Wind Demon Triology: Book II: Evil Wind (2 page)

"Stop worrying about me,” he said quietly.

"Ain't gonna happen. Whatcha need, Reaper?"

"I have a favor to ask of you,” he said without preamble.

Kahmal braced her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “All right."

The Prime Reaper drew in a long breath then let it out slowly before he spoke again. “Should something happen to me and I am unable to return to Terra for whatever reason, I would like to make sure Dorrie is kept safe. I want you to promise me you will take her back to Terra and not let them put her in some gods-be-damned convent."

"You have feelings for this Terran woman?” Kahmal asked, a part of her chaffing with jealousy.

He turned to meet her gaze. “Not in the way you mean, no, but I feel a responsibility toward her. I would like to know she will be free to live her life as she sees fit."

Kahmal stared into his amber eyes and became lost in the sadness she saw lurking there. She ached to reach out to him, take him in her arms, and comfort him but she knew he would not allow it. The only comfort he sought was many light years away. The only peace he would ever know would be in the arms of Bridget Dunne.

"If I am able to take Dorrie there, I swear to you that I will,” she promised him. “If it looks as though there will be no way to return her to Terra, I will see to it she is taken somewhere there are worthy men.” She smiled. “Perhaps Serenia or Ionary."

He nodded. “The man she had on Terra was Serenian. She would interact well with such men. They are strong enough to hold their own with her."

"Serenia it is, then,” Kahmal agreed. Her palm itched to touch him but he was sprawled in the chair with his arms crossed defensively—some might say protectively—across his chest. “Is there anything else?"

He unfolded his arms and tugged down the zipper of the dark green flight suit Kahmal had loaned him. It was one of hers and though it fit him perhaps a bit too snugly, the pant legs were long enough to cover his tall frame. Reaching inside the inner pocket, he pulled out an envelope, looked at it for a long moment, and then handed it to Kahmal. “I would like this to be given to my lady should it be that I will never see her again."

Kahmal took the envelope—still warm from his body heat—and saw that it was sealed. A part of her longed to read what he had written but under no circumstances would she ever intrude on his privacy. She knew if there was no way she could ever return to Terra, the envelope, and its contents, would be destroyed.

"There are two notes within the envelope,” he explained. “One is to my lady and the other to my son."

At the mention of the son he had never been able to hold in his arms, to kiss, his forehead crinkled with sorrow.

"Cree...” Kahmal began, “I—"

"Even if we are successful in rescuing my bloodkin being held on Rysalia Prime and with the grace of your goddess we escape unscathed, my son will be nearly a man before I see Terra again,” he said, the misery in his voice there for anyone to hear. “I will have missed his first words, his first steps, all the little things that will make him Jaelin Cree."

Kahmal felt tears gathering in her eyes. She was the cause of this man's suffering and it bothered her more than she could admit to anyone, even herself. “You have to believe you will return to Terra, Cree."

"I know you said you did not kill Tylan Kahn and I believe you. I also have to believe he has been able to care for my lady and our son as I would have.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and when he opened them, there was such grief shimmering there, Kahmal wanted to sob. “Kahn loves Bridget and he will make her a good husband if I am unable to return to her."

The Amazeen Major could not endure his sorrow another instant without letting him know he had her if for some reason he could not make his way back to Terra. She put her hand on his shoulder. “Cree, you..."

He hung his head. “I know how you feel,” he said softly. “There is no reason for you to say it."

"But I want to,” she insisted. “I..."

"Please, don't,” he asked. “I belong to Bridget and I always will. There will never be room for any other in the chambers of my heart. If I can not be with her, I will be alone."

She saw a single tear easing down his lean cheek and it hurt her so deeply she had to dig her fingernails into her palms. “Was the dream that bad?” she asked.

For a long moment he did not reply but when at last he began to speak, the hurt in his voice broke her heart.

"We were walking hand in hand along the seashore. Bridie loved to swim but I would not allow her in the water because I could not join her. If something happened and she started to drown, I couldn't save her."

"You can't swim?” Kahmal asked.

"The parasite won't allow us to learn. It fears the Reaper might drown and it would be destroyed in the bargain. That is why we can't swim."

