• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Kill me, Ruenn,” he begged. “Kill me.”

I jerked my hand away from him as if burned, my mind and body both recoiling.

“No! Eric. I can’t.”

Again he grabbed my hand, his eyes raking into mine, crimson streaked and eerie as he searched my face.

“Kill me, Ruenn. For I’ll surely try to kill you when she takes me again.”

This time I did not pull away. I reached with my free hand and locked hold of his wrist; I leaned forward.

“I will not. We’ll bind you. Keep you bound until we find some way of freeing you from Vohanna.”

Eric snarled. His eyes flushed with blood. The tattoos on his face seemed to writhe as he tore free of my grip and lunged for my throat, his fingers hooked into talons. I went back and down under his weight, feeling his nails ripping at my flesh. I smashed at him with a fist, felt the jolt of the blow. It didn’t stop him.

His grip tightened. I bucked wildly beneath him, trying to throw him off. My lungs spasmed for air. Firefly sparkles swept and darkened over my vision. I heard shouting.

Then I could breathe again as Diken Graye and Valyan reached us and dragged Eric up and away from my throat. I pushed to my knees, gagging, saw Eric struggling madly against the hands that tried to imprison him. He snapped his head back into Valyan’s face, tore free as the Llurn’s grasp weakened. Diken grabbed for his shoulder, missed his grip as Eric lunged for me a second time.

I threw myself to one side, lashed out with a booted foot at the same instant. That boot stripped Eric’s feet from under him and he smashed hard to the ground. But he came back instantly to all fours, hurled himself at me with his mouth open and snarling. I saw blood flecking his lips where he’d bitten his tongue.

Graye clubbed him at the base of the neck with both fists, and Valyan tackled him from the side and rolled him, locking Eric up with legs around legs, arms around arms. Graye drew his sword and planted the tip at Eric’s throat, dimpling the skin over the artery that pulsed there.

“No!” I shouted, leaping to my feet. “Don’t kill him.”

Eric twisted his head toward me. Only, it wasn’t Eric. His face had changed. Pallid skin had turned dark as olives. The cheeks had hollowed and the lips were swollen and ripe. The eyes had altered from crimson-stained to obsidian black.

The thing that was not Eric smiled at me. Then it gave a low mirthful chuckle that was sweet as rancid honey.

“Ruenn Maclang,” it said caressingly. “Brother to my darling Bryce. Come find me if you can. Bryce will be so happy to see you again. And to introduce you to his lover.”

“Beast!” I snarled at it.

The curved lips twisted into a pout. “How cruel. And I had so hoped we would be friends.” Then the thing giggled. “I think you should be punished.”

It winked at me, and I saw how it would punish me. I saw awareness return in a flood to Eric’s eyes. And at the same moment I saw him turn back toward Diken Graye and look up at the mercenary. Graye’s sword still rested against Eric’s throat, and with a quick thrust of his head my cousin impaled himself on that blade.

Graye jerked his weapon back with an oath, but it was too late. I was too late as I leaped forward. Blood spurted and I reached Eric only as he slumped to one side, his gaze finding mine and shocking into me.

“Ruenn,” he gasped, as his fingers scrabbled at my shoulder. I caught his hand, his blood on me, pooling in my lap, matting the hair of my arms. His eyes rolled back in his head and he convulsed his way into death.

I held him. I wept.

After a long moment, Valyan and Graye walked away to leave me alone.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

IN THE MEMORY OF RUINS

I watched as Valyan and his sabrun disappeared toward the morning, leading behind them a second bird which bore the unconscious form of Kreeg strapped over its back. The breath came heavy in my chest of a sudden. My hands shook. After one long glance toward me, Diken Graye turned away to recheck the remaining two saddle birds, leaving me alone in stillness.

In a few minutes