Forgotten (40 page)

“
I can’t.” She looked down
at him with tears in her eyes. “I can’t do this. Not like this. Not
now. I’m sorry, Rone but…I’d rather have the pain.”

“
Maybe you should ask what
the ‘pain’ is before you so rashly consent to let me punish you,”
Madam Shadow hissed. Then she shimmered and seemed to change form.
To Rone’s surprise, it was suddenly Mistress Light standing before
them.

“
Mistress Light?” Kate
asked in a shocked voice. “What…what are you doing
here?”

“
I am but the other aspect
of Madam Shadow,” the Mistress replied. Her white hair and gown
radiated purity and light and her purple eyes, so like the Madam of
Shadow’s, glowed with sympathy and sincerity.

“
So…you’re the same
person?” he asked, frowning.

“
I am.” The glowing being
nodded. “For my people are able to divide themselves into their
most basic parts. I am all that is good and sweet while my other
half—my dark sister as I think of her—is all that is cruel and
harsh.”

“
Thank God you came then,”
Kate whispered, her brimming eyes overflowing. “Please, let us go.
We need to get back to our ship and get out of here.”

“
Yes, those that choose
the Shadow often feel the need to leave before their treatment is
complete.” Mistress Light shook her head. “It is most
distressing.”

“
What’s distressing is the
things your ‘other half’ has been forcing us to do against our
will,” Rone growled. “Now let us out of here!”

“
I am afraid I cannot—not
until a sacrifice is made to the Shadow.” The Mistress sighed
sorrowfully. “And consider, my dears—you are so close to
reconciling. My dark sister may be cruel, but she is also quite
adept at reading the needs of our clients. The two of you must come
together—until you do, your harmony cannot be restored.”

“
That may be true,” Kate
said in a shaky voice. “But you can’t
force
us to have sex and expect it
to fix everything. I know that Rone loves and remembers me but I
still feel like I’m just getting to know him. I don’t…I’m not ready
for this. Not now. I just…I just want to go home.” Her eyes brimmed
again and she blinked away the tears.

Rone felt his heart swell. He wanted so
badly to protect her, to cradle and shield her from anything that
might hurt her, either emotionally or physically. And knowing that
he might be the instrument of her harm—if the crazy Mistress of
Light and Madam of Shadows had anything to say about it—nearly made
him insane with anger and frustration.

“
Let us go
now,”
he growled at
Mistress Light. “We’ll find our own way to each other. One that
doesn’t involve having me force myself on the only female I’ve ever
loved.”

“
Very well, then. But know
this, Warrior…” The Mistress pointed her finger at him. “You are
running out of time. I know our methods here have seemed
heavy-handed but it is only because we sense the time-bomb that you
carry within you.”

“
Heavy-handed?” Kate gave
an angry little laugh that was more than half sob. “Is
that
what you call it
when you force us into highly sexual situations against our will?
Or when you start speaking into my mind to try and make me to do
things I’m not ready to do?”

Mistress Light frowned. “Well, I cannot deny
your first accusation but as for the second, no one here has the
power to speak directly into the mind of another. So I am afraid I
don’t know what you are talking about, my dear.”

“
Yeah, right.” Clearly
Kate didn’t believe her. Honestly, neither did Rone—the proprietors
of Flame and Frost had been manipulating them from the first. At
this point, he didn’t know
what
to believe any more. He just wanted to get out of
here and take some time to calm his Beast before it erupted from
him and caused a scene of unspeakable carnage and lust.

Mistress Light shrugged, her white robes
rippling with the movement.

“
Believe what you will.
But if you wish to leave, you still must pay the price.”

“
Fine, I’ll pay it. Just
let me go,” Kate said, glaring at her. “Let me go
now.”

“
As you wish.” Mistress
Light shimmered and Madam Shadow took her place. “Well, I see that
my simpering, do-gooder sister could make no headway with you,” she
sneered. “Still determined to leave, are you?”

“
Yes, we are.” Kate lifted
her chin defiantly. “And I’m ready to pay the price—whatever it
is.”

“
Kate—” Rone didn’t like
her making such rash promises. But it was too late—the Madam of
Shadows was already crooking a finger at his mate.

“
Very well, little female.
Then come here and take your punishment.”

“
Kate!” he said again, his
concern growing but Kate was already rising and walking towards the
evil Madam who was smiling cruelly. Rone tried to follow but he was
still restrained by the invisible bands. No matter how he fought
them, he couldn’t move from his supine position on the floor. All
he could do was watch.

“
What…what are you going
to do to me?” Kate asked in a voice that trembled only a
little.

“
Why, cane you, of course.
Why do you think I brought my best cane with me today?” The Madam
tapped the long, narrow black cane into her palm, with an ominous
slapping sound. “I had a feeling I might have a use for
it.”

“
What? No!” Rone struggled
harder with the bands. He had an idea he might be able to snap
them—but only if he allowed his Beast to come out and lend him its
strength. He couldn’t risk that—it was the very thing he’d been
trying to avoid all this time. “Leave Kate alone,” he growled at
the Madam. “You want to cane somebody, you can cane
me.”

“
Ah, what a sweet and
touching offer.” The Madam of Shadows mimed wiping a tear from her
purple eyes, which were lined in thick black makeup. “But I am
afraid that will not satisfy the Shadow. You see, it chose your
sweet little Kate when she came to us—you, my dear warrior, were
chosen by the Light. You may have come into the Shadow to be with
your mate but she is the one it truly wants—and the only one whose
pain can satisfy its hunger.”

“
No!” Rone struggled
harder. “No—don’t you fucking touch her!”

“
Oh, I’ll do more than
touch her, Warrior. I’ll cane her until she
bleeds.”
She gave him another evil
smile. “And then, of course, the two of you will be free to
go.”

