Devoured: Brides of the Kindred 11 (38 page)

Chapter
Thirty-six

Tess didn’t know how long she
stayed there, huddled on the couch in a ball. It was still dark outside and she
felt like she had fallen into a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from. She put
her hands over her ears but she couldn’t shut out the sounds. The wet ripping
of flesh being torn and the dull, muffled crunching of bones being ground
between those knife-like teeth bored into her head. Her heart pounded and she
knew she would never be able to forget those noises—or the sight of her ex
husband being messily devoured.

The
dr’gin
paid no attention to her as it fed. It reminded Tess of a
hungry dog gnawing a bone or licking a plate to get every last little bit. It
occurred to her numb brain that this would be the perfect time to run. She
could climb over the back of the couch and slip quietly out the front door
which still stood ajar, letting in a narrow ribbon of moonlight like the path
to freedom.

But she was frozen in place.
Though she told herself repeatedly to get up and go, she couldn’t make so much
as a finger twitch. She was curled in a ball, her knees drawn up to her chin
and her arms wrapped around her legs, her eyes wide and staring as she watched
Pierce disappear into the
dr’gin’s
red
flecked maw.

Oh
God,
she thought numbly,
watching as the long, red tongue licked up every last scrap of flesh from the
sodden carpet.
Oh God, oh God, oh
God
…

The scene of carnage went on
forever—a never ending loop of gore and horror that wouldn’t stop. Tess had no
way of measuring time anymore. It seemed like hours since she’d first been
awakened by the sound of a scratching at the door—days since she’d stood there
and watched Garron turn in the blink of an eye from his normal self to this
ravenous, mindless beast.

Then, suddenly, she realized the
dr’gin
had finished its meal. Not a
shred of Pierce remained except for the gory patch on the carpet where he had
been devoured.

The
dr’gin
lifted its head, sniffed the air…and looked directly at
Tess.

Oh
God…oh my God! Why didn’t I run when I had the chance?

But it was too late now. Pierce
had been nothing but an appetizer—now she was going to become the main course.
She stared numbly into those glowing turquoise eyes as the
dr’gin
flowed toward her. Its brilliant white feather-fur was
stained and splotched, flecked with gore from its feast. As she watched, its
long red tongue came out and licked delicately around its mouth. The gesture
reminded her of a cat trying to get the last bits of cream from its fur only
the
dr’gin
was savoring the last few
drops of her ex-husband’s blood.

And
he really
is
my ex now,
she thought.
Even if he refused to sign the divorce papers. He’s dead and digesting
in the belly of the beast. You can’t get much more ex than that.

A hysterical bubble of laughter
rose in her throat at the thought and she clamped a hand over her mouth to keep
it from coming out. She didn’t want to startle the
dr’gin
into any sudden moves. Didn’t want to scare it. It was still
staring at her, moving closer and closer. Tess felt like she had a tiger or a
great white shark stalking her.

Going
to die,
she thought, her
heart pounding so hard it sounded like a drum in her ears.
Oh my God, I’m going to die and it’s going to hurt—a
lot
.
Pierce’s death kept replaying
over and over in her mind’s eye. The way the
dr’gin
had eaten him piece by piece, almost like a cat toying with
a mouse. The screaming and shrieking and begging and blood… Were those same screams
about to be torn from her throat? Was the beast that Garron had carried inside
him for so many years—the beast he had warned her about—going to be the last
thing she saw before it bit her head off?

I
understand now,
she thought
as its large, leonine head rose to the level of her own.
I get it, Garron—I see why you were willing to give up ever feeling
again. To give up all your emotions. Anything to keep this thing inside of you
from getting out. Anything to stop what just happened from happening.

The
dr’gin’s
eyes were boring into her own now and Tess found she
couldn’t look away. It was almost as if they were in some kind of weird staring
contest—as though the beast was looking
into
her somehow. What was it seeking? And what would happen if it didn’t see
what it was looking for?

