Chained (Brides of the Kindred) (41 page)

“He was on his knees with his hands behind
his back. Oh, and he was coated in this thick, gray dust and there was a little
stream running right in front of him but he couldn’t get any of the water on
him or in him, because of the dust.”

“Oh my God…” Nina’s face went pale. “I
just remembered where I heard the name Therron—it was the name of the Swamp
Witch’s son. And that’s the scene she showed me in her cauldron when she was
trying to break up Reddix and me.”

Maggie frowned. “Oh! Now I think I
remember you saying something about that back when we were all in the Mother
Ship together. Didn’t you?”

“Maybe.” Nina put a hand to her head. “Oh,
this is so weird. If this is right, this person is Reddix’s half brother. At
least that’s what the Swamp Witch claimed.”

“And if Therron is Xandra’s son—it’s no
wonder he’s targeting us! He is getting revenge on the people she thinks cast
her out,” Lissa said, nodding. “It all makes sense now.”

“I have to come and talk to him,” Maggie
exclaimed. “I talked him out of blowing up Lady Pope’nose—I’m sure I can keep
him from frying your capital city too.”

“I don’t know.” Lissa frowned. “There’s
something…different about him. Something
other
.
Even Salix says he doesn’t act or speak like the male he met when he came to
get you.”

“Maybe he’s crazy with grief over Maggie
leaving him,” Nina said reasonably. “In which case, I think we should bring her
over.”

Lissa frowned. “It’s very dangerous but I
don’t know what else to do. Saber and Reddix are getting ready to face him now.
If he cuts them down with his beams…”

Maggie didn’t feel a bit drunk now. “I’m
getting on the next Kindred shuttle. You girls call the Mother Ship and tell
them to fold space for Tarsia. I’ll see you soon!”

“Wait, Maggie—shouldn’t you tell your
family first?” Nina protested. “They already lost you for more than six months
and that wasn’t even a whole month ago.”

Maggie shook her head. “It would just
worry my mom. And really, there’s nothing to be worried about. Kor always said
he would never hurt me—I still believe that’s true.”

“I hope you’re right,” murmured Lissa.
“Come, then, Maggie. And please for the Goddess’s sake,
hurry.”

Chapter Thirty-five

“Kill them! Kill them
all!”
the dark voice drove Therron on, though he scarcely knew
where he was. The last thing he remembered was the proximity alert warnings of
his spaceship as he descended to the surface of the Black Planet…

“Warning!”
the ship had bleated as he took it down through the
burning atmosphere.
“Warning! The surface below is pure superheated Titanium
Dioxide. Proximity alert—the shields can hold for less than fifteen solar
minutes at these temperatures. Stepping outside the ship will result in
immediate termination of all life forms.”

Kor had ignored the warnings
contemptuously. He had known by then that he was different…special. And, the
dark voice had promised him unlimited powers as soon as he breathed the thick black
fumes that rose from the cracked crust. As soon as he touched its surface and
called it home. More importantly, it promised to end his pain, to wipe all
memory of Maggie from his brain forever. Kor wanted that—wanted it more than
anything.

When he stepped out upon the black, sere surface,
the soles of his boots cracked and melted and a stinging wind filled with
choking black dust coated his body. The heat was incredible—unbearable—and yet
it didn’t hurt him. In the howling wind that whipped around him, he heard
thousands of deep, inhuman voices. Sensed the presence of a mighty hoard
striving to break free.

“Back!”
the dark voice ordered.
“The male is my flesh—my
vessel to fill and none other shall have him! Breathe,
”
it ordered Kor.
“Breathe,
deep!”

Kor had taken a deep breath, inhaling pure
evil, drawing utter chaos and corruption into his lungs. The Black Planet
seemed to waver around him and he heard the thousands of voices howling and
screeching…and then he knew no more.

When he woke again, he was back aboard the
ship he had stolen from Lady Pope’nose and they were high above the planet. The
dark voice, which had been speaking to him from the moment he had dived into
the Pool of Remembrance to rescue Maggie at the
Lo’thian
spa, spoke
again—but this time instead of whispering, it came out as a deep, harsh sound.

