And yet now, as she boarded the ship they were stealing from the huge Trollox, which was loaded with the treasures from his trophy room—the better to make it look like a robbery, she supposed—she felt nothing but sorrow.
Dark had lied to her—lied over and over again—and she just couldn’t see him the same way now that she knew the truth.
Chapter Twenty-nine
The trip back was a silent and somber one. Anna didn’t even want to sit in the passenger seat behind him, preferring, instead, to sit on the long black bench in the back. Dark wanted to talk with her some more—wanted to plead his case. But he sensed she wouldn’t be receptive to anything he had to say. There was a set look to her face—a look that said she had been here before and she wasn’t prepared to walk down this particular path again.
Dark cursed himself for a fool for not telling her sooner…then he cursed Gorn for hurting her and that bastard Lazlo who had destroyed her trust in males in the first place. If he could get his hands on that male, he would pound him to a bloody pulp, he told himself. He had ruined Anna for other males—even a male who cared for her deeply and would never hurt her.
After they flew through the worm hole and were clear of Trollox space, he put in a call to the Mother Ship and asked to speak to Commander Sylvan. He explained the situation he was leaving behind at Gorn’s domicile and then said,
“I think your brother Baird must have told you about a female that Gorn was holding—a human named Anna?”
Sylvan’s face, which had looked grave as Dark recounted the Knower’s attack and the mess left at Gorn’s house, brightened.
“Did you say Anna? Is she by any chance originally of the Aka’ja mining station?” he asked.
“Yes! Yes, I am.” Anna came forward at last, though Dark noticed she took care to keep her distance from him as she spoke to Sylvan on the viewscreen.
Sylvan smiled at her.
“Thank the Goddess you’re safe, Anna. Your parents—your mother and her mate—came to ask for our help in finding you some time ago. Your second father is out even now looking for the male who first abducted you to try and find a clue to where you are.”
“Brex is out hunting for Lazlo?” Anna put a hand to her throat and her face turned pale.
“It was the only way we could think to locate you,” Sylvan explained. “We’ve been scouring the galaxy for you—but the galaxy is a very big place.” He shook his head and looked at Dark. “I never dreamed when my brother Baird told me you were guarding a female that the Trollox had taken that it was the same girl we’ve been searching for all this time!”
“So you say my mom is there? On the Mother Ship?” Anna’s eyes suddenly welled with tears and Dark felt longing and homesickness overcoming her. “God, I’ve missed her so much.”
“I’ll have her waiting to meet you at the Docking Bay,” Sylvan said gently. He looked at Dark. “And I’ll ask Baird to meet you. He can bring you to my office so we can put the Shannom-rah in a safe place.”
“Agreed.” Dark nodded neutrally, keeping his eyes on the viewscreen though what he really longed to do was take Anna in his arms and ease the pain and longing she was feeling.
Can’t touch her now, he reminded himself sternly. Can’t touch her ever again.
The thought was like a knife in his heart but he didn’t allow himself to show it.
“You’ve done well in your mission, Brother,” Sylvan told him. “The High Council of the Mother Ship are in your debt and I’m grateful you were able to rescue Anna too.”
“It was the will of the Goddess,” Dark said stolidly. “That’s all.”
“I’m certain it was.” Sylvan nodded. “Well, I’m going to sign off and tell the Mother Ship to fold space for you. We’ll see you here momentarily.”
“We’ll be there as soon as we can,” Dark assured him.
Sylvan signed off and the viewscreen went blank.
“Well, I guess you’ll be seeing your parents sooner than you tho—”
The words died in Dark’s mouth as he turned and saw that Anna had already gone back to the back of the ship, putting the most distance possible between them. She was sitting on the black bench, looking down at her hands, a desperately unhappy look on her face.
She’s afraid I’m going to beg her to forgive me and declare my love again, Dark thought. Afraid I’ll bother her when she doesn’t want to be bothered. All she wants is to go back to the Mother Ship and be with her family and never see me again.
