48. Aurora

48

AURORA

T he two goons started dragging me towards Hornsby’s space cruiser and though I fought them every step of the way, I wasn’t nearly strong enough to break free. I struggled and screamed until one of them slapped a big, meaty hand over my mouth, mashing my cut lip painfully against my teeth. Then I struggled in silence as they shoved me into the ship.

But just as I was being pushed head-first into the back compartment—where I supposed I would be hauled like cargo without even the dignity of a seat—another ship landed in the courtyard.

My heart leapt up because the markings on the sleek, silver ship were familiar. Could it be…? I didn’t dare to finish that sentence, even to myself.

But then the driver’s door opened and Slade jumped out.

The guards who were holding my arms suddenly loosened their grip as he came toward us. I was able to wiggle free of them and stand up to get some distance from the ship. But still Slade came on.

The big Brute looked a disheveled mess. His golden eyes were red rimmed and his sleek black hair was rumpled, as though he’d been running his hands through it. The golden paint on his horns was chipped and his usually immaculate suit was rumpled. As I watched, he tore off the jacket and loosened his tie. His eyes were burning and I thought he looked like a man intending to inflict some serious pain.

But who was he after? I knew he thought I had betrayed him and that the sentence for that was usually death. Had he finally come to finish the job he’d started when he left me here like a discarded piece of trash? I balled up my fists and glared at him, but he wasn’t even looking at me.

“ You two fuckers—what were you doing to her?” he demanded, talking to the two guards who had been cramming me into the cargo hold just a moment before.

Both of them held up their hands and began backing away.

“ Hey , we were just following orders,” one of them protested.

“ Yeah —we didn’t hurt her!” the other exclaimed.

“ Whose orders?” Slade’s voice had dropped to a low, ominous growl and he seemed to grow bigger, even as he spoke. His golden eyes had gone pure black—the whites too—and he looked like some kind of demon coming towards us with his big hands clenched into fists.

“ My orders.” It was the voice of Hornsby . He emerged from the front of the ship with a blaster in his hand. “ Step back, Brute ,” he snapped at Slade . “ I’m taking your slut of a wife to be harvested for cloning and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it!”

“ Oh , no?” Slade growled. He opened his mouth suddenly the Darkness flowed out of him and over him like an inky black river.

Hornsby paled but held his ground.

“ No !” he shouted and shot his blaster.

I saw the thing that Slade had become—the Darkness —stumble and go down to one knee.

“ No !” I shrieked and ran to it—to him , because I knew Slade was in there, somewhere.

But the moment I reached him, the huge black monster swept me to one side and rose to his feet again. He opened his mouth, full of razor-sharp teeth, and let out a low, rumbling growl that seemed to shake my very bones.

Hornsby apparently couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He looked at his blaster and then looked back at the Darkness that enveloped Slade . Then he looked at the blaster again.

“ What …but…but no. No !” he shouted, as though trying to refute the facts right before his eyes.

The Darkness opened his mouth again and rumbled something that sounded like,

“ OH YESSSSSS !”

And then it pounced.

It was a blur of motion but I saw Hornsby fire again…and again and again. Not that it did him any good. Slade’s Darkness was on him and already spreading its jaws.

I wanted to look away, but it was too late. Before I could even close my eyes, the long white teeth were engulfing Hornsby’s entire head. With a snap and a crack and then a horrible tearing sound, the Darkness bit it completely off.

I finally turned away as I saw the blood begin to spray. As much as I hated Hornsby , I couldn’t bear to watch his lifeless corpse twitch as the blood fountained from his mutilated neck.

“ Holy shit!” I heard one of the guards beside me exclaim in a low, trembling voice. And then he turned and bolted, running across the courtyard as fast as he could. The other guard was close behind him and both of them kept throwing terrified looks over their shoulders, as though checking to see if the monster Slade had become was following them.

They needn’t have worried. The Darkness was still just standing there, not far from Hornsby’s corpse. But this time he was staring at me .

My breath started coming short and my body was suddenly tense with fear. I knew why he was looking at me like that. I knew that Slade felt I had betrayed him—it wasn’t impossible that he was here to hand out the death sentence he thought I deserved.

I should have run— I should have tried to hide from the enormous monster looming over me.

Instead , I walked right up to him.

“ You know what? Go ahead!” I said, glaring up at the Darkness . “ Do it—bite my head off. I’m miserable without you—miserable without Slade . I’ve been wishing I was dead ever since he left me here. So go on and kill me— I don’t care!”

Then I closed my eyes and braced myself, my hands balled into fists as I waited for those massive jaws to close around my head and end me with a single bite, just as they had done for Hornsby .

I waited and waited…but death didn’t come. Finally I heard a low, familiar voice said,

“ Goddess damn you—do you really think so little of me? You think I’d kill my own Fated Mate ?”

I opened my eyes and saw Slade standing there, looking as upset as I felt. His jaw was clenched and his golden eyes were burning as he glared down at me. His whole big body was tensed as though he was being racked with some deep, internal pain.

“ I don’t know what you’re going to do!” I exclaimed, glaring up at him. “ All I know is that you left me here to die! So why shouldn’t I think you were going to kill me?”

“ I never left you to die!” he growled. “ I gave you the means to stave off The Need !”

“ Like it was any kind of substitute for you!” I snapped. “ I’ve been miserable without you! And now I’m nothing but a ‘fallen woman.’ That’s why my brother sold me to Hornsby —who was going to turn around and sell me to that Skeezix Brute .”

“ What ?” His eyes widened and he looked more upset than ever. “ Your brother sold you to Skeezix ?”

“ No —he sold me to Hornsby who was just about to take me to Skeezix so he could…could cut me up for cloning.” The words seemed to stick in my throat but somehow I got them out.

“ Goddess of the Four Faces !” Slade growled and ran a hand over his horns distractedly. “ I can’t fucking believe this!”

“ I can,” I snapped. “ But it doesn’t matter—you know why? Because I’ve been wishing I was dead since you left me here. So if all you’re going to do is just leave me here again, I’d prefer it if you kill me first. Just let your Darkness out again and bite my head off!”

“ Goddess damn you!” Slade growled and grabbed me by the arm.

“ Wait —what are you doing? Where are we going?” I gasped. Was he really going to do it? Was he going to kill me?

But his next words seemed to refute my fears.

“ I’m taking you back to the penthouse,” he snarled, not looking at me. “ It seems I can’t fucking leave you here—who the fuck knows what your idiot of a brother will do next!”

“ If you’re guessing he might sell me again, that seems like a good bet,” I snapped. “ Considering he’s done it twice now.”

“ Fucking fucker,” was his only comment. And then he was pulling open the passenger side door of his ship. Grabbing me roughly by the waist, he shoved me up into the ship, almost bumping my head in the process.

“ Hey !” I exclaimed but he was already slamming the door shut and heading around to the pilot’s side. He slid in and started the ship, lifting off almost immediately. I watched as L’Crist fell away from us and then got smaller and smaller in the viewscreen.

It was the second time I had watched my home world recede into the blackness of space and I wondered if I would ever see it again.

Goddess , I hoped not!

But what did Slade have planned for me? What would he do to me once he got me to the privacy of the penthouse?

I didn’t know and a glance at his scowling face let me know it wasn’t safe to ask. Anything could happen—anything at all.

And there was nothing I could do to stop it.