16. Chapter 16
Cooper thrashed against the restraints in his cell while his mind fought to regain its focus. He could feel the guards watching him and the rough cave wall the cell had been carved out of. Everything else was focused on creating the sphere of ice around Marissa”s mind to ease the pain of the torture she was going through.
He could feel her relief as the pain eased and her body relaxed. Every muscle had been clenched against the invasion that it couldn”t fight. It wasn”t going to last long because he could feel her tormentor boring through his barrier.
If they were closer, he could make it stronger. If they”d had more time, he could have taught her how to make her own.
Marissa must have felt some of his panic and regret because he could tell she was trying her best to soothe him. A weak barrier joined his and he did his best to reinforce it before it was breached.
That she was able to see what he was doing and mimic it at all showed him what kind of brain she had. Doing so after the pain and torment she”d been through was a testament to just how strong her will was.
His body was still and his breathing shallow while he put everything he had into protecting her as long as he could. Their captors had told him lie after lie about how they weren”t going to hurt her, how they were going to save her from the evils they knew he was going to subject her to.
Cooper never would have put her through this. Whatever they claimed they were saving her from, it could never have been worse than this violation.
The ice sphere he”d created around Marissa”s mind changed as she studied what he”d done. Still cool and mostly solid, everywhere Marissa”s will touched it, it became more solid and metallic.
He could feel her smile of triumph covering the exhaustion that ate at both of them. The intrusion stopped and he could feel a sense of relief as she listened to her tormentors.
Are you okay?she asked
Alive and unharmed, he answered. Grateful they seem to have stopped.
He hadn”t dared speak to her earlier. With her mind under attack, he wasn”t sure if she”d be able to understand him, anyway. There was still a risk that they”d be overheard but he needed to hear her voice however he could.
Thank you, she said. I didn”t know how to stop them.
Do you know why they”re doing this?
I think they”re trying to save me from you, she said. She”s trying to remove your influence from my mind. She thinks you”re controlling me.
She doesn”t know you if she thinks I can control you, he said with a mental snort.
Marissa”s smile filled him with a warmth and joy he”d never thought possible.
Her attention wavered from the protections around her mind and they started to recede. Cooper caught snatches of conversation before his own attention was pulled away to his surroundings.
His cell was carved into the wall of a larger cave, with a wall of bars across the front, and a door that was more bars with hinges and a lock. They were close enough together that most people couldn”t fit through them, even if they weren”t chained to the wall by their ankles. His bed was mostly a stiff pallet bolted into the wall of the cave and seemed to be the newest thing in there.
”He hasn”t done anything since we put him in here,” one of the guards said. ”Hasn”t even moved much.”
”I suspect he”s done plenty,” another voice hissed.
The door to his cell opened and Cooper considered turning to look at whoever had entered. When the door closed again, he decided not to bother. He could hear the guards walking away but didn”t believe for a minute he was being left alone with whoever had come in to interrogate him.
”Why did you do it?”
”Since you seem to know everything, why don”t you tell me?” Cooper answered. ”You didn”t listen to anything I said earlier, either.”
”When everything you said was a lie, there was no point in listening to you. But I can tell your bond with the human woman has damaged you. Did you think we would spare you so we didn”t damage her?”
Rage boiled in Cooper”s chest and he pushed himself up. ”Is that what you call torture, then? An attempt not to damage the human? She has done nothing to you or your people and you”ve subjected her to punishments my people refuse to use on our worst enemies.”
”And yet you”d subject her to an unbreakable bond,” his interrogator said. ”One that will kill her if we kill you.”
He looked to be about Cooper’s height, with the heavy cape and cowl he”d seen everybody but the guards wearing. A movement at the hem drew his attention to the same kind of heavy tail he”d seen on the guards.
”You can”t force that kind of bond,” Cooper said.
”Our history would say otherwise.”
”The mating bond is biological as much as it is mental,” Cooper argued. ”That can”t be forced, either, but it can”t be deepened into anything else without the acceptance of both parties.”
Something that had been nagging at the back of his brain clicked and Cooper suddenly felt the pieces fall into place. Everything he”d ever known about how his people reproduced had been twisted just enough that it still made a strange kind of sense. But something else had been keeping him from thinking too hard about the parts that didn”t and he suddenly knew why.
”But you think you”ve been saving human women from forced mating bonds, don”t you?” Cooper asked wryly.
”Many of the human women we”ve rescued had begged to have the bonds removed,” his interrogator said.
”How many of them survive it?”
He could feel the displeasure of the man in front of him. Despite the tail and the obvious Chelion features he could glimpse beneath the hood, Cooper felt human brain patterns in the thoughts he couldn”t quite hear.
