27. Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-seven

A melia grabbed the hand around her neck. She was gasping for air that seemed to have deserted the room and her eyesight was darkening. This was how she died.

"The best way to kill an empath is to attack them mentally and watch them die from brain damage. It's a classic and one of my favorites. Watching you slowly die brought joy to my cold heart. Then you met him." Vexar tightened his fingers another fraction of an inch, making her brown skin pale.

"He." She knew Vexar meant Zylar. "Knew what to do bringing you back from the edge of death quicker than I theorized. You wouldn't care to tell me how he did that, would you?"

She gurgled at him that he was a bastard and all she cared to do was stab him in his chest until she was sure he was unalive. Look at her thinking in politically correct terms.

"Unfortunately, when the empath gets strong enough to start resisting, there is only one other way to kill them. That's the manual way. Pick up a… Sorry, the words don't always present themselves. English is a strange and hard language. Phaser. You would call my weapon of choice a phaser. Such an uninspired word for the weapons we use. Then there is the old-fashioned way. My hand around your neck. It's time to die." His hand tightened around her neck and the small amount of air she was managing to get stopped. Blackness swam before her eyes before…

Amelia landed on her back and ass, half in and half out of the room.

"Stay there, turtle dove, I'll take out the trash," Zylar said.

What the heck was happening? Her eyesight was still blank, and her brain was fuzzy. The sound of Zylar's voice was bringing her back and the pain in her throat was shouting, not dead.

"Why didn't you tell us he was out of his mind?"

"Bella?" She felt hands on her arms.

"And Jenna." There was another set of hands on her other arm and Jenna's voice in her ear. "Stand, now."

They pulled Amelia to her feet. She swayed as the world tried to dip upside down and her stomach considered rebelling. It took a few seconds for the darkness to recede and the angry gremlins in her stomach to stop trying to make her throw up.

"Bella, Jenna, what…" Her words came to a sudden halt as what was in front of her came into view. Zylar in a loincloth. That was hot as hell, but what was he doing here? Was he fighting Vexar? Oh hell, he was fighting Vexar, and she was having mixed reactions. All of her feminine parts were standing at attention. To the victor go the spoils and Zylar better be the victor. Her mind, on the other hand, was freaking out because the male she finally admitted to loving was fighting to the death with a vicious and manipulative Tan-ge.

"Don't cry out," Jenna said.

"You don't want to distract him," Bella added. They pulled Amelia out of the room, and she almost fought, but the door didn't close, and she settled down.

Amelia looked around to see SaKura and Rakha standing on either side of the door watching. She should have known if Bella and Jenna were here, then their mates were here.

"She's not worth it, you know," Vexar said. He was circling the room watching Zylar. "Her uncle planned to sell her to the sex trade. I wish I could say it was unique to this planet, but it's not. I was lining up bidders to buy her. We could still do it and split the profits."

"Damn, how did we miss this plot when the male behind it is stupid?" Rakha asked.

"I think the real brains was the female Tan-ge pretending to be human. Now this," SaKura waved towards Vexar. "Is trying to hold all the pieces together."

Rakha growled in agreement.

Vexar went low, aiming for Zylar's legs while his tail went high, aiming for the chest. Zylar jumped and slung himself to the right, bouncing off the wall. He shook his head, trying to shake off the pain and get his legs underneath him.

"You're not a warrior. How do you expect to defeat me?" Vexar taunted, trying to distract Zylar.

Zylar reached for the handle of his blade that was tucked into his loincloth.

Amelia was mentally saying, ‘You can do it. I have all the faith in the world in you and I love you!' She started on some ridiculous cheer about love and victory sex.

"Let me count the ways that my cousin, the healer, can take you down," Rakha said.

Zylar turned a smidgen to see Rakha while keeping most of his focus on Vexar. He motioned for Rakha to continue.

"One, he can jump over you, landing on the floor behind you, and roll cutting at the tip of your tail. He may not cut it off, but it will be incapacitated."

Zylar shrugged and did what Rakha said. The end of Vexar's tail was hanging when Zylar was done. He could have cut it clean off, but this was the male who tortured his mate. He didn't deserve mercy. "If you beg, he may take it easy on you," Rakha taunted.

