Forbidden Worlds - Box Set (9 page)

“And what happened to Alor? Did he leave her out here with you?” Damon asked. He’d found Lea’s pants and handed them to her, completely casual and without a glance in her direction.

“She’s alive and in hiding,” Troy answered and Lea’s hopes soared. If the female healer was still somewhere in the jungle, maybe they could find her and still bring her off world with them, since there was no way Mojar would be helping them now. “I’ve been trying to keep the others away from her as best I can. Females are...scarce out here. They usually don’t survive long...” Troy hung his head. Shame made his voice crack. “I’m afraid I haven’t done a good job of protecting her. I’m not strong enough to fight most of the others and a few of them have...”

Lea put a hand on his arm. “It’s okay now. Take us to her. We can all protect her now.”

“How did you find out that electric shock can reverse the transformation?” Damon took up the conversation while Lea slipped into her pants.

“It was an accident. I’d been here a little more than a week, and I was starting to feel it already. The rage, the feeling like I had to run away was already overwhelming. In the middle of the night I wanted to go for a walk, but I couldn’t remember how to work the door lock. I pried the panel off with my bare hands and stuck my fist into the circuits. The shock knocked me across the room. When I woke up, my head was clear again.”

Damon eyed him. “You knew it wasn’t a coincidence.”

Troy shook his head. “I wasn’t sure until a few days later when I started to have ideas about actually taking Alor from Mojar, believing I wanted to own her. I tried a shock-stick on a low setting. It worked. It made me able to think clearly again. I couldn’t believe the solution could be so simple.”

“Having every electrical impulse in your body interrupted at high voltage isn’t really a simple solution.” Damon gave a dry chuckle.

“I suppose you’re right, but after spending months lost in my own head, wandering through this godforsaken jungle, I’d have done anything, believe me. When I told Mojar what I’d discovered, he didn’t react well. I realized I’d uncovered a dirty little Braxan secret.”

Lea’s blood chilled at the thought that Mojar’s actions might be condoned by the rest of the Braxans. He’d make sure they got no help, and there would be no way for them to escape Ambrax with both Troy and Alor.

She swallowed her concerns though, and put on a brave face for Troy. His desperation to return to Darya was evident in the longing expressed in his face. She couldn’t crush his hopes so soon, but how could she promise him he’d survive to see his wife again?

With a forced smile, she offered him her hand and helped him to his feet. “Come on, show us where Alor is hiding, then we can work on getting ourselves off this hell hole.”

* * * *

Troy led them back in the direction of the gulley where they’d encountered his adopted tribe of converts. Damon brought up the rear of their expedition, his longest blade drawn and ready for battle. Despite her protests, he’d insisted Lea keep the shock-stick. She’d have more need of it if he or Troy succumbed to the transformation again.

“There are a series of small caves at the bottom of the gully. She hides in those, and when I can steal food from the others, I bring some for her and leave it. I guess she thinks I’m trying to lure her out, because she only comes to take what I bring at night after the other males have moved out of the area. I can’t get close to her,” Troy explained as they made their way deeper into the bowl-like depression in the earth.

“Is that why the converts were hanging around in this area? Were the other males looking for Alor?” Damon asked.

Troy shrugged this bony shoulders. “I don’t know. There’s fresh water here, and that attracts them. I remember living by smells, water, food, females, and danger. That’s all I was—nothing but instinct and a few flashes of memory now and then.”

Lea huffed. “And the Braxans call this evolution.”

Troy spat. “They call it that to keep people coming. The more people that are lured into coming here by the legends and the rumors, the more the fantasy grows that this place is a paradise and that what happens here is some kind of miracle.”

A pang of shame curled through Damon’s gut. He’d done it himself. He’d never spoken much about his first visit to Ambrax, but he’d let those who asked him about it believe his crew had found enlightenment, when the truth was, he’d repressed the real memories, told himself he hadn’t seen what he had, didn’t know what he knew.

He vowed that if he got himself and Lea off Ambrax safely, he would change that and he’d make sure no one ever came here again believing they would lead a life of bacchanalian luxury.

“Does the jungle really respond to the presence of the converts?” Lea asked. She picked her way along the mossy ground ahead of Damon, keeping the pace despite her obvious fatigue.

Troy nodded. “Something happens out here. You can feel it. It’s more like getting caught in a bailer matter stream, though, than finding any kind of inner peace. Mojar first told me the converts found freedom out here, but I feel like I’ve been in prison all this time, constantly on the run, terrified, angry, afraid to die, yet wishing I would, just to make the fear go away—there!” Troy interrupted himself and pointed to a barely visible opening in the sloping wall of the gully. “That’s usually where I leave things for her.”

“Let me go in. I won’t frighten her as much.” Lea strolled forward and Damon raced to catch her.

“Draw your blade. Don’t go in there unarmed.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but apparently thought better of it. Obediently, she unsheathed the weapon he’d given her and used it to push aside the curtain of vines that partially obscured the cave entrance.

Damon would have given anything to go with her, but Lea was right. The Braxan woman was no doubt terrified of males by now. She’d probably run, hide or more likely attack if he or Troy attempted to enter her lair.

Frustrated, he sighed and paced in a tight circle before the cave.

Troy watched him. “How did you and Lea end up together?”

Damon stilled. “I wouldn’t call it together. She hired me to help her find you.”

Troy shook his head and ran a hand through his scraggly hair. Damon pretended not to notice the man’s trembling. “I owe her so much. I was such a fool to come here. I thought I’d be able to resist any temptation, and I could find a healer for Darya. None of the doctors on Denara gave us any hope, and I wouldn’t accept that. I thought it was worth the risk of an orgy or two.” He laughed, a harsh, humorless sound. “I hate myself for wasting all this precious time that I could have been with her.”

