Farin the Dark Read online

  Ember?! He snarled the words through his mind but felt her struggle. Even as his skin was healing he hit the containment field again. Past logical thought when he could see his mate was suffering and had no idea how to protect her from it. Then with a hiss he stepped back and growled low, knowing if the Galais looked behind them they would see more than he wanted them to see, but past caring.

  Whatever they were doing to her, she was struggling with even thinking. At that moment Farin had enough of standing back and studying his enemy. Enough with keeping his own abilities to himself. They thought they could torture his mate before his eyes and not die for it? They knew nothing about the Tellox if they discounted him so completely. Time for that to change.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  At first Ember did not realize anything was happening. Too involved trying not to scream from the pain coursing through her nerves. The wisp of fear that crossed her senses she shrugged off easily enough. Fear was an old friend in the labs after all and now she was more invested in the pain. It was only when the pain ended, and she came back to the moment that she realized anything had happened while she was trying to relearn how to breathe.

  Through the clear boundary that held her she could see between her cell and Farin's that the Galais were no longer focused on her. And when she was able to look around she found every creature in every cell around them acting up. Every one of them, as if mass hysteria was taking them over. She had never seen anything like it, and she had spent her first fourteen years in labs almost identical to this one.

  The only ones who seemed immune to it was Farin and herself. She sniffed the air and did her best to stand up. Though that was shaky going on legs that did not want to work just yet. She didn’t even remember falling. Whatever they had done to her had drained her enough that even her immune system and healing ability was having trouble. Then she noticed the Galais in the hall. The last time she had been coherent they had been studying her with their usual air of scientific chill, but now all their eyes were on the Tellox they had, until now, overlooked.

  All she could see of them was their backs, so she could not tell what they were thinking, but they were all three ignoring the uproar all around them and watching her mate from as far from his cell as they could get. If any of them took even a small step back they would burn themselves against her containment shield.

  What did I miss? Ember really wished her voice had been stronger, but even in her head she was still shaky. She mentally cleared away the lingering effects of the pain and tried again. What did you do?

  I introduced myself, Farin the Dark said. That deadly tone matching the look in his eyes as she met that blackness. A blackness that now swirled with countless stars and glowed with an almost demonic dark light. Farin the Dark indeed, she thought with a half-muffled gasp. He was hiding nothing from her and even with the abuse her body had taken moments ago, it still made a shiver course through her. For the first time she thought maybe he was named Farin the Dark, not for his coloring, as she had assumed, but for something infinitely darker.

  She tried to pull her eyes away from his, but he held her locked in place. She could feel him in her mind, more than ever now that they were bonded mates, and she knew he was seeing every weakness that she was trying to hide. Every pain that the Galais had inflicted and each one ramped up the rage he was barely holding back. And every person in the place but Ember was reacting as if each new discovery was amping up a dial on their terror.

  I'm fine, she assured him, knowing it was a lie, and that he could see it was a lie as easy as she could. But she needed to say something. The sheer force of his attention, and the rage that she could feel building inside him as he recognized just how much they had hurt her, and how close she was to collapse, made her want to soothe him. At the same time she wanted to berate him for his actions. Which was at least a feeling she could get behind. You were supposed to be hiding your abilities. So far you have scared the shit out of everyone and bested the pit. How is that staying under the radar?

  I don't think you have much room to talk. It was not my powers that lit up the pit and killed every monster within ear shot.

  Just every monster you could reach with your two hands, she snapped back. She waved her hand around them. Do I even want to know what you are doing right now to drive everyone insane?

  I am making a point that our captors can't miss.

  By bombarding them with fear until they are literally frozen in terror?

  It is helpful to know how an enemy will react to fear. Some run, some fight, they freeze. I find that...satisfying.

  She did not have to go far into his mind to see what he was doing and why. I don't need you sacrificing yourself for me.

  Before he could growl at her, as she felt he wanted to, the station around them wobbled, and she found herself back on the floor yet again. She looked up and saw the Galais had finally been released from whatever hell Farin had locked them into. They were all three looking at him in horror, and then they made a dash for the exit.

  Ignoring the beasts in the cells they passed who finally had stopped raging or cowering, depending on their reaction to the fear her mate had pressed down like a nightmare over their minds. It was, Ember had to admit, a little bit satisfying to see them running away in fear. Not that she would tell Farin that. From the last look the head Scientist threw her mate’s way, Farin was not going to like the 'experiments' he was forced into after that show of power, especially when it was clear the Galais were nowhere near as divorced from emotions as they would like to believe.

  Then the station wobbled a second time and they both looked around. She met Farin's eyes with a sharp intake of breath. The station is under attack.

  She would have been happier if she had not been at her lowest ebb of power when this was happening, but it would not stop her from taking what chances came. And she knew from the smile that was slowly taking over those sinful lips of her mate that he would be ready, even if she was not.

  How do we get your energy up?