Well, if that was what she wanted, she could have her wish, he decided. His heart was sore but proud—too proud to beg anymore. He had done everything he could to show her he wouldn’t hurt her—he had told her that he loved her and reminded her that she had said she returned his love. If she was determined to ignore the emotion that had been between them, Dark would ignore it too.
Silently, he began piloting towards the red gash in space—the fold the Mother Ship had opened for that which would bring them instantly home.
He wouldn’t bother Anna again.
* * * * *
Flying through the red gash in space was scary but Anna had done it once before, when the Mother Ship had folded space for her family to get to the Aka’ja mining colony in the first place. Plus, it was worth the momentary discomfort because the minute they flew through it, she saw the vast, sleek white form of the Mother Ship orbiting the Earth’s moon.
Home, she thought. Mom. Longing filled her so full she could hardly sit still but somehow she managed to make herself stay in one place until Dark landed the ship and opened the door.
Anna thought about saying something to him then but there was a hard, closed look on his face. And honestly, she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t trust him now—didn’t feel like she really knew him. Still, maybe they should try to talk it out and—
“Anna? Sweetheart, is that you?”
Her mother’s beloved voice floated through the open door and then Anna saw her face. It was lined with more wrinkles than she remembered, as though her mom had been worrying ceaselessly and there were silver strands in her auburn hair as though she’d been forgetting to dye it. But it was still the most beloved face in the world to her.
“Mom!” Her heart started pounding and she was out of the ship so fast she tripped on the long robes getting out. She literally fell into her mother’s arms.
Her mother caught her and hugged her tight, stroking her hair and raining kisses on her cheeks.
“Oh, Anna, sweetheart!” She was laughing and crying at the same time. “We thought we’d lost you forever! “I was so scared I would never see you again! Oh, thank the Goddess you’re safe!”
“Mom…mom…” Anna couldn’t get anything else out. There were tears in her eyes and a lump in her throat. “I thought I’d never get home,” she whispered at last. “I thought I’d die there. Oh, Mom…”
“We never gave up hope,” her mother told her. “Brex is out there searching for you now. In fact—look—I think that’s his ship.”
Anna looked to where she was pointing and saw a small, familiar ship landing a little way down. As she watched, the hatch popped open and the familiar form of her stepfather came into view.
“And you must be the one who rescued my Anna,” she was vaguely aware of her mother saying right beside her. She must be speaking to Dark but Anna couldn’t keep her eyes off her stepfather’s ship. He had opened the passenger door and was pulling someone out of it. When she saw who it was, Anna’s stomach felt cold, as though she’d swallowed a fist-sized lump of ice.
“Yes, it was my pleasure,” Dark was saying to her mother in a distracted tone. He, too, was staring at her stepfather’s ship and the passenger he was dragging towards them with manacles on his wrists.
“Look who I found!” Brex roared to Anna’s mother. He was big, even for a Beast Kindred, and the lanky prisoner beside him looked like a string bean beside a T-bone steak. “Now we’ll find where he took…”
His golden eyes abrupt
ly skipped from her mom to Anna herself and widened.
“Anna? Sweetheart?” he asked in that deep, gruff voice of his that always made her feel so safe.
“Brex!” She wanted to run and hug him but she didn’t want to be anywhere near the prisoner he was dragging along behind him.
“Brex, she’s back!” her mother exclaimed. “This nice Kindred—er, I’m sorry, I don’t know your name,” she said to Dark. “He saved her and brought her home to us!”
Dark remained silent, his eyes fixed on Brex’s prisoner. At last the male spoke. Looking at Anna, he gave her the old familiar grin she remembered so well.
“Hey, sweet thing,” he said to her. “Would you mind telling your stepdad to let me go? This is all a big mistake, right?”
“Lazlo.” His name fell from her numb lips like poison as all the horrible things he’d done to her before he sold her rushed to the forefront of her mind.
