Born of Silence (65 page)

Yeah, okay, that sounded extremely farcical and unlikely when said out loud. But it was the truth.

He laughed at her. “Are you terminally stupid? Or do you think I am? How could the leader of the Resistance not know the face of your enemy?”

Heat scalded her cheeks, and it seriously angered her that she couldn’t set the man straight.

“Z?”

She turned to see Darling watching her closely.

He slid his gaze to the gerent. “Is everything all right?”

Forcing herself to smile past the knot in her stomach, she nodded. “Fine, sweetie.”

Darling took her hand into his. “If you’re not feeling well, we can leave at any time. Just say the word.” He lifted her hand and pressed her palm to his lips. The fire in his gaze was unmistakable as he inhaled her scent and held her hand like a sacred object.

She savored the warmth of his lips on her skin, and it made her ache to take him home and pick up where they’d left off before coming here. And by the way Darling stroked her palm, she knew he felt the same way.

No, she had no doubt whatsoever about his sexual orientation or his devotion to her. “It’s all good.”

For the rest of the meal, Darling kept his hand on hers and made sure that the gerent didn’t speak to her again.

As soon as the meal was over, he rose and, breeching royal protocol, held her chair for her.

“Wow,” someone said near them. “You’d almost think he
was
straight given the way he treats her.”

“It’s all a show for us. Don’t be fooled. Nylan has always said that he gives the best head of anyone he’s ever slept with.”

“Yeah, I heard he moans like a bitch in heat whenever you screw him, and that he prefers to be the sub who takes it up his ass.”

She felt Darling tensing at their whispered insults. So much for his telling her that those comments didn’t bother him.

She started for the gossipers, but he tightened his hand on hers.

“Let it go.”

“But—”

“It’s fine, Z. Really.”

She ground her teeth as anger burned deep inside. “It’s not to me.”

“You know the difference between the governor and the Aris, don’t you?” This time, she suspected the gerent talking wanted her to overhear him. Yet his question made no sense. The Aris was a League station that had malfunctioned and crashed into a base on Nera V when she and Darling were children. It’d been one of the worst tragedies in League history.

“What?” another gerent asked.

“The Aris went down on only two thousand men.”

She headed for Hauk.

He arched a brow at her approach.

“Give me your weapon. Now.” She held her hand out for it.

He laughed. “I would love to, but Darling would kick my ass if I did.”

“I’m going to kick it if you don’t.”

Darling pulled her back against him. “It’s okay, Z. They always do this. I really am used to it.”

“You’re their governor. They should respect you.”

He gave her a teasing grin. “This from the leader of the Resistance?”

Guilt over that gnawed at her. How could she have ever sanctioned anyone to fight against him? She wanted to beat her own butt for that.

Meanwhile the jokes echoed around them until she wanted to scream.

“C’mon,” Darling said quietly. “Let’s go. We’re done here.”

Still, it infuriated her.

But in the end, she knew he was right. Attacking them over those insults would be a bad mistake. If Darling went crazy on them, they could petition the League to have him removed from power. Even jailed.

Or institutionalized.

Most likely, that was why they were doing it. They wanted to goad him into attacking.

Unwilling to give them any kind of satisfaction, she followed Darling and tried to ignore them, too.

With his friends and family in tow, he led her down the hallway to where they’d checked her wrap on her arrival.

Darling had just put it on her when another gerent laughed at them.

“Yes, but you have to envy him
that
ass. You know, she’d have to be one hell of a lay to get him hard for her. I bet that whore can suck the glaze off porcelain.”

Even though Darling wore those dark glasses, she saw the flash of unmitigated fury in his eyes. Now, she finally understood where his strength came from. She could take insults against her. They didn’t matter. It was only the ones against him that made her livid.

Zarya cupped his face with her hands and forced him to look at her and not the man who’d insulted her. “Let it go, Darling. He’s not worth it.”

Darling forced himself to listen to her and to calm down. She was right. He needed to walk away. He couldn’t afford to attack them.

That was his thought until the gerent spoke up again. “Make sure to give her your number, then. A cheap skank ass bitch like that would hike her skirt and open her legs for anyone.”

With a snarl of rage, Kere slammed down on him. One second, Zarya held him.

In the next…

21

Darling went for the gerent’s throat so fast that no one could stop him. By the time they realized he’d made it past Zarya, he had the man on the ground, repeatedly pounding his head against the floor with a fury so strong, it crackled in the air around them.

Zarya was amazed the man’s head didn’t split open given the force Darling used. While she had seen Darling fight as Kere many times, she’d honestly forgotten just how ferocious he could be. This was a side of him that she never saw in private.

And he was about to kill the man on the ground.

