28. Kaelus
KAELUS
Kaelus came back to himself in pieces.
He had flashes of consciousness…thoughts that he shouldn’t be doing whatever it was he was doing…flickers of color that filled his vision and then disappeared again at once.
But when he finally opened his eyes and saw Clair sitting on his lap, he was confused. Actually, she wasn’t so much sitting as laying—she was collapsed against his chest, and her hair was in her eyes so he couldn’t tell if she was sleeping or awake.
“Clair?” he asked, frowning. “What are you doing?”
His hands were clamped around her waist for some reason. Kaelus lifted one and brushed her hair away.
He was horrified to see that her eyes were rolled up in her head, and she was completely unconscious and breathing shallowly.
“Clair!” he exclaimed, fear flooding him. “What’s wrong? Come back to me!”
He had to get her someplace safe—someplace he could tend to her, Kaelus thought. What was he doing in this dungeon anyway and why was he sitting in this strange chair?
He attempted to rise and hold her in his arms, but when he moved, he suddenly felt that he was inside her. Also, there were fresh bite marks on her neck—marks that could only be made by fangs—his fangs.
Slowly the recent past came back to him, and with it came a rush of overwhelming guilt.
Kaelus remembered Sendar injecting him with the virus…remembered begging the Goddess for a way out and her telling him to run. He recalled coming to the Containment Area and locking himself into one of the black metal chairs.
And now, despite being tied down, he had still managed to assault the woman he loved.
He remembered Clair kissing him…sucking him…
riding both his face and his cock, determined to give him enough of the veloria compound made by her own body to cure the virus.
And he remembered breaking the metal restraints, grabbing her hips, and forcing her down on him—forcing her to take his mating fist deep in her pussy…
which was why they were still tied together, Kaelus realized.
Because his knot still hadn’t gone down.
Oh Goddess—what have I done?
He’d held her down and bred her—fucked her ruthlessly and bitten her like a wild beast!
He stared down at the petite, fragile woman in his lap in horror.
Clair was so little—so delicate. She’d been trying to help him, and he’d used her like a whore and savaged her like an animal.
Was this who he really was inside, when the veneer of civility and science was stripped away? Was he nothing but a rutting breast?
The thought made him feel sick, as did the sticky sensation of his seed seeping out of her. Luckily, this made his mating fist at last begin to deflate. Soon he could free her of himself, Kalus thought. He didn’t want her to wake with him buried inside her.
As though in defiance of his wish, Clair chose that moment to stir. Her long lashes fluttered and she asked,
“Where am I?”
He heard her voice loud and clear…but for some reason her lips hadn’t moved.
“What’s happening?” she asked and again, her mouth stayed closed though he heard her voice.
It took Kaelus a moment to realize what had happened.
Somehow, against all odds, he had Bonded her to him!
He had knotted her and bitten her, injecting his essence as he came inside her and somehow, though he was a Hybrid, a Bond had formed between them.
The voice he heard was Clair’s mental voice as she was waking up.
She wasn’t speaking aloud—she was thinking and he was catching it through their mental connection.
“Kaelus?” he heard her think. “Is that you? Why can I hear you in my head?”
Frantically, Kaelus slammed a mental barrier into place between them.
He couldn’t let her know they were Bonded now—she’d told him that she never wanted to be in a long-term relationship with a male again.
And there was nothing longer-term than the Bond a Kindred male formed with his mate—it was a lifetime commitment that ended only in one or both of their deaths.
Kaelus hated himself.
Not only had he savaged her—fucking her so roughly he’d probably left bruises on her soft skin—he’d also violated her wish to never be in a relationship again.
What was he going to do?
Kaelus had no answer for that. All he could do was keep the mental barrier in place and pray she didn’t realize about the Bond.
About his other violation, there was no disguising what he had done, he thought grimly.
Though his mating fist was slowly shrinking, it was still inside her, still tying them together.
“Kaelus?” This time her voice was in his ear, rather than in his mind.
He looked down at her again, though he was almost ashamed to meet her eyes.
“Clair,” he said and then didn’t know what else to say.
“What…what are we doing?” she asked, groggily. “Are you…inside me?” She looked down between her thighs where the pale green dress she was wearing had been hiked up. “Oh my God—you are inside me!” she exclaimed.
Kaelus’s heart seemed to shrivel in his chest with pure shame.
“Clair,” he said hoarsely. “I’m so sorry…”
“No, wait…” She sat up fully, running a hand through her hair. “I remember now—Sendar injected you with the virus and you came down here and locked yourself down so you couldn’t hurt me.”
“I didn’t do a very good job of that.” Kaelus couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. “Gods, Clair, I’m so fucking sorry!”
“It…it’s okay.” She gave a shaky laugh. “But, uh, when do we—you know—come apart?” She looked down again to where they were joined.
“Very soon,” Kaelus promised. His heart hurt with shame. “I know I was rough with you,” he said in a low voice. “I know I hurt you.”
“Well, you did get a little rough,” Clair admitted. “But I knew what I was signing up for.”
You didn’t know I would Bond you to me and cross all your boundaries, Kaelus thought bitterly. You didn’t know I would betray you in the worst way possible.