“We shall set a
course for Tarsia,”
it said
.
“So I have promised the
witch. There we will sow destruction among the ones who wronged her and feed
upon their life force.”

With a shock, Kor had realized that the
deep, growling words were coming from his own throat. The dark voice was inside
him now, somehow and it was using his body to act and his voice to speak.

What is this?
he thought in confusion.
What happened? Where am I?

“Worry not, Therron.
I have indwelled you. You are a worthy vessel, my son, and together we will cause
destruction such as has never been seen across the universe!”
the voice promised, still speaking out of his mouth.
“We
will kill those who stand in our way and hurt all those that have hurt you in
the past.”

The past?
Kor blinked, trying to remember anything—anything at all
about his past.
I was a fighter—I remember blood and sand and the roar of
crowds in the arena. I killed my master…I was marked for death. But instead I was
bought and chained, held in a dungeon where I thought I would surely die. Until
she
came.

But who was “she?” Though he struggled to
remember, there seemed to be a veil over his memory where the mysterious female
was concerned. All Kor—no,
Therron
—could remember was caring for her.
Caring so deeply it hurt and then…nothing.

“She is gone, my son.
She will trouble you no longer,”
the dark voice
assured him.
“You are host to a Shadow Demon now. Death and destruction are
your birthright. You will no longer feel pain—you will only deal it out. This
is my promise to you.”

The demon had kept its promise. When the
ship had touched down upon the surface of Tarsia, on the edge of a huge swamp,
a female had come to meet them. A female with yellow eyes and fingers too long
and yet she looked on him with fierce pride and something that seemed to pass
for a twisted kind of affection.

“My son. My Therron,” she had cried,
caressing his cheek. “At last you have returned, so many years after you were
taken. And together we will have vengeance.”

And so they had…

“Kill them all!”
the demon within commanded, as Therron strode onwards
over the ruined fields. He saw a tall tree behind which some of the enemy—those
filthy Kindred who had stolen him away and sold him—were hiding. A red veil
dropped over his vision and he blasted it, leaving nothing but a burning stump
as the ones who had taken shelter scattered in all directions, screaming. One,
however, did not run. He lay on his face, not moving, not breathing.

“Ah,”
shouted the voice from Therron’s lips
.
“Yes, fresh life essence. At last, after
so many years without!”
Therron’s lungs inhaled, pulling in the reek
of death, sucking away the male’s soul…and then he strode onward, toward the
capital where there would be many more souls to suck, much more life to devour.

* * * * *

“Oh my God, Kor did all this?” Maggie
stared at the viewscreen in horror. The large, flat screen which was hung in
Lissa’s house was displaying a ruined village. Most of the buildings were
flattened or on fire and here and there she saw wounded people groaning and
crying, unable to move. “This…this is terrible! It doesn’t seem like something Kor
would do at all!”

“It isn’t.”

Maggie looked up in surprise. Lissa’s
voice sounded…different and the Kindred girl’s eyes had turned a sudden
brilliant green within green color—so bright they were almost glowing.

Maggie nudged Nina in the ribs, the
destruction on the viewscreen forgotten.

“Uh, Nina?” she whispered. “I think
something’s going on with Lissa.”

Nina turned from the viewscreeen to look
at her friend.

“Oh!” She put a hand to her chest. “Oh,
look—I think she’s going to have a vision from the Goddess.”

“A
what
from the
who?”
Maggie
demanded.

“Be quiet!” Nina clamped a hand on her
arm. “Lissa is a priestess—just listen.”

“My children…”
Lissa’s green-on-green eyes seemed to glow with
benevolence.
“Listen to me. The male calling himself Therron—the one
known to this little one,”
she
nodded at Maggie,
“as her beloved, Kor, is truly not himself. He has been
indwelled by a Shadow Demon of the Black Planet. One who feeds on death and
destruction and the life force of those he kills. But the creature cannot kill
unless it finds a vessel. Alas, in Kor, he has found one and a strong one,
too.”

“But…excuse me your holiness, uh, I mean,
your Goddesship,” Maggie said. “If he’s been possessed…”

“Not possessed,”
the impossibly beautiful, rich voice coming from Lissa’s
lips corrected her.
“Indwelled. There is a difference little one—a
crucial difference which may yet save the people here.”

