Vengeance (35 page)

“Illyria?”
Bastien grunts.

“I’m
fine,” I moan as my stomach is freed.  I float up to the
surface but have no energy to try to stand.  

“Hold
on to me,” he calls and wraps my arm around about his waist,
hoisting me upright.  He groans as my weight pulls both of us
back under.  His hands flail about trying to grasp me as I sink
under the surface.  The pain in my abdomen is stabbing, stealing
my breath away.

“Bastien,”
I whisper as he hoists me up.  He leans me against him, wrapping
his arm around tight enough to support my weight.  My head lolls
back against his arm.  “I think the babies are coming.”

The bright light
overhead is blinding as I open my eyes. I blink, raising my hand to
shield my eyes from its intensity.  I feel warm.  Something
soft surrounds me, cocoons me.  I breathe out a slow sigh of
relief and feel someone stir beside me.

I roll my head to
the side and suck in a breath at the sight of Bastien sleeping beside
me.  His head is laid against his shoulder, his arms crossed
over his chest, rising and falling slowly.  His face is
beautiful, serene as he sleeps.

His
hair has grown out, falling over his shoulders, concealing part of
him from my sight.  His stubbled growth is neatly kept and I
feel a tug deep within my gut as I stare at the handsome ruggedness
of him that I suspect I have always loved.

Bastien seems older
than he should be.  Life has forced him to age far too
quickly...but is this really my Bastien?

I reach out and
place a hand upon his arm.  He sucks in a deep breath and slowly
blows it out, his arms unwinding as he stirs and stretches.  His
eyes slowly open and when he finds me staring up at him he jerks
upright.

“Illyria!  Are
you ok?”  He is instantly on his knees besides me, the
chair tumbling backward out of his way.  

I smile and nod.  “I
am now.”

He presses the palm
of his hand to my cheek and lowers his head to mine, placing a soft
kiss against my forehead.  I can feel the tremble in his lips
and the patter of tears against my nose before he draws back.  There
is pain in his eyes as he slowly trails down the bed to look at my
leg.

I watch his adam’s
apple bob several times before he looks up at me.  “I
failed you,” he whispers, hanging his head low.  

My chest clenches as
tears spill from my eyes.  I reach out to him and pull him
close.  He is cautious as he sinks into my embrace, painfully
careful not to bump my stomach as he wraps me in his arms.  My
silent tears turn into sobs as he holds me.

“I thought I
lost you,” I whisper into the fabric of his shirt.  I
breathe in deep.  Despite the fact that his clothes are foreign
to me I can smell him beneath and know without any doubt that the
real Bastien has found me.

“I never gave
up hope that I would find you.”  He presses his lips to
the top of my head.  I can feel him trembling with emotion and
close my eyes, my fingers curling into his arms, pulling him closer.
 

He holds me long
after my tears trail off but I don’t complain. I would stay
like this forever if I were able to...but I can’t.  Reality
slams back into me with a bitter punch to my gut.  I push
against him and he instantly releases me, sinking back onto his heels
but refusing to move any further away.

“Where am I?
 How did we get out of the swamp?  How are you alive?
 Where have you been all this time?  How are my babies?”

Bastien smiles and
raises my hand to his lips.  “You are so beautiful when
you are upset.”  I smile and curl my fingers around his,
terrified that I may wake from this dream to find myself still
trapped in the swamp, near to death and delirious.  “I
think I should let someone else explain it all to you.”

He shifts to sit
down on the edge of the bed and then waits in silence.  I begin
to grow antsy but he winks at me and I settle back down.  I
place a hand over my belly as the door opens and a man steps through.
 The instant I spy the golden glow of his eyes I recognize
Satal.

“You let him
in here?” I hiss and pull back, glancing at Bastien with
confusion.

Bastien’s grip
on my hand increases.  “Hear him out, Illyria. You need to
know what he has to say.”

Satal lingers in the
doorway, seeming unsure if he should enter or not.  Bastien nods
for him to approach but I notice that his grip on my hand does not
lessen.  Satal moves to the far wall and leans back against it.

“I thought you
were dead.”

“Not dead,”
he says.

“You
were the imposter, weren’t you?”  I growl, feeling
my pulse thrumming rapidly in my neck.

