Daughter of Destiny (20 page)

It hurt. She admitted that
to herself. It disgusted her to know that the man she thought of as
a father used one child's love for another to gain obedience. "I
understand. The people you trusted the most betrayed you and while
it hurts that you thought I might do the same, I get it. I've been
in those shoes, Kat. More than you can imagine, I get
it."

"I'm sorry that I've been
distant."

"Distant? Girl, you've been
as emotionally warm as freezer."

Katarina winced. "Ouch.
Okay, I deserved that."

"Take off your coat. It's
late. You can crash here tonight."

"Yes, ma'am," Katarina said
and executed a sloppy salute.

Naia rolled her eyes, but
inside she wanted to jump up and down and laugh. Her sister was
back. "Any other deep dark secrets you want to confess before I go
make us some hot chocolate?"

"Well, according to the
scan Zane did, I'm only half human."

Wow.
"Well, the
lighting out of the hands thing isn't exactly a common human skill,
so I can see that. What's the other half?"

"Tuatha de
Dannan."

"As in faeries?"

"Yep."

"Now I'm impressed. So Mom
not only found a faerie, she boinked him!"

Katarina laughed. "Well,
I'm pretty sure I ran into him once, and if that is the right one,
I can't say I blame her." She paused in folding her jacket. "A
faerie named Torin has been keeping tabs on me for years. He spoke
to me tonight and gave me an address that my father frequents, but
it's in Ireland. I'm not sure what to do."

"Well, I'm going to make
hot chocolate. If Robert hasn't gotten swallowed by the
droid-thingy he's working on, we can get him to help figure out how
to track down the other half of your genetic weirdness."

Katarina flipped her the
bird. "Weird? Have you looked in the mirror lately? I think a
skittles rainbow collided with your hair."

Naia laughed all the way to
the kitchen.

***

Katarina sighed as a giant
weight lifted from her soul. She felt rather stupid after Naia's
lecture. She should have known Naia would get to the meat of things
and tell her what was what. It hurt knowing she blew the chance to
reconcile with her mother, but the past was gone and dwelling on it
accomplished nothing.

She carried her coat to the
coat tree and hung it on a vacant peg. She slipped off her low
heels and flexed her arches. Then she bent and stretched as she
made her way around the room. She felt like she had a couple of
bowling balls strapped around her waist. Her taught skin loathed
the dry air of autumn and by the end of the day every muscle in her
torso complained. She didn't want to think about how uncomfortable
she'd be by the time she reached full-term.

Her hands on the small of
her back, she stopped near the front window. Her lips curved in
amusement as she looked around the room. The difference in style
between her apartment and their home was about as different as
vanilla pudding and a chocolate éclair. Everything was color
coordinated and in sleek modern lines. Abstract art of both two and
three-dimensional varieties decorated strategic locations
throughout the room and charming bric-a-bracs filled every
available surface. On the coffee table several electronic gadgets
lay in various states of assembly, or maybe it was
disassembly.

Katarina eyed their newest
art acquisition, a wire and plastic monstrosity that hung from the
ceiling near the living room window. She shook her head at their
unfortunate taste in art. She took a step toward the kitchen when
an intense pain gripped her and she heard a scream, which she
didn't realize came from her until her knees buckled beneath her
and she collapsed to the living room floor gasping for breath. As
quickly as it came, it vanished. Naia and Robert raced into the
room.

Katarina knelt on the floor
shaken to her core. The pain did not come from her body. "Oh God,
Zane!" Katarina gulped air faster and faster as she tried to rain
in the sobs which fought to escape.

Naia crouched down next to
Katarina while Robert hovered nearby. She placed a gentle hand on
her arm, "Kat what happened? What’s wrong? Are you okay? Are the
twins okay?"

Mention of the twins pulled
Katarina out of her panic. She slowed her breathing and forced her
body to calm, even as her mind screamed in panic. Katarina touched
the infant minds linked to her. While too young for coherent
thought they still experienced basic emotions. They didn’t
understand pain or why she was so upset. She sent soothing thoughts
and shielded them from her mind and her bond with Zane.

Sheer will kept her from
drowning in fear. Tears streamed down her face, but Katarina
ignored them. "Something’s happened to Zane. I felt it through our
link. And damn it, I’m helpless to do anything!" Katarina fisted
her hands in frustration, willing Zane to be all right.

"Link? What link? Can you
block it out?" Naia asked.

Katarina cleared her throat
and ignored her embarrassment. "When Zane and I made love the first
time, our psyches merged and forged a permanent link between us. We
can always feel each other’s presence, and at times what the other
person is thinking or feeling, no matter how far away. I can block
my thoughts or emotions from him, and vice-versa, but I can’t block
what comes through the link." As fear overwhelmed her again she
gripped Naia’s arms. "Naia, I can’t lose him. I just
can’t."

Naia tightened her hold on
Katarina and tugged her up off the floor. Katarina let them take
her into the guest bedroom. Naia sat down beside her and stroked
her hair back. Her eyes closed and she nearly managed to relax when
her whole body jerked with spasms. Her breath came in ragged
gasps.

"Kat!” Naia gripped
Katarina’s hand, but it didn't even measure against the pain
flooding her body. "Concentrate on me. The pain isn’t real. It’s
not your pain. You have to block it out. I know you can do it,
Kat."

