Forgotten (21 page)

“
No writing instrument is
needed, my dear. Simply press your right thumb to the very center
of the contract. Your print is signature enough.”

“
Okay.” Shrugging, Kate
did as she said. Holding the large contract flat in the palm of one
hand, she lowered her right thumb down to the center of the densely
written script.

At the last minute, Rone wanted to stop her.
He had a bad feeling about this somehow. A feeling that they were
making a very dangerous decision.

“
Kate, don—” he began but
before he could finish his words, she was pressing her thumb to the
center of her contract…and almost immediately yanking it
away.

“
Ouch!” she gasped,
shaking her right hand as though she’d been stung. “What the
hell?”

“
Are you all right? What
happened?” Rone demanded, feeling a stab of fear. He wanted to grab
Kate’s hand and examine it but he remembered at the last minute
that he couldn’t touch her and held back.

“
I don’t know what
happened. The damn thing
bit
me.” Kate was clenching her thumb inside her
fingers. “That really hurt!”

“
Nonsense, my dear.”
Mistress light bent down and picked up the contract which Kate had
dropped in her distress. “Simply a little prick to get the
necessary blood for the print. See?” She lifted the contract and
showed it to them. Now, in the very center of the spiraling script,
was a small bloody thumbprint—Kate’s.

“
You dared to wound my
mate?” Rone felt protective fury rising inside him and the Beast
within tried to rise with it.

“
Peace, Warrior…” Mistress
Light put out her hand to him. “With this small wounding, much may
be accomplished. Now that she has signed the contract, I can allow
your beloved mate access to our bio-chelation pool. Wasn’t that
what you wanted?”

“
Yes, but not at the price
of pain,” Rone growled.

“
Ah, then I fear you are
in the wrong place.” Mistress Light looked sorrowful. “There is
always a price to be paid to restore that which has been lost. Pain
is often part of it.”

“
We told you, we’re not
here for pain or therapy or anything else like that,” Kate said,
sounding irritated and a little frightened. “We just want to get
the toxins out of my system so I can remember what I’ve been up to
for the past three years.”

“
Yes, indeed. And so you
shall—as soon as your mate signs his contract.” Mistress Light
smiled at Rone who stared stonily back at her. “Of course, if you
do not, you cannot accompany her to the pool.”

“
You don’t have to,” Kate
told him, still clutching her wounded digit. “It
really
hurts—like
someone ripping all the skin off your thumb at once. So maybe you
should just stay here and I’ll come back after I have a swim in the
pool.”

“
Like hell I will,” Rone
growled. “I’d never leave you alone in a place like this,
Lalli.
You know that.”
Or she
would
know
it after she got her memories back.

“
Okay, well…” Kate
shrugged uneasily. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“
I’ll be fine.” Keeping
his eyes locked with hers, he pressed his thumb to the center of
his own contract. For a moment, nothing happened. Then a searing
pain like someone ripping into his skin and peeling it down to the
bare bone shot through him. Rone gritted his teeth but kept his
face absolutely impassive. His gaze flicked to Mistress Light who
was studying his reaction attentively.

She wants to see
this—wants to see how I’ll react,
he
understood suddenly.
Wants to know if I’ll
stand by Kate no matter what. This is some kind of a
test.

It was a test he intended to pass. After a
moment, the pain faded to a dull throbbing and he withdrew his
thumb leaving a bloody print just as Kate had—albeit a much larger
one.

“
Very good!” Mistress
Light trilled. “Well, now I think we are all ready to go. If you’ll
follow my darling Azure here, you will be led to the area where you
both belong.”

Rone exchanged glances with Kate, wishing
again that they still had their link. But he could tell well enough
what she was thinking, even without it—because he was thinking the
same thing. What choice did they have? Apparently, at least for the
immediate future, they were stuck here at Flame and Frost.
Shrugging, he turned to follow the blue-skinned, blue-haired
Celestial and Kate did the same.

As they walked, Rone
watched his mate and hoped they could get Kate into the damned pool
and out again as soon as possible. He was eager to have his
Lalli
back—eager to hold
her in his arms and touch her and taste her. Even with the cooling
the priestess had performed on his blood the night before, he could
already feel the
hunger
rising in him again, demanding that he take what
he needed…before it was too late.

* * * * *

Kate didn’t like this situation one bit.
She’d had the strangest experience when she touched Mistress
Light’s hand. The angel-lady, as Kate had been calling her in her
head, appeared to be so sweet that butter wouldn’t melt in her
mouth, but there was something going on with her. Something weird
that put Kate on edge.

Usually when she touched
someone else skin-to-skin, she got a flash of their memories or
their past or
some
kind of personal information. With Mistress Light, she’d
gotten nothing like that. At first, all she’d seen were white,
puffy clouds floating in a pale blue sky. Then there was a
flash—
like lightning
ripping the gorgeous sky and innocent clouds to shreds. And for an
instant—only an instant—Kate had seen something else. A pair of
dark purple eyes staring back at her. And far down in the depths of
those eyes she’d seen…what
had
she seen? Kate still didn’t know. Scenes of
torture…pain…and dark pleasure too frightening to
contemplate.

Be careful!
the Knowing had screamed at her.
The absence of light is Shadow. Stay in the
light, Kate—
stay in the light!

Kate still didn’t know
what it meant but it was one of the strongest warnings she’d ever
gotten and it scared the shinola out of her. The only thing that
had kept her from bolting from the door was the fact that the
warning hadn’t been about something that was absolutely going to
happen—but about something that could be avoided. That and the fact
that she
really
wanted her memory back.

