Forgotten (25 page)

Hesitantly, Kate turned to the big Kindred.
She still had one arm wrapped firmly around her breasts and her
legs tightly closed to conceal her sex but she lifted her free hand
and reached out to touch him.

Rone stood perfectly still for the
operation, as though she was a skiddish horse that might spook at
his least movement. Kate could see he was trying to conceal his
hope but when she caught a glimpse of his eyes it was there—blazing
in their glowing blue depths.

Taking a deep breath, she allowed her
fingertips to brush over the skin of his forearm. Of course, they
were both still coated in the black slime of the pool but she could
feel his skin beneath hers well enough. She waited for the panic
response to begin—the feeling that her heart was trying to pound
its way out of her chest and that her lungs were paper bags that
wouldn’t inflate properly. But though she felt a slight tremble of
nerves—the panic was gone.

Just to be sure, she gripped his muscular
forearm in her hand and held it there. Still nothing except the
awkwardness of touching a man she didn’t know—or didn’t know
intimately, anyway.

“
Well?” Rone’s deep voice
was tense.

“
She’s right.” Kate looked
up at him. “I can touch you now without freaking out—without
feeling like I’m going to pass out from fear.”

“
Thank the Goddess.” He
blew out a breath and wiped a hand over his face, putting a smudge
of black slime on his cheek.

“
This doesn’t mean I want
to immediately jump in bed with you, though,” Kate felt compelled
to tell him. “I mean, I still don’t remember you—don’t know you the
way you know me. So I’m really sorry but—”

“
No, no—I understand.” He
nodded. “I would never ask you to do something you weren’t
comfortable with. I’m just so damn glad that being near me doesn’t
scare you to death anymore, baby.”

Kate thought about pointing out that he was
still a pretty huge and scary guy but decided not to. Rone had gone
out of his way to protect her again and again since the first
moment they met in the mall. She knew by now that he wouldn’t hurt
her—at least, not physically. Emotionally might be another matter
but she would have to cope with her own wariness later. For now, at
least the Pool had done half of what they had come for.

“
I still wish I could
remember the last three years,” she said with a sigh.

“
You will…eventually. But
first you and your mate have much work to do,” Madam Shadow said.
“Come.”

Still smoking her long, black cigarette, she
turned on her six inch heels and walked briskly out of the room
that held the Pool of Purification.

“
Wait—I need to wash off
and get dressed!” Kate was gathering up her clothes, trying not to
get too much slime on them. She didn’t have a change with her since
they hadn’t expected to have to stay at Flame and Frost very
long.

“
You will have an
opportunity to do that later,” Madam Shadow called over her
shoulder. She was walking so quickly that Kate had to half-run to
keep up with her. Clutching her clothes to her, despite the slime,
she tried to hide her nakedness. She hoped desperately that they
didn’t run into any other couples who were here at the resort for
therapy. She’d never felt more dirty or naked or gross in her
entire life and she didn’t want anyone else to see her this
way.

Rone strode along beside her, having no
trouble at all keeping up with the Madam’s long strides, Kate saw
enviously. He, too, was covered in the black slime of the pool but
it ended on mid chest for him, leaving his shoulders and neck and
hair clear of the stuff.

Though she felt incredibly grimy herself,
Kate thought the big Kindred didn’t look half bad. The black stuff
outlined his washboard abs, making him look like a commercial for
some kind of rough, manly sport played in the mud. She wondered if
the black goop had seeped into the tight leather flight trousers he
wore and found herself eyeing them—the crotch especially for some
reason.

Rone caught the direction
of her stare and looked down at himself, then back up at her
quizzically as if to say,
What?
Kate looked away hastily, her cheeks
flaming.

We both need a
shower,
she told herself firmly.
And that’s all that needs to be said about
that.
She concentrated on following Madam
Shadow through the twisting maze of stone corridors they were
traversing and kept her eyes strictly to herself.

At last they arrived at the entrance to a
large deep purple bubble like the ones in the upper part of the
building. Kate could see in because there was a rounded archway in
the hall leading into it with no door in the way.

“
Here we are,” Madam
Shadow said, making a gesture with her cigarette which was still
burning. “Go in.”

Kate went through the rounded doorway
quickly, glad to be out of the very public hallway and Rone
followed her.

“
Very good,” the Madam
nodded in apparent approval—the first they had gotten from her—as
soon as both of them were inside the purple bubble. She didn’t
follow them in, though. Instead, she stood on the threshold and
spoke through the archway. “Are you comfortable?”

“
Um…I guess so.” Looking
around, Kate saw that the bubble was furnished as a kind of
efficiency apartment—in fact, it reminded her of the one she’d
lived in while in college. In one corner—if a bubble could be said
to have a corner— was a kitchen area complete with a stove,
countertop, sink, and refrigerator. In another was a bed that
looked to be somewhere between queen-sized and full. A third corner
was a sort of living area with a small loveseat, some bookshelves,
and a vidscreen. The fourth corner was closed off—presumably it was
a bathroom. At least, Kate hoped it was.

“
What is this place?” Rone
demanded. He was also looking around and frowning.

“
Is this where we’re
supposed to take a shower?” Kate asked.

“
This, my dear Warrior, is
where the two of you will be staying for the foreseeable future,”
Madam Shadow answered crisply. She looked at Kate. “And yes, there
are shower facilities, although I am afraid you will be unable to
use them unless you cooperate with your mate, there.”

“
What? What are you
talking about? We’re not staying here,” Rone growled.

“
And what do you mean,
cooperate?” Kate asked. She could feel a lump of anxiety growing in
her stomach like a cube made of ice.

