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Chapter Eight

B enet had knocked out a satisfying, grueling practice today, finishing with power lifting in the athletes’ village weight room.

He was heading to his apartment in a satisfied mood, on top of which Dmitri had sent him a com he expected tonight’s event to end early and he’d be coming to visit Benet for a while.

Since Dmitri’s life currently revolved around Marushka, Benet hoped his friend would be bringing her with him.

He saw so little of Marushka now and there was no chance to be intimate so he’d take whatever snippets of time he could get with her and be grateful.

The area of the village where his apartment was located seemed strangely empty tonight and Benet’s instincts fired the closer he got to his building.

Even so, the men waiting managed to take him by surprise.

There must have been ten thugs wielding clubs and although he killed the first man to run at him, the others piled on and he knew he was in deep trouble.

With no one to watch his six, he couldn’t defend himself adequately and although he sent more than one assailant reeling away clutching a broken arm or howling in pain from a direct blow to a sensitive area, he was getting pummeled unmercifully.

The attackers were mostly silent and once they got him on the ground the blows rained down, augmented with kicks from heavily booted feet.

He curled up to protect his vital organs as best he could and clung to consciousness.

There were no sirens or screams. No one was out strolling or running errands and no one was going to call for help for him.

When the remaining attackers withdrew, taking their dead and wounded with them, one man squatted beside Benet, yanking his head off the ground by the hair to get his attention. Benet could hardly see him for the blood pouring from his various wounds.

“Prince Vasili sends his regards,” the man said with a laugh. “Let’s see you use your magical powers of healing to recover from this, Badari. The betting is you can’t, odds are high you aren’t even the same species as Dmitri, despite what he and Nichevsky are saying.”

“Fuck you,” Benet said despite his split lip and broken jaw.

His enemy allowed Benet’s head to drop against the hard ground. One final kick to the ribs for good measure and the man sprinted away.

Benet didn’t know how long he lay still but he was getting cold and the growing realization crept over him that he was going to die in this spot if he didn’t move.

He refused to die in the street like a dog.

Getting to his feet unaided was impossible so he crawled in fits and starts until he reached the building.

He was able to leverage himself to his feet against the wall despite the pain spiking in every inch of his body and got through the door.

The halls were as deserted as the grounds had been but he wasn’t expecting help now.

Obviously residents in this area had been warned off tonight.

He was going in and out of consciousness but the innate stubbornness which had served him so well all his life kept him moving until he got to his apartment and opened the door.

Then he toppled to the floor, completely out of strength.

His thoughts as he shivered and the world grew ever darker around him were of Marushka and he prayed to Lords of Space for her not to be the one who found his body.

Tonight’s entertainment at the imperial palace had been a play, to be followed by refreshments and mingling.

Dmitri had been restless the entire evening, his beast snarling and prowling and insisting they needed to be somewhere else.

In his long centuries living in Outlier he’d attended many such performances and while they usually bored him, he’d never felt this kind of agitation before.

Marushka kept shooting glances at him as he fidgeted behind her chair.

“What is the matter with you?” she asked when the applause for the end of the final act would cover her words.

“I need to go. Something’s wrong,” Dmitri said. “I know it. You’ll be fine for the rest of the evening, stick close to the empress and her ladies in waiting. I’m out of here.”

She snagged his arm. “I don’t understand any of this.”

“I think the goddess is telling me I’m needed elsewhere right now. Please, devochka, let me be on my way.” His talons were close to deploying of their own volition, which he’d rarely experienced before, not to be used against her but in response to the agitation roiling his nervous system.

Eyebrows raised, she noted the tips of his massive claws were visible. “You can’t display those in here.” Marushka kept her hold on him and got them both walking quickly toward the nearest exit, which led to a garden. Once they were outside, she stopped. “Does this have to do with Benet?”

“It must,” Dmitri said, all his worries crystallizing. “I think he’s in trouble.”

“Come on then, there’s no time to waste.” She picked up the massive embroidered and embellished skirt of her gown and broke into a run, heading through the garden and toward the groundcar parking lot. “We can take the vehicle assigned to me—it’ll be quicker than going to the village on foot.”