Tess sat there, barely daring to
breathe, her heart jack-rabbiting in her chest. The glowing turquoise eyes
filled her vision and the air was heavy with the metallic scent of spilled
blood. She was cold all over and her stomach ached as though she’d swallowed a
fist sized block of ice that wouldn’t melt.

Oh
God, I hope I’m not going to be sick…

Suddenly the air around the
dr’gin
shimmered and Garron was standing
there, completely nude and covered in blood. He loomed over her in the
darkness, huge and muscular and somehow menacing. He was utterly silent…and
rock hard. The club of his cock throbbed between his thighs, standing at
attention as though the act of carnage he had just committed had made him
incredibly aroused.

Tess blinked, unable to make her
mind understand what was happening.

“G—Garron?” she stuttered
uncertainly. “Wh-what…?”

Before she could finish her
question, he leaned forward and seized her by the shoulders. Tess gave a
muffled shriek as he dragged her up off the couch as easily as a rag doll and
crushed her to his broad, blood-stained chest.

“What are you doing?” she
gasped. “Stop—
stop!”

His eyes were still wild—still
feral—and again he didn’t answer in words. Instead he slammed his lips over
hers and kissed her, thrusting his tongue into her mouth while he ground the
hard shaft of his cock against her belly.

Bile filled Tess’s throat as a
metallic taste spread across her tongue.

Blood,
oh my God—that’s blood I taste on his lips!
Pierce’s
blood! He just chewed him up and lapped up his blood and
now he’s
kissing
me! Ugh!

She ripped her mouth away from
the big Kindred’s and spat on the ground.

“Stop it! Get away from me!
Leave me alone!” She wanted to kick him between the legs but he was holding her
too close, still grinding his shaft against her like he wanted to fuck a hole
right through her nighty. “Get
off
me!” she demanded.

Garron paid no attention. With a
low growl, he began to rip at her blood-stained nighty. The fragile lace tore
easily under his big hands, baring her breasts.

“No, please!” Tess shoved at his
face with both hands when he ducked his head and tried to capture one of her
exposed nipples with his mouth. “What are you doing? Why are you doing this?”
She began to be really afraid—even more frightened than when she thought his
dr’gin
was going to eat her. What was
wrong with the big Kindred? He acted like a man possessed—like he didn’t care
if he hurt her.

Garron didn’t answer any of her
questions. Instead he kissed her again, forcing more of the hot, coppery,
nauseating taste of Pierce’s blood into her mouth. He palmed her breasts and
rolled her nipples roughly.

Tess gasped as pain and fear
surged though her. Why was he doing this? He was acting just like Pierce!

Just like Pierce… Suddenly she
knew that begging and pleading wasn’t going to get her anywhere. After all, it
never had with her ex.

Tess pulled away from his
savage, bloody kiss and slapped him as hard as she could across the face.

The message seemed to get through
at last. Garron dropped her back on the couch abruptly and took a step back.
His eyes were wide and glowing and still filled with hunger—a hunger that
turned Tess’s stomach. He started to reach for her again, apparently changing
his mind, but she drew away from him.

“What’s
wrong
with you?” she asked in a trembling voice, wiping her lips on
her arm to get rid of the bloody taste Garron had forced into her mouth. “How
could you act like that? You promised…promised you would never hurt me. And
then you go and almost…almost…” But her voice broke and she couldn’t finish the
sentence. Couldn’t admit, even to herself, that Garron had been well on his way
to sexual assault.

The hot tears stinging her eyes
seemed to get through to the big Kindred as nothing else had. Some of the
hunger faded from his glowing eyes to be replaced by something that looked like
shame.

“So…rry.” His deep voice had an
odd, halting quality as though he had somehow forgotten how to speak and was
trying desperately to relearn. “Just…need…you.”

“Well you can’t have me. Not
like
this.
Not after what…what I just
saw you do.” Tess motioned to the blood spot on the carpet. “I mean, I’m
grateful you saved me but I just saw you rip…rip Pierce to…to shreds… and…and
eat
him.” Her voice wavered—speaking the
words seemed to bring everything back in vivid detail. Her ex-husband’s shrieks
and cries, the wet sounds of his flesh ripping, the bones crunching… “I can’t…I
just can’t,” she whispered. “Not like this.”

