Between Two Tiron (11 page)

can come with you regardless of the circumstances.”

She frowned, opened her mouth to tell them that she could take care of herself. Looking

up, she stared into two very intense stares. Nodding, she decided to take that up with them later.

Lina leaned back into the fabric chair, utterly relaxed. Pleasantly tired, she napped

lightly. As she lazed, the heat from the sun seeped into her and ease her minor aches. When she

was awake, she let the sun caress her face. They had come back to Nariu Minor in the Sendar

early in the morning after the formal joining.

Some things hadn‟t changed. Shard and Kaleb wanted their marks on display. To avoid

alterations to her wardrobe, she wore a sleeveless, thin-strapped green shirt and a long black

skirt. She was just glad that she had something other than her flight suits to wear. If they kept

mangling her wardrobe, it could get costly. To further aid their continued good humor, she had

bound her hair in a tight braid.

She turned her head as a crash broke the relative silence of the camp. Nerisa stormed out

of the Dura-tent she shared with the man who had claimed her. She secured the fastenings of her

green dress as she stalked away from the large tent. The dark-haired man hurried after her. He

stopped her a few steps away from the camouflage-patterned, hi-tech shelter.

“I don‟t understand and I never will!” Nerisa shouted, trying to wrench free from the

man‟s grip. “They hurt her, but she was smiling, cuddling into their arms when they got back

from the
Ovian
. She just sits there now as if nothing was wrong.”

“You will understand when—” the man began.

“Don‟t try to tell me that again.” She fought him, yet now calmly sat there as if she had

always been a part of the
thent
, as if the Ardin didn‟t tackle her and pin her. “You say they didn‟t hurt her. They left marks on her.” Nerisa stabbed her finger in Lina‟s direction.

“Those are mating bites.” Medina hesitantly stepped closer to the couple. “They are

natural, a physical sign of the mating. When you are full Santir, it will happen to you as well.”

“No…” Nerisa adamantly shook her head, a look of fear crossing her face.

Before Nerisa‟s mate could react to that denial, Shard‟s hand landed on his shoulder.

“Lina, why don‟t you go for a walk with Nerisa? Talk with her. Tell her about things.”

That wasn’t a suggestion
, Lina noted. She stood and went into the Dura-tent she now

shared with Shard and Kaleb. As she thought about the problem, she could understand part of

their reasoning. She was the woman Nerisa saw as mistreated. Her bag had been brought from

the Sendar along with a few of her personal things. Out of habit, she picked a few things from

the bag to take with her and stuffed them into different pockets on her skirt.

She gave a brief nod to Shard and Kaleb just before she walked past them. Kaleb‟s hand

reached out and patted her rounded ass. Lina ducked her head to hide the quick blush rushing up

her cheeks.

“Nerisa, would you like to come for a walk with me?” Lina stopped before Nerisa and

her mate. She wasn‟t so sure that she was the right one to talk about this with the woman. Gods,

she knew she wasn‟t. Not only hadn‟t she been reared in a
thent
, she wasn‟t so sure about the mating stuff herself. She had only formally met the woman after they‟d come back down to the

planet. “We can talk about what scares you so much.”

Nerisa nodded, stepping forward to Lina‟s side. Lina led the way out of the camp. She

remained silent until they were surrounded by lush thick bushes and the
vetin
and
darasi
trees of the towering forest. She chose a path away from the Santir camp and that of the researchers.

“I really don‟t know if I‟m the one they should have sent to talk to you about this.

Everything still feels a little unreal to me and I haven‟t made up my mind about anything.” She

shook her head. In truth, she still felt a little in shock over everything that had happened.

“Well, you‟re here.” Nerisa slanted a glance at her, but continued walking beside her.

“Yeah, I‟m here, but I have no idea what to tell you. I‟m just sort of going with the

current right now as far as the mating thing goes, because everything‟s happened so fast. I didn‟t

want a mate and don‟t know what to do with the two men who‟ve claimed me. I need time to

think.” Lina kept her eyes on the foliage around them, not wanting to blunder into anything

poisonous.

