But perhaps the Druid had had the way of things?
The Beskre warrior Kind was dying out for one main reason, and Koios was well aware of it. No female had been born of their Kind in nearly one thousand years—until the wee Zephra, his brother’s daughter.
A thousand years, and then a year after the Druidic prediction, the brother who had believed had fathered a daughter.
There had to be great stock in that.
Perhaps that was what he would keep this young healer girl for. A consort, and possible mother to a few of his spawn over the years? Not many, maybe four every couple of hundred years. That was a good number for just a consort, and he would be free to find a Beskre mate, when the time came as well. Perhaps two spawn would be better. One every hundred years? Warrior spawn were large and hearty, and she was small and slim and delicate. Could she even carry a warrior spawn safely?
The High Queen had. He had been in the Malickus castle when the High King’s heir was delivered. This girl had assisted the delivery, hadn’t she? So she would know what to expect.
It was far more expedient to lift her into his arms and carry her than to wait for her to follow. Or to even lead her by the hand, her stumbling along behind him. Instead of the suite he’d had prepared in the opposite wing as his, he took her directly to his quarters.
Best start out as he meant to continue, after all. She would needst get used to his much larger body, wouldn’t she? He was probably a bit larger than any she had been with before.
He lowered her to the bed and the instant her back touched the silk blanket she erupted, arms and legs waving wildly as she tried to push him away.
It surprised him. He thought her incapable of such fighting. She hadn’t fought him when he’d taken her from Malickus’s castle before. She’d been so meek, then. “Stop. I do not plan to mate you yet. You will hurt yourself if you continue in this manner. We have much to discuss.”
Chapter 3
MATE her yet? Dear Goddess, what was he intending? “Stop. Get off of me!”
His weight was pushing her back into his bed, and he was crushing her. Like Ramorakin had tried that first day in his keeping…
Ramorakin had come into the small cold room he’d shoved her in after Koios had given her to him and left. The slaver had grabbed her by the vestis and lifted her straight off her feet. He’d been at least eighteen inches and two hundred pounds heavier than Bronwen. And she’d barely been able to see him.
Facts he’d used well.
He hadn’t raped her during those two weeks she’d been in his keeping, but he’d touched her and hit her and starved her. When he had fed her it had been with poisoned, tainted food. He’d known what her Healer’s body could take and he’d pushed it to the very limits. Just to see what would happen. To see her writhing in more pain than she had ever experienced before.
Only Danae had kept her sane. The other woman had been in the room next to Bron’s and had used what witchy power she still possessed to open a hole in the wall between them. Ramorakin hadn’t known, had been busy for two days with other slaves and prisoners. By the time he’d learned of the opening, Danae had already eaten some of Bron’s tainted food. And had been so ill…her newly pregnant body hadn’t been able to withstand the poison.
Bron’s body had been able to fight the strange poison, but Danae’s had not. So Bron had healed her new friend, had poured every bit of strength she possessed into keeping Danae and the babe inside her alive.
She had succeeded, though it had damaged her sight to the point of permanency. And it had weakened her to this day. Danae had somehow found the power to encircle both of them in a light of protection, wrapping their bodies in that soft blue glow. It had kept Ramorakin out for the last four days of their captivity. But the previous ten days had been enough to do permanent damage. And Ramorakin had certainly tried to break Danae’s protection. Thank the Goddess he hadn’t succeeded, for Danae and little Zephra’s sakes, if nothing else.
By the time Danae’s cousin Phelius had arrived to ransom Danae, Bron was hanging on by only the Healer’s soul within her. It had been that close. Phelius had a healer with him that day, and that woman had somehow saved Bron’s life.
She would never forget that. Or forget Ramorakin and his promised threats. If she was in this castle when Koios tired of whatever game he now sought to play with her, Ramorakin would make good on those threats. And she would be at his mercy.
She could not count on her Rajni to protect her; he had already proven that. “You cannot do this, please!”
***
He heard the panic and that was all that had him slipping to the mattress beside her. Some of the fear in her body lessened, almost immediately. Was that what it was? She did not like him atop her?
He tested his theory, returning to his original position. Her struggles increased, and she started begging him to get off of her. To not hurt her anymore. Koios moved, and quickly. He rolled them both until she was atop him, and he was leaning against the headboard.
Some of her panic subsided. Her breathing slowed enough that he did not have to fear her hyperventilating—if such a thing was even possible for her Kind.
She feared him in that position, why? He loosened his hands on her, then shifted one to cover her back. He felt the breath enter and leave her body, and he waited until the pattern of it regulated itself.
“I will not harm you.”
She shook her head, sending brown hair shimmering over his chest. “And you said that before. Let me go, Koios. I cannot be here with you. In this place. I need to go home. I have people, family, and responsibilities waiting for me. I do not know why you can’t just leave me alone.”
Because he just could not.
He should have been able to; he knew that logically. Strategically it was the right thing for him to do. Politically, as well.
But the healer girl belonged with him. He knew that deep in his soul. He didn’t know why, but it was the truth of things.
