Page 36 of Captured
Chapter Eighteen
Rakir
I listen to her and my scales threaten to push back atop my skin at what she says. I always knew humans were a species with many faces, some virtuous to a fault, others so vile they would sacrifice their own mothers to gain riches and power.
A variable species, inclined to variable morals. What an incomprehensible, irrational, enraging, endearing species they are.
“And he is your sister’s mate, this man you speak of?” I stop my talons from pushing out from my fingertips at the memory of what Juliet told me. The way that man tried to coerce her into sex even though she was the sister of his mate.
Unacceptable. Unthinkable. Dishonorable.
“Her husband of six years.” She speaks with a locked jaw and fire in her soft brown eyes. “Laura worships him. She doesn’t know half of what he’s capable of. She won’t speak to me anymore, she made it clear. She was the only family I had left.”
I can feel her pain and anger as she speaks. What her sister’s mate did is something I’ve never even heard of. A dishonor punishable by death amongst my people. Not that it ever happens. Drakians mate but once and once they do, their loyalty borders on fanatical devotion. Betrayal is never part of the equation for us.
I feel bad for pushing her, for forcing her to relive the pain of her sister’s rejection, but there is no choice.
“And you were sent to the patrol mission just after?”
She nods, her face still painted in hard lines. There’s a fire in her eyes, a pain vivid and sharp. I don’t want to see her hurt or scared. Those feelings do not belong on her face. I would like to erase the pain, wipe it clean and replace it with wonder and lust, but there’s no time.
The Black Star will find us soon. The shields that I have managed to power up are working against the scanners, but as my ship sits on the shore of the lake, it’s impossible to hide it from direct sight. A man’s eye sees what it sees. Nothing will hide us from the ground patrol.
They’re out there, searching for us. They won’t give up, this much I know. I’ve seen it in their eyes, that bloodlust that has nothing to do with money, only with hatred and perversion of the soul.
They love killing and they’re good at it, but they’ve never faced an enemy like me. I won’t let them kill Juliet or myself so easily. They have the fight of their lives coming their way.
A Drakian defending his mate is no easy prey.
“They will find us, won’t they?” Juliet asks, pinching her lovely round mouth into a thin line. “It’s just a question of time.”
“Yes, they will.” I won’t lie to her. She deserves the truth, even if I hate seeing her scared. “They won’t give up. They know what I have and they won’t stop until the List is back in their hands. This is why they didn’t kill us when they found us. They need me alive.”
“If they want the List so bad, maybe the Senators aren’t the ones who hired the Black Star.” Juliet echoes my thoughts, impressing me once more with her quick wit. “Maybe it’s just one Senator. General Jarrahdal. He wants his List back and the power that goes with it.”
She’s right. I don’t know who betrayed us, so I don’t know who hired the Black Star.
“It could be a number of people. It could be General Jarrahdal, it could be one of his rivals inside the organization, making a grab for the top position. That Listispower. Whoever owns it owns the Senators.”
The possibilities are too wide, the number of suspects too great.
“It doesn’t matter who ordered it,” Juliet says with a low voice. “We can’t let them have it, no matter what it costs.”
I reach, my hand cupping the velvet of her cheek. So strong, so fierce. She is a wonder. She nods, closing her eyes and leaning into the kiss.
“No, we can’t.” Not even with our lives as a price. Taking down the Senators is more important than anything.
Except as I look upon Juliet’s face, I know nothing will ever be the same anymore. Not my fight against the Senators, not my life as the crown Prince of Draka.
She’s the center. The beating heart that had been missing in my life. My Amara.
Even for a billion others, I would not sacrifice her. If it comes down to it, I will give up everything to save Juliet. Even the list.
Silence falls between us, full of the things we can now say, but don’t. There’s a world I don’t know about her, about that humanity she belongs to, and there’s a world she can’t even imagine that she has yet to discover about my people.
But not today. Today is a day for bloodshed, a day for survival. The time for softness is long gone.
“What will we do?” she asks as her small fingers hold onto my vest. “Not just when the Black Star comes, but after?”