"Did you and Bridget go often to the seashore?” She loved listening to his Ry-Chalean brogue.

"There is a place called Savannah and we went there a few times. She liked to sit on the sand and watch the waves coming in.” He cocked a shoulder. “I must admit I found it a tranquil experience."

"So was that where you were in your dream?"

"I don't think so. The surroundings were strange. I'm not sure where we were or if that place even exists. Besides, the whole scenario was off."

"In what way?"

Cree held the picture of the dream beach in his mind's eye. The image disturbed him more than he was willing to admit and he shivered.

"Are you cold?” Kahmal asked.

"There were ice floes in the water,” he said so softly she had to strain to hear. “I could see them all the way to the horizon yet the day was bright and sunny, a warm wind blowing over us and I knew what was coming."

From out of his past three words came hurtling toward him and slammed into his consciousness with lightning speed: “Stage Three complete!"

"Cree?” Kahmal asked, watching the horror invading his golden eyes. When he didn't respond, she reached out to shake him.

"It was the sessions,” he whispered. “I was reliving the sessions in the Be-Mod 9 unit."

Kahmal had read the dossier on the Prime Reaper Kamerone Cree and knew he had spent weeks in a Behavioral Modification Unit being tortured by members of the Resistance under the guise of assault therapy to re-enforce his training. It was there he had met Bridget.

Cree plowed a hand through his thick brown hair and Kahmal saw his hand was shaking.

"I felt her hand jerked from mine and then I was out in the middle of the ocean, staked down to one of the ice floes as it bobbed on the waves,” he told her. “There were thick spikes through my palms anchoring me to the ice. I heard Bridget calling to me, begging me to come back but I couldn't move. I was staked to the ice."

"You were reliving the therapy sessions,” Kahmal said.

"I heard the wave coming toward me and I lifted my head to see it. It was huge, blotting out the sky. It bore down on me and when it broke, the ice floe flipped over and I was beneath the water, my hands pulling free of the spikes."

He had been drowning, water flowing down his nose, his air cut off by the invading thickness. He was sinking beneath a wavering, frigid surface, ice floes hovering just beyond his reach. The water was filling his lungs, inflating them to bursting, filling his body cavities with the freezing liquid. The harder he fought to reach the surface and the cleansing air that would free his blocked lungs, the deeper he plunged beneath the white surface until all light was blocked out.

"Then she was there in the water beside me, pulling me up, dragging me to shore. I was dead—I knew I was dead—but she wouldn't let me go. We were on the sand. I was on my back, staring into her eyes as she put her lips on mine, breathed life back into my lungs. She saved my life."

Kahmal knew he was unaware that she was stroking his shoulder as he repeated his dream to her. She could feel the tremors rippling through his body and wanted desperately to hold him.

"Just as I gasped my first breath, she and I went spinning through the air and I hit something so hard it knocked the breath out of me. When I came to I was shackled to a stainless steel pole on the plaza in front of the Titaness on Rysalia Prime,” he said.

"Where your bloodkin are to be executed,” she said, knowing he could not have seen the poles that had been erected long after he had fled with Bridget to Terra.

"There were thousands of women standing there to see me die. Hael Sejm and Captain Chakai were holding Bridie between them. She was struggling to get free, trying so hard to come to me, but it was already too late. There was a flash of fire at my feet and I was burning."

The memory of his scream filled his head. The pain had been so horrific, so invasive, so utterly intense, he had longed for the surcease of life. But just as soon as the flames had enveloped him, blistering his flesh, then burning deep through the epidermis, past the coris, into the muscles and nerve bundles, dissolving capillaries, splitting open veins and arteries and flashing into the very marrow of his bones; just as the pain became so terrifying that he had began to beg for death, she was there holding out her hand to him.

"Come, Kam,” she whispered. “Come to me and the pain will stop.” He held out his hand, striving to touch hers, hopeful, ecstatic, then she began to fade from his sight.

Cree hung his head. “But she couldn't save me this time,” he said. “Her beautiful green eyes couldn't save me and I died in the flames."

Kahmal suspected there was more. “Go on."

