Breaking Ice (The Jendari Book 2)

by Delwyn Jenkins

  Hadar lifted his arm so Kasim could see the readout on Hadar’s gauntlet. When on a mission or in battle, all rhe’hashan wore them. They provided information, served as mobile comms, and had a limited array of offensive and defensive weapons.

  The gauntlet clearly showed an active tracker. Kasim locked down his emotions, too afraid to hope. “Are we going?”

  “Of course.” Hadar gave Kasim’s shoulder a brief squeezed before removing his hand and turning to address the group. “Dea, you’re in charge of transport. Tallis, can you gather food, clothing, and medicinals for Winter? We don’t know what shape she’ll be in when we find her. I’ll raid the armory. Meet back here as soon as you can.”

  Kasim wanted to demand a job, but in his current state of mind, his brothers would be faster without him. They left his home via the transit pad, leaving their me’hendras behind to keep him company. Dazed and too desperate to trust this stroke of luck, Kasim forced himself to move. Surrounded by a sea of feline comfort, he climbed the stairs to his bedroom and changed into his battle-leathers. He strapped on almost every personal weapon he owned and bound his hair into a tight bun at the nape of his neck. Buckling on his gauntlets, he returned to the living room to await the return of his brothers.

  Shallamar pressed against his legs. Rishana says Lioth and Zendar have found their prey. They will stalk it until we arrive.

  Thank you. Kasim rubbed strong fingers into Shallamar’s fur. It’s good to know Lioth and Zendar have a visual.

  Lioth was one of the best aerial hunters Kasim had ever seen, and Zendar could hold her own—in winged form and when she was on two legs. Something would have to go very wrong for them to lose their quarry now, but Kasim had experienced enough bad luck in battle not to trust this windfall. He wouldn’t relax until he had his blade against his enemy’s throat.

  He sat on the couch, watching the readout on his gauntlet, and imagined all the ways he was going to kill the men who took his mate.

  ****

  Winter curled up on her bed and watched the light fade outside the single high window in her prison. Her captors had come for Ben not long after breakfast, and she hadn’t seen or heard anything since. She’d been given two bottles of water and some protein bars when they’d taken the breakfast away. And then they’d left her alone.

  Which made her feel more relieved than she should be. If they left her alone in this cell, she’d never get out. But if they came for her, she wasn’t sure she could manufacture an opportunity for escape.

  So, she lay on the bed in the growing dark and tried not to hyperventilate.

  At some point, she must have fallen asleep, and the sound of the door opening jerked her awake. Surging to her feet, she squinted toward the light pouring through the opening.

  “Let’s go.”

  All Winter could make out was a dark silhouette. Walking forward on rubbery legs, she tried to maintain her nerve. She might be peeing-herself scared, but there was no point cowering in the corner. Not that her captors would let her.

  Her eyes were still adjusting to the light as she followed her guard along the corridor. She couldn’t make out much more than industrial carpet and plain white walls. They walked through a doorway and down a naked set of stairs. The room was some kind of basement—concrete floor, cement brick walls, and HVAC ducts crawling along the ceiling. Her escort shoved her forward before turning around and retracing his steps.

  An oversized wooden chair sat in the center of the room. Winter sensed movement to her right, and as she turned, the man from the ballroom stepped out of the shadows. He wore jeans and a black button-down, looking like any other suburbanite. Except for his eyes. Anyone who caught his gaze would know he was so far from average he needed to be on a watch list.

  Ever so slightly, he inclined his head. “Winter Nayar.” He gestured to the chair. “Take a seat.”

  Winter complied, choosing to save her energy for the bigger battles that were sure to come. “You know my name. May I ask yours?”

  The new threat moved closer, positioning himself next to her chair as he proceeded to strap her in. “My name is Karol Lubanski.”

  And that was when Winter knew for a fact he was going to kill her. He wasn’t even trying to hide who he was.

