Charlotte Boyett-Compo- WIND VERSE- Hunger's Harmattan by Unknown (best management books of all time TXT) 📗

He shuddered and a solitary tear sliddown his left cheek. “She would put those terrible hands on me, Shanee. Shewould drain me and there wasn’t anything I could do about it because I wasshackled to the exam table with my legs pulled wide.” More tears fell down hischeeks. “She would flick that long, forked tongue over me and I would screamuntil I was hoarse but she never stopped until I ejaculated.” He buried hisface in his hands. “The gods help me but I couldn’t hold it.”

She scooted closer to him and put her armsaround him. “It’s over with, ehemann,” she said. “That won’t ever happento you again. Don’t think about her impaling herself on you. Think about…”

“She didn’t slither her warty cunt on me,Shanee,” he denied, looking at her. “Oh god, I would have died if she’d touchedme like that! She masturbated me. I would lie there and come and one of herassistants would harvest the sperm.”

That seemed worse to Shanee but she triednot to let her revulsion show. She stroked his back and crooned to him, feelinghis tears falling on her thigh as she held his head to her shoulder.

“It is over, Ailyn,” she said. “Let it go.”

“I wish I could but I dream about Cean andthose three bastards she called the Ceannus. One of the males was the mostsavage, cruel being you could ever imagine. His name was Lexis Acklard and hereally liked to hurt me. He stank like a nest of vipers—he had that odor abouthim. He would scrape his hands over me and those scales would rip open my skin.When the nightmares come, it’s as though I can feel the scales dragging over meagain, cutting me.”

She wanted to get his mind off such things.“Where did Cean and her assistants go when that portion of R-9 was shutdown?”

He drew in a hitching breath. “When Bakaribecame Burgon and ordered the Transferences to stop, the scientists receivedword that he was sending in an inspection team to make sure the Reapers werebeing cared for. We had all been in isolation cells all along but Tariq hadbeen able to keep in contact with all except three of us—the first three menCean took from our holding cell.”

“The older men.”

“Aye,” he said, and straightened up, movingaway from her touch. “Malachi was the youngest of them then Klaus. The oldestwas Jules.” He shrugged. “I don’t remember last names or where the others werefrom but Jules was from Serenia.”

“What happened to them?”

“She had reserved a special place in hellfor those men,” he said. “She had used them for an entirely different set ofexperiments than just the Transference of the parasites. She knew once he foundout what she’d done, Bakari would charge her with crimes against humanity andso she and her Ceannus just vanished along with Malachi and Klaus. They hadgone into Jules’ cell to retrieve him too but he was in such bad shape theydidn’t want to bother with him. To cover up what they’d been doing to him, theydoused him with an accelerant and set fire to him, hoping to destroy theevidence of their evil.”

“Oh my god, did he die?”

Ailyn shook his head. “No, he survived. Hisqueen healed him of the burns.” He let out a ragged breath. “He’s here onTheristes but he keeps well away from the villagers, never allowing them to seehim. He is…” He wiped a hand over his face. “Before Cean got her hands on him,he was a nice-looking man. Now? Now, he is not a pleasant sight.”

“Oh Ailyn. What did she do to him?”

“It would be easier to tell you what shedidn’t do to him,” Ailyn said. “At some point, she broke every bone in hisbody. She tortured that man in ways you couldn’t begin to imagine. The mostrevolting thing was to somehow mesh a portion of her DNA with his, mutating hisbody and changing the complete physical structure. The results are horrifying.She performed her hideous experiments on him before she gave him a parasiteelse the queen would not have allowed his body to change as it did.”

“And she got away with it,” she said,shaking her head.

“No one knows where she went but Bakari puta five million cúirs bounty out on her. With the gods’ help, maybe oneday she’ll be brought to justice.” He shrugged. “Wherever she is, I don’t eventhink Morrigunia can touch her. The Burgon told us he won’t bother charging herwith her crimes if she’s ever found. He will simply burn her alive as she didJules.”

He fell silent and finally lay back down,putting his hands over his face. She could tell he was exhausted and got up toblow out the candle again. Returning to the bed, she held her arms out.

“Come here, ehemann,” she said. “Letyour lady hold you.”

Ailyn turned over so his head rested on herbreast. His right arm went over her waist, his right leg over her thigh. Hewent to sleep with her arms around him.

The next morning, they made the trek backover the mountain to Ailyn’s cave. They had another week and some odd daysbefore the LRC would return for Shanee and they wanted to spend it alonetogether. It was on the third night they were home that Shanee woke and couldnot get back to sleep. She tossed and turned then finally got up from theirpallet, not wanting to wake Ailyn for since his confession to her about Ceanand her assistants, he had been sleeping soundly all through the night.

Brewing herself a cup of tea, she took themug and walked outside the cave and to the banks of the stream. She sat down ona rock, stretched out her long legs and took a sip of the piping hot beverage.There was a full moon overhead and the water was like a silver ribbon as itflowed past the place where she sat.

It was the sudden cessation of the chirpingand clicking of insects that caught her immediate attention. The night air wasperfectly still, not a leaf rustling on the trees. Turning her head slowly tothe left, she was surprised to see a crouched figure passing