“What was that?” Clair frowned at him and cocked her head to one side. “Did you say something?” she asked Kaelus.
Realizing that his mental barrier must have slipped, he did his best to shore it up.
“No, I said nothing,” he growled.
“Oh God, I kind of can’t believe we did this,” Clair said, wincing as she wiggled again. “I mean, it’s way past what we agreed to do when we started this mission.”
If only she knew how far past the limits they had gone, Kaelus thought. But he had to keep it a secret from her. As long as he kept the barrier up and was careful not to think too loudly—if that was even possible—the Bond might fade in time, if he put enough distance between them.
But how much distance was enough? They could no longer share a lab aboard the Mother Ship—that was clear. He would have to move out and find another place—as far from Clair as possible.
Once the thought of having a lab all to himself would have delighted Kaelus. Now it depressed him. He hated the idea of going to work and not seeing Clair bent over a microscope, sipping her first cup of coffee. Hated the idea of not having her to tease him and call him silly Southern nicknames.
But most of all, he hated the idea of losing the woman he loved and never seeing her again.
All these depressing thoughts had one good effect—they caused his mating fist to deflate and caused his shaft to finally go soft. With a rush of seed that coated both their thighs, his cock finally slid free of her pussy.
“Oh!” Clair gasped as she looked down at the mess. “Kaelus, you don’t think you got me, uh, pregnant, do you? I mean, I am way too old to have a baby!”
A fresh blade of guilt stabbed him. Normally, he didn’t have to worry about getting anyone pregnant—a Kindred usually couldn’t impregnate a woman unless he Bonded her to him. And as a Hybrid, he had always believed that was off the table.
But now he had done it—he had Bonded Clair to him and though she was nearly past the child-bearing years of a human woman, it was indeed, very possibly that he’d gotten her pregnant. Kindred seed was notoriously potent, and he’d certainly pumped enough of it into her.
Fuck—now she would hate him even more, Kaelus thought! Not only had he savaged, bitten, and Bonded her—he might have impregnated her as well!
“What’s that? What did you say? I didn’t catch that.” Clair frowned, cocking her head to one side again and Kaelus realized his thoughts were leaking through the mental barrier he had put up again.
“Nothing,” he growled. Gently, but firmly, he put her off his lap and bent to unfasten the metal restraints around his ankles.
“What…what are you doing?” Clair still looked uncertain—only half awake. Maybe she was in shock after what he’d done to her, Kaelus thought grimly.
“Now that I’m cured of the virus, I need to be free,” he said shortly as he finished unfastening the second restraint. “Sendar might still be around.”
“Did I hear my name?” a voice asked.
Jerking his head up, Kaelus glared at him. He rose to his full height, but Sendar was still armed.
“Uh, uh, uh, my muscular friend–I don’t think so,” he purred, pointing the blaster directly at Kaelus’s chest. “I only came to see how the two of you were getting along–imagine my surprise to see you, Clair, still in the land of the living. And you cured your dear husband of the Savage Syndrome virus–bravo!”
Claire glared at him.
“It wasn't hard once I figured out the connection between the veloria root and the compound a woman’s body makes when she drinks it. A connection I believe you knew all along, Doctor Sendar.”
She spat his name like an accusation, but Sendar only smiled.
“Indeed I did, my dear Doctor Donovan,” he said smoothly. “And I realized how that very compound has enslaved the men of my planet–chemically castrating their deeper urges and desires and turning them into simpering fools who follow their wives around like pets on a leash!”
“So you decided to try out the ‘Love Virus’ on the Kindred of the Glenvarren colony and made them kill their wives,” Kaelus growled. “And then you tried it on me, to see if you could make me kill Clair!”
His fury was a towering thing inside him, but he was still constrained by the blaster in the other male’s hand.
“Indeed.” Sendar nodded calmly. “Unfortunately, in that I failed. Not before I got some most instructive footage however.” He nodded at the recording bee, which was buzzing high above all their heads.
“I’ll study it later, at my leisure to determine how best to keep the virus from losing its grip on an infected male. ”
“Why would you want to do that?” Clair demanded.
“Because, my dear Doctor Donovan, I intend to free my people from the ‘Love Virus,” Sendar snapped. “I’m working on a strain right now that can’t be cured by the veloria compound–no matter how much the woman has in her system.”
Kaelus stared at him.
“You’re insane,” he said at last. “You want to turn all of Titus Four into a repeat of the Glenvarren colony? You want to force males to…to…rape and kill their beloved wives?” He could barely get the words out as guilt rose in him, sharp and stinging.
Sendar narrowed his metallic eyes.
“I want to free the males of my world from sexual slavery! And if that means killing every last female on the planet, well…” He shrugged. “That’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. But first, the two of you will make the ultimate sacrifice.”
Even from across the room, Kaelus could see his finger tightening on the trigger of the blaster. Only it wasn’t aimed at him–it was now aimed at Clair!
“Clair–move!” he sent instinctively through their mental connection. At the same time, he shoved her to one side and launched himself at Sendar.
If he was going to die, he was damn well going to take the murderous bastard with him!