The truth was she was scared. She‟d seen their closeness. Even on a vid-screen it was

obvious that there was a lot more than sex and friendship there. She didn‟t know just where she

was supposed to fit in their life or if she even could. She wanted to be more than just easy sex to

them. Pushing aside a branch, she saw a small lake surrounded by trees. She led the way to a flat

rock and took a seat. Nerisa slid onto the rock beside her.

“Aren‟t you scared of them after what Ardin Shard did to you?” Nerisa tossed a

questioning look at her, impatiently brushing her brown hair back over her shoulder when it fell

into her eyes.

“No, they would never hurt me.” Lina took a deep breath and ran a frustrated hand

through her hair. She felt like a fraud. She wasn‟t even sure she would be staying with her own

mates yet she was supposed to convince Nerisa that everything was fine and normal. Well, she

wasn‟t going to lie to the woman. “But I am a little afraid of the situation. I‟ve never lived in a

real
thent
. I know most of the rules, but I don‟t know if I can take all of the restrictions that go with it. I am willing to give it some time.”

The damn men should have sent one of the women who‟d been mated for years. One of

them would have no problem with explaining everything and would be certain that most women

could make a very satisfying life among the Santir. That woman could have easily told Nerisa

the soothing platitudes she‟d need to hear without hesitating. Lina didn‟t know where to begin.

Nerisa‟s eyes lowered to Lina‟s shoulders. “Avick told me that I would someday

understand how you can seem so happy after what happened. They hurt you. How can you stay

with them when they hurt you?”

“You mean these?” Lina frowned and lifted a hand to her shoulder and ran her finger

over one of the bite marks. “I didn‟t even feel them when they were made. I was so lost in the

pleasure that was hitting me that I didn‟t really know about them until I could think clearly. Even

then, they didn‟t hurt.”

Nerisa cast her doubting look.

“I know they‟re there. It‟s a small ache, but it hurts no more than some of my muscles. I

like the way it feels. It‟s a link to Shard and Kaleb,” Lina explained.

“That‟s the truth?” Nerisa was cautious in her belief.

Lina nodded, unsure of what to say next. She had plenty of questions of her own. Would

they let her have enough freedom? She didn‟t know if she could handle it if they wanted to know

where she was and what she was doing at all times. Even now when she‟d decided it would be

best to just give herself some time, part of her mind was weighing the options. Go or stay. Live

on the run or face a future full of uncertainties with them.

“What…” Nerisa‟s next question died when an arrow stuck in the ground between them.

Lina didn‟t waste any time with hows and whys. She scrambled lithely to her feet and

began pulling Nerisa back into the forest. Her eyes scanned the surrounding area and she listened

even as she moved. She saw movement and heard breaking branches. There were three of them,

maybe four, and two of them blocked the way back to camp. Muted thumps of the arrows from

the men‟s bows sounded as the sharp points buried in trees around them.

“Shouldn‟t we go back to camp?” Nerisa resisted Lina‟s tugging hand as she rushed away

from the Santir camp. “Maybe we should call for help.” She pulled a palm-sized square com-link

off her belt.

“They are between us and the camp.” Lina ignored Nerisa‟s light resistance and towed

her deeper into the forest. The combo communication-location device would be perfect if it

worked, but she doubted that it would. “You can try that com-link, but they have probably

blocked most methods of communication. They‟re using primitive weapons to keep the Santir in

the
Ovian
from knowing they‟re here. If either of us had a stunner, we could get sure help with it—one blast and that big ship would sense it and inform the
Ardin
.”

Nerisa tried to open a communication channel, but got nothing, just blank silence. Her

pleas received no answer. At the absence of reaction, she began to run beside Lina.

“What are we going to do?” Nerisa finally gave up on the com-link, stuffing it into her

pocket.

