Death in Winter - Michael Jan Friedman [76]
“That’s a very romantic notion,” Jean-Luc observed, “especially for two people who have just met. Don’t you think perhaps you are rushing into things a bit?”
Ronin’s expression turned as hard as rock. “I think you’re a jealous man who can’t bear the thought of losing a beautiful woman like Beverly.”
“How did you come to Caldos?” Jean-Luc pressed. “What ship did you arrive on?”
“Jean-Luc,” Beverly said, “leave him alone- ” But as she said it, she felt like a traitor.
After all, she and Jean-Luc had been friends for a long time. They had been through a lot together.
Yet she couldn’t help herself. She wanted Ronin, needed him….
Jean-Luc went on despite Beverly’s pleas. “Answer the question,” he told Ronin. “What ship? I would like to look at the passenger list. Where have you been living here on Caldos? What is your position here? Who are your neighbors?”
Ronin’s eyes flashed in anger and he lifted his hand. A flash of green energy emerged from it, enveloping Jean-Luc, snaking around him as if it meant to crush the life from him.
“Beverly,” he groaned as he fell to the floor, “you have to get out of here…!”
Seeing the pain her friend was in, her concern for him overcame the feelings she had for her lover. Rushing to Jean-Luc’s side, she took him in her arms and tried to protect him, to save him from the evil that was killing him.
Suddenly, it turned cold in the room-cold and dark. Beverly turned to the hearth and saw that the fire had gone out. And it wasn’t all that had disappeared.
Ronin had vanished as well, and so had the emerald energy he had unleashed. The only thing left in Beverly’s house was Jean-Luc. And as she looked on, heartbroken, he faded from her embrace.
She sat there on the floor, looking at her empty arms, and shivered. It was cold, so cold….
It was then that she woke up.
Beverly was sitting on a marble floor, her back propped up against a stone wall, her hands bound behind her. But she didn’t know how she had gotten there.
Then, with a start of panic, she remembered.
It had taken longer to cut her bonds than she had expected, and finally her calves had cramped from standing on her toes. The pain had forced her to sit down for a moment, to put her back against the wall and give her legs a rest.
Just a second or two. At least that was what Beverly had promised herself. Obviously, it had been longer than that, though she couldn’t say how much longer.
A tired curse escaped her lips. It echoed briefly, then died.
Struggling to her feet, she again felt the pain in her calves. And in her hamstrings. And in her shoulders-especially the one that had absorbed the disruptor bolt when she was captured.
The doctor was sore and stiff and cold to the bone, and she would have dearly loved to lie down and get some real sleep. But if she did, her body temperature would continue to drop and she might never wake up again.
Can’t let that happen.
Finding the cracked stone in the wall, she backed up to it and started sawing again. The exercise got her blood pumping, but she was immensely hungry and weak as a result.
At least, she thought, Jean-Luc isn’t at the mercy of that energy creature. What she had dreamed had actually happened, of course. She had fallen in love with Ronin only to discover that he was a parasite, preying on generations of Howard women, and finally on Beverly as well.
She had forgotten how brave Jean-Luc had been-how willing to place himself in deadly jeopardy in order to bring her to her senses. Forgotten consciously, that is. Her subconscious, apparently, had recalled the incident quite well.
Beverly smiled to herself, despite her misery. What she wouldn’t have given to see her friend right now, breaking down the door with a squad of security officers in his wake.
But that wasn’t likely to happen. If Jean-Luc was there at all, he would be helping the Kevrata. And by the time he got around to helping her, she would be long gone.
Which was why she would have to help herself.
12
GREYHORSE SAT BACK FROM THE EYEPIECE ON HIS biomolecular scanner, closed his eyes,