by Bevan Greer
Unwilling to wait when Lord Demise could show anytime, Jace scooted his chair closer to her. She didn’t move, her eyes wide with curiosity but no hint of alarm.
“Jace? Are you all right?”
He cupped her cheek in his palm and drew in breath at the shock of connection.
Her breath hissed out of her, so he wasn’t alone in feeling something more than a physical desire. She blushed becomingly, and the contrast of innocence and carnal allure shook him to the quick. He wanted her more than anyone or anything he’d ever wanted before.
Ignoring inner warnings of caution, he bent his head and took a gentle kiss. She tasted like the sweetest berries, ripe and fresh for the taking. She didn’t move under his touch. Instead she sat still and watched him, her purple eyes wide, as if absorbing a new experience. Jace could feel the passion in her just under the surface, his psychic probe slipping beneath her barriers. Knowing she felt as he did encouraged him to deepen the kiss.
He watched as she closed her eyes, and he followed suit. Her lips softened under his and a soft moan escaped her. The pain in his body faded as a fiery heat overwhelmed him. He stroked her lips with his tongue, amazed at how much he wanted her. When she parted her lips in a gasp, he slipped his tongue inside.
She stilled, then returned his touch tentatively. The feel of her tongue on his stiffened him into a hard ball of need. Jace leaned into her, meaning to bring her closer when a sense of self-preservation stopped him.
He leaned back and put some distance between them. Staring at her, he couldn’t help the strong arousal pooling in his body, but it was mixed with a strong sense that all was not as it should be in Naria. He could feel her sensual curiosity mixed with a need greater than sex. The guarded woman had projected her feelings, though he sensed she remained unaware of it.
Before he could say anything, the door to the cell slammed open. He was roughly pulled from his chair and slammed against a wall, held in place by two gigantic thirst demons. Lord Demise stood behind them, staring in distaste at Naria.
“I had a feeling you two might like each other,” he said pleasantly, while an unholy gleam lit his eyes. “I’m rarely wrong.”
Naria stared at Demise with fire in her eyes. “What do you want with him? Why can’t you just let him go?”
She sounded more angry than scared, and Jace was conscious of strange undercurrents running between the demon lord and his beautiful prisoner.
Demise stared at her a moment, then struck her full in the face with one large, finely boned hand. Naria stumbled back but quickly righted herself. Jace opened his inner senses to help defend her but instead witnessed a tremendous mental display. Demise barraged Naria with a bombardment of mental strikes Jace could sense on the psychic plane, only to come up against her large mental shield.
Again and again he pried at her mind while Jace watched, unable to interfere without possibly hindering Naria’s defense. The sheer amount of power flowing in the cell made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Even the thirst demons let him go and backed away, watching their master but not moving to distract him.
Naria began to shake, then seized in great jerks. Jace longed to help her but knew he would only do more harm than good while she engaged so deeply with Demise. Her forehead beaded until rivulets of sweat ran down her face, marring her already dirty cheeks with a combination of sweat and tears. She cried out and clutched her head, then fell to the ground in a heap, finally losing consciousness.
Before Jace could reach her, Demise’s minions hauled Naria out of the cell.
Demise turned to Jace, a knowing look on his face. “She’s quite beautiful isn’t she?” Jace said nothing.
“You want her. Perhaps in exchange for some information, I could give her to you. I believe the foolish girl may actually be attracted to you.” Demise taunted, as he normally did. But Jace thought he caught a hint of some deeper feeling in Demise’s words.
“There is nothing to tell. I’m nobody.” Compassion for Naria warred with his need to remain a mystery. More than his life was at stake. The existence of Mystique must never be questioned or discovered, and not by a creature as evil and chaotic as Lord Demise.
“That really is too bad,” Demise said. “Because now I’ll be forced to terminate your crew’s lives that much sooner. I don’t think you realize how badly I want to know about you, Jace.”
