“That was the right thing and I’m glad you did. May the Great Mother keep you and Jamirr safe until we arrive.” Kyden signed off.
Samyra slumped, sliding off the bench to sit on the grass, trying to take in the harsh reality that in two days or thereabouts she’d be literally walking away from everything. But if the sacrifice saves Jamirr’s life, it will all be worth it.
* * *
Hours earlier….
The tantoreans had alerted him to the presence of a stealth flyer, raising their trunks and trumpeting a challenge before they bolted for the far end of the enclosure leaving a cloud of dust in the air. Jamirr dropped his equipment and turned to fight but the flyer had stunned him from the air. The blast was set for a human opponent, however, and by the time the craft landed and two men advanced onto the property to collect him, he was already recovering. Getting to his feet, his balance was unsteady but he unsheathed his claws and bared his fangs and lashed out, ripping the first man to approach him nearly in half. The second man recoiled, swearing and fired a second stun shot, which knocked Jamirr on his heels for an instant before he lunged at the assailant. More men came from the flyer, hitting him with stun rays, but he managed to wound a few before he finally fell, overwhelmed.
He prayed to the Great Mother someone would hear all the noise and come investigate. The tantoreans were still issuing their challenges. In his peripheral vision he saw Darryl turn the corner and for an instant he felt hope but then the overseer moved to the side to chat with the man in charge of the gang. As Jamirr was being restrained, he listened in on the discussion.
“You should have warned us how dangerous he was,” the kidnapper was saying.
Darryl shrugged. “You watched him in the arena, you should have known.”
“Well how the seven hells were we supposed to know he could shake off multiple stun blasts. What kind of man is he?”
“No idea. Not human obviously. You’d better get going. Samyra’s busy in her office at this hour but she could take it into her head to come tryst with her lover here and you don’t want her to know what’s happening.”
“Not yet anyway,” the kidnapper agreed easily. “The credits are in your account. Good work today, even if I did lose a man.”
Jamirr was in shock that Darryl, who’d seemed so loyal to Samyra, was allied with the crooks. The two men who’d bound him hand and foot amused themselves by giving him a few well placed kicks and punches, which infuriated Jamirr but his Badari physiology would soon repair any damage. These people had no idea what they’d done, attacking him. Not being able to warn Samyra about the snake in her own house was making him frantic as he was lifted on an antigrav litter and carried to the waiting flyer.
“Don’t you dare hurt her,” he shouted at Darryl.
“That depends on her,” the man replied dismissively. “She’ll have choices to make, including whether to save your life.”
The messy corpse of the man he’d killed was loaded onto the flyer, wrapped in a tarp from the zoo, which Darryl had given the kidnappers and Jamirr was placed on the floor nearby. They lifted off and he tried to track the direction they were heading, while at the same time he was subtly testing the restraints. Again, the cuffs and shackles were constructed to immobilize a human, which he was decidedly not. With a roar he broke the hinges and rose to his feet, talons and fangs deployed. He struck at the nearest man, probably killing him instantly although Jamirr didn’t pause to check. He rushed down the aisle, heading for the cockpit, throwing aside the men he encountered.
The cockpit was locked and he battered the door, bending the frame after a few blows. He was being hit with stun rays from the back and slowly he slumped to the deck, energy draining away under the influence of multiple blasts.
When he regained consciousness, he was lying naked on a table, a massive number of chains restraining him.
“Awake now, are you? Don’t worry, you’ll be in dreamland soon enough,” said a mocking voice he recognized.
Tirion came into view and Jamirr roared his defiance, straining against the bonds. He got one arm free and the gladiator leaped out of range with a yelp. “Damn, this guy Samyra found is strong,” he said to a couple of men standing by. Straightening his clothes, he added, “Think we can turn him to good use eventually?”
“In the death pits on the outer rim certainly,” said one of the others in an ice cold voice. “He’ll kill or be killed there. The bets will be astronomical.”
“Maybe we could use him as leverage to get Samyra to run her House as another front for the Combine,” Tirion said. “I’m told she fucks him, maybe even loves him.”
“I thought you wanted her dead in the first match?” his companion said with a laugh.
“She has to lose absolutely,” Tirion agreed. “But maybe it’d be more entertaining in the long run to keep pulling her strings. I’ll think about it—we have two weeks until the season begins.”
“It’ll be up to the boss ultimately,” the other told him, which Tirion plainly didn’t like as frown lines distorted his face.
If these idiots were counting on keeping him a prisoner for two weeks, they were sadly mistaken, Jamirr thought with satisfaction. The kidnappers had no idea what a Badari could do.
His confidence was undone the next minute when a doctor approached, holding a medinject he recognized with a sinking heart.
“You must stun him again before I can start the cryosleep process,” the doctor complained.
Snarling, Jamirr made a supreme effort to get his other arm free or to snag one of the guards with the claws on his right hand but the stun blasts came from too far away in the room and he slumped, arm falling uselessly to his side. The mob’s physician stepped to the table and the icy cold of the cryosleep prep meds spread through his veins and arteries. He was getting sleepy on top of being paralyzed and Jamirr’s heart rate skyrocketed at the idea of being put under cryosleep again. He now knew his reaction to the tech was a genetic weakness in his alien predator DNA and there was a good chance he wouldn’t survive or he might emerge a badly damaged man again, as he’d been when Samyra found him.
Even if he could explain any of that to these people they wouldn’t care. He’d shown them too much of what he could do already and they were taking the ultimate precaution to literally keep him on ice until their extortion of Samyra was complete. And there was nothing Jamirr could do about it. As he drifted off into the mists of cryosleep he asked the Great Mother to watch over his Samyra.
Chapter Thirteen
