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Still holding her, he got to his feet. “Don’t look,” he said roughly, carrying her toward the bridge.
Mia closed her eyes for a second, but it made her feel even more sick and nauseated, so she opened them right away.
And saw immediately why Korum had warned her not to look.
Lying on the sand, just a few feet away from them, was what used to be his attacker. The body was hardly recognizable as such now, with the right arm missing and a bloody hole where the head and neck used to be. Blood was everywhere, all over the place, covering the disfigured corpse, soaking into the sandy ground.
For a brief second, she thought it couldn’t be real, but the metallic odor was undeniable, as was the underlying stench of something much more foul, like sewage. The scent of death, she realized with some still-rational part of her brain. She’d never smelled it before, but something primitive inside her knew and recoiled from it.
A horrified moan escaped her throat before she could suppress it.
Korum cursed, and his pace picked up until he was almost running toward the house, still taking care not to jostle her injured arm.
Closing her eyes, Mia tried to take deep breaths, to convince herself that she’d just seen a scene from a movie, that there wasn’t really what used to be an intelligent being lying there dead and mangled in the sand of Ormond Beach. But the images before her eyes were too vivid and undeniable, and her stomach twisted. If she hadn’t emptied it just a minute ago, she would have vomited again.
The K who held her in his arms had just literally torn apart his opponent.
Chapter 20
Her stomach churning, she instinctively pushed against Korum’s chest with her right hand, but he ignored her feeble attempt to free herself.
“Shh, my darling, it’ll be all right,” he whispered to her fiercely, entering the pool area and carrying her toward the house.
As they went through the gate, Mia opened her eyes again and saw that Leslie’s body was still lying there, right outside the pool gate. With a strange detachment, she wondered if the Resistance fighter was dead too. She knew she should be horrified at the thought, but she simply felt numb right now – numb and cold inside.
Korum carried her up the stairs and into the large bathroom on the second floor. Placing her gently on her feet, he turned on the shower and adjusted the water settings while Mia stood there, weaving slightly and listlessly observing his actions. A kind of merciful haze had descended on her mind, partially shielding her from the brutal reality of the situation. She knew what she was seeing, but it didn’t seem to touch her in any way, as though it were happening to someone else.
Korum’s entire body was covered with blood and sand, his hair encrusted with it. He looked like he had been through a battle – which, actually, he had been. If she had understood that gruesome scene correctly, he had killed the other K with his bare hands.
Hot bile rose in her throat again, and she held it back with effort. Even though she knew it was self-defense, she was still horrified that her lover was capable of that level of violence.
But what frightened her even more was the fact that she was too.
Because underneath it all, she was ferociously glad that the other K was dead – that it was his body, not Korum’s, lying there in pieces. If he had succeeded in his attack . . . If he had managed to kill Korum, Mia would have gladly killed him herself – either that, or died trying.
Her eyes drifted to the left, and she saw her own reflection in the large mirror hanging on the wall. Streaks of dried blood were all over her face, all around her mouth area – from when she’d bitten Leslie, she realized. Dirt, sand, and dried bits of grass covered her mostly naked body, and small twigs were stuck in her hair, adding to the overall murderous madwoman impression.
“Here, let’s get you in there,” Korum said softly, carefully picking her up and bringing her into the shower stall where he’d gotten the water to perfect temperature.
The hot spray felt amazing on her skin, and Mia realized that she felt chilled, frozen inside despite the hot weather. She was also trembling. Her body must’ve gone into shock, she thought with almost clinical objectivity. She didn’t dare look at her arm for fear of embarrassing herself again; for now, the pain was somehow tolerable, as though she’d received an anesthetic of some kind. Unlike most people, Mia had never broken anything before, and she wondered if this is what it always felt like. If so, then it was truly not all that bad, definitely survivable.
“Stay here,” Korum told her. “I’ll be right back with something for your arm.”
Mia obediently nodded, and he disappeared for a minute, returning with a small pill in his hand. Stepping into the shower, he gave it to her and told her to swallow it.
She did so, and the dull throbbing pain eased almost immediately.
“Close your eyes and don’t look,” he said. “I mean it, Mia. Keep them shut.”
Taking a deep breath, she squeezed her lids tightly. She could feel his hands on her injured arm, manipulating it gently – and somehow, it didn’t hurt at all when he straightened it, popping the bone into place.
“It’s done,” he told her hoarsely. “You can open your eyes now.”
Mia looked at him, and the frozen shell encasing her suddenly cracked.
Harsh sobs broke out of her throat, and she sank to the floor, shaking uncontrollably. All the terror and the violence she’d just experienced came rushing to the front of her mind, completely overwhelming her. She could’ve lost him, they could’ve both died, he had brutally slaughtered another Krinar, and she might’ve killed Leslie . . . It was too much, all of it, and Mia brought her knees to her chest, her body shuddering with the force of her gasping sobs.
“Mia, shhh, darling, it’s over. It’s over, I promise you . . .” he murmured, kneeling and gathering her closer to him. Reaching up, he directed the shower head so the water cascaded over them and simply let her cry, knowing that was exactly what she needed right now.
