Revealed (2 page)

Nadiah was dreaming—either that or she was having another vision. The Sight, that peculiar gift given by the Goddess to a chosen few of her daughters, had become such an ingrained part of her life that it was becoming difficult to tell the difference between precognition and a simple dream.

“Sometimes dreams and visions are one and the same,”
whispered a soft, soothing voice in her ear.
“Watch and learn, daughter. Watch and learn and above all, remember.”

Obediently, Nadiah turned her head in the direction the voice seemed to indicate. To her surprise, she saw this was a scenario she’d seen before—right before Sylvan and Sophia’s bonding ceremony, in fact.
 
Though at the time she had assumed the male in her dream was Merrick, Sylvan’s friend, she now knew it was none other than the human detective.

Just as before, she saw Detective Rast standing before a throne in the Goddess’s temple. Somehow, though she had never been there, she knew this was the original throne—built millennia ago on the original Kindred home world. The human was standing tall, his head thrown back, truegreen eyes blazing as though in response to some challenge. As in her previous vision, he was wearing the ceremonial robes of the First Kindred. But this time the robes were split in back, the soft white material ripped and hanging in ragged shreds to show the broad, tan expanse of his muscular back.

Nadiah had a spasm of horror.
Why am I seeing this? Is he about to be punished for some reason? Whipped or branded? Why—?
Before the question could finish forming in her mind, she saw the tan skin along his shoulder blades ripple, almost as though something inside was trying to force its way out. Rast threw back his head, his face a mask of agony and then—

“Nadiah? Oh, thank God, she’s waking up.”

Nadiah, blinked and caught a fuzzy image of Olivia’s pretty face hanging over her like an anxious moon. “Wha?” she whispered, her mouth too dry to speak properly. “Wha…what’s wrong?”

“You fainted.” It was Sylvan, also leaning over her and studying her with his cool, blue clinician’s eyes. But far back in their icy depths there was worry as great as Olivia’s, Nadiah could tell.

“I did?” She struggled to sit up—someone had brought her to the med station and put her in a healing cot for some reason—but many hands pushed her back down.

“Lie still. You scared me to death.” It was Detective Rast, frowning at her sternly. “You were out like a light and I didn’t know what the hell happened.” He gave Sylvan an unfriendly look. “I still don’t.”

“You don’t need to, Rast.” The normally cool and collected Sylvan looked annoyed. “It doesn’t concern you.”

“The hell it doesn’t.” Rast glared at the other male. “It happened right in front of me. I’d say I have a right to know exactly what’s going on.”

“And I’d say you’re wrong about that.” Sylvan frowned. “Continuing in that vein, now that Nadiah is awake, I need to have a word with her.
Privately.
So if you could just step outside…?” He raised an eyebrow at Rast, who looked prepared to be stubborn. But before the human detective could open his mouth, Olivia took his arm.

“Come on, Detective. Let’s tell everyone that Nadiah’s going to be all right. They’re all worried to death out there and I need someone to help spread the good news.”

Rast frowned at her, obviously knowing he was being manipulated but not quite sure how to handle it. Finally he put a hand on Nadiah’s knee and looked into her eyes directly. “
Are
you all right?” he asked, his deep voice surprisingly gentle. “Just tell me, sweetheart. I need to hear you say it before I go.”

For some reason, Nadiah’s heart started thudding in her chest and she found it hard to meet those truegreen eyes of his. “I…I’m fine,” she finally managed to say. “Just fine.”

“That’s bullshit, but at least you’re conscious.” He frowned. “I get that I’m not wanted and your cousin here wants me to keep my nose out of your business, but if there’s anything I can do—”

“Thank you, but no.” Nadiah shook her head. “There’s nothing you can do.”
Unless you can break a long standing blood bond, that is…
But she didn’t say it out loud. Rast was human, not Kindred. Of
course
he couldn’t break the bond that bound her inextricably to her home world, so many thousands of light years away.

“All right, then.” He patted her knee once and then withdrew. “I’ll be outside if you need me. For
anything
.” With a last frown at Sylvan, he followed Olivia out of the room, leaving Nadiah alone with him.

