His Human Hellion (Ultimate Passage Book 2) (14 page)

“
The Asazi left their own babies? Out to die? That’s as bad as the Spartans.”
No wonder the Kormic hated them.

He frowned.

“What? They put their helpless newborn baby girls out to be killed by the elements.” Marissa found herself siding with the Kormic. “And somehow the unborn child of my unborn daughter will help you. And you know this how?”

“It’s part of the prophecy.”

Right. Sure. Whatever.
All the things she wanted to say, but figured would set Saraz off. “I would like to know your intentions for me, in terms of my daughter.” Not to mention, he had a harem, and seemed to think that she was in it.

“You are her mother. I would be hopeful that you would raise her favorably and mindful of the prophecy and the Sacred Writings.” He made it sound like a
threat.

“You d
on’t have to worry about that.” She’d say whatever she had to say to pacify him. Then something occurred to Marissa. “So the women could not have babies that weren’t monsters. Is that when human women became a part of the formula?”

“Oh yes. I have been very creative over the centuries in getting women here. Not always with favorable results. The women died during delivery. More women would be needed. That would get the attention of
the Brethren, I feared, so I had to become even more creative. And then more sophisticated means were needed.”

Marissa seethed, she better get away from this subject. It was pissing her off. This is how she became embroiled in the whole situation to begin with. “How did you get them here? How do the Asazi get to
Earth? Are you instrumental in that?”

“Instrumental? More than that. I create
the portals.”

“Wait. What do you mean?”

“I control their entry to Earth.”

“And they don’t know this? They are not stupid, how is it they don’t know?”

“They believe their scientists.”

“Let me guess, you
are their scientist? Or have something to do with their scientists? So if what you want is to return to Earth, why don’t you simply go through one of your portals?”

“I have tried. It collapses. But then I realized, I would be leaving my own kind, my love’s descendants behind.
”

“How is it you can talk in my head? Do you read minds? How do you keep my legs from working?”

“You have many questions. No mindreading. Merely projecting my voice, listening when you address me, and controlling your muscles, to a degree. The degree you already witnessed.”

“Saraz, as far as my being here—”

He lowered his head, took her nipple in his mouth. She raised her hands, he pushed them back, with his mind, she could feel it, she was beginning to recognize the feeling when he took over parts of her body.

“Stop. Saraz.” Her body betrayed her, aroused, throbbing, a wetness growing.

He raised his head from sucking on her breast. “You will begin producing milk soon.” He kept her bound with his will, his fingers exploring, her body betraying, tears slid down the side of her face.

“
If you do not stop touching me I will do something to cause me to lose the baby.” She hoped the bluff would work. Hoped he didn’t know that she would never do anything to hurt her child.

His hands froze. He studied her
, then released his hold on her muscles. She scrambled to her feet.

“You do not mean that. You would not harm your baby. But I will not force myself on you.”

“I don’t see why you’d need to. You have women here. How many women are there?”

“
Around forty.”

“Wow. That many? How do you get them here?” What she really wondered was more along the lines of, why did they stay? And did they all share him? And did they have his babies?

“All will be revealed in its time.” He snapped his fingers. When two concubines came in, two older and different ones, he laid out his instructions. “Prepare a room and meal for Carrier. We will all dine together tonight. We will welcome Carrier to our family.”

The women had shocked looks on their faces. Marissa wondered if this wasn’t commonly done or if it was because of her appearance.

Naked, a vision of male sexiness, he left the room. Marissa turned her head away. She did not want to be looking at him, thinking of him, or even attracted to him, especially when she couldn’t tell how much of it was created by his being in her head or by her own libido.

Finn

Finn looked at the man he’d mourned. The man he’d called father for most of his life. The man who he’d thought was dead for more than a decade. His father was holding Raiza’s child, hoisted, and comforting him. Finn let go of Raiza, his arms and hands useless, numb from shock.

The two Kormic who’d originally brought him here came into sight. They surveyed the scene, then turned to Finn’s father. “Balif, is all good?”

“You’re Balif? I have been here for days. You never came to see me?”

His father put the boy-child down. Approaching Finn, he put his arms out. “I had no idea it was you. I was worried it was someone else. Someone who could
hurt me.” He indicated Raiza, the child, and the other two Kormic. “Even hurt them.” He wrapped his arms around Finn.

Finn
kept his arms at his side. He did not know how to feel. He wanted to feel elation that his father was alive, but anger at the knowledge that his father had been alive all this time and never reached out to let Finn know, that anger reigned supreme. He turned away. “You—you don’t care. You started a new life, a new son. All of us are nothing to you.”

“Finn. You don’t understand. The same ones who struck me and hoped to leave me for dead, I had to make sure that you were safe from them. Thinking that I’d died was the only option I had. If they’d known I was alive . . .”
His father wiped his brow, the lines deep, the worry evident.

“I have mourned you for many years.”

“As I have mourned you, son.”

“How can you say that? With a new family.” Finn stormed off, fighting the taste of disgust in his mouth.

Footsteps ran behind him, a gentle hand alit on his shoulder, then touched his arm. He turned. Raiza had followed. “Your father, he cannot go home. He is wanted for being a traitor.”

“Justifiably so,” Finn responded, then thought of himself and his own circumstances. But his
situation was different.
Wasn’t it?

“So without knowing you have decided against your father? You are no better than the Asazi soldiers who attacked him and left him to die.” Nostrils flared, brows in a well-defined V, she turned away.

