Nightbred: Lords of the Darkyn (22 page)

Sam shook her head. “What happened to letting the women and children go first?”

“There aren’t any kids,” the old man told her, “and if you get a better offer from one of the women, I’ll double it.”

She took a moment to step close and shed enough scent to affect him. “You just volunteered to be the last one out of here. Also, if you do survive, you’re going to donate that million dollars to Gamblers Anonymous.”

“Last. Million. Gamblers.” He nodded and sat back down.

Once the rest of the hostages had been sent out, Sam led the old man out onto the deck and moved to a spot where the breeze would help spread her scent. The night sky and cold air chased off the lingering fatigue of day, and she was able to bring the crowd under her command in a few minutes. She sorted them into lines according to how many she thought each of the smaller boats could carry, and issued her final instructions.

“Climb one at a time down the ladders. As soon as the last person is on board, start the boat engines and drive north away from the yacht to Biscayne Bay.” She heard the sound of approaching engines and quickly finished with, “Dock your boats at the pier where the ferry picked you up, get into your cars, and go home.”

The hostages began shuffling toward the ladders as Sam ran to the starboard side of the yacht. Hundreds of small boats were closing in, each carrying warriors dressed in black and armed with rifles and swords. On the bow of the frontmost cruiser stood Lucan, his corn-silk mane tied back from his grim face, his hands empty and bare.

“No, no, not until we get them out of here.” Sam took off at a flat run for the walkway between the casino and the old ship.

* * *

Chris pressed back against the mast as two more guards walked within inches of her and Werren. Although she knew they couldn’t see or hear them, she still whispered. “How long do you think it’ll take Sam to get the people out of the casino?”

“Not very long,” Werren said. “Dutch ordered all the guards over to the
Horde
.” She hesitated before she asked, “If we live through this, what will happen to us?”

“You won’t be sex slaves anymore.” Chris glanced at her. “Why?”

Her mouth tightened. “We have not lived in the world beyond this ship for centuries. When they were mortal, the other women were harlots. This is all we know, this life.”

“I used to work in the sex trade,” Chris told her. “I had no family, no education, no skills, and it was the only way I could survive. Walking away from that scared me, but not as much as what I knew I’d become if I kept doing it. That’s the first step. You’ve got to want a better future for yourself.”

“I have no future. Your master will kill me for abducting his lady.” Werren looked miserable. “I deserve it.”

“Maybe you do, but that’s up to Sam,” Chris reminded her. “And if she wanted to kill you, you’d already be dead.” She saw a blur of movement overhead on the walkway to the casino. “Sam’s coming back. Something must have gone wrong.”

“Oh, no.” Werren looked out at the boats approaching the ship. “Your master and his men—” Her eyes widened, and she made a choking sound before her expression blanked, and the illusion concealing them abruptly shifted away.

“How like women, to hide what whores they are.” Dutch jumped down from the quarterdeck and seized Chris by the throat, holding the blade of his sword in front of her nose. “I had such plans for you, Pearl Girl. You were to be the first I changed once I had back my gems.” He dragged her over to the side of the ship. “Now you’ll feed me and the sharks.”

A shard of glass slashed down in front of Chris’s face and smashed against Dutch’s fist. Analise threw away the fragments left in her hand. “You turn her loose, Dutchman.”

“I never liked tupping you, you old bat, even when you made yourself pretty.” He touched the medallion at his throat, and Analise became a statue. “I never want to see your ugly mug again.”

The old woman made jerky movements as she clawed at her face, and as Chris shrieked for her to stop, she felt Dutch’s breath on her throat and the agonizing stab of his fangs.

Blood poured down her chest when he lifted his mouth and made an obscene sucking sound. “Not as sweet as I thought you’d be.” He turned his head as Analise collapsed to the deck, and Werren staggered over to him, dragging a struggling Sam along with her as she reached out and took the sword Dutch held out to her.

“Let her go,” Chris choked out, but Werren pulled Sam away until they disappeared behind the mainmast.

“Lucan,” he shouted, and Chris looked down to see her boss standing on the tower of a marlin boat. “Tell your men they and your territory are mine now, or my whore will behead yours.”

“He’s not here to surrender to you, you fool.”

Chris looked over as the two
tresori
traitors appeared, both pointing guns at Dutch.

“What shit do you spew now?” Dutch demanded as he jerked Chris around and used her as a body shield. “You said if I took his woman that he would give me anything to get her back.”

“We told you that so you would bring Alenfar here,” one of the traitors sneered. “He will be the bait we use to draw out the smith, and find the jewels for our master. For that, we need to control him—with his woman.”

“You used me for this?” Dutch sounded stunned. “But the jewels belong to me. Your master be damned.”

“You will never have them.” The
tresora
grinned, and then froze as a weapon fired. He glanced down with a puzzled expression at the front of his suit, and the gun he held pressed against the wet scarlet stain on his shirt.

