Page 52 of Forbidden Desires
Chapter Twenty-seven
Amelia grabbed the hand around her neck. She was gasping for air that seemed to have deserted the room and her eyesight was darkening. This was how she died.
“The best way to kill an empath is to attack them mentally and watch them die from brain damage. It’s a classic and one of my favorites. Watching you slowly die brought joy to my cold heart. Then you met him.” Vexar tightened his fingers another fraction of an inch, making her brown skin pale.
“He.” She knew Vexar meant Zylar. “Knew what to do bringing you back from the edge of death quicker than I theorized. You wouldn’t care to tell me how he did that, would you?”
She gurgled at him that he was a bastard and all she cared to do was stab him in his chest until she was sure he was unalive. Look at her thinking in politically correct terms.
“Unfortunately, when the empath gets strong enough to start resisting, there is only one other way to kill them. That’s the manual way. Pick up a… Sorry, the words don’t always present themselves. English is a strange and hard language. Phaser. Youwould call my weapon of choice a phaser. Such an uninspired word for the weapons we use. Then there is the old-fashioned way. My hand around your neck. It’s time to die.” His hand tightened around her neck and the small amount of air she was managing to get stopped. Blackness swam before her eyes before…
Amelia landed on her back and ass, half in and half out of the room.
“Stay there, turtle dove, I’ll take out the trash,” Zylar said.
What the heck was happening? Her eyesight was still blank, and her brain was fuzzy. The sound of Zylar’s voice was bringing her back and the pain in her throat was shouting, not dead.
“Why didn’t you tell us he was out of his mind?”
“Bella?” She felt hands on her arms.
“And Jenna.” There was another set of hands on her other arm and Jenna’s voice in her ear. “Stand, now.”
They pulled Amelia to her feet. She swayed as the world tried to dip upside down and her stomach considered rebelling. It took a few seconds for the darkness to recede and the angry gremlins in her stomach to stop trying to make her throw up.
“Bella, Jenna, what…” Her words came to a sudden halt as what was in front of her came into view. Zylar in a loincloth. That was hot as hell, but what was he doing here? Was he fighting Vexar? Oh hell, he was fighting Vexar, and she was having mixed reactions. All of her feminine parts were standing at attention. To the victor go the spoils and Zylar better be the victor. Her mind, on the other hand, was freaking out because the male she finally admitted to loving was fighting to the death with a vicious and manipulative Tan-ge.
“Don’t cry out,” Jenna said.
“You don’t want to distract him,” Bella added. They pulled Amelia out of the room, and she almost fought, but the door didn’t close, and she settled down.
Amelia looked around to see SaKura and Rakha standing on either side of the door watching. She should have known if Bella and Jenna were here, then their mates were here.
“She’s not worth it, you know,” Vexar said. He was circling the room watching Zylar. “Her uncle planned to sell her to the sex trade. I wish I could say it was unique to this planet, but it’s not. I was lining up bidders to buy her. We could still do it and split the profits.”
“Damn, how did we miss this plot when the male behind it is stupid?” Rakha asked.
“I think the real brains was the female Tan-ge pretending to be human. Now this,” SaKura waved towards Vexar. “Is trying to hold all the pieces together.”
Rakha growled in agreement.
Vexar went low, aiming for Zylar’s legs while his tail went high, aiming for the chest. Zylar jumped and slung himself to the right, bouncing off the wall. He shook his head, trying to shake off the pain and get his legs underneath him.
“You’re not a warrior. How do you expect to defeat me?” Vexar taunted, trying to distract Zylar.
Zylar reached for the handle of his blade that was tucked into his loincloth.
Amelia was mentally saying, ‘You can do it. I have all the faith in the world in you and I love you!’ She started on some ridiculous cheer about love and victory sex.
“Let me count the ways that my cousin, the healer, can take you down,” Rakha said.
Zylar turned a smidgen to see Rakha while keeping most of his focus on Vexar. He motioned for Rakha to continue.
“One, he can jump over you, landing on the floor behind you, and roll cutting at the tip of your tail. He may not cut it off, but it will be incapacitated.”
Zylar shrugged and did what Rakha said. The end of Vexar’s tail was hanging when Zylar was done. He could have cut it clean off, but this was the male who tortured his mate. He didn’t deserve mercy. “If you beg, he may take it easy on you,” Rakha taunted.
When Vexar’s tail came at him again, Zylar threw himself at Vexar, knocking him to the ground. He used his claws to pierce holes in Vexar’s side before he pushed himself off and went into a crouching position in front of him, waiting.
