Hooking a chair with a foot, Trips settled, folded his arms on the edge of the bed, rested his chin on them. “It was a really dumb move, man.”
Tis sighed, shifted, searched for a comfortable position. “I know, but at the time my good sense was being subsumed by raw panic.”
“I can dig that, but Jay was ready. We weren’t going to let him take you.”
“That’s all very well, but I didn’t know Jay was there.”
“Besides, Zabb had a backup plan. He was going to use one of my friends to rescue you.”
Her laugh was more like a yelp of pain than humor. “Rescue me? Oh, that’s rich. I’m certain his rescue would have been as assiduous as his attempts to recover my body.”
“Don’t be an idiot, cousin,” Zabb said from the doorway. He sauntered into the room and dropped into an available chair, lounging comfortably. “Of course I’m not going to help you. You become male – we become enemies again.”
“What makes you think we’re not now?”
“That still does not mean I wish to see you in the hands of that madman -”
“No, you’d like to see me dead,” Tis accused.
“With every breath you accuse me, but every breath you draw is a gift from me. If I wanted you dead, you would be dead. And by the way, you can be a real bitch.” Zabb held up a restraining hand. “No, don’t reply, we have more important matters to discuss. Your little… performance has shattered my painstaking and carefully constructed alliance.” He cocked his head reflectively. “Ilkazam versus every other House on Takis. What a delightful situation.”
“I don’t care. He’s never touching me again.”
Mark nodded in vigorous concurrence.
“I understand that. I would never let you go back to him, but Blaise’s ‘touching’ thus far has been quite sufficient to place us in a most contradictory position.”
Mark didn’t understand. He looked to Tisianne for clarification, but she had the same confused expression that he suspected was on his face. Zabb stared at the mound of the woman’s belly, raised one brow. Mark watched as all the color drained from Tisianne’s face. The ace catapulted out of his chair and tried to grab her hand. She fended him off.
“No… oh, no.”
Zabb leaned in for the attack. “Blaise has to legitimize his attack on us. This experiment in alien social engineering is one excuse – House Ilkazam is all that stands between the Tarhiji and the coming of the Ideal. But that abomination you’re carrying is a rallying point. I am keeping a man from his child. I am now the outlaw. It’s a simple, emotional issue easily understood by the mind blind, and easily exploited by the Zal’hma at’ Irg.”
“You’re going to give the baby to Blaise?” Mark asked. Disbelief sent his voice careening into a higher octave.
“Ideal, no.” Zabb turned back to Tisianne. His eyes were soft, his tone wheedling. “Come, Tis, you’ve been doing so well. You understood the necessity of removing Shaklan. This is -”
“My father was already dead! There was no future, just continuance! My baby -”
“Is defective.”
“No! There is nothing that puts her beyond genetic norms -”
“Except her breeding! If we have any hope of rebuilding an alliance, it will be with the most conservative Houses, people terrified of the changes Blaise is wreaking on our world, our culture. If this child lives, you are supporting Blaise’s position. Politically she is a total liability. Do it, Tis, for the House, for the family!”
“If the survival… of Takis… depended upon… my killing… my baby… well… you’re all dead!”
It wasn’t sobs that broke the words. It was a horrible choking that cut deeper than tears. Tisianne drove her fists over and over into the mattress, then threw back her head until the tendons were etched in her throat and began ripping at Zabb. The foulest, cruelest epithets were hurled at him. Most hit.
No one can hurt us like family, was Mark’s inane little thought as he tried to figure out how to take command of the situation.
There was no warning. Something just snapped. A lunging stride, and Zabb had Tisianne gripped by the throat and had yanked her half out of the hospital bed. Her shrill scream of terror didn’t even slow Zabb.
He shouted down into her face, “I was going to make this easy. Not now. You’ll birth this monster. I’m going to stand there and watch, and then I’ll take the creature bloody from between your legs and kill it then and there!”
Trips gripped Zabb’s hands. Exerted pressure between the Takisian’s thumb and forefinger. With a shout of anguish, Zabb released Tisianne. She slumped onto the pillows like a broken bird.
Maintaining the punishing hold, Mark began backing Zabb toward the door. “Get out of here… Get out of here now, or I’m going to kill you. I don’t even need my friends to help me do it. And there’s no mind control strong enough to push through the hate.”
Mark would always wonder what the Takisian saw in his face, for Zabb yanked free, whirled, and plunged through the door.
Mark’s long legs went scissoring in a stork-like, awkward run back to the bed. He gathered Tis into his arms, rocking, stroking, murmuring endearments into her hair. The husky little voice when it emerged from the folds of his coat staggered him with the depth of its calm.
“Mark, find Jay. Summon Lani, and bring the psi block. We have a great deal of planning to do.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“So… one of them needs my help. Ironic.”
Jay shifted uncomfortably. Stared at Hastet’s uncompromising back. Tried to interpret that oh, so careful, oh, so neutral, tone. Decided it wasn’t encouraging. So far this meeting wasn’t going as he’d expected – as he’d promised his fellow conspirators it would go.
“Tisianne isn’t really one of them. Not anymore. Not after all the years on Earth.”
Hastet bent, gathered up her pet. Only then did she turn to face Jay, and her expression was bitter. “My life’s already been ruined by them. But at least I had my life. Now you’re asking me to risk that too.”
“Hastet, you will be safe. No one will ever know that Tisianne was here. Hey, they didn’t know you slipped me into the big hop.”
“That’s because such an act was… was beyond comprehension. This! You must slip her from the House, you must travel into the city.” Jay was making wild scissoring motions with his arms like a referee trying to call a foul. “Into my house. The Mentatic Intelligence Service could be eavesdropping. And how am I to explain this infant? Burning Sky, I couldn’t birth her – they saw to that, and the neighbors know it too.”
“Okay, forget Tisianne. Forget about helping him… her. How about the baby? She sure as hell isn’t one of them. Doesn’t she deserve a chance to live? Isn’t it worth a little risk to give her that chance?”
“You’ve been with them too long. You’re starting to play mind games.” Her eyes had narrowed to calculating slits. She knew it would hurt him. He tried to ignore it. But damn it, it hurt.
Stung, he cried, “That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it? You are using the life of this infant, hoping I will associate its plight with that of my own dead child. That I will make a blow for freedom.” Her mouth twisted in a humorless smile. “To quote Blaise brant Gisele. Well, it’s a terrible trick, and I won’t be part of it.”
“Part of what?”
She’d gone prim. “Keeping a man from his child.”
She started to walk away, but before she’d traveled two steps, Jay had her by the arm and had swung her back around.
“You want to hear how that man sired his child? First he transferred your prince’s soul into a female body, and then he raped her. Comprende rape? He sexually assaulted her.” Her face had gone white, the dark eyes like a pair of bruises against her chalky skin. “Over and over again. Blaise is crazy, can’t you understand that? Hell, everybody on this planet is crazy. Zabb’s going to murder a baby for political advantage. Blaise is leading a revolution to get his hands on his grandfather so he can continue to rape her and impregnate her until it kills her. He doesn’t give a shit about the freedom of the Tarhiji, or the custody of this kid. He’s just destroying everything that Tisianne loves in this bizarre vendetta. You say you won’t be part of it – okay, fine! But I’ll be damned if I’ll be part of this shit either.” He whirled and went stomping for the door. “I’ll find somebody to help us.”