An Unwanted Hunger (11 page)

“Liar!” he screamed in rage and lunged.

Resa raised her blades enough to keep the sword from piercing her heart. But not high enough to prevent it from slicing into the deltoid muscle on her left arm. An intense burning preceded a feeling of numbness that worked down her arm.

She didn’t have much time before the arm would be useless. Before she would be useless. But she wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

She let her left arm drop and saw Stephen’s grin of victory as he pushed in closer, trying to angle his blade against her throat. Just as she saw the shock that came on his face when the blade in her left hand plunged into his diaphragm and angled up into his heart.

He was dead before he hit the floor. Resa staggered. Two more fighters were coming at her. She was running out of strength. Weakly she lifted her arms in defense.
Constantine, I love you
, she thought as she saw two swords raised in unison.

She felt a coolness waft across her sweat-drenched body, saw a distortion in the air around her, air that swam with light and color. Thinking that at last death had found her, she closed her eyes and let the light take her.

Chapter Ten

Warm hands moved up his torso and across his chest, soft and gentle, moving ever upward until they cupped his face. The feel of full lips brushing his and the smell of her scent accompanied the whisper in his ear. “I love you. Always.”

Constantine’s eyes flew open. His hands moved to his chest, almost surprised to meet with the fabric of his shirt. Was it a dream? He closed his eyes, concentrating on establishing a connection, but there was no one to connect with.

Was she gone from his life? Had he lost her before their lives together could begin?

Claws dug into his mind and heart, threatening to choke him with grief and longing. Days had passed since the Alliance attack and still there was no word of Resa. Her body had not been found and despite the combined efforts of all three factions of the V’Kar, no information could be uncovered to let him know what had happened to her after she’d convinced Leonidas and his people, as well as the D’Harahn, to flee the battle with the Alliance. After she’d risked her own to save them. And him.

It was too much, this pain. He wanted to cast it away like an unwanted suitor, be done with it and escape its power. But escape was not possible. He was bound to her. In life or death and nothing could release him from the pain her loss brought.

Rising from the chair at his desk, he walked over to the window and stared blindly through the panes. How did one move forward when that which mattered the most had been ripped from them?

No one had that answer. Azarth had tried to counsel him, speaking of how her sacrifice had worked to form a bond between the three factions that had not existed in a millennium. A tenuous bond, but a bond nonetheless.

Constantine knew he should take heart in that. She had accomplished much. But that could not outweigh his grief. It was too deep, too dark. For the first time in his long life he had no control over his emotions, could not shove them into a dark corner in his mind and cover them from his consciousness.

He had to know. If she no longer lived then he wanted to see her body. Wanted to know how she’d died and by whose hands so that he could exact vengeance upon them.

* * * * *

The dream began to fade, leaving behind an ache of aloneness. She struggled to rise up through the fog that shrouded her mind. After some time her eyes opened. Her vision swam, making it impossible to determine her surroundings. Closing her eyes, she sought to stem the panic rising inside her, breathing deeply and slowly. When she opened her eyes next, her vision was still distorted, but with time it began to normalize.

Where was she? She turned her head to look around. She was in a white room, with gauzy curtains that swayed, filtering the light that came from the window. Two women sat across the room from her, talking too softly to be understood. Resa tried to sit. That’s when she realized she couldn’t move. Her wrists and ankles were restrained. She was shackled to a bed.

“Hey!” Fear had her jerking her arms and kicking her legs, trying to break free. “Release me! Hey! Did you hear me? I said get this shit off me!”

One of the women hurried from the room as the other crossed to the bedside. “Please remain calm. There is nothing to fear. You are safe.”

“Well you’re not gonna be. Let me out of this shit!”

“I’m sorry, I do not have the authority—”

“Then get someone who does!” Resa continued to thrash around, making the bed shake and bang against the wall with a rapid thud.

“Please,” the woman pleaded. “I assure you that you are in no danger here. If you would only—”

“Let. Me. Go.” Resa yelled loud enough that the woman winced at the volume. She increased her efforts to break free.

Suddenly the woman moved away, bowing her head. It was an odd enough gesture to have Resa stilling to see what was going on. Pandora approached her bed and looked down at her. “My, you are loud.”

“Let me go,” Resa snarled.

“Of course,” Pandora gestured and the woman attending Resa quickly unfastened the restraints.

