Broken Wings (2 page)

"Stay? How long?" Elis spoke in a flat
tone, almost grumbling.

"Just until next week. I
can't waste all my vacation on you." Her eyes shifted to Raea.
"Sorry. I couldn't be here sooner, unless I wanted to lose my job.
Not
all
of us rely
on Davrel for support."

Elis glared at her. "He offered, as an
honor to serve the Crystal Keeper. I didn't ask."

Only now, upon meeting another Keeper
did Elis's words sink in. Twenty-three Keepers called Earth home.
All but she and Elis had come by ship seven years earlier,
apparently before anyone realized she was alive and in possession
of the Starfire shard her mother had worn.

"Whatever." Nare crossed her arms and
focused on Raea. "Anyway, I'm here now. I'll do what I can to
protect you. The Starfire stays on Earth."

Raea hoped so. The thought of what
could happen sent a shudder through her. The Shirukan intended to
force her to give up her crystal shard, but the Starfire entities
wouldn't allow their power to be used wrongly. As they had with
other worlds, they would destroy the Inari homeworld, Inar'Ahben,
before allowing anyone to abuse it. They had shown her in the
visions.

From beneath the gloves Nare wore, a
faint light glowed. Her wings shrinking shouldn't have surprised
Raea, but the effect of watching those blue-white wings diminish to
nothing mesmerized her. Of course, Nare was a Keeper if she was
related to Elis. That shouldn't have surprised her. What caught her
was the casual way in which Nare stood there making the
transformation look easy.

Raea would have to do the same if she
wanted to return home without attracting attention. Debbie knew the
truth and the old widow who boarded Elis, Evelyn Johnson, knew the
truth, but no one else did. She hoped to keep it that way and
continue living the life she had on Earth.

She found the resonance
with a thought and focused the warming power on her back. The
shrinking of bone and sinew ached. How had Nare made it look so
painless? Raea's fingers tightened around Elis's as he clutched her
hand.
Pain. Pain. Pain…
The word rang through her skull. The transformation was never
easy, one way or the other.

In the end, the three of them stood in
the field looking human. Nare threw the backpack over one shoulder,
holding the strap with one hand and smiling as if nothing happened.
Raea loathed her for that.

"Have a spare bed?" she
asked.

"Maybe." Elis led Raea by the hand
over the hill.

Nare caught up beside her. "You're
hospitable, Elis." Sarcasm dripped heavily from her voice. "With
that attitude, I'm surprised anyone would want to spend their life
with you."

Warmth rose to Raea's cheeks. "Isn't
that rushing ahead?" Sure, being with him made each day worthwhile,
but that didn't mean she was ready to spend the rest of her life
with him.

In the light of the street lamps, the
color drained from Elis's face.

"Didn't you tell her?"

"Tell me what?" Raea lowered her voice
as the town stretched out before them. Quiet pervaded the streets.
The soft glow of the lights shone from their perches atop the tall
poles alternating through the closest neighborhood, her
home.

["I'm surprised you don't know."] She
spoke in Inari and gave Elis an accusing look, but he stared ahead
with a stiff lip.

["Know
what
?"] Raea looked up at Elis for an
answer.

He gave Nare a dark look,
but she ignored him and lowered her voice again. ["I know yours is
a unique situation—having lost your mother and being raised to
believe you were human and all—but that's no excuse for him not to
be sure you understand being Inari—
everything
about being Inari,
including bonding."]

In the light from the nearest street
lamp, Raea caught the twitch of muscles in Elis's cheek.

["Inari form more than the
typical human emotional attachments. Ours…Well, once we choose a
long-term partner, there's no going back, although most
respectful
partners—"]
Nare's eyes narrowed, burning Elis with a glare. ["—wouldn't dare
touch their potential mate until she's decided if she wants to
spend her life with him or not."]

"What are you saying?" And why hadn't
Elis told her anything about this sooner?

["We're not human. Once we reach
maturity, male and female Inari bodies react to frequent, prolonged
physical contact with the opposite gender. Body chemistry changes
and adapts. One-on-one relationships that continue synchronize two
bodies so they eventually share pain and
pleasure…permanently."]

Raea yanked her hand from Elis's as if
stung. It all sounded so technical the way Nare put it, cold and
unemotional. Still, did she really want that? She'd barely decided
a month ago that she loved him. She thought she wanted to be with
him, but the sudden reality of being attached in some way shattered
that vision of perfection with the fact that he'd neglected to tell
her. He'd effectively lied, and it cut deeply.

How could he do this to her? She loved
him, trusted him.

This couldn't be real, but it was.
None of the last six weeks seemed real, though had been, much to
her joy and sorrow. Why didn't Elis tell her about all
this?

She suddenly had to decide if she
wanted to bond with him, how much of her life she was willing to
sacrifice for love. But what was love if he would lie about
it?

Nare lowered her voice and grumbled,
["One more problem you can blame on the Starfire, since the
blending with Inari DNA changed everything we were before
then."]

The crystal had bonded itself in a
perfect symbiosis to the Inari species five thousand years ago,
creating the Keepers as a means to facilitate communication with
the entities of the four shards. It also gave Keepers abilities
humans regarded as supernatural, abilities using the energy of the
Starfire within their genes, or, as in the case of a Crystal Keeper
like Raea, sometimes the energy of the Starfire crystal itself.
Being hunted for that shard was the worst of her problems, or so
she had thought.

That was nothing compared to the
turmoil twisting within her heart. She wanted him, loved him so
deeply that his lie of omission wounded her emotions more than the
Shirukan could ever wound her body.

