Passion Light (18 page)

She looked at Isabelle and introduced herself. “I am Ana, first officer in charge of strategy for the Goddess.” She was almost as tall and strong looking as Evan. She had a remarkably peaceful and gentle demeanor for a woman wearing weapons. She continued in her statements without pause. “For the terrible damage that this planet has suffered we will have to consult with both our Goddess and God for the proper procedures to bring harmony to this very unharmonious place. We have never seen this much damage on our own planet even in times of war with other planets. Most people who are left here are ill and the planet itself is also.”

Another person, a man stepped forward as if in answer to some signal Isabelle missed. He nodded toward her and introduced himself as Wynn before addressing the group. “We have detected considerable opposition to your uncle’s ideas and plans even among his own soldiers. Isabelle’s ability to grow food is of enough strategic importance that even the men who are loyal to him are concerned about how they will eat if she is gone. They hope the workers who are doing the agricultural tasks know what to do and when to do it, but they are not convinced.”

Another woman came forward. “Call me Dru,” she said with a smile. She continued, “From a business standpoint the food growing capabilities make this place more successful and profitable than any other place anyone knows in this area and maybe on the whole planet. The profitability depends in part on the food production and the available comforts that would be hard to duplicate without Isabelle’s expertise. Many of the people who support Uncle know at least some of this and are concerned about what will happen without her.”

A small, tough looking woman moved a bit restlessly.

“What, Daria?” Evan asked.

“What makes this place so attractive…so important to Uncle is that it can be defended. It’s partly the building that makes it so valuable.”

“There are things Uncle does not know about the building…things only Isabelle knows,” Evan said. He almost smiled and then looked at Isabelle, waiting for her to speak.”

“This is difficult,” she said. “No one except Evan knows what I am about to tell you. My father and grandfather told only me the secrets of the castle.”

“It will be an honor to learn your secrets that you have guarded so carefully and unselfishly for the good of your people,” Ana said. “The Goddess made you both wise and careful and the God represented by your father and grandfather clearly agrees. We will support you with their blessings. It is the ultimate good scenario for our efforts.”

Everyone seemed to agree with her and it encouraged Isabelle.

She and Evan told them about the tunnels. “If you can come in through the tunnels and the dungeons you can appear everywhere at once without using our mind driven powers until it’s necessary,” Evan said.

Brian claimed the attention of the group, saying, “Glory, the woman I have been with since I got here is a strong telepath. We can communicate without talking even though we are not yet mated. She believes she is unworthy because she has been a sex worker. I wish her to be my mate. I have seen her in my dreams, but I did not expect to find her here during this mission. I thought she was dead in the wars, but she just shut down emotionally. I need help to convince her that we will be a match.”

Evan turned to Isabelle and explained to her, “Mated couples on Terra spend weeks in uninterrupted seclusion when they first get together. Our circumstances have made us be constantly taken out of our intimacy in order to fulfill all your responsibilities. I have been careful to accompany you everywhere so that our bond can grow in spite of the less than ideal conditions.”

“I realize now that we have never been apart since I first met you,” Isabelle said. “I never questioned it. I felt so connected to you that I was glad to have you near.”

Ana spoke up. “It’s normal that you would feel this close tie even though your circumstances are much different for most people in our world. The Goddess has already started to bless your union. It is as it should be for you both.”

“We need to make our move on Uncle,” Dru said. “Nothing here is going to go as it should until he is neutralized. We may not need to kill him, but I think that nasty old priest is definitely going to have to cease to exist. Why he views himself as holy is beyond comprehension. He’s just a dirty old man who hates women.”

Ana added more. “Uncle and his cronies will definitely have to be neutralized. Precisely what happens to him will depend on how far he pushes his agenda against Isabelle. He may or may not condemn himself but he will be given the chance to change his mind. It is our way. For a man to kill a healer and a person who grows food and offers it to anyone who needs it is a very bad thing. It indicates that he may be beyond redemption. Many people here are also. The way he has forced people here to make money, by selling sex is also undesirable. Isabelle’s efforts to prevent people being forced involuntarily to be sex workers, is part of the reason he has survived so far. But she wishes everyone here could live differently. Additionally, this planet is dying because they have forgotten or hidden the importance of the Goddess for far too long. We must bring her back to restore the magic that was here in the beginning. It’s like a conspiracy to minimize women and diminish their importance and contributions. Children have suffered more even than women. Now all who are here are struggling to survive.”

Dru said, “Can the planet be healed?”

“It’s a really big job,” Ana said. “Probably the biggest we have ever attempted, but I think we should try anyway. What do all of you think?”

No one actually spoke, but even Isabelle realized they were going to make the attempt. It was clear in their looks.

