The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series (37 page)

“Don’t be afraid, Beauty.”
His tone dripped with loving, soothing, concern.

“I am afraid. I’m afraid because I am alone in the dark and I don’t know what has happened to my…”
she searched for words he would relate to,
“my eggs.”

“Family.”

“Yes. You remember!”
Long ago, on the first jump, Kate had compared how she felt about her teammates to how he felt about his egg siblings.

“Yes. I am your family now, Beauty. We are bonded.”

“I need Corey. You remember him?”

“Yessss!”
His tone menaced.

“Why are you so mad at Corey?”

“He is the reason you are broken.”

“I’m not broken. Corey is the reason I’m whole. I love him.”

“You are not whole. You are broken. We will fix you as soon as he is dead.”

“What? NO! You cannot harm Corey! I forbid it! If you touch one hair on his head I will never forgive you! DO YOU HEAR ME?”

Silence.

“Dagan!”

“You are broken. I should stop talking to you until you are whole.”

Panic seized Kate’s heart. She didn’t want to lose her only connection to the living
. “But you won’t stop will you, Dagan? We are bonded, right?”

“Right.”

Kate let out a sigh of relief. She would do almost anything to see the sun again. If she told Dagan what he wanted to hear, maybe he would bring her out of the cave. Her only friend here, she couldn’t lose him. She needed him. Her heart swelled with gratitude and deep emotion for his presence during this horrible time.

“Years! A decade! I’ve been trapped on this world for a lifetime, Dagan!”

“Yes, Beauty, but I have given you everything. Aren’t you happy here with me?”

“Oh!” She pressed her hand to his soft under belly and stroked. “Of course, my sweet darling. You are the one spot of light for me.”

He purred in contentment and chomped into his dinner, bones cracking and flesh squishing.

Kate’s lip curled in disgust. “Darling, you must learn to dine with more dignity.” She wiped a stream of blood off of her leg, stood and walked to the cliff edge. The Kiarnusk poked and prodded the slaves into service. With The Traptor complete, the time arrived to get into costume and play the simpering fool she had once been. Time to make him pay for breaking her. She turned and descended into the caves.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): DONNIE DUDGEON

Donnie’s mind reverberated with thousands of dragons trumpeting their confirmation. He stumbled. No! There had to be another way! His mind fastened onto a plan to rescue them. First, he’d find Kate and release her from the dragon’s control, so there would be no retaliation directed at her. He had decided the dragons had changed her. If he could break that connection she would turn back to their Kate. At least he hoped she would. Then together, they would release the Keepers from their cage. That had been his genius plan.
No more time
.

Within 24 hours, every living being would be dead, or Corey would be dead. He couldn’t stand the thought of either scenario. He needed to find Kate and find her now!

“No! Corey!” The scream ricocheted down the corridor.

Is that Kate? Had she somehow been released from the dragon’s control?
Her anguished screams indicated so. He ran toward the sound of her cries.

He turned corner after corner, running forward, skidding to a stop, backtracking.
This is taking too long!
It seemed he had been running through this maze of a cavern forever. The sounds of her screaming ended long ago, leaving him in a frantic guessing game. He doubted if he ever knew the direction her screams came from. Sound echoed and bounced around the rock walls. He considered giving up and going back to the upper ridge when he passed a small fissure in the corridor that he had not seen before. He turned sideways and squeezed through to find himself in a large chamber. Panning his flashlight across the room, he found Kate chained to the far corner.

“Kate!”

“Corey. Corey,” she whispered between spasms of hiccoughs.

“Kate! It’s me, Donnie.”

She couldn’t hear him. He approached her cautiously.
Is this broken girl the same person who commanded the Rhinodudes?
It didn’t seem possible. He decided her mind had already receded into some haven to protect her from the worst of her grief.

Chained to a spike in the wall, Kate trembled. Donnie took the locksmith kit out of his pack and began working on the lock at her wrist.

