The Legends of Regia Box Set: The Complete Series. Books 1-7

by Tenaya Jayne

  The shadow turned her loose. Netriet shook off a moment of dizziness as she stood. She looked around the cave with new eyes. It was mysterious and beautiful. Why would she ever want to leave? It wasn't small and confining. She decided to explore. There was more to the place she could see, aside from the room with the black door she wasn't allowed in…yet.

  ****

  Merick looked down at the old map, candlelight flickering along the overused parchment, casting tiny shadows along the ridges of the folds. His only eyewitness to Netriet's disappearance had said she left with someone through a portal. So she could be anywhere in Regia. He made the assumption she didn't leave with a werewolf. Not many people had the ability or financial means to open portals. Royal and noble vampires would sometimes have an End of the Bridge, but that was a long time ago.

  When Merick was in the Crimson Brotherhood, Bridges were scarce and expensive. He doubted that had changed since none ever ended up in the stream of random inventory in the Fair. So she either left with an ogre who opened their own portals at will, one of the few aged wizards left, a vampire noble, or a Rune-dy.

  The nasty thought that she had been kidnapped surfaced in his mind again, as it had so many times in the last few hours. Had she been taken as a means of revenge, arranged by the woman Netriet had attacked?

  "Merick? Are you in there?" Martia's voice came from the outside of his tent.

  "Yeah, come in."

  She stepped through the flap. "What are you doing?"

  Merick sighed. "I'm planning how I'm going to find Netriet. I wish I knew more. She could be anywhere."

  "You don't have to do that. This just arrived for you. There was one for me, too…I'm so sorry." Martia held a sealed letter out to him. His name was written messily on the front.

  "What?"

  "It's from Netriet. Take it. I'm going back home. If you need company or something to eat, you know where to find us."

  Merick took the letter from her hand. She smiled sadly at him and left. He tore it open.

  Merick,

  I cannot thank you enough for the kindness you showed me or what it meant to me. I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye. I found my destined life mate. His name is Baal, and he's a Rune-dy. So you don't have to worry about my safety. Maybe one day our paths will cross again. I hope you find happiness and the peace you so desperately want. You're a good man. You deserve good things.

  I will always remember you.

  Netriet

  Well that was that, he thought bitterly as he crushed the letter into a ball and threw it into the corner. He blew out his candle and lay down on his cot. How could it hurt this much? How could it hurt this damn much?

  Because he loved her. He took a deep breath, feeling the agony that wound around his heart. He loved her. He'd hoped in vain that she would love him back. Whatever she felt for him was now eclipsed by what she felt for her mate.

  A desire, long forgotten, long since felt, came to him. He should leave the Fair and go to the coast. Live out the rest of his days in solitude, lulled by the waves of the Crystalline Sea. How long had it been since he'd seen the water? Since he stood on the shore and planned where he'd build a cabin on the cliffs? No one needed him. He could leave.

  Merick wanted to sleep off the pain and shut his mind off. He got back up and opened his trunk, where he kept a small store of liquor. He grabbed the best bottle and uncorked it. He took a deep drink and sat back down on his cot.

  Who ever heard of a Rune-dy having a life mate? That was just sick. Of course, Netriet would have a Rune-dy as a life mate. What was it about her? Shit just happened to her constantly. She was a magnet for it.

  Chapter Eleven

  A large shelf hid the mouth of the snaking hallway. Netriet found it by accident as she grew more acquainted with Baal's cave. She was looking for something new to read when her bare foot skimmed over the ridges in the stone floor, a perfect semicircle worn from the bottom of the shelf moving back and forth. She looked closer and was amazed she hadn't spotted it before. One side of the tall shelf was ordinary, while light came through the other side. She pushed on the shelf's frame. It swung out slowly, just enough for her to pass through.

  The hallway was short. One black door was on her right. She tried it. It was locked. She continued on to the end where there was a pass-through and found the first thing to really delight her in the whole place. It was a spring. The floor dropped away, and water shimmered in the natural basin. Steam danced off the water's surface. Without a second thought, she stripped down and stepped into the hot water. Sighing, she leaned back, letting the water cover her up to her neck. She could get used to this.

