Damned and Desired (25 page)

“Tarik is much too busy. Come serve me. Zorian is trying to relax me during Tarik’s project. I just can’t sit still.” Panic rose inside Sakari.
What now?
She placed the fur and crowbar behind a chair and rushed over to the demoness. “Yes, mistress.”

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“Wine and a cold cloth for my face.”

“Yes, mistress. Right away.” She ran into the next room, filled a goblet with wine and dampened a cloth with cool water, then ran them back to the demoness. “Here mistress. Would you like me—”

“No. Dante will finish serving me.”

Dante came out from around the column and picked up the cloth and smoothed it over Gwyllain’s face and neck.

“Now the wine.” She glanced at Sakari. “You may go.”

“Yes, mistress.” Sakari looked up at Dante and he met her gaze but she couldn’t read his expression. He seemed to have looked toward the entrance to the lower chamber but she wasn’t sure. Was he giving her a direction? She still didn’t trust him.

She crossed the room, picked up her belongings and passed through the entrance to the lower chambers. She followed the labyrinth of corridors, using the humming of machines and electrical devices as her guide. As she passed the doorway that led into Tarik’s project and the Sha Warriors, her heart leapt, knowing Brad was probably in there and that his life was being drained out of him. But to save him and the other two Sha Warriors she had to go to another area.

Deep in the center of Anartia the walls and floor were stone and unfinished. At the end of the corridor, a heavy wooden door obstructed the last room.

The core of Anartia.

Here all the energies were collected, aligned and focused, then redistributed in order to maintain the artificial world. She knew to upset the core, meant possible destruction of the entire world. It wasn’t locked. Who would dare harm anything in that room, knowing the consequences to Anartia? She swung the door open.

Inside the room looked like a large cavern. Giant icicle-shaped crystals in various sizes hung from the ceiling and rose from the floor. All the crystals pulsed with multicolored lights and hummed with power, filling the room with a surge of static.

What she was about to do, might destroy them all. If she did nothing, Brad and the other mortals would surely die. She raised the crowbar and started swinging.

* * * * *

Brad was naked and paralyzed beneath the circle of crystals. A sheen of sweat coated his skin and his cock was hard. His muscles strained, trying to keep from climaxing. This was fucking insanity. How could he escape from a force he had no understanding of? Haley and the other guy, also both naked, seemed pretty much out of it. They’d gotten there before he had. Whatever this machine was, it had done more harm to them.

He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the pressure building in his groin. His balls tightened and he wanted to come so bad but he had a feeling he had to fight it. Every time he came close to coming, he felt weaker, the more he fought it, the stronger he got.

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Glancing around to the workings of his prison, he tried to figure out how to unplug the damn thing. The table where the strange man was working must have an on/off switch if only Brad could free himself. But that seemed unlikely at the moment. He was pretty much screwed.

When Sakari walked in, he wasn’t sure if he was thrilled to see her or feared for her safety. “Sakari.” Seeing her almost sent him over the edge of another orgasm. God, he wanted to fuck her.
No, fight it.

She barely glanced at him as she walked straight to the operator of the machine.

“Tarik,” she said, giving him a kiss. Brad winced. “I almost missed the big event.”

Tarik put an arm around her and gave her a squeeze. “You made it back. I was worried. Gwyllain…never mind. Soon we’ll be on Prygos and she won’t be a problem.”

The man hunched over his machine again.

“You bitch,” Brad shouted, pinning Sakari with a look of contempt. How could he have been so wrong about her? She looked at him without a sign of recognition. Then he noticed she kept glancing to the controls on that machine and looking up at him. Her face still revealed nothing.
What was going on?

“What the hell is this?” Tarik punched several keys. “No, no, no! Something’s wrong.” He looked at the three prisoners then down at the panel again, his face frowning.

“Problems?” Brad asked in a sarcastic tone.

“Shut up,” Tarik said, fighting for control. “I need to check something.” He left the room.

“Brad, are you all right?” she asked.

“What?” He was confused.

