Chapter Six
Emily tried to follow the creatures' conversation, but they spoke in a quick, garbled mix of English and something else.
Mal was equally attuned to the men. Mickey and Josey were clinging to one another, waiting as they always had, for their older cousins to take action. Emily didn't know what their next action was.
"We have to get out of here." Mal kept her words at a whisper.
"I know. But I think these beasts can actually smell us wherever we go. They can track us." Emily voiced only one of her suspicions. "And they aren't the only ones here. We've got to be careful."
"Rand will be coming." Mal spoke with utter confidence about her twin.
"Yes, but how long can we hold out here? I don't know what they want. He called me his slave, Mal." Emily stared at the creature who stood with obvious arrogance amidst his friends. They were all strong, powerful, menacing creatures, but he stood out from the rest. "I don't know what they intend to do next. Last night was horrible enough."
"I still hurt." Mal touched her abdomen gingerly. "I don't know if I can handle another dose of whatever it was."
Emily nodded. "If nothing else, I want to get Josey and Mickey away from here."
"Especially Josey. If we can get her and Mickey away from here they can lead Rand back."
"But how can we do that?" Emily asked as the one who'd called himself king looked at her, obvious lust and desire in his strange orange eyes. She began to shiver.
He wanted her and made no qualms about it.
****
Cormac smiled. "They are plotting."
"I know." Rydere looked at her, feeling his body stir at the sight of her feminine legs so barely covered. They were small, but shapely. He wanted to feel them wrapped around his hips, wanted her hands upon his chest while he made love to her. For hours. She was his Rajni, and that was his right. "It won't do them any good."
"So we are agreed then?" Aodhan watched his own woman, a half-smile on his face.
"Cormac will set guards to ensure their safety. Aodhan, there will be relatives searching for them. Theo and I will deal with tribal matters."
"And in the meantime, we have much to do with them." Theo nodded to the four fragile ex-humans. His expression was one of tenderness as he looked with almost unseeing eyes at the woman he'd claimed as his. She seemed unharmed. She was dressed in the white tunic of feminine royalty, with the wine sash that denoted Theo's family line. Rubies and diamonds encircled her unmarred throat, ones that had once belonged to Theo’s mother.
The rest wore bloodied, soiled clothing, or Rydere's own tunic. "We need to make them comfortable. Let them groom themselves, feed them. Reassure them that they will be safe...and happy here."
She'd be happy with him. He'd see to it.
****
Emily fought the urge to cringe and burrow into the back of the couch when the king approached her. He reached for her and strong hands guided her legs around his waist before she could begin to protest. One arm tightened around her back, his other hand ghosted over her spine as he lifted her. "Shh, my dove, it's time to go."
Go where? Back to his bedroom where he'd hurt her again? Drug her? Relieve the erection she could feel pressing against her? God, was he going to rape her, too?
****
Her fear was a metallic scent on the air, and Rydere fought the urge to chide her. Not the beginning he'd imagined when he'd thought about finding his Rajni.
She struggled the instant he carried her into the hallway. For one so small, it surprised him at the fury her body held. He tightened one arm around her and raised the other hand to the back of her head. "Shh, Rajni. You'll see them again; this I swear."
Small teeth bit him, digging deep into his shoulder. He yelped, tried to pry her loose. "Emily, stop that! Release me at once!"
She'd drawn blood; he'd never been so turned on in his life.
****
Emily tasted his blood and it only made her want more. Made her want him more. That thought had her releasing him and arching away. She didn't want him, couldn't want him. It was a sick game he was playing with her. Whatever drug it was must have contained a new aphrodisiac designed to make her lust for the very creature who'd given it to her.
When combined with something like Rohipnol, such an aphrodisiac held sinister connotations. Had they brought her and her cousins to this place to experiment on them because of something her grandfather had done? Had they created a new rape drug, one ten times more powerful than a roofie? One that made the victim want to participate?
"I swear to you, I will never hurt you again. An oath that I will not break." He covered her mouth with his.
Emily didn't fight him; he held her so tight between his body and the wall that she couldn't. She waited for the moment when the gentle caress changed to the brutal tearing of her flesh that she remembered from the night before. Had he kissed her first then? She thought he had.
His tongue flitted over her bottom lip, teasing it until she opened her mouth. She didn’t want this, and she told herself that even as her body softened against his. He deepened the kiss, his tongue slipping inside her mouth to tease her own. She hummed, her head falling back against the wall. Finally, he stopped for breath, dropping his head to nuzzle at the skin of her neck.
Emily stiffened, reality once again crashing down around her. Her body braced, waiting for the feel of his sharp teeth. “No. Please...don’t...”
He ran quick little kisses over her jaw before tucking her head beneath his chin.
“It’s alright, little dove. I’m not going to feed from you; You’re going to feed from me.”
Chapter Seven
Emily barely heard the words he’d whispered in her ear. Instead, all she could focus on was the sound of the blood rushing beneath his skin. It called to her, in a way she couldn’t describe or understand. She pressed against him, the hands she’d tried to ward him off with now pulling him closer.
His skin smelled like the finest of spices, hot and enticing. Her tongue flicked against his neck, tasting the salt of his skin. Even as the inner part of her mind was telling her no, her tongue lingered.
“You’re body knows what to do, just let it.” His whisper was hot against her ear; his hand ran the length of her back, the other held her thigh. She wanted closer. The sound of his blood pounded louder in her ears.
Emily bit him, teeth sinking deep into the skin over that pulse. As the taste of his blood filled her mouth, her eyes closed and she dragged deep. For the first time, she was aware of the nagging hunger that pulled at her. And for the first time, she realized that the only way to satisfy that hunger was through...him.
