Ultimate Passage: New Beginnings: Box Set ( Books 1-4) (23 page)

She wondered if he could talk, communicate, if he was human in this condition. She didn’t have to wonder for long.

“What was it you said? God bullshit?” His voice had a deep timbre. His eyes hadn’t changed, and they penetrated her, putting her into a greater state of fear.

She needed to backpedal. He was scary, and not happy. “I’m sorry.”

He grunted and sat back, his wings folded behind him. Not so imposing that way, though he was still larger than the largest man she’d ever seen. If she had to put a name to him...

To his shape...

Dragon. That was the closest she could come to describing the creature he became. After Finn and what she’d seen of his changing shape, his ability to take a more human form, she didn’t understand why this had stunned her.
Yeah, tell that to your heartbeat,
because it was making like a captured songbird and threatening to go into overload.

He squinted, his jaw muscles working beneath the dark gray scales, and rose. With creaking and small cracking sounds, he shifted back to human form, once more magazine-model-worthy, except for his eye color and the shape of his irises. Nude, he bent over to pick up his robe. The two maidens scrambled after to grab it before he could, as if he was a king—god, Marissa reminded herself—who was too good to have to bend over to pick something up.

His smile was again the same beguiling one as before. It struck Marissa that there was a similarity between his shifting to that form and Finn’s shifting to human form. Then she was sad for seeing a parallel and prayed she was wrong. She didn’t want Finn to be anything like this creature. She mentally shook herself. Of course Finn wasn’t. Finn was goodness. This man—dragon—creature was... anything but goodness, if she had to put money on it.

“Which is your natural form?” Then she wished she’d bitten back that question. This was not the time to push buttons.

The smile remained on his face and he didn’t switch back to his more terrifying form. He paced back and forth. “I am equally comfortable in either, but it seems to frighten other beings when I am in my saural form.”

“Saural? As in dinosaur? Is that like a lizard? Are you a dragon?”

“Dragons, as you humans think of them, are myths. More than likely they are myths and legends that have come down from interactions with my kind.”

“You have a kind? That interacted with humans? On Earth?”
Of course on Earth, dunderhead,
she chastised herself.
Where else would humans be, dipstick?

Well, I’m here, right? And this isn’t exactly Earth.

How she wished that damned inner voice would shut the hell up sometimes.

He took a step closer to Marissa, and she pressed up against the wall to get further away from him. If she pressed any harder, and if she were strong enough, she’d go right through the stone wall.

He sat on the edge of the bed, his green eyes narrowed, focused on her. “My kind were originally on Earth. Are on Earth.”

“Still? Like now? There are—what—dragon types that live on Earth and change and look like you?”

“Yes. I’m the only one of my kind here.” His face looked sad. His tone had even become sad.

Marissa found herself feeling pity for him even though she felt as if she was a compulsory guest, as if she had no opportunity to exercise free will. Compound that with the fact that he was a freaky-scary dude who turned into a dragon-thing.

“Why are you the only one of your type here?”

“It’s a long story.”

That reminded her of when she had asked Finn about himself and his life, and he’d replied that it was a long story. She’d asked for the condensed version and received some story about aliens. She wasn’t going to ask for the short version again.

“I’m listening.” Her stomach grumbled loudly. Way too loudly.

“You’re hungry. When did you eat last?”

“It was...” She paused to think about it. “When I was on Earth.”

“That can’t be good for Bearer. Your baby needs to eat.”

“I still don’t get that whole thing. My baby is Bearer? What’s that about?”

“Of course she is. You and she were prophesied about. You’re in the Sacred Writings. I dreamed of you. Of her.”

He was freaking her out, talking this crazy shit. She had no clue what to say. If she said what she was thinking, she’d be sure to antagonize him, because right now she had him pegged as bat-shit crazy. He couldn’t possibly know the gender of her baby. Marissa’s thoughts rampaged through her mind, uncontrolled and disjointed.

He snapped his fingers. The two Asazi women returned, still scantily clad, breasts bobbing, pubic areas playing peek-a-boo, eyes downcast, not looking at their master, their god, or whatever he was.

“Bring our guest some sustenance. And something to drink.” He dismissed them with a wave.

She had so many questions. She didn’t know where to begin, but she had to start somewhere. “My baby is a girl? How do you know that?”

“The prophecy.”

