Page 65 of Venomous Lust
“Humans are fascinating,” a voice like broken glass called from behind him. “So fragile in body, yet so strong in spirit.”
Khal turned around, pushing down the hiss in his throat as the Muharee chieftain walked inside the room. Yalko’s reptilian face was emotionless, but his bright yellow eyes settled on Hazel as he approached.
“What I don’t understand is how a female like her can attach herself to an Eok.” There was something dark, something savage and feral in the way Yalko looked at Khal. “Your kind is not built for sentimentality, or for love. All you know is how to kill.” His eyes wandered to Hazel, then back to Khal with naked, obvious hatred. “Eoks are a sickness.” Yalko enunciated his words, biting them out. “She would be well served to be rid of you.”
The hiss escaped Khal’s throat this time and he turned to face the Muharee.
Yalko observed him, his demeanor calm and collected but his yellow eyes blazing with an anger that stemmed from long suffering.
“You cannot judge an entire species based on the actions of a few.”
Yalko stalked closer, his shimmering green clothing molding to his body. The Muharee were slim and tall, but Khal would not make the mistake of underestimating them. They were agile and limber, fast and strong. They might not possess the bulk strength of the Eoks, but Khal knew that Yalko would make a formidable opponent should he have to fight him.
A formidable opponent or a great ally. An ally who could change the fate of his mission.
“When the pale one, the one you name Knut, came to Muhar, we did not shun him.” Yalko spoke in a dreamy tone, his face betraying nothing of his feelings, but his eyes lost in a past filled with pain. “We heard his plea for shelter and allowed him to build his home in the safe grasslands, away from our Medina.”
“You were kind to him?” Khal was shocked. All he had ever heard of the Muharee was that they were war-hungry people, cruel, who worshipped a God of Death and blood. They were not. “You were kind to him.”
“And he repaid our kindness with blood and betrayal,” Yalko answered, his voice brimming with anger. “He began destroying the grasslands, poisoning the Medina. His foul buildings produced warriors like we had never seen before, born of no mother or father, standing strong from the day they were born. Soon, we realized our mistake and when we told him he was no longer welcome on Muhar, he attacked us. At first, he used his Ilarian guards to keep our raids at bay, but soon enough, the blue devils came.”
“Gerkin.” Khal said the name and Yalko’s eyes closed, just for a second.
“Yes. Gerkin came with his Eok warriors, and they brought death with them. They razed entire villages and murdered the grassland tribes until none remained. They didn’t differentiate between warriors and others. They slaughtered young ones, females, elders. They have no honor, no mercy.”
Yalko’s eyes became vague and for the first time, Khal saw what appeared to be grief in his usually stoic features—bottomless, vivid pain. The kind of grief that pushed a warrior to despair or to great courage, depending on whether he had any reason left to live.
“Gerkin has betrayed my kind.” Khal’s skin crawled with disgust and outrage as he spoke. “My people are warriors, not butchers. We do not condone the killing of innocents.”
Yalko’s yellow eyes flashed with a sudden rage. “But your kind is bent on imposing the rule of the Ring.” Yalko’s voice was curt, his tone barely contained. “For profit or for power, your kind is only interested in conquest.”
“That is not why I came here. I have no interest in conquering Muhar.” This wasn’t the way Khal wanted this discussion to be going. This wasn’t the way heneededthis discussion to be going. “We came here to bring Knut to justice for all he’s done, along with all those he works with. That is what my friends have sacrificed their lives for.” Just mentioning Zaxis and Celaith tore out another piece of Khal’s heart, spreading pain and anger where he was already raw and bleeding.
“I remember your friends from Gerkin’s jail.” Yalko’s tone held no anger, but no sympathy either. “I am sorry for their loss, but I won’t sacrifice any more of our people than those who were already lost.”
Frustration welled inside Khal. He knew the Muharee had lost a lot, but they still had a lot to lose. Khal had everything to lose if the Muharee didn’t help them.
“Knut came here for a reason.” Khal spoke despite the fury in Yalko’s eyes. “He has a weapon strong enough to wipe out the entire Ring’s government; a negative particle bomb. He will plunge trillions of people into chaos and war, cause misery on a scale never seen before. I was sent here to retrieve that bomb and bring Knut back to justice. I can’t do it unless you help me stop him.”
“You would have me put more of my people in harm’s way?” Yalko’s gaze turned openly hostile. “All for the sake of a Ring that has only ever wanted to impose its rule on us?”
Khal faced the Muharee chieftain, all too aware of the danger that hovered in the air between them. Of the danger that surrounded him and Hazel like the very air they breathed. Unavoidable, permanent.
“He and Gerkin will keep on destroying your home, killing your offspring, your mates. He will not leave, and he will not stop.” Khal spoke even as Yalko’s lipless mouth opened to reveal long, curved fangs dripping with a wicked, milky white venom. The Muharee was enraged by the conversation, and Khal knew he should stop, but he had no other choice.
There was no hope of salvation unless the Muharee agreed to help.
“I should make you pay for your kind’s crimes. I should feed you to the Mother Forest and dance to your cries of agony.” Yalko took a step closer, his long, clawed fingers spread out, venom dripping onto his chin.
Khal’s talons shot out as his body tensed, ready for the fight.
Then a soft moan came from the bed and Yalko’s eyes went down to Hazel. Her beautiful, dainty features were twisted in lines of pure misery and a tortured, high-pitched whine began anew in her throat.
“She is very brave,” Yalko commented as Hazel opened her mouth wider in an almost silent scream. “My mate was brave, too. Her life was taken by Gerkin, along with my three offspring. Hazel reminds me of her.”
“If this mission fails, she will lose everything. Her freedom, her life. Her home planet. Knut will destroy everything she ever loved,” Khal said.
Yalko looked down at Hazel for a long time, then back at Khal. “You will be escorted to the edge of the Medina and given any weapons you might want to complete your mission, but that is all.” Then he left, leaving Khal alone. As his gaze fell back down to Hazel, he knew he had to do it.
