Blood Bonds (16 page)

“Now you are grateful?” The Queen’s tone said she wasn’t buying it.

A wave of palpable fear rolled over Haley, choking her. She curled forward, trembling under the weight of the
RHage
. Every muscle in her body jerked and her mind threatened to short out. Breathing became a luxury. Just when Haley thought it was going to crush her it stopped. The tide receded and left her gasping for breath.

After a long silence the crimson in Medan’s eyes dimmed. The rhythmic rise and fall of her purr echoed off the walls. “Do not wait very long. Your enemies are everywhere. Even among the ranks of those you work with. You cannot trust the
chetrah
, Haley. They do not wish Kin anything but death.” Haley watched the Queen as she curled tight. “Go with caution, Child.”

Her lids slid closed and she became stone still.

“What about Farley?” Haley asked.

“He lives.” An eye partially opened.

“Can I take him with me?”

“I keep my promises...” There was a “but” in there somewhere. Medan’s scaly lips curled. “However, he may prefer to stay.”

No. No, he wouldn’t.

“What did you do to him?” The accusation was just the sort of thing which could start an entire new round of Fun with Words.

“I did nothing.” What Medan meant was, “more than you want to know.”

Haley took a breath. “Where? Where is he?”

Medan slid her eyes to one of the passageways on the right. “Through there, stay straight. The room is at the end.” Her eyes came back to Haley. The anger behind them seethed.

Haley looked at the doorway. “Please, Medan, ust tell me.” She tried to swallow but her mouth was too dry.

“I swear to you, Child, I have not harmed him. I
fed
him. That. Was. All.” Her gaze burned with an unspoken challenge.

Haley knew very well Medan didn’t bleed for Farley, and his rank on the dominance scale put him on the menu, not on the customer list. Haley couldn’t stop herself from asking. “What did you
feed
him?”

The Queen rumbled and flicked her talons across the fur. “I find it interesting how some of us become addicted to Human flesh. Farley used to devastate entire villages to feed his cravings.”

Haley shook her head. “No, no, no ... God of Man, Medan, what have you done?”

Yellow fire flared in her golden eyes. “God of Man?” she laughed. “There is no God, Haley. Not of Man and not of Kin. There are only Queens. We are the only Gods.”

Haley kicked off her heels and tore down the long dark tunnel, falling once when she smashed her shoulder against a rocky protrusion. She told herself the copper smell in the air was the wet stone. It could have been. She wanted it to be.

Haley burst in the room, hit a pool of blood, slid and fell. Her head cracked against the floor and her ankle screamed in sharp jabs, making her forget all about the black stars bursting in front of her eyes.

“Farley?” She rolled to her side, her hand sliding in crimson wetness, little pieces of something soft stuck to her skin.

Flesh.

Human flesh.

Haley got to her feet, limping until her ankle knitted enough to support her. She blinked and stared into the heavy shadows of the poorly lit chamber. It was hard to understand what she was seeing. Farley was on the floor, surrounded by a mass of something moving. Males. Dozens of them. All pale with translucent iridescence. White-scales. Hatchlings

They licked and sucked against Farley’s skin, leaving white trails through the red wherever their tongues passed.

“Get away from him!” None of them obeyed. They were burning up with Hunger, their eyes fixated on the only thing in the room smelling like
food
.

As Haley closed in, their pasty white forms shuddered and rippled. Half-formed faces turned to stare at her. Mouths filled with way too many teeth gaped and sucked her scent from the air. The mishmash of Human and Draconian features made them hideous, made them repulsive. These were her people. These were Kin. And still ... they were foreign, unknown creatures. Monsters.

A lean, low growl squeezed out of Haley’s chest. She swung at the first one, flaying his back with her
chelae.
The smell of blood sent them all screeching. The high pitched clicks, low thrumming, and hungry growls became deafening. Inhuman teeth flashed in half-Human faces. Haley stumbled back as they sucked in their clutch mate and devoured him in a symphony of gnashing teeth.

How many of them were there? Haley couldn’t tell, but it was too many. She waded through them, kicking the ones who wouldn’t move. And every injured creature was overwhelmed. Piteous cries were short lived and quickly replaced by the sounds of tearing flesh and snapping bone.