“
You
are
staying here,” Madam Shadow
insisted coolly. “You will not be able to leave until you have
found the harmony you lost.”

“
What? What does that even
mean?” The lump of ice in Kate’s stomach had turned from a cube
into a block and it threatened to freeze her with uncertainty and
fear.

“
It means exactly what I
said.” The Madam gave them a level stare. “Now listen to me because
I do not have any more time to waste on you and I will only say
this once—this is a bubble of cooperation and harmony. Each item
within it will work only if you are cooperating with each
other.”

“
Cooperating? How? In what
way?” Kate demanded, feeling more panicked every minute.

“
In
every
way, my dear.” The Madam blew
another puff of smoke. “You will remain thirsty unless you drink
from your lover’s hands. You will remain hungry unless you take the
food from his fingers. You will not be able to sit upon the couch
unless you are touching him—the bed will not support you unless
your bodies are entwined. Oh, and one more thing…” She looked Kate
up and down and sniffed distastefully. “No hand but his may wash
that dreadful slime from your skin. Likewise, no hand but yours may
cleanse him as well. And now, if there are no more questions, I
must go.” And she turned on her heel and left.

“
Wait! Who said there were
no more questions?” Kate rushed forward, meaning to go out of the
bubble and follow the Madam of Shadows, who was already retreating,
down the stone hall. But when she got to the archway, she found she
couldn’t pass through it. “What is this?” she asked out loud,
putting her hands out and pushing to no avail. “It’s another
invisible barrier. How do they
do
that?”

“
What?” Rone came up
behind her and pressed too, pushing with all his might. But they
might as well have been pushing against a wall of invisible
bricks—there was no way to get out of the bubble and back into the
corridor outside.

They were trapped.

Chapter
Fifteen

“
Oh my God,” Kate
whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. “Oh my God—I
can’t
believe
this!”

Rone found it pretty
unbelievable himself. It wasn’t that he minded being someplace
where he had to spend time with his mate—in fact, there was nothing
he would rather do. But he objected to being
forced
into it and he didn’t like
anything that made Kate feel uncomfortable—which she clearly
was.

“
What are we going to do?”
she asked, looking up at him. “This is
crazy
, Rone! She didn’t even tell us
how long we’d be stuck here.”

“
Yes, she did,” he
growled. “She said we’d stay here until we regained our lost
harmony—whatever that means.”

“
It means we’re trapped,”
Kate said softly. “For now, at least. So what
are
we going to do?”

“
I don’t know about you,
but I want to get cleaned up.” Rone looked down at himself
distastefully. He wasn’t as completely coated in the black slime as
Kate was, but he still had enough of it on him that he was making
black boot prints on the floor. He took a moment to pull the boots
off and leave them by the door and then padded barefoot into the
closed area of the bubble which he hoped was the bathing and
fresher area.

Sure enough, there was a freestanding tub, a
large shower, and a sink and toilet in this area. Good.

Rone turned the tap on the sink, half
expecting there to be no water since he wasn’t “cooperating” with
Kate to turn it on. But to his surprise and pleasure, a clear
stream of water came rushing out of the faucet and into the basin.
He stuck his large hands under the flow but though he felt the
clear water rushing over his skin, nothing happened. Frowning, he
rubbed at the slime with no result. He could feel the water but it
wasn’t doing him any good.

Thinking that he needed hotter water to get
the job done, Rone twisted the hot tap until clouds of steam were
rising from the sink. But though he got the water hot enough to
feel like it was peeling the flesh off his bones, it didn’t melt
even the tiniest bit of the slime off his skin. Using soap didn’t
help either. Nothing he did removed even a fraction of the gooey
black stuff.

Desperately, Rone grabbed for one of the
hand towels on a rack by the sink and rubbed—with no result. His
hands seemed to be permanently stained.

“
Damn it!” he heard Kate’s
voice say from the other room, as he turned off the taps in defeat.
He walked out to see her standing at the kitchen sink, scrubbing
her hands with a brush that was clearly meant for cleaning pots and
pans.

“
Kate, be careful.” He
went to her quickly. “You’ll hurt yourself—the bristles on that
damn thing aren’t for using on your skin. You’ll scrape yourself
raw!”

She looked up at him and he saw tears of
frustration standing in her clear green eyes.

“
It won’t come off. No
matter what I do.
It won’t come
off.
”

Rone sighed. “I know what you mean—I had the
same problem.” He held out his hands, still covered in the thick
black slime.

“
I
hate
this—I hate to be dirty like
this,” she exploded. “I feel so…so
disgusting.”

Rone thought she had never
looked lovelier. Though she was coated from head to foot in the
black stuff, she was naked under it. She was still clutching her
discarded clothes against her chest but he could still see most of
her. Her petite body had full curves he longed to caress again but
he knew she wouldn’t be comfortable with letting him touch her that
way. Still, maybe there was
something
he could do since she no
longer feared his hands on her.

“
Let me try,” he said
gently, stepping up beside her at the sink and holding out his
hands.

“
Try what?” She drew away
from him mistrustfully.

“
Just washing your hands,”
Rone said, trying to make his voice soft and non-threatening.
“That’s all, baby, I swear. Remember, Madam Shadow said no hand but
mine would get you clean.”

“
I…guess it’s worth a
try.” Hesitantly, she put down the scrub brush she’d been using and
stretched out her hands to him.

Rone took her small hands in his and brought
them under the water rushing into the kitchen sink. At first
nothing happened but then, when he began to rub her hands, the
slime slowly began to wash away.

“
Look—it’s working!” Kate
sounded excited. “Keep going!”

“
I’m not stopping until
you’re all clean,” Rone promised. “Look—it’s coming off my hands
too wherever you’re touching me.”