She would remain.
“Please…”
“No. It is here you belong and here you remain.”
“Captive again. Pathetic and pitiful. Completely helpless.”
She was helpless, and even captive. If she wished to put it that way.
Koios frowned as he looked at the delicate lines of her face. So like a little cat her Kind was in features. Unlike demon females, who were strong and sturdy and not the least bit delicate.
He could not have the mother of some of his spawn so helpless. That would be the first problem they would address. “I will have an attendant assigned to you by this afternoon. In the meantime, you are to remain here. Learn your way around this suite, make any changes you need to ensure you are safe. I have much business to attend. Then I will return to you shortly.”
“No! You cannot leave me here! You can’t!” Now her hands clung, whereas before she was pushing him away. “Please!”
He looked at her, still cuddled against his chest, and for the first time compassion for her filled him. What had it been like? She was just a young one, wasn’t she? “Girl, how many years have you passed?”
“Fifty-one.”
He closed his eyes as he thought of all she had endured. She must have been so frightened of him. In his realm, fifty-one was a mere babe. Vulnerable, though well over the age of consent. He had thought her at least a hundred or more. Not that that made much of a difference. He himself was well over twelve hundred. “You will not be harmed here, littling. I promise you this.”
“And that was what you said before you left me with him. You said…you said…that I would be safe. And that you would come back to decide what to do with me. As if what I wanted didn’t matter. And then he was there…” The last was said in a whisper. He knew the he she referred to, didn’t he?
“What did Ramorakin do to you, girl?”
It was the wrong thing to ask, and he knew it the instant the words left his mouth. She paled even further—was that even possible?—and
the tremors in her body increased. Tears left the eyes that could not see him. She shook her head again.
“Just take me home. I’m begging you. I’ll do anything you ask. It doesn’t matter what…just take me home.”
It was the one thing he refused to do.
If she was the answer for him from that damned druidic prediction he would be a fool to take her back to the people who had kept her from him for the last year.
He shifted her—she weighed so very little, it was almost frightening—until her head rested on his shoulder. Next to his neck. “I cannot do that, littling. I cannot. In time you will understand why.”
She turned her head in his direction. “Then curse you, Koios, for what you have done. And what will happen to me here. Because my death will be on your soul for your eternity.”
Chapter 4
HE was expecting the ire of the High King and it took half a day for Malickus to flash, along with Sinrik and Renakletos and the male called Nalik, into the Lothicano courtyard. Koios met them in the main hall.
The High King barely spoke, but Koios saw his anger. Malickus was the biggest hurdle to his plans. And that meant the male need be dealt with swiftly. And as Koios meant to go on.
“The girl stays. Unless you want war between our families.”
It was his brother that protested. “Koios, she cannot. The girl has a life, and a destiny, which requires her be with her people.”
Destiny? He did not believe in such. “Nonsense. She stays with me.”
Renakletos pulled his sword and pointed it at Koios. His personal guards moved in closer, though truth be told, the Phrymos Warrior Renakletos could most likely take them all if he truly wished. He had not gained his position as Malickus’s top warrior by ease. Koios waved a hand at the guards.
And the male Nalik could kill them all with half a breath.
“We will see the girl now.” Malickus’s words were not a request. “Do not hide her from me. The girl is as dear to my female as my own nieces are to me.”
“I have claimed her, Malickus.”
“Not as servila. You know such will not be permitted.”
“No. As gamata. She will be staying with me.”
Malickus nodded. “I feared as such. Nalik…”
The male waved a simple hand in Koios’ direction and for the first time in a long while Koios actually felt real fear.
A paralysis took hold of him and darkness consumed him.
***
The first hour after he locked her in the suite was the worst. Bronwen wasn’t quite sure where she was, and that always frightened her. Why wouldn’t it? She felt her way around the rooms, learning where the bathroom was and where the bed was. The door and windows. It felt like a nice suite, was it truly his? What was he planning to do to her?
She had no trust in him at all. The idea that she was completely dependent upon him for her very survival had her physically ill several times. And the first time she hadn’t quite made it to the restroom before she lost the contents of her stomach. She was just grateful she hadn’t eaten before he’d taken her.
The second hour and all the rest had her curled up in a large chair that smelled strongly of him. That, if nothing else, convinced her that the room was at least one that he spent a great deal of time in. He hadn’t just brought her here to abandon her again.
No one had entered the suite, not even a servant. He hadn’t returned for her, either.
That terrified her most of all.
She’d thought these past months that she wanted to be away from people, isolated from anyone who could make any demands on her, any responsibilities she didn’t know if she could meet.
Now that seemed so stupid on her part. She’d give anything to have her brothers or her sister-in-law Mickey nearby. Or Danae, Kinney, and Auri.
She tried to console herself with the knowledge that they would be sending someone for her shortly. They wouldn’t leave her here, they loved her. They’d be coming for her. As soon as they realized she was missing. Again.
A crash to her left had her biting back a scream. It sounded like half the wall had exploded.
