Page 22 of Black Star
Chapter Two
The amount of blood and destruction in Viktor’s cabin was unthinkable. When Rainer saw the vampire lying stretched out on the bed as if dead, blood smeared from his mouth down his neck and chest, he truly thought the tiny woman had managed to kill him. Then he saw the blood on Diamond’s neck and chest. And her thighs. The woman looked like she had been tortured.
Bloody hell! If Viktor was dead, he probably deserved it.
Ranier scooped her up and rushed to Medical. Her head lolled against his shoulder, lifeless. Her skin was a sickly pale, her lips almost disappeared into her face with lack of color, and she was cold. Deathly cold.
“Doctor!” Ranier was beginning to panic. It looked like this woman was dying in his arms. “Help her!”
The ship’s doctor, Mahat Zabin, took one look at Diamond and snatched her from Ranier’s arms. He ducked into a surgical suite where four medical personnel swarmed around her, closing a med unit around her to give them a summary of her injuries.
“Her hemoglobin and hematocrit are critically low, Doctor,” one nurse read from a display. “She needs blood badly, but she doesn’t match anything we have on board. I’m not even sure we can synthesize it.”
The doctor looked at the readout, and his brows knitted together. “I can do it manually.”
“Manually?” The nurse gave him a look that said you’ve got to be kidding .
“Yes.” He turned from the display and went to a computer terminal. “Seal her wounds and stabilize her other injuries. Take special care with the tears and slight burn to her vaginal wall and external genitalia or she’ll form scar tissue, making it difficult for her to have pleasure during sex.”
“Doctor --” The same nurse put a hand on her hip and looked at him like she couldn’t believe what he was saying. “-- at this point, that’s the least of her worries.”
Doctor Zabin looked up from his work and gave the nurse a scathing look. “As a doctor -- or nurse -- our job is to not only save a life, but to ensure quality of life.” He clenched his fists. “If it is at all possible to put her back together the way she was before this happened, I intend to do it. Can’t you see how badly she’s been used? Assuming she decides at some point she wants sexual pleasure, make damned sure she can. If you can’t accept that challenge, I suggest you relieve yourself of duty.” The nurse simply shrugged before turning back to the patient.
“You.” Dr. Zabin turned to Ranier. “Find whoever did this and kill him.”
Ranier nodded, but there was nothing he could do. The Black Star had told Captain Singh to bring the girl to Viktor in the first place. Once she had been told the gravity of the situation, she’d seemed to know exactly what to do. Unfortunately, it looked like she’d been wrong.
Ranier turned to go, but a muffled moan from Diamond made him whip around and rush to her side. She opened her eyes slowly and found his. “Don’t approach him until he wakes. He’ll kill you if you do.”
“Looks like he just about killed you .” Ranier found her hand under the med unit and grasped it tenderly. “We’re too far from his home world and any relief he might find. I have to tell the captain how far gone he is. We may have no choice but to kill him before he kills someone or injures anyone else.” Ranier felt a sharp pain in his heart. Viktor was a sadistic asshole, but he was a fine warrior, and an even better friend… in his own sadistic asshole kind of way. The thought of ending his life was unthinkable, yet he managed to actually say the words without choking.
Not only that, but Diamond tugged at his heart as well. She was a strong woman. A brave woman. Yet vulnerable beyond belief. She needed something. Ranier wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but he had a feeling it had something to do with Viktor. It made him angry as hell. Viktor didn’t deserve a woman like this after his treatment of her.
He winced. Diamond was so lovely. He’d had thoughts of trying to win her for himself, but how could he possibly hope to have her after her experience with the vampire? Even if they had to kill Viktor, he’d likely haunt Diamond for the rest of her life after something like this. Ranier would only serve as a reminder.
“He won’t, Ranier.” She squeezed his hand slightly, and he was sure it was meant to be reassuring. “He’s in the Komanyar . The Sleep of Death. It’s a state all vampires enter after a Blood Frenzy. He shouldn’t wake for several hours.”
“Will he be back to normal?” Whatever that was. Ranier had the feeling he was about half crazy most of the time.
