Warrior Blind (3 page)

She feared him in that position, why? He loosened his hands on her, then shifted one to cover her back. He felt the breath enter and leave her body, and he waited until the pattern of it regulated itself.

“I will not harm you.”

She shook her head, sending brown hair shimmering over his chest. “And you said that before. Let me go, Koios. I cannot be here with you. In this place. I need to go home. I have people, family, and responsibilities waiting for me. I do not know why you can’t just leave me alone.”

Because he just
 
could not.

He should have been able to; he knew that logically. Strategically it was the right thing for him to do. Politically, as well.

But the healer girl belonged with him. He knew that deep in his soul. He didn’t know why, but it was the truth of things.

She would remain.

“Please…”

“No. It is here you belong and here you remain.”

“Captive again. Pathetic and pitiful. Completely helpless.”

She
 
was
 
helpless, and even captive. If she wished to put it that way.

Koios frowned as he looked at the delicate lines of her face. So like a little cat her Kind was in features. Unlike demon females, who were strong and sturdy and not the least bit delicate.

He could not have the mother of some of his spawn so helpless. That would be the first problem they would address. “I will have an attendant assigned to you by this afternoon. In the meantime, you are to remain here. Learn your way around this suite, make any changes you need to ensure you are safe. I have much business to attend. Then I will return to you shortly.”

“No! You cannot leave me here! You can’t!” Now her hands clung, whereas before she was pushing him away. “Please!”

He looked at her, still cuddled against his chest, and for the first time compassion for her filled him. What had it been like? She was just a young one, wasn’t she? “Girl, how many years have you passed?”

“Fifty-one.”

He closed his eyes as he thought of all she had endured. She must have been so frightened of him. In his realm, fifty-one was a mere babe. Vulnerable, though well over the age of consent. He had thought her at least a hundred or more. Not that that made much of a difference. He himself was well over twelve hundred. “You will not be harmed here, littling. I promise you this.”

“And that was what you said before you left me with
 
him.
 
You said…you said…that I would be safe. And that you would come back to decide what to do with me. As if what I wanted didn’t matter. And then
 
he
 
was there…” The last was said in a whisper. He knew the
 
he
 
she referred to, didn’t he?

“What did Ramorakin do to you, girl?”

It was the wrong thing to ask, and he knew it the instant the words left his mouth. She paled even further—was that even possible?—and the tremors in her body increased. Tears left the eyes that could not see him. She shook her head again.

“Just take me home. I’m begging you. I’ll do anything you ask. It doesn’t matter what…just take me home.”

It was the one thing he refused to do.

If she was the answer for him from that damned druidic prediction he would be a fool to take her back to the people who had kept her from him for the last year.

He shifted her—she weighed so very little, it was almost frightening—until her head rested on his shoulder. Next to his neck. “I cannot do that, littling. I cannot. In time you will understand why.”

She turned her head in his direction. “Then curse you, Koios, for what you have done. And what will happen to me here. Because my death will be on
 
your
 
soul for your eternity.”

HE
was expecting the ire of the High King and it took half a day for Malickus to flash, along with Sinrik and Renakletos and the male called Nalik, into the Lothicano courtyard. Koios met them in the main hall.

The High King barely spoke, but Koios saw his anger. Malickus was the biggest hurdle to his plans. And that meant the male need be dealt with swiftly. And as Koios meant to go on.

“The girl stays. Unless you want war between our families.”

It was
 
his
 
brother that protested. “Koios, she
 
cannot.
 
The girl has a life, and a destiny, which requires her be with her people.”

Destiny? He did not believe in such. “Nonsense. She stays with me.”

Renakletos pulled his sword and pointed it at Koios. His personal guards moved in closer, though truth be told, the
Phrymos
Warrior Renakletos could most likely take them all if he truly wished.
 
He had not gained his position as Malickus’s top warrior by ease. Koios waved a hand at the guards.

And the male Nalik could kill them all with half a breath.

“We will see the girl now.” Malickus’s words were not a request. “Do not hide her from me. The girl is as dear to my female as my own nieces are to me.”

“I have claimed her, Malickus.”

“Not as
servila
. You know such will not be permitted.”

“No. As
 
gamata.
 
She will be staying with me.”

Malickus nodded. “I feared as such. Nalik…”

The male waved a simple hand in Koios’ direction and for the first time in a long while Koios actually felt real fear.

A paralysis took hold of him and darkness consumed him.

***

The first hour after he locked her in the suite was the worst. Bronwen wasn’t quite sure where she was, and that always frightened her. Why wouldn’t it? She felt her way around the rooms, learning where the bathroom was and where the bed was. The door and windows. It felt like a nice suite, was it truly his? What was he planning to do to her?

She had no trust in him at all. The idea that she was completely dependent upon him for her very survival had her physically ill several times. And the first time she hadn’t quite made it to the restroom before she lost the contents of her stomach. She was just grateful she hadn’t eaten before he’d taken her.

The second hour and all the rest had her curled up in a large chair that smelled strongly of him. That, if nothing else, convinced her that the room was at least one that he spent a great deal of time in. He hadn’t just brought her here to abandon her again.