Chapter 20

Evan took her into his arms and wished them and Brian back inside the castle. Isabelle asked him, “Why do your people think Uncle has to make his move on me before they move against him? It seems like giving him enough rope to hang himself.”

“That’s literally true in a way,” Evan agreed. “In our society it is considered criminal to impede or hurt a healer or anyone who grows food and helps to nurture children. You do all three. It would mean you would be considered a priestess in our world, a very important job with huge responsibilities. So far Uncle has taken stuff from you and allowed Luther to hurt you. He also took over your home and started a brothel, another huge mark against him. Now he is in some trouble but he could come back from it. If he threatens your life, it’s different. He may change his mind but if he doesn’t he might bring down the ultimate punishment on himself. It’s our way to let him decide for himself how bad he will be and how bad his punishment will be, too.”

“But he doesn’t know what might happen to him,” Isabelle said. “He really doesn’t know the consequences of what he and the priest are plotting.” Isabelle was envisioning something bloody and violent and worrying about it, too.

Evan looked stern and rather grim. His hard face looked very unforgiving. “He chose his path,” he said. “I think he’s going to go even farther. I would never let him hurt you. It’s why I am here at this moment in time. I came here for you and I will be with you for as long as I live. We live longer than Earthlings, too, because our planet is healthier and less polluted than this one.”

“How much longer?” Isabelle asked. It was intriguing and she wanted to know.

“About 500 years, on average,” Evan answered.

“I’m an Earthling,” Isabelle said. “Our union might be pretty sad for you. Few of us live longer than 80 to 90 years, max.”

“We can heal you and extend your life to a similar time as ours. Your healing has already begun. It’s part of the reason you are looking so great,” he answered. “We have been working on Glory, too, but she is more difficult. Her spirit is at least as wounded as her body and Brian needs her whole, again.”

“Uncle intended for me to end up much like her,” Isabelle said. It was all too true. Uncle had intended to harm her, abuse her much like the sex workers had been hurt. The miracle was that Uncle had chosen Evan as her mate. He had intended that she would be in an unhappy union with a hard faced stranger instead of forcing her into the life of a sex worker, but he had still meant to hurt her and make her unhappy, even more unhappy than she already was running a brothel for him. Oddly he still believed she was unhappy with Evan. He could not grasp that it had turned out well for her. She liked Evan and she liked his ways.

Uncle would be even more resentful when he figured it out…finally. She was ready to quit the brothel business and leave her home. It had not felt like home even when her father was alive. It had not been a good fit for her, especially since Uncle came. Many of the workers understood too well how she felt. She had as little choice as they did in what happened. Her Uncle took all the power as well as most of the money and her home, too.

Isabelle was still in Evan’s arms. He ducked his head and kissed her.

She kissed him back. It distracted her from the danger she was facing and she wanted more of it.

“I want to make love to you,” he murmured against her lips.

“What a good idea,” she said smiling. She was in the mood to take all the pleasure she could and she no longer felt sore. Plus she needed distraction. Her life was in danger and her only available release was being with her new husband.

He set her on her feet and began to strip her of her clothing, first of her tunic and then of her pants and shirt. Her feminine body emerged from her disguise to his pleasure.

She reached for him and started to remove his clothing, too. They were becoming used to each other and knew they were of one mind in their desire for each other.

Isabelle loved having a man, a love, that was hers that she could see and touch anytime they had the opportunity. She pulled him to her bed and encouraged him to recline. Climbing in next to him she began to explore his muscular body. He was flushed with arousal and his organ was hard but he did not rush her. “I love your hands on my body,” he told her.

“I want to be on top,” she said, climbing aboard and stroking his chest. He touched her, holding her waist and testing her arousal with his fingers.

His touch in her most intimate folds thrilled her and she gasped with pleasure.

She reached for him and rubbed his hard organ where it could do the most good and where his hands had just been. They were becoming very excited and she wanted him to come inside her. As though he read her mind he held his organ and she sank onto him as far as she could go, and then farther.

He shivered in pleasure and held her around her waist, encouraging her to rise upward and then sink back down onto his hardness. His large hands almost wrapped completely around her waist. His face and shoulders were flushed with arousal. She found a rhythm and began to move. He touched her with his fingers at the perfect spot to help her have fun. “Don’t come yet,” he suggested roughly. “Try to make it last.”

“I’ll try,” she said breathlessly, “but this feels really good.”

They continued to move together and she did try to make it last, but finally she screamed, “I’m going to come.”

He squeezed his eyes shut and worked to give her his best moves as she began to orgasm, waiting until she fell over him until he allowed himself release. He filled her with cum just as her last spasms gripped him tightly in a pulsing climax.