Jace allowed nothing to show on his face, but inside he quaked with fear. He’d lied to Naria when saying he had no family or close ties. His crew was his family. He’d been with Castor longer than the others, but even though they were a fairly new crew, he’d bonded with them deeper than he’d thought possible.
“I’ll give you a little time to think things over, shall I? After all, it’s clear you’re not thinking straight after that heated bit of affection.” Demise gave him a knowing look.
Damn. Kissing her had been a foolish thing to do. Of course Demise had been watching them. What had he been thinking? And that was the problem. He hadn’t been thinking. Instead he’d followed his emotions, his instincts.
“She’s a beautiful woman.” Jace shrugged, as if Naria’s impact on his senses were no more than a physical response.
“That she is,” Demise said in a low voice. “Too bad you don’t want her enough. Such a waste to let a ripe piece of woman go to my men when you could have her instead.”
Jace felt torn but couldn’t let Demise win. Even at the expense of Naria’s life, of his crew’s, hell, his own, he couldn’t disclose information of Mystique or the Psi.
“Perhaps a visit to your crew might convince you to rethink things.” Demise blinked and four thirst demons appeared in the cell. They dragged Jace down the corridor and through a maze of passageways until they stopped in front of a wooden door like all the others they’d passed. At their master’s nod, they opened it and threw Jace inside.
“Think hard about my offer,” Demise’s voice floated through the narrow window of the door before it closed, shutting Jace in the dim cell, alone except for two lumps of flesh lying still on the floor.
Naria groaned as she lay on the cold floor of the cell. The guards had been violent, no doubt at her father’s command. Whether her father had played along to encourage her deception or whether he knew she truthfully rebelled against him, she didn’t yet know.
The door banged open, and he strode in, his expression uncompromising. He yanked her to her feet and threw her onto the cold stone bench along the wall.
“I see you’ve lost the reason behind your visits to the prisoner. Or is it that you intend to pursue life as a succubus and were merely trying your talents on the hapless male?”
Naria said nothing, striving to hold on to her mental shields.
“I sent you in for information. Instead you allowed him to ply you with compliments and lure you into sexual contact. Not that I mind, had you been intending to use sex to get the information. But Naria—” her father shook his head “—why did your barriers drop when he touched you?”
He slammed her head against the wall with a flick of his wrist. When she refused to answer him, tears pooling in her eyes and her jaw set in stubborn determination, he stopped his assault.
“So you would choose to help this human over the dictates of your father?” With shrewd eyes, he stared deeply into her black gaze. “What are you hiding from me?”
He telekinetically threw her back against the wall, lifting her tired and bruised body before tossing her weakened flesh to the floor. Again and again he threw her against the unforgiving rock walls of the cell.
She drew close to losing consciousness as blood welled from her nose and ears and her brain swelled.
Her father finally relented in his torment. “You will stay here and think about your traitorous thoughts,” he said in disgust. “No true shayna would behave as you have. I’ve seen your intentions, Naria. The prisoner won’t live long enough to help you escape.” He crouched to stare into her eye not swelling shut. “This is yo
ur home. There is no escape, not even through death,” he promised. “Heal yourself and think about what you’ve done.”
He stalked out the door, and the lock clicked soon after. The pain overwhelming, she gave in to pitiful tears, glad that no one remained to witness her weakness. She had tried so hard to shield her thoughts, yet he’d learned of her plans to escape. Even worse, he knew of her ability to heal.
Curled into a ball, she sobbed at her miserable existence, knowing that even in death she would not escape. For in Dark World, death was a place given only to those Dark Worlders fortunate enough to earn it.
Jace shared a pain-filled glance with Koneru before looking back down at Castor. Jace had been able to revive Koneru, glad to see that as battered as the Rovi was, he still had the fortitude to survive demon torture.
“He’d been like this for more than a passing. I’m not sure he’ll live,” Koneru said in a low voice.
“The others?”