He nods slowly.  “My
duty.”

“Duty?  You
poisoned me!”

Bastien’s gaze
narrows as his head whips around to look at Satal.  The shape
shifter does not try to deny it.  His face grows grim as he nods
slowly.  “It was my duty,” he repeats.

Bastien surges to
his feet and grabs Satal by the front of his shirt, slamming him back
against the wall.  “You didn’t tell me you tried to
hurt her,” he growls.  I watch his jaw clamp down as his
hand clenches into a fist at his side.

“Let...explain…”
he gasps against Bastien’s grasp on his chest.  His face
has begun to darken and I wonder if it would be possible for Bastien
to crush his chest.  I know nothing of the shape shifting race
but surely they can’t be as solid in bone structure as we are
if they can meld into different shapes.

“Bastien,”
I call softly and he slowly turns to look at me.  His nostrils
are flared with anger.  “Let him talk.  You can kill
him later.”

A hint of a smirk
gives me hope as he slowly releases Satal but shoves him back against
the wall in disgust before moving back to my side.  Satal
presses his hand to his chest and makes a barking sound that I assume
is his attempt to clear his throat.  

He slides down the
wall and sinks onto the bench that sits just below him.  His
legs splay out before him and he takes a moment to recover before
speaking.  “I show you truth.”

Satal’s face
slowly begins to slide to the right, like hot wax being poured from a
candle.  His nose elongates, his brow dips inward.  Bastien
glances toward me and I realize this is a sight he has never seen
before either.  Satal’s hands narrow and his fingers
lengthen.  His legs draw inward, becoming that of a slender man
of smaller stature.  His shoulders seem to fold in upon
themselves.  I look away, sickened by the transformation.  When
I look back a man who could easily pass as his early thirties sits
before us.  

Bastien’s
breath hitches as he lurches to his feet.  “Coen?”

“You know
him?” I ask, staring up into Bastien’s stricken face.  He
looks pallid and unsteady on his feet.

He nods slowly.  “He
was one of my men back on Earth.  He fell during a battle not
long before I came to get you.”

“I did not
fall,” the new man says in a tone both deep and musical.  Long
white hair falls over his shoulders.  His eyes are a beautiful
burnt orange.  His skin pale and flawless.  “My time
was done there.”

“How is this
possible?” Bastien asks, sinking back down beside me.  I
reach out for him and grasp his arm, feeling him tremble, though I
can’t tell which emotion is causing the quakes.

“He is a shape
shifter,” I respond.  “This is what they do. They
trick people.”

“No.”
 Bastien’s former soldier shakes his head.  “I
do not trick.  I guide. That is my task.”

“Your task?”
 My eyebrows rise.  “I do not understand.

Coen steeples his
hands before him.  “I am a descendant of an ancient race.
 Protectors.  Guardians.  We seek only to keep the
peace in the universe.”

“You’ve
sure got a funny way of doing that,” Bastien growls.

The man nods and I
watch as his shimmery white hair falls over his shoulders.  I
can’t shake the feeling that I have met him before.  In a
different time.  In a different place.

“I do what I
must for the sake of all.”  His response is simple yet
feels weighted with responsibility.  

“So that is
how you were able to trick me when you pretended to be Bastien. You
had already spent time with him.”

Coen
nods.  “I studied Bastien for nearly a year. I watched his
struggles, his yearnings.  I knew of his love for you, so when
the time came to assume his identity it was easy.”

“I discovered
you though,” I whisper, turning my face away.  “Bastien
would never have left me.”

“Yes,”
he agrees.  “I knew you were a clever one.  It was
only a matter of time before you would see through me.  I knew I
didn’t have much time to act.”

“Act on what,
exactly?” Bastien leans forward and my hand on his arm falls
away.  

Coen takes a deep
breath and closes his eyes for a moment.  I roll my head back to
look at him and I spy a shimmer along his pale flesh, almost as if he
is struggling to maintain this form.  I glance down at the
clasps upon his wrists and wonder if his ability to shift forms is
hampered by the same chains that keep me restrained.