"I'm sorry no one told
you."

"Raea…" Elis reached for her, but she
stepped away, afraid of his touch taking away her choice, despite
the need for his closeness.

"Don't." He should have said something
before then. Why didn't he? Sure, in the beginning he was just
training her, because he was the only one who could shrink the
wings the Starfire forced to grow in her sleep. But in only two
weeks, she had fallen so deeply in love with the gentle, quiet Dark
Angel that she wanted to be close. Did he just expect to let it go
on until it was too late? Was he that desperate for companionship
after losing his family to the Shirukan?

She didn't want to believe that. He
said he knew from the first moment he saw her two years ago that he
would always love her. Part of her had always been curious about
him too, but that didn't mean she wanted to spend the rest of her
life linked with him.

But their time together had been
wonderful. His touch soothed away her worries and inspired a need
to be close.

No excuses. He should have
said something.
A lie of omission was still
a lie.

"Now you know," Nare said.

"Yeah."

"Raea…I'm sorry."

["You should have told
her."]

["Things have been complicated,"] he
snapped at his cousin.

Nare folded her arms.
["Right. What's so complicated about teaching Raea
everything
about being
Inari?"]

["You wouldn't
understand."]

["What's not to understand? You're so
desperate—"]

"Enough!" Raea didn't need to hear
them fighting. Nare was right and yet didn't understand. On the
other hand, yes, Elis should have told her, yet she had needed him
more than anyone after the Shirukan came for her four weeks ago.
When she needed him most, she hadn't worried about curling up in
his arms to cry and forget that awful night.

The night fell silent, a light breeze
blowing loose strands of brown hair to tickle her face.

"I'm going home." Raea wrapped her
arms around herself and his jacket. The faint smell of him lingered
on it. The scent of the man she loved, who hadn't told her about an
important fact of what she was. "I have a lot of thinking to
do."

She hurried away, afraid to look up to
the face half hidden by the hair he needed to cut. Her heart ached
in the tangle of emotions. She didn't want to leave him, but she
couldn't face him now. He'd lied to her. She needed time to think,
time alone.

"Raea, please—"

She whirled, tears welling up to cool
the anger and desire struggling inside her. "Don't, Elis!" After a
breath to calm herself, she couldn't talk. The choking hold of
betrayal strangled her voice, which barely squeaked out when she
spoke again. "You should have told me. I need some time
alone."

Did he think he would trap her into a
permanent partnership for the rest of their lives? It wasn't fair.
All their time together…

No. She needed him too.

Which was why this was so difficult,
but she needed space, at least for a while.

His eyes begged her to return to him,
and her heart yearned to take those steps. But she had to know. Was
this right? Was Elis the one she would love the rest of her life,
especially when he didn't tell her everything? She was only
eighteen, and she loved him. But she barely knew him, especially if
he would lie like this to her.

If she was human, none of this would
be a concern, except she would still have trouble with a man who
lied to her. How could she trust him with her life?

Raea swallowed the lump in her throat
and wiped her eyes. "Just leave me alone for a while." She turned
and ran before he could object, because he had the power to call
her back. She wanted him to call her back.

Oh, God. What had she done? Why did
she feel horrible?

Elis's eyes burned a hole through her
back. He watched her, and she didn't have to turn around to
know.

He said nothing, which hurt even
more.

__________

The
Terran Brief

Thunder rumbled around Prime Commander
Alshouan Valdas and vibrated through the dense black stone of the
room to reach her feet, her dark wings open slightly for balance.
The operators released the power of Heffin's Gate, after several
hours to fire it up to full power. The portal, just a small one set
to open from outside their atmosphere to a place outside the Solar
System—beyond the detection of humans—would soon connect her to
their operatives on Earth.

The black metal lining the room within
the central corridors of Heffin's Gate protected her in her booth
from the immense radiation of the Starfire's power.

Valdas sat back from the console and
tapped the keys on the side of the oblong tri-comm against her
cheek, her hand finishing with a swipe of a loose strand of auburn
hair. She had already pre-entered Prime Commander Loran's code. He
had only to respond to the signal she sent.

Now for the wait. At best, they could
keep the portal open a little more than one Earth hour with the two
shards in the machine. By their calculations, it should be about 8
a.m. on a Friday in his time zone. From what he'd said in previous
communiqués, he should be available to answer her call.

The door behind her hissed open.
Valdas swiveled her seat from the active console along the wall of
the small room.

A female technician in an orange
jumpsuit with three black lines slanted across the right shoulder—a
senior tech—stepped in. ["The portal is open, sir."]

A formality, and unnecessary. Valdas
had spent enough time within some part of the machine or another to
recognize the various sounds and vibrations.

She waved away the woman and turned
back to the console to pull Tarolis's past reports. She'd read them
all before, but this time was different. She needed something
more.

While she skimmed through
the most recent update on his activities, the tri-comm beeped. A
moment later, she stared at a man in a dark blue suit and
gold-accented red silk tie. So, he had turned the optic option on.
Funny seeing him without his black uniform or brown-gold wings.
He'd let his light brown hair grow too. He looked so
human
.

["Prime Commander Alshouan Valdas."]
He smiled and leaned back against something she couldn't see, since
the scan only included his body. And that connected directly to her
optic nerve for privacy.

["Yes."]

["To what do I owe this honor?"] The
cynicism wasn't lost on her. He might be older and more
experienced, but he was still the same rank. Besides, he had given
up the chance for promotion when he left for Earth with his unit
fourteen Earth years ago. Despite being far younger, she outranked
him, and, by the tone of his voice, he resented it.