"Death Row 03 - The Avenger" - читать интересную книгу автора (Black Jaid)

“I do not know,” she interrupted. “I had never seen the woman before, nor have I seen her since.” She shook her head. “She said…things to me, Kerick. Things that made no sense. Things I didn’t really believe until the truth found me in the form of Kora Williams Riley.”

His head shot up. His body stilled. “What do you mean?” he softly inquired.

She sighed. “Kora was captured by Your brother while she was hunting for me. She came into the catacombs that day to retrieve me that I might finish the serum.”

Here’s where her decision would be made, she worriedly thought as she prepared to tell him the total truth. If he refused to aid her, whether out of denial or from a sense of misguided protection, she knew what her choice would have to be. Her heart was beating so rapidly she feared she might faint. “Kora works for the female Underground,” she informed him. “She is a scientist within the Xibalba.”

Kerick blinked. “The Xibalba?” He frowned. “I have heard of it, of course, though it is unlikely such a place exists.”

“Kerick—”

“Kora is a liar,” he said abruptly. “Nellie, think on it. If there were free, unclaimed wenches roaming about the Underground, do you not think they would have been found and ferreted out long ago by men desperate for wives?”

Her lips pinched together in a disapproving fashion. “Perhaps these females are too well-trained to be caught by just anybody.” Her teeth gritted. “Least of all by men,” she spat.

She could have sworn she saw him smile, but if he had he quickly steeled himself to normal. “Laugh if You will,” she hissed, “but I know where this place is. Furthermore, I am going there to finish the serum. With You or without You.”

His eyes narrowed. “Do not threaten Me, little one.”

“Then do not mock me.”

He nodded, conceding the point. “Fair enough.”

She sighed, suddenly feeling tired. “I’m serious in that I must go. Kora is infected,” Nellie whispered. “I’m certain of it.”

He closed his eyes briefly and took a breath in such a way that Nellie became chillingly aware he too had suspected as much. “I admit I knew there was something not right about her. I just hadn’t realized until this moment what that something was.”

“She is pregnant,” she reminded him, her stare unblinking. “Time is of the essence.” She blinked, then swallowed hard. “Will You aid me or will You force my hand into finding yet another way to flee from You?”

Kerick frowned as he regarded her. “I will take you to where you believe this Xibalba exists,” he murmured. “Though I fear you will be gravely disappointed.”

Nellie smiled, confident of anything but. “Thank You,” she said quietly.

His eyebrows slowly rose. “For now I will let the issue of your lies to me go unpunished. But know, Nellie, that this subject is neither forgotten nor over.”

In other words, he intended to punish her. He would leave her to wonder over when and how. Her chin thrust up defensively. “Let us be gone,” she said a bit tersely. “The Crossroads is a long journey from these catacombs.”



Chapter 38


And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death… and with the beasts of the earth.

* * * * *

He must have imagined her. Either that or a gorgeous unclaimed wench had just disappeared right out from under his nose.