“What difference, Mother of All Life?” Nina
asked softly—clearly she knew the proper way to address the Goddess.

“One who is possessed
is completely taken over—so filled with the evil one that not even a trace of
his consciousness remains. I do not believe it is so with Kor. It cannot be so
for he is a bonded male. When I created my Kindred, I used the bond with their
chosen female to protect them from such evil.”

“What?” Maggie exclaimed, forgetting to be
reverent. “You mean we only broke up three weeks ago and he’s already gone and
gotten married or bonded or whatever to some other girl?”

“No, child,”
the Goddess said gently through Lissa’s lips.
“I
am saying he is bonded to
you.”

“To me?” Maggie shook her head, not
comprehending. “But I don’t understand. How…why…? How is that even possible?”

Nina nudged her with an elbow. “You didn’t
tell me you had bonding sex with him!”

“I didn’t!” Maggie protested. “At least, I
don’t
think
I did. What’s bonding sex?”

“Look,” Nina said patiently. “Kor’s a
Touch Kindred whether he knows it or not. Did you feel him touching you with
his mind—the sensation of fingers or maybe a tongue on your body where he
wasn’t physically touching you when you made love?”

Maggie frowned. “Now that you mention
it—yes. Yes, I did. I completely forgot about that until now. I’ve been so
miserable about everything else…”

“And did you hear his voice speak inside
your head after you were done?” Nina persisted.

Maggie felt a lump form in her throat.
“Yes, I…he said ‘I love you.’”

“Well, there you go!” Nina grinned at her
triumphantly. “You had bonding sex. You have a bond with Kor.” She turned to
the Goddess. “But, Mother of all Life, how does that help us now?”

“You must use the
bond, child,”
Lissa’s mouth said
.
“Use it to call to
him…tell him to cast the Shadow Demon out.”

“But…is that even possible?” Nina asked
doubtfully. “Forgive me, Mother of all Life, but if the demon has invaded him…”

“Remember, child, he
is only indwelled—not possessed,”
the goddess said.
“Kor invited this creature into
himself to ease the pain of losing his beloved—a burden no Kindred male can
bear well. The demon has clouded his mind and veiled his memories. If Maggie
can remind him of who she is and that he loves her, he can cast it out again
and regain control of his body and soul.”

“But won’t that be dangerous?” Nina asked.
“He’s blasting everything and everyone in his path!”

“It will be very
dangerous,”
the Goddess said gravely. She looked at
Maggie with her glowing green eyes.
“You may die, child. But you may also
save many lives. And this is the only chance you have of saving the male you
love. The male I have meant for you all along.”

Maggie didn’t even have to think about it.

“Yes,” she said at once. “Yes, I’ll do
it.”

“Very good, my
child.”
The Goddess smiled with Lissa’s mouth.
“You
will find him in the capital city with the witch, Xandra. She has a grievance
to air with her old lover and she will command the demon within him to cease
fire long enough for her to do so. You must approach Kor and call him through
your bond. Call him by the name you chose for him when you claimed him and
named him, when you freed him from his chains.”

“Okay, but…” Maggie hesitated uncertainly.

“Yes, child?”

“Well, I just found out I have this
bond-thingy with him just now,” Maggie burst out. “And I don’t know anything
about it or how to use it or access it or anything. If it’s my only, uh,
weapon, shouldn’t somebody at least give me a quick tutorial?”

“Oh, it’s really easy,” Nina assured her.
“You just think at the person you’re bonded to really hard. It’s like you have
your own private radio channel for just the two of you and nobody else can
transmit on it.”

“Oh…okay,” Maggie said doubtfully. “Thank
you, uh, Mother of All Life.”

The green light in Lissa’s eyes was slowly
fading.

“
Call him back
to you, child…before it is too late,”
she said. Then she sagged and would have fallen if Nina
hadn’t caught her.

“Where am I? What happened?” she
whispered, putting a hand to her temple.

“The Goddess spoke through you, Lissa.”
Nina’s eyes were shining. “She told us what to do.”

“Now if I can just do it,” Maggie
muttered.