Chapter 33
Nicol swallowed against the feel of the cold blade pressed into the soft spot that bisected her jaw and her jugular vein. The sting told her it had cut into her skin, and the hatred in Riker’s eyes told her he knew it as well.
Hunter stalked toward them, his bare upper body a mass of cuts, his knuckles shredded. As his boots crunched dead leaves and fallen branches, she wondered how hard it was for him to avoid looking at the dead and wounded lying in pools of blood on the ground as he passed. She hadn’t even known most of them, but the sight tore at her. She couldn’t imagine what it must be doing to him.
“What the fuck is the meaning of this?” Hunter’s voice was distorted, warped with something disturbing. Malevolent, even. Crimson streaks cut through the black in his eyes, and Nicole shrank back, somehow more afraid of whatever was inside Hunter than of the knife at her throat. “We had a deal.” kars snarled. “And we kept our end of the bargain.” He yanked on Nicole’s hair, hauling her to her feet next to him. “This bitch did not.”
Face twisted in an expression that promised pain, Riker lunged at kars. Fane intercepted, tackling Riker from the flank and slamming them both to the ground.
Fantasies of dropping a boric-acid bomb on top of the ShadowSpawn bastard went through Nicole’s head.
Please don’t fight them, Riker. She caught his eye as he struggled with Fane. Please. If he got hurt—or worse—while trying to save her, she’d never forgive herself.
He read her, thank God, and eased his palm off the dagger he’d been about to draw from the leg pocket of his military fatigue pants. As he raised his hands, she watched to make sure he didn’t go for one of the weapons he’d have concealed under his black sweater.
“She gave us only four pregnancies, and then she used my daughter to help her escape.” kars tugged again, this time so viciously that her eyes watered.
Where was Aylin, anyway? Aylin had kept her word, and Nicole owed her more than she could possibly repay. “Nicole brought this war down on you. Not me.”
He signaled to his men. “kill them all.”
Oh, Jesus. “Wait!” she screamed. “We know the treatment works. I’ll give you more next month—”
“Yes, you will.” He signaled again, but this time, Hunter shouted for a halt to the killing.
“Stop!” He raised both hands, fingers splayed in a gesture she didn’t recognize but was of clear importance to kars. “Nuh-hun esu . . . vedi.”
Silence fell on the forest. Even the insects and birds held to an eerie truce, and all eyes went to Hunter.
But kars alone seemed to understand what Hunter had said. Tension crackled in the air like the moment before lightning struck, and Nicole swore she smelled ozone. kars spoke, his voice low but threaded with an electric undercurrent. “Estaltias en flori esu. Vedi ak’nya.”
Nicole glanced at Riker, but his barely discernible shrug told her he had no idea what was going on, either.
Hunter didn’t make a move. Not for a long time. When he finally did, it was to incline his head in a slow nod of acceptance. But acceptance of what?
The two clan leaders spoke more in the language only they seemed to know. The tone of their conversation varied from calm to angry, and twice she thought battle would break out again. After what seemed like forever, the red streaks faded from Hunter’s eyes, and kars stepped away from her. Both chiefs signaled to their warriors.
As the two parties sheathed their weapons, she grabbed kars’s thick arm. “Where’s Aylin? What have you done to her?”
His smile was chilling as he shoved her away.
“She’s not your concern.”
Riker reached her as kars stormed off, leaving his warriors to collect their injured and dead.
“Nicole.” Riker choked out her name as he folded her into his arms and crushed her against him so hard she oof ed. “Thank God. Oh, thank God.”
She hugged him tight, never so glad to see anyone in her life. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what?”
“For this.” She squeezed her eyes closed against all the blood, death, and misery. How many had died today? How many would suffer in agony as they healed? “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t tried to escape—”
He cut her off with a kiss so passionate it took her breath. By the time he broke off the kiss, she was dazed. “You’re safe, and that’s all that matters.”
She looked over at Hunter, who was kneeling, head bowed, next to a dead MoonBound male she recognized but didn’t know. All around, the surviving clan members were patching up the severely injured or gathering those who didn’t make it. The clan had taken a hard hit, and it would be a long time before they recovered.