Taken (3 page)

But her life had changed, most of it good, while some was bad. Despite the time that had passed her by, the night of her conversion was still hazy. The last clear memory she had was of her fight with Laryn, and the fear she'd felt at his attack. She'd been so sure that her life would end in that cave. Vaguely, she could still feel the vicious tear of his fangs as he'd ripped into her throat. The pain had been enough to bring her back from unconsciousness. Thankfully, he hadn't raped her, but he would have, had he had more time. He'd taken great delight in explaining that to her, and what her future in Diabolos had held.

Keely shivered, her mind locked into the horrible memories. In just that brief time, Laryn had terrified her beyond belief. What would her life had been, had he been successful? It was a sobering thought. Keely doubted she would have still been alive. No female could have survived that type of existence, not even a vampire.

She came to a stop, putting a hand out on the wall as she sucked in air. The guards behind her rushed to her side, concerned expressions on their faces. “Would you like me to summon your mate?” one of them asked, looking helpless. The ridiculousness of his expression was enough to snap her out of it. In a battlefield, the men were brave and ferocious. Put them with a pregnant female, and they all fell apart.

Keely waved them both away. “No, but I appreciate the offer,” she told them calmly, standing up straight and tall. “I'm fine now.” It wasn't the first time something like that had happened to her, although she hoped that one day she wouldn't be haunted by the ghosts of her past anymore. Between the memories that come from surviving on Earth, and then Laryn's abduction, she wasn't a stranger to nightmares and fear. It didn't matter that she was safe and happy. Sometimes, the past still affected her.

Usually, it only happened at night, when she was in a deep sleep. Several time since mating Kosmas, he'd been forced to wake her, as he pulled her out of a bad dream. He was always quick to console her, even when she wept bitterly. Why couldn't the past just leave her be? It was dead, her future bright, safe, and protected. She knew it... but her subconsciousness seemed to be lagging.

Kosmas had reassured her it would just take time. She hoped he was right. There was nothing worse than waking up in the darkness while locked in a terrible nightmare, especially when the nightmare originated from reality. The things she dreamed were things that she'd experienced. It was hell on her to keep reliving the memories. And though they were slowing, the nightmares not as common as they once were, all it took was one to reanimate the fear.

If she were having them, it was likely that the other women from Earth were, too. After all, they'd each experienced similar circumstances. It didn't matter what city or country they were from, the world was bad if you weren't from the rich class. And as far as Keely knew, none of the concubines were.

She arrived at the hallway that would lead her to Kosmas. It was the first time she'd been back since landing on Legionnaire. Stopping to inhale deeply to calm herself, she vowed to put her past behind her. None of it mattered, not anymore. The present was perfection, her future to be envied. She was loved by the most powerful male on Legionnaire, if not the entire galaxy. Anything that had happened before was over, never to return.

A guard walked out of the double doors, leading a blindfolded female with her hands tied in front of her. They startled her, as she stepped back to get out of the way. Keely didn't speak. There were no words that would have been appropriate, considering the circumstances. The terrified woman whimpered as the guard marched her away. Keely swallowed hard before stepping through the doors.

The corridor that awaited her was long and silent. At the opposite end stood Kosmas, but he wasn't alone, much to her surprise. Zander stood beside him, his blond hair gleaming underneath the muted lights, his face set in an impassive mask. They hadn't spoken since the night she'd mated, much to Keely's disappointment. She hoped that the last several months had altered his feelings in regards to her, and that they could settle into an easy friendship. She genuinely liked the tall, fair-headed vampire... she just wasn't in love with him.

With the exception of the two powerful males, the hallway was empty. It appeared that the unloading of the concubines was at an end. The vampires had stuck with their pattern of only collecting five at a time, or so she hoped. Secretly, Keely was relieved to have missed the other four. It had been a mistake for her to come. She wasn't quite ready to participate in this part of Golden Harbor's society, at least not yet.

