Imprisoned Read online

  Should she take a risk and set the Beast free?

  “Ari, watch out!” Jak gasped. “It’s about to—”

  Just then, with a roaring growl, the lasher lunged at her.

  “Zzo, this other male with fangzz…he meant zzomething to you?”

  Lathe opened his eyes to see Mukluk standing over him, his pain-prod held ready to deliver the killing blow. Since he was lying on his back, Lathe could imagine where the blow would be. His body couldn’t take many more of the punishing electrical jolts. The last one had nearly stopped his heart—he could still feel it hiccupping unsteadily in his chest as though it was trying to find its natural rhythm.

  It’ll only take one more jolt, Lathe thought. If he presses that thing to my chest and shocks me there, my heart will give out—for good this time. I wonder if that’s the way he killed Thonolan?

  The thought sent a surge of anger through him, as strong as the jolts from the Horvath’s pain-prod. And then he felt a swirl of chilly air eddying against his cheeks and a new thought intruded.

  Cold air…that’s not good. Why? Something important…something I forgot…

  “You are too zzmart for your own good, Medic. I don’t know how you managed to dizzable the climate control and delay it azz you did,” Mukluk hissed, his forked tongue lashing. “But you will be going to the hole for it.”

  “The…the hole?” Lathe frowned. Something about the hole—what was it?

  The Horvath guard hissed angrily.

  “Yezz—the hole. If I feel merciful. Juzt now I think I might kill you after all.”

  The Horvath’s hissing words brought back what his scrambled memory had been unable to supply and Lathe felt a sudden burst of horror.

  The Hole! The climate control…the cold air, it will wake the lashers—Ari! She’s right down there in the hole, the middle of their den with only my scent to protect her!

  He had to get out of this alive—not just to avenge his brother but to save the female he loved—even if she didn’t love him back.

  “You’ll never know how I hacked your system if you kill me,” he pointed out, trying to keep his voice steady. “What if the override I put in BleakHall’s system is set to go off every night at the same time? What if it’s set to go off at a random time? You’ll never know when the lashers might be sleeping instead of guarding the inmates as they’re supposed to. You won’t have a fucking clue.”

  He was taking a chance and he knew it—hoping to get Mukluk angry enough to want to question him without making the Horvath guard so enraged he just decided to kill Lathe on the spot. But it was all he could think to do.

  For a long moment, the verdict seemed to hang in the balance. Lathe could see the Horvath’s fingers tightening on the trigger of his pain-prod and the deadly metal tip of it hovered just over his chest, only about an inch from his heart. If Mukluk pulled the trigger—

  At last the Horvath guard made a hissing sound of disgust and flicked his forked tongue.

  “You will be punizhed for this, Medic. Punizhed and quezztioned mozt thoroughly until we get everything you have done out of you. I wizzh I had time to do it now. But the lazhers will be coming—get up.”

  “Not until you get that thing out of my face.” Lathe nodded at the pain-prod.

  With a hiss of annoyance, Mukluk pulled the deadly metal tip of the long, black rod back just a few inches. Not very far, but it was enough, Lathe estimated.

  He prepared to make his move.

  As the lasher lunged at her, Ari had the presence of mind to hold up the flaming blow-torch. But the torch hadn’t been meant to use as a weapon. Its flame was short—no longer than an inch—and the lasher simply dodged her hand and aimed for her other side.

  Without thinking, Ari pulled out the big wrench—the one she’d gotten in case she needed a weapon.

  Well I certainly need one now! she thought numbly as she fumbled the heavy metal tool out of her belt.

  There was no time to swing the wrench—the lasher was too quick. She was barely able to get it up between herself and the springing beast. But she had no idea if the security shock which kept the tools from being handled by anyone but the person they were designated to would work on a lasher.

  Please, she thought. Please, Goddess…

  It worked.

  As the end of the wrench touched the short black fur of the lasher’s muzzle, Ari felt a powerful jolt go through it. It probably would have been strong enough to knock a grown man down but the lasher was bigger than a man—and much more massive. It simply snarled and took a step back, its muzzle wrinkling in anger.

  “Get me out of here,” the Beast said urgently from his cell. “Before that thing fucking eats you up, little girl.”

  The lasher had retreated to the doorway of the tunnel, its yellow eyes glowing balefully in the dim light. Ari felt safe enough to move the few steps it took to get to the Beast’s cell. Keeping one eye on the snarling, angry beast standing in the doorway, she began to burn through the lock on the Beast’s door.

  “Ari, no!” Jak protested, seeing what she was doing. “He’ll kill us both as fast as the lashers will! Hell—he probably wants to leave our bodies for bait so he can get away.”

  For a moment his words almost made Ari pause…but then she remembered again, Lathe telling her how Kindred always honored and protected women.

  “I don’t believe that,” she said steadily, continuing to cut. “Lathe told me that Kindred protect females. I’m going to let him out.”

  “Thank you, little girl.” The Beast’s voice was a rough growl. “I swear you won’t regret it.”

  I hope I won’t, Ari thought, keeping one eye on the angry lasher as she continued to cut through the lock. Or it will probably be the last thing I do!

  Lathe made as though to sit up and then kicked out, catching the Horvath guard in the shin and sending him toppling forward. He barely rolled out of the way in time as Mukluk came crashing down with a hissing howl.

  The moment the Horvath was on the ground, Lathe elbowed him hard in the midsection and rolled again, getting out of the way of the lizard guard’s long, muscular tail. He wanted to bite the bastard—he could feel the venom gathering in his fangs—but Mukluk was thrashing and he couldn’t get a grip on any one part of the guard’s body. Also, though he longed for revenge, it was no longer his primary objective—rescuing Ari was.

  Grabbing the pain-prod, which had clattered to the floor when Mukluk fell, he gripped it by the handle and rammed it against the Horvath’s side. Pulling the trigger, he felt a surge through the prod and watched with grim satisfaction as Mukluk’s entire scaly body went rigid, jerking and seizing, dancing to the tune of the deadly jolt.

  He didn’t pull back until he saw the yellow eyes roll up in Mukluk’s head. Then, when he was sure the guard was out, Lathe got to his feet. The cold air was swirling all around him, the temperature dropping fast, and he was afraid for Ari. She was down in the tunnel with the lashers and Lathe wasn’t sure how long his scent would keep her safe.

  Gripping the pain-prod hard, he started for the hole at a dead run, knowing that he was racing against time.

  Please, Goddess, don’t let me be too late! Please let me save her one more time!

  As Ari finally finished cutting through the high-density metal lock and it fell to the ground, the big lasher was twitching its scaly hindquarters, obviously getting ready to pounce.

  “Ari, run!” she heard Jak shout and then the cell door slammed open and the Beast emerged.

  He was immense—much bigger than she’d guessed from his face with its mismatched eyes peering from between the bars.

  Goddess, he must be seven and a half feet tall, Ari thought numbly. And then the Beast lunged forward to meet the pouncing lasher. With one massive hand, he caught the animal by the throat.

  The lasher struggled and hissed, its muscular, scaly bottom half lashing frantically. Its long front claws dug bloody furrows in the Beast’s arm and chest but he didn’t even seem t