“No, but he won’t be as deeply in the Blood Burning as he was before. I’ll have to go to him several more times before it passes, and he’ll have to have his needs met regularly for a long time or he’ll slip back into it more easily and with less warning.” Her words were starting to slur now. “Just trust me. I can handle this.” She looked at Ranier with large, luminous green-flecked violet eyes, and he couldn’t deny her anything.
He sighed. “I’ll tell the captain. The decision is ultimately up to him, but I’ll put in a good word.”
Diamond nodded and smiled. “Thank you.” Ranier turned to leave, but her grip on his hand tightened. “You’ll come back for a while, won’t you?” There. That was the lost girl he’d suspected was inside the toughened, battle-hardened woman. “I mean, your presence is comforting. I like talking to you.”
“Of course.” He smiled, his heart breaking. “I won’t be long.” When her lip trembled, Ranier had to comfort her. Not caring that everyone in the suite was watching, he dipped his head to hers and kissed her lips tenderly, stroking her hair as gently as he could. “I promise.”
He noticed how her eyes widened slightly, but finally she smiled and nodded her head. Closing her eyes, she took one final deep breath before she slept. Ranier lowered his head once more and placed a kiss on her forehead. Sweet gods above! He wanted this woman. And, stars help him, he wanted to kill Viktor for what he’d done to her.
* * *
Viktor burned . Sweat dripped off his eyelashes and ran down his face in rivulets. He shouldn’t have watched the captain and his little stowaway fucking in her holding cell, but he couldn’t help himself. He needed sex like they’d had, only…
More. More intense. More violent.
It was the nature of the vampire.
The urgency had been muted somewhat since his encounter with Diamond, but he still didn’t trust himself. When he’d awakened to find her gone, he’d almost gone into a rage. How dare she leave him when he needed her like this! Then he remembered telling her to be gone when he woke. He knew he’d hurt her, but he also knew he needed to have her again. She was, quite possibly, the only person, man or woman, within a million light years who could take what he had to give and come out intact.
At least, he hoped she had. Even through the haze of the Blood Burning, her fate weighed heavily on his mind. She didn’t deserve to be abused by a vampire. No woman did.
When the chime rang softly, he snapped, “Enter.” Ranier stood outside his door, a furious expression on his face.
“She thought you’d sleep for several hours. Why are you awake?”
“She was gone. My body recognized it and came out of hibernation.”
“You almost killed her, you know.”
“I figured as much.” Viktor tried to control his tone as much as possible, but he still heard a waver that shouldn’t have been there. “She will survive, then?”
Ranier scowled and entered his cabin. The door whooshed closed behind him. “Barely. How could you possibly do that to her? She was trying to help you!”
“Ranier, do you know anything about vampires?”
He pushed a hand through his hair before answering. “I know more than I ever wanted to know, including what you’re going through. I know I sound petulant, but even though you’re quite possibly the best friend I’ve ever had, I still cringe when I think about what I walked in on earlier. Since I met you, I’ve always thought of you as completely in control. Even when we knew you were pushed beyond your endurance, I still never thought you were capable of anything like that.”
Viktor had to sink his fangs into his lower lip to keep from losing the fragile hold he had on his control. “I know you don’t understand, Ranier, but I did everything I was capable of doing, including giving her a way out. She refused to take it -- even taunted me with her willingness to let me fuck her into oblivion. I happen to believe she knew exactly what she was getting into. I regret it, but I can’t change it.”
The smaller man paced the room a couple of times before turning back to Viktor. “I was going to the captain to recommend we destroy you, no matter how much the thought sickened me, but Diamond made me promise I wouldn’t. She said you’d be better after this.” He raised an eyebrow. “Are you?”
“I am.” Viktor could say that without hesitation. “But I’m far from past the crisis. If I’m lucky, I can hold out until we get to Draggoon. Once I’m on my home world, I can get the relief I need.”
“Then maybe I can keep my promise and tell the captain you’re getting better and do so with a straight face.” He sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair again. “I have to lock you in, Viktor. You understand?”
The hurt and confused young man stomped out of Viktor’s cabin and Viktor heard the soft chime of the security locks enabling. He wasn’t sure how far they were from Draggoon, but if it was too far, and Diamond was gone too long, Ranier might regret letting him live.