Page 172 of Tamed By Her Touch

If he was going to die, he was damn well going to take the murderous bastard with him!

29

CLAIR

Clair didn’t even have time to wonder how she had heard Kaelus’s voice inside her head again. One second Sendar’s blaster was pointing straight at her chest and the next Kaelus’s desperate command—Clair, move!—seemed to explode inside her skull as the big Hybrid shoved her violently to one side and launched himself across the room.

The blaster discharged with a deafening crack and a streak of brilliant blue-white energy tore through the space where Clair had been standing less than a second before.

But Kaelus had already thrown himself between her and the weapon. The blast caught him high in the left shoulder and spun him half around, burning through the gray fabric of his tunic and filling the room with the sickening smell of scorched flesh.

“Kaelus!” Clair screamed, but the big Hybrid barely seemed to register the injury. He stumbled for only a fraction of a second before continuing his charge, hitting Sendar with enough force to send both of them crashing into one of the ancient containment chairs.

The blaster flew out of Sendar’s hand and skittered across the stone floor, far out of reach.

“Kaelus!” Clair shouted again, scrambling to her feet.

Her legs felt shaky and weak after everything that had happened—the virus…the mating…the unbelievable realization that somehow she could hear Kaelus inside her mind—but none of that mattered now.

Blood was already soaking the fabric around his shoulder and running down his arm, yet the big Hybrid had Sendar pinned against the heavy black chair with one massive hand wrapped around his throat.

“You murderous fucking bastard,” Kaelus growled, his voice so low and dangerous that Clair barely recognized it. “You infected an entire Kindred colony and murdered your own wife, then you injected me with that filth and tried to make me kill the woman I love. Give me one reason—just one—why I shouldn’t crush your throat and send you straight to the Seven Hells!”

Sendar clawed at his wrist, but he couldn’t possibly break Kaelus’s grip. Despite the blaster wound and everything his body had endured, the huge Hybrid looked more powerful than ever. His golden eyes had gone almost incandescent with fury, and his fangs were still fully extended, making him look terrifyingly close to the savage creature Sendar had tried to turn him into.

“You see?” Sendar choked out, somehow managing a twisted smile despite the hand around his throat. “You see what you really are when all that Kindred discipline is stripped away? Nothing but an animal—a violent, primitive beast pretending to be civilized because some female has trained you to heel!”

“You fucker—I’m going to fucking kill you!”

Kaelus’s fingers tightened and Sendar made a strangled sound.

For one horrifying moment, Clair thought he really was going to kill him.

“Kaelus, don’t!” she exclaimed, moving toward them. “Don’t kill him!”

Kaelus turned his head to look at her.

“He made me hurt you, Lissa’ra,” he bit out. “He killed his own wife and he wanted to make me kill you!”

“I know,” Clair said desperately. “But you have to spare him—not because he deserves mercy, because God knows he doesn’t. You have to spare him because he needs to answer for what he did to Galandra and to every woman who died on Glenvarren. Don’t let that bastard turn you into the monster he keeps insisting you are!” she begged.

Kaelus’s grip on the other male’s throat loosened somewhat and Clair felt something strange brush against her mind—a flash of rage, pain, and overwhelming protectiveness that wasn’t hers.

Then his grip loosened even more.

Sendar sucked in a ragged breath.

“You’re right,” Kaelus growled at last. “You’re absolutely right, Lissa’ra. He does not deserve the mercy of a quick death.” He let go of Sendar and stepped back.

Sendar sat up, coughed harshly and rubbed his throat.

“How touching. The obedient husband listens when his goddess speaks. You couldn’t have illustrated my point any more perfectly if you’d tried.”

“Oh, shut up,” Clair snapped. “Kaelus didn’t stop because I ordered him to—he stopped because unlike you, he has a conscience. There’s a difference between loving a woman enough to listen to her and being enslaved by her—though apparently that distinction is a little too complicated for your tiny misogynistic brain.”

Sendar’s metallic eyes flashed.

“I expected better from a scientist,” he snapped.