“We don’t have much time.” She ran over to Haley and Austin. They didn’t respond when she called their names. “They don’t look well. I’ll be right back.” Sakari ran out of the room and returned with his leopard fur and a crowbar. He smiled. She hadn’t betrayed him. “’Atta girl.”

“Tarik will be busy. I may have ruined his project.”

Brad smiled but winced as his cock throbbed and he had to fend off another climax.

“What did you do?”

She glanced at the other two prisoners who were slumped within their invisible restraints.

“They’ve both been unconscious since I got here.”

“I’m going to try to get you out.” She placed his fur behind a piece of equipment and hid the crowbar behind the control panel. “I may have destroyed Anartia and all of us if I can’t get you out of here.”

“And help these two,” he nodded to Austin and Haley.

“I will. Tarik’ll be back soon.” She removed her nebula stone and handed it to him.

“You must hold onto this and step off the cliff below the temple and you’ll return 142

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through the portal. Take Haley and Austin with you. You must have the stone in your hand or you’ll plummet to your death. Don’t let go of each other. Understand?”

“You’re not coming with us?”

She shook her head. He broke inside with that.

“Isn’t there another way? I want you to come back.”

She placed the nebula stone within the leopard fur.

“Brad, I wanted to find a way to stay but I can’t. They’d come for me. You’d be in danger.”

Tarik slammed the door open. “I don’t know how it happened. There must’ve been a power surge with the energy from the Sha Warriors. I hadn’t calculated that.”

“Oh, no. Anything I can do to help?” Sakari said in a concerned tone.

He looked at her suspiciously for a moment, then took her into his arms and kissed her quickly, his libido apparently overriding his common sense. “Several of the crystals in the core were destroyed. It will take years for them to grow back. I’m hoping we won’t need them though.”

Sakari leaned over the control panel and slid her hand over Tarik’s ass and around to his cock. It pained her to do it but she’d do anything to distract him. She glanced at Brad and noticed him rolling his eyes. At least he understood what she was doing now.

“Did you lose power?” she asked Tarik.

He nodded and sighed. Tarik leaned into her hand and turned his body so she could reach his cock better. “I can’t now, work to do.” But he continued to lean into her hand. Dante was right, Tarik had it bad for her. And Tarik did say he wanted her to be his queen on Prygos. She fought not to gag at the idea.

“Can you show me what you’re doing? Maybe I can do something to help?”

“Okay. I need to make some adjusts in the other room. As you see the power rise on this instrument, turn this dial to the right, not to the left.”

“To the right, I got it.”

She heard a crash and turned around. Austin had collapsed onto the floor.

“Ah, lost one of the Sha Warriors.” Tarik’s lack of emotion made her pause briefly.

“What do you mean lost?”

“Dead. Drained him out. Two left though. They should be enough,” Tarik said as he ran from the room.

What kind of monster was he? She stared in horror at Austin’s motionless body.

“Sakari, there’s nothing you can do for him,” Brad said. “Stay with your plan. Can you turn this off?”

She swallowed. “I think so.” She saw the power rising and Brad cried out.

“Hurry.”

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As she turned the dial to the left, opposite to what Tarik told her, the lights from the crystals dimmed. The room vibrated.

Brad dropped free of the instrument and ran to his fur. He slipped the nebula stone on. Haley collapsed but she was still breathing. Sakari slipped a robe over Haley’s head.

“We probably don’t have much time.”

Dante barged in. “What’s going on down here? Anartia is having earthquakes and violent storms again.” He saw Haley and ran over to her. “Haley. Are you all right?”

“I think so,” Sakari said. “She’s out of it right now.” Turning around Brad shifted into the leopard at the moment Tarik charged into the room.

The leopard jumped him, knocking him down and was about to rip out his throat when Dante stopped him. “No, leave him!” Tarik lay stunned.

Dante picked up Haley. “We’re leaving. This way.” They left the temple through the demoness’ garden. Gwyllain was still bound and screaming for Zorian to release her. By the time all the manacles were undone, they should be down by the edge of the cliff.

Brad shifted back into human form while he was running. The nebula stone still dangling from his neck, he draped his fur over his shoulder, grabbed Sakari’s hand and said, “You’re coming with us. Not taking no for an answer.”