“Of course.” She kept her tone from being sarcastic, though she badly wanted to be sarcastic. “Naturally.” A part of her wanted to believe him, though, because if the baby was a girl, then she could safely give birth on Earth.

“Yes, she will be the first Asazi girl with wings.”

“Wait.” She remembered what Finn had said. “Asazi girls don’t have wings.”

“That is what will make her special, and will make her worthy of being my mate.”

“Hold up, you son of a—” Had he just said that her baby would be his mate? And that she would have wings? And he
knew
that the baby was a girl? The list of incredible things he was saying was getting longer and longer. “Wait. My baby will be your mate? What’s that about?”
Over my dead body,
she wanted to say, but she wasn’t sure she needed to worry about the ravings of a lunatic shape-shifting guy. “Can we go back to your people, your kind, and how they are on Earth? And why are you here?”

“I was banished. Punishment for my misdeeds, for breaking the tenets.”

“What did you do? And how did they send you here?”

“I fell in love with a human woman. We mated. We had children, they had children, an entire line...” His face bore a look of disappointment. “A line of what my kind called half-breeds. They banished all of us from Earth, me and my descendants. By the time they banished us, of course, my woman was long-passed, dead. But all her progeny, all our progeny, and I—we were all banished to this place. This place created by my brothers.”

“Outer space? Another galaxy?” Marissa wondered if his answer would yield a solution to her returning to Earth. She leaned closer, ready for an answer, anything that would help her get home.

“You will name the child Alithera.”

That cold bitch who had visited her in the cell.
Sure, like I’d want my daughter named after her.
“What?” Where had that come from? Marissa froze. Was it a tradition kind of thing, naming girls Alithera? What did it mean? “Why?”

“That’s the name of my next true mate. A true breed for me.”

Yeah, she definitely wasn’t going to tell him about the Asazi woman named Alithera. Sometimes ignorance was bliss, even if you were just pretending to be ignorant. “So you will keep me captive until my child is born?”

“Yes. She will be the mother of my son, my path to redemption.”

Marissa grabbed her shins. Pulling her legs close to her body, she laid her head on her knees. This was too much. She couldn’t even begin to fathom what would happen fifty years from now with her descendants. She peeked at him from behind the curtain of her hair.

He really did seem to believe the stuff he was laying on her. He was taking all of this seriously, and that meant getting away wouldn’t be quite that easy. She closed her eyes, rubbed her forehead on her knee, pressing it in, trying to push away the headache that was threatening to overtake her.

“And after she’s born? Who would raise her?” Even as Marissa voiced the words, she knew there was no way in hell she was staying. She’d go make it on her own in Midland before she stayed here and tried to live up to this madman’s idea of domestic life.

When he didn’t answer, she looked up at him again. His cat-like eyes were on her. Or maybe they were snake-like. Right now she couldn’t think straight enough to sort that out. She needed rest, and time to think, time to formulate a plan.

“Could I go to my cell?”

“You have no cell. You are not in prison. You are free to roam about at will.” He waved an arm about in a grandiose manner.

Great. Free to roam a medieval, possibly underground castle that’s inhabited by concubines and a dragon-king-creature. Wonderful!
And where would she go, back to the bowels of Midland where things wanted her dead?

Then again, his statement did bring a question to mind. “Are you not worried that I’ll escape?”

He cocked his head, as though the question itself was a curiosity. “Why would you want to leave a perfectly safe environment and risk your life and your baby’s life in Midland? Where Kormic and Asazi soldiers roam and attack anyone they suspect? You would have no friends there. I don’t believe you’d make a foolish choice like that.”

The two women entered carrying trays of food. They opened a tray jack made of light-colored wood and woven leaves and set the trays down.

Suddenly, whatever was on the platters mattered to Marissa far more than the idea of making a plan to escape. That could wait for a short spell until she’d eaten and gotten some strength back, and could figure out why her legs had collapsed.

The women put the trays near her, within reach. There were different types of meat and vegetables, none of which looked like what she ate on Earth, but it smelled delicious. She piled some on a plate using the ladles and looked around for a fork but didn’t find one. Maybe they didn’t use forks. Shrugging, she picked up a chunk of meat and ripped some off with her teeth. She chewed and swallowed the delicate, melt-in-your-mouth bite. “Very good. Thank you.” She finally remembered to thank her host. He nodded his acknowledgment.

“I have so many questions,” She said, then tore into more meat.