  Her eyelids drooped as she relaxed. She didn't hear Baal come home. She felt a draft of air and opened her eyes. He was standing there looking down on her. His face was blank, but she could feel something akin to rage from him. He smiled slowly, whatever tension had been around him evaporated.

  "So, I see you went snooping around while I was gone?" He began removing his clothes.

  She watched him, mesmerized again by his strangely sexual manner and the smooth movements of his long hands. He folded his clothes neatly and sank into the water with her. He grabbed her quickly and jerked her up against him before kissing her roughly. His kiss moved back and forth from gentle, to seductive, and then harsh. Her body responded to him, but then he'd throw her off balance with a shift in his demeanor. This kiss was a punishment, and it showed her how in control he was over her. She longed for his attention, his love, and it seemed like he held them just out of reach.

  "You've put your disgusting flesh in my water."

  "What?" He didn't really just say that, did he?

  "I'm just kidding." He eased back from her and splashed her in the face.

  "Hey!"

  He laughed and splashed her again. She splashed him back. They splashed back and forth, their laughter bouncing off the stone walls. Then Baal grabbed her around the waist and threw her over his shoulder. She squealed, enjoying herself with him, easily for the first time… Then he dropped her in the water. She went fully under, but before she could surface, his hands came down on her, holding her under. She tried to push his hands off. She kicked at his legs. Air expelled from her lungs as she fought him. Water ran into her mouth and nose. In a few short seconds, she was on the verge of passing out. Pressure built in her head, her chest. A terrible ache filled her whole body. Then he let go.

  Netriet clung to the side of the pool, coughing. She took three burning gulps of air and turned on him. "Don’t ever do that to me again! Why would you do that?"

  He reached for her, she jerked away from him.

  "I'm sorry. I was just playing…I'm sorry, Netriet. I didn't mean to hurt you. I don't know how to do this."

  "Do what?" she demanded.

  "I don't know how to be with you the way you need… You make me mad, and you make me feel terrible." He climbed out of the water, grabbed his pile of clothes, and left her.

  She stood there in a state of shock and anger.

  What are you angry about?

  "Really? What am I angry about?"

  He said he was sorry. He didn't mean it the way you thought. You should be more considerate of his feelings. You know he's touchy about his things, and you did come in here without asking first. Go to him. Make up. Let it go.

  Netriet sighed. She gave herself a few minutes before heading back out into the main room. He had his back to her, looking at something on one of his many shelves. She didn't know how to feel. She hated this odd separation between them. She wanted to please him, so much. There was desperation in her to please him and a deep feeling she never could.

  He inhaled sharply as she approached him, his back stiffening. She gently laid her cheek against his back. "You scared me. You were too rough, that's all."

  He didn't say anything.

  "Please don't shut me out like this, Baal. I want to please you."

  "All right. I forgive you."

  Netriet wa
ited a beat, and another. Outrage ran up her spine. He forgave her? She opened her mouth to spill out her anger, but the shadow clamped her mouth shut. She attempted to jerk out of its grasp. The shadow rolled through her in a wave of calm acceptance she couldn't fight.

  He turned to face her, tilted her chin up with his finger, and kissed her gently. Netriet sighed, leaning into him. He took his time, and like his long elegant hands, his lips worked deftly at melting her bones. So cold, strange and exotic. Hers.

  She soothed herself. They would work it out. They would learn each other. In time, he would become more rounded, and she would become more sharp.

  As he kissed her, she thought it would lead to the bed. She thought now would be the time they would be intimate and would really connect emotionally, but no. He pulled away from her and pointed to a silk robe hanging over the back of his desk chair.

  "Put that on," he whispered. "It's time for your surprise."