The weight of my
neck clamp feels all the more confining as I watch him turn to look
at me.  “I have done many things in the centuries that I
have lived.  Some I am not proud of.  One of those was
making the decision to trust Hendrix over Hyde.”

I push up onto my
elbows as realization fully dawns on me.  “You betrayed
us. You killed Hyde and everyone else.  You led Hendrix to us.”

He slowly nods.  “I
was deceived, just as you were.  I realized only too late that
Hyde was who he really said he was and that I was helping the wrong
man.”

“Hyde was my
friend.”

“Wait a
second,” Bastien turns his whole body to look at me.  “Hyde
was here?  How did he--?”

“It doesn’t
matter,” I cut him off.  I hate the look of hurt that
crosses his face but I reach out and squeeze his arms to reassure
him, vowing that one day I will tell him all about it but there are
far more important matters at the moment.  

Coen watches us, his
face somber.  “Hendrix told me that you were in danger,
Illyria.  That your babies were killing you.  I watched you
suffer. Saw your pain.  I tried to comfort you but you kept me
at a distance.  When I heard you called your nurse Thesa instead
of Lurime I knew what Hyde had done so I went to find Natasha.”

My brow furrows with
confusion.  “That’s another thing I don’t
understand.  How did she survive?  Hendrix killed her right
in front of me.”

Coen shakes his
head.  “No.  I blocked your view, remember?  Natasha
once told you that she will do whatever it takes to survive.  That
includes switching sides when it suits her.  She was never
Donan’s soldier.  She had already signed on to Hendrix’
team long before she ever boarded that slaving ship.  The
problem was she grew too fond of Hyde.  His death shook her.
 She did a good job of hiding her pain but I could see through
her mask. A shifter always can.”

I reach out for
Bastien and he helps me slowly rise to a seated position.  He
shifts off the bed and helps me lower my one good leg to the floor
then shoves a pillow behind my back so that I can lean against the
wall.  My stomach swells before me and I realize that I have
grown even more.

“Why would
Natasha help me?  She hates me for what I did to her brother.”

Coen smiles.  “She
spent years hating you, sure that you were to blame for her brother’s
death, but when you were willing to place your life in her hands she
realized that there was a chance that she was wrong about you.
 Sometimes fate has plans that differ from our own.  She
just needed time to accept that.”

Boy,
isn’t that the truth!
I snort silently.

“So you’re
telling me that you and Natasha planned the escape into the swamp?”

He slowly nods.
 “Hendrix was becoming unstable, moody.  His growing
agitation with your delayed labor became an obsession of his.  I
knew something had to be done to protect you.  Once I realize
who Thesa really was I knew you were safe with her.  I recruited
Natasha and Handal to execute your escape while I came here.”

I glance at the room
around me, stunned by how brilliantly white it all is.  It
reminds me of the healer’s wing back on Calisted.  “And
where is here?”

Bastien speaks up
this time.  “This is Drach’s compound.”

My heads whips
around to look at him beside me.  “Drach’s compound
burned to the ground.  We were attacked by Hendrix’s men.
 Drach tried to save me.  He shoved me into this passage in
the wall and I followed it until I found Hyde chained to a door
outside.  We barely escaped with our lives.”

I shudder at the
memory.  Bastien scoots closer and wraps his arm around my
shoulders.  I lean in to him, eternally grateful for his
support.  “Drach came for me,” he whispers into my
ear.  “He saved my life, gave me a place to hide out until
we could find you.” He draws back to look at Coen...Satal,
whoever he is.  “Without his help I would never have found
you on my own.”

“And Natasha?
 Did she make it?”

Coen’s face
falls as he shakes his head.  I close my eyes, indebted to the
girl who gave her life to save me.  “And Handal?” I
ask, already knowing the answer.

“He was never
recovered.”

I
nod, feeling sick to my stomach.  
Of
course not.  He was dead long before I even managed to wiggle
into that cage.

I blow out a heavy
sigh and mentally shake myself.  “Donan, Hyde, Reyes,
Vondran, Natasha, Handal...they are all dead.  What about
Callisto?  Did you see what happened to her?” I ask Coen.
 

“She was
Hendrix’s second in command.  She would have slit your
throat in your sleep if she thought it would have pleased him,”
Coen says.