Chasing Dare Page 3

  “I have studied your people and your history for years in an attempt to figure out the problem that they are having reproducing. Since the records go back so far, I was able to determine that at one point in your history, one of your people actually mated with a Relian lord of lesser stature.”

  “It was this bloodline that had gone on to produce the warrior’s that they eventually became. Their clan had grown and defeated all the higher clans until they began to rule the planet. It was when they began tainting their original DNA with multiple species that they began having problems.”

  “It is your common ancestry and your ability to produce with these females, that will help me discover a way to make it work. I also would like to study your species as a matter of science and curiosity. Including the mating, which I believe you may be capable of with our Dare here.”

  “I’m very thorough in my research, and I was lucky enough to review the surviving records the Relian’s had on their observations of your people and the gifted and hybrid women. What little there was remaining; your people here have been very dedicated to making sure no records exist of them.”

  The doctor said the last with a smirk of respect. He considered himself a man of science, an intelligent man; and he could appreciate the intelligence of this man and his people. Which was something that was seriously lacking in the Relian’s like Brak that he’d been forced to deal with. He much preferred the company of the leader’s son, Grai. Then again, Grai was an original Relian of the warrior class, having been bred by the leader onto a captive Valendran woman who’d been kidnapped, long before they had been infected by the alien virus.

  It was Grai’s DNA and sperm that he was going to use to try to impregnate Dare. Grai’s was the closest thing to their original form, or at least the variation that Kalai wanted bred back into his people. Unfortunately, Kalai’s own samples could not be used. There was an unknown virus ravaging his cells, rendering them unusable. Grai was the next-best thing as the Second In Command of the Relian Empire, followed by his three younger brothers who had all been sired from the same Valendran woman.

  Balduen just stared at the man in silence, familiar with the legends and stories regarding the Relian’s history. Although he couldn’t say for sure if they were true or not, and it didn’t matter at this point.

  “I suggest you both give this some thought. I’ll be back later to discuss your decision.” The doctor nodded then walked to the door; his assistant turned red as her large hip caught on the desk as she stood up before hurrying after the doctor. Brak flipped his middle finger before slamming the door shut behind him leaving the room in silence.

  Balduen rubbed at his head as he felt the chemical slowly releasing its hold on his body and mind.

  Chapter Three

  “Was the history lesson true?” Balduen started at the sound of Dare’s voice behind him. Turning he saw that she was still laying on the mattress, but wide awake and staring at him.

  “How long have you been awake? How do you feel?” He asked carefully as he moved over to her side, wanting to make sure she was unharmed by the drug.

  “I was starting to come out of it when you got hit with it. Although I stayed furious in my head, my body and speech just wouldn’t cooperate. I hate that shit. We need to figure out where they put the implants.” Dare said bowing her head towards his chest to whisper, unaware that her nearness was wreaking havoc on Balduen’s nerves.

  “So what do you think of the little speech? I want to know your thoughts while I’m still calm enough to listen to reason.” Dare whispered hoping he could think of something she hadn’t to get them out of this.

  Balduen fought the urge to draw her into his arms and hold her and instead sighed and bent his head closer to hers. He breathed in her scent causing his beast to purr before forcing his mind to focus on the problem at hand and not how much he wanted to hold her and feel her soft skin.

  “I think our options are pathetically small right now. We don’t have any information that can help us formulate a plan either.” He felt helpless to protect her. It went against everything that had ever been bred into his people to allow her to be harmed in any way. However, there was no way he could stop it. She was right; they had to find the implants. Something felt very wrong when they used the drug on him, and he needed to be able to act if the situation presented itself.

  Dare just nodded her head, keeping it bent towards him while her mind raced with what they’d heard; what that evil bastard planned to do to her. He was right; their options were limited. Her abilities wouldn’t work in here on nothing but a mattress, and with the drugs knocking her down so quick, she wouldn’t have much of a chance to do anything if she was near weapons before she’d pass out again.

  They had no idea how many more Relian guards were here either, so there was a good chance; they'd be swiftly overtaken if they planned an assault. She hadn’t realized she was speaking aloud until Balduen answered her.

  “We need more information about where we are, and how many we’re dealing with before we plan something like that. Finding these implants with the drug that he was talking about is a necessity for any plan to be effective. I believe he keeps the control to the devices in his left pocket. I saw him reach into it right before we both began feeling the effects of the drug.”

  “Damn, that’s good to know. We need more helpful information like that. Is it true they’ve never been able to reproduce with one of us?” Dare asked a little nervously, wondering if he knew any more than she did about it.

  “I honestly don’t know that for sure Dare. I know that my commander and one of the hybrids just recently mated and could breed. But, we really haven’t been on the planet long enough to know too much about what has been going on here or about women like you.” Balduen hated that he had no plan and no useful information that could help them. His pride was taking some serious hits, and it only further inflamed his beast that the man was so helpless.

