Page 110 of Rescued

The AllFather, she thought, feeling the pit of her stomach go cold. That must be him!

There had been stories on Earth ever since the Scourge invasion—nightmare retellings of the very few who had met the Scourge Overlord and lived to tell of it with their minds still intact. They spoke of his monstrous appearance and his endless hunger for pain and fear but now that she saw him in person, Sonya knew that none of the stories she’d heard had gone far enough—the reality of the AllFather was so much worse than she had ever pictured, even in her most vivid night terrors.

The black and green throne was surrounded by the same huge, Vat-grown soldiers but there was also another Scourge who looked more animated than the dull, empty-eyed clones. He was motioning for another group of soldiers to herd a group of prisoners up the steps to the dais. Sonya tried to see who they were herding, but the Scourge warriors were all too tall.

And then, finally, the prisoners reached the dais and the guards fell back and she could see.

Sonya bit her lip as she recognized Davrik’s tall form, standing straight and proud at the top step of the dais. Lined up beside him were three women she didn’t recognize. One of them was clearly human, with long brownish-blonde hair. The other two must be aliens—one had pearly gray skin like a Scourge and the other had light purple skin and long black hair.

She heard Nate take in a quick breath beside her. He was staring at the prisoners too, she saw.

“Which one is yours?” she murmured.

“There—the one with the purple skin and black hair. That’s my Lan’ara—my mate,” he muttered hoarsely. “God, I can feel how afraid she is! And that one is my little sister, Maddy.” He pointed at the girl with long brownish blonde hair. “We have to get to them!”

But the guards were still surrounding the two of them and anyway, Sonya didn’t think they were close enough to get a good shot at the AllFather. Not like she knew much about the ESR strapped to the ex-Seal’s back, but it seemed to her that the closer they could get, the better their chances of using it successfully were.

“Wait—they’re saying something,” she whispered back. “Let’s see what’s going on before we go charging up there.”

“All right—but I can’t wait much longer,” he growled. There was a look in his eyes, Sonya saw—the look of a man who will do anything to protect the woman he loves. Her heart fisted in her chest when she saw it because she recognized it—hadn’t she seen that same look on Davrik’s face? A look that had been directed at her?

And then the AllFather spoke and his cold, evil voice drove everything else out of her mind.

“Ssso, these are the prisonersss you spoke of, Krix,” he said, the cold voice hissing rather than speaking the words.

“Indeed they are, AllFather.” The Scourge officer who looked like he wasn’t a clone nodded respectfully.

“But my daughter, Xairna, isss also included in thisss group. Tell me, why iss that, Krix?”

“Because she was trying to escape, AllFather,” the Scourge officer said. “She was offering the two Kindred and the human prisoner safe passage off the Father Ship if only they would agree to take her with them.”

“Dear me…” The AllFather rose from the throne, shaking loose his shadowy robes from its etched green surface. “My dear daughter, isss thisss true?” he asked, taking a step towards the line of prisoners.

The girl with gray skin lifted her chin.

“It is. I cannot stand it here anymore—I would rather be dead that let you feed from me one more time!”

She spat the words and Sonya could almost feel her hatred—a burning fire of resentment that had all but consumed her heart. She wondered if there was something in this room that amplified negative emotions?

“I shall never let you die, dear daughter,” the AllFather hissed. “For the taste of your pain iss too ssweet.” Then he reached out one skeletal scabrous hand, as though he was going to take the grey girl’s face in his fingers.

“Stop!” The loud shout came from Davrik. To Sonya’s dismay, he strode forward, putting himself between the AllFather and his daughter.

“And what might you want, Kindred?” the AllFather hissed.

“If you want to hurt someone, hurt me,” Davrik growled, his deep voice reverberating through the vast throne room.

Sonya felt her heart stop in her chest as the evil Scourge leader looked at Davrik thoughtfully.

“Do you have some sort of attachment to my daughter?” he asked in his high, hissing voice.

“I don’t even know her,” Davrik admitted. “But I cannot stand by as a Kindred warrior and allow a female to be terrorized or brutalized.”

“Very well…” The skeletal hand made a motion in the air. “Then I will taste your pain first. But know that you have only delayed the pain of the othersss—for I will taste them all—asss well as these two that have come to sssave you. Which was a fool’ss errand. For now I have all of you and I will never let you go!”

“What?” Davrik turned and Sonya saw his eyes go wide in surprise. “Sonya—baby girl, what are you doing here?”

Sonya lifted her head.

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