“Nesham escaped soon after they transferred you out of here. They took Mikhel somewhere, but we haven’t seen him since. I fear the worst.”
Jace hid the fear burrowing inside his heart. He stumbled and sank to the floor, his physical pain warring with his mental fatigue.
“You don’t look too good yourself.” Koneru’s white eyes stared unblinkingly at Jace’s bruised face.
“I’m better off than Castor.”
“Have you any idea what Demise wants with us? The best we could come up with is that he lives for torture. Stars knows we don’t have any real information worth knowing.”
But Jace did. Demise knew Jace held something important deep within his mind. Guilt spiked, but he shoved it aside, convincing himself that nothing he’d tell the demon lord would stop the creature from maiming and killing his crew.
Koneru turned back to Castor, quiet as he watched for signs of consciousness.
Seeing Koneru occupied and knowing he took a risk in doing so, Jace nonetheless closed his eyes and reached out with his mind for some hint of his missing crew’s presence. Instead of the normal variation of color he experienced when mind traveling, Jace saw everything in black.
The bleakness of this dark place oppressed him, not to mention the overwhelming mental activity going on in the prison. Aware his abilities were stunted by fatigue and pain, he decided to try only a little more, not wanting to overtax himself.
Blackness surrounded him, pressing in on all sides. A flash of blue filtered through the thick haze and Jace focused on it, feeling Fenturi energy fleeting in the darkness. The blue light flickered, and Jace watched with apprehension as the blackness around him absorbed the light, almost extinguishing it.
Sensing Mikhel on the verge of death, Jace quickly pulled back into his own body, cursing at the fates that had led to his decision to crash-land on Dark World.
“Jace, are you okay?”
Jace looked up to see Koneru and a bleary-eyed Castor studying him. Relieved that at least two of his crew had pulled through, if momentarily, he nodded. “Sorry, I may have dozed off there.”
“You look like you could do with a longer sleep.” Koneru eyed him critically. “But damn it’s good to see you again. And look, Castor decided to grace us with his presence. About time, you lazy Legionnaire.”
“Go to hell,” Castor grumbled. “It’s ex-Legionnaire.”
“I’m already there,” Koneru answered, earning weak laughter from both Castor and Jace. “At least we’re still alive. I hope Nesham and Mikhel can say the same.”
Jace nodded. He had no idea of Nesham’s state of health or whereabouts. That Nesham had escaped boded well for him. Since Demise hadn’t paraded his escaped prisoner bloodied and bruised in front of his men, Jace held hope that Nesham was still out there somewhere, beyond Demise’s black claws. Of Mikhel, he could only pray that they’d get out in time to save him from the bleak torture draining him even now.
***
Naria caught her breath and focused on her inner senses. Wishing she had some light—her father had even extinguished the weak torchlight from her cell—Naria called forth her healing powers. Searching inside of her body, she readily located the most important source of injury, that to her head.
Uttering a whisper of sound, she began the slow and painful process of healing herself. The rare instances she had used her gift, she’d experimented on injured creatures on Fer needing her assistance. They’d been much easier to heal, using their energy and her own to speed the process. Healing herself would be much more draining since she had only one source of energy to use.
With her brain no longer bruised, she worked on her left eardrum, the crusted blood on her lobe now the only evidence of pain she’d experienced. Looking deeper within, she restored her bruised muscles and sprained ribs.
Her limbs felt restored though exhaustion overtook her. She decided to heal her superficial skin bruises and swollen eyelid after a brief nap.
She awoke to a soft tapping on her cell door. Trying to peer through the blackness around her, Naria had no idea of how long she’d been asleep. She gingerly sat up. She felt tired but no worse for having withstood her father’s wrath. Her face throbbed, but other than that Naria felt almost normal.
“Naria, are you okay?”
Naria rose and walked unsteadily to the door. That had sounded suspiciously like Carinna.
“Hello?” Naria said.