He watched Dante jump off the cliff with Haley in his arms, then stopped abruptly at the edge and peered over. “Jesus. They disappeared. That’s the way out?” He glanced at Sakari.

“Yes, hold the stone in your hand and hold onto me, then jump. Don’t let me go.”

“Never,” he said as they leapt off the cliff. He looked down and saw the jagged rocks below for an instant and let out a howl.

* * * * *

Stunned and bruised, Tarik ran through the temple as walls and columns tumbled and crashed to the floor. The room darkened as if the sun had completely disappeared.

Gwyllain was screeching by the time he reached the great chamber.

The wind blew open windows and doors and the ground shook severely. Tarik looked up at the ceiling to see if the roof would begin to crumble. Cracks of thunder rumbled the ground and bright flashes of lightning sizzled through the air.

“Tarik, go to your control chamber. Fix this,” Gwyllain ordered, as another violent earthquake rolled through the temple. Still manacled to Zorian’s column, she tugged at her restraints. “Damn it, Zorian, release me.”

“Yes, mistress,” Zorian struggled to undo the chains.

Tarik staggered across the room, running equations through his head. Would Anartia cascade into particle disintegration and split apart? If their structure slipped into a dimension incompatible with Anartia’s magnetic configuration, they would 144

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surely be destroyed. He rolled his eyes, knowing it was useless trying to explain the technical details to his mistress. “I was just down there. I don’t know what I can do.”

“Why not?” she demanded.

“Because we might blow up.”

Surprisingly, Gwyllain’s face was contorted in fear, not anger, he noted. She was ignoring Zorian for the moment. Had Sakari just destroyed Anartia? It had to have been her that smashed all the crystals in the core. Feet spaced apart, Tarik tried to keep his footing as the marble tiles lifted and broke. Fearing the temple’s roof would collapse at any moment, he stumbled out the door, leaving Gwyllain behind. He needed to see what was happening outside the temple.

Outside, the disturbance was worse. The ocean crashed over the rocky cliff, sending waves flooding the heather field. A spray of cold mist drifted toward the temple.

Several crevasses had formed in zigzag patterns along the fields. It looked as though Anartia was breaking apart.

Succumbing to whatever would come next, Tarik sat down in the middle of the field, female Drones ran up to him, hovering around him. He embraced those closest.

“Maybe it’ll settle.”

“What the hell is going on here?” Valdon asked.

Tarik looked up. “Enjoying the show. Good view from up here.” He gave a maniacal laugh.

Valdon grabbed him by his upper arm and dragged him back to the temple. “Fix this. I’ll help.”

“Not sure if I can.”

“You’ll think of something,” Valdon said. Then Zorian appeared.

“Hurry,” Zorian said. “Just undo the damage.”

“Yes, undo.” Tarik smiled. “Come on, I need some help. There’s a mess down there.” He ran for the lower chamber.

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During the journey between worlds, Sakari kept her arms wrapped tightly around Brad—she wasn’t about to lose him in the void. Without the nebula stone as the navigating tool, human or mortal would be lost between dimensions forever.

They appeared in the desert with a forward momentum and had to run to avoid stumbling. After a few steps, they were free of the portal.

It was dusk. The sun was setting behind a far ridge, casting long shadows in the barren but beautiful landscape, an orange glow across the sky. “You okay?” she asked Brad. He heaved a breath and looked all around, especially at the ground as if he expected it to disappear out from under him at any moment.

“Sure. Like jumping out of a fucking airplane without a parachute. Piece of cake.”

Dante carried Haley in his arms. Gently, he laid her down on the ground and smoothed her hair out of her face. “Can you help her?” he asked Brad. She was still unconscious. Brad ran over, felt her pulse and checked her breathing.

“Her pulse is strong, a little fast but her respiration is good. Sakari, do you have your cell on you? My clothes and cell are still back in that torture chamber.” He wrapped the leopard skin around him like a breechcloth. She handed him her phone and he called an ambulance. He handed her back the phone. “They’ll be here in ten minutes.”

Dante turned to Sakari. “Are you ready?”

She took in a breath and let it out. “I guess.”