It was too late to leave. Kosmas winked at her from across the hallway, as he moved in her direction. Zander followed him, nodding at her cordially before looking away. It was a start. Seeing her mate lightened her mood. Keely smiled as she walked forward to join them.

“Missing me already?” Kosmas teased as he pulled her to him, leaning forward to press a kiss to her lips. He towered over her, his muscular chest and arms chasing away the last of her worries and fear.

“That's an understatement,” she muttered in a low voice, but he heard it anyhow, judging from the sexy grin that spread across his face. Zander looked away from them, as if he'd suddenly spotted something interesting on the wall across from them. He looked uncomfortable. The atmosphere shifted within the corridor, leaving Keely feeling awkward and out of sorts.

Kosmas cleared his throat, pulling her eyes up to his face. As usual, he looked calm and collected, as if there wasn't a force great enough in the universe to ever shake his cool facade. It comforted her. No matter what happened, Kosmas could always be depended on to handle it. And as the months had passed by, Keely had slowly started to lean on him, instead of depending only on herself.

Surprisingly, the change within her felt natural. Over the years, she'd grown used to being in control, used to having to fight to survive the elements around her. Trusting others would have meant her death. Keely had quickly learned that living in horrible circumstances changed even the best of people. Faced with hunger and illnesses, there wasn't much a person wouldn't do to better their own situations. Even if it meant hurting or killing others.

But she trusted Kosmas with everything that she had in her... and she hadn't been wrong in doing so. Who would have ever thought that living amongst vampires would be safe, even sublime? She'd found peace and joy on Legionnaire, and she'd found love with Kosmas.

“Well, you have impeccable timing,” he announced, releasing her enough to guide her back down the corridor. Zander made no move to follow. “I'm all but done here.”

Turning his head to look over his shoulder, Kosmas asked Zander, “Will you be staying at the palace? Or do you already have arrangements to stay with your family?”

A guard stepped out into the corridor, his movements silent. Despite the quietness of his actions, as well as the one with him, something alerted Keely to their presence. She stopped, her head turning in their direction. A gasp of horror escaped her lips, the blood rushing from her head as she stared at Legionnaire's newest arrival. It was horrifying, rendering her completely speechless.

Both Zander and Kosmas turned at the same time, their eyes widening immediately. Neither one of them spoke. Kosmas dropped his chin to glance at her, his lips compressing into a tight line as he took in her reaction. Zander didn't seem to notice. Instead, his eyes remained locked on the silent guard as he led his captive in their direction, an aghast expression on his normally composed face.

Keely was furious at what she saw, and thoroughly angered by both men's reactions. She yanked away from Kosmas, filled with hurt and even betrayal. She'd thought better of her mate. Never would she have ever expected to find herself in the predicament she was currently in, but it was glaringly obvious that she didn't know him as well as she thought she had. This time, Kosmas had pushed her too far.

“How dare you?” she hissed at him, gesturing toward the guard... and the child he guided down the hallway. Just like the other concubines she was blindfolded, but thankfully, they hadn't bound her. At Keely's words, the girl whimpered. The guard stared at the trio of three in front of him, a wary expression on his face. Keely despised him. “What kind of depravity is this? Are the vampires here so desperate that they would resort to the practice of stealing children?”

Emotion welled up within her, nearly choking her. Keely felt sick and disillusioned, her heart breaking not only for the child, but from her grief at discovering a side of her mate that she hadn't knew existed. Kosmas narrowed his dark eyes at her as they quickly filled with anger. Keely glared back.

“Enough,” he roared, taking a step away from her as if he couldn't bear the thought of touching her. “I won't be judged and condemned by my mate for something I had no knowledge of.” He turned his face away to look at the two, but not before Keely saw the glimmer of hurt in his dark eyes. It left her unmoved. As leader of Golden Harbor, it was his responsibility to know what went on. Seeing the child was too difficult for her to overlook, even if Kosmas preferred she did.