“They‟ve gotten closer. We can‟t go around them as I intended. Is there somewhere we

can go, a ruin we can hide in near here, maybe?” Lina‟s mind ran through all the options.

She could easily outrun them herself, but she wouldn‟t leave Nerisa. That left getting

somewhere she might have a chance of gaining the element of surprise, an edge over her

enemies.

“Yes,” Nerisa panted, but continued running. “I‟ll show you.”

They ran through the forest, up a slight incline as they approached the mountain. Lina

saw the shape of a building sticking up out of the side of the hill as they ran through the trees and brush. It didn‟t look very big. Bolts thudded into trees, behind and around them.

“Tell me that there is more to it than that. We can‟t hide in just one room.” Lina shot a

glance over at Nerisa.

“It goes deep underground. It‟ll be dark in there and we have no light. We‟ll probably get

lost.” Nerisa warned.

“We won‟t. I have a light and an inborn sense of direction.” Lina dodged around a

sapling in her path.

Lina screamed as one of the bolts hit her in the thigh. She staggered, but kept her feet.

She continued running in spite of the tearing pain each stride brought. She clenched her teeth to

keep from groaning or screaming again. She didn‟t want to give her enemies any more help in

tracking her.

They made it to the ruin without further incident. They continued their hurried pace as

they moved through the entry passage. As soon as darkness surrounded them, Lina pulled out the

small light she had brought. It provided no more than a thin beam of light, illuminating a small

section of the sandy colored floor and walls, but they used it and ran deep into the ruin. They put

many twisting labyrinthine hallways between themselves and their pursuers.

“We can stop here for a moment.” Lina circled Nerisa‟s wrist with her hand and stopped

her. “Help me tear some strips off my skirt.”

“We can use some of mine, too.” Nerisa went to work on the task at hand.

When they had enough strips of cloth, Lina broke off the end of the bolt and pushed it

through her thigh. They wrapped the strips around her thigh tightly to staunch the flow of blood.

Lina tied the ends of the cloth and leaned back against the wall.

She dug into her pocket to see what else she‟d brought, because she couldn‟t remember.

Most of what she had grabbed had been taken out of sheer habit. She hoped that the same habit

that had urged her to grab the light, had given her a tool to get aid.
Come on, be here
, she

chanted silently as she checked her pockets. Pulling out a slim cylinder, she shook her head and

continued her search, but she was running out of pockets. She hardly ever went anywhere

without it. She held her breath as her hand closed over a small rectangular case.

She pulled the case from her pocket and looked at it. Relief flooded through her. She

flipped open the small case and with a smile pushed the power button. She began entering codes.

“Luckily I brought this. Hopefully I can get us some help.” Lina lifted the pad slightly as

she continued putting in codes. She‟d never tested it in these conditions. “This doesn‟t work on a

communications wavelength. Maybe it will pass the dampening fields.”

“Why didn‟t you use it before?”

“I wasn‟t sure I had it. I just grabbed stuff out of my bag without taking notice of what I

had. Anyway, I couldn‟t have done this on the run. The codes are too complicated. If I‟d dropped

it, there would have been no hope for help.” Lina snapped the case closed and slipped it back

into her pocket. “We‟ve got to move deeper into the ruin now.”

“What is it?” Nerisa shot a glance down at the pocket in which Lina had put the small

device.

“It‟s a link to the Sendar. I‟ve used it on occasion to get myself out of bad situations.”

Lina led the way deeper into the old building. “Maybe it will bring us help this time.”

At a partial collapse of the walls, they scrambled over the mound of debris and into the

corridor beyond. The loose pile of cream-toned stone would provide warning that their pursuers

were near if they chose to follow. Here and there chunks of wall had fallen, revealing the dark

gray stone of the mountain behind the tooled stone. Lina continued down the old corridor,

turning onto another hallway to put some more distance between their pursuers and to get out of

sight.

“You could probably slip past them in your
tiron
form,” Nerisa offered in a low voice.

“I‟m not going to escape, leaving you at their mercy.” Lina urged Nerisa into a large