held his tongue. A weak coward because he knew if Asshole focused on her, then he might delay torturing him.
“Just curious. I am after all here to help you with your work.”
Work? That wasn’t the word Cam would have used. Asshole enjoyed himself entirely too much when he plied the tools of his trade.
“You weren’t brought here to be curious but to assist. Or perhaps you’d like to join our subject and provide a baseline for comparison?”
Her eyes widened, and she shook her head frantically.
“Then do your job and monitor the results.”
All anybody ever did was their job. Never mind the fact it involved cutting a little boy. Bruising him. Burning him.
Was it any wonder he’d escaped? He then showed those who’d held him prisoner the same sympathy they showed him. He took satisfaction in knowing he never screamed as loud as they did, and at the end of his imprisonment, he didn’t beg them to stop either.
Cam faded from the past to the present and the burning in his body. So many parts of him were on fire. His hands especially. He held them up and saw the reddened, blistered flesh. They wouldn’t be much help in cleaning and bandaging the rest of him. As if he had anything to bind his wounds. A glance at his arm showed the tears along the forearm where the thing tried to bite him. He could only imagine his shoulders where the claws pierced him. It must be bad given he’d not managed to aim properly even once.
Shifting brought an intense wave of pain that pushed him back into unconsciousness, and then he must have been dreaming because he could have sworn he heard a musical voice say, “Where did you come from?”
He cracked open an eye to see a beautiful woman leaning over him and muttered, “Me? Where did you come from? Why are you in my dream?” How could he dream of a beautiful woman the likes of which he’d never seen?
“More like a nightmare, I would think.” The apparition cocked her head. “You’ve been attacked.”
“Ya think?” He shifted, only to gasp. For a dream, he sure hurt a lot. Where was that smelly weed Kyle liked to smoke when a fellow needed to numb his body and mind?
“Are you alone?”
“Not anymore.” Said with a lopsided grin that might have been more grimace judging by the way she frowned.
“How did you get here?”
“I fell.”
“Fell from where?” she asked, looking away from him.
“Dunno but there was water involved.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t drown.”
“Lucky?” He laughed a little too hard and coughed hard enough to throw himself sideways on the ground. He blinked as he noticed the blood on the gritty surface. His blood. From his lungs. Maybe he should have kept the broken helmet on.
“You were outside,” she stated.
“Yeah,” he wheezed.
“That wasn’t a good idea. You’ve got the ash sickness.”
“Talk about a boring name. Should have gone with Acid Breath or Constricted Lung.” It became harder and harder to talk. And think. As for moving? The pebbled shore was feeling mighty comfortable.
“What am I going to do with you?” she muttered.
“Anything you like.” Which might have sounded more suave if he wasn’t face first, bleeding, about to pass out.
“You don’t belong here.”
The sad truth? “I don’t belong anywhere.”
Chapter 4
“What do you mean you don’t belong anywhere?” Kayda repeated the stranger’s words, only to realize she wouldn’t be getting a reply anytime soon. The big man she’d found on the shores of the underground river had lost consciousness.
It was close to a miracle he’d been awake long enough to speak. She’d not failed to notice the extent of his injuries. Blood soaked his clothes from the open tears in his body. His face was bruised and his breath ragged.
For an outsider, he’d lasted longer without a breathing mask than most. But even in the tunnel system, where the air was slightly cleaner, he’d die soon enough. Even those born in the Diamond Kingdom succumbed to the poison, except for Kayda and a few others who seemed to be able to handle the tainted air. She’d yet to decide if that was a blessing or a curse.
The stranger’s chest rose and fell with each labored breath. His wounds no longer bled, but she could see the angry flesh, the cuts deep enough to show muscle and bone. He needed more healing than stitching and rest could provide. He was beyond her or anyone’s help.
She turned her back on him. There was no point in