No one had entered the suite, not even a servant.
 
He
 
hadn’t returned for her, either.

That terrified her most of all.

She’d thought these past months that she wanted to be away from people, isolated from anyone who could make any demands on her, any responsibilities she didn’t know if she could meet.

Now that seemed so stupid on her part. She’d give anything to have her brothers or her sister-in-law Mickey nearby. Or Danae, Kinney, and Auri.

She tried to console herself with the knowledge that they would be sending someone for her shortly. They wouldn’t leave her here, they loved her. They’d be coming for her. As soon as they realized she was missing. Again.

A crash to her left had her biting back a scream. It sounded like half the wall had exploded.

“Bronwen? Little sister, are you well?”

She recognized the voice and tears fell. Nalik. Her brother’s friend had come for her. And how could Koios fight him? Nalik was more powerful than even the goddess of their people.

And he loved her, too.

He hugged her, and Bronwen barely resisted the urge to cling to him. With him she was safe. And she’d always known that. “I so want to go home, Nal. I don’t ever want to be here again.”

“And you won’t have to. But we have some arrangements to make first.”

“What kind?”

“Koios. He has trampled on things for the last time. He’ll be coming back with us.” Nalik tilted her chin up toward him, though they both knew she couldn’t see his eyes. “Are you ok with that?”

“No. Do not hurt him.” He’d long suspected, hadn’t he? She knew Nalik knew just what Koios was to her. But he understood. He’d watched over his own mate Cassandra from afar for almost a year. That was unheard of in Dardaptoan culture.

“He won’t be hurt, but he will learn,” Renakletos said. “He will leave you be.”

Bronwen nodded, though she had a serious doubt. Koios wanted something from her, and he had for well over a year. He wouldn’t stop until he got it. “What are you going to do to him?”

“Simple. He will learn to live with the consequences of what he has done. He will learn understanding and compassion.”

“How?” He was a thousand something year old warrior, trained to fight, not empathize. Koios would never be a soft, compassionate male. In any way.

It was one of the main reasons Bronwen hadn’t understood the goddess mating her with him.

Bronwen was a healer, into the very depths of her heart, she felt for the people she touched. All of them. At all times, she felt everything that pained them, at all. Koios felt for no one but himself. Maybe his brother occasionally.

They were so different from each other, and yet the goddess supposedly knew what she was doing in the long run.

But never had a woman denied her male for so long. Was that part of what was hurting her?

Should she let it? How was she supposed to get past her
 
Rajni
? She didn’t want Koios, at all.

He hurt her, scared her, and nearly destroyed her. “I don’t want him near me. At all.”

“Then that can be arranged. Come, let me take you home. Koios will be following. Special arrangements have been made,” Auri’s mate had laughter in his tone, and that worried Bronwen for a long moment. Ren had a bit of a nasty streak at times. And he was very protective—of his sister, of his mate, even of Bronwen. That had surprised her, at first. But Aureliana had changed the big purple demon in the last few months. He’d softened, at least toward the females that he considered family.

And he considered Bronwen that, now. Because his female had helped raise her, and because of her connection to Danae, if nothing else.

“What kind of arrangements?”

“You leave him to me.” Nalik’s tone was far more sinister, and Bronwen shivered. Her brother’s best friend could frighten anyone with that type of tone. Did he know that? Or was that what he was counting on?

“Just don’t hurt him. He’s a jerk, but his people do need him.” And though she didn’t like him, she would never want him hurt. The very thought of it had her nauseated again. “Let’s just
 
go.
”

HE
knew his hands were tied before he ever opened his eyes. Tied, not chained. That would be a good thing. Chains would hold him a bit longer than ropes. Of course, whomever had tied him had done so far more tightly than needed be. His hands were numb, now.

And someone was jerking on the rope.

“Get up.”

The voice was familiar, wasn’t it? Koios opened his eyes.

And found himself in total darkness.

He shouldn’t have; he could feel the heat of the sun against his skin. He blinked again, still darkness.

“Having trouble
 
seeing
?” The voice laughed. “Yes. I am sure you are. I told you months ago to leave young Bronwen alone, yet you refused to listen.”

“Black.” The Laquazzean bastard. Powerful, ruthless, and a real son-of-a-swine. And the guy had a soft spot for the healer girl. Damn it. “What did you do to me?”

“Simple. You refused to have compassion, to understand the struggle she now faces daily—thanks to you. So you’ll spend a week in her shoes. You will feel the fear she experiences every step she takes until you understand. And if you learn the lessons you need to, you will have your sight restored to you. If you don’t, you will remain blinded forever.”

He was warrior, he would not show fear. “You cannot do this. I am a king.”

“And I have more that needs me than an arrogant king. Farewell, little
 
king.
 
I will return to you in one week.”

The ropes dissolved around his wrists, and Koios was knocked to the hard ground by a force he couldn’t identify. The sound of the bastard’s laughter was all he heard from every direction.

He rolled to his stomach, and dragged his knees up under him. Fought the urge to puke. He’d not puked himself in more than a thousand years. He was not going to start now.

Where the three hells was he?