“You will have plenty of time to get the answers.” He plucked a red morsel off the tray, some type of crunchy vegetable, and popped it into his mouth.

“I have an Asazi friend I need to find. He will be looking for me.”

“He won’t be able to find you. My lair is hidden from all.”

“Lair? Is that like a den?”

He laughed, looking around. “Does this resemble a den? A cave?”

“No, it’s more like an upscale castle that I’d have expected a lord to have during the Dark Ages.”

“Not a bad analogy, given your limited exposure to other cultures.”

“I’m not all that limited.” She’d watched National Geographic and Discovery and History Channel.

“I didn’t mean human culture. There are other cultures, ones you are not familiar with. My own, Asazi, Kormic. And others.”

F
inn ran
through the tunnel leading to the Lesser League exit until he couldn’t run anymore. He paused, panting, wishing he could fly, cursing that the tunnels were too narrow and too low-ceilinged to allow for flight. He walked, staying close to the walls, listening for anyone who might be looking for him.

“You thought no one would anticipate your plan?”

He whirled around. While he was looking behind him, making sure he wasn’t being followed, Talik had been in front. He pounced out of an alcove, a TripTip in his hand, at the ready.

Even in the dim lighting of the tunnel, even with the reddish-orange glow of Talik’s skin, it was easy to see the bruises that splotched his face. Marissa had left her mark. Pride surged through Finn.

“Why are you here?” Finn raised the Asazi weapon he’d taken off the guard. He’d rather not fire. Noise would not serve him well now. Stealth was key.

“Because I knew you’d come.” Talik stepped one pace closer, knife hand up, eyes focused on Finn’s hand, on the weapon. “If you fire it, you won’t get far. You’ll be chased like the kratan you are.”

Finn’s eyes narrowed. Talik had compared him to a kratan, a rodent that scavenged dead bodies, eating that which even the scavenger birds would not. “I see Marissa made a dent in your face. How does a little human female get the jump on an Elite-trained Asazi?”

A nerve ticked in Talik’s jaw, betraying his irritation. Finn fought the smile that threatened to emerge. The first lesson from Elite training, it would seem, had been forgotten by Talik. Never let the enemy penetrate your emotions.

“Perhaps you should consider reentering training.” Finn tossed the weapon from one hand to the other. Talik’s eyes tracked it. The vein pulsed harder, faster. Finn’s attempt was successful. He was getting to Talik, making him angry.

Almost as long as Finn’s arm, the weapon would serve as a club, since he was reluctant to shoot it.

“Reentering training. That is interesting coming from an Elite who became involved emotionally with a Target. Your Target 41 is asleep on the forest floor, just like I left her, if she is still alive.” Talik’s grip on the blade tightened, his knuckles a paler shade of orange than the rest of his hand.

Finn refused to let Talik’s comment get to him, though he wanted badly to know what had happened to Marissa.

“You’re right. She did put up quite a struggle.” Talik raised his other hand to his bruised face. “But by now, she’s probably fed the kra—”

Finn struck. The weapon bounced off of Talik’s jaw and Talik fell backward. His eyes rolled to the side, and he pushed off the tunnel wall and lunged for Finn.

“She’d better not have fed the kratan.” Finn rotated the weapon, flipped it, and grabbed the thin end. Using it like a mace, he swung for Talik’s head.

Talik ducked. Anticipating that, Finn kicked him in the jaw. This second blow did it. Talik began a crumple to the floor. Finn kicked out with the other boot, caught Talik in the temple and dropped him.

“If she is not alive—if I do not find her alive, I am returning for you.” It was useless to make the threat to an unconscious man, but he did it anyway.

Finn plunged forward. He made it to the exit, pressed for the opening, and was rewarded by the tunnel’s hatch sliding across.

He pressed for it to close and leaped through quickly. He didn’t want to leave it open because he had friends and family he didn’t want to see attacked by Kormic. The problem was, if he returned with or—he didn’t want to think of the alternative—without Marissa, he’d have no way to go in. Not from Lesser League. He’d have to go around the long way until he could reach a manned entrance, one where he would be allowed back in.

And if you aren’t allowed back in? If you are forced to stay in Midland?

He’d deal with that when he got to it. Right now he couldn’t have anything interfering with his objective to find Marissa.

He studied the rain forest floor. The dirt was disrupted, and the leaves of the ground cover were crushed and trampled. There’d definitely been an altercation here. This was probably where Marissa and Talik had fought. Clearly Talik hadn’t lost, as he’d gone back inside.