“Un…derstand,” Garron muttered
hoarsely. “So…rry.” Suddenly his big form shimmered and the
dr’gin
was there in his place, its
feather-fur floating gently in the air currents like pure white seaweed below
the surface of the ocean.

“Garron?” Tess drew back from
the beast. “Please, I—”

But she didn’t get a chance to
finish her plea, because the
dr’gin
turned and left the cabin. It flowed out the door in a river of silky white
feather-fur and was gone into the night.

Garron and his
dr’gin
were gone.

Chapter
Thirty-seven

Becca wasn’t sure what to expect
when she turned on the viewscreen hanging on the wall of Sophia’s living room.
The communications officer had told her little about the nature of the call but
he had apparently thought it was important enough to route it from the main viewing
room where most off-ship communication was received to a private residence.

Sophia and Sylvan had gone into
their bedroom to give her some privacy and Truth was waiting in the hallway
outside for the same reason. Far was back at their suite, making something to
eat for the three of them but Becca suddenly found she had no appetite. For
some reason, she had a bad feeling about this call. A really bad feeling…

Everything’s
going to be fine,
she told
herself firmly.
Tess probably just needs
a shoulder to cry on.
Sylvan had told Sophia, who had in turn, told the
rest of the girls about the awful choice Garron had been forced to make. She
could scarcely imagine giving up all emotion for the rest of your life but that
was apparently what Truth’s brother had chosen to do. Anything to keep his
dr’gin
contained. Remembering the huge,
frightening creatures with their glowing eyes and knife-like teeth and claws
she had seen on Pax, she couldn’t blame him.

Despite her self-pep talk, her
finger shook as she pressed the button that brought the viewscreen to life. It
flickered and suddenly Tess’s face came into view. But this was Tess like Becca
had never seen her before.

Her hair was wild for one thing
and it was sticking up on one side, as though it had gotten wet and dried that
way. Her face was pale and spattered with blood and the white lace nightgown
she wore was torn and splotched with gore. She clutched it closed around her
breasts and the hand holding it shook.

But more than any of these
details, Becca was struck by her eyes. They were wide and shocked—the eyes of
someone who has survived some horrific event and hasn’t quite been able to
convince themselves they’re still alive yet.

“Tess?” she asked sharply when
the other girl just looked at her. “Tess, honey, are you okay?”

“I…” Tess shook her head. “I
don’t…don’t know.”

“Tess, look at me—listen to me.”
Becca tried to keep her voice calm and soothing. She wished she could reach
through the viewscreen and grab the other girl’s hand or hug her but all she
could do was talk. “Tell me what happened to you,” she insisted gently. “Come
on, tell me now.”

“He ate him.” Tess’s voice was
little more than a whisper. “He ate Pierce—my ex-husband. Every…every last bit
of him. Like…like a dog licking a plate clean. He
devoured
him.”

“He? He
who?”
Becca demanded, her heart thumping. But she was terribly
afraid that she knew the answer. The image of a huge, floating
dr’gin
flashed in her mind’s eye again.
Tess’s next words confirmed her worst fears.

“Garron,” she whispered. “He…he changed
into his
dr’gin
and then he devoured
Pierce. Even his clothes. Even his gun.
Everything.”

“Mother of God,” Becca murmured.
“Are you serious? But I thought he got an implant to control it—to keep it
inside.”

“It didn’t work.” Tess sounded
numb. “I mean, it might have if Pierce hadn’t broken into the cabin and started
carving me up with a knife.” She touched a long red cut that ran from her
temple all the way down to her jaw. “When Garron saw that, it was like…like
something inside him snapped. He…he changed. And then he…”

“Ate your ex-husband,” Becca
finished for her.

“That isn’t all…” Tears began to
leak down her cheeks. “Then he changed back and he tried to…he was going it…”
She sniffed. “I can’t say it. I don’t
want
to say it.”