“Anything gold touches is mine,” Dutch said, his tone gloating. “Like the ring on your finger.”

The
tresora
shot himself a second time and toppled over.

Dutch turned his head toward Werren, who was rushing toward him, and she stopped in her tracks. As the second
tresora
saw her lift the sword she still carried, he shot wildly at her. She neatly decapitated him before Sam lunged at her and kicked the sword out of her hand. They struggled for a moment before Sam slammed Werren into the mainmast. As the senseless woman fell against her, Sam hoisted her over her shoulder and started toward Dutch and Chris.

“The mortals lied to you, Hollander,” a familiar voice said from behind them. “Coburn hid the jewels in a secret cache, which I found. I have brought them back to you.”

Dutch dragged Chris around to face Jamys, who stood on the other side of the deck. Chris shook her head wildly, then screamed as the pirate struck a second time, tearing at her throat and drawing out her blood in huge swallows. When Jamys snarled, he raised his head. “You’ll get no more use out of her, boy. She’s done filled my belly proper. Drop your weapons.”

Sam surged forward and nearly dropped Werren. “You bastard.”

“All will be well, my lady.” Jamys removed his daggers and dropped them onto the deck, kicking them away. To Dutch he said, “Release Lady Samantha and the other women, and I will give you the gems . . . and my head.”

“Now, that is what I call a fair bargain.” Dutch reached over and shoved Samantha and Werren over the side, and bellowed at the other women to jump.

Chris felt cold, but she was too tired to shiver. She looked into Jamys’s eyes, and felt his thoughts entwine with hers. He meant to kill them both to stop Dutch and save the others, but he wasn’t afraid. Neither was she, Chris realized, and her heart skipped a beat as she began to droop. She used the last of her strength to whisper her agreement: “Yes.”

Jamys put a golden jeweler’s case on the deck, and shoved it across to Dutch, who pushed Chris away as he bent down to grab it. Then Jamys was there, lifting her in his arms, his lips cold against her brow.

“Three hundred years I’ve waited to behold these beauties again,” Dutch crooned as he fumbled with the latch on the case. “My pretty green rocks, what fortune we will know together.”

Chris felt her lungs flatten, and the thud of her heart slowing, and turned her face into Jamys’s chest.

“What is this?” Dutch growled. “These are not the emeralds that made me immortal.”

“No.” Jamys lifted a small device with a thumb switch. “They are not.”

Chris closed her eyes as Jamys pressed the switch, and the world turned to fire.

Chapter 20

A
fter the fire came the darkness, and the icy wind, and stars that filled up her burning eyes until she thought she would weep light. She put out her hand to touch them, and watched a small golden angel circle around it, kissing her fingertips.

Dying is like falling,
Chris thought as she drifted down, Alice in the rabbit hole.
Jamys. Will you be there to catch me?

I am here.
Jamys reached for her from above.
Take my hands.

But it’s so lovely here.
The terrible pain in her neck had gone, and so had the frightening gush of blood. She felt nothing but a drowsy peace now that she was dead. She wanted him to fall from earth with her, his arms around her as they danced with the angels.

Jamys kicked his way through the night to her, but when he took her in his arms, he tugged her back toward the light.
Come with me, love,
he murmured, holding her when she tried to pull away.
You promised you would take me with you. Let me show you the way to heaven.

The light hurt her eyes, and so did the press of the night as it tried to drag her back. She opened her mouth to tell him, and tasted the air, heavy and thick, like breathing in tears.

The night exploded into flames, shattered wood, icy slaps, and stinging hot wind. She writhed as Jamys turned her around, pressing his arm into her chest and forcing the tears from her mouth. The pain returned, huge and unbearable, bathing her inside and out with its merciless fires.

This was not heaven. He’d brought her to hell.

Jamys dragged her through the nightmare, slowly, steadily, until he lifted her and flung her onto an altar of icy metal. Chris rolled onto her back, her arms and legs clumsy, her hands clutching at nothing.

He lifted her again, carrying her through sloshing water to another hard place where she lay stunned and wretched as he pushed the dripping hair out of her face.

Stay with me, love,
he whispered inside her head.
Stay with me, and I will take you back to Paradise.

Chris closed her eyes.
Hurry, Jamys. Please hurry.

Slowly the horrible pain faded, and the night returned for her, seducing her back to the comforting darkness. Yet each time she tried to lose herself in it, Jamys was there, his hands against her face, his mouth on hers, the sad poetry of his voice pouring into her heart.

Keep fighting for me.

My love.

You are stronger than you know.

My life.

Paradise awaits us.

My woman.

Never leave me.

My wife.

Chris slipped between the darkness and Jamys, floating to and fro until she thought she would never get off the languid carousel. Then something cool and wet touched her lips, and filled her with such sweetness that she thought the pleasure of it would swallow up her soul.