“What is this?” Kosmas asked the other man, waving his hands in front of him in an incredulous manner. “Who authorized you to take a child? And what about her parents?”

The guard cleared his throat nervously. The girl next to him started to sob. Imagining her fear was a terrible thing. Tears leaked out of Keely's own eyes in response. “Nobody,” he replied, looking as if he wished he were anywhere but there. “She was part of the herd that the humans had gathered, so we loaded her up. From what we were told, her family is dead. She has nobody on Earth to care for her.”

“Dammit,” Kosmas spat, running a hand through his hair in frustration. He slung the clipboard against the far wall, as papers flew everywhere. Nobody moved to pick them up. “Didn't it ever occur to you to just leave her?” He stopped to shake his head, his nostrils flaring as he inhaled deeply. “What are we supposed to do with a human child? She's too young to be mated.”

The guard sighed. Keely hadn't seen him before, but it wasn't unusual. Kosmas had a lot of guards, far too many for her to ever be able to identify. “I overheard two of the humans talking,” he explained, in a toneless voice. “It was while we were loading up the space plane. The mortals are having problems locating enough concubines to meet our demands. Part of it is from laziness, but part of it is simply due to their diminishing population. Earth's leaders have no contact with those in their general population, and they don't have the resources to force them to submit to blood tests. Not anymore. They've lost interest in providing us with concubines, and they don't believe we will hold them to it. They plan on sending what they have, but that's all. Once they've run out of women, they don't plan on sending anymore.”

Kosmas looked... furious. In the muted lighting, the planes of his well-defined face looked harsh and shadowed. During the guard's speech, his fangs had erupted. “Oh, really?” he asked, in a cold, dangerous voice. “It sounds as if I'm long overdue to a trip back to Earth. Their arrogance is astounding, especially considering how close they are to extincting themselves. I won't tolerate this type of defiance, be it from vampire or human. We bow to nobody.”

The thought of Kosmas returning to Earth chilled her, despite her anger with him. She was quickly regretting her rash assumption that he approved of the girl being taken, but what other kind of conclusion could she have reached? Not much occurred on Golden Harbor without Kosmas' approval, especially when it came to the concubines.

Kosmas coldly ignored her, as if she weren't even there. It was clear to all of them that he was furious with her. Despite his anger, though, Keely wouldn't back down. “You have to send her back,” she broke in, holding her head high as she slowly looked at each vampire. “You have no choice. She has to be returned.”

“I could organize a crew,” Zander interrupted suddenly, raking a hand through his own hair. Keely was surprised by his offer. She shot him a grateful look, but he didn't appear to notice. “If I get started now, we could leave within the hour. We'd be back in plenty of time for your Christmas celebration.”

Kosmas sneered at Keely and Zander, shaking his head vehemently as he released a sharp bark of laughter. Finally, he settled his gaze on Keely, the angering simmering in his dark depths almost like a slap. “You're so quick to believe that we're the animals, but it was your own precious humanity that sent this girl to us. But you, my little self-righteous hypocrite, want to send her back to the very people that were only too happy to hand her over to a group of vampires? What do you think they thought they were sending her into?”

He stopped for emphasis, letting his words sink in deeply. Keely blinked in shame and humiliation, her eyes overflowing with tears.
He was right,
she realized belatedly, filled with dismay. It was likely they'd believed they were sending the girl into certain death, at the very least, but they hadn't blinked an eye about doing so. Her own people had sacrificed a child to protect themselves, not caring about what kind of horrors awaited her.

And she wanted to send the child back to them?
Not anymore, but she didn't want to see the girl mated before her time, either. Despite how foolish she felt, she refused to back down to her mate. Maintaining her composure, she glared at him with a prideful tilt to her chin. As wrong as she might have been, she hadn't deserved the way he'd publicly humiliated her. And the issue was nowhere near resolved. How Kosmas handled the next several minutes could very well set the pace for the rest of their lives. Good or bad.