In answer, Scarlett rose from her sprawl and exited the water.Her shift was a little faster this time, although sluggish.
“It’s still sore, but the puncture has healed over.”Scarlett reentered the water and reclaimed her spot.
“The color concerns me.”
“Me too,” Scarlett agreed with a frown at her right biceps.“If I froth at the mouth, shoot me with your blaster.”
Ransom’s throat choked up at the thought.He couldn’t kill her.He refused.
“Promise me,” Scarlett demanded.“I can tell you’re humoring me.”
“You’re a woman.Why would I obey you?”Ransom said.
He grinned at her catlike growl.
“I mean it.Use your blaster and rid me of my misery.Tell my brothers what happened.T-tell them I love them.”
Ransom scooped up the child and placed him on his shoulders.Then, he wrapped his arm around Scarlett’s shoulders and dragged her close.
“Flynt and I need you, Scarlett.”Nothing less than the truth.
She raised her chin but didn’t move away from him.“Flynt?”
“Do you have a better name?”Ransom let his mind drift in a way he hadn’t since his first Maphra encounter.Mostly, he locked away his private thoughts, trying to conceal them from Prince Kalim.Relaxation of this sort was rare.
The beginning prickles of intrusion at his temples warned of the prince’s arrival.Ransom stiffened and slammed his thoughts and his dragon in a sturdy cage.
“What is it?”Scarlett asked, sounding more alert.
“The prince,” Ransom said.
“I thought he only came when you were asleep.”
“Me too,” Ransom gritted out.
The Trolleris child—Flynt—climbed into his lap and cuddled against him while Scarlett reached for his hand.
“Why are you taking so long?”the prince demanded, his voice pulsing through Ransom’s mind.“My people are dying.I need them alive.”
“The landscape differs from what you described.A volcano has erupted since you went into slumber.It is taking time.”
“You are bringing the woman.”
“Yes.”Ransom’s gut burned at this truth.
His head pounded, and he suffered a pull, a sharp tug indicating the prince drawing on his energy.The uneasy sensation continued for longer than usual, and when the prince released his mind, Ransom’s thoughts were sluggish, his body trembling.
“Delicious.”The prince made obscene smacking sounds that had Ransom twitching in distress.“You taste different this cycle.Better.”
Ransom swallowed as nausea swirled through his belly.
“Find us,”the prince ordered.“Or I will feed on your people.My scientists are working on the way to do this.They are intelligent men.Do not fail me because you will not enjoy the consequences.”
The prince pulled from his mind with a harsh yank, sending reverberations through Ransom’s skull.He lifted a hand to press against his temples, white noise filling his head.Grata, each time was worse.He couldn’t endure much more of this.
Flynt crawled up Ransom’s chest, scrabbling with his dark claws.Once he reached Ransom’s shoulder, he pressed against Ransom’s neck and cooed.His claws combed through Ransom’s hair, each jerk sending more torture through his poor, abused brain.Flynt hummed, his breath warm against Ransom’s skin.Ransom was about to lift him down, but the Trolleris child hummed again, and astonishingly, his brain picked up the sound.Ransom found himself humming in time with Flynt.
“What’s going on?”Scarlett whispered.
