"Bridget?" The one word was both an accusation and a plea for help.
"We'll get to that in a moment," the Director answered. "Get him to drink some more of this, LeJong."
The glass was placed to his lips once more. The taste still left him with an urge to vomit, but at least his vision was beginning to clear as the liquid slid down his unwilling throat. He looked up into the flat face of the little woman sitting on the couch beside him, tried to lift his hand to push the glass away, and found he couldn't.
"I think he's had enough," the Director remarked. She came to hunker down in front of him, putting her hands on his spread knees. When he tried his best to grab her, she shook her head. "Temporary paralysis, thank goodness!"
"Good for you," he snarled. "Not for me."
She smiled at the effort it took for him to lift his head enough to see her. "You are such a stubborn man, Kam."
"Determined." Dr. Dean nodded. "That, too."
"You are going to be the death of me," he said flatly. "Does Bridget know what you have done to me?" Sensation was returning to his fingers and toes and he flexed his hands.
"She knows you had to be subdued outside Kahn's quarters." The Director turned her head. "What did you hope to accomplish?"
"I wanted my woman back!" he grumbled. "Haven't you tormented me enough, yet?"
Dr. Dean pushed up from the floor and sat at his other side; she kept a firm hand on his left knee.
"It was Tylan Kahn's idea to buy Bridget, Kamerone. We had nothing to do with that."
"He had no right! You should not have let her go with him!"
"We Terran women have no choice but to do as we are bid by Rysalian warriors; you know that. He wanted her and he took her."
"She belongs to me!" he thundered, striving uselessly to lift his left hand. A sound of utter disgust rippled through his broad chest.
"She was Konnor Rhye's, too, but you took her from him," she reminded him.
Instant fury sparked in Cree's demon eyes and he glared at her. "That is beside the point! I outranked him!"
"And Kahn outranks you," replied Beryla.
"She is mine!" he said stubbornly and tried his best to move his arm enough to grab her, but all he managed to do was swing it into his lap where it lay like a limp noodle. "You have crippled me for life, bitch!"
"LeJong, give him some more of the— "
"No! I won't drink any more of that crap!"
"Suit yourself," Beryla sighed.
"I do not feel good," he complained. "That stuff makes it worse."
LeJong put a hand to his forehead. "He is feverish. The antitoxin is taking effect."
He managed to swing his head toward the woman with the flat face. "What gods-be-damned antitoxin? Who authorized you to give me...?"
"We were speaking of Bridget," the Director interrupted, frowning a warning at LeJong to hold her tongue.
"Aye. I want her back."
"And just how will you do that?"
"I will get her back! I have a plan."
"Like the one you had this afternoon?" she snorted. "That worked out well, didn't it?"
"I would have gotten in if you hadn't— "
"You were up against two dozen men with another dozen on their way. I'd say those were rather formidable odds even for a Reaper. There was no way they would ever have let you breach Kahn's door. You would have been arrested, jailed, tried, and wound up right back at Be-Mod 9." When he flinched, she drove the needle deeper. "I would imagine your next session of reinforcement therapy will be of longer duration and far more intense."
"Far more intense?" he bellowed at her. "You damned well drove me mad the last time you had me in your hands, woman!"
"I don't really think he has to worry about a next time, Madame Director," a fourth woman piped up. "I vote we move on to another Reaper. I have already chosen a Terran female to be linked to Kryn Kiel. He showed a marked interest in her when he saw her on the promenade this morning."
Something clicked in Cree's brain and he swung his head to the unknown woman looking back at him from the far side of the room. It was all there before him, now— neatly aligning itself like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. He had been trying for two years to understand why they had singled him out to annoy; now he knew. Had he watched Bridget as Kiel had watched the female this woman mentioned?
He could not remember doing so; could not remember ever having seen Bridget before that first day in Be-Mod 9, but that was not to say he hadn't. Had he followed her with eyes so hungry some woman had taken note of it and mentioned it to another? Had he shown `marked interest' in Bridget and in the doing, sealed his fate?