“I’m coming in,” Carinna warned. In the span of a heartbeat, her sister passed through the door in wraith form. Naria’s good eye tracked her sister’s progress, and she wasn’t surprised to see Carinna’s eyes widen.
“By Wern, he really gave you a beating, didn’t he?”
Naria nodded. “Apparently he saw through everything I was doing. I don’t suppose he told you about it?”
“He did. I think more as a warning for me not to entertain any of the same thoughts. I had to come see you.”
“Thanks.” Naria was unable to get the picture of Carinna and the missing Fenturi out of her mind. “I’m surprised you’re not in here with me, not after what you’ve done.”
Carinna tried to look innocent, but Naria knew better.
“Don’t try denying it. I saw you with the male by the woods. Luckily for you, my thoughts were fully occupied by Jace when Father caught me and threw me in here.”
“Naria, you’re going to have to trust me. I know, ‘trust’ is a foreign word around here, but you and I have a bond of sorts, don’t we?” At Naria’s nod, Carinna continued, “Then trust I know what I’m doing. I’ve always known how much you wanted to leave this place. I think I may have found a way for you to do so.”
“But why would you help me?” Naria didn’t believe Carinna would help her without some price attached. Though Naria was closer to Carinna than to anyone else, Carinna was still a Dark Worlder.
“Because it suits me to do so, and that’s all the answer you’re going to get. Besides, it’s not as if you have many options at this point. Father is beside himself in a fury and plans to kill the prisoners later this eve. Lordess Xeche thinks it’s more than amusing, as do our half-sisters still toying with the Fenturi.”
Naria winced at mention of her other siblings.
“Once the prisoners are dead, you’re pretty much stuck here for eternity. There’s no way Father will ever let you far from his sight after this.”
Naria was aware that in her haste to escape, she hadn’t given herself enough safeguards. But what did Carinna have to gain by helping her? What did Carinna intend to do?
“Carinna,” she began, only to be interrupted by a scurrying sound in the hall. The commotion pulled her sister away while Naria fought exhaustion. The healing always took a toll, and self-healing even more so.
As she returned to the less than comfortable bench and drifted back to sleep, she thought she heard her sister’s voice joined by a deeper resonance, one not familiar to her at all. Then all thought left as her mind pulled her into oblivion.
PART TWO
; ESCAPE FROM DARK WORLD
-5-
System Space
Jace counted his blessings as his ragtag crew, two of them near death and an unconscious Naria, fled Dark World in blessed silence. He didn’t run any lights and floated quietly out of the planet’s atmosphere, expecting at any moment to be pursued and shot down.
All thanks to Nesham and tales of otherworldly help. A ghost? Good Night, but now he’d seen and heard everything. He still had no idea how they’d actually pulled it off, but until he had a moment to do more than worry about being captured again, he’d wait to question Nesham.
He, Koneru, and Nesham remained the only ones able to take charge of the ship and injured bodies aboard. He prayed for their luck to hold.
Luck stayed with them, because they made it outside the atmosphere without detection.
“Thank the Stars,” Koneru said on a relieved breath.
“You said it.” Jace nodded. “With the damage done to the hyperdrive, not to mention the other minor repair items and restoring our armaments, I’d suggest pulling in somewhere for repairs.”
Koneru nodded. “Rovi is our best bet.”
Jace agreed. “Nesham, set course for Rovi.”
“Aye, Jace.” Nesham set course for the Motherworlds.
The three men sat in silence, watching through the vid screen for any sign of pursuit. Once Dark World faded into a speck in the darkness of the NearWorlds, Jace sat back in his chair and tried to rub the tension from his neck.
“Koneru, place Castor and then Mikhel in the med unit. We seem to be out of immediate threat, and those two need medical aid right away.”
The Rovi nodded and left the control room in a hurry. Jace turned to Nesham, waiting for the Fenturi’s attention. Once Nesham finished setting course for Rovi, he set the ship on autopilot and joined Jace by the captain’s chair.
“Tell me all of it.” Jace waited.