Revealed (8 page)

Before running into the Trissians,
Merrick
had made a pilgrimage to the Kindred home world—a foolish and pointless quest as it turned out. He’d gone to try and clear his mind of the constant conflict his two natures caused, and to ask forgiveness for the bloody deeds of his past. The pilgrimage hadn’t been so much for himself as for Sylvan—
Merrick
hadn’t wanted to bring bad luck to his old friend’s joining ceremony.

“So stupid,”
Merrick
muttered to himself, as he steered the star-duster through the Earth’s solar system. “So fucking stupid to think going there would help…”

* * * * *

He’d approached the temple, a vast white marble structure with ceilings so high he couldn’t see the murals painted on them, with more than a few misgivings. Like all Kindred, he believed in an all knowing Goddess, the Mother of All Life, but unlike most of his kin,
Merrick
didn’t think she was particularly benevolent or kind. His own sorry existence proved that.

The temple was housed within the holy mountain and hundreds of white marble steps led up to it.
Merrick
climbed them, two at a time, and saw a line of priestesses in simple white robes. Most had their heads bowed reverently and the dim light of the elegantly tapered torches glimmered in their green streaked hair. It reminded him of his mother, who had also been one of the rare female Kindred as most priestesses were. They stood before the raised dais which housed the Empty Throne—the seat which had been empty since the last Counselor
 
had died centuries ago and his only son and heir had been lost.

One of the priestesses stepped forward as he came to a stop before the white marble throne. “Why do you come here, Warrior?” she demanded, frowning in a most unwelcoming way. “Kneel as you speak. And remember when you answer that you speak to none other than the High Priestess of the Empty Throne—the mouthpiece of the Goddess herself.”

Unwillingly,
Merrick
had knelt before the Empty Throne. He couldn’t place the priestess’s age. Her long, curling hair was pure green and worn loose around her shoulders and her eyes were a solid emerald with no pupil, iris, or white to interrupt their blank, unbroken expanse. That blind yet knowing stare was strange and otherworldly and the high priestess’s demeanor was anything but welcoming. But Merrick hadn’t come all the way to
First World
just to turn around with his tail between his legs.

“I come asking forgiveness for my past misdeeds,” he rumbled, bowing his head in reluctant submission. “My past has not been a kind one.”

“Your past or your present either,” the priestess said, frowning. “Oh yes, Warrior, I see into you with no effort at all. You are a killer. A murderer many times over.”

“I am,”
Merrick
acknowledged, nodding coolly. “I don’t deny it. But I’m going to be a part of an old friend’s joining ceremony and I don’t wish to bring him bad luck. I need—”

“You need much more than I can give you.” The priestess made a dismissive motion. “Be gone. Bloody hands are not welcome at the Goddess’s table, nor bloody boots on her sacred sands.”

“What the fuck?”
Merrick
growled. “I came asking for forgiveness. And you’d damn well better believe this is the first and last time I’ve ever asked for
that.”

“It is just as well. Some sins cannot be forgiven.” The high priestess wrinkled her nose, as though she smelled something bad. “You would do well to remember that in future. And furthermore—”

But her words ended in a choked gurgle.
 
Suddenly her strange blank emerald eyes had gone pure white and her voice dropped into a low, sing-song tone as words that didn’t seem to be her own poured from her throat.

“You shall find your bride on your journey to help a friend seal his love. She who is meant for you waits wrapped in darkness—waits for your kiss to awaken her, warrior. You shall be her light and she shall be yours. You will heal each other, body and soul, though the path to that healing will be long and thorny. Go now and find your female. Only then will your troubled soul find peace.”

Her eyes changed back to green and she looked at him. “You are blessed indeed, Warrior—the Goddess has gifted you with a prophecy though I cannot imagine why. Do you understand it?”

“
No
,”
Merrick
snarled. He was so tall that even with him kneeling and the priestess standing, they were still eye to eye. “You’ve got it wrong,
your Holiness
,” he said sarcastically, ignoring the gasps of the other, lesser priestesses at his blasphemy. One did not tell the High priestess of the Empty Throne that she was mistaken but
Merrick
didn’t give a damn about protocol. This female had treated him like shit she’d wiped off her shoes and then given him a ridiculous, unwanted prophesy he hadn’t asked for. In the light of those circumstances, he felt no more need to bow and scrape.

The strange, blank emeralds of her eyes blazed. “How do you mean, warrior?” she asked, her voice cool and forbidding.

“You prophesied that I would meet someone—a female.”

“Indeed, and what is wrong with that?”

He shrugged. “To begin with, I’m not looking for any fucking female to complete me—I’m not like the other pathetic Kindred, all searching for their brides. I don’t need anyone but
me
to get along.” He spat on the temple floor, drawing more gasps from the other priestesses. “And second, even if I wanted to find a bride, it’s not possible. I’m a half breed—a hybrid. I’m not able to connect with a female and form a bond. Not that I want to.”

“Oh?” She raised one pale green eyebrow at him. “Do you dispute my prophecy?”

“Hell yes, I dispute it. There hasn’t been a female born yet who would take one look at this…”
Merrick
pointed at himself—his massive frame, scarred face, and mismatched eyes. “And not run for the hills.”

“It is difficult for me to believe too, but the Mother of All Life does not lie. There
is
a bride for you.” The high priestess sniffed disdainfully. “Though Goddess knows I feel sorry for her.”

Merrick
’s hands clenched into fists at his sides. He would never hit a female but this bitch was really pushing it. “That’s enough,” he growled. “I came here for absolution—not to hear your fucking false prophecies and insults. I’m leaving.”

“Not yet!” Raising one arm, the priestess pointed at him with an accusing finger. “I have words for you, Hybrid. Turn back and hear them or face the consequences.”

