Phantom of the Wind (20 page)

* * * * *

1823 CMT

“Lord Quinn?” A warrior came up to Quinn and held out his hand. “I am Liam Ghrian, Cair’s brother.” He turned to the men with him. “These men are Lorcan and Roman Shanahan, Davan’s brothers. We are Reapers.”

Quinn shook the men’s hands. “I am honored to have you aboard, gentlemen.

“I’ll be in charge of the Reaper squadron,” Lorcan said. “The Prime Reaper bestowed a temporary Prime upon me for the duration of our time with the Alliance.”

“These are bad times,” Quinn said. “I thought I would be allowed to know peace for a little while.”

“Didn’t we all?” Roman Shanahan agreed.

“Captain? The Burgon is hailing you, Sir!” Gilly called out.

The face that appeared on the Vid-Com screen looked as though it had aged ten years overnight. Deep lines scored Ryden Bakari’s forehead and bracketed his mouth. He looked tired, but his voice was strong as he greeted Quinn.

“I am sorry to have drawn you back into this mess, Phantom,” the Emperor of Aduaidh Quadrant apologized.

“We are here for you, Your Excellency,” Quinn responded quickly. “Our sincerest condolences on your losses.”

“Acknowledged, Quinn,” the Burgon said then ran a hand under his nose. “Between Taegin and myself we’ve pushed Morrison and his two escorts back into the Cairghrian Galaxy. Cair is on his way to join us. If you would, please join us beyond the Sinisters. We’ll make it damned hard for those cowards to come sailing back over the boundary of the Idimmu Galaxy any time soon.”

“Is there any particular place you want us stationed, Milord?”

“We’re not sure about Necroman’s intentions but it looks as though King Rakanja Taborn is siding with the opposition. If there’s any way for you to find out for us, it would be greatly appreciated so we’ll know where we stand in that sector.”

“Will do, Your Excellency,” Quinn agreed. “Is there anything else we can do for you?”

“I understand you have Reapers onboard?”

“Aye and two of them are Lorcan and Roman Shanahan, Sir.”

“Have them transport over to the
Sekkeen
and I’ll find them ships if needed. I don’t want to use them unless we have to engage in full-scale battle.”

“Understood, Your Excellency.”

“Did you leave your brattling brother on Theristes?” the Burgon inquired.

“He didn’t want to stay behind, but once he found out he would be under the care of Lord Coireall Donnan he calmed down a bit.”

The Burgon’s lips tugged at a smile. “I’d rather be in the midst of a battlefield with twenty bloodthirsty and brutally crazed men circling me with drawn swords and me weaponless than be at Donnan’s mercy. I pity your poor little brother.”

“He was your instructor, Sir?” Quinn asked.

“Lucky me, huh?” the Burgon asked.

“You had the best, Your Excellency,” Quinn complimented.

“Take care, Phantom, and give my regards to your lady.” The emperor’s eyes narrowed. “You have Joined with her, have you not?”

“There hasn’t been time, Sir, and I haven’t even gotten around to asking her,” Quinn confessed. He glanced over at Kendall. “I don’t think she’d be all that receptive to me right now anyway.”

“Fool,” the Burgon said on a long sigh. “Get it done, Quinn, before you join us at the Sinisters.” He cocked a brow. “That is an order, mister.”

The Vid-Com screen went blank.

Kendall’s hands clenched on the arms of her chair. “He wasn’t serious,” she breathed.

“He was very serious,” Paton said. “Looks like I’ve a Joining to perform as auxiliary captain.”

“I haven’t agreed to that,” Kendall protested.

“He is my Burgon, wench,” Quinn said. “He just issued an order and I must carry it out.”

“I am Domhan,” she reminded him. “I have no Burgon. I am…”

“Technically our enemy,” Lorcan Shanahan said. “Is she under arrest, Captain Quinn?”

Kendall squinted her eyes at the Reaper. “That isn’t funny. As a healer, I am neutral in this.”