As long as we’re
careful,
she told herself uneasily as she
and Rone followed Azure out of the clear bubble dome which appeared
to serve as Mistress Light’s office.
As
long as we’re cautious we should be all right.

She hoped, anyway.

The clear bubble dome led into a smaller
purple one which appeared to lead out to a lot of other areas.
There were seven doors, arranged in a semicircle around half of the
dome—Kate wondered where they all went but she hoped she wouldn’t
have to find out. She just wanted to take a dip in their pool and
get out of this place as soon as possible.

They came to the door in the very center of
the seven that ringed half the purple dome and their guide stopped
in front of it.

“
This is the true entrance
to Flame and Frost. From here you will begin your personal journey
of reconciliation and redemption,” the Celestial said in a clear,
soft voice. “Therefore, the way in which you enter is very
important.”

“
The way in which we
enter?” Rone repeated, frowning. “How many ways
can
you enter a damn door? You just
open it up and walk through it, right?”

Azure only shook his/her head. Placing seven
long blue fingers against the door, the Celestial murmured,

“
Seven seals for Seven
Doors

Seven rooms and Seven Floors

Some lead to bliss and priceless
treasure

Some to darker kinds of pleasure

Choose the one your heart desires

Choose the ice or choose the fire

Both will change you, time will tell

If chose you ill or chose you well

Now take your choice, for twain or cleft

Will life be chosen, or will death?”

After finishing this cryptic verse, the
Celestial stood back from the still-closed door and motioned for
Kate and Rone to come forward.

“
Come,” he/she said in
that soft, neutral voice. “It is not for this one to open this door
for you. You must do it yourselves.”

“
We must?” Kate frowned up
at the tall being. “But what if we choose wrong? What did that
weird poem you just recited mean?”

Azure only shook his/her head.

“
This one cannot say for
you will find out soon enough. All this one may tell you is that
you must both place your right palms against the door at
once.”

“
Are we going to get
stabbed again?” Rone demanded, glowering at the Celestial. “I won’t
have my mate hurt like that for a second time.”

Kate didn’t really want the feeling of
having her skin peeled off again either, although when she examined
her thumb, it looked perfectly fine. There didn’t even seem to be a
pin-prick or any sign that she’d bled at all.

“
Fear not. This door is
painless,” Azure assured them. “But it must be chosen by both of
you.”

“
I don’t like this,” Rone
growled.

Kate sighed. “Neither do I but what choice
do we have? I’m guessing we have to do this before I’m allowed in
the pool?”

“
All who come must
choose,” the Celestial said, nodding. “None may abstain. For how
else may Mistress Light and Madam Shadow know the true desires of
your heart and how best to treat you?”

“
Well, they
could
just let me take a
dip in the damn pool which is all I’ve been trying to do from the
minute I got here,” Kate said testily.

“
I’m afraid they’re going
to make us do things in what they consider the correct order before
we’re allowed to use the bio-chelation pool,” Rone
rumbled.

“
In this, you are correct.
Proper protocol must be followed at all times,” Azure murmured.
“Simply open the door and enter. You will find yourselves where you
are supposed to be.”

“
All right then, if you
say so. Are we ready?” Rone raised one large hand and looked at
Kate.

“
Wait,” she said,
frowning. “Before we do this I have to tell you…”

“
Tell me what?” He raised
an eyebrow at her.

“
Just…” She hesitated.
Years of living with the Knowing had made her reluctant to talk
about it, even when it had given her a very clear warning. Some
people laughed or scoffed when she tried to pass on what she knew
and others just thought she was crazy. But Rone knew about her
gift, she reminded herself. He wouldn’t think she was weird or nuts
if she tried to tell him something related to it—would
he?

“
Yes?” he asked. “What do
you need to tell me, Kate?”

Kate took a deep breath.
“Just that we need to be careful. And when we touch this door, both
of us need to be concentrating on the light—on
staying in the light.”

Even knowing that he knew about her gift,
she half expected him to think she was crazy. But he only
nodded.

“
That’s something you got
from your Knowing?” he murmured in a low voice. “A
warning?”

Kate nodded, relieved that he believed
her.

“
Are we in danger?” Rone
asked. “Are we headed into a storm, baby?”

“
I don’t
think
so,” Kate said
cautiously. “Not as long as we’re careful to stay in the light. I
don’t know what that means—but it’s what I got just now when we
touched Mistress Light.”

“
All right.” He nodded
gravely. “Let’s concentrate then, just like you said. Ready?” He
held his big hand in front of the door again. “On three—you
count.”

“
One…two…three,” Kate
counted aloud. They made contact with the door at the same time and
it whooshed silently open, revealing a long hallway. The right half
of the hallway was bathed in pure, brilliant sunlight. The left
half was gloomy with shadows. And somehow, though the two halves
were in the same hallway, the light and shadows didn’t mix. There
was a very clear demarcation between them.

Rone barked an uneasy laugh.

“
Guess we know which side
of the hall to walk down.”

“
I guess we do.” Kate
started to step into the hallway but he put out a hand to stop
her.

“
Let me go
first.”

“
I can take care of
myself,” Kate protested, feeling irritated. “Just because you’re so
much bigger, doesn’t mean—”

“
I know you can, baby,” he
murmured. “But please, let me go first. I just got you back—I don’t
want to take a chance on losing you again.”

The pleading in his deep voice and the raw
look in those brilliant blue eyes made Kate bite her tongue. It was
true she was usually extremely independent and unwilling to let
anyone try to protect her. But the big Kindred looked at her as
though she was the most precious thing in the world—as though he
would die if he lost her again.