Merrick
looked at her in disbelief. “Are you threatening to
curse
me?”

“You curse
yourself
, warrior.” The priestess’s strange eyes had grown cold by now. As cold as the frozen exterior of his home planet, Tranq Prime. “Hear me well—there
is
a bride awaiting you. Her love will prick your heart like a thorn, giving you pain such as you have never imagined.”

Merrick
feared nothing—surviving what he’d been through as a child left little room for fright. But at her words a cold finger touched his heart and he knew he would pay
 
for the disrespect he had shown her.

Still, he lifted his chin. “Look at my scars, Holiness—I’ve known pain. Plenty of it.”

“Not like this. I say to you now, Hybrid—the knife of love will twist in your heart and will you know true agony. Despite your mixed heritage you
will
form a bond—one which cannot be broken. A bond which will threaten your very
life.”
The priestess raised her head, a look of regal displeasure written on her strong features. “I have given you enough of my time, warrior. Now go and be at peace…if you can.”

* * * * *

Merrick
shook his head as he remembered that meeting. The curse had been a bitter benediction and his parting with the high priestess still made him uneasy, although he didn’t like to admit it, even to himself.

He’d tried not to think about the foolish prophecy but it wouldn’t leave his mind. He had been going to Sylvan’s joining ceremony, and since his old friend had told him he intended to include the luck kiss in the ceremony,
Merrick
had assumed that the girl he performed it with would be the female the priestess spoke of. Hadn’t the prophecy included something about waking her with a kiss? But of course it turned out to be a moot point, since the run-in with the pirates had forced him to forgo his place in Sylvan’s joining.

Despite his anger and frustration at missing the ceremony,
Merrick
had to admit to
 
a sneaking sense of relief, too. To be honest, he’d been dreading the luck kiss. Dreading the look of fear and horror in the poor, hapless girl’s eyes as he gathered her to him for a kiss she surely didn’t want to give. There was no way she would have gone to him willingly, no way she would have kissed him without recoiling, without blanching in fear as all females did when faced with his massive, muscular frame and scarred visage…

“Goddess damn it, stop thinking about it!”
Merrick
muttered savagely to himself. He gave the star-duster a little more juice, scooting past a small rust-red planet his star charts informed him was called Mars by the humans. It looked barren to him—apparently Earth itself was the only planet located in the temperate zone and suitable for habitation in the entire solar system.

Despite his best efforts, his thoughts returned once more to the prophecy—to the curse. The high priestess had to be mistaken—of that he was certain. There wasn’t any willing female waiting for him out there in the vast reaches of the universe. Even his own mother had feared him before he left home—how could he expect anything different from any other female he met?
Just as well,
he thought, urging the ship to an even higher speed.
Don’t need a female. Don’t need anyone.
 
Need is weakness and I’m not fucking weak.

Earth was coming into view now, as well as its one lonely moon. Circling the pale, pocked lunar surface, he saw two massive ships. One, which had smaller vessels hustling back and forth between its docking bay and the Earth below, was obviously the Kindred Mother Ship. The other was the abandoned hulk of the Fathership—all that remained of the once malevolent Scourge.

Merrick
shook his head in awe as he looked at the dark and drifting Fathership. He’d heard that the Kindred’s old enemy had been destroyed with the help of the AllFather’s own son but it had been difficult to believe. Seeing the proof brought home the truth that the Scourge threat really was no more.

He was about to turn his star-duster toward the Mother ship when a sensor on his console beeped. Looking down at it,
Merrick
frowned. “A life pod, huh? Tell me more.” His little ship had a built-in scavenger function that was always scanning for valuable finds. That was how he had had found the equipment which became his worm hole generator—the star-duster had detected the long lost alien technology and brought it to his attention.

He hit a few buttons and swiped the info-panel with his thumb, requesting a more detailed scan. The read-out came back at once and
Merrick
’s mismatched eyes raced as he read it.

“Scourge life pod—probably jettisoned from the Fathership—but no vital signs aboard. Just a bunch of old equipment and…hmmm, that’s interesting.” His super sensitive scanners had picked up a signal so faint he was certain anyone else would have missed it. It was probably just deep space parasites but something about the signal piqued
Merrick
’s interest.

Going after the abandoned life pod might take awhile. It appeared to be floating in a huge cloud of debris and sorting through the lot would be a time consuming process.
Merrick
almost passed it up—his finger hovering over the autopilot control that would lead him directly to the Mother Ship’s docking bay.

But something made him stop. Call it intuition or hybrid luck or whatever you wanted, but something about the signal from the life pod called to him.

The skin at the back of his neck prickled and a chill ran down his spine. It was the same, strange feeling he’d had when he had found the alien tech which eventually became his wormhole generator.
Something different here,
a little voice seemed to whisper at the back of his brain.
Something that might be important—damn important.

Merrick
let his finger drop and grabbed the steering yoke with both hands instead. Sylvan had waited this long, he was sure his old friend wouldn’t mind waiting a little longer. Before he went to the Mother Ship to make his apologies, he wanted to find out what was in that pod.

They were about three standard days away from Tranq Prime when the next spasm of pain hit.

Nadiah had been expecting it—dreading it—since before they’d left the Mother Ship. After all, her fiancée had made it abundantly clear he didn’t intend to stop pulling on the blood bond until she submitted to him and agreed to their bonding. Still, she’d gone several days without pain, which had made her start hoping that maybe her parents had taken a hand in the matter. Possibly her mother had complained or her father had instructed Y’dex not to hurt her any more. She had even begun to relax a little—had stopped fearing that sharp, burning stab beneath her heart quite so much.