“Let us be,” I said softly and the leader’s gaze flickered back to mine. The gills on his neck flared. I felt the strange irritation that crept into his mind at my request. I pushed harder, though I felt a little resistance. Already, my temple began to throb, my vision began to waver. “We are only passing through. I am sorry about yourjrikkiabut they attacked us. We had no choice.”
Giving one final push before the connection dropped, I pulled away.
The Killup leader called out to the five Killup surrounding the horde king. I saw that while I’d been inside his mind, one Killup had been injured—there was a deep stab wound in his shoulder—and others had cuts from the horde king’s daggers. But still, they outnumbered him. Though they were lithe and sinewy, Killup were not small beings. Neither were Dakkari. But unlike humans, Killup matched the Dakkari’s height…and apparently some of their strength since I spied similar injuries on the horde king.
His red eyes glowed as they found mine before he cut them back to his opponents, who had all ceased advancing on him at their leader’s order.
Nausea began to flood my belly as the pain in my mind bloomed.
It was necessary, I resolved. No one had to die. Thejrikkiahad already given their lives. No more blood needed to be spilled.
“Why is a human traveling with aVorakkar?” came a voice, raspy and quiet, nothing more than a whisper.
I turned back to the leader.
“Why are Killup so far west?” I returned in response.
His head tilted again. When I’d been inside his mind, I’d felt no malice, no ill will. He hadn’t wanted to harm us…but had thought it necessary to preserve the lives of his fellow Killup.
“Iamsorry about yourjrikkia,” I told him as a wave of dizziness made me sway. The two Killup that were holding me in place held me upright.
At the leader’s inclined head, their hands fell away. As did the dagger that had pressed into my flesh.
A low growl reverberated around the clearing. It came from the horde king. My stomach churned in dread at the look in his eyes and the way they flickered to the Killup. He was calculating. He wanted blood and he intended to have it.
I rushed over to him, pressing through the line of Killup to reach him. It was surreal to me that just moments before, he’d been against me in the most erotic and dangerous and arousing moment of my life.
Before he lashed out, which would threaten the tentative peace, I gathered the energy once more, though I gritted my teeth against the pain of it. It felt like a dagger being thrust into my temple, dragging across my brain.
I pushed, finding that familiar turmoil within him. That lingering darkness, thatrage. He needed bloodshed. He needed it like abalm.
What has happened to you? I wondered.
I soothed, dulling that bloodlust as best as I was able, pressing a hand to his chest to steady myself. My hand slipped in black blood from a deep cut across his pectoral, smearing it across his flesh.
“They don’t want to harm us,” I whispered, holding his gaze as sparks flashed in my vision. “It’s—it’s all right.”
His brows furrowed. I felt the tension in his muscles easing as I pushed into his mind harder, even as bile rose up in my throat.
“Please,” I said, swaying. “Hanniva.”
I felt a trickle under my nose and he reached forward with his fingers. Red blood came away with them.
“Leikavi,” he rasped, his tone mildly alarmed.
“Don’t hurt them, horde king,” I said.
With the last of my energy, I tore away from his mind, gasping as my vision darkened. My knees gave out and I fell.
The last thing I remembered was his arms around me.
Chapter Fifteen
The majority of the Killup melted back into the darkness of the forest as thekallesfell.
“What did you do to her?” I growled, my eyes flashing to the single Killup that remained in the clearing. A male, the one she’d been speaking to.
She was limp in my arms and I dropped my daggers on the earth in order to carry her towards the fire. When I gazed down at her, red blood trailed from her nose. I didn’t know that humans bled red. The sight of it made discomfort coil deep in my belly.