Damon had never been good with sympathy, and he didn’t have plans to learn how to commiserate with anyone, but he feared he was beginning to understand Troy’s motivation for coming to Ambrax.

He’d gone to hell for the woman he loved. A week ago Damon might have called the man a fool, but now he understood. Damn it all, he understood completely.

“I wanted to kill you.” Troy’s quiet confession came after a moment’s contemplative silence. “I recognized her in the clearing when you brought her out of the transport. She smells like Darya. I knew she was here for me, but couldn’t remember why. When you...when you...”

“Fucked her?”

“Yes. I wanted to kill you for it.”

Damon grinned. “Then we’re even. I wanted to kill you for looking at her.”

* * * *

From the inside, the cave system appeared to be made up of huge hollows formed by massive tree roots, rather than geological structures. The earthy smell of the place overwhelmed Lea, making her feel as if moss might start growing in her lungs any second.

As she delved deeper, an odd thought crossed her mind. This would be a defensible burrow, a good place to rear young and to hide from predators.

She dismissed the alien notion and pressed on into the dim recess, until the sound of frightened whimpering reached her. The scent of the place changed abruptly from underground decay to something Lea recognized instantly but could not name.

She dropped into a crouch and crawled forward, reaching into the darkness without fear until her hand closed around a familiar shape, the slender wrist of another female. Alor’s pale eyes seemed to glow in the darkness, and her mouth opened in a screech of terror.

* * * *

Screams echoed from the mouth of the cave, startling Damon and Troy into action. Both men assumed defensive stances, and Damon lunged for the wild-eyed being that scrambled from the shadows.

He caught a frail body in his arms and tackled it to the ground, his blade ready to deliver a death stroke to anyone or anything that might have harmed his woman.

He would have killed the slavering, wailing creature had it not been for Lea’s cool, reassuring touch on his arm.

“It’s Alor. Damon, this is Alor.”

Troy pulled the shivering, naked form from his grasp and wrapped his arms around her. “It’s me, Alor. You’re safe with us now.”

“Troy? Troy...” Her trembling hands traveled over his face and through his hair. “You’ve come back. How?”

“Damon brought a shock-stick.” Troy turned her gently to face the man who’d been prepared to kill her.

Beneath a pale cloud of matted hair, a pair of frightened eyes met his. Alor bowed to him. Her voice shook. “Will you take us back to the Citadel?”

Lea patted Alor’s shoulder. “We’re not going back to the Citadel. We’re trying to get off world. Will you come with us?”

Alor turned what could only be considered an adoring gaze on Troy. “I’ll go anywhere he commands me. I belong to Troy now and always.”

* * * *

Lea struggled to hold her tongue at Alor’s declaration. The last thing she’d expected was to bring Troy back complete with his own sex slave. She glared at him, and he shrugged, his tired eyes full of innocence. “I never challenged Mojar for her. I never got the chance.”

Alor wrapped her hands around Troy’s arm, a possessive posture, though she kept her gaze downward when she spoke. “Mojar disowned me when he left me here. I have no place in the Citadel anymore, nowhere to go except with Troy.”

“Well, right now that means you’re going with us.” Damon dismissed the conversation, leaving Lea both frustrated and somewhat relieved. Now was not the time to discuss the logistics of a three-way marriage. Later on she could get into the reasons why Darya might not approve of the arrangement.

“Here, put these on.” In an effort to restore some of Alor’s dignity, Lea shimmied out of her pants and handed them over. Damon’s shirt hung to her thighs, so she didn’t feel quite as naked as the Braxan woman looked wearing nothing but her unkempt hair and smudges of mud and grime. With an uncertain glance at Troy, Alor accepted Lea’s offering.

“Where is your ship?” she asked, scanning the jungle hopefully.

Lea shrugged. “Back at the Citadel landing field. We need to figure out a way to get to it.”

Alor stared. “We’ll never get through the protected zone on foot. The patrols will stop us at the perimeter.”

Damon sheathed his dagger and began walking toward the wide mouth of the gully. “Not if we stop them first.”

They walked for several kilometers before Damon found a suitable place for them to spend the night. He didn’t like the idea of another whole day spent in the jungle—especially since now they’d have to rely on Ambrax for nourishment. Alor found them handfuls of edible berries and leaves and this time, to keep their strength up, he allowed himself and Lea each a dozen cupfuls of sweet, sap-infused water that dripped from the upper leaves.

Now he had four lives to worry about and, fearing the transformation would take him again, he set his blades at arm’s reach. With Lea curled beside him in an indentation of soft moss, he settled into a fitful sleep.

* * * *

In the middle of the night Lea awoke from a primitive dream. She’d been hunting, stalking some small, defenseless creature through the dark recesses of the damp underbrush.

She’d cornered the creature and captured its trembling body in her bare hands, felt its rapid heartbeat against her palms. Its startled squeal had thankfully ushered her from the dream, leaving her cold and hungry and wanting.

She sat up and scanned their camp. A few yards away, Alor and Troy lay curled together. The Braxan woman looked content, though her slender fingers gripped Troy’s forearm as if she were terrified to let him go.

Jealousy on Darya’s behalf tangled Lea’s roiling emotions. Alor obviously cared about her brother-in-law. Very likely, she was in love with him. Lea couldn’t tell yet if he felt the same, but it hurt to think that while Darya battled a relentless illness, another woman coveted her husband’s affections. A deeply buried part of her wanted to separate them, to see Alor fade into the jungle and never be found, just as Mojar had intended when he’d dumped her here. Unfortunately she would take with her Darya’s only hope of recovery.

Next to Lea, Damon lay near enough that his warm exhalations tickled her thigh. The sensation woke another type of beast in her, the one that required a mate.