Drink of my love for you, Christian.

Instead of the night a dull grayness came over her, and dragged her away, taking Jamys along, too. How long they remained there, she didn’t know, but he held on to her even then, and refused to be parted from her.

If you will not stay with me, then I will go with you.

When she lifted her head she was standing on the beach, her body draped in an old, soft man’s shirt, her hair blowing in her eyes. When she lifted a hand to push it back, she realized there was so much more of it than she’d had before; the wind drew it out in long, gleaming dark curls.

It dismayed her until she recalled something she’d read once about death.
When you die, your hair keeps growing.

The island was just as quiet as she remembered, and the dark waters surrounding it were just as empty. The shy half-moon slipped behind a streamer of dark cloud, and on the horizon, the first ribbon of dark amethyst stretched, wrapping the gift of the coming dawn.

Jamys came up behind her, and encircled her waist with his arms.
It’s all right, love. Come back to bed.

Is that where we were?
She leaned back against him.
I can’t remember. I don’t know how I got here.

I brought you.
He turned her to face him, and his expression was so tight and drawn she lifted her fingers to stroke his cheek.
I thought I had lost you.

I must have been sleepwalking.
She reached up to touch her mouth to his, and felt the faintest stirring of a strange hunger.
I love Paradise. I never want to leave it again.

Nor do I.
He tugged her close, and tucked her head under his chin.
But we cannot stay here forever. It is time for us to go.

She pulled back.
Go where?

* * *

Sam stood at the boardwalk railing and surveyed the deserted beach. She’d never once seen it so empty. Always determined to enjoy their tropical vacation no matter what, the snowbirds and out-of-towners would brave anything from freezing temperatures to gale-force winds. But tonight no one occupied the golden sands or paddled in the blue-green ocean, and the only light came from the flames blazing along two rows of bronze braziers marching down to the water’s edge.

Between each ivory pole stood a
jardin
warrior dressed in a dark suit. Each man wore a black armband, and held a sword across the gap between the braziers to form a canopy of steel.

Sam felt Lucan approaching a moment before the scent of night-blooming jasmine wrapped around her. “How did you get rid of the tourists?”

“Only with gentle persuasion.” Night-blooming jasmine engulfed her as a velvet-gloved hand touched the small of her back. “You need not do this, love. I can see to it.”

“No.” She hated funerals almost as much as she despised death, and she was so tired. But Chris had been the sister that mortal life had never given her, and she had died with Jamys to save them all. Sam looked down at the wreath of red and white roses that Burke had given her. “I have to let her go.”

Lucan turned his head as a group of dark-cloaked figures approached them. His gray eyes turned to chrome as they halted several feet away. “I granted you and your sisters freedom, Duchess. Now I suggest you use it to leave my territory.”

The tallest stepped forward and politely pushed back her hood. “Forgive our intrusion, Suzerain, but we are not yours to command. We are hers.” Werren’s gaze shifted to Sam’s face. “My lady. May we be allowed to pay our respects to your friends?”

She didn’t want to do this now, either. “Yeah, sure.” She gestured toward the braziers. “We’ll join you in a minute.”

Once the women had moved away, Lucan turned to her. “Yours to command, is it? That would mean they gave you their oath. Their blood oath.”

“Things on the ship got a little crazy,” she reminded him. “I didn’t ask for it, but Werren insisted, because if they didn’t, they couldn’t help us, and with all the brainwashing Dutch did to them I thought . . . look, you had to be there, okay?”

He glanced down at the women. “What in God’s name are you going to do with fifty-three immortal sex slaves?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Buy them some decent clothes. Find them better jobs.” She couldn’t think of anything else.

His lips twitched. “Surprise me on my birthday?”

Sam didn’t recognize the laugh that escaped her, nor could she end it. She laughed and laughed until the sound shriveled in her throat and wretchedness overtook her. She saw her fists hit her lover’s jacket before they opened to clutch at it, and as Lucan’s arms came around her to keep her upright, she felt something fall inside her.

I owe you a life.
Chris’s face came back to her in every detail: the lightning flash of her smile, the glow of laughter and love in her eyes.
Let me save yours.

She swallowed until the sobbing retreated to her heart. “God, I miss her so much.”

Lucan held her until she calmed, and kept one arm around her as he reached down to pick up the wreath that had fallen at her feet. He produced a silk handkerchief and gently dried the tears from her face before he tucked her against his side. “Come now. We’ll say good-bye to them together.”

As they walked down between the torches to the water, the men bowed their heads, and Werren and the other women curtsied. Lucan stopped, turning around with her as he surveyed the other Kyn.