Resa bounded out of the bed to face Pandora. “Where am I? Is Constantine safe? What happened? Did Leonidas and his people escape?”

Pandora raised her hand and Resa fell silent, looking at the other woman in the room who had her eyes downcast. “You may go,” Pandora said quietly.

The woman immediately left the room and Pandora gestured to the chairs across the room. “Come, let us sit.”

Resa wasn’t much inclined to do anything Pandora suggested after being restrained, but she needed answers so she complied.

“Well?” she asked as soon as Pandora had taken a seat.

“Constantine is safe. As is Leonidas.”

“Where am I? How did I get here? I remember—” She jerked back the neck of the soft tunic she wore and looked at her shoulder. “I was cut.”

“You are quite healed.”

Resa breathed a sigh of relief that was short-lived when Pandora spoke her next words. “And pregnant.”

“Pregnant?”

“Yes.”

“I’m…I’m pregnant? With— It’s Constantine’s! I’m carrying his child.”

“Yes.”

“And this means?”

“Hope,” Pandora said. “The Vox Narr within you reproduced. Whether it survives in the fetus only time will tell.”

“And if it does?”

“Then our race is saved.”

Resa nodded. She understood the enormity of it for the V’Kar. And for Constantine. For herself she could only feel a sense of wonder that was becoming increasingly decorated with excitement.

“I’m going to have a baby,” she whispered, putting both hands over her belly. She’d never even considered having a child. Never had any urge at all in that direction yet now it seemed the most marvelous thing in the world.

“There are complications.”

“With the pregnancy?” Fear stabbed at her.

“No, politically.”

“Is Constantine in danger?”

“Possibly.”

“What does that mean? Exactly.”

“Specifically it means that Constantine’s brother RaJahn has successfully maneuvered into a position of popularity on Shadallah. His campaign to discredit Constantine has met with some measure of success. Enough that the Emperor is now considering RaJahn’s proposal that he be stationed on Earth to oversee the D’Harahn efforts here, to monitor Azarth’s progress and to deal with his brother, who has betrayed the empire by taking a half-breed as a mate.”

Resa felt the fingers of dread tickle her spine and cold sweat break out on her forehead. “Can Constantine stand against him at this point?”

“No. RaJahn has made preemptive moves and has insinuated himself within the major intelligence networks on this world. He has created a clandestine group that is fed from all these networks to act as his eyes and ears on Earth.”

“Does this group have a name?”

“Sirocco.”

“A wind?”

“Far more destructive and powerful. Sirocco is an acronym for the Synaptic Integration of Real-time Robotic Orientation on Corporeal Organisms, and it promises to be the next step in global control.”

Resa suppressed a shudder to ask, “Okay, do this the science for dummies way and explain what that means.”

Pandora repositioned herself in her chair, leaning lightly with one elbow propped on the arm of the seat, her hands clasped in her lap. “Essentially, a nanobot or microscopic robot is introduced into the brain of a human via the sinus cavity. The programming is activated and instructs the nanobot to travel to a preprogrammed location within the brain. Once there it secures itself and begins to grow biomechanical tentacles that branch throughout the central nervous system to form a type of neural net.

“When the net is complete and activated, in theory, every thought, experience and perception can be collected and transmitted as data to a central command center.”

“Which would allow someone to access the knowledge and memories of anyone who had the nanobot inside them.”

“Precisely. But not simply access. The transmission is bi-directional. Commands can also be uploaded to the nanobot, theoretically altering perceptions and memories or even issuing commands that the host does not realize are originating outside himself.”

“That’s…monstrous,” Resa replied, thinking that the people of V’Kar sure might be more advanced and intelligent but that didn’t make them any less corrupt.

“And brilliant,” Pandora commented with a smile that Resa interpreted as malicious. She wasn’t sure Pandora was to be completely trusted. Used as an ally to protect and defend Constantine? Absolutely. But trusted? Not by a long shot. Her words rang true, but there was a glitter in her eyes that Resa didn’t trust.

“What do you suggest we should do to protect Constantine?”

“Go into seclusion.”

“He’d never do that. He won’t run from a fight with his brother.”

“I think he will.”

“You’re wrong. Nothing would make him turn his back on his people.”

“Except the life you carry within you.”

“What?”

“Constantine seeks to become Aegis to the Sha’Dahn V’Kar.”

“Which translates as?”

“Official guardian of the Firstborn.”

“I’m going to need more than that.”