“Kate, hon. It’s me. It’s Donnie. I’m here to save you.” He kept a stream of comforting words and sounds rushing to her as he examined her scored wrists.

“Corey. Corey,” she chanted his name over and over. Stuck in a loop, agony found no release. Eyes wild with grief, she tried to wrench her wrist out of his hand.

“Kate,” he crooned. This poor girl had endured enough. The loss of team mates, her whole family, it seemed death chased her at every turn. Jumping from one dangerous world into another all targeted to torture, maim, and end her, she struggled for survival and sanity. Now that her mind had been released from the dragon’s hold, she’d finally fractured. No one was that strong. “I’m here, sweetie. I’m here.”

She stopped the whispered chant and slowly lifted her eyes to his. Recognition dawned with a shivering huff. He wrapped a jump jacket around her frail shoulders and held her.

“Kate,” Donnie whispered into her hair, gently swaying as he had with his own daughters countless times. “Shhh, now, I’m here.” Tears welled, and he blinked them away.

He took jump pants out of his pack and dressed her. She stilled, rigid, but allowed him to clothe her. He wiped her face, then washed the cuts on her wrists as she twisted her palms together. With each tender gesture she emerged from her catatonia bit by bit. He lifted her to a standing position and held her shoulders until she could balance. Then he pressed her whip, he had found in one of the backpacks, into her hands.

He kissed her on the forehead. “Kate, hon, are you with me?”

“Donnie?” Her eyes met his and a flicker of reason registered.

“Yes, sweetie. Let’s go rescue Corey. Are you with me?”

“Corey?” She seemed to wake out of the grief stricken state. “Yeh, yeh.” She pushed her fists against either side of her head, then looked at the whip dangling from her hand. “Yes.” She fingered the leather and her expression morphed into determination. “YES!”

They stood up and joined hands, and Donnie led her back through the corridor. They decided to climb to the upper ridge. As dawn broke, the slaves poured out of the cages for their daily tattooing and went to work finishing up the scaffolding.

“The Traptor,” Kate whispered as she gazed across the ravine at the gruesome contraption.

Donnie cocked his eyebrows in question.

“That is what Dagan called it.” She looked down at her hands.

Guilty. Kate felt guilt. Donnie felt suspicious.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): COREY CHASTAIN

Now the slaves knew I intended to sacrifice myself, not only for them, but for the Mother. Fear that they would be left at the mercy of the dragons or worse, the Mother, trickled through the camp. With the rising of the sun, angry, surly stares dawned on me.

“You cannot leave us to fend for ourselves, Cianti Todura!” one man whispered into my ear as we labored along, finishing the contraption that would be my doom. “We are counting on you to lead us to freedom!”

A tall woman made an obscene gesture at me as I passed her at the water hole. Stunned, I stopped and dropped the bucket I carried.

“You betrayed us!” she spat at my feet and stalked away with several others who glared in my direction.

I retrieved the bucket, filled it, and started up the path again. Two men walked back down the trail toward me. I lowered my head to avoid their heated glares. They planted their shoulders into me and shoved me to the ground. Water soaked me and the dirt as my upturned bucket sloshed. They kicked dirt in my face and hurled insults.

Baffled, I sat and watched them trundle down the hill. Dirk ran to help me up. He searched my face but had nothing to say. He picked up the bucket and pressed it into my hands, his face drawn into hopeless despair.

The Kiarnusk came for me just after noon. They prodded me with their sticks and dragged me out to the center of the camp. Shoving me into a water hole in sight of everyone, they scoured my body of the dried mud, until my skin burned, scored and exposed. Three of them converged on me and completed their tattoo designs, covering every inch of my flesh in pictograms of horrible acts of perversion. Humiliated, disgusted, and broken, I submitted to their rough handling, holding on to the thought that this act saved Kate and the others.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): DONNIE DUDGEON

The Kiarnusk led Corey out onto a ledge leading into the Traptor.

Donnie scanned the area.
God! It is happening! There is nothing I can do about it. I need to get Kate out of here, now!