"You orchestrated this whole thing, didn't you? Making me want her; allowing me to purchase her; making me so jealous..." He stopped and turned to look directly at Beryla. "There were subliminals in the therapy, weren't there?"
"Yes."
A horrible thought entered his mind. "And Bridget?" He was afraid to ask, but Dorrie saved him the trouble.
"Did you really think she would fall in love with you without a little help from us, Cree?"
Sitting there, movement finally returning to his weak legs and leaden arms, Cree did not respond to her callous words, although they had cut him deeper than any laser lash ever could. He just looked at the Technician, his face filled with hurt. "She doesn't know you used them on her, does she?"
"No. I doubt she would have agreed to it had she known what we would do."
Cree lowered his head. "Is it reversible?"
"If you are asking if the suggestionaries will wear off," the Director answered, "No, they won't. What she feels, she will feel for as long as she lives."
"Even if she should find out what you did?"
"It won't matter to her."
Cree closed his eyes. "You had it all planned, didn't you?"
"Yes. Down to the last detail. We left nothing to chance."
"The only way you will ever get Bridget back is if you help us," the unknown woman across the room said. "Help us put responsible women in the seats of power."
Cree opened his eyes and looked at her. "I will get her back."
"How?" she challenged.
He shook his head. "I don't know yet, but I will."
"We are your only way!" the woman snapped. "Fight us and I swear the Resistance will not lift one finger to help you. Bridget will stay with Tylan Kahn and we will make gods-be-damned sure you are transported back to Helios Twelve where you can not do harm to our cause!"
"Who are you, woman?"
"That isn't important," the Director broke in.
"Aye, it is!" he spat. "You are Chalean."
The woman nodded. "I am." She lifted her head. "I am Hael Sejm of the Royal House of Brell."
Cree's brows drew together. "My dam— " The Reaper gaped at her. This woman staring at him with such loathing was his kin! His aunt! The sister of the woman who had given him life.
"Aye," Hael spat. "Analeis Brell was my sister." Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "And now you know why I despise you!"
"He had no hand in what was done to his mother, Hael," LeJong said softly. She was sitting closer to the Reaper than Beryla was and she knew his full strength had returned; yet he had made no move to get up.
"Had we been left on our world," Hael spat. "Had we not been ravaged, she would still be alive and that— " she pointed a trembling finger at Cree. "— monstrosity would never have been born!"
Cree had often wondered about the female who had given birth to him. He knew she had died at the hands of his own sire, but he did not know the particulars. There was no one who either could, or would, tell him about his dam. He wanted to know.
"Tell me."
"With pleasure." Hael smirked.
"No!" Beryla snapped. "It is not something he needs to know."
"Why not? We need his help to crush the Empire. Let him know what the Empire did to his mother!"
"You are not telling him this to further our cause," LeJong accused
. "You are telling him this to hurt him."
"Let her talk.
Hael stood up, her body fairly quivering with rage. She was furious at LeJong for not having given the Reaper the poison she had intended he receive. When she had entered Beryla's office to find Kamerone Cree sleeping on the Director's couch, her hand had gone to the dagger at her belt and she had stepped forward, wanting nothing more than to plunge the blade into his black heart. She would have had LeJong not stepped forward to stop her.
"Go on," Cree insisted. "I want to hear what you have to say."
"Oh, you shall, Reaper," Hael sneered. "You shall." She took a long breath, then began her tale.
"The Empire sent a military envoy to Chale to bring back women for their warriors. Our father, the King, had signed an agreement with the Rysalian Tribunal and word had gone out for interested women to appear at the court the next day. Hundreds came for we were a poor kingdom and many had empty bellies and empty pockets. Drae Cree was only a lieutenant then and he was the Keeper in charge of transporting the women back to Rysalia Prime. The ships were loaded with eager brides for the Rysalian warriors, yet Cree had not found a woman among the throng who interested him." Hael threw Beryla a damning look. "I suppose it takes a special woman for a man like him!"