Anna felt cold all over, frozen to the spot and sick to her stomach. How could he act like nothing had happened? Act like he hadn’t hurt her so savagely she bled, before selling her to Gorn? How could he pretend what he’d done was no big deal?
“That’s Lazlo?” They were the first words Dark had spoken to her since he’d landed the ship. “Is that him, Anna?” he asked in a low, tense voice. “Please tell me—I have to know.”
Numbly, she nodded.
“Yes,” she whispered. “That…that’s him.”
“Young man, I want to thank you again,” her mother began, speaking to Dark but he didn’t even look at her. His eyes were glued to her attacker.
“Excuse me,” he said with cool politeness and brushed past her mother, striding swiftly towards Brex and his prisoner.
“Hey?” Brex frowned at him. “Who are you? What the—”
But Dark ignored him too. He grabbed Lazlo by the collar of his expensive laska-skin suit and dragged the other male up so they were eye-to-eye.
“You did it to her,” he growled in Lazlo’s face and Anna saw that his eyes had gone blood-red again—the way they had in the past when he was protecting her. “You hurt her—you made her afraid to trust any other male—even one who loves her!”
“What the fuck, man? Let go of me!” Lazlo protested. “Hey, get him off me—will you?” he asked, appealing to Brex. But Anna’s stepfather only stood there, his golden eyes narrowed as he watched the scene playing out in front of them.
Seeing there was no help there, Lazlo once again appealed to Anna.
“C’mon, sweet thing,” he whined, looking from her to Dark uneasily. “Tell him he’s got it all wrong, will you? This guy looks crazy.”
At last Brex spoke.
“If you knew anything about Kindred, you’d know he’s not insane but in Rage,” he growled softly. “That tells me two things—one, that he cares for my second daughter greatly and two, that you must have done something very, very bad to her to provoke this kind of reaction.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Lazlo protested. “I didn’t—”
“Yes, you did.” Anna’s voice was shaking but she lifted her chin and looked Lazlo in his shifty eyes. “You know exactly what you did.” She wasn’t going to name it out loud but she wanted to confront him—wanted to let him know she wasn’t willing to forget or forgive the violence he’d done her—the physical and emotional pain he’d caused her.
I’m not going to run away, she told herself. Not anymore—no more hiding under the bed for me. Never again!
It was as though her words were what Dark had been waiting for. Glaring at Lazlo with blood-red eyes, he spoke softly but the menace in his deep voice was unmistakable.
“As Anna’s second father said, you clearly don’t know anything about Kindred,” he told Lazlo. “For instance, I’m a Blood Kindred myself, but my father was a Dark Healer. Which means I can take the pain of others on myself. What most people don’t know is that I can also give it back.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Lazlo looked at him uneasily. “What are you going to do? Hit me?” He lifted his chin belligerently, sneering at Dark. “Go on and hit me then—I’m not afraid of you, Kindred.”
“A simple beating wouldn’t be near punishment enough. I’m not going to hit you—I’m going to give you back every bit of pain I took from Anna,” Dark told him. “Every ounce of agony you caused her when you took what she wasn’t willing or ready to give. And I’m also going to give you the pain she endured at the hands of the one you sold her to.” His crimson eyes flashed with fury. “Get ready, Lazlo—you’re about to get exactly what you fucking-well deserve.”
He bared his fangs which had grown long and sharp and Lazlo’s eyes widened.
“Hey, now…” he began, trying to raise his manacled hands to fend Dark off.
But the big Kindred was too quick for him. Faster than thought, he struck, sinking his fangs deep into the throat of the other male.
Anna watched in horrified fascination as Lazlo began to cry and beg and writhe in Dark’s merciless grip. The big Kindred had him by the shoulders and he wasn’t letting go. He kept Lazlo locked in place with his fangs in the other male’s throat, paying no attention to Lazlo’s howls and cries.
Of course, Dark had bitten her many, many times over the past week. But every time his bite had given her only intense pleasure. Now she saw that he was capable of inflicting intense pain as well.