Swearing under his breath, Dmitri chased after her. “I don’t think you should come with me if I’m going into an unknown and dangerous situation.”

“Nonsense,” she said over her shoulder as she sprinted. “You might need my help.”

“I’ll go ahead and get the groundcar.” He gave up on arguing with her and ran ahead, using his Badari speed.

He was briefly tempted to drive off and leave her behind because he was sure whatever he was walking into wasn’t going to be anything she should see or be involved in but she’d never forgive him and she’d probably try to steal another vehicle, which would cause all kinds of additional complications.

He had her limousine initiated and waiting with the door open as she emerged from the garden, skirts hoisted to a scandalous height.

Marushka slid into the seat as if they were bank robbers and pounded the console. “Go, what are you waiting for?”

He accelerated before the door was completely closed.

The athletes’ village was relatively close to the palace and there was hardly any traffic so Dmitri accomplished the drive in record time. He parked neatly in a space next to Benet’s building and shut down the groundcar as Marushka climbed out.

She stopped dead and he rushed around the vehicle to her side. “What is it?”

“Blood,” she said, pointing to a large smear on the wall of the building and more on the door. Hand to her mouth, she whispered. “Oh, Dmitri, what happened here?”

With his excellent Badari senses and night vision, he observed signs of a fight fairly close by and a large pool of blood staining the pavement.

He picked up the scent of many men high on adrenaline and aggression, among them Benet’s.

Yanking open the portal, he grabbed her by the arm and entered the building in a rush.

They took the gravlift to Benet’s floor and Dmitri took note of the fact no one was around.

He could detect people behind some of the doors and grimly applauded their good sense in remaining uninvolved.

Matters of this sort on Outlier were best left to the authorities, who would tell the populace what to believe later.

No good came of getting involved in private hostilities.

He feared Benet had been the target of tonight’s attack, rather than an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He had Benet’s access code and pounded it into the console so hard he thought he might break it.

The portal tried to open and jammed halfway.

Dmitri smelled the fresh blood and swore in Badari as he forced the panel the rest of the way open, shoving Benet’s body out of the way as it went.

He was across the threshold and on his knees next to the gladiator in a heartbeat.

“Is he—is he dead?” Marushka wailed, stepping inside. Heedless of her dress she knelt beside Benet and stretched out her hand to touch him but hesitated, as if afraid to hurt him further.

“No,” Dmitri replied, able to hear the stuttering heartbeat with his Badari ears. “But he’s in a bad way.”

Glancing around wildly, Marushka located the com unit and started to get up. “We have to call the authorities, get him to a hospital?—”

Locking his fingers into a tight bracelet on her wrist, Dmitri stopped her. “That’s the last thing we can do.”

“Are you insane?” She gestured at Benet’s bent, bruised form. “He needs more help than we can give him. Let me go.”

“Think, devochka. If we call anyone Benet will end up dead. Your father had him kidnapped because he believed Benet to be a Badari like me. If this were me and I’d been beaten into this state a few hours ago, I’d already be walking and talking again, with the more minor injuries healed, the bones mending and the major damage well on its way to being fixed.

That’s what a Badari body does . I’d be in pain but nothing to speak of for one like me.

Benet isn’t Badari and if we call for help, your father will know he isn’t and then?—”

“He’ll have Benet killed,” she said in a monotone, eyes wide. Marushka collapsed into a heap on the floor. “Then there’s no hope for him, is there? I’ll have to watch the man I love die tonight, is this what you’re telling me?”

“We’re going to help him survive this.” Dmitri spoke with more confidence than he actually possessed but surely the goddess wouldn’t have told him what magic his blood carried if it wasn’t going to be sufficient to solve this crisis.

“How?” Her voice was broken and she took one of Benet’s bruised hands in her own, pressing it to her cheek.

“The Great Mother told me my blood was the answer,” Dmitri said. “At the time of the vision I had no idea what the question was going to be but now I know. My blood can save Benet’s life.”