Here in the nest there was no place for the weak.

She had to get Farley out of here.

Haley tossed another Male out of her way and fell over Farley, blocking him with her body.

“Farley, look at me! Look at me please!” He craned his head back, his eyes on the pools of red. Haley grabbed his head and made him meet her eyes. “Look at me!” The sweet scent of pain blossomed and he screamed. Haley looked down to see one of them working its jaws to the bone in his leg. She roared and kicked, cracking its skull and splattering green ichor all over the other half-changed bodies. Its clutch mates converged.

“Go! Get back!” Haley hissed and they withdrew, but not too far. Their hunger pumped through the air on metaphysical currents. She growled, as her own
need
swelled. Haley was horrified by the fierceness of it. She shook Farley. His golden eyes focused and his face crumbled.

“I didn’t mean to.” He looked down at himself, then around. “God of Man, what I have I done?”

Haley snarled at the white-scales as they inched closer, flashing fang and
chelae.
They made small mewling noises, asking to be
fed
. The asking wouldn’t last long. Pretty soon their Hunger would win out. Haley would have to kill them, or let them eat. And there were too many to kill.

She watched as more of them scurried in from the tunnels.

Where the hell were they all coming from?

“Haley...” Farley wailed, clutching his stomach. “It hurts! Please, I need more, please...” Some were like this. Their hunger for Human flesh so powerful their bodies revolted when denied. But Farley had gone so long without it. Surely, it wouldn’t be this strong, this fast.

The white-scales rattled wings and chattered teeth. Their soft, colorless bodies trembled as one living thing.

Hunger.

Feed.

The feelings were so powerful they were almost a voice. Haley felt her own teeth elongate and a heat burn through her skin. Images flashed through her mind, of sinking her teeth into Farley’s neck and taking blood, then scoring his stomach to eat the soft parts inside. “Not now!” Dark blue scales fluttered along Haley’s arms and neck. Her vision slid away into the bright contrast of crystalline colors her brain interpreted as distance and forms.

Haley pressed her face into Farley’s neck and inhaled his scent, remembering who he was. “I have to get you out of here.” She heard him sob.

His hand touched her cheek and trembled. “I can’t.”

“You can. I can get you out. I need you to stand up. They won’t hurt you as long as I don’t let them.”

“No, I can’t, Haley, I can’t stop again. I can feel it. It never felt like this before.”

And I want to rip your throat out
. Haley forced herself to think of something else. Anything else. Her dead flowers in the clay pot by her door.

When she had control, she said, “It’s the white-scales. You feel their Hunger. I feel it too.”

“Not like this!” Farley smacked his head against the stone. “Please, just go. I won’t be able to stop again. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“You won’t. You’re not a man-eater.”

“Yes, I am!” Farley’s eyes flickered with copper and red. “I am. I’ve killed thousands of Humans in my life. I’m no different than Niles.”

Haley pressed her face to his cheek. “You quit. You stopped...” The cries of the hatchlings made her whimper.

HUNGER!

BLOOD AND MEAT!

FEED!

“Shut up!” She kicked at them when they got close. “Just shut up, all of you!”

“Haley, just go.”

“I will not leave you!” Her anger rose like heat. The hatchlings squealed and pulled back, their instinct for self-preservation momentarily overriding their need for
food
. “That’s right, you’re pissing me off!” But as the last of them trickled in from below, their motives were clear. They were going to
feed
. While they wouldn’t touch Haley because she was Female, Farley was fair game. He had no rank on the dominance scale and that made him Food.

On hands and knees, one of the white scales came closer. His perfect Human form lacked a finished look, giving his skin a shiny plastic texture. His green Draconian eyes rolled down at Farley. His mouth gaped open, and teeth, too long to fit in his head, folded out. They weren’t going to wait much longer. Minutes. Seconds.

Haley looked at Farley. His gaze was on the white-scales, his face calm. The pain and shame of what he’d done glowed in his eyes.

It’s them. He’ll be okay if I can just get him out.

