CHAPTER 32

There was a Livarian body in front of the arch, innards spilling out in a rotting pile near its feet. Bile rose in her throat and she suddenly backed away from Jhudur. Why hadn’t she fought harder, done anything but be dragged here? She was a stupid trusting fool.

She turned, intending to run, to do anything she needed to do to get away from him.

A large hand wrapped around her upper arm, preventing her movement. She screamed, though she knew already it wouldn't help her. A second hand clamped over her mouth.

“Quiet or one of them will come for us.”

Oh God. Another body...and she recognized. It was Phyn, the Livarian she had played dice with on her trip through the forest.

“Quiet, do not make me silence you.”

Mia stared at the destroyed bodies. Bile rose in her throat and she turned, heaving. Jhudur released her and managed to avoid the wave of vomit.

“You must be quiet,” Jhudur shook her when the nausea subsided.

She trembled in her terror but nodded. Oh god, he was going to kill her. He was going to kill her and spear her on a spike. Did he wait until the men were dead before he spilled their innards?

She heaved again, over and over, but there was nothing left.

Once he was certain Mia wouldn't scream, Jhudur stepped away from her, motioning her closer to the arch.

Mia swallowed hard. Nope, she wasn't going any farther.

“Please don't kill me,” she whimpered.

“You are bait, your death is not warranted.”

That was even worse. He had dragged her here to lure Draven. Oh god, he would come to find her, she knew he would, and then this crazed man would kill him, maybe kill them all.

“Please understand, I need you. Without you, your Prime would kill me before I could explain the danger he is in. The danger we are all in.”

When he realized she hadn't moved, Jhudur came back and grabbed her arm once more, pulling her forward.

Mia whimpered, as he dragged her forward, toward the bodies.

“Please don't do this,” she begged. She started writhing, twisting, anything to get out of his grasp. Jhudur yanked her so hard that she tumbled to the ground before him.

“Despite what you think of me, I am not a murderer.”

“Then what...”

Mia's words broke off. He had pulled her around the side of the arch, so she faced it head on. From where they had been standing, she had only been able to see the side. Now, she watched the vision that flickered in front of her. This wasn't just an arch, or a temple, it was a door, a portal, like the one to Earth that the women must have been brought through. And she could see what existed on the other side.

Her heart slammed into her ribs, the bodies forgotten, because on the other side of this door, was hell.

Dust blew across dark jagged stone, the landscape dark and barren against a burning orange sky. The arch flickered, glyphs along its edges flashing, and then stabilizing. A geyser in the foreground hissed and then shot a column of steam into the air, the dust catching and swirling with the current.

Mia could feel the suffocating heat emanating from the doorway. Far in the distance, a black mountain rose, dark, angry looking clouds at its peak. Lightning flashed faintly. There was no water, or vegetation in sight, not even sticks or wilted plants to give an indication of life.

Jhudur's arm tensed and she pulled herself from the sight in time to see seven Livarians emerge from the surrounding forest. She realized that, until that moment, she had hardly seen what the armor was capable of. As if they had only used part of its abilities so as not to frighten the women. The Oltec had stretched to cover the entirety of available skin along the chest and down the arms and was covered with angry looking spikes. It looked plated now, heavy and solid, though she knew from experience it was light and easy to move in. Long jagged blades were carried in each man's hand. Her gaze darted from one to another, until...

Oh. Draven was furious. If the devil ever came for her, it would look exactly like this. No knight in shining armor for her, she got a demon in spikes.

Jhudur's arm trembled, but he did not let her go. He raised something to her throat, and it took her a second to process that he, too, possessed a blade.

An animal sound echoed from Draven, a growl that sent shudders along her spine. He looked from her to the bodies of his men rotting on spikes near the archway.

“I am going to remove your heart. Slowly, and in very many pieces,” he promised Jhudur.

“Ah ah,” Jhudur cautioned. His voice trembled, but he still did not loosen his hold. “I have only done what you have made necessary.”

The Livarians shifted, melting through the trees and stone until they surrounded Mia and Jhudur.

“Tell me,” Draven's voice was soft and the tone alarmed Mia more than the growling, “how killing my men, torturing and kidnapping my woman, was necessary. Make the explanation good because it is the last thing you are ever going to say.”

“You needed to see. This is proof.”

“Draven,” Kenahi had moved around the back of the arch and come to stand so that he was opposite the Prime, Mia and Jhudur between them. His blade still held at the ready, but his attention was now divided between the Kirich and the scene that lay beyond the doorway.

“You were warned,” Jhudur continued. “Your people were warned. The doors are not stable. To open them is to expose Callaphria to destruction.”

One of the other men snorted. “And the worldwide plague your people released was just fine.”

Jhudur grimaced and then nodded gravely. “A mistake made in desperation. The virus...nature will not be controlled. My people should have known better, but it is of no consequence now. Only survival matters.”

“Let the woman go and we can discuss the flaws of our people all you want,” Draven took a step toward them but Jhudur clutched her tighter, the sharp edge of the blade nicking the tender flesh against her throat. She inhaled sharply, feeling the moisture beading against it. Blood. Draven stilled.

“They are coming. They have already come through,” Jhudur insisted. “Y'kil.”