  Her plan of hoarding her energy disappeared under a wave of panic. She lurched out of the chair but was slammed back so hard her teeth rattled. Twisting and kicking, she tried to keep her arms out of Lubanski’s hold, but he was strong and quick. In humiliatingly short order, she was bound at her wrists, ankles, and torso. Lubanski wasn’t even breathing hard and she was gasping as though she’d just run a marathon.

  Nervous sweat caused her clothes to cling and her scalp to prickle. Her panting breaths didn’t allow enough air into her lungs and she grew lightheaded. Ears ringing, she was momentarily blind and deaf to what was going on.

  She felt a coolness on her arm as her sleeve was pushed up, and when she turned it was to see a strap being tightened around her bicep.

  “No. No, please.” There was no point begging, but she couldn’t seem to stop the words passing her lips. When she saw the hypodermic needle, she started to cry. Her pride disappeared along with her courage, and she begged him not to inject her with whatever the hell was in the vial.

  He ignored her, simply sliding the needle into her skin and along her vein. As he depressed the plunger, Winter’s arm caught fire.

  The agonizing burn spread from her arm to her chest, radiating out until her whole body felt immolated.

  She could hear herself screaming and begging, but the agony raged so violently inside her she couldn’t control the need to give voice to her torment.

  From that moment on, time ceased to have meaning. There was only searing pain. White-hot, blinding, breath-stealing agony. It was without limit, without end. Without mercy.

  ****

  Kasim sat in the back of the SUV, his arm tight around Shallamar’s neck. They’d been driving for hours, the darkened landscape gradually shifting from city to the suburbs. The tracker icon had been stationary for some time, and they were almost on top of it. According to the intel from Lioth and Zendar, their quarry was holed up in an abandoned industrial park. When the HEC had taken Jasmine, they’d kept her at a similar facility. They didn’t need to change their procedures because there were so many industrial park carcasses rotting away. The Jendari would never be able to check them all.

  When the rhe’hashan had rescued Jasmine, they’d had been careful to use human weapons so nobody could trace the action back to the Jendari. This time, their warning to the HEC would be blunt and unequivocal.

  Hadar killed the lights but kept driving, turning onto a narrow road that ran parallel to an electrified fence. After half a mile, the fence fell away but Hadar continued on. “Brace yourselves.”

  It was the only warning they had before the SUV crossed to the wrong side of the road, jumped the curb, and plowed into a small square of unkempt greenery. Squeezing between several tall trees and barreling over scrubby bushes, the vehicle finally came to a halt.

  They piled out of the SUV, forming a circle around the two heavy weapon bags Hadar had brought. As they loaded up, Lioth came to land near them. Phasing into his rhe’hashan form, he moved to join the group.

  “So far we’ve counted up to thirty guards, all armed with machine guns. There are four on each side of the outer boundary, for a total of sixteen. There are another eight on the inner perimeter. Two at each of the four entrances to the main building and there are a cluster on the west corner. I suspect that’s where they’re holding Winter.”

  Kasim’s heart rattled and jerked, then thudded so hard he could hardly speak. “Are you sure she’s there?”

  Lioth looked at him. “No, I’m not sure. But we’ve found one female life-sign among thirty human men with automatic weapons. I think the odds are good.”

  Kasim nodded, despite the fact he wasn’t feeling the least bit agreeable. He didn’t want to deal in odds, he want
ed absolutes.

  Ignoring him, Lioth turned to Hadar. “The safest and quickest way to do this is with a pulse weapon. Once I phase back, I’ll pick it up and get into position. Then I’ll send Zendar to collect hers.”

  Lioth phased into his harbinger, his black feathers absorbing what little light there was. In this form his head almost reached Kasim’s waist and his heavily muscled body looked too dense for flight. But as soon as he hooked his talons around the pulse weapon, he flapped his wings and was instantly airborne.

  Deasun and Tallis phased to their animal forms, wolven and tigaren. In company with their me’hendras, they made their way to the other side of the complex to get into position.

  Hadar put the leftover weapons back in the SUV and turned to give Kasim an appraising stare. “You good?”