  Food and sleep, a large enough body of water to kick my siren into gear, or...she stopped before she could finish the list, but she knew from the flare of heat in his eyes that he had caught her unspoken thoughts just the same.

  Or sex with your mate, he said with an almost purr to the words. Yes, it was safe to say which way he was leaning.

  She would have rolled her eyes if she had the energy for it. Don't get so excited. I doubt we will have time for a quickie if the containment fields fall. We won't be the only ones free, and the Galais always have a backup failsafe. Chances are if the containment falls, we will have only seconds to move before poison gases, or something equally permanent, are released.

  Then we will make those seconds count, and as soon as we are out of the cell area we will find a moment to, he smiled, and while his last smile had been deadly ice, this one was all fire. Recharge.

  Since she was having an issue with standing, Ember should not have been affected by that, but to her chagrin heat began to bloom in her belly and moved into all kinds of other key areas. Her hair billowed briefly, and she had to blink at the small surge of energy that went directly into her healing. She gave Farin wide eyes. Apparently he did not even need to touch her to give her a boost.

  He recognized it to because she saw him still utterly, and then the connection between their minds opened even further, and it was as if having seen her reaction he now understood how he could help her. Heat and energy flooded into her along with the desire and worry he was suppressing for his wounded mate. It was unsettling and strange, but effective. At least effective enough that she could finally feel almost steady on her feet, and she felt her siren wake up. And of course that feral creature that lived within her turned her eyes directly to her mate, in the cell across the way and she was none too pleased that he was being kept from us.

  She met her mate’s eyes when another shudder hit the station. Right before the lights died and all the containment barriers vanishe
d. It was like the blackness of the pit all over again, only this time they were in the dark surrounded by danger and there was no handy lake to fall into and power up.

  A second later, even before her eyes had adjusted she felt Farin rush her in the dark. He picked her up, one arm under her knees, the other behind her back and lifted her as if he could not only see in the dark but could have held her forever without strain.

  Ember gasped but wrapped her arms around his neck and without thinking she opened her mouth at his neck and bit down, tasting his blood and hearing his groan of pleasure even as she wondered at her own actions. But she wrapped her arms tight around his neck and lapped at his blood as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  For his part Farin carried her out into the chaos of the freed experiments as if he could not only see where he was going, but as if every other scared and raging beast in there was no threat to him and his. Her eyes snapped into hunting mode as they quickly adjusted to the lack of light. She could see the melee of angry freed prisoners, their rage made worse by having just been released from the terror Farin the Dark had blasted through the place.

  All around her fights raged, as some tried to find their way to freedom in the dark, and others mindlessly rent and tore everything and everyone they could get their hands on.

  Ember was not surprised to see the animal like behavior of wounded beasts. The Galais focused their research on the powerful and the exotic, then did their best to treat them like the mindless beasts they eventually become. It was the reason most of the creatures in the original labs had to be destroyed with the facilities. Few had been thinking, rational beings, by the time Ember and her sisters had escaped.

  They had almost made it to the far corridor that lay open like a yawning trap where the Galais had escaped. Avoiding the rest of the milling and rampaging crowd was difficult, but Farin was fast and he managed to avoid most of them. The rest fell away as if sensing a bigger predator in the darkness than themselves.

  When Ember felt the presence in her mind of someone besides her mate she hissed, tensing up in his arms.

  He did not stop moving for the exit, but she felt him join her in her head, and they both heard the voice.

  Ember? Can you hear me?

  Lyric?!

  Oh thank the stars. We are coming in hot, but you need to get yourself somewhere safe until we can get through the rest of their defenses. We have disabled their tech and are coming to get you but it's quite a bit larger area than the last lab we came from. You know what happened to the Tellox?

  He's with me, she said meeting his eyes, and knowing he could somehow hear the conversation in her head through the bond.

  There was a moment before Lyric spoke again. Well, that makes things easier. Some friends of his are with us so if you see any Tellox don't kill them.

  Ember licked her lips even as Farin walked out of the cell area with her in his arms. The hallway was utilitarian and wide, probably so that they could get numerous large knocked out creatures through it as needed. "Did you get that?"

  Farin smiled. "Your friends and my warriors have united to get us out? Yes, I got it." He pulled her closer when she shivered in his arms. He did not need to know that it was the sound of his growly voice that caused it. "Any ideas which way we go from here?"

  She shrugged her shoulders, and only then realized that a weight she had been carrying had lifted. Charm and Lyric were here. And they had help. They were out of the cells and no one had tried to kill them yet. It was practically a miracle.

  A shadow slammed into them in the dark hall and Ember smelled the blood and knew that whatever had happened that had caused Farin to snarl and nearly drop her, he had been damaged. She knew that even before he staggered his step and placed her on her feet. He did so gently and calmly, then turned and Ember could see where the beast’s claws had ripped into his back. It looked as if it had raked his claws down the whole of it, and then been torn out of the flesh sideways.