“We all of us know loss,” he said, his voice deep and soft. “Families and friends, loving and beloved. Those who walked with us in life, who were taken from us in peace and in battle. Tonight we count among them our warrior brother Lord Jamys Durand, and our mortal sister Christian Lang. I know they wished only to be together.” He glanced down at the wreath of flowers. “They sacrificed their love, and their lives, so that all of the Dutchman’s other victims might escape. I will never forget their courage or their generosity.”

Sam reached into her pocket and took out the heart-shaped crystal Chris had left behind on her desk. “One day you were a tough little street kid, and the next you’d become this strong, smart woman. You were more than a friend to me. You became my sister. I didn’t realize it was happening. Before you I never had a family. I don’t know why I never told you that. I should have.” Sam tucked the crystal into the heart of one of the red roses, closing its petals over it before she looked out at the sea. “Take care of her for me, Jamie.”

Sam placed the wreath on the edge of the next wave that rolled in, and straightened to watch the sea carry it out with the tide. It floated for a long time, whirling in a slow circle before a long curl of foam swept over it and it disappeared from sight.

Werren and the other women came to stand beside Sam and Lucan. As the courtesan murmured something in an old language, each woman tossed a coin into the water. Sam thought it was some Kyn variety on a wishing well before she realized the coins they were giving to the sea were actually Dutch’s golden medallions.

“You’re going to make some guy with a metal detector very rich tomorrow,” Sam said to Werren.

“’Tis fitting,” the courtesan said. “Dutch loved his gold as deeply as he hated mortals. Your lord has made it clear that we are unwelcome here, my lady. Do you wish us to go away now?”

“Is that what you and the girls want to do?”

Werren glanced at Lucan before she answered. “We have been a long time kept away from the world. None of us know how to properly conduct ourselves. But we have seen that you have very few Kyn females among your
jardin
, and men cannot properly attend to you and your ladies.” Werren nodded at the men of the garrison. “In exchange for sanctuary and instruction on how to live in this world, we will make ourselves your maidservants.”

“You were slaves. You don’t have to be maids or serve anyone for any reason, ever again.” The sound of a boat motor penetrated Sam’s misery, and she looked down the length of the pier to see the vague shape of a speedboat running slow and without lights. To Lucan, she said, “I think your gentle persuasion just wore off.”

Sam followed Lucan as he headed for the pier. “Don’t bother chasing them away,” she said, peering at the pair who had stepped off the boat. “We’re pretty much done here.”

Lucan stopped in his tracks. “On this I fear I must disagree with you, love.”

“What’s this? You’re arguing with me, instead of treating me like . . . an . . . invalid.” The scent carried on the breeze reminded Sam of sandalwood and orange blossoms, and hit her like a sap to the skull.
“Jamie?”

It couldn’t be them, of course. The tall boy barely had an inch of dark hair covering his head, while the girl beside him had long, luxurious curls that fell to her waist. But as they drew closer, Sam saw their faces and grabbed Lucan’s hand. “You can disagree with me any time you like, my man.”

“My lord, my lady.” Jamys bowed and surveyed the Kyn staring at them from the beach. “Forgive the intrusion, which I hope is welcome.”

“You’re forgiven.” Sam launched herself at him, hugging him before she turned to grab Chris. “You exploded with the ship. We just did the funeral thing for you.” She kissed her friend, hugged her, and then shook her. “Where the hell have you been? Why didn’t you call us? Were you in a hospital? You blew up. I
saw
you blow up.”

“Yeah, we did kind of blow up. After that, I was really lost in space,” Chris said, and made a pained face. “And sort of dead for a week.”

Lucan took hold of her chin and studied her face. “She is no longer mortal.” He eyed Jamys. “You changed her. How?”

“Wait,” Sam said, looking over at the other Kyn. “Let’s go say hello to everyone who was just mourning you, and head back to the stronghold where we can have this discussion in private.”

It took some time to do that, as all the warriors and the women from the ship gathered around them to express their surprise and happiness. Lucan finally dismissed the men, and sent Aldan to take the women to one of their hotels. Once they reached the penthouse, however, Jamys had little in the way of answers to offer.

“The explosion sent us both into the water on the far side of the ship. At first I was separated from Christian, but after an hour of searching I found her, and brought her to the surface. By that time the fleet had left, but I was able to swim with her to where I left my boat anchored. From there I took her to a house on a nearby private island, where she remained with hardly a spark of life in her for the next week. I waited for as long as I dared to see if she would make the change. I was preparing to bring her back to the mainland when she awoke as she is.”

Lucan frowned at Chris. “What is that mark on her neck?”

“This?” Chris tugged down the collar of her T-shirt to display a cross-shaped burn scar. “The blast drove my mom’s crucifix into my skin. Jamys said he had to dig it out of me, and then things really got weird.”

“When I removed the cross, the open wound glowed with a green light,” Jamys said. “A few moments later, it healed itself from the inside out.”

“Did you use your blood to heal it?” Sam asked.