Page 73 of Venomous Lust
“You want us to go back to pillaging, slaughtering villages across the Ring and stealing females, mating them by force?” Khal shook his head and chuckled without humor. “The Eoks will never accept that. We’re not the savage beasts we once were. If you hadn’t spent all your life lost in violence, you’d know.”
The four other Eoks accompanying Gerkin stared at him, their faces still and unexpressive, but Khal saw the glimmer of doubt in their eyes, in the way they lifted their chins slightly at his words.
They are not like Gerkin. He must have something on them to make them obey these orders.
“Yalko!” Hazel shouted from behind Khal as one last ionic detonation sounded to his left. He turned to see a green clad figure, clutching his side heavily, slithering between the dead tree trunks.
“Let him go, Affek,” Gerkin ordered the Eok warrior who had already started to pursue the injured Muharee. “He’s not going to make it, and even if he does, he won’t make it far into his precious Medina before being eaten alive.”
The Eok warrior paused, staring at the figure of the Muharee as he fled through the dead forest, hunched over and clutching his wound. Khal knew Gerkin was right. Even if Yalko survived long enough to make it to the Medina, he was never going to get back to his home in time to receive the medical help that would save him. The Medina would sense his blood and kill him as surely as she would have done to Hazel.
There would be no alerting of the other Muharee tribes. No reinforcements to fight off Knut’s Ilarian guards and Gerkin’s Eok.
They were truly alone.
“You won’t get away with this,” Khal warned Gerkin as he got to his feet, cradling Hazel protectively against him. Her small fingers grabbed desperately to his green clothing. “Knut always betrays those closest to him. You should have learned that by now.”
Gerkin took a step closer, the barrel of his ionic gun inches from Khal’s chest. Hatred and sickness exuded from him like a second skin, deforming his Eok features, turning him into the monster he was inside. “And who says I won’t betray him first?”
“You’re a monster.” Hazel spoke from within Khal’s protective arms, her small face twisted in fear but her green eyes fierce and shining. “Monsters always get the ending they deserve.”
Gerkin blinked at Hazel’s words then his pale eyes gleamed with another kind of hatred, one that was a thousand times more perverse. “And you will soon wish you had died on Garana when you first defied me.”
Gerkin took a step back and made a jerky motion to the Eok closest to him.
“Chain him up with Allurium.” Gerkin stepped to the side as Affek came forward, pulling seemingly fragile hand and ankle cuffs from his uniform. Khal knew better, though. Allurium was the one and only metal alloy that was strong enough to contain him. The metal alloy was made from a particularly rare element found on only three planets in the entire known world, both inside and outside of the Ring.
Muhar was the biggest source of Allurium in all the known world. Only its riches were never exploited to their fullest potential because of the savage natives who inhabited the planet—those savage natives who protected the surface from any mining operations necessary to extract the costly metal.
And with that, Khal understood what he had been missing all this time. Why Prime Councilor Aav had been so keen on keeping this mission a secret, why she wanted him to retrieve Knut and the bomb and not to destroy both.
She wanted the Allurium for herself. She needed to know how Knut had finally defeated the native Muharee and extracted the Allurium from the planet’s soil.
She was going to keep the operation going, was going to destroy an entire civilization to assure her hold on power.
Too much power corrupts the soul. Prime Councilor Aav and Knut are one and the same. They both have to be stopped.
Hazel screamed and kicked, bit and scratched as one of the Eoks grabbed her and Khal watched, proud to see her so fierce. She had the heart of a warrior, and that was going to be her salvation.
Gerkin followed his gaze as Khal looked at Hazel, then he smiled. He grabbed her by the scruff of her neck like a helpless animal, immobilizing her by twisting one arm behind her back like he had done to Celaith on Garana.
“Don’t worry about your bloodmate, Commander. Knut promised me she would be part of my payment.” Gerkin brought Hazel closer to him and laughed when she tried to bite him, spewing insults that would make a hardened pirate blush. “He said she was too unruly to sell to a rich client. It seems no one likes a kitten that bites as well as has claws.”
Gerkin twisted Hazel’s arm painfully and she cried out in pain. Rage tore at Khal’s insides, but he refrained from moving. The Eoks were only looking for an excuse to get rid of him. If he died, then no one would be coming for Hazel.
“I look forward to removing her claws, one after the other.” Gerkin brought Hazel closer again, this time with a dark hunger twisting his features. “Because I do very much like a kitten that bites back.”
“You’re going to die.” Khal spoke softly, his voice as measured as the beating of his heart. Years of training had taught him well. “I will remove your heart and cast you away in front of the Midnight God. You will never walk the Night Lands with your ancestors. Mark my words, Gerkin, son of Jahley of the Hunnyon tribe. I will drink your blood from your still beating heart before this day is over.”
The Eoks blinked, their faces full of dreadful awe as Khal spoke the ancient words of the Eokian death promise. Even Gerkin lost his countenance for a second, but then he laughed again.
As the Allurium cuffs locked around his wrists and ankles, Khal had reached a decision.
He wasn’t going to retrieve the bomb, or Knut. He was going to destroy them—and Gerkin first.
Chapter 23
Hazel