“Well?” Sylvan rounded on her the minute the door to the small exam room
snicked
closed. “It’s the blood bond, isn’t it? It’s pulling you back toward Tranq Prime.”

Nadiah sighed in defeat—there was no use denying it. “Yes,” she whispered, nodding wearily. “I’ve been feeling it for awhile but lately it’s getting worse. It’s almost like he’s
yanking
on it—trying to pull me back to him across space.”

Sylvan frowned. “That’s possible, I guess. Depending on the strength of the bond.”

Nadiah laughed bitterly. “It’s strong, all right.
Mamam and Patro made sure of that when they linked me to Yo-dah.” She sighed. “I guess I should stop calling him by that childhood nickname—it always makes him so mad. I’d better use his formal first name since it seems I have no choice but to join with him. Y’dex.” The name tasted bitter on her tongue. “Y’dex, the one my parents chose for me. And they bound me to him as tightly as they could—that way they could be sure I wouldn’t run off.”

A reluctant grin twitched the corners of Sylvan’s mouth. “I guess you proved them wrong on that score.”

“Only for a little while.” Nadiah’s chest felt tight and there was a lump in her throat she couldn’t swallow. “But now…now I’ll have to go back. The pain is getting worse—it’s like someone is twisting a knife right under my heart.”

“I could tell you were hurting but I had no idea it was getting so bad.” Sylvan sat on the edge of her cot, concern clear on his chiseled features. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because…” Nadiah’s eyes burned and she blinked them rapidly, hoping to hold back the tears. “Because I knew you’d send me back. And I just wanted a little more time. I kept hoping I’d start dream sharing with someone—
anyone
. Because anyone would be better than Yo-dah—I mean, Y’dex. But…” The tears came now, she couldn’t stop them. “But the only person I ever seem to dream about is Detective Rast.”

Sylvan frowned and shook his head. “You can’t dream share with a human, Nadiah. And even if you could, it wouldn’t do you any good.”

“I know.” She sniffed and blotted her eyes on the sleeve of her
tharp.
It nuzzled her cheek comfortingly. “I know but it’s like he’s gotten in my head somehow and he doesn’t…doesn’t leave room for anyone else.”

He sighed. “I’d tell you to
make
room but I’m afraid it wouldn’t do any good. I can’t let you stay here on the Mother Ship any longer—not when you’re in so much pain.”

“I know.” Despair welled up inside her, threatening to drown her like a salty, bitter wave. “I know, Sylvan but it’s so
hard
to go back. So—
ahh!”
Her words ended in a gasp as a bright bolt of pain stabbed her. It slid between her ribs like a red hot blade, just below the heart, and ripped downwards. Nadiah doubled over in agony, clutching futilely at her chest and belly. The searing pain took her breath away and for a moment the room around her went gray and pinpoints of light danced in front of her vision.

“Nadiah?” Sylvan pulled her upright, his deep voice filled with fear. “Are you all right?”

She tried to laugh but the sound came out sounding rusty and weak. “Never better, son of my mother’s sister. I’m ready for a stroll around the sacred grove, can’t you tell?”

Sylvan frowned. “This is no time to joke. We need to get you back to Tranq Prime and
soon
.”

“I know.” The pain had dissipated but Nadiah’s forehead was damp with sweat and her mouth was dry. “I know it, Sylvan. I just hate to let him win—hate the fact that he has so much power over me.”

“I hate it too,” Sylvan said grimly. “If it were up to me, the whole practice of blood bonding would be abolished. It’s archaic and cruel. And—”

“Sylvan?” Sophia’s voice from the other side of the door interrupted his thought.

“What is it,
Talana?”
he asked. “You can come in.”

Sophia slipped into the med room and closed the door behind her. “It’s a call on the viewscreen,” she said, and Nadiah saw that her green eyes were troubled.

Sylvan frowned. “A call from who? Whoever it is, tell them I will get back to them.”

