The Spawning (8 page)

Miranda sniffed, struggling with the urge to wail like a child and throw herself at him. “I don’t think I’m really hurt,” she said finally.

He placed a finger beneath her chin and tipped her head up, studying her

forehead.

Miranda studied his face. It was as alien to her as his eyes, and still a very appealing face. Like Khan’s, it was a strong face, almost harshly angular, and yet the very manliness of it made it extraordinarily attractive.

“I think this is just a bruise,” he said quietly, lightly touching the knot Miranda hadn’t even realized she had on her forehead. Settling on his knees, he slipped his hands beneath her hair, tracing the back of her neck. “Is there any pain here?”

THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 34

Not exactly. She was beginning to feel some warmth a little lower, though. She cleared her throat, vastly uncomfortable with the realization that she was as physically attracted to Teron as she had been to Khan. Well, maybe not quite as much—she didn’t feel as if her brains had been scrambled, just lightheaded and achy and much too fascinated with his hands—but a hell of a lot more than she should’ve been. “Not really.”

He tilted his head, studying her curiously and finally lifted her hands one at the time, examining her fingers, her hands, and then her arms. The scar on her upper arm caught his attention. Releasing her hands he stroked a finger lightly over it.

“It’s old,” Miranda said, her voice croaking. “A perp I was trying to arrest tried to cut my throat. Luckily, I was a little faster.”

He met her gaze for a long moment, speculation flickering in his eyes, and finally transferred his attention to her legs. She resisted when he caught her ankle and lifted her foot, more because she knew it would expose her sex than because she objected to him examining whatever he wanted to. She was too damned eager by half, for him to touch her anywhere he wanted to and any way he wanted to.

Either he didn’t notice her resistance or he ignored the brief battle. He lifted her foot and examined the bottom and then set it carefully on the ground and examined the mate. “You have a sprain, at least … possibly a break.”

Miranda looked down in surprise. “I was wondering why it hurt.”

He sent her a strange look. “It is against your custom to acknowledge injury?”

Miranda lifted her brows at him, staring at him blankly. “No.”

He touched her cheek almost caressingly and rose. Turning without another

word, he strode briskly back toward Khan.

Seeing him, Khan rose and met him halfway.

“They have been badly battered,” Teron said tightly, struggling with the anger that had been building in him from the moment he’d begun to examine the women.

“Mayhap it is only that they are so fragile anyway, but the gods damned bastard could see that only to look at them.
I
could see it. I didn’t even have to examine their little hands or test their tiny bones to see it. He has left them baking in the heat—their delicate skin is burned—and they have had no water. I could see that from the dryness of their lips … nor much food from the look of them, though it’s hard to say when I’m not the least familiar with their species.”

Khan nodded grimly, not surprised, but still angered. “I will finish with the trader and send the gods damned bastard on his way … after I have discovered what he knows about how to care for them. Tell Gerek to bring them water and Adar to bring food. The others should go out again. We’ll have to work longer days to make up for the
jasumi
we must part with.”

Teron hesitated. “The one with the red hair has the mark of a warrior.”

Khan’s belly tightened the moment he mentioned the red hair, but the comment

took him by surprise. It took an effort to refrain from turning to look at her. He had no wish to insult Teron by showing he doubted his word, but he couldn’t envision it. He had touched her. She was the softest thing that he had ever felt. He had lifted her to her feet—the wonder of it was that he had not tossed her clear over his shoulder when he had for she had been so unexpectedly light he’d used far more force than was necessary. She was as lovely as the day was long and he’d seen strength in her intelligent eyes, seen it in THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 35

her self-possession when he’d studied her, for she’d been the only one of all of them that hadn’t instantly begun to quiver in terror when he approached her. But a warrior? He simply couldn’t imagine it. “The mark must have been from something else,” he said finally.

Teron shook his head. “She told me that a perp had tried to cut her throat, but that she was faster. He sliced her arm instead.”

“What is a perp?” Khan asked, thoroughly mystified.

“I did not ask that, but nothing, certainly, that translates into our tongue.” He frowned. “I did not ask about the mark, for that matter. I noticed it when I examined her.

She seemed … discomfited. She said that it was old and told me how it had happened.”

Khan considered it, doubtful but thoroughly intrigued—as if he’d
needed

anything to further arouse his interest in her, he thought wryly. “Mayhap it is the truth. If the females are so small then it seems logical that the males would be, as well, so that they are better fitted to one another as it is with our females. And, if that is the case, then they would be more equal and more capable of holding their own with their males.”

* * * *

Miranda watched Teron and Khan without any attempt to hide her interest when they met and stopped to confer, wondering if the doctor was giving him a detailed list of all of their injuries and how that might effect the bargaining situation. As far as she was concerned, they’d all been lucky considering what the trip down from the frigging ship had been like. It was nothing short of a miracle that they’d managed it with nothing more than lumps, bruises, a couple of sprains, and a few broken fingers and toes.

It said a lot for their resilience in her book, but she doubted Khan would see it that way.

She stiffened when they’d finished their conversation and Teron continued toward the other side of the compound while Khan headed toward them. Despite a budding resentment toward the leader of the Hirachi who’d shown so much contempt for them, her heart almost seemed to take on the same rhythm of his rapid stride.

At first glance, she couldn’t see anything about him that really set him apart from the others and wondered why and how he’d come to be their leader. He was certainly as muscled, as tall, and as yellow as the others—maybe a little taller and broader than the average Hirachi, but she couldn’t see that he seemed significantly bigger than the men that surrounded him. His hair, purely black, had been gathered tightly to the crown of his head and tied there and even so the long lock hung half way down his back—but the others also appeared to have black hair, and they wore their long hair the same.

He was clothed the same.

