“It’s not that.” He shook his head. “Please do not ask me to explain. I don’t wish you to think me a monster.”
“A monster?” Lauren looked at him in shock. “Why would I ever think that? How could—”
A sudden sound behind him made both their heads turn.
“Oh my God!” Lauren put a hand to her mouth. “The guards—they’re back!”
It was true. Two of the AllFather’s immense guards were closing in on them rapidly. Only their great size and bulk kept them from running faster.
“Do you still have the stunner I gave you?” Xairn asked, backing away from the approaching guards warily. “If you do, shoot. I can’t reach my own weapon without putting you down and that would not be safe at this moment.”
Lauren fumbled in the folds of the black cloak. She’d hidden the tiny weapon in a small pocket sewn on the inside but now she couldn’t seem to find it. “I can’t…can’t find it. God, Xairn, what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.” He turned his head to look behind them briefly. “But here comes another one.”
“I thought they were all dead!” Lauren looked at the approaching guards fearfully. “Or at least disabled. How can they just get up and walk after the way we shot them?”
“They’re probably being animated by my father—he’ll stop at nothing to get you back.”
Lauren’s heart froze in her chest. “No! Oh, no—please, Xairn, don’t let him have me!”
“Didn’t you hear me before?” His deep voice was fierce. “I’ll die before I give you up. Damn it to the seven hells, where are those Kindred?” He craned his neck, obviously looking for Kat and her men, but there was nothing to see but junked and abandoned ships. And in the mean time, the three guards were closing in. One of them opened its lipless mouth and the voice of the AllFather filled the air.
“Come back, my ssson. Return the girl to me and all ssshall be forgiven. You ssshall rule at my ssside as you were always meant to do. Come back and bring my bride…”
“Xairn—they’re getting closer!” Lauren clutched his shoulders—they were being surrounded. They were trapped.
Xairn swore blackly in a harsh, guttural language. He looked at Lauren, frowning fiercely. “I am sorry but there is no more time to find your human friend—you’ll have to come with me.”
Turning, he jogged to the nearest silver ship and slapped his palm to its side. “Open!” he shouted and then repeated the command in another foreign language.
A hatchway slid to one side smoothly, revealing an opening into the ship. Xairn boosted Lauren in and then climbed in after, just as the first of the AllFather’s guards reached them.
“My ssson,” it began in the AllFather’s high, evil voice.
“No longer.” Xairn kicked the possessed guard in the jaw, knocking it to the ground. Another was already coming but by then he had closed the hatch and was giving the ship directions in the same, foreign tongue he’d spoken in earlier.
Lauren scrambled into a seat which was much too large for her—it seemed to have been built for people Xairn’s size, not humans. Xairn took the seat beside her and began working the controls. “Strap in,” he directed. “This will not be a smooth flight.”
“All right.” Lauren was fumbling with the unfamiliar, too-large safety harness when something big and heavy thumped against her side of the ship. A dent appeared in the metal just beside her thigh. “Oh!” she gasped, jumping away. “What—?”
“They’re trying to get in.” Xairn was still concentrating grimly on the control panel. “Don’t worry, they won’t. The Kindred build their ships well.”
He did something else to the controls and they started to rise straight up into the air. There was another mighty thump which made the small ship sway alarmingly in mid-air, and then they were apparently above the reach of even the massive guards.
They rose higher and higher and Lauren watched in the viewscreen as the dark, polluted planet receded into the distance. When it was no larger than a dirty tennis ball hanging in space, Xairn held the ship still for a moment and sat in silence, staring at it.
Though his face was impassive, Lauren thought she understood what he must be feeling. Reaching out, she rested her hand lightly on his knee. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “It must be hard—saying goodbye to your home planet.”
“That place was never my home.” Xairn’s voice was cold but when he looked at her his eyes were burning. “I have no home. No people. No father. I have nothing.”