Predator's Salvation (15 page)

“So you say, apostate,” Mara scoffed.

“Mateo and LaMia fall under Inanna jurisdiction, not Sebitu, Mara. We are taking them both back with us…alive.”

“Neither of them falls under the jurisdiction of the Alliance or the New Regime. One is a lowly orphan human—”

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“Hey, I resent that remark!”

Mara sneered at Mateo and continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “And the other is a disgraced exile and murderess.”

“The fact remains that we’re taking LaMia with us back to Emsharra to be judged by
Quna
Nahemah and the assembly for her abduction of Mateo Diaz,” Alex said.

Mara took several threatening steps forward. “I have already judged her and
you
,
cambion
, for the murder of Xaphan Pazuzu. And I will have my revenge.”

“Neither of us is going anywhere with any of you,” Mateo said.

“It is all right, Mateo. I will go with Alex and Genesis peacefully,” LaMia whispered.

He turned to her. “No you won’t. Why should you?” He turned back to look at Alex and Genesis. “Doesn’t what I say matter? I’m here of my own free will.”

“She kidnapped you, Mateo,” Alex said.

“I know that, but…” He averted his eyes, blushing so fiercely his cheeks felt like they were on fire.

“
Lilith
, you are in love with her!”

Mateo met Genesis’ disgusted and shocked expression. “What if I am?”

“How truly touching all of this is. And if it is so, that you love the Inanna bitch and she loves you, then it is fitting that you should die together,” Mara said, teetering where she stood.

Alex instantly jumped on her infirmity. “How long has it been since you last fed, Mara?”

“From the looks of it, I would say days,” Genesis put in and moved closer to Alex, putting herself between her husband and the Sebitu.

Mateo noticed LaMia mimicking Genesis’s action, sidling closer to him, and his heart sped at the gesture. He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, and caught her intent an instant before she flung herself in front of him.

Mia, no!

Mara opened fire. Her bolt, aimed at Mateo’s chest, struck LaMia in the back dead center.

Mateo yelled and caught her in his arms as she went limp from the force of the blow.

Genesis and Xevera instantly, simultaneously activated their shields and battered Mara’s with a volley of massive discharges and fulgurations that sent the debilitated woman to her knees in seconds.

Mateo watched as the two Inanna continued firing until they had completely breached Mara’s wavering force field, their lightning strikes finally pummeling their target true.

At last, the assault stopped and the two Inanna cautiously approached the Sebitu female crumpled and sizzling on LaMia’s glossy parquet floor.

Genesis knelt beside Mara wielding an electronic device that she waved over the downed woman’s body from head to toe. After a moment, she glanced back at Xevera standing sentry 76

Predator’s Salvation

behind her, and shook her head.

Mateo sat stunned at the sudden violence that had erupted to invade his and LaMia’s day.

One moment they were discussing redecorating and moving into each other’s digs like a normal modern day couple and in the next moment a woman was lying dead in the living room.

“Nahemah’s not going to be happy about this. We were just supposed to recover Mateo, take LaMia into custody, and leave,” Alex murmured as if to himself.

“I do not want to consider how Mara’s death will affect the Alliance,” Genesis said.

“We were well within our rights. We defended ourselves against an attack. Lamashtu is collateral damage,” Xevera put in.

Mateo gawked, couldn’t believe they were all so nonchalantly discussing the politics of Mara Lamashtu’s death while LaMia lay dying in his arms. “I don’t give a fuck about your Harvesting Program or the New Regime and the Alliance! Someone help her! She’s…she’s dying…” Mateo choked down the tight knot of anguish growing in his throat as he cradled LaMia close to him.

Genesis approached with her little electronic box, crouched at LaMia’s side and waved the device over her body as she had Mara’s.

Don’t shake your head. Don’t shake your head and don’t tell me she—

“…will be fine. Her vital signs are low but steady. She will not die, although she deserves to
after what she has do—”

Alex pulled his wife away an instant before Mateo released LaMia and reached for
Genesis’s throat with one hand as if he meant to choke her. “Matt, take it easy.”

