I need to regroup, to wait, and hide until it’s light out.She would head for the barrier then.It’s not far.Aldora could almost see it through the moonlight and mist. She just needed time to think clearly and come up with a plan that wasn’t fueled by desperation and fear before she made the journey over the tops of the hedges and tried for the other side. Try or die.
I can do this.
She hugged her legs tightly. Time passed in a haze as the vines tightened around her, leaving her skin raw with pain. Her thoughts clouded as her struggling pants softened, her body relaxed a little more with each minute, and she succumbed to the feel of bugs crawling over her skin.
Until something grabbed her foot and yanked her to the labyrinth ground.
Chapter Six
***
Vedikus pulled thefemale into his arms and gripped her to his chest, pressing his hand over her mouth. She thrashed against him, but her struggles were weak, disjointed. She groaned under his fingers and squirmed as he positioned her to the ground to subdue her. When he had her locked in place, he bent over to meet her wild gaze.
Wildcat. Angry and unthinking.Her eyes narrowed above his hand and he knew she recognized him. The disgust that filled them was only diminished with caution. The female resisted and kicked her legs and he moved to straddle them.
What am I going to do with her?Now that he had caught her, his next step eluded him.Get us away from here.Vedikus looked briefly at the walls on either side. He could see them more clearly, even in the darkness, than he had in years. And he had been on this world for more years than he could count.It’s unsafe here.
It was because of her. His eyes moved back to the female trapped beneath him.
“Do you hear that?” he asked, leaning closer to her ear. She stilled for a moment and settled, her focus apparent. She was obeying him. He grasped her tighter. “Those are the sounds of approaching enemies, the beat of several orc drums. If you can hear them, then you’re too close, but what you don’t hear is far more terrifying.” Vedikus pressed into her, his lips hovering above her ear, and he felt the blood of those he’d defeated drip off him and onto her flesh, christening her first night in the mist.
She had no idea how fortunate she was.
“What you don’t hear are the barghests prowling closer, just down the path, or the goblins that await in the same vines you were in, the ghosts that will as likely kill you as they would possess you. A sacrifice happened here tonight and every creature within leagues will know by sunrise. Those who are addicted to human blood will hunt for you relentlessly. Some monsters never give up. I don’t.” He lifted up slightly. “Will you scream?”
The female shook her head and he removed his hand from her mouth. The soft pucker of her lips, hot and wet, was the last his palm felt before he rubbed it on his loincloth.
“Why are you doing this?” she choked out.
“To keep you alive.”
He should get up, unpin her, and lead her from this place, but he couldn’t yet bring himself to move. She was soft and pliant under his warrior-hewn body and cushioned him everywhere he pressed and touched. So easily breakable, so easily conquered, that it made him question his sanity. How was he going to get her back to the Bathyr alive?
When his sire caught his mother many years ago, he never told Vedikus or his other sons how he had done it, only that it was with unrelenting determination and insatiable need. His sire had been crazed with exerting his control and trained his spawn to be the same way, beating them until it reached the point of evil.
She peered up at him warily, her face now marred with the dirt and blood from his hand. “Alive for what?”
