Pursued Read online

  Merrick felt cold. The bond—what were they going to do about the bond? “I won’t say a fucking thing,” he promised.

  “Very well, see that you don’t break your word. I can’t abide anyone who lies to me. Lying is such bad manners, and manners are important, don’t you think?” Without waiting for an answer, he pointed the silver remote again and two things happened at once. First, the transparent shield separating them and Elise came down with a low humming sound. Second, the drugs flowing into her arm changed from purple to clear. Slowly, Elise lifted her head and blinked her eyes.

  “Merrick?” she murmured, looking at him.

  “It’s me, baby,” he assured her in what he hoped was a soothing voice. “Don’t try to talk through the bond.”

  “Why not? Who is that?” She peered groggily at Draven. “Where are we?”

  “The less you know, the better,” Merrick told her grimly. “The only thing that’s important right now is that you’re going home.”

  “Me? What about you? Why are you bleeding?” Her eyes were wide and frightened. “Please, Merrick, please tell me you’re coming with me.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that, baby,” he said roughly. “There’s only one ticket out of here, and it’s got your name on it.” He looked at Draven. “There’s one more thing—we had a plant with us, a branch with long thorns and red berries.”

  “Oh, you mean this?” Seemingly from out of thin air, Draven produced the wilted skrillix branch. “I wondered why you had it. After all, what would a happily bonded couple want with a branch of the infamous ‘pain vine?’”

  “It’s to break our bond,” Elise said quietly. “It’s not right and it’s dangerous to us.”

  “But you have to send it back to the Mother Ship with Elise,” Merrick added quickly. “I’m pretty sure they can break the bond even without me there, but she has to have the skrillix to do it with.”

  “So you want to break your sacred Kindred bond? How very refreshing.” Draven grinned broadly at both of them. “But you don’t need to travel back to your Mother Ship to do that! I can manage it for you right here.”

  “No, Draven, you can’t,” Merrick said flatly. “A soul bond is a very delicate thing.”

  “You wound me.” Draven put one perfectly manicured hand to his chest. “Do you mean to say you think me indelicate? My dear hybrid, I’m quite offended by such an implication.”

  “Merrick wasn’t trying to be rude,” Elise said quickly. “It’s just that the skrillix branch has to be put in the same stasis machine I was in originally, when Merrick found me, in order for it to work.”

  “Oh, no, no, my dear,” Draven protested. “That’s only necessary if you want to break the bond painlessly. But we don’t care about that silliness, now do we?”

  “Yes, we fucking well do care,” Merrick growled, but Draven had already called over a pair of tiny imps with dirty gray skin and was rapidly giving them instructions. They ran off as a pair and returned moments later with a cup filled with oily black liquid and a syringe.

  “Now, then,” Draven continued, placing the implements along with the wilted skrillix branch down on a nearby table. “Let’s proceed, shall we?” Rapidly, he stripped the branch of its berries and squeezed them into a pulp, letting their blood-red juice run into the black liquid in the cup.

  Merrick ground his teeth together. After everything they’d gone through to get those damn berries, and here this bastard was, ruining them all! He opened his mouth to protest again, but Draven was picking up the skrillix branch once more.

  “Lovely long thorns, aren’t they, my dear?” He gestured with the plant to Elise who grew pale and shrank back against the steel table she was strapped to.

  “Please,” she whispered. “Please, no…”

  “Ah, I see you have some experience with the more, shall we say, interesting aspects of the skrillix,” Draven smiled languidly. “I would simply love to hear all about it, but unfortunately if we don’t get you and your little ship pointed toward the rift soon, the Kindred will close it. And then where will you be?” He lifted the branch again. “But fear not, my dear, these thorns aren’t for you—not this time. They are for me.” Pricking his finger, he let seven dark red drops fall into the cup. “I have no soul, you see,” he continued, swirling the contents of the cup to mix them. “So my blood will act quite nicely as a solvent for your bond.”

  “You’re crazy,” Merrick said hoarsely. “You don’t know what the poison in those thorns can do to you.”

  “Oh yes, I do.” Draven pricked his finger again, seemingly just for fun this time. “I’m touched at your concern, but please don’t be worried for me—I’m immune to the effects.”

  He offered the cup to Elise, but she shook her head. “No. I don’t want your blood inside me.”

  “Oh no?” Draven raised an eyebrow at her. “Well, well…how hurtful. Especially when you consider there are much more painful parts of myself I could put inside you, my dear.”

  “You fucking lay one finger on her and I’ll kill you,” Merrick growled.

  “Don’t worry.” Draven waved airily. “We don’t have time for pleasantries like nonconsensual sex any more than I have time to find out why your lady love so fears the skrillix’s sweet kiss.” He looked at Elise. “We have a fold to catch before it unfolds, my dear. And since you won’t be persuaded to take my little mixture by mouth…”

  Plunging the syringe into the black, oily contents of the cup, he pulled up the plunger, filling it with the viscous stuff. Then, despite Merrick’s hoarse shouts for him to stop, he connected it to the tubing running into Elise’s arm, and injected her with the awful looking mixture.

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Elise was dying. Someone had taken a knife and was cutting her in two—just like that old magic trick where the magician pretends to saw his lovely assistant in half. Only this was no trick—Elise could literally feel a part of herself being severed. She supposed hazily that it must be her soul, but it hurt as much as though some crazy doctor had decided to amputate one of her hands without any kind of anesthesia.

  Oh God, the pain! The pain! She threw back her head and cried out, only dimly aware that to her left, Merrick was doing the same. Had the man with silver eyes—the same man who had been in her dream—injected him too? Or was he simply experiencing the same effects as Elise because they were so closely tied together?

  But we won’t be for long, she thought, even as she writhed in agony. I’m losing him—losing Merrick forever. And losing any hope of having a life with him in the future.

  The thought of being forever separated from the man she loved was almost more painful than the intense agony of the bond being broken. Hot tears ran down her cheeks and Elise couldn’t stop them—didn’t try to stop them. She was mourning a loss too great to be calculated. She was losing a part of herself she would never recover—the part that had belonged to Merrick.

  It seemed to go on and on forever, but at last the horrible cutting sensation ended, to be replaced by a throbbing numbness. The amputation was over.

  Elise slumped on the steel table, going limp in her bonds. Her heart felt like an empty socket, a ragged hole in her chest that would never heal.

  “Elise? Baby?” she heard Merrick murmur and she realized he must have been trying to get her attention for some time.

  “Merrick,” she whispered, blinking tears from her eyes so she could see him. I can see him, but I can’t feel him, she realized, with a growing sense of despair. I can’t feel his emotions anymore. “Merrick,” she said again. “I can’t…can’t feel you. You’re gone.”

  “I’m right here.” He was trying to sound reassuring but Elise couldn’t help it—she wasn’t reassured.

  “But you’re not in here anymore. Not in me,” she whispered back as fresh tears filled her eyes.

  “The bond is dissolved,” he said harshly. “But I still love you. I’ll always love you, baby—hold on to that, even when I’m gone.”