Born of Silence (15 page)

The moment he was free, Darling started to fall, but Maris caught him against his chest and held him in a tight hug. “I have you, baby. Don’t worry. No one’s going to hurt you now.”

Nero snapped the cuff on his left hand with his powers.

When Nykyrian reached for the muzzle, Syn grabbed his wrist and stopped him. “I’ll have to surgically remove it.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. The fucking bastards left it on him so long, it’s grown into his throat. See the marks?”

Though they were currently hidden by the black crash helmet he wore, Nykyrian had scars on his face from when he’d been a child and a different kind of muzzle had been used on him. Like Darling’s, his muzzle had been left in place for so long it’d grown into his skin.

Nykyrian cursed again.

His breathing ragged, Darling barely heard them as he held on to Maris with what little strength he had. Never in his life had he been more grateful for his best friend’s appearance.

“I’ve got you, Darling,” Maris whispered in his ear. “Through thick and thin, brothers to the bitter end. No one’s going to hurt you again. I swear it.”

Syn gently touched Darling on the shoulder. “I’m going to knock you out, okay?”

Darling nodded.
Please make the pain stop.
He didn’t care if Syn’s dosage killed him so long as it made his body numb.

Syn pulled out an injector from the deep pocket on his left leg, then shot it into Darling’s arm.

Over Maris’s shoulder, Darling locked gazes with Zarya who’d been cuffed by Jayne. He saw the horrified agony in her amber eyes that were filled with tears.

I didn’t know what they did to you,
she mouthed to him.
I’m so sorry.

Did she really think that mattered to him now? After all he’d been through?

Go to hell, bitch.

The last thing he heard before the drug knocked him out was Nykyrian’s angry order for the rest of the Sentella members. “Kill them. Every fucking one who breathes. I want them hunted down and ripped into pieces. Take your time and make it hurt.”

Nero inclined his head to Nykyrian. “I’m going to help end a few lives.” Then he left the room.

“Save some for me, boy,” Hauk called, following after him.

Caillen placed his hand on Darling’s head. “I plan to find a few of them to party with myself. I’ll meet you guys back at the ship.” He made an even quicker exit than Nero and Hauk had.

Jayne grabbed Zarya by the hair, and held her for Nykyrian’s inspection. “You want to kill her, or can I do it?”

Nykyrian considered their options and the bloodlust that lay beneath Jayne’s tone. The hyshian lived to kill.

But not that one.

Not yet.

“Save her for Darling. He deserves the honor of killing at least one of them. And since she was the last one in here…”

Jayne sighed in disgust. “Damn, boss. You take all my fun away.” She shoved Zarya back against the wall. “Be grateful, ’ho. There’s nothing I love more than a good, long skinning.”

Ignoring them and swinging Darling up into his arms so that he could gently cradle him, Maris wept over what had been done to Darling’s now frail body. He’d been so beautiful and strong before…

Now, he looked like a walking corpse.

What they’d done went beyond inhumane. For the first time in his life, he wanted blood from another human being. “Have you ever seen anything like this?” he asked Syn.

“Not in a long time.” Syn glanced over his shoulder at Nykyrian. “Nemesis has been through worse, and for a lot longer period of time.”

Maris glared at that woman as true hatred filled him. “How could you!”

“I didn’t—”

Jayne backhanded her, then shot her in the chest. “Don’t worry,” she assured Nykyrian as he took a step toward her in protest of her actions. “I didn’t kill the bitch… yet. It’s just a good
stunning to shut her up before I yielded to the desire I have to gut her.”

Nykyrian shook his head. “I’ll carry Darling,” he said to Syn. “You get the woman.”

Syn put the injector back into his pocket. “You won’t hold it against me if I accidentally drop her a few times on her head, will you?”

“Not at all.”

“I knew I loved you for a reason.” Syn went to retrieve her.

Maris stopped Nykyrian before he took Darling out of his arms. “Will he be all right?”

Syn was the one who answered. “Physically, I think I can fix most of it. Mentally…” He glanced at Nykyrian and paused.

Nykyrian snorted. “Yeah, I’m still severely fucked up. I own that fact. It’s not like I can hide it.” He cleared his throat before he continued. “But to answer your question, Mari, there’s no telling. No one comes through torture intact. You’ve been around us long enough to know that. After mine, I was like an animal for a long time. Some days, I still am.”

Syn tossed the woman roughly over his shoulder. “Ditto. I was certifiable and alcoholic until my sister-in-law verbally kicked my ass and made me realize what I was doing to myself. I can’t believe I’m going to admit this outside my head, but thank the gods for Kasen. Anyone
ever
tells her I said that and I’ll deny it, then kill you.”

Sick to his stomach, Maris allowed Nykyrian to take Darling from him, and lead him back toward the hangar. He wasn’t as optimistic about his friend as they were. He knew Darling better than anyone, and before this had happened, Darling had been surfing the edge of paranoid insanity.

