Baited (Gladiators of the Gryn #2)

Blayn

BLAYN

I growl as loud as I can at the Zarvu, making them back off.

“This isn’t right, ,” Izzy says. “Maybe if I talk to the procurator or the captain.”

“It won’t do any good,” Rych says, standing a short distance away, his face like stone. “Unless you have enough credits to make it worth his while.” He flicks his wings back. “If it’s any consolation, I don’t want to go either.”

I growl at him also. I don’t want anyone other than Izzy near me.

“.” She runs her soft hand down the side of my face, drawing my attention. “We’ll figure this out. I’m not going to let them ship you anywhere they please. I’ll petition the council if I have to.”

I rub at my chest. “Hurts.”

Her eyes are full of water. “It hurts me too, my love. Please, please don’t get yourself hurt and don’t make them torture you either,” she begs.

I’m unable to stop the snarl leaving my lips as the Zarvu come too close again.

“Vrex! You’d think they’d learn to keep their distance from a Gryn who isn’t compliant at the best of times,” Rych says with a wicked glint in his eye.

I’m starting to think he doesn’t have it together as much as he pretends he does. Which is good because I don’t intend vrexing behaving myself.

“Time to go. Get rid of the female,” the head Zarvu says.

“Touch her and lose your head,” I respond, not looking at him.

I have to remember Izzy. I have to sear her image onto my brain. Without her, the dark and the light will return once again.

“! Rych! On the transport now!” the captain bellows across the open area.

Izzy wraps her arms around me, putting her lips on mine so I can taste her one last time.

“This isn’t the end, , I promise.”

“I will come back to you, my eregri . That is my promise and my bond,” I reply.

She eases out of my grip. As unwilling as I am to let her go, I don’t want the Zarvu anywhere near her, so I take a deliberate pace away, and her arms drop by her sides.

“Come on, , before they stun us into submission,” Rych says gently.

I walk backwards, keeping pace with him until the Zarvu guards block out the sight of my Izzy and my entire body, my entire mind shuts down. The metal platform of the transport rings with our footsteps, but as the doors close, the dark and the light come flooding back.

“No!” I snarl, leaping for the crack which still allows her scent to reach me.

I jam my claws into the mechanism, as if somehow I can keep it open and keep her with me.

“Vrex! !” I hear Rych call my name, and glancing over my shoulder, I see one of the Zarvu slam a stun stick into his side.

He swipes it away and grasps the creature by the neck, lifting him from the floor.

A fight is what I need if I cannot return to my Izzy. I dive into the scrum of guards attempting to pull their weapons and send at least three flying across the transport floor.

“Cage the gawking Gryn!” someone shouts. “Cage them and put them out!”

There is no way anyone is putting me out. I spin around, opening my wings and unsheathing all my claws, bellowing out my rage and desire for violence. Pulsar bolts zip through the air, but they’re too slow for me, too clumsy, like the guards attempting to get hold of me, of Rych. Psy-whips are deployed, but both Rych and I are adept at avoiding the things in confined spaces.

Then something thumps into my thigh. I look down at the tiny bot which flashes blue for a second and then injects me with the contents of its load. I swipe at it, but I can’t see straight, so I miss, and it buzzes away as I drop to my knee.

Rych is in the same position, his bot peeling away from his neck. He huffs out three breaths and pitches forward, out cold.

I will not let this be the end. I glare at the Zarvu guard on the gantry above us, his hand over the bot controls as the things return to him.

“Take them away,” he snarls.

I return the snarl, only my lips don’t want to work. My wings have already given up, vrexing things, and as I try to stand, they pull me over, causing me to topple onto my side with a thump which ejects half of the breath from my body.

“I need my mate,” I rasp, grasping at the guards. “Please don’t take me from her,” I slur as my tongue ceases functioning.

“There’s only one place you’re going, Gryn,” one of them retorts. “And that’s somewhere you can sleep this off and cause no more trouble until we get to Sartak, where you won’t be our problem any longer.”