Was he really able to take my pain from me? she wondered as she watched Lazlo writhe in Dark’s powerful, punishing grip. Is that why I felt so much better emotionally as well as physically after he healed me? And is he really giving it all back to Lazlo now?
She wanted to ask but she didn’t know how and now wasn’t the time anyway. Lazlo had crumpled in Dark’s bruising grip, his face a mass of pain and tears.
“Stop it, man!” he begged brokenly. “Stop, please—it hurts—it hurts!”
But Dark didn’t stop—not, apparently, until every last ounce of pain he had siphoned off Anna had flowed directly into her attacker and kidnapper. By the time he finally pulled away and released the other male, Lazlo dropped to the floor, a blubbering ball of misery at his feet.
“There.” Dark’s voice was low and angry but tired as well…as though maybe the emotional transfer he’d just done had taken a lot out of him, Anna thought. “I told you,” he said to Lazlo. “Told you I’d give you exactly what you deserve.”
“It’s good you didn’t kill him, though I would have understood if you did,” Brex told him. “We’ll want to question him—to see if there are other females out there that he’s sold. Maybe we can still save some of them the way you saved Anna.”
“I didn’t save her in time,” Dark said in a low voice. “Excuse me.”
He brushed past Brex and, never even looking at Anna, disappeared into the vastness of the Docking Bay.
Chapter Thirty
“Oh, there you are, Brother!” Baird hurried up to him just as Dark came to the end of the vast, echoing Docking Bay. “Sorry I’m late. Sylvan asked me to escort you to his office.”
“That’s fine.” Dark nodded wearily. The pain transfer had taken a lot out of him—maybe because he’d never done it before. In fact, he hadn’t been entirely sure it would work since it was only something he knew that Pain Takers like himself were supposed to be able to do in theory.
But in the heat of the moment, it had seemed the most fitting punishment for Anna’s rapist and he was fucking glad it had worked. Filling Lazlo with the pain and shame and desperation he himself had caused was true justice and much more satisfying that merely punching him or ripping out his throat.
“Come this way,” Baird said to him and frowned. “Hey, are you all right? You looked fucking tired, you don’t mind me saying so.”
“Let’s just say that our plan with the sleeping potion didn’t go exactly as we hoped and it was a little harder to get away than I had anticipated,” he told Baird. “But I’m here now and I have the Shannom-rah, so nothing else matters.”<
br />
“Sylvan said there were complications. You want to talk about it?” Baird asked, leading the way to a busy tram terminal. It seemed to be a crowded time of the day because they were forced to stand at the end of the line with their backs to the curving metal wall as they waited.
Dark started to say no but then he realized he would like to talk. A lot had happened that day and he could use a friendly ear to listen. Briefly he explained about how Anna had found out he wasn’t a Replicant after all and how she had reacted.
“She’s afraid of me now,” he said morosely. “Fucking terrified because I’m a real male with real male equipment instead of a sexless Replicant like she thought. She said she only loved me because she thought I was ‘safe’ and now that I’m not safe, she doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
Baird shook his head. “That’s harsh, Brother. Now I understand why you look like someone stomped on your heart.”
“Because she did—ow!” Dark jumped away from the wall he had slumped against, his hand going to the pocket where he had the Shannom-rah.
“What is it? You all right?” Baird frowned.
“Fine. Something shocked me.” Dark looked behind him and saw that he had been leaning against some kind of black metal panel placed in the center of the wall. “What’s that thing?” he asked, frowning.
Baird took a closer look. “Just one of the service control panels. We have them all over the ship. They run the cleaner bots, service droids, that kind of thing. I think this one probably has to do with the tram system since we’re in the transport station but they’re all connected.”
“Well, it shocked me for some reason. I think it reacted with the Shannom-rah.” Dark pulled the precious crystal out of his pocket and looked at it carefully to be certain it hadn’t been damaged. It looked exactly the same, however, its rainbow hue undiminished by the strange reaction with the service panel.
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