“You’d best take sides, Kenni,” Fenella told her. “You’re either with your man or you’re against him. Which will it be?”

Quinn was looking at his lover, staring her in the eye. She was fuming, angry at not being given a choice in the matter. Sitting there rigidly in her chair, she glanced around at the faces looking back at her, each one unsmiling. It was not a laughing matter. It was serious and she took it that way.

“I don’t have a choice,” she said.

“No, he didn’t give you one,” Quinn agreed. “But if it makes you feel any better and less put upon, it is what I desire with my entire heart and my entire being, wench. I would have gotten around to asking you on Theristes when the time was right but—”

“Gotten around to it,” Kendall snapped, anger making her eyes flash. “You make it sound like an afterthought, Quinn!”

“If it was an afterthought,
Lhiannan
,” he said softly, “it kept me sane in the hellish heat of Hell-Twelve. It allowed me to sleep at night and get up to put one weary foot ahead of the other each morning. Finding you, getting back together with you, asking you to be my wife, was all that kept me alive.”

Tears formed in Kendall’s eyes and she had to look away. “I’m not saying no,” she said. “I’m just voicing my objection to being made to do something I wasn’t expecting.”

“Duly noted,” Quinn said then turned to Paton. “Mr. Dougherty, if you would do the honors and if my cousin will stand up for my lady, I will return in a few moments to take part in the Joining.”

“Where are you going?” Kendall demanded as Quinn unbuckled his harness and started from the bridge.

“Would you do me the honor of standing at my side, Lord Lorcan?” Quinn asked Shanahan.

“It would be my greatest pleasure, Sir,” Lorcan agreed.

“Where are you going?” Kendall asked again, but her lover did not answer. She threw her hands into the air. “This can’t be happening!”

Fenella smiled. “It’s what the Phantom has been talking about for years, Kenni. You never had a chance to tell him no.”

Kendall pursed her lips and made quick work of undoing her harness. “I don’t like being forced into this.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Fenella whispered as she threaded her arm through Kendall’s.

They were standing before Paton when Quinn came back. He was smiling, his boyish grin like that of a little boy who has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“What did you do?” Kendall asked as he came to stand beside her.

“You’ll see,” he replied enigmatically.

With Fenella standing at Kendall’s left hand and Lorcan at Quinn’s right, Paton began the ceremony of Joining that had been laid down by his ancestors over a thousand years before. The Cengusian High Speech might have been lost on Lorcan and the Reapers and womenfolk who had accompanied them from Theristes, but Kendall understood every word and the tears fell silently down her cheeks at the lovely words—made even lovelier by the way Paton spoke them in his soft brogue.

“And will you take this woman as your love, your companion, the mother of your future children, the sharer of your fate from this day forward until the Gatherer separates you from her?”

Quinn did not hesitate. “I will.”

Kendall felt a lump rising in her throat as Paton turned to her.

“And will you take this warrior as your love, your companion, the father of your future children, the master of your fate from this day forward until the Gatherer separates you from him?”

Kendall turned to look at the handsome man standing beside her. “I will as long as he courts me properly before he expects me to allow him to be master of anything of mine,” she said.

Quinn rolled his eyes. “Didn’t I tell you I would, wench?”

“Swear it before God and man,” she stated, expecting him to argue with her but his smile made her knees weak.

“I so swear that I will court you as you deserve to be courted and I vow before God and man that I will not rest until you are mine completely of your own free will,” he said. He reached into his pocket and took out a small velvet box. He opened it to remove a ring resting there on red satin.

Kendall stared at the golden ring, her heart doing a funny little flip.

“This is a Gaoithean Claddagh,” he told her. “It was my great-grandmother’s given to her by my great-grandfather on the day of their Joining. She handed it down to her daughter on her Joining Day who handed it down to her daughter, my mother, when she was carrying me. When my mother was on her deathbed, she gave it to me and asked that it go to the woman I chose for my bride.” He slipped it on the third finger of her left hand. “The hands are a symbol of the friendship each marriage must have for it to last. The heart symbolizes love for without love there can be no true Joining. The crown is a symbol of the loyalty to one another the couple must possess for love to last. Friendship first, love second, loyalty always. That is the Claddagh. I entrust you with my heart, my love, my friendship, my loyalty and—above all else—my soul which I place into your keeping with this ring.”