“Bronwen? Little sister, are you well?”
She recognized the voice and tears fell. Nalik. Her brother’s friend had come for her. And how could Koios fight him? Nalik was more powerful than even the goddess of their people.
And he loved her, too.
He hugged her, and Bronwen barely resisted the urge to cling to him. With him she was safe. And she’d always known that. “I so want to go home, Nal. I don’t ever want to be here again.”
“And you won’t have to. But we have some arrangements to make first.”
“What kind?”
“Koios. He has trampled on things for the last time. He’ll be coming back with us.” Nalik tilted her chin up toward him, though they both knew she couldn’t see his eyes. “Are you ok with that?”
“No. Do not hurt him.” He’d long suspected, hadn’t he? She knew Nalik knew just what Koios was to her. But he understood. He’d watched over his own mate Cassandra from afar for almost a year. That was unheard of in Dardaptoan culture.
“He won’t be hurt, but he will learn,” Renakletos said. “He will leave you be.”
Bronwen nodded, though she had a serious doubt. Koios wanted something from her, and he had for well over a year. He wouldn’t stop until he got it. “What are you going to do to him?”
“Simple. He will learn to live with the consequences of what he has done. He will learn understanding and compassion.”
“How?” He was a thousand something year old warrior, trained to fight, not empathize. Koios would never be a soft, compassionate male. In any way.
It was one of the main reasons Bronwen hadn’t understood the goddess mating her with him.
Bronwen was a healer, into the very depths of her heart, she felt for the people she touched. All of them. At all times, she felt everything that pained them, at all. Koios felt for no one but himself. Maybe his brother occasionally.
They were so different from each other, and yet the goddess supposedly knew what she was doing in the long run.
But never had a woman denied her male for so long. Was that part of what was hurting her?
Should she let it? How was she supposed to get past her Rajni? She didn’t want Koios, at all.
He hurt her, scared her, and nearly destroyed her. “I don’t want him near me. At all.”
“Then that can be arranged. Come, let me take you home. Koios will be following. Special arrangements have been made,” Auri’s mate had laughter in his tone, and that worried Bronwen for a long moment. Ren had a bit of a nasty streak at times. And he was very protective—of his sister, of his mate, even of Bronwen. That had surprised her, at first. But Aureliana had changed the big purple demon in the last few months. He’d softened, at least toward the females that he considered family.
And he considered Bronwen that, now. Because his female had helped raise her, and because of her connection to Danae, if nothing else.
“What kind of arrangements?”
“You leave him to me.” Nalik’s tone was far more sinister, and Bronwen shivered. Her brother’s best friend could frighten anyone with that type of tone. Did he know that? Or was that what he was counting on?
“Just don’t hurt him. He’s a jerk, but his people do need him.” And though she didn’t like him, she would never want him hurt. The very thought of it had her nauseated again. “Let’s just go.”
Chapter 5
HE knew his hands were tied before he ever opened his eyes. Tied, not chained. That would be a good thing. Chains would hold him a bit longer than ropes. Of course, whomever had tied him had done so far more tightly than needed be. His hands were numb, now.
And someone was jerking on the rope.
“Get up.”
The voice was familiar, wasn’t it? Koios opened his eyes.
And found himself in total darkness.
He shouldn’t h
ave; he could feel the heat of the sun against his skin. He blinked again, still darkness.
“Having trouble seeing?” The voice laughed. “Yes. I am sure you are. I told you months ago to leave young Bronwen alone, yet you refused to listen.”
“Black.” The Laquazzean bastard. Powerful, ruthless, and a real son-of-a-swine. And the guy had a soft spot for the healer girl. Damn it. “What did you do to me?”
“Simple. You refused to have compassion, to understand the struggle she now faces daily—thanks to you. So you’ll spend a week in her shoes. You will feel the fear she experiences every step she takes until you understand. And if you learn the lessons you need to, you will have your sight restored to you. If you don’t, you will remain blinded forever.”
He was warrior, he would not show fear. “You cannot do this. I am a king.”
“And I have more that needs me than an arrogant king. Farewell, little king. I will return to you in one week.”
The ropes dissolved around his wrists, and Koios was knocked to the hard ground by a force he couldn’t identify. The sound of the bastard’s laughter was all he heard from every direction.
He rolled to his stomach, and dragged his knees up under him. Fought the urge to puke. He’d not puked himself in more than a thousand years. He was not going to start now.
Where the three hells was he?
It didn’t smell like Relaklonos; that was for certain. There was a distinctive smell to the air of his world, a sageplant that grew in every country and pretty much on every continent. It scented the atmosphere of Relaklonos.
And it was missing wherever he was.
He dug a hand in the silt around him. He pulled it to his nose. It smelled sweet. The four other realms he’d visited in his lifetime definitely had not smelled sweet.
There were birds flying over his head, and he could hear running water nearby. But no matter how much he tried, or how he hoped, he could not get his eyes to work.
Total blackness.
Warrior Blind Page 2