Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred) (30 page)

“Mere…”
Six protested and Mei-Li bit back a grin—she could
practically
see
h
im
rolling his eyes.

“He’s still a big baby. How come you’re
letting him drive the ship, huh Pere?”

A younger girl bounced up—she looked to be
about nine or ten to Mei-Li. She had the father’s coloring—lighter hair and
green eyes—and she was staring at her brother as he guided the ship into the
space dock.

“Shut it, Kaylee—I have to concentrate,”
younger Six said, but without rancor. It was clear he didn’t really mind his
little sister.

So that’s Kaylee.
Mei-Li stared at the little girl.
I wonder what
happened to her? What happened to all of them?
Her musings were interrupted
by Six’s father speaking.

“When we get to the station, we’re going
to split up,” he was saying. “Your Mere and I are going to go shopping. You two
are going to be on your own for a little while.”

“Really—out on our own?” Kaylee’s green
eyes lit up with excitement and Mei-Li reflected that she really was a pretty
little girl. In fact, the whole family had gorgeous, big eyes and high
cheekbones, making it easy to see where Six got his looks from.

“Out on your own
within reason,”
the
mother put in hastily. “Kaylee, you’re to mind your big brother and stay close
to him every minute. Jax is in charge.”

Jax. Hmm…
Mei-Li frowned.
Well, I knew he wasn’t always Six.
But I never thought to ask what his name was before he became a number.

“Aww,
really?”
Kaylee whined. “Jax
is in charge? Why come?”

“Because he’s a grown male now—he’s
responsible enough and he’ll take good care of you,” the mother said firmly.

“This is a big responsibility, son,” his
father said to Jax—or rather, the younger Six. “But I know you can handle it.”

“Don’t worry, Pere,” the boy said
confidently. “I know the Kindred way—protect females at any cost. Even if they
are
spoiled brats.”

In the mirrored surface of the navriscope,
Mei-Li saw him make a face at Kaylee who made one right back but it was clear
they were just teasing. If Mei-Li had to guess, she would have thought that
these two were closer than most siblings. They would have to be if their
parents were living a nomadic kind of life—they would have no other playmates.

“Remember, Jax, look but don’t touch,”
their mother said. “And that goes for you too, Kaylee. If you see something you
want, wait until we meet up again and your Pere or I can look it over. This
quadrant is generally safe but you can never be completely sure about anything
until you scan it for pathogens. You don’t want to bring something harmful on
board.”

“Got it, Mere. Look but don’t touch,”
Kaylee sighed.

“Docking complete,” the younger Six
announced.

“And accomplished without a scratch to the
ship.” His father sounded proud. “Look at that—he’s a natural born pilot, just
like his Pere.”

“All grown up.” His mother sighed and
ruffled his hair affectionately. “So big and responsible—”

“What…in the Seven Hells…do you think
you’re
doing?”

The low, growling voice came from just
behind her. Mei-Li, who had been fully immersed in the scene playing out on the
screen in front of her, gasped and jumped in the metal harness of the nature
emulator.

“Oh, I—” she began, turning her head to
see Six.

“Kaylee. Freeze scene,” he barked at the
screen which immediately froze. “Clear. Blank,” he continued in that same,
growling voice. At once the scene disappeared and the screen went blank.

By this time, Mei-Li had somehow managed
to extract herself from the harness of the emulator. But one look at his face
made her wish she hadn’t left the protective metal cage—Six’s expression was
terrible to behold. He might claim to have no emotions but to Mei-Li, his face
showed complete and all encompassing rage. His nostrils were flared, his gray
eye was narrowed, and she could see a muscle twitching in the side of his
clenched jaw.

“Um, Six?” she said uncertainly, backing
away from him.

“How dare you?” His voice was quiet now—as
cold as ice. “I told you that I locked away my memories for a reason. How
dare
you view them?”

“I didn’t mean to, honestly!” Mei-Li took
another step back.

She was reminded of a fairy tale her
adopted mother had read to her when she was young—one that had given her
nightmares for weeks. It was the story of Bluebeard—a rich and handsome man who
marries a pretty girl and tells her she can have the run of the house except
for one little room in the back. Of course the girl gets bored and goes
snooping in the forbidden room—only to find the severed heads of all of
Bluebeards previous wives sitting on pedestals with blood dripping from their
ragged necks and horrifying expressions of pain on their faces. The girl turns
to run and finds herself faced with her new husband. As Bluebeard advances on
her, he draws his sword and tells her that she shouldn’t have snooped…that
there is an empty pedestal waiting for her head too and she is about to die…

Mei-Li was pretty sure that the story had
a happy ending—the girl gets rescued by her brothers at the last minute or
something like that. But the fact that she escaped had been completely
overshadowed by the awful picture in the book of the severed, bloody heads and
the murderous look on Bluebeard’s face. She didn’t think Six would really hurt
her but he looked just like that—so fierce and angry. It was
frightening
.

“You should not have done it.” The big
Kindred’s huge hands were clenched into fists at his sides. “I have avoided
looking at these memories for years. You should not have viewed them.”

“I didn’t mean to—they started up on their
own,” Mei-Li said.

“They could not have unless you had the
master password.”

“Which she insisted on having, Six,” Ter’s
voice suddenly interjected from the speaker. “I was forced to give it to her
since your instructions were to give her access to all systems and directives.”

“You asked for the master password to view
my memories?” Six demanded. “You only needed the general emulator password—why
did you want the master word?”