  She hissed at the sight, more than a little displeased that her mate had been attacked, and she would have thrown herself bodily on the beast to tear him apart if her mate had not already done so.

  Her hair which had lifted and began to sway in her agitation settled at the sight of her mate standing away from the creature. It was closer to her size then his, but what it had lacked in size it had made up for in stealth and claws. Neither of them had heard him before he struck. She knew why her senses were dulled, but she had not realized until then that her mate was also depleted.

  "We need to find somewhere we can hide until our people find us."

  Farin growled, taking exception to the word hide, but he did not argue, mostly because they both knew that while he was healing it was slower than normal. Neither of them was at their best, and that could get them killed.

  She for one was not willing to die in this place. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction. More importantly, just the thought of her mate being hurt was making her half feral, even in her depleted state.

  "Considering that the Galais made it their mission to capture the strongest and most dangerous creatures across the galaxy, put them in one place and torture them I don't know that there is such a place."

  He was not wrong, but it gave Ember an idea. "Most of the cells had a floor that opened to the pit right?" she looked up into his flashing black eyes, and her breath stalled for a minute at the gold swirls that seemed to have joined the stars there. She sucked in a breath and had to look away before she could speak. Their situation and his attack had brought out more beast that she had seen yet. She licked her lips and spoke without looking at him again. It was not the place to jump her mate, and the sight of him with his Warrior nature coming so close to the surface was making all her womanly places flare with heat.

  He knew what she was thinking without having to ask her. He had seen her when she came out of the water, so he knew whatever might still be lurking there was something they could handle, so long as they got her to the water.

  He grunted but raised his head and sniffed the air, then turned and started walking in another direction. She raised her own head to try and identify what he had scented, but all she could smell was her mates’ blood. And the distant smells of battle, fire, ash, rage and fear. She might have thought that was what he was smelling too, but it was all around them, and would not have offered her a direction as something seemed to have done for him.

  She didn't ask him, since he was so clearly concentrating, she just kept her silence and tried to spread her depleted energy far enough around them that she could sense a threat before it hit them with claws and teeth.

  Unfortunately for both the pit found them long before they were expecting it. As in an explosion rocked the station, this one opened every containment field in the place, including the one under their feet that kept them from the pit. Turns out the failsafe was dropping anyone and anything down into the pit no matter where they were in the space station. They were falling before they could try to jump out of danger. Neither she nor Farin, who lunged toward her instead of away from danger, had a chance to stop or slow their fall into blackness. For Ember it was like deja vu, only there seemed to be beings falling from the sky like rain all around them.

  The lucky ones hit the water, some of them even survived the fall. Most were not so lucky. Ember had a bad feeling it was not only the poor unfortunate experiments that would have been caught in the trap.

  Lyric! She yelled it out into the ether in hopes that her friend would hear her and let her know the others were safe. For the second time Ember hit the black water of the pit, this time her mate hit with her, already bleeding, and she did not think the idea of blood in the water was a good thing.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Farin cursed fluently and long, in his mind. Since he was currently trying not to drown he had the good sense to keep his mouth shut. Drowning would only make the job of eating him easier for the beasts that swam around them.

  He thought about swi
mming but had no idea at this point which way was up, and movement would attract their attention, so despite his lungs feeling close to exploding, he kept as still as possible until he could determine what way to go. He was hoping his mate would help him with that quick enough, once she absorbed whatever it was water gave her. Of course, he thought as he fought his body’s need to breathe, if she took much longer rescuing them, he was going to be beyond saving.

  The faint glow in the water started to grow more obvious until finally he caught sight of Ember, like her name sake she was slowly heating up, or at least that was what it looked like. Soon enough she was a blinding light in the darkness and all the beasts fled sensing a bigger predator than themselves in their waters.

  Farin started swimming toward the surface following the bubbles he could now see and hoped, even as his brain started to grow dark edges from lack of air that he would make it in time.

  One second he was struggling for every movement, and the next something from below him grabbed on and shoved. Like he was energy shot from a plasma cannon he reached the top and exploded out of the depths. He coughed and gasped for breath, looking around. Ember met his eyes, glowing with siren power and smiling.

  The sight would have stolen his breath if he had any to spare.

  Her skin glowed as if she had swallowed the moon. The gold swirls on her skin and the metallic glint of it in her hair only seemed to add to her otherworldly beauty. As if you could discover the answers to secrets on her skin if you just looked long enough. He had wondered if his claiming would mute her lure, taking away some of the siren in favor of the Tellox, but it seemed to have done the impossible, and made her just that much more.

  Ember moved around him in the water as he caught his breath and lost it again. Turning to keep her in his sights as she seemed to dance through the water like a part of it.

  For now they were alone, all those who had survived the fall, no doubt eaten by the water beasts or long since headed to shore. They could take a moment to breathe and before she could slide around him again he reached out and pulled Ember into his arms. Holding her there while his breathing evened out and his inner beast calmed.