“The firstborn female of D’Harahn genetics carrying a living Vox Narr and capable of reproduction.”

“Fe— I’m going to have a daughter?”

“Yes.”

The excitement that swelled inside was dampened with concerns. “Are you saying that my child has one of the Vox Narr inside it? How is that possible?”

“The Vox Narr within you underwent asexual reproduction.”

“So this makes my child the Sha’Dahn? Which is what, exactly?”

“If the Vox Narr survives and the child is capable of reproducing with another of full D’Harahn blood, she will be the Sha’Dahn V’Kar. The new mother of our race.”

“Why D’Harahn? Why not someone from Nuria or Valia?”

Pandora laughed at the question, which annoyed Resa. “Because the D’Harahn rule and they are Pureblood.”

“You know you’re starting to sound a little like someone expounding on Aryan purity.”

“That sounded suspiciously like an insult.”

“Take it however you want. But back to Constantine and our child. As the father, he’s already the child’s guardian. Correct?”

“Not entirely. If your child proves to be the Sha’Dahn, then technically, whoever sits on the throne is the Aegis and decides who the child breeds with when the time comes.”

Resa didn’t like that at all. That sounded like some medieval fiefdom who still thought people were property. “Hold the deal, Lucille. No one is going to tell any child of mine who he or she can or can’t have kids with.”

Pandora laughed. “You have much to learn about our ways.”

Resa chose to ignore the comment. The more Pandora said, the more convinced Resa was she didn’t like the V’Karian way. But she did like one V’Karian very much and was going to do everything she could to protect him and help him take his rightful place on the throne because she honestly believed he would make things change for the better.

“I’ll do all I can to convince Constantine to go into seclusion. But to do that I have to be taken back to him.”

“I can arrange that.”

“Then please do. Now.”

Pandora’s eyes narrowed fractionally before she smiled and nodded. “Very well.” She withdrew a device from the deep pocket of her flowing shift and activated it. A well of swirling air that danced with light and color appeared between the two of them.

Resa stood and nodded to Pandora then stepped into the distortion. A dizzying kaleidoscope of light, shapes and colors assaulted her senses. It lasted only moments and suddenly the sight of Constantine’s private chambers met her eyes.

And Constantine. Slumped over in a chair by the window, his journal on his lap and his eyes closed. Resa’s heart nearly broke. She’s never seen him look unkempt, yet that’s exactly how he appeared. His hair was tangled as if from rolling and tossing during sleeplessness and there were shadows marring the skin beneath his eyes.

She ran across the room and knelt down in front of him, putting her hand on the side of his face.

“Constantine?”

His eyelids fluttered.

“Constantine?”

This time his eyes opened. He looked at her and his eyes widened. Then he was on his feet and she was in his arms. And for the moment all was right in her world.

“Resa.” His arms tightened around her. “Resa.”

“I’m here. I’m okay,” she whispered and pulled his face down to cover his lips with hers.

When her lips slanted across his, warm and soft and wet, Constantine’s chest swelled with emotion. He’d never experienced anything as horrible as the fear that she had been killed. Now that she was safe in his arms he felt he could breathe fully again. He wanted to know where she’d been, how she’d escaped and why he could not sense her after her disappearance. But the way her body was moving against him and her tongue caressing his robbed him of speech and stripped away all but the primal man within him. Reaffirming his claim on her was all that mattered.

“I need you, Resa. More than I’ve ever needed anything.”

“Then take me.”

The fire burned far too hot within Constantine to allow for gentleness. Fisting her hair in both hands, his mouth slanted across hers, his tongue pillaging her mouth. She moaned into his mouth, fueling a hunger that was already out of control. He moved his hands to her breasts then down to her ass to pull her tight against him.

“By the ancients,” he breathed as he pulled back from the kiss to bury his face between her breasts. “I want to be gentle but—” He raised his head to look at her. “Never leave me again.”

Before she had time to respond, his mouth closed on her nipple. A sharp breath came from her as he nipped the taut flesh. A split second later he felt her hands unfastening his belt then his slacks. In moments they were around his feet. He lifted Resa and she wound her legs around his waist, reaching between them to take his cock and rub it against her wet sex.

Constantine thrust his pelvis forward, trying to penetrate the tantalizing warmth of her sex, but she still had hold of him and moved his cock so that instead of sinking inside her it simply slid along the length of her pussy. “Don’t tease me,” he rasped, his voice rough with need.