“Don’t tell me to take it easy!” He felt the tears stinging his eyes, fought them back. He
did not want to share his grief for LaMia with any of these people, could not bear to let Alex and
Genesis’s politics and logic tarnish something so new and fragile.

He glanced up to see Alex whispering something in Genesis’s ear, couldn’t make out what his mentor had said to his wife, but could guess when Genesis’s face immediately softened as she looked down at Mateo and LaMia in his arms.

He couldn’t stand that look. It reminded him too much of the look the doctors had given him when he’d woken up in the hospital to the news that his brother was dead. “I don’t want your pity,” he spat. “I want your help. Do something to help her.”

Genesis bent at his side and tried to pry LaMia out of his arms but he wouldn’t let her go.

“Mateo, please. Let us take her so we can do as you wish and help her.”

Seeing her point, but still reluctant, he released LaMia and watched as the one they called Xevera swung her up into her strong capable arms and headed for the door. “Where is she taking her?”

“To Emsharra where she will be properly cared for and get the best treatment she needs to recover.”

Mateo got to his feet to follow but Genesis pulled him into her arms and hugged him 77

Gracie C. McKeever

close. He didn’t know why she did that, but as soon as he felt her arms around him, the waterworks started, wracking his body with sobs as he returned Genesis’s hug and held on tight.

She patted and rubbed his back as she soothingly cooed to him as if he were a baby.

“Shh. All will be well, Mateo. All will be well.”

He slowly pulled away from her and nodded, but didn’t speak. He couldn’t, rendered mute by the unbearable idea of never seeing LaMia’s smile again, of never hearing her tell him he must obey or be punished.

Mateo suddenly smiled at the memory of his punishment and became rock hard at the profound pleasure and pain of it.

Alex glanced at him and shook his head. “Damn kid, you’ve got it bad.” He clapped Mateo on the shoulder and gave him an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry, Matt. Xevera will get her to the Emsharra labs and the Inanna there will fix her right up.”

“They’d better.” Because he didn’t think he could survive losing another person in his life who meant so much to him.

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Predator’s Salvation

Emsharra Settlement—Two Days Later

LaMia grudgingly opened her eyes, annoyed by the bright light penetrating her lids and scorching her eyes. She brought the inside of her elbow up to her face, covered her eyes with her arm, and cursed as someone blithely hummed as he or she opened all the blinds in the room.

“Tsk, tsk, child. You always were like a hibernating bear coming out of your slumber.”

LaMia lurched to a sitting position at the familiar commanding voice and immediately regretted her folly at the ache in her back and head.

Nahemah soundlessly crossed the plush cream carpeting and sat beside her on the extravagantly outfitted four-poster bed.

Lilith
, she was back in her old bedroom! With her grandmother!

“Yes, it is I and not an apparition.”

“To what do I owe the honor?”

“Certainly not your sunny disposition.”

“If you are going to insult me, I believe I will be taking my leave…” LaMia flung back the covers and threw her legs over the side of the bed before a sudden wave of dizziness overtook her senses and she flopped back onto the mattress.

“Do not be such an unpleasant child. You are already in a difficult position. Do not compound matters.”

“Surely you are not here to drop the gavel on another sentence of banishment. Is that not akin to beating a dead horse?”

“Why must you be so contrary, Mia?”

“I am just being…” She was about to say ‘realistic,’ but wearily closed her eyes at the pointlessness of it all. There was no reason to take her anger and despair out on her grandmother.

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Nahemah had done only what she had been duty-bound to do, as had LaMia. She opened her eyes to peer at her grandmother. “I do not wish to fight with you any more, Grandmother.”

Nahemah sighed as if in relief. “I am glad to hear that.”

LaMia watched her grandmother’s unguarded face. It was one of only two occasions when she could remember the great
Quna
Nahemah thus, so obviously vulnerable. The other time had been when Nahemah had witnessed the execution of her other granddaughter.

LaMia closed her eyes against the vision of Kalika falling beneath a barrage of bolts fired by her Sister executioners.

Lilith, what did I do?
“Why am I here and not in the penal complex awaiting my sentence?”

