Forgotten Read online

  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.”

  “I had it well in control before you started pushing,” Rone snarled. “And I can still control it—so stay the fuck away from us!”

  The Madam’s dark shape shimmered and Mistress Light appeared.

  “Do not lie to yourself, Warrior,” she said gently. “You need to feed your hunger very soon or your mate will be in grave danger. You know this.”

  “You—” Rone began but just then Kate stirred in his arms.

  “Rone?” she whispered and then cried out weakly when her movements hurt the wounds on her back.

  “It’s all right, baby,” he murmured reassuringly. “We’re going now. Going to get you all treated and healed up, I promise.”

  “Farewell, Warrior,” Mistress Light said, just as her other half had.

  Rone didn’t bother to answer. Someday he would come back and avenge the pain that had been inflicted on his mate. Right now, he had to tend to her.

  He took Kate inside the ship and shut the door firmly behind him. They were getting the Seven Hells out of this damn place and then he was going to heal Kate…and get some answers from her.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Well? What are they doing now?” Two demanded from the chip implanted under Y’s ear. He had been silent for a long time—long enough that it made Y jump to suddenly hear his Master’s voice in his head again.

  “They are back aboard their own ship,” Y reported. “But they haven’t set a course as far as I can tell. They appear to be simply orbiting the moon which hosts the Flame and Frost complex.”

  Two swore nastily. “I cannot manipulate them or enter their thoughts in the ship as I could while they were still in the compound. The metal of their hull impedes my new mental skills.”

  Y wondered uneasily what other “skills” his Master had picked up from their time on the Scourge home world. Two was growing himself a new body in the vats the ancient alien race had used to replenish their stock of warriors, but Y had not seen it yet.

  The body, along with a new chip with Master Two’s personality implanted in it, had been sequestered for days as it grew in the deep troughs filled with growth hormones and chemicals. During that time, Two had been mostly silent, concentrating on implanting himself thoroughly into his new form.

  Y had stayed away from the new body and worked on the various projects he had been assigned. The Master had commanded him to especially concentrate on watching the Kindred tracker and his mate—the same girl they had taken by mistake and put back on Earth some months before.

  As always, his Master’s motivations were a mystery to Y. Two had learned, through the spies he had planted everywhere, even on the Kindred Mother Ship, that the Wulven Kindred and his mate would be assigned to track him once they healed their wounded relationship. For some reason, this had enraged Two and he had vowed to hurt them in any way he could. Y had asked several times why they didn’t just blast the Wulven’s ship out of the sky but Two appeared to think that was too easy.

  “I want them to have a slow death,” he’d told Y. “And I want them to hate each other before they die—hate each other and themselves.”

  Y couldn’t fathom such reasoning but then, almost none of what the Master said and did made sense to him. More and more, he dreamed of a life without the constant presence in his head. Without the chip implanted beneath his ear…

  “Well?”

  The booming voice behind him made Y whirl around. His eyes grew large as he looked up…and up and up. Standing in the doorway of the ancie