“Draven,” Kenahi called again. This time it was more of a warning. From where he stood, she knew Draven wouldn't be able to see through the door, into the disturbing landscape. His blue eyes flashed to the temple surrounding them, to the archway, and finally to the bodies of his men.

“The Y'kil are a children's myth.”

“Not so,” Jhudur snarled, his tone biting and bitter. “They come and they feed. Nothing is safe from their hunger.”

Draven moved again, but this time he was careful to keep a distance from the Kirich and Mia. He moved until he had made his way around the arch, enough that he could see through it. He shared a long look with Kenahi.

“You have opened the doors,” Jhudur insisted. “All doors. Destruction can get through. I did this,” he gestured wildly, somehow still keeping a hold of Mia, “to warn you. I have trailed them. They slink and crawl through the city. At least six have come through.”

“What is it that you want, Kirich? What price for the woman? For this...information.” The way Draven said the word made it clear he did not find anything the Kirich said to be valuable.

One of the Livarians had approached Phyn's body. Reverently, he fiddled with something against the sternum. After a few moments, he pulled a chain over the dead man's head. Then he reached downward and extracted something from the ribs. With a nauseating sucking sound, a long white object appeared. At first Mia, thought the man had pulled out a rib. Her stomach flipped and she wavered against Jhudur's hold.

“A fang,” the Livarian announced. “It seems unlikely the Kirich killed them at least.”

Somehow, that wasn't any better. Something with very big teeth had chewed on Phyn.

“Well?” Draven pressed.

“Besides the fact that if you don't do something the Y'kil will hunt us all to extinction?”

“Yes.”

“Corpah. There is none left. We are dying. But it won't matter if you do not seal the doors. Destroy the world-key.”

Mia frowned. Sealing the doors would seal her fate. She would be stuck on Callaphria...all the women would. With the Livarians, and the Kirich...and the Y’kil, if Jhudur was correct.

“Corpah, I should have known this would be about your drug,” Draven growled with disgust.

“No!” Jhudur shouted. The sound, and his sudden movement, startled Mia, the blade biting harder into her throat. “This is about survival!”

Miraculously, Jhudur's hold loosened. “As a show of good faith,” Jhudur murmured. And then she was free, the blade removed from her neck and the support of Jhudur's arms gone.

Mia sagged, but managed to catch herself before falling. She was weaker than she thought. Hastily, she stepped away from Jhudur several paces before turning. She opened her mouth, about to give him a piece of her mind, but she found herself enveloped again. Warm, firm arms banded around her and she was pulled hard against a solid chest. She looked up into Draven's worried face, his big hands skimmed over her hair and neck, caressing her shoulders and waist before wandering upward again. Even in her exhausted state, little trickles of awareness lit fires wherever he touched, short circuiting her brain. It took some time for her to realize he was checking her for injuries.

“Are you ok?” he murmured.

A heavy, meaty thump came from behind her, followed by a couple more. Mia whipped around in time to see Kenahi give Jhudur a heavy blow to the jaw. Jhudur stumbled, accepting the punishment, not fighting back. One of the Livarians pulled him upward and Kenahi hit him again, this time in the fleshy part of the stomach. Mia wrenched away from Draven.

“What are you doing? He's given up. Draven, he let me go,” Mia cried.

“Even if he felt like he had his reasons, Mia, this man touched you,” his fingers curled at his sides. “He snuck into my compound, putting every life within it at risk, and poisoned you...tortured you. I watched you screaming...” He broke off with a growl. “He will suffer for every one of them.”

Draven's face had darkened. He meant every word. Kenahi punched again and again, and Mia flinched with each impact. God, they would kill Jhudur right there. For the first time, Mia realized that the Livarians were vicious and extremely dangerous.

“You can't kill him,” she whispered.

“I can. It is well within my right.”

She couldn't help the tears that welled up. She was drained and tired. She had been tortured, and very nearly killed, but she was still alive. In the end, Jhudur had let her go. He was suffering some sort of deterioration of the mind. What he had done was terrible, she hated him, but she didn't really want him to die.

And yet, she was one human woman, and this new side of the Livarians was not something she could easily influence.

“Please don't kill him,” she begged. “You are stronger, and he is outnumbered. He's sick, Draven.”

Draven growled, a muscle working along his throat. His hands twitched toward her, as if he would reach for her.

She stepped back, shaking her head. No, she wasn't going to ignore this, pretend it wasn't happening. Jhudur was bleeding heavily. He hung in the Livarian's hold, not fighting at all.

“You have to stop,” she told Draven. “Tell them to stop.”

Draven's nostrils flared. He looked at the dead men, and again at the archway and the landscape beyond. Something deep and primal crossed his features when he looked back at her. He waved the fingers on his right hand, and at last Kenahi relented.

She studied Jhudur, worried. His chest rose and fell, however; the injuries he sustained seemed mostly superficial.

“Come, Mia,” Draven beckoned. He held out a large hand.

Instinct, a deep residual fear of the violence she had just witnessed, made her want to resist. This was not the gentleman she had let herself imagine. This was a very dangerous, very desperate man.

He waited, hand out. He could take what he wanted, yet he waited. And she knew that if she refused, he wouldn't punish her. No, despite how wild and angry he seemed at the moment, Mia knew he would never hurt her. She took a deep, shuddering breath and then stepped forward, putting her hand in his.