"Get on with your tale, Sejm."
Hael locked her eyes on the Reaper. "Our father had kept us hidden from the envoy, for he did not want any daughters of the Royal House to be seen by men he considered to be evil beyond words. My sisters and I, seven of us, had been taken to the Shadowlands, the sanctuary of the Daughters of the Multitude by our mother and aunts. There, we would be safe until the Rysalians left."
She stopped, her jaw hardening as she glared at him. "We thought they were gone. We had seen five Class Nine transport ships streaking toward Rysalia. Eager to be back with our parents, we left the Sanctuary and headed home. Little did we know there was a Keeper and his crew lurking about the forest, searching for the seven daughters of King Rian Brell."
"The crew," Cree said. "Coure, Kullen, Kiel..."
"Tohre, Gehdrin, and Belial," Hael Sejm finished for him. "They raped us. Each of them took turns raping the rest of us, but Analeis, the youngest and prettiest, had been claimed by the Keeper, by Commander Drae Cree, and no one dared touch her."
"He saved her to make her his Bride-mate," Beryla put in. "He loved her very much."
"He lusted after her!" Hael sneered. "She wanted nothing to do with him, was terrified of him, and pleaded with the bastard to return her to our father, but he would not. It was already too late for my other sisters and myself. We were damaged goods and under Chalean law, unfit to marry. We could never go home!"
"Even though you were raped?" Dorrie gasped.
Hael lifted her head. "Our Tribunal was strict in those days. Women whose virginity had been taken by a man other than her legal mate were considered whores, sluts, and unworthy to bear a legitimate child of a good household. It mattered not at all that she had had no say in the loss of her purity. That was the law and all, even the King, had to abide by it."
"That is why he never sent warriors to reclaim you," LeJong remarked.
"That is why," Hael spat. "The Rysalians thought he had accomplished a great feat when Drae Cree brought home the fabled Seven Sisters of Swords as the daughters of the Royal House of Brell were called. Not one member of the Tribunal questioned the crew's claim to the women and all but one of us became concubines to those bastards."
"All but you," Cree said, beginning to understand more than he knew his aunt would ever admit.
"I was the oldest and I fought like a banshee! None could tame me!" Her mouth twisted. "They feared coming to my bed for I had sworn to slay them when they slept!"
"It's a wonder they didn't slit your throat and be done with it," Beryla commented.
"Analeis would not have allowed that to happen," Hael responded. She came closer to Cree, her eyes wild with fury. "She was the Seventh Daughter of a Seventh Daughter and was born with a cowl. Do you know what that means, Reaper?"
He nodded. "She was Morrígú. I know that."
"Aye," she mimicked. "You know that!" She regarded him with a venomous look. "She was a witch. A very powerful witch and on her Joining Day, she laid a curse on the Rysalians that not even the gods, Themselves, could break!" She came within two feet of him. "She told Drae Cree that despite the impotence of his seed, the inability to impregnate other females, there would be children born of the evil unions forced upon her and her sisters. She warned them the children would be tainted with beastly blood, black blood. The children would become jackals like the fathers who had sired them!" Her vicious eyes narrowed. "But Cree and his men did not listen! They did not believe in the power of the Morrigú! They thought no issue would come from their foul deed."
"But it was not only the children of those unions she cursed, Hael. She cursed herself and her sisters, as well, and that is where the real tragedy in this lies."
"Aye, she cursed herself!" Hael thundered. "She did not want Drae Cree to have joy in the act he would force upon her. She wanted him to suffer for what he had set into motion! He wanted pleasure? He received pleasure, but he reaped well what he sowed!"
"He has suffered, Hael," Beryla agreed. "More than you know."
"Not enough!" Hael seethed. "Not nearly enough! But he will!"
LeJong looked down at her hands. "The sons even more than the fathers."
"So we were born Dearg-Duls. I was cursed by my own dam— "
"Your mother!" Hael Sejm shouted at him. "Your mother! Not your dam, fool. Your mother!"
Cree held her raging glower. "Aye, my mother."
