The Lasaran (Aldebarian Alliance #1) - Dianne Duvall Page 0,20

butchers used no anesthesia during any of their procedures, always hoping he would at last reward them with screams or pleas for mercy. The fact that they appeared to do the same to this woman with the soft, heartbroken voice only infuriated him more.

There is a monster inside me, too, he responded at last. Even now he felt them slice another piece of him somewhere deep inside and fought back a shudder.

She didn’t understand, but he opted not to explain. If they had not yet begun such extensive torture on her, he would not fill her with the fearful anticipation of it.

A shiver shook him. The surgery was weakening him again. He would have to sever his mental link to her to keep her from feeling his agony. I will leave this place soon, he murmured. If his mind continued to clear, he should soon be able to search the butchers’ minds. Once he determined with certainty Amiriska’s fate… her location… he would do what he had come here to do.

How? she asked. Is Brad helping you, too?

Who is Brad?

She hesitated.

He didn’t blame her for not responding, for fearing to trust. Until he had touched upon her mind, he would’ve thought there were no Earthlings worth saving. If you tell me where you are, he vowed, I will come for you once I’ve secured my own freedom.

Another moment passed. I don’t know where I am. They still won’t let me leave my room.

Then I will search for you. If his mind cleared enough for him to read the thoughts and memories of everyone here, he would use those as his guide, find the woman, rescue the children, then leave and find his sister. If I manage to escape with my life, I will find you.

“Hurry up, damn it,” one of the butchers—a female—snapped. “I want to go see the vampires.”

The scalpel slipped. Pain shot through him anew.

If I manage to escape, the woman said softly, I’ll come for you, too. I’ll free you.

Those words and the kindness they bore—a kindness he had not experienced once since he’d been captured—nearly succeeded in doing what the butchers had failed to. They nearly made him weep. It had been so long since anyone had treated him like a person rather than a creature they could maim and study. What is your name?

Lisa. What’s yours?

Taelon.

She whimpered.

What is it?

The pain. It’s getting worse.

For me, too, he admitted. I must go.

Please don’t.

He felt the same reluctance. I will find you, he promised once more.

Wait.

He ended their connection, unwilling to let his pain become hers. Moisture beaded on his forehead. His body began to tremble. He hated betraying even a hint of the pain they caused him.

He closed his eyes and made his muscles go limp, hoping they would forget to dose him again if he appeared to be unconscious. But he remained very aware.

Lisa huddled on her bed.

Hello?

Nothing.

Are you still there?

No answer.

Maybe he had passed out.

She had never spoken with anyone telepathically before. Though it felt odd, she missed him. His deep, gentle voice in her head comforted her and provided a welcome distraction.

He had said he would come for her. Would he really? If Brad failed to free her, could this man, Taelon, succeed in helping her escape?

There is a monster inside me, too, he’d said. She looked down at her bulging belly.

How was that possible? He was a man. According to Brad, she had an actual monster—or human-monster hybrid—in her womb. Men didn’t have wombs. So how could he have a monster inside him?

Pain shot through her abdomen.

Gritting her teeth, she breathed through it. A flurry of movement in her womb increased the pain.

What was in there? What did it look like? She needed to know.

Was it… was it grotesque like the creatures in the Alien movies with Sigourney Weaver?

The idea of something like that gestating in her body made her want to vomit.

She desperately wanted to believe it wasn’t like that. But the look on Brad’s face left her with no hope that the baby would instead resemble Thor or Superman or any of the other humanlike aliens in fiction. Whatever Brad had seen when he’d sought out the alien had horrified him.

Please, let it be like Superman.

Or better yet, please, let this all be some hideous nightmare from which I’ll soon awaken.

The sharp pains lasted another thirty or forty minutes before they began to recede. Lisa slumped back against the pillows.

Her eyes began to burn. Not with tears this time, but from