varium… can disrupt its field.”

“Mouth to mouth? You mean you want me to
take a mouthful of water and then…” Maggie couldn’t finish.

He nodded weakly. “It’s…only way.
Please…so thirsty.”

It seemed like an incredibly strange and
intimate act to be performing with a stranger but Maggie didn’t know what else
to do. Kneeling down, she got a big mouthful of the cold, clear water. Then she
pillowed the prisoner’s head in her lap—which wasn’t easy because
all
of
him was heavy—and pressed her lips to his.

The moment she let the water rush from her
mouth to his, she could tell it was working. He drank from her thirstily and not
a single drop was spilled from the side of his mouth.

When she finally pulled away from the
strange kiss, he looked up at her, his eyes blazing and whispered,
“More.”

“Of course," Maggie whispered.

She did it again, taking another mouthful
and sealing her lips to his. And then again and again. It occurred to her after
the fourth or fifth time that if the seal was broken, she should probably give
him water from her cupped hands instead. But by that time she was kind of
enjoying herself. It had been a long time since she’d kissed anyone—Donald
considered the activity unsanitary and unnecessary—and she’d never kissed
anyone even remotely like the prisoner.

Her heart beat harder and her lips tingled
when she pressed them to his. His mouth tasted faintly of cinnamon or maybe
some other exotic spice. Plus he was so huge and yet so helpless with his head
still pillowed in her lap. If he’d been standing up or even kneeling, she would
have felt intimidated by his size and muscular physique. As it was, she felt
perfectly confident and also protective of him.
I have to do this—I have to
save him,
she told herself.
There's no choice if I want him to live.

Maggie wasn’t sure when her life-giving
gesture—what the prisoner had called the kiss of life—turned into an actual kiss.
She only knew that one minute she was sealing her lips to his to give him
water…and the next his tongue was stroking lightly over hers.

Her eyes drifted closed and she cradled
his head closer, forgetting to go back for more water. Instead, she concentrated
on the warm, cinnamon taste of his mouth and the feel of his tongue exploring
her.

The prisoner seemed to be enjoying the
kiss too. He made a low, approving growl at the back of his throat that seemed
to vibrate through her entire body.

The sound shook Maggie out of the strange
trance she’d somehow fallen into. With a little gasp, she pulled back from him,
breaking the kiss. Her heart was pounding and for a moment, she felt frozen to
the spot.

The prisoner opened his strange blue eyes
and looked up at her. His tongue traced his lips, as though he enjoyed the
lingering taste of her mouth on his.

“Why did you stop?” he murmured in a soft,
deep voice.

“I…Because I…” Maggie shook her head. “We
can’t…we have to get you out of here. There’s no time for this…this kind of
thing.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “Afraid
you’ll have to make time. If you’re serious about getting me out.”

“What…what do you mean?” Her heart was
still pounding so loudly she was sure he could hear it. “I unchained you and
took off your collars and broke the verium barrier. You should be good to
go—right?”

“I would be…if it wasn’t for all this damn
dust.” He nodded down at his skin which was still coated with the silver-gray
verium. “Need you to wash it off me. Should be able to…now that the verium seal
is gone.”

Maggie was half appalled, half
embarrassed…and maybe just a tiny bit lustful? Was he actually saying that she
had to wash the dust off his entire, mostly naked body?

“Can’t you?” she asked awkwardly. “I mean,
now that you’re feeling better…”