But looking at the white-scales, Haley wasn’t sure how she was going to do that. She’d never had to fight her way through the nests as a hatchling. Females rarely did. But they still got to witness it. This was all so strange to her. So frightening.

It turned her insides to think she had once been just like this.

The
need
of the white-scales washed over Haley and she sank her claws into Farley’s arms. He bucked under her and one of the white-scales latched onto his foot. His teeth clenched and his breath hissed out.

Hunger drove Haley forward. She opened her mouth, her eyes on the thready pulse in his neck.

Just a little to tide me over.

NO!

Haley screeched and slung her head, trying to shake free of the
need
. It wasn’t the white-scales she had to worry about now. It was herself. She had to change his scent. Stamp a big “no-free-lunch” sign on his chest.

Haley felt ridiculous even thinking about it. Hell, she wasn’t even sure how to do it. But she knew from seeing other Males who
Belonged
, they smelled like those who
owned
them. And right now it was her scent keeping the white-scales at bay. Every Human-made moral instilled in her screamed it was wrong. She didn’t have the right. It was stealing from Farley. Taking his identity. But if she didn’t, the white-scales would eat him alive.

She said, “Do you trust me?”

“You know I do.”

“I think, I think if I get my scent in you they’ll leave you alone.”

Farley’s wide frightened eyes burned. He touched the back of her head. “Do it.”

The
need
of the white-scales beat against Haley like an insistent drum and she wondered if she would be able to stop once she bit him. Farley seemed to know exactly what she was thinking.

“Please, Haley! If I’m going to die, I’d rather you do it.” Because the white-scales were going to kill him one piece at a time.

Haley stared at the smooth line of his muscular shoulder, feeling ashamed. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Farley.”

“I’ll walk you through it. I’ve seen it done.” Of course he would. Farley had walked her through a lot of firsts in her life. Haley nodded and leaned forward.

All around her the white-scales howled. Finally, she was going to
feed
them. Haley heard the deafening crunch and tasted blood. She didn’t remember biting Farley, but now that she had, she needed to get control.

“Bite deeper. To the bone.” Farley’s pained words broke over his shaky breath. He wound his hands tight in her hair and pushed down on the back of her head. Haley worried her bite into muscle. Her jaw popped and dislocated. Blood rushed down Haley’s throat and her primal need to
feed
exploded. She heard Farley shout her name. Her cognitive half begged him to fight back.

“Gland, palate, push!” His voice cracked and gurgled. “Haley...” Saying her name kicked something in her chest. She was supposed to be saving him, not killing him. “Now, please...”

By shaking her head like a dog, Haley tore the bite deeper.

“Bone, in the bone...Ahhh--” His clavicle shattered and she tasted marrow. Metaphysical energy erupted between them and Haley felt Farley’s preternatural self slide against hers. Around them, the air vibrated with the high pitched whirr of hundreds of white-scales. Underneath the sound was the hum of metaphysical energy, ringing like a tuning fork.

Farley’s scent spiked and changed, going from something that marked him as Food to something that marked him as
Belonging.
He groaned. His head rolled back and his hands became a vice on Haley’s hip. She could taste his arousal as it bled out to the white-scales banking their hunger. His erection bit into her stomach and he undulated against her.

The hatchling bodies surged forward. Curious hands, claws, and tongues licked and touched them.

Haley snarled, her protective instincts going full throttle. She bit deeper, pushing more of her scent into the wound until it poured over. The white-scales circled, feeding from the metaphysical fire storm. She could feel Farley under her, wanting more than just the touch of her preternatural self. He wanted in her.
Needed
in her. And Haley wanted to give him everything.

Clicks and whistles reminded Haley where she was. In the belly of the beast. This binding hadn’t been done in the privacy of a safe haven. It had been done in a small corner of hell.

Hatchlings rolled and rubbed against her like kittens in catnip. It was time to get out. Haley stood up and Farley curled at her feet, pawing her legs and thigh.

They were surrounded. The sea of bodies rolled and surged. There didn’t seem to be a way through. White-scales rose up to touch Haley’s hands, tug at her clothing, begging ... for what, she didn’t know.

But one thing was clear: their Hunger was beginning to flicker. It wouldn’t be long before it was rising.