“
Do you swear that?” Kate
asked, her voice shaking. “You swear that the minute you
finish…finish caning me, Rone and I are free to go back to our ship
and leave?”

“
I swear. Also, it’s in
your contract. You know—the one you signed without reading the fine
print?” Madam Shadow smirked at her.

“
All right then.” There
was a grim determination in Kate’s green eyes. “Do it. Just get it
over with quickly is all I ask.”

“
Very well. Turn and
placed your hands against the wall,” the Madam directed.

“
Kate—
Lalli—
no! You can’t let her do
this!” Rone thrashed against his invisible bonds but Kate was
already turning around and bracing her hands against the wall.
Before he could protest further, the Madam of Shadows grabbed the
back of Kate’s shirt in one black-taloned claw and ripped it neatly
down the middle.

Kate gasped and shivered as her bare back
was revealed. Rone looked at the familiar white scars from her past
surgeries with a sinking feeling in his chest. How often had he
kissed Kate there? How often had he traced the lines of scar tissue
to ease her pain with the healing warmth of his tongue? The twisted
scars made the pale skin of her back seem even more delicate and
frail. They made him long to caress her and take away her pain. And
now this evil bitch was planning to make it worse.

“
Don’t hit her there!” he
snarled, still writhing against the invisible bonds. “Can’t you see
she’s been wounded in the past? Her scars already give her pain—if
you add to the trauma…”

“
I’ll cane her where I see
fit,” the Madam snapped back. To prove her point, she drew back her
arm and let the cane fall against Kate’s bird-like shoulder
blades.

Kate jumped and her breath hitched in her
chest but she made no protest and didn’t take her hands away from
the wall. Rone saw her fingers clench but she stayed steady even
when the Madam drew back her arm and let another blow fall. And
then another and another.

Rone shouted and threatened to no avail as
the beating went on and on. The cane raised ugly red welts on
Kate’s pale skin and then, as the blows continued to fall, some of
the welts became wounds until trickles of crimson were sliding down
Kate’s bare back.

“
Stop it! Fucking stop
it—she’s
bleeding!”
Rone roared. The sight of his mate being hurt and tortured
when he could do nothing to help her was a special kind of Hell—one
he thought he might never recover from. He wanted to die. Wanted to
tear loose of the invisible bonds and rip the fucking sadistic
Madam of Shadows limb from limb.

We could do it,
whispered the Beast in his head.
We could kill and rend and maim. We could bathe
in her blood…

But where would it end if he let the Beast
out with such murderous intent? Rone knew he had to keep hold of it
but he wasn’t sure how much longer he could do that. Not if he had
to keep watching Kate being beaten.

At last, with one final,
flat
crack,
the
cane fell for the last time. The Madam of Shadows withdrew the
long, evil instrument and actually licked it—her long pink tongue
coming out to caress the black surface.

“
Mmm,” she murmured, as
though savoring the taste of Kate’s blood and pain. “Well, there
you are my dear. It appears that the Shadow is finally satiated.
You and your mate are free to go.”

Kate tried to nod but she sank down the wall
instead, her cheek pressed to its red-flecked surface. To Rone, she
looked as though she’d lost a lot of blood—maybe too much for her
to keep going.

“
Gods, Kate! Let me free!
Let me go to her!” he rasped, his throat raw from
shouting.

“
As you wish.” With a
negligent wave of her hand, the Madam somehow freed him. The moment
he felt the invisible shackles melt away, Rone jumped up and ran to
Kate. She lay in a crumpled, bloody heap on the floor, the white
wall in front of her flecked with crimson.

“
Baby? Kate?” Rone lifted
her carefully, trying not to touch her wounded back.

Kate moaned, her head rolling back on her
neck. There was a smear of blood on her chin too. Rone’s heart
clenched in his chest when he realized she’d bitten her lip until
it bled to keep from crying out during the brutal beating.

“
You bitch,” he said
thickly, glaring with hatred at the Madam of Shadows who was
lounging against the wall and examining her long black fingernails.
“I’ll kill you for what you’ve done to my mate.”

“
Hadn’t you best think of
getting her back to your ship and treating her injuries before you
start threatening me?” she purred, arching an eyebrow at him.
“Those wounds need to be cleaned and tended unless you want them to
leave permanent scars. And your mate already has enough of those,
doesn’t she?”

Rone knew she was right but it nearly killed
him to leave with Kate unavenged.

“
There will be a reckoning
for what you’ve done,” he swore, his voice dipping down to the
Beast’s growl. “I swear it by the Goddess.”

“
Before you go making any
oaths or promises, you need to remember that your mate
asked
for this
punishment,” the Madam pointed out. “She chose it over letting you
taste her. You might want to ask yourself
why
before you come after
me.”

Her words cut deep because
Rone had to admit they were true. Kate
had
chosen being caned over him.
Why? Did she find him that repulsive? But no…she’d responded to his
touch several times when they were together in the apartment
bubble. So then why was she so reluctant to let him taste
her?

Another low moan from Kate made him remember
that his first priority now had to be getting her back to the ship
and tending to her wounds. After that, maybe they could talk.

With a final glare at the Madam of Shadows,
he cradled his wounded mate to his chest and left the room.

Outside, to his surprise, there was now a
short, steep tunnel that led to a lighted archway. Making his way
up it, Rone found himself back at the landing area. Standing in
front of him was their ship, The Finder, just waiting to be
boarded.

He turned to glance back at the dark hallway
behind him only to see the Madam of Shadows standing there with a
smirk on her face.

“
Farewell, Warrior,” she
said. “I
would
wish you a safe journey. But as you well know, nothing and no
one around you will be safe for long if you don’t take care of
your
hunger
soon.”