Finn studied the forest floor, looking for signs that Marissa had walked away. All he could find were several footprints. She was never alone. Wherever she was now, she had left with others. From the looks of it, there had been three. Two of the sets of prints were smaller, belonging to children or women, probably. The other was large. A male. From the scuffed prints it was difficult to discern what or who had made them. One thing was certain: these were not Asazi soldier boot prints. Kormic? He hoped not. Would they harm her? The Kormic hated Asazi, but would they harm a human? Or would they be curious enough to keep her alive?

Finn followed the footprints, fairly certain that the ones who had made them had Marissa, at least when they’d left here. He trailed the prints and other signs throughout the forest, pausing now and then to nibble edible leaves that were high in water content. Night was falling and the last thing he wanted was to be exposed to any enemies or threats. He crept from one bare spot to another, trying to avoid the noisy, crunchy groundcover. He wished he could fly, but his wings would do him no good in a forest with this many low-hanging trees.

A tiny crunch grabbed Finn’s attention. He held his breath and leaned in to the trunk of the nearest tree, hugging it. Unsure what had made the noise, he hoped it wasn’t one of the large jungle cats that roamed Midland at night. Larger than Earth’s lions, they’d make a snack out of him. He froze in place, not moving a muscle. He cocked his head to hear better. That was when the sounds came across.

Voices. He couldn’t identify the language from this distance, but the timbre told him that they were male. Could it be enemy Kormic? Or even Asazi? Frustrated that the Asazi were now a cause of concern and worry, Finn started to become angry. It was one thing to hide from a lifelong enemy, and another to have to hide from people who had been his allies and friends all his life. He sank low, blending into the cover. The voices approached at a pace that let him know they weren’t creeping throughout Midland.

Then he recognized the language. They were speaking Kormic—a language he’d been forced to learn as part of his Elite training. It almost made him happy to know that they were Kormic. At least with the Kormic he always knew where he stood.

“Any idea where they went?” a male voice said.

There was mumbling in the form of a response.

The first male voice spoke again. “And you are sure they had a human female? How do you know? You’ve never seen one.”

Human female?

The Kormic were silent for a long moment during which Finn’s heart beat so fast he felt he could hear his pulse in the still of the forest.
Human female.
The words sank in.

More mumbling from the second Kormic.

The first one’s voice mocked, “Just because you heard them say she was a female human? You believed them because of that? Who knows if they’ve ever even seen a human before.”

Human female. The words reverberated in Finn’s mind. He was unable to process any other thought. That was all he needed to hear. There was only one human female on Kormia, since Nana had passed. And that one could only be Marissa.

He had no choice. He pounced out of the cover, Talik’s TripTip in hand, grabbed one of the Kormic from behind, and put the blade to his throat.

“Silence,” Finn commanded the other one in their native language, his tone low.

“Asazi.” The second Kormic’s mumbling voice was a low hiss as he looked at his Kormic comrade, stunned at having been taken by surprise. “What will we do?” he said to the first Kormic. Clearly he wasn’t the leader of the two; probably not the planner, either.

“You be quiet, and tell me about this human. That is what you will do.” Finn pressed the blade more firmly against his captive’s neck.

Mumbler gasped, “How do you know?”

“He was eavesdropping,” the first one answered. “Now shut up before you give him any more information. He is an Asazi spy.”

“I’m no spy. The only thing I want from you is the information about the human. Then I will let you go. I will not hurt you nor will I tell anyone I saw you.”

“Since when can an Asazi be trusted?” The first Kormic spat his response out.

Finn couldn’t blame him for his response. At this moment he didn’t trust Asazi either, even if they were his own people. But he didn’t have time to commiserate about the faults of the Asazi. He pulled the Kormic tighter to his torso. The blade slipped, and tiny line of blood appeared. It wasn’t serious, but Finn hadn’t planned to hurt them. “Answers. Quit chatting. This is not a social visit.”

“What is the human to you?” Mumbler asked, as if he hadn’t heard Finn order them to be silent.

He clenched his jaw. He didn’t want to kill them. Dead men didn’t provide answers, but they were pushing their luck.

“The human is dead.”

It can’t be.
“What?” Finn felt like he was a paper boat in a raging ocean. His stomach clenched, and bile rose.