“Say what? Never mind.” Becca
waved her hand. “You can tell me later. How many people know this? How many
saw?”

“Just me,” Tess whispered. “I…I
saw it all. And oh, Becca…I can’t
un
see
it. It…it’s in my mind. Like a movie clip that won’t stop playing. I keep
seeing him bite…biting off Pierce’s arms and legs and his…his
head.”

She buried her face in her hands
and her shoulders began to shake as silent sobs wracked her.

“Oh, honey….” Becca bit her lip.
She had always liked her brother-in-law, despite his inherent potential for this
kind of violence. But knowing that it had actually happened at last—that he had
let his
dr’gin
out and had killed and
eaten someone—was almost too much for her mind to encompass.

“I…I wish I could forget,” Tess
whispered. “But I can’t. I
can’t.”

“Listen, you stay right there.
You’re in the Asheville HKR building in North
Carolina—right?” That was where the communications
officer had told her the call was coming in from.

“Y-yes,” Tess said in a
trembling voice. “And I’m sorry to bother you but I didn’t know who else to
call.”

“You did the right thing,” Becca
told her. “You stay right there—I’m coming to you just as fast as I can.”

“Thank you.” Tess wiped at her
streaming eyes, smearing some of the blood that speckled her face across her
pale cheek. “Thank you so much.”

“Just stay there,” Becca said
again. “I’m on my way.”

She turned away from the view
screen and nearly ran right into Truth, who was standing just inside the
doorway.

“I heard everything,” he said
grimly before Becca could speak. “Come on, let’s go.”

* * * * *

Tess felt a little calmer by the
time the shuttle bearing Becca and Truth touched down. The Kindred commander on
duty was the same one who had loaned Garron the ship to go to Zeaga Four and he
had been kind and understanding when she asked for a private viewing room to
call Becca. Even better, he didn’t ask any questions, despite her startling
appearance.

After the call, while she was
waiting for Becca, he had provided her with a private room to shower and
change. He had even found a pair of old sweatpants and a sweatshirt someone had
left there. That someone must have been a Kindred because the clothes were far
too big for Tess. Still they were clean and whole and there was no blood on
them so she was glad to put them on—even if she did swim in them.

Now she was sitting on a couch,
sipping a hot, soothing cup of tea that one of the human girls manning the HKR
had made her. The warming liquid running down her throat seemed to steady her
nerves so Tess was feeling much more like herself when Becca and Truth finally
burst into the HKR building.

“Tess, oh my God, are you okay?”
Becca ran up to her, a worried expression on her lovely face.

“Better now.” Tess put down her
tea and got up to hug her. She was glad to feel the other girl’s arms around
her neck. “I’m sorry for calling you like that, acting so crazy,” she said in a
low voice when they broke apart. “I just…I guess I was in shock.”

“Of course you were.” Becca
pulled her back down on the couch and Tess picked up her tea again. “What you
saw sounds terrible.”

“It was,” Tess said quietly. She
took a deep breath. “It was like something out of a horror movie, honestly.”

“I have seen a
dr’gin
feed after the first
transformation,” Truth said in a low voice. “I understand your horror and distress.”

“I can understand the…what
Garron’s
dr’gin
did. What I don’t
understand is what happened…after.” Tess bit her lip.

“After?” Truth asked.

“After it was over with Pierce
and he changed back into himself.”

“What happened?” Becca said
gently. “It’s okay, Tess, you can tell us.”

“He…he attacked me. Or started
to, anyway.” Tess put a hand to her eyes, almost unable to tell the awful
details. The way Garron had acted after his
dr’gin
had eaten Pierce was in some ways worse than seeing Pierce torn apart and
swallowed up in the first place.

“He attacked you?” Becca sounded
like she was frowning. “That doesn’t sound like Garron.”

“It
wasn’t
like him—at all,” Tess exclaimed, looking up. “He…he seemed
to go crazy with lust. He was shoving me around and holding me down to kiss me
and…” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, he’d never acted like that before. I
just…can’t understand it.”