  Normally, his beast didn’t stir much during his everyday life, and when he did it was usually in regard to his protection and survival. Maybe it was being in captivity, but somehow his beast was becoming like an intermittent hum in the back of his mind.

  “I’ve never heard of it happening, and I know a lot of women that they’ve tried with that were able to escape.” Dare stopped herself from mentioning the girl Jess, that had been held captive the longest that they knew of, who’d helped many of them escape the horrors of the Relian’s attempts to breed with one of them. With all the cameras, she didn’t want them to know about the girl, or that she was helping others escape. She would die before she’d ever put another one of them in danger. She looked up at Balduen defiantly as he spoke.

  “It might not even be possible; which means we don’t know how many times they will try before they decide you’re no longer useful. So we need a plan pretty quick. We need to search ourselves for those implants without letting them know we are and figure out how to get them out.”

  “We also need to find out how many of them are here. To do that we have to get out of this room. They can’t do any of these procedures in here; they will have to take us out to do it. Even if they drug us just enough to keep us from escaping, we can still see where they are taking us and gather more information. If they have to knock us out we won’t learn anything. The longer we’re alive the better the chance we have of getting out of here.”

  Dare sucked in her breath and looked up into Balduen’s ice-blue eyes understanding immediately what he was saying to her. He looked away, unable to hold her stare as if ashamed that he even suggested it.

  Dare sighed and looked at her lap. He was right. They were going to have to play along with this, for the time being, until they figured out a way to escape or her father found them. They had to know what they were dealing with before they did anything stupid.

  That thought would have never bothered her before, not becoming a mother; however, as she stole a glance at the gorgeous blonde she wondered if some da
y, she wouldn’t mind having a child. One with ice-blue eyes that were so light they were almost creepy and irresistible at the same time and wavy blonde hair.

  Man, she couldn't believe she was even thinking something like that right now. She probably wouldn't be if she hadn't heard the doctor telling them that Balduen was already feeling a mating bond for her. Pushing those thoughts aside; she cleared her throat.

  “I agree that we need to go along with this and find out as much as we can, so we can escape. Stay as calm as possible. The doc seems like a talker, there may be a lot of information we can get from him that your people, and my father may need to know in order to defeat them and get them off my damn planet.”

  “So let’s make a deal to go along with this, find out everything we can and stay alive until we can escape. I don’t think they are going to be stupid enough to take us anywhere together. I think even with us drugged they won’t be that brave.”

  “We need to plan on being separated for these experiments of his and telling each other anything we’ve learned as soon as we are able to without being discovered so we don’t forget anything that may be important.”

  “Pay attention to everything. Even if it doesn’t mean anything to you, it may mean something to me and my people. I’ll be sure to do the same, in case there’s anything that may concern your people.”

  “It would help if we knew how long we’ve already been here. We need to figure that out to see how far they may have taken us from the alley. It will give me a better idea of where we could be.”

  Dare paused and looked back down at her lap. Trying to focus her mind on what she could do, was helping calm her fears over all the things she didn’t have control over.

  Balduen looked down at her head and shook his own in surprise and admiration. He’d already thought of most of that and had been waiting for her reaction to going along with it before discussing it with her.

  He had assumed that since her temper seemed to be pretty intense that she would immediately discard the idea of going along with it. She was a lot more intelligent, and in control than she let on. He knew what she would have to go through wouldn’t be easy for her to bear, and her courage was admirable.

  “I do believe that is our best course of action right now considering our lack of information and physical limitations due to the drug.” He tried to summon a smile as she looked up at him, but he was sure it didn’t look like he’d intended when she chuckled at him.

  “I’m not too happy about it either, but we both know our choices are pretty damn slim here. And I’m not inclined for the torture route if we can avoid it since it would only make it more difficult to escape.” Dare sent him a genuine smile before continuing.

  “Now we need to start looking for these damn implants. I’ll need you to search my back for me at some point since I can’t reach, and I’ll search yours for you. But, we can’t just start groping each other, or they’ll know what we’re doing. We have to comply remember?” Dare reminded him when he looked like he was ready to grab her.

  She smiled to herself, glad that he was attracted to her as well. She wasn’t sure if she really believed this mate garbage, but she wasn’t dumb enough to deny that she was seriously attracted to him and hoped he was to her as well.

  “Let’s try something more subtle shall we big guy?” Dare whispered before standing back up.

  Crossing her arms across her chest, she rubbed her arms as if chilled and began to pace the small room.

  “It’s really damn cold in here.” She muttered, continuing to rub her arms. She was really chilled in here; and it gave her an excuse to check her arms for the implant as well.

  He watched as she walked to the bed and grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around her before sitting back down on the mattress.

  “So tell me about yourself, your people… anything.”

  Balduen knew what she was asking; he needed the distraction as much as she did. Sitting down beside her, he put his hand on her back and began rubbing in small circles, applying just enough pressure to try to see if the implant was there. He hoped it looked like he was trying to help warm or comfort her, but he had to admit that touching her inflamed all of his senses.