The captive Kormic slammed his elbow into Finn’s torso, striking his sternum, knocking the breath out of him. The other one jumped for his hand, caught it, and struck it against a tree trunk. The TripTip fell, useless. A kick from the first Kormic, and Finn fell to the ground, equally useless.

“Stupid Asazi. You fell for it.”

“You lied?” Finn bit back a roar of rage and relief. “She’s not dead?”

“I thought Asazi weren’t supposed to be emotional. You care for a human?”

Finn didn’t respond. His arms were being held behind his back by both Kormic, and one of them had driven his knee in the small of Finn’s back.

In no time, the Kormic had his wrists tethered behind his back and his ankles bound with a rope shackle that limited his steps to a shuffle.

“And now you have a prisoner of war to take to your chief? A lone Asazi who was wandering Midland?”

“We are not—” Mumbler began.

“Silence, Corzine,” the first Kormic hissed. “You do not discuss our circumstances with anyone.”

“But he’s our prisoner. It’s not like he will go back to the Farlands and tell them where we are.”

“Brother, stop being so naïve.”

Finn took in their exchange with interest. What were these two? Were they renegade Kormic? He’d heard that there were times when Kormic sought refuge from their own kind, but he knew that had to be rare. And since he’d never heard of any lasting for very long, clearly they were not too successful in Midland.

“You speak our language, Asazi. That means you are a soldier. And you carry an Elite blade.” The first Kormic glared at Finn, his characteristic tawny eyes glowing gold with fierceness.

Though the lower half of his face appeared human, the skin beneath his eyes and on his cheekbones wasn’t skin at all. It was hardened scales, almost like a turtle’s skin, which rose to what on a human would be his hairline. The Kormic had no hairline; where hair would grow they had pointed, triangular spines that resembled a succulent cactus and ranged in color, starting with an orange color on top, and then tapering off to a bluish-green hue as it neared their ears. Their ears had human-like lobes, but ended with sharp spines like the rest of their skulls.

The worst thing about having the Kormic as an enemy was their fearsome appearance. When he was a child, Kormic had given Finn nightmares. Now that he was an adult, they were no less intimidating.

“In honor of Balif, we will not kill him,” the first Kormic announced.

“That and it is not who we are, brother, not anymore.”

“First let us talk to Raiza. She may not want her life upset by a prisoner.”

“Then let us kill him and save everyone the stress. You know Balif will not let us kill this Asazi, once he finds out he is alive.”

“You know what I wish?”

“That we had the human.”

“How did you know?”

“You practically fall out of your seat when Balif speaks of the human he knew.”

Finn wondered about their use of the word Balif, which meant foreigner, an odd name for one of their own.

The two Kormic seemed to be walking through the forest without concern for their safety. Or could it be that there were many others around to provide reinforcement?

“Let us take him to the cave. We will see if Raiza thinks Balif should know. She can help us decide what to do with this Asazi.”

The Kormic led Finn on a hike through the forest. They were neither joined by any other Kormic, nor did they encounter any Asazi. He wasn’t sure how far they’d traveled; fatigue had caused him to lose all sense of time. It could have been an hour, or maybe two. For all he knew, they were going in circles.

The ground had an incline. They were going up a mountain. In the darkness, Finn tried to get his bearings, but this wasn’t an area he was familiar with. Were they closer to the Farlands? He left markings where he could, scuffing tree bark and breaking branches. All of these were markers he would use to get back to where they had subdued him. That was the last place that he’d tracked Marissa. He was wary for the moment they would drop their guard, which was when he would make his escape. If he had to kill them, he would, though he’d rather not. For all that they were Kormic, they hadn’t treated him poorly. That in itself was confusing; Kormic were supposed to be a ruthless, mercenary enemy. There was something different about these two Kormic.

As the ground became steeper, it was harder to climb, and the incline became a mountain. Finn wanted to ask them where they were taking him, but he didn’t want to give away his emotions or anxiety. The mountain now blocked the moon, leaving them in a deep darkness. Before them was a thicket of trees. They wove their way through the thicket with Finn stumbling over roots and rocks, unable to catch himself as he fell forward. His face was destined to take the brunt of the fall until he twisted to land on his shoulder.

The trees yielded the entrance of a cave.

“In,” the first Kormic ordered him.

Finn stumbled into the shallow cave, then turned around to face the Kormic. They were closing a door that had bars.