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“Well, initially yes,” Slade said reluctantly. “My old mistress, the one I told you about, sent me away because I wouldn’t obey her and break the vow I’d made to Cinda.”
“Uh-huh. Right.” Brandi had heard it all before. It was what she heard all the time from Earl. And the few times she’d been to visit him, she’d heard the same from the other cons around him. None of them seemed to do anything wrong—it was always a put-up job or a frame or dirty cops who planted evidence on them. Nobody took any personal responsibility for their actions.
“I do take responsibility, damn it,” Slade growled. “For fucking instance, it was my fault I was labeled a security threat and transferred to BleakHall.”
“What…” Brandi licked her lips, suddenly nervous. “What did you do to make that happen?”
“I killed a male—several males,” Slade admitted heavily. “And the last one…I sort of made an example of him. To let the other prisoners know they couldn’t fuck with me.”
“How…how did you make an example of him?” Brandi whispered. Without waiting for an answer, without even trying, she found herself going through their link. What she saw in Slade’s memory made her feel sick.
She saw a group of men—well, males, anyway—since more than half of them weren’t even humanoid. They were all gathered in an outdoor area that looked a prison exercise yard. It was surrounded by laser beam fences and there were armed guards in towers at the corner.
The prisoners were gathered in a knot and Brandi was somehow in the middle of them. In fact, she suddenly realized, she was one of them—she must be seeing through Slade’s eyes. And Slade was facing a male with blue skin and a knife.
“Come at me, Slade.” The alien antagonist had three eyes—two where humans had their eyes and one on his chin, which looked like a bizarre kind of goatee. He waved the knife menacingly and beckoned with his free hand. “Come on, let’s see how tough you are.”
“You’re going to be fucking sorry you decided to test me, Rabbaz.” Slade’s voice was a low, menacing growl. “Or no—maybe you won’t. Because I’m going to fucking kill you. Can’t be sorry when you’re dead.”
The other male didn’t answer in words—he darted forward and slashed with the knife, the long, curving metal blade biting into Slade’s chest, making him roar with pain and anger.
Brandi felt the aggression pumping through him—the unstoppable fury that couldn’t be contained or denied. Before the other man could jump back again, Slade had him by the throat. But since she was essentially inside the Big Kindred, looking out through his eyes, Brandi felt like she had the alien male by the throat.
Then Slade started to squeeze.
Oh my God, I don’t want to do this…I don’t want to do this!
Brandi felt sick—she wanted to look away—to get out of this awful memory. But somehow she was stuck—unable to so anything but watch as the big Kindred’s hands squeezed and twisted, choking the life out of the blue alien male whose eyes—all three of them—bugged out of his head as he choked and gasped and tried to get away.
Then, with a final sickening crunch and a wet tearing sound, the alien’s head popped completely off and rolled on the ground at Slade’s booted feet.
Slade kicked the head to one side and dropped the lifeless blue body, its ragged stump of a neck still jetting red blood which turned the blue skin purple.
“All right,” he roared in a voice so deafening it seemed to shake the ground. “Who’s fucking next?”
“Brandi? Brandi, sweetheart, what are you doing?” It was Slade’s voice again. Softer this time and inside her head. He sounded concerned. “You don’t need to be seeing this. Please, baby…”
Suddenly, Brandi was rushing outwards, away from the awful scene at the alien prison and back into her own head. But what she had seen was burned into her brain. Over and over she saw the alien’s eyes bulging…heard the crack of his neck and the tearing sound as Slade ripped his head completely off…saw the blood spurting…
“Brandi?” Slade reached out a hand to her but she shied away from him.
“No! No, don’t touch me!”
He sighed and raked a hand through his hair.
“Baby, I’m sorry you saw that. I know it was…messy.”
“Messy?” Brandi glared at him. “It was horrible. Terrifying!” Standing up on shaky legs, she headed for the front of the shuttle.
“Hey, where are you going?” Slade jumped up and came after her.
“Away. I need to get out of here right now.” She slid into the passenger side seat and tried unsuccessfully to figure out how to open the door. There much be a latch or a handle somewhere.
“Baby please…” Slade put a hand on her shoulder but Brandi shook it off.
“I said don’t touch me!”