  “No.” There was no point lying. Hadar could practically smell emotions. “But I can keep a lid on it until the mission is done.”

  Hadar gave him a crooked grin. “Where’s that icy control you’re famous for?”

  “It’s still there.” Except now it wasn’t the smooth shield he’d always relied on. Winter had taken up residence deep inside him, and his love for her had expanded his heart until the ice became cracked and broken.

  He wasn’t a cool, clinical machine anymore. Now he was a rhe’hashan defending his mate.

  Tipping his face to the sky, he prayed to the Goddess. Badria, guide me and my brothers this evening. Protect my mate until I can hold her in my arms once again. And then he made a vow. Bring us both through this, and I will find a way to add her sweet song to the voice of the clans.

  A sharp nip on his thigh brought his attention back to the scrubby grove. You ready? Shallamar asked.

  He took a steadying breath. I am.

  Then let’s get your mate.

  Not allowing himself to consider any other outcome, Kasim phased. Then he and his me’hendra raced into the darkness.

  Chapter Twenty

  Karol Lubanski didn’t get off on hurting people, but he’d been in Special Forces long enough to understand it was sometimes necessary. It was a dark, dirty part of the job, and the only way he got through it was to divorce his emotions and focus on the mission.

  Right now, the mission was extracting information from the woman they now knew as Winter Nayar. She was strapped to a chair in the middle of a concrete-lined basement. The high ceilings exposed beams, electrical wiring, and venting ducts. The vast space was punctuated with steel support columns that held up the building above, and lit with fluorescent strip lights. No windows and only one door.

  A steel table held a notebook and pen, a few water bottles, and some paper towels. Two doctors were in the next room, monitoring the woman’s vitals, and two guards stood outside the door.

  Karol didn’t allow anyone in the room with him during an interrogation, nor did he allow recording devices of any kind. He would never have his face or his voice captured for posterity or prosecution. His hand-written notes would be thorough, detailed, and unsigned.

  Leaning against the table, he looked at the woman. With a deliberate and calculated effort, he shifted gears so she was no longer a person, but an asset he needed to exploit. She’d been stripped down to a tank top and panties, gagged, and buckled to the chair at ankles, wrists, and torso. An IV stand was set behind the chair, with a thin tube running from the bag into a cannula in her arm. The intravenous liquid contained a cocktail of drugs that delivered pain far beyond anything that could be achieved the old-fashioned way. Cleaner, faster, and more efficient, the drugs would feel like fire in her veins.

  She couldn’t be accidentally killed by blood-loss or internal injuries, which was a risk with a more conventional approach. But this method had its risks. The pain levels were so severe they put enormous strain on the subject’s heart. If pushed too hard, she was at risk of heart failure, stroke, or embolism.

  Which was why the doctors were on standby, and why he’d stop everything the moment they gave him the word.

  Moving forward, he undid the gag and tossed it on the floor. The subject wet her lips, but didn’t speak.

  “That was just a little taste of what I can do to you. In a moment, I’m going to ask you some questions. The faster you answer me, the easier this will be for you.”

  She shook her head, her eyes glassy and unfocused. “I’m not after easy.”

  “You will be.” Karol smiled at her. “The needle in your arm is connected to an IV filled with a special chemical only used in the most clandestine, deniable interrogations. It will hurt you, Winter. It will cause every nerve in your body to scream in agony, and you will feel like your veins are on fire.”

  She shook her head, her dark eyes wide with fear. “I won’t tell you anything.”

  Moving to the IV stand, Lubanski opened the shunt and watched the clear liquid run down the line. “That’s where you’re wrong, Winter. Very soon, you’ll tell me everything I want to know.”

  The initial dose of the drug took a few minutes to take effect, but once it filled her system, he’d be able to turn the pain off and on at will. Stepping back to lean against the table, he watched as the asset struggled to fight the pain. A struggle she was doomed to lose. Then the screaming started.

