Kady's Vengeance

Larena sat by Kynyr's bed, clasping and unclasping her hands. Her confidence had begun to waver the moment she found herself alone with him. Giving an injection seemed far more complicated than slipping a few drops of poison into his food and drink at every opportunity as she had been doing for weeks. She dreaded the possibility of being caught and likely hanged for it. Her people did not hang pregnant bitches – no, they put them in a cell until the bitches delivered their cubs and then they hanged them. Larena rubbed her neck, imagining the feel of the noose around it.

Nervousness magnified the task in her mind until it seemed as if it would take forever to complete. Although Larena had seen Sha and Kady administer the injections, the thought of doing it herself intimidated her. The longer that she postponed doing it, the more likely she was to be caught. Larena rose from her chair and stepped into the antechamber, scanning the room, and trying to decide the best way to prevent anyone from walking in and catching her in the act.

She locked the outer door, and dropped the bar across it. Lycan homes tended to have excessive amounts of security compared to those of humans. Where a human would have a bar across the doors to the outside only; lycans tended to have them across many private rooms within their dwellings also. Larena ran her fingers along the bar. If anyone discovered the locked door, she would simply tell them she had gotten frightened.

Yes, that's it. I got frightened. After all, they're saying that Searlait's drowning might not have been an accident. There's been murders and rumors of murders all around me.

In an effort to control her nerves, she reminded herself that Malthus had promised this would be the last thing he asked of her. He would send her away to a wonderful place where she would be treated like royalty because she carried his child. Her hand went to her rounded belly and caressed it. All her dreams would soon come true.

Larena returned to the bedroom. She took the box from her pocket and laid it on the nightstand, opened it and took the syringe out. Her hand trembled. She stepped to the bedside and stared down at Kynyr's sleeping face.

"You were so handsome. Now you look like a corpse."

She wrinkled her nose. If Kynyr had been given his usual dose of Narcantha, then it would be hours before anything short of an earthquake could wake him. Larena flicked the edge of the blanket back. She glanced at the syringe, and depressed the plunger a tiny bit to see how it worked. Larena held the needle close to his bicep and hesitated for an instant. Gathering her nerve, she jabbed it in quick with a motion like throwing a dart at a board, lost her tentative grip, and winced. The syringe had gone deep and jutted from his arm. Sucking in a sharp breath, Larena grasped it again and pushed the plunger all the way to the bottom, emptying the contents into him.

She withdrew the syringe and stood back trembling with relief. It had been easier than she expected. A sense of triumph followed swiftly on the heels of her first reactions, making her giddy. All that remained to be done was to hide the syringe and unlock the door.

"No more Kynyr. Always calling me a slut. Treating me like shite."

Kynyr gave a wheezing groan and convulsed, his chest heaving. Pain forced him back to consciousness. "Larena… aaah gahd."

"Hurting, dear Kynyr?" Larena sneered, brandishing the empty syringe. "Would you like a little more?"

"Whaaat … have … you … done?" He groaned, his limbs trembling and then seizing up again.

"Killed you."

He tried to speak, and failed as the convulsions worsened, racking his body.

The doorknob rattled. Someone pounded on it, and then Trevor's voice shouted. "Open the door, Larena! Open it now!"

Larena's lips parted. She hyperventilated in panic, glancing from Kynyr's thrashing body to the outer door and back again. "Die faster, damn you."

Her gaze fell upon the syringe. She fumbled, trying to get it back in the box. She could not get her fingers to work right as fear flooded her.

"Please don't kill him, Larena. Please." Cooley's voice begged her, nearly drowned out by Trevor's assault on the door.

It burst into flame and fell away into ash.

Larena shrieked, threw her hands up, and the box flew from her fingers, skidding across the threshold into the next room. The lid popped off and the syringe rolled across the carpet.

She met Trevor's enraged eyes for an instant and defiance flared. "He's dead. He deserved it."

Larena slammed the bedroom door, locked it, and dropped the bar. She headed for the window as she shifted into her hybrid form.

GODWAR CENTRAL

Kady's Vengeance