  Shivers rose all the way through her as she looked in the mirror. Baal stood behind her, looking over her shoulder. She wore the grey silk robe and nothing else. He combed his long fingers through the length of her hair first, spreading it out over her shoulders before gently reaching around her and taking the lapels of her robe and pulling it open. The fabric slid off her like a breath and pooled at her feet.

  "Look closely, Netriet," he whispered. "When you wake up, you will have a new arm. Perfect, balanced, and dangerously strong."

  He ran his finger in a circle around and around on the end of her small stump.

  "I'm going to cut you open here, and here." He sliced a mock line with his fingernail to show her. "All the scar tissue will be discarded. Look."

  He reached behind him and picked up the robotic arm. It was smooth and completely black. The skin on the exterior was soft and slightly glossy. Once it was connected, it would look as though she wore a long leather glove. The opening at the arm's shoulder spilled out wires and tentacles.

  "I'm scared."

  "Don't be, my love. There will be pain when you wake, that's true enough. But there is no chance of infection. This technology is so advanced the arm will merge with your biometrics almost instantly. The machinery will learn you, then become you, as if it were the arm you were born with."

  Her fear remained. "Where did it come from?"

  Baal smiled. "From another world. One full of living machines. The Rune-dy have been familiar with these beings for a very long time. They have supplied us with samples and medical supplies for hundreds of years. I'm very used to working with their material. And I'm a very skilled surgeon, never fear."

  Netriet turned to face him. "But I am. It's not that I don't believe you, but…I'm terrified."

  "I would never do anything to hurt you or endanger you in any way."

  Tears she didn't know she was going to cry welled up in her eyes. "Please, can I have more time to think about it? Just a little more?"

  "No, Netriet. Stop being a baby. Don't you care how you're hurting me? Why are you rejecting my gift?"

  She looked down, shaking and ashamed. The shadow rose up again, filling her with warm waves of trust and love.

  "I'm sorry. I love you, so much. It's just my past…my time with Philippe."

  Baal leaned down and pressed a kiss on her neck. Then he looked intently into her eyes and turned her back to face the mirror. He ran his index finger along the lengths of her scars, over and over, teasing and fondling the shadow beneath.

  "I know you thought the arm was my surprise, but you were wrong," he whispered seductively in her ear. "In truth, your surprise is for after the surgery. I learned today, after going to Fortress, where Zefyre is on house arrest."

  Netriet's eyes widened. The shadow practically writhed with ecstasy, making her feel drunk.

  Baal smiled widely at her expression. "That's right, Netriet… Revenge. Long, drawn-out, bloody revenge. Once you have your arm, we can go and give her and her traitorous lover, Lush, a taste of their own medicine. But we don't have much time. Forest set the date for their trials. We only have a few days to serve some real justice."

  "I don't know…"

  "Look at yourself, Netriet. Look at what you've become. Look at what she did to you. Remember before all of this tragedy fell on you, before you were arrested, remember how beautiful you were. Remember how Zefyre collared you and sent you to your death, but in reality, you got even worse than that. Remember when people looked at you with envy, not revulsion or pity. And all the while what was Zefyre doing? What has she suffered? What has she lost? Nothing…I think it's time we changed that."

  Between Baal and the shadow, it was like when she first came here, and she felt pinned in the middle of the two of them. The shadow moved up, again pulling Netriet under the midnight current and giving her over to the darkest cravings. She was conquered, vanquished, and ravaged by her own evil… And it felt good.

  Possessed with a surge of desire, she faced him, reached up, spreading her fingers into his hair, scraping his scalp with her fingernails before fisting her hand and jerking his head back roughly.

  His eyes rounded in surprise and pleasure.

  "Yes! I want revenge." Her voice came out raw and guttural.

  Netriet thrust her mouth onto his painfully. But there was no rough love that came after that, at least none she could remember. The hot and cold sensation she felt from his skin spread over her body, and she became dizzy, then everything went dark.

  ****

  Baal laid Netriet's unconscious body on his desk. He debated lying her on the bed, but the desk was adequately large, had better height for him to work, and the bed wouldn't have been any softer for her anyway. He meticulously laid out his instruments and adjusted the light. Knowing how frightened she was, he'd kept his operating apparatuses hidden from her.