As he drew nearer to their group, though, she decided it was his bearing that set him apart. He moved with surprising grace for such a giant of a man, but beyond that, with the strength of purpose and confidence of a leader of other men—aliens—monster aliens. A strange quivery sensation went through her as it occurred to her to wonder what such a being must be like—to be looked up to and respected by the frightening looking horde at his back.

* * * *

“Do you believe what he said?” Deborah asked in a whisper, her voice husky with tears.

Dragging her gaze from Khan with an effort, Miranda stared at her for a long

THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 36

moment. “Who?”

“The trader. Do you think there could possibly be any truth to his claim about …

buying us?”

The rage Miranda had fought to tamp when she’d finally gotten over her shock

resurfaced. She’d been struggling with denial ever since, but she knew in her heart and soul that the bastard had spoken nothing but the truth. They’d been sold out by their government. What were a few women, after all, when compared to whatever fucking technology they’d gotten for nothing? “I’d like to say I don’t, but, unfortunately, I do.

Why would he specify the government if he hadn’t negotiated with them? Why not just claim it was an individual? Or a chief, or something like that? It isn’t like the Hirachi would know the difference—they don’t know anything about us.

“Do you think there’s any other way he would’ve known that single women could

be found wearing those damned wristbands outside of clubs on the weekends? It isn’t like he could blend in and discover it himself. He has to wear that suit. He can’t even breathe the same air that keeps us alive.”

She shook her head in disgust. “He was
told
. You have to appreciate the sheer cleverness of it! They didn’t even have to tag us themselves—didn’t have to dirty their hands at all, and since most of us are single, not nearly as many people left behind to complain about our disappearances.

“Beyond that, he said he was
specifically
told to pick up the ‘fair ones’. The Russian mob targets fair women for the slave trade.
We
thought it was a Russian gang when we began investigating because of the profiles of all the victims.”

“The fucking bastards!” Carol muttered tearfully. “Those slimy, rotten, fucking, blood sucking bastards! When people hear about this ….”

“That’s the real beauty of it,” Miranda said tiredly. “People never will hear about it, will they?”

The comment silenced both of them. She was just as glad. She didn’t want to

talk about it. She didn’t want to think about it. There was nothing she could do to avenge herself or the others or find justice for what had been done to them. The hate would eat her up if she allowed it to … or she could let it go and focus on survival, and that was what she knew she needed to do—survive, because it was important to her to live regardless of how difficult it might be.

And because she saw it as the only way she could triumph over what they’d done to her. They’d never know, of course, and obviously didn’t give a fuck one way or the other—for all those bastards had known the damned lizard might’ve wanted them for food!

In any case, she felt like hell now that the worst of her fear had worn off and the shock. She was thirsty and had begun to feel nauseated from the nearly unbearable heat.

Of course, it might not be the heat. It might be nothing more than sheer emptiness. She supposed while they’d been packed into those things used to transport them they must have been given some sort of life preserving nutrients, but they’d certainly been well cleaned out beforehand and they hadn’t been given actual food since.

How long since she’d eaten, she wondered?

She had no concept. She doubted she would have even if not for the pod they’d frozen her in. Everything had happened so quickly from the time she’d been snatched that she’d been in a constant state of shock, unable to completely assimilate one shock THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 37

before she was hit with another.

Resisting the urge to simply lie down in the dirt, she glanced surreptitiously toward the Hirachi enclave.

The Hirachi males, for all that they’d shown every indication that they viewed the Earth females the trader had brought with contempt, certainly seemed fascinated with them, she thought uneasily. Every time she dared a glance in the direction of the powwow that had been going on between the Hirachi since their arrival nearly an hour before she saw that the majority of the males were either staring at them openly or, at the very least, constantly casting curious looks at them.

“What do you suppose happened to their women?” Carol asked uneasily.

Miranda had wondered herself, but it wasn’t something she wanted to speculate

about. “From what the trader said, it sounded like the Hirachi were kidnapped and brought here themselves. Maybe they only brought men? Or maybe, in spite of what Khan implied about their women being ‘warriors’, they didn’t survive the trip? Or died since. This doesn’t look like a terribly hospitable planet.”

“The trader said something about the Hirachi being traders, didn’t he?” Deborah murmured.

Carol stared at her. “I don’t see how that would explain that there aren’t any women around—because there aren’t. I haven’t seen a single one—unless they look just like the males. Maybe they only have one sex?”

Miranda glanced at her. “The trader said he’d brought us as breeders,” she said pointedly.

Carol turned white. “Oh my fucking god! With that? With those …?”

Miranda studied her in disbelief for a moment. “What did you think he figured they’d want us for?”

“I just meant, maybe they’re … like colonists, or something,” Deborah said a

little stiffly. “And that was why there weren’t any women.”

“Why wouldn’t he bring them some of their own women if that was the case?”

“Good question. So far we’re doing a lot better on the questions than the

answers,” Miranda said dryly. “I’m guessing we’re going to find out.”

“What if they don’t want to trade for us?” Deborah said anxiously. “What do you think the trader will do if they don’t want us?”

That
also
wasn’t something Miranda wanted to think about. She shook her head.

“I don’t know, but I feel so bad right now I can’t think straight.”

THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 38

Chapter Four

“Remove the chains from them,” Khan said when he’d reached the trader. “We

are agreed that we will take them in exchange for a half load of the
jasumi.
We will also require something to clothe them in and a device to determine what food they may safely eat. Do you have such a device?”

The trader looked irritated, obviously reluctant to give anything else in exchange for the females. “If you mean to breed them anyway ….”

“They are delicate. Our healer says the sun burns their skin. We need something to protect their skin,” Khan said flatly.

Frowning, the trader finally nodded. “I have something to cover them. I do not know why you need anything to determine if the food is safe. They are intelligent beings. They will know what they can eat.”