Think, think! Where was she? A dark corner somewhere. Not a chamber—just a corridor.
The dagger.
Why had it taken
her this long to remember her weapon? She kept up the struggle with one hand as her other swept down, searching her pocket.
Gone.
Where in the hell had it gone?
The creep choked her again, his fingers crushing her throat in a bruising grasp. She swept her hand from side to side, searching for the knife on the floor. It must have fallen out, had to be somewhere. Lundric. She found herself calling his name in her head. Her vision darkened again, lights bursting at the edges.
Hoping he didn’t plan on killing her yet, she forced her body to go prematurely limp, but before she could act, her vision went dark, and she lost consciousness again.
When she returned, a roar filled her ears, along with a horrible crunching sound. A figure loomed over her—shadows sweeping across her vision. She coughed for air and forced her body to move. It obeyed, no longer weighed down or pinned.
As she struggled to sit, she saw Lundric’s powerful back, heard his ferocious growl. He held the human male by a broken neck and swung with unbelievable might, crushing his skull against the wall.
Shock at the gruesome violence made her croak, “Lundric...stars.”
He dropped what was left of the male to the floor in a shapeless puddle and whirled. “Cambry. You’re alive! No, don’t look.” He moved his body to block her view of the dead man.
The anguish in his expression moored her. The brittle reality of her attack and Lundric’s violence eased its choke hold. She drew a ragged breath as Lundric lunged across the distance between them to scoop her into his arms. “Holy Zandian star, Cambry,” he choked, blinking rapidly. “I thought you were vecking dead for a moment there.”
The movement of his walking made her head and neck hurt. “Slow down,” she rasped, and he immediately stopped.
“Veck. Tell me what’s wrong. Where does it hurt?”
Her hand went to her throat. “I’m all right,” she managed to say. “Bruised...that’s all.”
His walk turned slow and careful as he watched her with an intensity that warmed some of the numbness from her chest. She’d thought of Lundric in those moments of the attack—but hadn’t allowed herself to believe he’d rescue her. But he had. As he’d promised from the night they’d met, Lundric was her protector. For the first time since Tal was taken from her, she didn’t feel so horribly alone in the universe.
She touched his face. She didn’t want to speak, nor would she know what to say if she did.
He leaned into her touch, lids drooping. “Cambry.” He spoke it like a prayer, a lament, and an invocation all at once.
“Cambry.”
~.~
He’d like to kill that human a million times over. But thank the stars—thank the stars—Cambry was alive. When he’d arrived to find her lifeless on the floor beneath the male, his vision had turned red. No thoughts ran through his mind, only the blind instinct to kill.
Veck, he’d known that human male was trouble. Or, rather, Cambry had known. He’d seen her size up and assess the danger that night the male had casually put his sleeping pad beside hers. The death pod had been filled with humans headed for their execution. While there were many innocent, there were probably just as many dangerous criminals. Lundric should have protected his female. He had himself to blame for this incident.
They didn’t have a doctor on the pod, and he didn’t want to bring her to the sick bay where she’d be ogled by others, so he took her directly to Rok and Lily’s chamber. Lily had been acting as the de facto nurse for the pod.
He knocked on the door.
Cambry lifted her head from his shoulder, and, realizing where they were, kicked in protest.
“Who is it?” Rok bellowed.
“Lundric. I’ve killed a human, and Cambry requires assistance.”
A curse sounded behind the door and a few moments later, the panel swished open, with both Rok and Lily appearing as if they’d dressed in a hurry.
“Set her on the bed,” Lily said immediately.