Truth cleared his throat. “Maybe
I can shed some light on the subject. What kind of a man was your ex-mate?”

“Abusive.” Tess looked down at
her tea. “Sadistic. Manipulative. I stayed with him a lot longer than I should
have but he made it really hard to get away—he was a police detective.”

“One of your peace keepers here
on Earth?” Truth asked.

Tess nodded. “I don’t have to tell
you in words—all you really need to know about Pierce is right here.” She
touched the side of her face where the long slice Pierce had made with his
knife still throbbed.

“What happened there?” Truth
asked.

“Remember I told you Pierce—my
ex—came after me with a knife?” She looked at Becca who nodded.

“That’s awful.”

“It wasn’t exactly a day at the
park,” Tess said dryly, touching her cheek again. “Pierce sliced me from my
temple all the way down to my jaw but he wanted to do more. He was…was talking
about pealing my face off.”

“Seven Hells,” Truth muttered
hoarsely. “What kind of a male would do such a thing?”

“Pierce would,” Tess told him.
“He
liked
hurting people—me
especially. But when he said that—that’s when Garron sort of lost it and turned
into his
dr’gin.”

Truth nodded. “Seeing the female
he cared for threatened must have been too much for him to bear. Even the
emotion dampening implant he had would not have been able to hold him in
check.”

“That makes sense,” Tess
acknowledged. “But what does any of this have to do with the way Garron was
acting?”

“Everything,” Truth said. “A
dr’gin
tends to take on some of the
characteristics of the person or persons it devours for a short time after the
first transformation.”

“It sounds like your ex was a
real piece of work,” Becca murmured. “So if Garron took on some of his
personality traits…”

“Those traits coupled with his
intense need to breed is probably what prompted the way he acted toward you,”
Truth said.

“He
did
back off when I was forceful enough. I had to…to slap him and
yell at him to make him stop.” Tess pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.
“So you’re saying that this uh, personality change is only temporary? Because I
have to tell you, it scared me to death.”

Truth cleared his throat.
“Typically the traits ingested along with the
dr’gin’s
first meal will fade quickly.” He frowned. “So would you
mind telling me…what happened after Garron uh, ‘backed off,’ as you put it?”

“Yes…” Becca leaned forward.
“Did the two of you make up? Where’s Garron?”

“I don’t know.” Tess shrugged.
“He said he was sorry, then his
dr’gin
came
out and took over again and he ran out the door. Or, um, floated out the door.
I have no idea how he did that. The way his
dr’gin
moves is so
weird.
”

At her words, Truth groaned softly
and Becca looked truly upset.

“What?” Tess was alarmed. “What
did I do? Was it bad?”

“It’s not your fault.” Becca
leaned forward to put a hand on her knee.

“What’s not my fault? What did I
do? What about Garron?” Tess fought to keep the panic out of her voice and
didn’t quite succeed.

Truth sighed heavily. “I am
afraid that Garron has gone
D’fex.”

“D’fex?
What the hell is that?”
Tess demanded.

“It’s a rogue
dr’gin.
A beast which is mindless,
hungry…and very,
very
dangerous,”
Truth said soberly.

“What? But why? What does that
even mean? How did it happen?”

“When a Rai’ku male enters his
first transformation, his
dr’gin’s
first
instinct is to feed,” Truth explained. “Once that hunger is satiated, he turns
back to his original form. At that time he has a very short window in which to
breed with the female his
dr’gin
has
chosen. Tell me, Tess, did Garron’s
dr’gin
stare at you or look into your eyes before he changed back?”

“Well, yes…” Tess remembered
feeling like the
dr’gin
was looking
into her somehow—searching for something. She also remembered wondering what
would happen if it didn’t find what it was looking for. “Yes, it did,” she said
again.

Truth nodded. “It was deciding
if you were the female it wanted—for itself and for Garron.”

“And what was the verdict?” Tess
asked.

“It chose you—obviously. If it
hadn’t, you wouldn’t be here with us alive right now,” Truth said.

“Oh…right.” Tess shivered as the
implications of that sank in.