He looked up at her and tears were running down his face. “They threw Dorrie into the fire with me. She was pleading with me to help her, to stop the pain, but I couldn't. I woke up hearing her screams."

"It was just a dream,” she told him. “We are not going to allow anything to happen to you or her."

"Just promise me,” he said, swiping angrily at the tears, “that you will make sure Dorrie is kept safe. Promise me that."

"I swear it on my honor as an Amazeen warrioress,” she pledged.

He seemed to relax, letting out a long breath. “That is all I can ask, ‘Kadia."

Kahmal tucked the envelope he had given her into the pocket of her jumpsuit. “Is there anything else you want me to do?"

"If you make it back to Terra,” he said, “you will never be able to return to this side of the megaverse. Your people might well send bounty hunters after you."

"I've no illusions about what may or may not happen to us, Cree,” she stated. “My thoughts are, though, we'll be written off. No one will come after us. You don't have to worry about me or my crew."

"We need to destroy the wormhole,” Cree said. “If my bloodkin and I do escape and we are able to get to Terra, I don't want to have to be looking over my shoulder for the remainder of my life and have my bloodkin doing the same."

Kahmal nodded. “I can understand that. Perhaps closing the anomaly would be the wisest thing to do."

"As long as it's open, there will always be a chance our enemies will arrive on our doorstep to wreak havoc with our lives. I'd just as soon not have to spend my time looking for tall women in gray sweat suits."

Kahmal grinned. “I rather liked my gray sweats,” she said.

He smiled, too, for a moment then the smile slipped from his face. “Even if I don't make it back, I want to make sure it is impossible for anyone from our side of the megaverse to find their way to Terra again. Our people have caused enough pain and sorrow on that world to last a thousand lifetimes."

"There's only one problem."

"What?” he asked.

"I don't think the Terrans have discovered the wormhole, yet, but I don't know that for sure,” Kahmal said. “We did encounter that Terran ship near the Vex when we were on our way to Terra to extract you. We came out of the wormhole practically right on top of them. What if they found their way into the anomaly? They'd have no way to get back to Terra if we destroyed it."

The Reaper's eyes narrowed. “What ship was that?"

"It was an all-female crew,” she said. “A Terran medivac transport. They were looking for, ah, friends."

"Friends?” he asked.

"Friends,” Kahmal said, her eyebrow lifted. Her face reddened.

Cree's forehead wrinkled. “Oh, friends!” He half-smiled.

"Needless to say we weren't interesting in making their acquaintance,” Kahmal told him.

"I'm sure the Terrans were very sweet women,” he said. “Just a bit lonely."

"Aye, well they can stay lonely,” Kahmal quipped.

"Do you remember the name of the ship?"

Kahmal thought about it for a moment. “The
Orion
, I believe, but I can't be sure."

"Major?” Chanz interrupted, the vid-com clicking on without benefit of a warning chime.

"Aye?"

"You'd better get up here fast. We've got trouble!"

Four dreadnaught class battle cruisers lay directly in the path of the
Alluvia
. Appearing out of nowhere, having eluded detection while in stealth mode the mammoth cruisers were braced with laser cannons primed to blow the lightweight LRC out of the sky.

"Who the hell are they?” Kahmal asked. She didn't recognize either the build or the markings on the matte black ships.

"They are not answering our hail,” Deon reported.

"Cree?” Kahmal asked. “Do you have any idea who these bastards are?"

The Prime Reaper was staring at the vid-com screen, his forehead creased. “I don't recognize them."

"They are blocking my probe,” Sern said, referring to her own psychic powers. “How about yours?"

Cree shook his head. “I'm getting nothing."

"Well, whoever they are, they've got their cannons locked on us and if my instruments are reading correctly, they have enough firepower aimed our way to blow us to space dust,” Aegean said.

"Try opening a channel, Deon,” Kahmal ordered.

"Unknown vessels,” Deon said. “This is the Amazeen LRC the
Alluvia
captained by Major Akkadia Kahmal. We are on our way to Rysalia Prime with..."

"A Reaper in your greedy, murderous little hands and you
will
hand him over to us! Now, wench!” a booming voice shouted over the vid-com and the center screen lit up to show a grimacing black face filled with fury.