”How many of them beg to go back to the monsters you rescued them from?” Cooper pressed. ”How many of them end up bonded to one of your guards here?”
”It is difficult for them to reintegrate into their lives after all they”ve been through.”
”Yeah, you”re not rescuing them, you”re raiding enemy camps and stealing their women. You might claim that you”re doing it because of the way they”re being treated but we both know you”re not above torturing a woman to break her bond with her mate.”
”You kidnapped a woman and forced her to bond with you.”
Cooper made himself as comfortable as he could on his bed. ”Kidnapped, yes. Forced her to do anything? Not at all. I quite like my human, in fact, and was looking forward to getting to know her and her people better before you interrupted.”
A hiss escaped from under the hood and Cooper wondered why he was there. This was the most inexpert interrogation he”d ever been subject to, and that included when he was training to be a scout.
”But how did you force an unbreakable bond?”
”I told you, I didn”t. You don”t get that kind of bond without acceptance from both sides. She let me in because she wanted me there. And the only way I”m leaving is if she kicks me out. I will tell you, though, that torturing her the way you have isn”t the way to convince her to let me go.”
”You would let her be tortured to keep your hold on her?”
”I will stay bonded as close as I can to shield her from as much of your torture as I can,” Cooper snapped. ”She is my mate and I will do whatever I can to keep her safe.”
”You have failed so far. Letting her go will be more effective than anything you can do from here.”
Cooper stared at the cloaked man in front of him for a long moment then let his mouth draw back in a smile. It wasn”t a nice smile.
”Every injury you do to her will be avenged,” he said. ”Before I dismantle this place piece by piece I will see every one of you who had a hand in hurting her destroyed.”
The man stared at him, everything still the way a Chelion could be, except the tail that twitched and betrayed him. He turned without a word and opened the door to the cell, locking it behind him before he strode off down the hall.
His guards returned a few minutes later and Cooper made a show of stretching and getting comfortable.
”Asshole didn”t even introduce himself,” he complained to the silent guards. ”On my planet, it”s considered good form to tell the person you”re threatening who you are. Let”s them know who they should be afraid of.”
He watched the guards exchange glances then go back to staring at the wall.
”Of course, he might have wanted me to be afraid of every nervous, twitchy person in a cloak. I can”t say it”s terribly intimidating but for all I know, he”s still a child who hasn”t finished his adolescent molt. I”m not likely to be scared of a teenager who still has his nymph spots.”
His guards shifted uncomfortably and Cooper grinned. He might have been captured by a bunch of amateurs but they didn”t know they were amateurs and he was insulting one of their leaders. The next few hours were going to be fun.
As he made his way through some of his favorite insults, Cooper watched his guards and got to know every tick, twitch and shift that they made. They had obviously been given directions to not talk to the prisoner but they gave him more information than they”d ever dreamed possible.
Every few minutes, he felt for Marissa in the back of his mind, reassured when she acknowledged his touch. He sent warmth and comfort back when he realized she was doing the same thing without any training in how to do so.
When they”d gotten out of this mess and had some down time, he was going to have to teach her how to use their bond. Of course, that meant he was going to have to relearn things he”d half-ignored as theory that was never going to apply to him.
Maybe they”d learn together. And explore the limits of what was possible.
Cooper had just started into another round of insulting suppositions and annoying assumptions about his interrogator, the guards, and their families when he heard someone approaching from down the corridor.
He hadn”t heard another door open and close. Were the cells just off the main hall with no other security? If he hadn”t been so distracted by what was happening to Marissa when they brought him in, he might have noticed.
This time, it was a female Chelion hybrid flanked by two more cloaked figures who had decided to visit him.
”I”m starting to feel awfully popular,” Cooper said, his lips pulled back into his best unfriendly smile.
”Let her go,” the female demanded.
”No,” Cooper replied.
”Your hold on her is killing her.”
”You attempting to remove my hold is killing her,” Cooper retorted. ”Because she doesn”t want to let it go. Are you aware of the concept of consent?”
The female sputtered at him and Cooper took the opportunity to reach out to Marissa, who did her best to reassure him that nothing had changed in the last five minutes.
”We will destroy you to save her if we have to,” the female said.
It was bluster and Cooper knew it. If they were going to kill him, they would have done it already. He had things they wanted and they both knew it. Still, they were awfully determined to sever his bond with Marissa.
”At this point, killing me will kill her, too,” he said. ”And you”re the ones who made that possible. We hadn”t bonded that closely before they started torturing her. So, why don”t you stop making idle threats and tell me what you really want.”