“You want to shoot us again, do you, Kindred?” Clearly Gozeriam hadn’t heard the Goddess’s voice, though it had sounded like thunder in Stone’s ears. “Go ahead. Let him try once more, guards. It amuses us to see the Kindred’s failure.”
Stone didn’t say a word, he simply lowered the blaster and raised the nozzle of the sodium packet instead. Turning the setting to “full,” he blasted out a stream of compressed sodium vapor that surrounded the Slimerian like a cloud.
“What? What’s this?” Gozeriam’s voice—formerly deep and rumbling—was getting higher. “Help!” he screeched as the cloud coalesced around him, forming into sodium particles that ate into his precious coat of slime.
His guards drew back, looking at him uncertainly. As the thick slime was eaten away, his true skin became visible—a dull gray, wrinkled hide like an elephants’, only not nearly as thick. In fact, it looked quite thin and easy to penetrate to Stone.
He took aim once more, but the Goddess spoke again and this time her voice was not just in Stone’s head. It thundered through the entire throne room, making everyone look up in awe and terror.
“Listen, guardians of Gozeriam,” she said, clearly talking to the Slimerian’s personal guards. “You have been held in bondage long enough to this creature. For years some of you have been here, longing to escape but knowing he would have you killed if you tried to leave. Countless times he has defiled and violated you. Take your vengeance now, before it is too late. This is your only chance!”
The thunderous voice stopped and Gozeriam’s personal guards looked first at each other and then at the thin-skinned, wrinkled, mewling thing that had been their boss.
Xempi Gozeriam was much diminished. In fact, without his slime, he was barely half of his normal size. It made Stone realize that the slime had not only protected him, it had magnified his size and strength exponentially.
“You heard the Goddess,” he said, turning to the guards. “Buy your freedom with his life. He cannot hurt you anymore.”
The guards looked at each other once more and Stone saw all of them nod their heads at once. As one, they raised their sharp silver spears…and plunged them down.
“No! Nooooooo!” shrieked Gozeriam as the spears continued to rise and fall. His voice was so high now it hurt Stone’s ears. “No, you cannot…you must n—”
The hideous shrieking was cut off suddenly and Stone knew that Xempi Gozeriam was no more. His evil had ended in a fitting way, as he was skewered by those he had violated countless times. The Slimerian had gotten exactly what he deserved.
Good fucking riddance.
Fifty-Six
Sending a prayer of heartfelt thanks to the Goddess, Stone was at last able to get back to his partner.
Cassandra was no longer writhing in pain. Instead, she hung limply from the leather bonds that tied her. Looking at her hanging from her bindings, Stone had a horrible flashback of the crime scene back on Earth. The Beast’s victim had hung just like that, limp and motionless from the St. Andrew’s Cross.
“Please, Goddess,” he prayed hoarsely. “Oh, please no!”
Gently, with a hand that trembled, he brushed her long black hair away from her face.
“Cassandra?” he whispered. “Gods, sweetheart, please tell me you’re alive!”
“Stone?” She looked up and Stone saw that her eyes were red and her cheeks were streaked with tears.
“Sweetheart!” Stone cupped her face tenderly. His heart felt as though an iron hand was squeezing it ruthlessly.
“It hurts, Stone,” she whispered, her tears sliding over his fingers. “Oh God, it hurts so much…”
Stone was horrified. He had assumed that she had passed out from the terrible but momentary pain but that it was over now. Now he realized she had simply run out of energy to cry out or thrash but the burning pain was still tormenting her. To know that she was still in agony—agony he had caused—made him wish to die.
“I’m so sorry,” he told her, his voice breaking on the words. “Oh Gods, sweetheart—so damn sorry! I never meant to hurt you.”
“Make it stop,” Cassandra begged him, her eyes huge and filled with agony. “Please, Stone—make it stop.”
Stone opened his mouth to say he didn’t know how to make it stop—he didn’t know the antidote for the Amaryllis Fatalis serum or even if there was an antidote at all—and stopped. He suddenly realized that he did have a way to stop her pain after all—or at least, he could counter pain with pleasure.
“Hold on, sweetheart,” he told Cassandra. “I don’t know if this will stop the pain, but I hope it will.”
And, tilting her chin to one side to bare her throat for him, he opened his mouth and sank his fangs in deep, pumping as much essence as he could into her bloodstream.
Please Goddess, he thought. Let it work—let this ease her pain. Please!