“Wait.” Finn reached to stop her. The original two Kormic who captured him leapt out of the bushes, spears at the ready.

“I meant her no harm,” Finn explained.

“My brothers.” Raiza let a small smile diminish the anger on her face. “They also chose to go with Balif, your father.”

“I’m confused.”

“I found your father dying in the forest after being attacked by his own kind.”

Attacked by his own kind? It was common knowledge he was attacked by Kormic.
And that he was supposed to be dead. So who was spreading the untruths? “Why was he attacked?” Finn interrupted.

“That is his story to tell. Ask him if you want to give him a chance.”

He did want to.

She
continued, “I found him dying. I helped him. Helping him divided our settlement. He was expelled by the Elders, but I could not leave him or let him leave me. My heart was tied to his. My brothers and a few others were tired of the hate, so they went with us. We could not stay in the Farlands. We were not welcome, and we could not stay in the Heartland because the Asazi hate us.

“This is not safe either, is it? Both sides would kill you.”

“At least it is less populated here.”

“But you are in danger from both sides.”

She inclined her head in agreement.

“
And you did this for my father.”

Again she nodded.

Maybe Par deserved a word.
“I think I do need to talk to him.”

A smile transformed her features. She performed a half-bow, hands clasped together in front of her chest.

Finn found his father standing by the fire. “You have not changed.”

“You have. You are a man.”

He thought of the child Marissa carried, wanting to share this with his father, unsure if he should. “You have found a good one in Raiza. She was kind to me while I was a prisoner.”

“She saved my life. If not for her I would have died.”

Finn nodded. “She would not give me specifics.”

“I was wounded from behind by one of ours.”

“How can you be sure? Were you shot?”

“No. Stabbed. Finn, you know Raiza. She’s my woman. Has been since—since sometime after she saved my life.
I am sorry you were held. They weren’t sure if you were an enemy of mine. We have to be very cautious. If I’d had a thought that it was you wandering around in Midland . . .” Finn’s father reached out for the young boy-child. “This is Feroz. My son.” He paused. “My other son. He speaks Asazi and Kormic.”

Finn nodded. He understood that his father had to protect himself.
Finn studied the child. He was a blend of both races, but showed far less human traits than either race. He had the Asazi wings and skin, coupled with the bumpy, spiky knobs the Kormic had on their heads and the top half of their faces.

“Hi.” Little
Feroz said in Asazi, a serious look on his young face.

Raiza picked him up. “I will give you time to catch up. Let’s go practice your bow skills,
Feroz.”

Finn’s father led him away from Raiza, the boy, and the two Kormic. “Son, why are you wandering around in
Midland alone?” Par sat on a boulder.

Finn joined him
, then scrubbed at his face. It had been so long since he’d said the word Par. He was nervous about trying it out, after all this time. “It’s a long story. Probably not as long as yours. Why are you here?”

“Mine is simple.” His father toed the dirt, making senseless patterns, one after another. “I was betrayed. Probably because of my political leanings. Because I wasn’t happy with the status quo. Maybe because someone else wanted the position I was being considered for.”

“What position? Who?”

“Governor-Select. The
who
part doesn’t matter now. I have a new life. I don’t dwell on the past, and I won’t go back to it. Unless I’m forced to deal with the one that put me in this position. The one that almost killed me. Let’s go back to you. Were you banished?”

“I should have been, but no. I’m here looking for someone who was banished. A human. My woman.”

“How is it that you have a woman who is human?”

“I met her during the Third Wave. Par, she’s pregnant.”

His father sucked in a breath. “And she is here? How far along?”

“Not far, I don’t think. She isn’t showing yet.”

“I will be a grandfather.” He shook his head as though it was too much to take in. “But wait, what about Alithera and your Binding to her?”

“Called off.”

His father cocked his head, opened his mouth as if to say something, closed it, then nodded. “She was a good kid, that one. Spirited.”

More than you know
. Finn nodded back. What else could he do? Alithera’s wings, her escape, all of that was a side story now, considering Marissa was missing. “These Kormic, they are different—” He didn’t know how to finish his sentence. His father was with a Kormic now, had a child with her. Curses, that child was Finn’s own brother, half-brother.

“Yes, they are nothing like we grew up to believe. Nothing like the beings we have spent generations killing.”

“And one saved your life.”

“More than one, Finneas. Raiza helped me, but when her tribe threatened to kick her out because she loved me, she left, her brothers and quite a few cousins and friends left
, as well. We are all together, a small settlement, on the outskirts of Midland. Not all Kormic are filled with hate. A misplaced hate. Our present generations are not the ones that put them in the Farlands.”

“No, that is true, but our present generations wage war on them, kill them, persecute them. And vice versa.”

“A war based on ignorance, perpetuated by ignorance and a false belief in a false god.”

“You too?”

His father looked at him, a quizzical expression on his face.

“You don’t believe in a god?” Finn rose, began to pace. “I lost my faith some time ago.”

“My faith is in goodness and integrity. Not so much in the Asazi and the Kormic and the actions they take.”

Finn did like the sound of that. He looked across the clearing at Raiza and
Feroz, at the two Kormic who brought him here. His father had a life. He had no reason to return to the Asazi, no reason to do anything but what he had been doing for the last decade. “I have to go.”

“To find the woman.”
Par crossed his arms over his chest. He still reminded Finn of the soldier he’d been when Finn was growing up.

“Marissa. Yes, to find her.”

“Let me help.”