Every time he’d seen him, Darling had become more and more silent and sullen.

More unpredictable and defiant.

The ongoing hatred and rage Darling kept for his mother and uncle had blazed in his eyes like a tangible beast that wanted blood, and that repressed fury had scared Maris to the point, he’d expected Darling to lash out at them and kill them for it.

Would this push him over the edge?

It’s all my fault…

“If I’d only found him sooner,” he breathed.

Jayne rubbed his arm with a kind caress as she walked by his side. “Don’t go there, Mari. But for you remembering the woman’s name, we’d have never found him at all.”

Perhaps.

Yet looking at Darling’s condition, it was hard to see any kind of bright side. They’d torn him up so foully.

So cruelly…

How could anyone do this to another human being?

I wish my fighting skills were honed and up to date.
Had they been, he’d hunt them down and make them regret their vicious brutality. But he’d walked away from his training years ago, and while he did work out to keep his lean muscles defined and was occasionally Darling’s sparring partner, he no longer had a warrior’s build.

Even when he’d possessed some of the best fighting skills in the universe, he hadn’t wanted them.

Unlike his brothers, Maris had never enjoyed hurting other people, especially not for sport or practice.

However, tonight, he understood the need to taste and let blood.

Please be all right.
He wouldn’t be able to live if anything happened to Darling. He knew that.

Darling was his entire world. He always had been.

And as he watched Nykyrian carrying Darling on board their ship, a bad premonition went through him.

By their actions with this, the Resistance had awakened the devil himself and there would be hell to pay for it. Not from Maris. Not from the Sentella.

But from Darling.

If there was anything in this universe Darling truly hated, it was being a victim. Having his hands tied so that he couldn’t fight back.

It was an unforgivable sin where Darling was concerned. And contrary to popular thought, Darling was one of the most skilled fighters out there. Maris would even run him up against Nemesis/Nykyrian.

Once Darling regained his strength from this, he would become the very god of death and retribution that Hauk had proclaimed him as a joke. No one suspected that darkest side of Darling existed, but Maris knew and it scared him to the core of his soul.

Take cover, bitches.

The right hand of retaliation was about to come calling. And it was going to be brutal.

There would be no escape or sanctuary. Not for any of them. May the gods take pity on all who came into Kere’s path because he knew Darling wouldn’t.

6

Darling came awake slowly to the sound of something beeping in a steady rhythm nearby. He held his breath, waiting for that familiar, rancid pain to kick in.

It didn’t.

But when he tried to open his eyes and couldn’t, panic tore through him immediately. Had they finally blinded him?

Am I dead?

He felt a kind, gentle touch on his shoulder. “Sh… It’s okay, baby. It’s me, Mari. Don’t strain yourself. You’re safe. No one’s going to hurt you.”

Darling relaxed at the sound of Maris’s soothing voice in his ear. He tried to speak, but he couldn’t do that either.

What was in his mouth now? Even with Maris here, panic consumed him.

Maris took his right hand, and cupped it with both of his. “You’re in the Sentella’s hospital. Syn’s been tending you since you were freed. We have you, sweetie. It’s all good now. Don’t worry about anything, okay?”

Darling tightened his hand around Maris’s fingers as gratitude
overwhelmed him and he remembered his rescue. It hadn’t been a dream after all. He was free and alive.

Thank the gods.

“Is he awake?” That was Caillen’s voice from a distance.

Darling heard his heavy footsteps as he neared the bed on the opposite side of where Maris stood. Since Caillen had been trained as a smuggler and not a thief or assassin, his footsteps were very distinctive and extremely loud compared to the rest of Darling’s friends.

“He just woke up.”

Someone touched Darling’s left arm in a roughened grip. “Boy, I ought to kick your ass for this. What kind of fool-headed lunacy were you thinking? Taking off alone? You better be glad you’re on a monitor or I’d be strangling you right now.” That was Hauk’s gruff, accented voice, taking him to task. Something that meant the Andarion had been terrified for real. Hauk had the most screwed up way of showing his emotions.

Caillen rubbed Darling’s shoulder above where Hauk had touched him. “We searched everywhere for you, for months and months. I give those bastards credit, they were slippery. But for Maris, I’m not sure we’d have ever found you.”

Another thing he owed Mari.

“He’s up?” Syn asked as he entered the room. Unlike Caillen, Syn’s footsteps were as silent as Hauk’s and Nykyrian’s, something extremely impressive given their heights and Hauk’s mountainous build.

Darling felt Caillen and Hauk step back as Maris released his hand so that Syn could examine him.

“If you can hear me and understand what I’m saying, Darling, tap my hand one time with your thumb.” Syn slid his hand under Darling’s.

Darling tapped him once.

“Good, man. Now if you want me to update you on your condition, tap again.”

Darling did, even though he could tell by the catch in Syn’s voice, and the fact that he couldn’t move at all or see anything, that it was bad.