Page 105 of Unleashed

“Okay.” Quinn drew in a deep breath. She hurriedly removed the belt from around her waist, folded the leather, and held it to Nina’s mouth. “Bite down on this.” When Nina clamped her teeth down, Quinn moved the object in her other hand to Nina’s neck. The device hissed as she activated it.

No one spoke. Nina’s only reaction for several moments was a wince of discomfort. Aduun’s heart beat a little faster, and Nina’s breaths quickened. He felt her muscles tense beneath his hands. She twitched, yanked, and then writhed as she panted against the belt’s leather. Her eyes widened, and perspiration beaded her brow.

Her heart raced, making Aduun’s feel like it would burst from his chest. She squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered. The sound pierced him; he knew it did not do justice to what she was feeling, to the agony that thrummed at the edges of his awareness through whatever deep, mysterious, powerful bond they shared. Her struggles intensified. Corded tendons stood out on her neck and arms.

Quinn held Nina’s shoulder and arm down, leaning close to whisper comforting words to her. The woman’s expression was strained, haunted, worried, frightened; a helpless mirror of everything Aduun felt in that moment.

He tightened his hold on Nina’s leg as she pressed her heels into the bed and fought to arch her back. Balir was forced to lean forward and use more of his weight to hold her down; the strength provided by her pain was startling.

“I know it feels like fire coursing through your veins,” Quinn said, “but focus on us, our voices, our presence here with you, Nina. You are not alone.”

“Draw from me what you need, heart of my heart,” Aduun said, opening himself to her, offering anything she wanted to take from him.

“And from me,” Balir and Vortok said in unison.

Orishok brushed the fingers of one hand over Nina’s cheek and swept her tousled hair out of her face. His other hand kept her arm pinned without any apparent strain. “Take from all of us, daughter. We are here foryou.”

Nina looked up at Orishok, then Quinn, and finally Aduun, Balir, and Vortok. She cried out but shook her head rapidly in denial.

“We are with you, Nina,” Vortok said. “Open to us.”

“You need not suffer alone,” Balir said. “You would not let us suffer. Let us feel your pain.”

Nina thrashed beneath their hands, head whipping back and forth. She clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles were white. With a gasp, she threw her head back and screamed.

Suddenly, Aduun felt her, felteverything; he recognized that it was only a small portion, that she hadn’t fully released her pain to him, but it was enough to understand her agony. Quinn’s words had been apt. It was like wildfire raging through his veins, burning him from the inside out. All his muscles tensed at once, locking so tightly that they immediately ached, and it became difficult to draw adequate air into his lungs.

He lowered his head, closed his eyes, and gritted his teeth, nostrils flaring with ragged breaths.

I am here with you, Nina, as I will always be.

Soft sounds of pain and heavy breaths from the others told him they were sharing in the burden. The intensity of her pain erupted, blasting through Aduun as her screams filled his ears. Black spots distorted his vision, and he swayed, nearly overwhelmed by the sensations tearing through him. But no matter how much he suffered, he refused to let go, lending her his strength, his will, his love.

Aduun felt the others doing the same, weaving their love for Nina around her like a cocoon to shield her from the pain. He felt her battling the agony of the serum, felt her resolve and strength resonating beneath it. And as that resolve shined through, he knew she was strong enough to fight.

Strong enough tolive.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Aduun passed another sizzling piece of meat to one of his people. He was stunned at how quickly they’d shaken off their madness, how quickly they’d come to control themselves, and he did not doubt that Nina had something to do with it. She’d touched their minds while they were underground. More importantly, she’d touched their hearts — they were free because of her.

He turned to Orishok. It was strange having to look slightly up at him, when Orishok had been only chest-high to Aduun the last time they’d met, and it didn’t help that Aduun’s bestial instincts recognized Orishok as a danger to be avoided at all costs. “We will do all we can to replenish your stores.”

“I am not concerned about the food,” Orishok replied, keeping his gaze on the valos around them.

The square was full of conversation, and the warm glow of several large fires cast away the gloom of night. Nina had fallen into a deep, exhausting sleep after her ordeal with the serum, and Orishok, Aduun, and Balir had gone to the waiting valos while Quinn and Vortok remained with her.

The sun had made its trek across the sky as they’d relocated everyone to the square, prepared several cooking fires, and hauled meat from the strange, cold rooms in which Orishok had stored it. Night had fallen some time ago, and Nina still slept. Aduun couldn’t help his worry; he knew her body needed to recover, but until she was awake, smiling and laughing, it would be hard to shake his concern.

Her wounds had closed. That was heartening, and it was all that allowed him to continue tending to these other duties; he’d have liked nothing more than to lay beside her, holding her in his arms, and wait until she woke.

Silence fell between him and Orishok once again. So much had changed since Kelsharn’s arrival. What lives could they know here now? Orishok had built a new life with Quinn and Nina, but was there really a place for ninety-three more valos here?

Now that everyone else had a portion, Aduun allowed himself to eat. He ran his gaze over the gathering. Interspersed in the crowd were the stone figures Orishok said were his tribesmen. Their features were indistinct to Aduun, but Orishok had put a name to each of them in the square without pausing to think, and some of those names were familiar.

So much had been lost…but now there wasthis. Now there was hope for more.

Now he had Nina.

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