Chapter 18 Kaitlyn
KAITLYN
Kaitlyn stared at her Protector, wide-eyed for a moment, then looked at the Kriver.
The spear—he wanted the spear. It was still buried deep in the furred chest, just a few feet away from the creature’s heaving side. The shaft rose and fell with its labored, gurgling breaths.
Kaitlyn’s paralysis seemed to break as her survival instincts finally kicked in and something sharper than fear took over.
She pushed off from the wall, slipped on the gore-slick stone, and scrambled on all fours toward the beast. The heat radiating from its body was immense, like standing near a furnace.
The stench of blood and offal was nauseating.
She reached the spear, and her hands closed around the blood-slicked shaft, warm and sticky. She planted her feet, took a breath that tasted like death, and pulled.
It didn’t budge.
She pulled again, putting her whole weight into it, an extremely unladylike grunt coming from her throat.
With a sickening, sucking sound, the spearhead came free, dripping purple blood and strands of dark tissue.
It was heavier than she expected, and she almost dropped it before she got a better grip.
The Kriver clearly felt the spear coming out. Its head swung toward her, the great amber eye focusing through its pain and its remaining tentacles writhing. A wounded rumble vibrated through the floor.
“Here!” Braze shouted.
Kaitlyn turned and saw that her Protector was still wrestling with the tentacle, but he’d managed to get one arm free. He held out a hand for the weapon, the cords in his neck straining with effort. His golden eyes had gone blood red.
Kaitlyn didn’t hesitate. She didn’t throw the spear—she knew she’d just drop it. Instead, she stumbled forward and shoved the shaft of the weapon into his waiting palm.
The moment his fingers closed around it, he charged.
In one violent motion, he yanked the pinned tentacle upward, exposing the softer, paler flesh where it joined the main mass of the creature’s body, just below the spear’s original wound.
The Kriver’s single golden, dinner-plate sized eye focused on him and it screamed with its remaining beaked tentacle-mouths. But it was too wounded to get away.
Braze reversed his grip on the spear and drove it down—not with a stab, but with a brutal, chopping plunge.
The sharpened point punched through the golden iris, popping the monstrous eyeball like an enormous egg. White and gold mucus exploded outward, running everywhere as he leaned his full weight on it, twisting viciously to push the spear’s sharp point into the beast’s brain.
The Kriver’s convulsions reached a crescendo of writhing and screeching tentacles.
Then, suddenly, they stopped. A final, shuddering sigh hissed from its body, and the terrible tension in its limbs went slack.
The tentacles which had been whipping around in the air fell limp and the one still in Braze’s grip drooped, lifeless in his hand.
At last, there was silence.
It was a thick, ringing silence—broken only by the drip of blood and wine, and the ragged sound of Braze’s breathing.
Oh my God—is it really dead?
Kaitlyn watched her Protector, her heart slowly beginning to slow its frantic rhythm.
Brazze stayed there for a long moment, braced over the dead beast, his knuckles white on the spear shaft, his body painted in streaks of purple blood and golden ooze from the eye.
Then he straightened, pulled the spear free with a wet sound, and turned.
His eyes were still blood red as his gaze found Kaitlyn’s. He hurried to her side and dropped to his knees beside her.
“Are you all right?” His voice was hoarse, and she could see the fear on his face. “It didn’t hurt you, did it? Are you bleeding anywhere?”
“I…I don’t think so.” The fierce, protective intensity of his gaze was like a physical force that she felt in her bones.
“You’re sure?” he ran his hands over the ankle the tentacle had grabbed, searching for injuries and she winced—that was going to be sore for a while.
“I…think so—except for a little tenderness around my ankle.” Kaitlyn looked down at herself—at her ruined gown and dirty, sticky skin. “I mean…nothing seems to be bleeding or broken.”
“I need to check you—to be certain you’re all right.” The red in his eyes had faded somewhat, but there was still a worried, possessive growl in his deep voice. He scooped Kaitlyn into his arms, and started to carry her out of the banquet hall, but she put out a hand to stop him.
“The Empress—we need to be sure she’s all right, too.”
Reluctantly, Braze shifted his attention to the Empress, who was being helped up by a pale and trembling Aria.
One of her concubines lay dead and broken on the floor—the other was cowering in a corner.
The guards were just milling around aimlessly, and Dinky was still sitting in his chair, a vacant look on his face.
It occurred to Kaitlyn that most of the men on this planet were useless—merely decorative. She was glad that Braze hadn’t hesitated a moment or hundreds of people might have died when the Kriver went berserk.
“Your Majesty,” she said to the Empress, who looked shaken and stunned. “Are you all right?”
“I…I am well,” the Monarch said. She and Aria were clutching each other tightly—holding each other up. “I had no idea that beast was so dangerous!”
Kaitlyn thought about reminding the Empress that she herself had said the Kriver was “the most ferocious beast in four quadrants” or something like that. But she knew enough about diplomacy to keep her mouth shut.
“You need not fear any longer, Your Majesty,” Braze said, speaking formally to the Empress. “The threat is over. The beast is dead.”
He nodded at the dead Kriver, which was sprawled over half of the dais, still leaking purple blood and golden ooze.
“Yes…so…so I see.” The Empress’s voice came out sounding weak and breathy and her eyes were wide—she and Aria both looked like they were in shock, Kaitlyn thought.
She wanted to tell Braze to put her down so she could help the other woman…
but how? The palace guards and servants were more able to know what their ruler required.
Besides, from the possessive look in his eyes and the protective grip her Protector had on her, she doubted Braze would agree to put her down for any reason.
For a long moment, the hall remained utterly still. Most of the guests had fled, but there were still plenty of faces staring at the dais, at the wreckage…at the shaken Empress…the dead monster…and the half-naked, blood-smeared Kindred warrior who had killed it.
“Aria—call some servants,” the Empress said to her friend at last. “Hurry—we must get this all cleaned up.”
“Yes, indeed, Your Majesty.” Aria seemed to come back to herself. She straightened up, clapped her hands loudly, and called, “Servants! Come at once to aid Her Majesty!”
As a few timid servants began poking their heads around the vast amber doors and coming to see if their ruler was all right, Kaitlyn began to relax. Order was restoring itself—things were getting back to normal.
“Well? What are you all waiting for? The Empress was just attacked and nearly died!” Aria exclaimed, gesturing dramatically at the timid servants. “Come here and help her! You don’t have to fear—the beast is dead—the Kindred Ambassadress’s husband killed it!”
At her imperious tone, the servants seemed to jump to life. As several of them rushed up on the dais and began to tend to the Empress, Kaitlyn felt like they could finally leave.
“Let’s go back to the suite,” she murmured to Braze. “I need a shower—we both do.”
“You’re fucking right about that,” he growled. He looked at her anxiously. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
Kaitlyn tried a self-deprecating laugh, but it came out sounding strange—almost like a sob. It occurred to her that she might be in some kind of shock, too. After all, it wasn’t every day you saw an alien beast shred its trainer right before it grabbed you and tried to kill you.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that? I mean, you’re the one who killed it,” she pointed out, trying to get hold of her emotions.
“Of course I fucking killed it—it came after you,” he growled. He went to the end of the dais—walking down the only set of steps not covered by the dead Kriver corpse—still cradling Kaitlyn in his arms.
“You don’t have to carry me,” she pointed out. “I can walk.”
“Not until I check you out and make sure everything is all right,” Braze said.
He sounded so stern that Kaitlyn didn’t even try to protest. She didn’t want to be apart from him anyway, she thought. Laying her head on her Protector’s broad shoulder, she closed her eyes and just let him carry her away from the carnage.
She had no idea what the night would bring.