Chapter Twenty-seven

Rhenn

Rhenn lay in E’maz’s bed staring at the raftered ceiling. The big man slumbered next to her, tousled and trusting. He lay on his stomach, and she kept one hand on his broad, muscled back. The contact soothed her. Oddly, if she was touching him, feeling his warmth through her fingers, she didn’t crave his blood as much.

She could still see it glowing beneath his skin. She still wanted it on her tongue, but he’d given her an alternative last night. He’d diverted her, pulled her into him, and it had been enough. It had not been the divine ecstasy of coppery fire lighting up her body, but it had been enough, a lifeline when she was drowning. He’d eased her fears and quieted her doubts. He’d proven to her that she could spend the entire night with him and not kill him.

Instead of telling her what she was, he’d risked his life to show her. And in the showing, now she could believe.

This new life wasn’t a death sentence. Of course, she would never have chosen it, but she would never have chosen for Vamreth to kill her parents and take her kingdom, either. Yet there was no denying that event had shaped her into the woman—the queen—that she was.

E’maz had shown her that this transformation with its shocking gifts and its horrible price, was somehow the same. It was just a thing, just another burden. If she believed, fought, and found the right tools, she could bear it.

“I can bear it…” she breathed.

Now, in the quiet of the night, E’maz’s question rose again in her mind.

What was the plan? How was she going to get home and put this entire horrible continent behind her?

It meant going back to L’elica. It meant getting that Plunnos. She cursed herself for not killing L’elica and all the rest at the nuraghi. Looking back, she believed she could have managed it. Her strength and speed were everything she’d initially assumed and more. She could have destroyed L’elica, could probably have killed them all and survived. Then she could have simply taken the Plunnos.

At least she’d killed N’ssag. She’d wanted to stab him through the heart, but taking him in the guts was almost the same. It wasn’t an instant kill, but she’d seen enough wounds like that. N’ssag wouldn’t last long. An hour, maybe more.

With N’ssag gone, the other bloodsuckers would turn to L’elica, of course. Where would she lead them? Would they return to N’ssag’s laboratory? With N’ssag dead, would L’elica even care about the Plunnos anymore?

“It might still be there…” Rhenn murmured. The Plunnos might actually still be in that room in the nuraghi.

“Mmmm…” E’maz awoke, and she realized her hand on his back had begun to squeeze as she’d contemplated the possibility. “What is it?” he asked.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to wake you, but…”

“Tell me.” He blinked and rose up onto one elbow.

“I think I have it. The plan.”

“To get you home?”

“I killed him.”

E’maz blinked, sorting through that scant bit of information. “N’ssag,” he guessed.

“Yes. I killed him, so his blood…” She almost said bloodsuckers, but the word soured in her mouth. She was one of them now, and she refused for her defining trait to be that she sucked blood. “His primes are going to be without a leader. They might just leave his body there.”

“Leaving the Plunnos behind.”

“Yes.”

“Then all there’s left to do is retrieve it. We should go, yes?” he said. “Right now. Tonight.”

“I can’t. I barely made it when I had five hours and I ran at full speed. There’s only four hours till sunrise. Maybe less.”

“Then I’ll rig up a box for you. Something where I can drive the cart during the day.”

Rhenn paused as thoughts flashed through her mind. This presented a new dilemma. E’maz saw himself accompanying her, and maybe a part of her wanted him to. She didn’t relish the idea of being alone, and if she got caught somewhere during daylight hours, having a protector for her hidden body—whether it be in a box or inside something else—could mean the difference between surviving and exploding in a fiery, spitting ball of flesh.

But having E’maz along also meant that he would be subjected to whatever trials she would face, be it N’ssag’s primes come for revenge or some other creature wandering the nuraghi like the Mouth Dog.

In short, E’maz wasn’t coming with her.

He stood. “I’ll get started right away. Tonight. I could have it ready within a few hours. We travel tonight for the first leg of the journey, then you rest in the box as I drive the cart the rest of the way. By nightfall tomorrow, we could have you to the nuraghi. We could have you home.”

She hated lying to him, but he’d never agree to stay behind. “Right,” she said. “But don’t start tonight, E’maz. Come back to sleep. Start in the morning while I’m in the cellar. Build it during the day. We can start the journey tomorrow night.”

He paused, then nodded and laid back down.

She snuggled into him, putting her head on his chest.

“Rhenn,” he said thoughtfully as he stared at the ceiling.

“Yes?”

“Are you sure he’s dead?”

“N’ssag?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve seen a hundred wounds like that,” she said. “He’s gone.”

“Mightn’t they resurrect him? The primes? Like he did you?”

She shook her head. “They don’t have the power. It’s his personal magic that starts the siphon of life. No, trust me. N’ssag is a dead man.”