The Kraken King Part IV: The Kraken King and the Inevitable Abduction by Meljean Brook

Author:Meljean Brook [Meljean Brook]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Romance, Paranormal
Amazon: B00HZ1E68E
Publisher: InterMix
Published: 2014-05-06T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

She was warm and sick and blind.

Zenobia opened her eyes to darkness. Strong arms cradled her tight against a broad chest. Nausea curled in her stomach and her head pounded, as if she’d drunk too much wine.

But she hadn’t. She’d been kissing Ariq.

Now she was on an airship. The muffled vibration of an engine sounded from behind her. She sat sideways on Ariq’s lap, her bare feet on a cold metal floor.

Kidnapped again.

Kidnapped by idiots. They’d brought Ariq with her. If they’d valued their lives as much as they valued a ransom, they’d have left him behind.

As if sensing that she’d awoken, he tilted her chin up before sliding his hand around to support her nape. His fingers pushed into her hair. His chest was bare. Only warm, dense muscle lay under her palm. Their kidnappers had taken them as they were.

She swallowed, forcing moisture into her dry throat. “Are we alone?”

“Yes.” Gently, his callused fingers massaged the back of her neck, as if he knew how much her head hurt. “You’re all right?”

Mostly. She nodded against his hand. Blurred memories were flooding in, of Ariq’s mouth on her breast, of words flying from her mouth on dizzy laughter. “What happened?”

“They pumped a mixture of gases into the room.”

“What gases? Were we poisoned?”

“No. I don’t know their names in French.” His voice was calm. So calm. As if he’d been kidnapped before, too—or intended to break everyone aboard this airship in half. “One is called a giggling gas.”

“I know of it.” She’d once written an adventure where Archimedes had felled a villainous surgeon with it. Archimedes Fox and the Laughing Death. And this was all wrong. They’d been clever enough to use gas instead of trying to fight Ariq, but they’d brought him along? “I don’t think this is another kidnapping. Do you know who took us?”

“Rebels,” he said. “We used that technique to remove people from enclosed spaces—usually homes—so that we could go in and out with a minimum of casualties.”

So they’d come for Ariq, not for her. Something related to the marauders. “Then they want you alive.”

“Yes.”

And her, too? Why?

Her mind didn’t have to race far to think of another reason—but it was one that she’d barely begun to believe herself. And her memories were fogged. Maybe she’d only dreamed it.

The sick tension in her stomach curled tighter. The rebels would have had to monitor the effects of the gas in some way. Too early, and she and Ariq wouldn’t be asleep. Too late, and they would suffocate. “Before they took us, would they have been listening to us?”

“They were listening,” he confirmed softly and held her closer.

Then they’d heard everything. Who she was. That Ariq had read her letters. Her anger and hurt. None of that mattered. Because it was the last thing he’d told her that they could use against him.

Unless she’d dreamed it.

Heart pounding, she made herself ask. “Did you tell me you were falling in love with me?”

“Yes.” His hand stroked down her back.

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