Moving with an incredible speed, Nykyrian pulled Darling off the gerent and hauled him back. But that didn’t last long.

Using a move and strength no one expected, Darling flipped Nykyrian off him with an ease that was nothing shy of a miracle, especially given how much larger Nykyrian was. The throw caused Darling’s dark glasses to fly off his face and shatter on the floor.

Stunned by the unexpected counterattack, Nykyrian landed against the far wall in an unceremonious lump. When Hauk went in for a try, Darling caught him by one arm and slung the Andarion in the opposite direction. He cut through two of the gerent’s
bodyguards before he returned to ruthlessly beat the man who’d insulted her.

“He’s going to kill Giran,” Maris breathed by her side.

By Darling’s lethal expression, she believed it. But what could they do? She glanced over to Nykyrian who was back on his feet and trying to assure his wife that he wasn’t hurt.

Three gerents moved in to stop Darling. Bad mistake on their part. It was only then that she realized he’d been holding back when he fought the gerents’ guards and Nykyrian and Hauk.

There was no such mercy for the nobles. Obviously, he’d been wanting a piece of them for a long time.

Darling caught the first one with a punch so hard, it made a resounding thud against the man’s chest and sent him straight to the floor. The second one took a hit to the nose that shattered it. The gerent staggered back, screaming like a girl on a playground as he cupped his face with both hands. The third lost his knee to one swift quick.

And as Darling cut through them with an ease that was scary, the nobility around them panicked more.

“He is insane!”

“You see! He has no right to rule.”

“Where did he learn to fight like that?”

“Did you see him throw the assassin and his own guard?”

“May the gods help us with him in power.”

“We’re doomed!”

“No wonder Arturo kept him in institutions. He must have been terrified of him since he was a kid.”

As their comments and anger against Darling built, she knew she had to do something.

Fast. But what?

Suddenly, a stupid idea came to her.

Before she could think better of it, she grabbed Darling’s arm as he went for Giran again.

He turned around, his hand raised to strike her, too. Just as she thought he’d put her through the wall behind her, he caught himself. His breathing ragged, he stared at her and lowered his hand. The agony on his beautiful face hit her like a blow. He cupped her head in the palm of his hand, then gently pulled her into his arms.

She hugged him close as his heart pounded fiercely against her breasts. He continued to cradle her head and hold on to her like she was his lifeline.

Maris approached them slowly. “Are you better?” he whispered to Darling.

His eyes started jerking. “No. I didn’t get a chance to kill the bastard.” He turned in Giran’s direction. “No one insults my lady. No one.”

Nykyrian wiped the blood from his lips as he neared Darling with a look that said he craved retaliation. Luckily, he didn’t give in to his anger. “We need to get you both out of here. And whatever you do,” he said to Darling, “say nothing else.” That last sentence came out as a fierce growl.

Darling inclined his head to him.

As they started walking, the gerents noticed Darling’s eyes.

“He’s blind?”

“No wonder he had on sunglasses.”

“How can a blind, insane man lead an empire as powerful as ours?”

“I wouldn’t trust him to lead a herd of dogs to water. Never mind lead us.”

His jaw locked to keep from responding to their erroneous speculations, Darling allowed his friends to escort them from the room. He kept his arm around her waist as if he was afraid of letting her go.

Once they were clear of the building, Caillen released a low whistle. “That was a strategic blunder the kind of which
I
normally make. You know, Dar… the ones
you
usually crawl my ass over when I do them?”

“Yeah,” Ryn agreed. “That little explosion of temper just cost us every nano-inch of ground we’d taken.”

Darling glared at Ryn. “I don’t care.”

Ryn scoffed. “Hope you feel that way in the morning.”

“I will. Trust me.”

Hauk tested his teeth with his thumb. “I forgot how hard you punch, you little bastard. If I lose a tooth, I’m taking it out of your hide.”

Kiara cast Darling an evil grimace. “Better be glad I’m pregnant. I’m not exactly fond of seeing my husband thrown into walls, especially since we were only trying to help
you
.”

Drake sighed. “I understand why you did it, Dar. But damn… this is one ugly mess.”

Darling glanced at her. “You want to pile on here with your opinion against me, too?”

Zarya shook her head. “Not at all. I totally get why you did it. I just wish I’d punched a couple of them for what they said about you. It seriously pains me that I didn’t. Can I please go back and break on them?” She started back for the building.

Smiling, Darling caught her against him and turned her around to keep her moving forward.

Damn him. It wasn’t fair that he got to pound on them when she was the one who really wanted a piece of their hides.

“We all get why he did it,” Syn said. “There’s not a one of us who wouldn’t have done it had it been our better half they insulted. Honestly, I’m only surprised you kept him from killing them.”