When Vexar's tail came at him again, Zylar threw himself at Vexar, knocking him to the ground. He used his claws to pierce holes in Vexar's side before he pushed himself off and went into a crouching position in front of him, waiting.

"So, sorry. Zylar has decided that you don't merit mercy."

"You think you're so funny with this comedy routine? When my males get here…" Vexar left the threat open.

"Should we tell him that we took over his ship and killed everyone on it? No mercy was given? Nor did they expect any," Rakha asked.

"No. He's fighting for his life. We should let him think there's a chance to go back to normal if he wins."

"I'll kill you all." Vexar threw himself at Zylar, taking him down. Zylar used his feet to flip Vexar over his head. The claws on his feet had grown, and he pierced him in the stomach as he flipped him.

Zylar was up, and he pulled Vexar up by his neck, holding him in the air.

"It's easy to kill a human when you have ten times their strength," Zylar growled. He was keeping the rage he felt tightly concealed at seeing his mate seconds away from death's door a second time. Now it was seething out of the tightly constructed box he was storing it in.

"Did you know that if I cut you right here," he ran his knife over a spot between Vexar's shoulder and neck "you will bleed out?"

He took his knife and sliced his neck. "The interesting thing about that neck wound is that you'll die slowly. Let's see what happens if I slice the other side of your neck." He cut him and let him fall.

"There's no chance you'll live now. Not unless you get to a healer in time." Zylar kicked him. "The kick was bad sportsmanship, but you didn't think about that when you terrorized my mate. Did you know that humans have something called an Achilles tendon? If they tear it, it becomes difficult to walk. Tan-ge have something similar in their feet. Let's see how it affects you." He cut both of them, to be sure.

Vexar was screaming, begging for mercy or death.

"Mercy? The kind you gave Amelia. She was walking around waiting to die. She didn't realize that what you did to her was slowly killing her. How much more time would it have taken for her to take her life, just like you planned?" Zylar crouched over him, waiting for an answer.

"How much time," Zylar roared.

"Two weeks." Vexar choked on the blood in his throat.

"And you think you deserve mercy." Zylar stood and laughed, but there was no joy in it. "You deserve a long drawn-out death, but Amelia, my mate, my love deserves justice." Zylar walked away from the male on the floor, who was lying in his blood and other body fluids.

SaKura tossed Zylar a wet towel to get the blood off him. Zylar dropped the towel and opened his arms. Amelia flew into them. She'd been convinced she'd never see him again. Not on this side of the grave.

"How are you?" He held her at arm's length, scanning her whole body before his healing light made his hands glow. His healing light went into her body, starting with her throat. Amelia could feel the warmth of it as it moved around her throat. The tightness and swelling, as well as the scarring, were soothed and then healed. Zylar sent his light through the rest of her body until there were no aches and pains left.

"He has done this to you and then asked for mercy. Tell me, my rose petal, what should I do?"

"End it." She was tired of knowing that Vexar was breathing the same air she was. What if something happened, and he was freed, rescued, or smart enough to get away on his own? She'd spend every minute of each day looking over her shoulder, thinking that he was coming after her. She needed him unalived.

"Rakha, you heard my mate." Zylar pressed his lips against Amelia's for a brief kiss.

"I thought you'd never ask." Rakha picked up the sword he had made from a human who constructed warlord swords in the forge the way they used to be done. He called himself a blacksmith and his work was incredible.

He carried it against his shoulder like it was a baseball bat.

Using his foot, he flipped Vexar onto his back. "When you target one of us, you've targeted all. Retribution will come from anyone at any time. Case in point." He lifted the sword high.

"No!" Vexar tried to scream.

Rakha brought the sword down, separating Vexar's head from his body.

"It's done," SaKura said. "Let's go. Next time, Zylar, unalive the fool, don't play with them. Rakha, you forgot to tell that slug when you're a royal. The king doesn't care what you will do in life. You will eventually learn to fight."

The door closed behind them, leaving one dead body behind.