  “The High Councilor of our planet is Ivint Torenson. He rules the planet with the other council members who are all elected by the people of their clans to represent them.”

  Dare allowed his voice to calm her nerves as she tried not to let the blanket move while she patted down every place that she could reach on her own body. Finally! There it was on her upper-right thigh, and she was no medical expert, but she knew it was really close to that major artery you could bleed to death from if it was damaged. Great… and they had to consider that they may also have loaded them with explosives as well as that damn drug. It was an easy and clean way to kill them if necessary and very smart. It just pissed her off even more.

  Dare turned her left side into Balduen’s body and put her right hand on his left shoulder, draping his lap with the blanket when she did. Keeping her head tucked into his neck as if hugging him, she used her left hand to feel the same location on his upper-right thigh, ignoring his sharp intake of breath and the slight shudder of his body. There it was. At least, they were consistent; she thought sighing.

  She looked up into his startled face and roughly tapped his thigh where his implant was until she saw the comprehension dawn on him. She quickly let go of him and stood back up. She had to get away from him for a minute. Touching his bare thigh under that silly hospital gown he wore had affected her a lot more than she had expected it to; in fact, holding him didn’t help matters much either.

  It took Balduen several moments before he could pull himself together enough to get rid of the huge erection he’d gotten at the feel of her cool hand caressing his upper thigh.

  He was dying to feel where Dare had found the implant, but knew that even with his arms in his lap to cover his reaction to her, he couldn’t without making it obvious that was what he was doing. Instead, he chose to look over the room again to keep his mind off of her touch, the feel of her holding him as she caressed him.

  Using the blanket as a shield, Dare stood at each of the walls and the corners, attempting to use her ability to test the strength of the cell. She wasn’t sure if they were even working or not. She didn’t feel that slight rush she always felt before her ability sparked. She tried it dozens of times, in dozens of different places until she finally became almost panicked and tried to use them to move the mattress.

  “Oh my God!” She whispered softly before she could stop herself. She’d always wondered what it would be like to not be able to move things with her mind, to be normal like everyone else. It had seemed so much more glamorous in her thoughts than it felt right now. She felt like someone had ripped out an important part of her, and she wanted it back!

  “What is it?” Balduen asked with concern when he saw the stricken look on her face.

  “They’re gone. They took my gift away.” Dare whispered roughly, her voice breaking.

  “What?” Balduen asked in shock. Could they do that? Take her gift? He wondered.

  “I can’t even move the mattress, nothing.”

  Balduen pushed down his own concerns and pulled her into his arms and tried to soothe her.

  “Little one it is probably the drug they are using on us that is blocking your ability. They can’t take away something that was given to you by someone much more powerful than all of us.” He really hoped that what he was telling her was the truth. He didn’t care if she had any gifts at all, but it obviously hurt her that she didn’t anymore, and he couldn’t stand that she was hurting. His beast growled in a slow rumble at her distress.

  “I really hope you’re right, Baldy.” Balduen was taken aback for a moment. Baldy?

  “My name is Balduen. Is it too difficult to pronounce? It’s hard to tell if it would be with the translators we’re using.” Balduen was curious if it was and looked blankly at Dare when she just l
aughed at him.

  “No, I can pronounce your name just fine Balduen. It’s a mouthful, so I decided to shorten it a bit like a nickname. You don’t mind, do you?” Dare challenged him with a mischievous grin.

  “No, I don’t mind at all.” He replied with a slow smile, even though on the inside his beast was jumping with glee. He wasn’t sure if she had felt a need to create a friendly normalcy between them, or if she really did want to shorten it. He just liked the way she said it; as if she cared. His beast howled happily at the thought.

  “At least we’re already making progress.” Dare said with another grin as her eyes moved downward between their bodies.

  When Balduen almost choked on his gasp, moved away from her quickly and sat down with his arms folded in his lap again, she rolled her eyes in pretended exasperation.

  “That’s not what I meant, you fool. I didn’t even notice that.” The lie did not come easy; it had been damn difficult not to notice that he had started to become hard again. However, she really had been thinking about the implants, more so as a way to distract them both from his arousal. Damn did that backfire quickly, she thought.

  Balduen couldn’t help it, and he burst out laughing. She was a terrible liar, and the flaming color on her face told him he was right.

  “Ugh! Don’t start being an annoying roomie already, or we’re gonna have problem's buddy!” Dare threw the blanket at him playfully and only got slightly irritated that he’d snatched it so quickly out of the air that it surprised her. The guy had some serious moves. Without the drugs, he’d be a lethal ally to have.

  “I promise to try not to annoy you too badly.” He replied with a grin. Standing quickly he wrapped the blanket back around her shoulders and gave them a squeeze of affection, before walking around the wall again.

  How strange, he thought. There was no natural light coming in through any crevices he could find in the concrete walls outside of their clear cell. Which confirmed to him that they were underground in a basement area like the one he’d found at the cabin that Cari and her uncle Randor had been staying in before she’d been captured.