“I have other plans for you, Mia.”

LaMia knew what her grandmother had in mind before she said, “You wish me to join the Harvesting Program.”

“Among other things, yes.”

LaMia had to admit it was a fitting punishment, and only what she deserved.

Nahemah put an amiable hand on her shoulder. “Do not think of it as a punishment, Mia.

Think of it as a way of redeeming.”

And that was what she wanted, was it not? To right the wrongs that she had done Kalika and Alex and Genesis and… “Where is Mateo?”

Nahemah smiled as if she had a secret. “Your captive?”

“Is he well?”
Please tell me that he was not harmed by that vindictive Sebitu!

LaMia felt the heat of a blush race to her cheeks at the ironic thought. She might have been referring to herself but for the Sebitu part.

It shamed her to remember all the things she had done to him, shamed her and made her fidget in her bed as she gushed into her panties with sudden hot desire and hoped Nahemah did not notice her discomfort.

If her grandmother did notice, she did not let on, simply looked at LaMia with a neutral expression and said, “Mateo seems to be none the worse for wear after his captivity. He even spoke to the assembly on your behalf, begged for leniency.”

“He…he did?”

“Do not look so shocked, child. I am sure you are well aware of his feelings for you.”

As a matter of fact, she was not. She only knew what her feelings were for him, only knew that she was hopelessly in love with a human.

“Your love is not hopeless, Mia for he feels the same way.”

“He…does?”

“Although Goddess knows why,” Nahemah grumbled.

“Are you insulting me again, Grandmother?”

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“Not at all.” She shook her head. “However, Alex is certain the young man is suffering from some condition called the Stockholm syndrome, that he is identifying with his captor and has some misguided loyalty to his hostage-taker in spite of the risk you put him in.”

“And what do you think?”

Nahemah shrugged. “What I think is of no consequence. It is what your young man thinks and he presented himself before the assembly as a level-headed adult in control of all of his faculties, with a deep-seated sense of right and wrong and abiding sense of compassion. The assembly was impressed by his address at the proceedings. He was quite fervent and—”

“Proceedings?”

“You were tried in absentia for violating the Alliance treaty,” Nahemah stated matter-of-factly.

LaMia held her breath waiting for the rest. As an exile she was not sure what the sentence was for the offense with which she had been charged and tried. “Will…will I be executed?”

“Do not be ridiculous, child. If you were not executed for the offenses you committed against Alex and Genesis, then certainly you will not be executed for kidnapping Mateo.”

“Oh…” She averted her eyes, did not know what else to do. Should she say thank you?

“Your gratitude is not required, but your assent and service to the New Regime is.”

“I will agree and commit, but I…”

Nahemah arched a brow, prompting. “Yes, young one?”

“I do not believe I am deserving. After all that I…after what I have done, the people I have injured…”

“My dear heart, none of us in Emsharra is without blood on our hands. You, of all people, should know that.”

“Yes.” LaMia nodded.

“Before you count your blessings, however, do not think,
for one minute
, that you are exonerated in the matter. And do not think that because you are not being executed or imprisoned that your offense was not egregious.”

LaMia’s face turned hot as she met her grandmother’s glare. “Yes, Grandmother.”

Nahemah shot her a disappointed and outraged look before shaking her head. “You kidnapped, enslaved and
collared
a human being, Mia.”

“I know it was wrong.”
But he liked it!
LaMia had to bite her tongue to keep from saying the words out loud, but she knew Nahemah had heard her from the small grin that tilted up the corners of the older woman’s generous mouth.

“Yes, well, that is neither here nor there. The fact remains that he is an adult and seems to know his own mind and he has somehow found it in his big human heart to forgive you. This in and of itself was your final salvation in the eyes of the assembly.”

He forgives me? Oh, Mateo…Where are you?

“Your young man is just outside waiting to see you. Impatiently, I might add.”

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“Can I—?”

“I will let him in shortly and leave you two alone to talk. But first—”

“Yes, Grandmother. I agree to your terms. I will join the Harvesting Program and make amends.”