It took every ounce of
energy she could muster to concentrate through the fiery lances
ripping through her, but she managed to divorce her mind from her
body in the same way she did when in deep meditation. She
transformed the pain into tangible waves that flowed around her,
but not through her. In the back of her mind she registered her
body relaxing and Naia’s grip on her hand gentling. She thought
perhaps Naia said something more, but she couldn’t surface from the
meditative state without sinking into the pain again. Her mental
avatar moved toward the link to Zane. The pain ebbed and flowed
like an ocean, which aided in maintaining the illusion of the waves
flowing past her. She cast her thoughts into the link,
"Zane,
focus on me. I’m with you."

"Katarina?"

Her surprise when he
answered nearly caused her to lose the intense connection. He sent
mental flashes of memories; getting jumped on the streets of
Brakenlu, being kidnapped, drugged, and the image of a serpentine
man.

Katarina didn’t know if it
would work, but she sent what energy she could gather careening
across the link.
"Zane, hang on. Separate your mind from your
body so that the pain doesn’t overwhelm you. Try,
Zane."

***

Zane absorbed the energy
that pulsed outward from the link and used it to shut down his
body, as if asleep, but resisted the pull into blackness by
clinging to Katarina’s presence. His Goloth torturer believed he
passed out and ended the session, leaving him suspended by the
inflexible chains that held him immobile. Without the onslaught of
new pain, he was able to speak telepathically.

"I’ve always heard you,
Katarina, but I never could project strongly enough."

"Who is doing this to
you?"

"Karglock, self-proclaimed
emperor of the Goloths. Remember my dream?"

"Yes."

"Goptamek was Karglock’s
father. He plans to kill me to avenge his father's death, but he'll
torture me first as entertainment."
Zane paused,
"Katarina,
no one here even knows I’m in trouble. I'm sorry,
rahmali o mi
,
but I won’t be coming home."

"Zane! Don’t you dare give
up! I’ll think of something. When you want to talk to me, focus
every ounce of your being on our link."

Her pain and desperation
broke his heart, but hearing her voice again brought him peace.
Weak, his hold on the link began to slip and he focused the
remnants of his energy on asking what he wanted to know before he
died,
"Katarina, what do you plan to name the
twins?"

"If you agree, I’ve settled
on Adrian Zane Gratig for our son and Colleen Marie Gratig for our
daughter."

"The names are
beautiful"
The swirl of joy, anger, and grief in his heart
echoed the same emotions coming from Katarina.

"
Do you want to feel
them?"

"How?"

"Just remain focused on
me."

He did as she instructed.
Awe, and more love than he could contain spread through him to her
when she linked all of them together. He clung to that peaceful
bond full of love for as long as he could. Behind that link the
echoes of her thoughts as Katarina wracked her brain for ways to
help him, both comforted and tortured him. As darkness claimed him,
he wanted to hope, but logic prevailed. He knew he was going to
die.

"Take that! And THAT!"
Coran shouted. The first shot missed his VR opponent, but the
second took him down. Just as he took aim at another villain,
Katarina’s voice slammed into his brain.

Coran ripped off the VR
helmet, but he continued to hear Katarina’s voice in his head. Her
faintly accented Truscan repeated over and over,
"Zane is in
trouble."
Then after a minute, it stopped. Coran’s hands shook
as he set the VR helmet down and got to his feet. He went over to
his home computer. He searched for a ship registered to Zane Gratig
and found one purchased four months ago. No departure logs matched
Zane's registry and according to the computer the ship never left
the hangar. With a little more finessing, he accessed the hangar's
security system. The last deactivation recorded was dated just over
a month ago. He spent an hour trying to find more information, but
from all appearances, Zane vanished. If the ship were not still in
the hangar, Coran would assume Zane returned to Earth, but he
couldn't do that without a ship.

Coran pushed his chair away
from his desk and shook his head. He still couldn’t wrap his mind
around the fact she contacted him telepathically from across the
galaxy. Such things were not supposed to be possible. Considering
Zane didn't flip out on the way back from Earth, their bond
exceeded the strength of any recorded telepathic bond in
history.

He didn’t think Katarina
would contact him unless Zane was in a life threatening situation.
He needed to find Zane, and he couldn't do that alone. Coran
grimaced as he leaned over and hit the one-touch button for ICGF
headquarters on his comm. "Greetings. How may I help you
today?"

"This is Lieutenant
Plaswer. I need an appointment with General Xu
immediately."

"Transferring to his
admin." Lame music tried his patience for several
minutes.

"General Xu's
office."

"This is Lieutenant
Plaswer. I need an appointment for today."

"The general is out for the
day. I can patch you through to his message service."

"Listen, I know this is his
day to play ricocet, but this is important." He held his breath. If
push came to shove, he had data he could use to convince the
secretary to see things his way, but he preferred to use those
methods as last resort.

She stayed silent a whole
minute before asking, "You are sure this is important?"

"Absolutely."

"His ricocet partners
cancelled. He's in his office for now. Get over here quickly and
I'll buzz you in when you arrive."

"Thank you, Miss Keku. I
owe you."

"Humph," was her reply
before she broke the connection.

***

Katarina reached over to
wake Naia, who dozed in a chair beside the bed. Naia jerked awake
the instant she touched her arm.

"Robert!" Naia called and
then proceeded to fuss with the blankets and pillows. Kat shooed
her away.

"You all right, Kat?"
Robert asked as he came in.

"I’m okay, but Zane isn’t.
A Goloth terrorist kidnapped him. He’s being tortured and they plan
to kill him." Her voice trembled as she spoke, but she managed not
to burst into tears. Tears wouldn’t help Zane. She had to think.
There had to be more she could do.

"You got all of that
telepathically!?"

Katarina turned to snap at
Robert, but she caught herself. Robert went out of his way to be
nice, and offered sincere concern. "Yes."

"You know we’re here for
you." Naia squeezed her hand.