****
Rydere didn’t know how long they stood in the hall, but he knew he’d never forget how it felt to be holding her, feeding her for the first time. He murmured endearments as she fed voraciously from him, her tiny teeth and soft lips making the experience more erotic than he’d ever imagined. But finally he sensed she’d gotten her fill and he pulled her away. Just enough that he could look into her eyes.
It was then he saw the dawning horror.
“No, no, no. It’s not real. It’s not!” She shook her head as she trembled in his arms. Rydere tried to pull her head to rest against his shoulder but she resisted. “It’s not real! Rand will be coming for us; he’ll get us out of here and kill you!”
“Yes, it is real.” He carried her down the hall, not stopping until he had them in his suite. Rydere fought the darkness urging him to lay her beneath him and assert his claim. Only the knowledge that she would see the mating as force kept his body in check. “And any human who enters this compound in order to find you, I will kill. I expect you to obey me when it comes to your safety. I expect you to learn about my people, our people. I expect you to eventually be happy, here with me, ruling by my side as Dahn."
****
He instructed her to bathe, after providing her with a set of clothing. He slipped turquoise bracers over her wrists and pushed them up until they rested above her elbows and then stood back and stared at her; she got the impression he was extremely pleased with the results. Proud, even. "Come, it's time for dinner."
He must have read the fear on her face. He laughed. "No, not that type of food. You'll only need that about once a week, now. Come, you'll see."
He led her to a large dining room with a table filled with food. Her cousins and the other men sat waiting for them. Emily scanned each of her cousins, wanting to reassure herself that they were all unharmed. Her gaze lingered on Josey. She'd bathed and was dressed in a white outfit similar to Emily's, but with a green sash instead of orange around her waist. Her dog lay in the corner of the room, next to a menacingly large beast that Emily swore was a wolf. Josey's eyes were scanning the room, lingering on faces, waiting for someone to speak.
Mal and Mickey sat across the table from Josey and the empty seat next to her. Emily slipped into that seat, her hand going beneath the table to grab Josey's. The king took the chair beside her. Nobody spoke for several long moments.
"Tomorrow, Cormac, you'll need to send out to your contacts, see what state the Kind are in. See how much they know." The king broke the silence, speaking in English, as he began filling the plate in front of Emily with fresh fruits and steaming rolls of bread. "Aodhan, have you heard anything yet regarding the Taniss family?"
Emily stiffened, her hand tightening on Josey's. Mal's gaze sharpened as she looked up from the plate in front of her.
The man called Aodhan hesitated. "The state police have not been called to the Taniss farms to investigate the disappearance, strangely. From what my sources tell me it’s being handled as a family matter.”
"And Taniss Senior?" the king demanded.
"Still underground, as far as I can ascertain."
"Well, little dove? Care to tell us where your grandfather is hiding?" He stroked a hand over her shoulder, tangling in her hair. His fingers were hot against her back. Emily shivered.
"Will you let us go if I do?" Emily stared at him. "It's him that you hate, that's responsible for all of this, correct?"
"Yes. It's him. And no, we will not be letting you go." He said it mildly, motioning to her plate for her to begin eating. "You would not be able to survive in that world, anymore. You're not human anymore, none of you are. It's best if you stay here where you'll be safe."
"Why?" It was Mickey who asked the question on Emily's mind, startling her. Mickey was the reserved one, the one most at home in the quiet of the legal department at Taniss Industries. "Why do you hate Grandfather so much that you would do this to all of us?"
****
"Thirty years ago, your grandfather created a new drug, D-Palitren."
"I know of it." Rydere’s Rajni nodded. Theo's young Rajni began to sign for the benefit of Cormac's. "Go on."
"The D in D-Palitren stands for Dardaptos. The drug is made from the harvested blood of my people."
"But D-Palitren is synthetic," Theo's Rajni said after a furious round of signing between her and Cormac's. "Josey says she's seen the research and duplicated it several times."
"If anyone could, it would be Josey," Emily said. "She's in the lab most of the time and is brilliant."
Cormac nodded after studying his Rajni closely. "She's telling the truth."
"Is it possible the research she's seen could have been doctored by the old bastard?" Aodhan asked. More signing ensued.
"It's possible." Theo's Rajni translated reluctantly. "Josey worked strictly from photocopies of Grandfather's original research. Or, rather, what he gave the lab thirty years ago."
"How do you know Grandfather is using the blood of the Dardaptos?" his little dove asked. "I want to see this proof you have."
"I can show you everything you need to see." Rydere picked up his fork, stabbed a bite of fruit and held it to her lips. "After dinner. You must eat now."
She took the fruit warily, watching him as she chewed. He continued to feed her, enjoying the task of caring for his Rajni once again. His. She was his, and he wasn't letting her go.
An hour later he sat behind his desk, with her standing at his side. Her cousins and their Rajni stood on the other side of the desk. "We also have video of your grandfather and a man named Boltier involved in murdering several of our people. Including Cormac's brother-in-law. You will not be seeing those tapes."
"Why not?" She picked up the first file and read, before passing it to the two sisters.
"Because the things that were done to those people are horrific. Enough to give anyone nightmares. I don't want you watching them." He handed her the stack of photos. Leo Taniss at varying ages was featured in all of them. "These are enough."
He watched her face as she flipped through the evidence. It sickened her to see the tortures her grandfather had been involved in, had ordered. That was evident. When she was finished she turned to her blonde cousin and signed a question. The blonde replied quickly. Cormac watched her, then ran a possessive hand over her hair.
"And how are we to know this isn't fake?" Emily swept a hand over the files spread on his desk. "Something you concocted in order to fool us into believing you?"
"You aren't." Rydere gathered most of the files into a stack. "We want your grandfather but can't find him."
"That's because he's retired. We had a family meeting and forced him out four weeks ago. I'm the head of Taniss Industries now."