“No, honestly—I didn’t know there were two
passwords. Ter just told me that ‘Kaylee’ was the password. He didn’t say
anything about it being the master word.” Mei-Li put a hand up and stepped back
again. That damn AI had screwed her but she didn’t know how to prove it and she
was afraid if she tried, it would only make her sound crazy and get Six more
upset.

“You should not have done it.” He was
still clenching his fists. “There are some privacies that ought not to be
violated.”

“I know that and you’re right,” Mei-Li
tried to make her voice soothing. “I should have turned it off and stopped
watching at once—there’s no excuse for not doing that. But, Six…” she
continued, hoping to calm him down. “If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t
see anything weird or embarrassing. It was just a really nice family scene with
your mom and dad and your little sister. That’s all.”

“That is enough,” he said shortly. “It is
the last ‘nice family scene’ as you put it, that I ever experienced. After
that…”

Mei-Li waited but he never finished.

“After that, what?” she urged gently. “You
can tell me if you want to talk.”

“But I
don’t
wish to talk. Or
think. Or remember. I don’t wish any of those things but you have forced them
on me.”

His gaze was glacial now and the rage was
gone from his face to be replaced by a remote anger as cold and bottomless as
the depths of the alien ocean she had explored in the emulator.

“Please, Six, I’m sorry,” Mei-Li
whispered. “I…I didn’t mean to cause you pain.”

“If you mean emotional pain, your fears
are unjustified.” He spoke coldly now, like a robot. “I am perfectly well as I
do not have emotions to upset.”

“I don’t think I believe that anymore,”
Mei-Li said quietly. “I think you’re very angry with me and I don’t blame
you—not a bit. And I think that you’re hurt that I violated your privacy and I
don’t blame you for that either.”

“I have neither emotion which you are
ascribing to me,” Six said coolly. “The only thing I feel at this moment is
physical fatigue. It has been a busy and tiring day. Therefore I believe I will
rest.”

“Oh, okay,” Mei-Li said. “I, um, I guess
I’ll be in to join you in a minute.”

“That will be unnecessary,” he said. “I
will be spending my relaxation hours in my recharging area. You may have the
sousa
and the sleeping chamber to yourself.”

“What?” Mei-Li protested. “But what about
the Claiming Contract? It says that we’re supposed to eat every meal at the
same table and sleep in the same bed!” Not that she
wanted
to share a
bed with a large, angry Kindred but the idea of sleeping all alone on that
weird, big beanbag thing was just…sad.

“I will not be sleeping exactly—simply recharging,”
Six countered. “I will not require your presence for that. I will see you in
the morning unless I am called to work early.”

He turned to go but Mei-Li put a hand on
his arm. His muscles felt like rocks.

“So that’s it?” she demanded. “You’re shutting
me out of your life, just like that, for one mistake?”

Six half turned to face her, his face
cold. “I don’t know what you mean. I cannot shut you out when I never let you
in to start with.”

Then he left her standing there, the blank
screen glowing on the tears which had suddenly sprung up in her eyes. Tears
which returned no matter how often she brushed them away.

* * * * *

She had no right.
No right.
The
words beat like a mantra in his head, thumping in time with his footfalls, his
heartbeat.
No right. No right to look at that. To see inside my memory
cache. To view my past. No right.

Kaylee with blood bubbling from her nose
and mouth, her green eyes wide with pain…
“Jax…please kill me…I’m burning
inside…please, Jax, make it stop…”

Gods, Kaylee…how I failed
you…how I failed you all…

He pushed the memory aside or tried to but
it didn’t want to go. Slamming the door to his recharging area, Six sank down
on a bench and buried his face in his hands.

Leave me alone,
he ordered the memories.
Go away…go back where I put
you. Leave me alone!

There was a knot in his stomach that felt
like a fist made of lead and his whole body was tight with tension. His head
was pounding and the back of his neck where his emotion damper was implanted
throbbed and burned.

What’s wrong with me?
What are these sensations? Why can’t I stop them?

He pressed the heel of his hand to his
right eye, rubbing fiercely, as though he could blot out what he had seen on
the emulator. As though by erasing the images, he could erase the memories that
went with them. He wanted to remove the ocular scope that covered his left eye
as well but he managed not to. If he took it off, he would have to go back to
the med barge to have Yipper fix it. And he didn’t want to reveal the shame he
had covered with the enhancement in the first place.

Stop it now—stop!
Must regain control!

Six took a deep breath and then another.
He rubbed his temples, willing the tightness away. It was nothing…nothing. He
had simply been confronted with memories he would rather not remember. It was
natural for him to have some reaction. Natural for it to put a larger strain
than normal on his emotion damper.

All is well. I am
fine,
he told himself.
I am in control.
In
control.

He sat up and took another deep, cleansing
breath. Everything was going to be all right. He would have Ter triple lock the
memory cache with a password even
he
didn’t know. The memories of Kaylee
and Mere and Pere would never get out again.
Never.
That would solve the
problem.

Six frowned. Well, not the
whole
problem.
What had caused all this in the first place—or rather,
who
had caused
it? That would be Mei-Li, who could not contain her curiosity and had felt the
need to go prying into his past affairs.

It’s not good, having
her here. I thought I could manage her Claiming but I have been having trouble
ever since I first went to get her.
Six
stood abruptly and began pacing.
She causes…sensations in me. Sensations
that are dangerously close to emotions.

He thought of the softness of her skin,
her sweet, feminine scent, her high, light voice and her big dark eyes. The
feel of her small, perfect breasts against his chest, the touch of her hands on
his body, the silk of her long black hair. And most of all the press of her
lips to his—the kiss which he so longed to repeat.