Sophia bit her lip. “I don’t think this can wait. It’s a call for Nadiah from her parents and…” She looked at Nadiah directly. “And I think your fiancé.”

Nadiah felt her heart drop like a lead weight. “They’re all calling me at once?”

Sophia nodded. “I’m afraid so. But, Nadiah, you’re not well—you don’t have to take the call.”

“Yes, I do.” Nadiah crossed her arms over her chest and shivered. This was the call she’d been avoiding—the moment she’d been dreading from the first second she stepped foot on the Mother Ship for Sophia and Sylvan’s wedding. Now it could no longer be put off. “It’s not just a call, Sophie,” she said quietly. “It’s a summons. And I must go.”

* * * * *

Rast kept his head low and his eyes trained on the crack between the two medical drapes which shielded the cot where he was hiding.
 
After leaving the room in the first place, he’d convinced Olivia that he needed to use the john and then slipped back to listen at Nadiah’s door the minute she started talking to Lauren and Kat.

Eavesdropping wasn’t exactly the most honorable way to get information but his time as a private detective had taught him that sometimes you got the intel anyway you could. Nadiah had a secret—a secret that was hurting her—and he intended to find out what the hell it was. When he was sure that Nadiah and Commander Sylvan and his wife were far down the corridor, he risked following.

As he slipped down the long curving metal hallway, he thought about what Sylvan and Nadiah had said. He hadn’t gotten the specific details but it was clear she was being hurt by someone—being forced to go back to her home planet where she obviously didn’t want to go by this blood bond, whatever it was.

The question is, who’s hurting her? And how can I get to the son of a bitch to hurt him back?
He didn’t question the protective instinct that rose in him or the animal rage at the idea of someone causing Nadiah pain. He only knew that it needed to stop,
now.
And if no one else intended to do anything about it, he sure as hell
would
.

There was something else she’d said too—soft words that echoed in his heart as he jogged quietly along behind his targets.
“…the only person I ever seem to dream about is Detective Rast,”
Nadiah had told her cousin. But there had been despair in her voice when she said it, as though that was a bad thing. And then Sylvan had said something about how she couldn’t dream share with a human—whatever that was.

Rast couldn’t figure out what dreaming had to do with anything. Come to that, he’d had a few interesting dreams about Nadiah as well. Most of them were ordinary enough—he saw her talking to her friends or walking down the halls of the Mother Ship. But there had been one where she was in the shower with hot, soapy water running down her small but firm breasts…

Stop it,
he told himself sternly.
No time for that now.

And indeed, there wasn’t. Just ahead, he saw Nadiah, Sylvan and Sophia turn into the viewing room—a place he recognized from seeing it from the viewscreen of the Sarasota HKR building down on Earth. His first impulse was to go in with them and confront whoever was calling her. He’d threaten to pound them flatter than a pancake if they didn’t leave her alone. But years of detective work and caution made him pause.

Get the facts first,
he thought grimly, settling in the recessed doorway of the viewing room, just out of sight.
Know your enemy.

Since the three people appearing on the large, rectangular viewscreen were obviously aliens from Nadiah’s home world of Tranq Prime, he thanked fate he’d gotten a shot of the translation bacteria only offered on the Kindred Mother Ship. Originally he’d gotten it to help him understand different languages on Earth, now it appeared the bacteria would be much more helpful away from his home planet.

Two of the people were older and dressed in furs—obviously Nadiah’s parents. Rast could see the family resemblance in their tall, slender bodies and blonde hair, not to mention the mother’s aristocratic features. But there the resemblance ended. The coldness in their blue eyes was nothing like the lively warmth that animated Nadiah’s—at least when she wasn’t at death’s door. And the look of stern disapproval on their haughty faces made it clear that she was in some kind of trouble.

But as compelling as the parents were, Rast found his gaze drawn to the young man who stood between them the most. He was tall and thin but there was a wiry strength to his muscles that couldn’t be discounted—obviously he was stronger than he looked. His hair was a blond so fair it was almost white and his eyebrows and eyelashes were even lighter. They seemed to melt into his pale skin giving him the odd, lashless look of a white rabbit.