"And because of you," Hael jeered, "she was murdered! You were the cause of her death!"
"Hael," the Director said, "if you do not calm down, you will have a stroke."
Hael was now toe to toe with him, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides. She glared at him, her face an ugly mask of hatred. When she lowered her voice, every one, save one, had to strain to hear what she said.
"She had just given birth to you. She had just thrust you out of her womb. She looked down to see you struggling on the floor and was horrified at what she saw. The thing she had delivered wasn't human. It was a beast, a jackal pup embedded in a thick membrane, attached to her by a long rope of black as pitch afterbirth. She screamed and I came running to help her. Just as I arrived, she began to change, to alter right before my eyes; at the same moment the thing on the floor began to change from beast to human child."
Cree stared up into Hael Sejm's mad eyes and knew the woman no longer saw him. She was seeing her sister, the woman who had given him life, and the memory must have been gruesome for there was horror stamped on her face.
"She was so lovely. Her hair was jet black and soft as silk. Her eyes were the color of the sky in summer and her face was so lovely it would take your breath away just looking at her." She shook herself. "But what lay on that floor, struggling to tear the membrane off its whelp with its teeth, was not beautiful. It was beastly. The most horrific sight I would ever see in my lifetime. It was when she was in full Transition, suffering the curse she had placed upon herself, that Drae Cree came running in. He stopped, his eyes wide with shock. I saw his hand go to the phaser at his waist and I tried to stop him, but it was too late. He drew the weapon and fired. Analeis was flung backwards against the wall and her body burst into flames." Hael put her hands over her ears. "I shall hear her agonized howls on my deathbed!"
"He thought she was a jackal trying to devour his child," Beryla explained. "He did not know it was Analeis else he never would have fired."
"It doesn't matter! It was best she died!"
"Why? Because you wanted Drae Cree and he wanted her, instead?"
Cree's head snapped to the side as Hael's hand connected with his cheek. The hit had had enough force behind it to split his lip and a thin trickle of black blood dribbled down his chin. He put up a hand to wipe away the seepage.
He looked around to see Beryla and Dorrie dragging the enraged Hael away from him.
"Why isn't he dead?" the woman was screaming. "Why isn't he dead? I want this bastard dead!"
LeJong said nothing as Beryla and Dorrie pulled Hael out of the office and down the hall. "What do I need to do?" she heard him ask in a soft voice.
She turned so she could look at him and was stunned to see a tear rolling unchecked down his right cheek. She ached to reach out and touch it with her fingertip, to taste the saltiness of it on her tongue.
"None of this was done to make you suffer needlessly, Cree.
A bitter laugh underscored his words. "It was done to help me, was it?" He let his head drop to the back of the couch; he stared up at the ceiling. "I fancy I wouldn't care to have you women extend any more help to me, if this is your idea of not making me suffer."
She forced her hand to his knee and took comfort that he did not demand she remove it. "You have found love," she said gently. "And love has found you. Isn't that worth— "
"You have me where you want me," he interrupted her. "You will get what you desire." He swiveled his head toward her. "Stop trying to convince me. The moment you women let Tylan Kahn have my mate, you gave me no choice but to help you."
LeJong searched his face for a moment. She nodded. "All right. I won't insult your any further. I believe we understand one another."
"Aye," he bit out. "That we do."
Chapter 22
THE DIRECTOR came back into her office frowning. "We had to sedate her."
LeJong was not surprised. "I fear all this is taking a toll on Hael."
"She's unhinged," Beryla Dean said. She glanced at Cree who was still seated on her couch. "Have you decided to help us, then?"
Cree was staring at his hands and did not look at her as he spoke. "Is Kahn part of your Resistance?"
"Admiral Kahn is not a Terran."
The Reaper sighed deeply. She had not answered his question, but there was no need for her to do so. Considering Kahn was Sejm's adopted son, he was as much a part of this nefarious business as she was; but he realized it didn't matter. Slowly, he lifted his head. "I want to speak to Bridget."
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