At least, for the time being.
As one, the symphaths stood and filed out, and Rehv shook his head at Ehlena and Z, praying they did what he needed them to-which was stay right where they were.
With any luck, his brethren in the masks would assume he'd kill the interlopers at his leisure.
Rehv waited until the last sin-eater was gone not just from the chamber, but the halls beyond. And then he released the hold on his spine.
As his body slammed into the floor, Ehlena rushed over to him, her mouth working like she was speaking to him. He couldn't hear her, though, and her toffee-colored eyes seemed all wrong viewed through the rose lenses of his symphath eyes.
I'm sorry, he mouthed. I'm sorry.
Something f**ked-up happened to his vision at that point, and Ehlena was suddenly rifling through a backpack brought over by...Christ, was Vishous here, too?
Rehv faded in and out as things were done to him and shots given. A little later, the whirring sound started up again.
Where was Xhex? he wondered dimly. Probably gone to clear the way out after she killed the princess. She was like that, always with the exit strategy. God knew the practice had defined her life.
As he thought about his head of security...his comrade...his friend...he was pissed off that she'd broken her vow to him, but not all that surprised. The real question was how she'd managed to get up here without the Moors. Unless they'd come as well?
The whirring sound stopped, and Zsadist sat back on his heels, shaking his head.
In slow motion, Rehv looked down at himself.
Ah, he was still tethered by his shoulders, and they weren't having any luck cutting through the chains. Knowing his uncle, those links were made of something stronger than any saw could get through.
"Leave me..." he mumbled. "Just leave me. Go..."
Ehlena's face came back in front of his, and her lips moved with deliberation, as if she were trying to explain things to him-
Abruptly, having her so close triggered the bonded male in his blood and caused some of his depth perception to return-and he was relieved as her face started to assume its normal contours...and colors.
Rehv lifted a shaking hand up, wondering if she would let him touch her.
She did more than that. She clasped his palm hard and brought it to her lips for a kiss. She was still talking to him, not that he heard what she was saying, and he tried to concentrate. Stay with me. That was what it looked as if she were trying to communicate to him. Or perhaps he was picking up on that through the way she held on to his hand.
Ehlena reached out and stroked his hair back, and he got the impression she mouthed, Breathe deep for me.
Rehv inhaled to make her happy, and as he did, she glanced at something or someone behind him. She gave a quick nod to whoever it was.
At then pain exploded in his right shoulder, his whole body torquing, his mouth cracking wide to let out the scream.
He didn't hear himself yell. Didn't see anything else. Agony knocked him out cold.
Chapter SEVENTY-ONE
Ehlena rode home in the back of a black Escalade with Rehv curled up in her lap. The two of them were mashed into the rear section, but she didn't care that there was barely enough room for his huge body alone. She wanted him this close.
Needed to put her hands on him and keep them there.
As soon as they'd torn the hooks out of his shoulders, she'd done the best she could with the horrible wounds left behind, quickly packing them with sterile gauze that she taped in place. The second she was done, Zsadist had picked him up and carried him out of that godforsaken chamber, with her and Vishous providing guard.
Xhex had been nowhere to be found on the trip out.
Ehlena tried to reassure herself that the female had gone to join the aboveground fight with the slayers, but the rationalization didn't stick. Xhex never would have left Rehvenge until he was safely free from the colony.
As fear flickered through Ehlena's chest, she tried to calm herself by stroking the stripe of thick dark hair that ran down Rehvenge's head. In response, he turned his face into her, as if needing the comfort.
God, he might have symphath in him, but he had proven where his heart was: He had destroyed the princess and protected them all against those terrifying creatures in the masks and robes. Which said everything about whose side he was on, didn't it? Without him somehow taking control of the colony, there was no way any of them, including the Brothers who'd been fighting lessers on the lawn, would have gotten out of there safely.
She glanced up at the others in the SUV. Rhage was wrapped in leather jackets, naked and shivering, the color of congealed oatmeal. They'd had to pull over twice so he could throw up, and given the way he was swallowing with such force, they were going to have to do that again soon. Vishous was next to him and didn't look much better. The guy's heavy legs were draped over Rhage's lap-and with his head turned to the side and his eyes squeezed shut, it was pretty obvious that he had a concussion from where the princess had struck him. And way up front, Butch was in the passenger seat, reeking of a sickly sweetness that was no doubt making Rhage's stomach worse.
Tohrment was behind the wheel, driving steadily and smoothly.
At least she didn't worry about how they were getting home.
Rehvenge stirred and she immediately focused on him. As his amethyst eyes struggled to open, she shook her head.
"Shh...just lie there." She stroked his face. "Shh..."
He shifted his shoulders and abruptly winced so hard his neck cracked. Wishing there were more that she could do for him, she retucked the blanket that had been wrapped around him. She'd given him as many painkillers as she dared, as well as antibiotics for the shoulder wounds, but she'd held back on antivenin, as he didn't appear to have been bitten.
Given the way the princess had been carnaged, apparently those spiders and scorpions stung only on command, and Rehv had been spared that for some reason.
Abruptly, he grunted and strained, his hands pushing into the floor beneath him.
"No, don't try to sit up." She gently held his chest down. "Just lie with me here."
Rehvenge collapsed back against her lap and brought one of his hands forward. As he found her palm, he mumbled, "Why...?"
She had to smile. "You ask that a lot, you know."
"Why did you come?"
After a moment, she said quietly, "I followed my heart."
Evidently, that didn't make him happy. On the contrary, he grimaced as if in pain. "Don't...deserve...your..."
Ehlena stiffened in alarm as he started bleeding from his eyes. "Rehvenge, stay still for me." Trying not to panic, she reached for her backpack full of supplies, wondering what kind of medical crisis he was having.
Rehvenge caught her hands. "Just...tears."
She stared at what appeared to be blood on his cheeks. "Are you sure?" When he nodded, she took a Kleenex out of her parka and dabbed his face carefully. "Don't cry. Please don't cry."
"You shouldn't...have come for me. You should have...left me there."
"I told you," she whispered, wiping away more. "Everyone deserves to be saved. It's the way I look at the world." As she met his beautiful, iridescent eyes, they seemed even more magical as they shimmered with their wash of red tears. "It's the way I look at you."
His lids squeezed shut, as if he couldn't bear her compassion.
"You tried to protect me from all this, didn't you," she said. "That was what the showdown at ZeroSum was about." When he nodded, she shrugged. "So why don't you understand my need to save you, if you did the same for me?"
"Different...I'm a...symphath..."
"You're not all symphath, though." She thought of his marking scent. "Are you."
Rehvenge shook his head reluctantly. "But not enough...vampire...for you."
The sadness in him welled up, a rain cloud condensing over them both, and as she struggled for words, she touched his face again-and found that his skin was too cold for her liking. Shit...she was losing him in her arms. With every mile that took them closer to safety, his body was giving out on them both, his respiration growing logy, his heart rate slowing.
"Can you do something for me?" she said.
"Please...yes," he replied roughly, even though his eyes fluttered shut and he started to shiver. As he curled into a tighter ball, she could see his spine jutting through the skin of his back even through the blanket.
"Rehvenge? Wake up." When he looked at her, the purple in his eyes was that of a bruise, opaque and pained. "Rehvenge, would you please take my vein?"