Sumner looked at her then, right into her eyes. It was like looking into the abyss. "Why have my people been taken prisoner?"
A grimace stretched across her lethal teeth. A smile? He couldn't tell. "You trespassed upon our feeding ground."
"Feeding ground?" He was amazed he still had the capacity to feel horror.
"One of a thousand such worlds," she hissed again, dismissing his shock with a wave of her talons. "All living things must eat, in this I'm sure we are similar."
As similar as a man to a shark.
She drew closer, her fetid breath washing over him and making him want to retch. "You feel hunger even now. I can sense it. Yet you resist. Why?"
"Why do you care?"
"Hunger is distasteful." She moved away, circling him again.
Sumner let his eyes slide back to Toran's body, slumped in a chair at the table. Had they made the man eat before they killed him? "It looks like the food didn't agree with him."
The Wraith stared at the corpse, then her dead eyes returned to him and her lips stretched into that parody of a smile again. "There we are quite dissimilar, Colonel Sumner," she whispered. "We do not require our food to agree with us."
Holy Mary Mother of God, had she eaten the man?
A soft noise from far above drifted down, distracting him. He glanced up but saw nothing, and when he looked at the Wraith again she had stepped back. Behind her he saw two others, significantly larger. Warriors. Her tone had changed, and she regarded him with more disdain than previously. "What do you call your world?"
Like he'd ever tell- "Earth." The word slipped out as if he'd dropped it.
"It is not among our stars."
"No."
She drew closer again. Hungry, Sumner thought. She was hungry. "Tell me of Earth." Her nostrils flared, as if she were breathing in his scent. "How many more are there of your kind?"
I won't say.
"Thousands, millions?"
More. The word rang in his head, fought to get to his lips. But he wouldn't speak it. He would not speak it!
"More?" Her eyes flashed with unspeakable desire. "How many?"
She was in his head. Billions. No, no, I won 't say it. I won't say it! She was in his head, making him say the word. Making him speak. Sweat trickled through the short hairs at the back of his neck, down the sides of his face. I won't say it…
The Wraith just smiled. "Our feeding ground has not been so rich in ten thousand years."
His knees were beginning to shake, his whole body crumpling under the force of her mind in his head. "Your will is strong," she hissed, nodding toward the husk that had been Toran. "This one begged for its life."
"Is that…" It was an effort to form a word, to make his rigid jaw work. "Is that the treatment I should expect for myself and for my people?"
Her gaze slid to the warriors at her back. "As I said, all things must eat."
"Then we're done talking."
Closer now, he could feel her inside his head like a dark fist clamped around his mind. "I think not…" she murmured, and his fingers clenched, aching to strike at that demon face, to see her broken and bleeding on the ground. But he couldn't move, he couldn't move a damn finger. He could barely breathe. "Kneel."
I won't I won't I won't I His knees collapsed as if cut, and he fell to the floor at her feet. She reached out, her clawed fingers touching his face and head. They felt cold, clammy and revolting. He tried to jerk away, but he couldn't move. He couldn't damn well move. Her hand was on his chest now, caressing him like a lover. He wanted to vomit, he wanted to scream, he wanted to kill the bitch.
"I have not tasted such strength in so long…" Her fingers knotted in his shirt, and she ripped it from his chest.
"Go to hell!" he spat, with all the strength he could muster.
Her face moved closer, so close he could see the saliva dripping from her fanged teeth as she peeled back her lips and whispered, "Earth first."
And then her fingers stabbed deep into his chest and all he could feel was pain and fear and horror, stretching on for an eternity as his body began to crumble away from him…
Not like this. His head flung back, a scream ripped from his throat. Not like this!
"How many years must I take from you," the Wraith hissed into his face, "before you tell us what I wish to know?"
He felt weak, faint, a blaze of agony coursing through his limbs as she sucked the life out of him. He could feel it, like blood pooling on the floor. He'd seen men die like this, bleeding out where they lay in the dirt.
"Or shall I take them all?"
Her fingers bit deeper, the agony tripling and tearing another scream from his throat. But he wouldn't give in, not while he lived. Not ever.
"Where is this new feeding ground?" she demanded, and he could sense her frustration. Sense her fear.
He was seeing everything through a grey haze now, faded and distant. Death was coming, it hovered above, waiting to take him. But not yet. Forcing his eyes open, he croaked his defiance. "I won't…"
It was all he had left.
The scream echoed through the corridors, bouncing off damp walls and filling Sheppard with cold fear. It was a man's scream, and that man could only be Sumner. He didn't want to know what could make someone like the Colonel scream, but he damn well wanted to make it stop.
Bolting toward the sound, Sheppard suddenly found himself on a balcony overlooking a huge room. Above him the ceiling stretched up into a honeycombed point, but what captured his attention was the scene playing out below.
Sumner was on his knees, and one of the Wraith had her hand on — or in? — his chest. His head was flung back and he was screaming in obvious agony, while her face contorted in pleasure. Freaking monster… Sheppard swung his weapon up without hesitation, switched it to single-shot, and sent three bullets right into the creature's back. Barn, bam, bam.
She went down and lay still, her body shielding Sumner. Satisfied, Sheppard moved onto the big guys behind her in the room and took out one in a hail of automatic gun fire, while the other-
A hideous, alien screech sliced the air and the Wraith — the female — reared up and seemed to dig her fingers right into Sumner's chest. He screamed again and again, the sound inhuman and tortured. It turned Sheppard's blood to ice.
How the hell had that not killed her? Three bullets, right to the chest! But as he watched… Sonofabitch, the bullet holes were sealing themselves up. Healing themselves! And Sumner… He was shaking, his face changing before Sheppard's eyes, his body aging as the creature sucked the goddamn life out of him! Sickened, utterly freaked-out, Sheppard took aim again. This time she'd die, this time-
Sumner looked up with his rheumy, old-man's eyes and stared right at Sheppard. Not like this, his eyes begged. Don't let me die like this…
Understanding, but shaken to the core, Sheppard moved the sights of his weapon away from the Wraith and onto Sumner. I'm going to kill a man… I'm killing one of my own. But there was no choice. He squeezed off a single shot and watched the bullet scorch through the Wraith's hand where it lay buried in Sumner's chest.
With a screech, the Wraith pulled her hand away and Sumner slumped forward. Dead. He looked about ninety, his whole life drained by the monster who stood over him nursing her blackened talons. And suddenly her empty eyes were fixed on Sheppard. Even from this distance he could sense her power and her rage as she shrieked again and-
Something sharp and electrical jabbed hard into his back. A flash flood of heat scorched through his mind, sending him spiraling down into darkness. All that was left were shadows and through them he heard the Wraith's outraged hiss, like an angry snake. "Bring him."
Then everything went black.
Chapter Nine
The Major had said twenty minutes. Ten minutes in, ten out. Ford glanced at his watch and cursed silently. Fifteen minutes already; if Sheppard wasn't on his way back, he wouldn't make it in time. If he was on his way back, then why hadn't he reported in?