  He let it go on until she was in so much agony she was almost mindless. Shutting off the drip, he questioned her as she came down from the pain, ferreting out information before she’d even realised she’d opened her mouth. When enough of the drug had left her system for her to become less cooperative, he switched the IV back on and waited until she begged him to stop. Then he turned it off and resumed his questions.

  He repeated that pattern until the doctors advised him the subject needed a break. He left her alone for an hour or so, made sure she had something to eat and drink, and then he resumed the interrogation.

  They were on their third session, and judging by the shape she was in, he wasn’t going to have her much longer. He might get a fourth session with her, but definitely not a fifth.

  He was satisfied she’d told him everything she knew about the Humans For Earth Coalition, which was far too much for his liking. She’d discovered a surprising amount about his group, and the fact she knew about the lab and what they did there meant she wouldn’t leave this facility alive. The HEC simply couldn’t risk it.

  But he couldn’t take her out until he discovered everything she knew. He couldn’t protect his people if he didn’t know what threats were arrayed against them.

  He adjusted the control on the IV, reducing the flow of chemicals until she stopped screaming. He gave her two minutes to catch her breath, then braced himself on the arms of her chair. Leaning down, he tried to hold her gaze, but she was too hazed with pain to see him. She could hear him though.

  “When you took the alien from the lab, where did you go?”

  “A motel.” Her voice was thin and raspy, and she struggled to get the words out. That was good. If she was working hard to speak, it meant she wanted to save herself.

  She’d never had a chance. Even someone with his level of training wouldn’t be able to resist the drugs for long. A civilian like her—small, soft, and unprepared—was doomed the moment the needle went in her arm.

  “And what did you do at the motel?”

  “Ate.” She swallowed, opened her mouth to speak, then forced her lips closed. Interesting.

  “And what else?”

  She shook her head and he could see how hard she was clenching her jaw. She was desperate to hold something back, which only made him curious to find out what that might be.

  He leaned in, placing his mouth close to her ear. “Do you want the pain?”

  “No. No, no, no.” The last syllables came out on a moan.

  “Then tell me what I want to know. If you talk, I can keep the pain away. But if you stay silent, there’s nothing I can do to help you.” When she still didn’t speak, he eased away and moved to the IV. He gave her a small dose. Enough to remind her of the pain, but not en
ough to mess with her heart rate or blood pressure.

  The process took ten minutes, and by the time she came back to him, she was wild-eyed and panting. Once again he leaned in, dominating her personal space. “What happened at the motel?”

  “We had sex.”

  Her blurted-out answer shocked him into immobility. Of all the things he’d been expecting her to say, sex simply wasn’t on the list. They’d learned enough from their alien lab-rat to know the Jendari were anatomically capable and compatible with humans but, for whatever reason, his mind hadn’t taken the extra leap. As far as he knew, the Jendari had never expressed any interest in humans of either gender.

  Lubanski paused for a moment, knowing he shouldn’t ask the obvious question. It had nothing to do with the information he needed to extract, but his curiosity wouldn’t be denied.

  “You had sex. With a Jendari.”

  “Yes.”

  “In the same way humans have sex?”

  She shook her head. “No. So much better.”

  Well, fuck. Karol wasn’t sure how he felt about that, so he tucked the information away so he could add it to his report later.

  The woman’s head dropped forward and for a moment she went lax in her restraints. Her sweat-matted hair hung in stringy clumps over her face, and her body was covered in sour sweat. She was so exhausted she couldn’t hold her head up—which meant he was running out of time.

  Stepping close, he gently cupped her chin and lifted her head. “What else, Winter? What else happened at the motel?”

  “Shallamar.”

  “What’s Shallamar?”

  “She’s a me’hendra.”

  “What’s a me’hendra?”

  “Friend. Family.”

  Damn it, now she wasn’t making any sense. He couldn’t afford for her to lose her mind yet. He still needed more information. “Okay, that’s good Winter. Just stay with me a little longer, then you can go and rest.”

  She nodded, but he wasn’t sure she was tracking. Letting her head drop, Karol stepped away and tapped his ear piece. “Doc, how’s she looking?”