  He took a deep breath and regulated his thoughts and emotions. His gaze roamed over her naked frame, and he shook his head at the irony. Maxcarion had been right—going to the Fair had awarded him quite the prize. And he didn't even have to give his loot over to the old man, since Copernicus had killed him. Baal couldn't remember a time he was this happy. Copernicus hadn't even taken much of Maxcarion's treasured possessions.

  Baal reclaimed almost everything he'd ever relinquished to the wizard, and he'd gained the collar. Copernicus had been either too distracted or too stupid to take it. Whatever the reason, fate had handed him the trinket he'd so long desired. His power had grown more in one day than years of searching and experimentation had brought him.

  Hungry to get on with the night's work, he picked up his scalpel and made his first incision. Netriet's blood spilled out red, streaked with tar-like black. He dabbed at it with a fresh cloth. Efficiently, he made another cut, and then another, until he could see the bones, tendons, and tissue. Fascinated, and practically giddy, he looked closely. The blackness had wrapped threads around her bones and laced intricately through her muscles. He grabbed at one of the dark cords with his thumb and index finger and pulled. It came loose reluctantly at one end.

  He smiled and tickled the end with his fingertip. The tentacle moved and curled around his finger like a snake. His eyes rolled back in his head as it moved over his skin, testing his pores.

  "Oh, yes," he breathed. "Come inside."

  His excitement however, was short lived. Nothing of the dark entity entered him. Whether it couldn't, or wouldn't, he didn't know.

  Baal activated the arm, stimulating it out of sleep with a series of coded ticks from a long stylus. The cords protruding from the shoulder roused and began reaching out, attempting to grab ahold of the nearest object. With deft swiftness, he grabbed the largest one and fed it into Netriet's open flesh. In order for the arm to work properly, he had to connect each cable to the right place. The hand jerked, and the fingers began flexing as he connected to Netriet's nervous system. The black threads inside her reached out in welcome to the alien prosthetic, pulling it inside. After his initial direction of placement, the shadow all but took
over and finished it off for him.

  Baal stood back and watched the rest happen. Her open wound closed around the edges of the new arm. Her flesh fused with the inorganic material. It was beautiful. New black scars emerged at her shoulder, giving the appearance the arm had been sewn on with thick thread.

  The jerky movement of the hand relaxed, and the fingers began to move with fluid grace. Then Netriet opened one eye, her dark eye, and looked at him. Her mouth opened, and a voice came whispering out without her moving her lips.

  "Come here."

  The new arm raised and crooked a finger at him. He moved forward, smirking. The next second he was choking, grabbing desperately at the mechanical arm as the hand closed around his throat. He was yanked forward, face to face. The black tentacle in Netriet's eye filled her iris like a flower opening its petals until the amber was totally replaced with black.

  He was on the verge of passing out when the pressure slackened, allowing him to breathe again. He coughed as the hand caressed his cheek gently.

  "Beautiful," the voice hissed. "Thank you, lover."

  ****

  Netriet awoke abruptly. There was no pain, none at all. She raised her hands and looked at them side by side. It was nothing like she imagined it would be. It was effortless. Not only did the new limb obey her thoughts without hesitation, she could feel it. She ran her natural fingers along the slick dark skin and felt the caress inside it. She tested applying various levels of pressure to the top of the hand. It was just as Baal had said, as if it were the arm she'd been born with.

  She jumped up and ran to the mirror wall. Swamped with emotion, she cried. She moved her arms together in unison and wrapped them both around her torso. She was lopsided now only in strength. The robotic arm gave off no heat against her flesh. Nothing else to her appearance had changed. She was no less a monster than before, only now she saw it differently. The darkness was sexy. The darkness was badass. No one had better get in her way, or she'd crush their bones to dust with her alien arm.

  She watched Baal come up behind her in the mirror, a proud and gratified smile on his face.