“Then I pronounce you husband and wife,” Paton said quickly, obviously not taking a chance that Kendall would halt the proceedings.

Quinn’s kiss was a lithe touching of his lips to Kendall, but the hot promise in his eyes made liquid fire ooze between her thighs.

“You are shameless,” she whispered against his mouth.

The Phantom made no comment but turned to Shanahan and ordered him to set a course for the Sinisters. With Kendall’s fingers threaded securely with his own, Quinn tugged her away from those gathered.

“Where are we going?” she asked, her face flaming.

“Where do you think?” he asked in a throaty voice.

Munchkin—sitting in her kennel and very unhappy about it—stared at her humanoid companion and the sexy male escorting her from the bridge and hissed. It wasn’t that the Elfinish was unhappy with the situation. Just thinking of sharing the same bed with the Phantom pleased her since he did not seem adverse to paying her the attention she required. What annoyed Munchkin was that she was being ignored, her needs not taken into consideration. When Douglas, the co-navigational officer, strolled by on his way to the lounge, the Elfinish deigned to speak to him.

“You!” Munchkin said. “With the ungodly ugly red hair.”

Douglas stopped and looked around, his freckled face turning mean. “Who said that?”

“I did, you walking lit match!” Munchkin replied.

Slowly lowering his gaze to the kennel, the nav officer stared at the feline. “You are speaking to me, Milady?” he asked in awe.

“Is there another humanoid with such awful hair?” Munchkin snapped. “I think not. Aye, I’m speaking to you.”

Douglas moved closer to the kennel. “This is an honor, Milady. I am so honored.” He put a hand to his chest. “You have no idea how much—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Munchkin said, rolling her pink eyes. “Look, Torch. How’s about opening the door and letting me stretch my paws? I think Kendall will be occupied for longer than I want to remain cooped up in this vile place.”

Douglas turned around. “She’s speaking to me! Can you hear her? The Lady Elfinish is speaking to me!”

“Tell the whole galaxy, why don’t you?” Munchkin spat at him. “Open the gods-be-damned door, Torch!”

Scrambling to do as he was ordered, Douglas was obviously aware of those on the bridge watching him with envy for his chest was puffed out and he was beaming from ear to ear—his freckled complexion turning a very unattractive ruddy color. Everyone knew Elfinishs only spoke to certain privileged recipients and he’d been chosen.

With the door open, Munchkin strolled out with a flick or two of her sparsely haired tail. She padded around—sniffed, wrinkled her nose, twitched her whiskers—then made a beeline to Paton. She looked up at him as he gazed down at her with what appeared to her to be a bit of disdain then rubbed against his legs.

“Oh great,” Paton said. “I hate cats.”

Munchkin spread her scent on his other leg then ambled off, inspecting things that had intrigued her from the kennel. Humanoids spoke to her but she disdained to answer, merely nodding in passing, not even giving them the courtesy of a purr or a meow until the one called Fenella came forward with an offering.

“Here you go, Milady,” Fenella said, placing a dish of warm cream for the Elfinish’s approval.

One sniff and Munchkin was in heaven. She looked up at Fenella and though she didn’t verbally thank the humanoid, she did allow one small chirping meow before lowering her head to the treat.

“Did you hear that?” Fenella asked. “She chirped at me!”

“She spoke to me,” Douglas said.

“No one heard her,” Paton grumbled.

“She spoke to
me
,” the nav officer stated emphatically.

Munchkin duly noted the pride in the red-haired man’s voice and decided she would even grace him with the honor of holding her on his lap when she was finished with this unexpected treat. She hoped he knew how to properly stroke a goddess.

Chapter Seven

2157 CMT