Shadowed: Brides of the Kindred book 8 (35 page)

* * * * *

Nina glared at Reddix as he slowly turned back to face her. The bed was between them, but there was obviously a whole lot more dividing them.

“Explain,” she said tightly. “But first, let me tell you something. I will and
have
put up with a lot. You kidnapped me, dragged me through a wormhole, stranded me on a strange alien planet where everyone had three eyes and tentacles, and there was nothing but purple mush to eat—okay, I could deal with all that. But this…this is a deal breaker. To find out you already have a fiancée and you’ve been lying to me this whole time? Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “No, no, and
hell
no. There are some things I will
not
tolerate.”

“Nina…sweetheart…” Reddix shook his head, as though trying to think how to begin. “I know this looks bad—fucking terrible, in fact.”

“You’re damn right it looks bad.” Nina still had her arms crossed over her chest protectively. Had Reddix been lying to her this entire time? Had he been playing her for a fool? “We talked and talked on the planet of the Feeling People,” she went on, trying to keep her voice from cracking. “I really felt like…like I got to know you. To
care
about you. Why didn’t you tell me about her? About…?”

“Tilla. Her name is Tilla,” he said heavily, sinking down onto the side of the bed. “And the reason I didn’t tell you about her was, well, I guess because I was trying so hard not to think of her. She’s part of this whole mess—she’s my fate if I have to stay here and rule as OverChief.”

“So you
are
engaged to her?” Nina demanded.

Reddix nodded. “Yes, although as she pointed out, the agreement was never sealed.”

“What does that even mean? Are you with her or not?”

“I don’t
want
to be, Goddess damn it!” he growled. “I never did—this was my parents’ idea. Back when Saber first let them know he was with Lissa, his parents and mine were scrambling for a solution. They knew the clans would be reluctant to have a male with RTS as their next OverChief. They needed to put me with someone who would tolerate having a cripple as a mate.”

“A cripple? You mean because of your RTS?” Nina asked.

“Among other things.” He put his head in his hands. “I can’t even stand to touch her. To fucking be
near
her. She turns my stomach, and I turn hers—I can feel how much she hates me every minute she’s near me.”

“Then why is she making such a big deal?” Nina demanded. “If she hates you so much?”

“Because she wants the status of being the OverChief’s female.” Reddix looked up at her. “That’s all it is to her—a business deal. A chance to lord it over all the other females on Tarsia because she’ll have more status than any of them combined once we’re joined.” He sighed and looked down at his feet. “Goddess fucking damn it,” he muttered. “This is all such a fucked up mess.”

Nina stared at him uncertainly. Was he telling the truth? Slowly she came around the bed and stood in front of him. Reddix just looked at her, making no move to touch her.

“I
want
to believe you,” she said at last.

“Then
do,”
he said hoarsely. “I swear I want nothing to do with Tilla. I let my parents and Saber’s push me into an agreement with her for the good of the clans, but I’m done with her now. It’s over. I don’t care if they like it or not. If they won’t have Saber as their OverChief, they’ll have to accept me as a single ruler.”

Nina frowned. “But the line of succession…don’t you have to uh, produce an heir?”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do about that.” He shook his head and scratched absently at the red snake marking on his wrist which seemed to have grown again. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about a lot of things—I made promises, accepted obligations—and I have no idea how I’ll fulfill them. But I
do
know I don’t want to spend a single minute of my life with Tilla.” He looked at Nina full in the face, holding her eyes with his own. “It’s you I want, Nina,” he said hoarsely. “And if I can’t have you, I don’t want anyone else. I swear it on my honor as a Kindred warrior. I swear it on my life.”

“Reddix…” Nina wasn’t quite sure what to say.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “So fucking sorry I didn’t say anything about Tilla. I should have. I just…never thought you could care for me after what I did. I never thought I’d even have any kind of a chance with you, and I didn’t want to think about what was waiting for me here on Tarsia.”

Nina shook her head. “I don’t even know what to believe anymore.”

“Believe that I care for you, please, sweetheart.” He took her hand in his, and Nina let him hold it though she didn’t squeeze back when his fingers closed over hers. For a long time they stared into each other’s eyes, silver clashing with blue.

Finally, Nina sighed. “If you really feel that way, you need to tell Tilla,” she said. “It’s not fair to her otherwise.”

He nodded. “You’re right.”

Nina withdrew her hand. “I’d offer to stay with you and damp her emotions, but I think that would only make things worse between the two of you.”

Reddix nodded stoically. “I owe it to her to tell her face to face with no one between us. It won’t be very fucking pleasant, but I can manage.”

“You’ll have to.” Turning, she left the room, brushing past the very angry Tilla as she did.

“There she goes—there goes the alien
whore
,” the Tarsian girl spat as she walked past.

Nina looked back at her. “I may be a whore in your eyes,” she said calmly. “But at least he can touch me. At least he
wants
to touch me. That’s more than you can say.”

Tilla grew red in the face. “None of that matters because
I
have the right blood. Long after you’ve returned to your backwater planet, I’ll be the one standing by his side as wife of the OverChief—you’ll see.”

“Keep telling yourself how important your blood is then,” Nina said. “And go ahead—talk to Reddix. Try to convince him he wants you when he doesn’t. Have fun with that.”

Then she turned and walked away, leaving the Tarsian girl sputtering behind her.

But her victory felt like a hollow one. Inside she was wondering what was really going on. And who would Reddix really choose?

Chapter Twenty-nine

Nina wandered outside in a daze. The fight with Tilla, Reddix’s admission that he was in fact engaged to the skinny Tarsian girl, being on yet another a strange alien planet…it was all too much. She needed to get some fresh air…to breathe…to think.

Also, though she didn’t want to admit it, she wanted to get away from the temptation to listen in on Reddix’s conversation with Tilla. She had heard low, angry voices coming from the guest bedroom where she had left him, and she was dying to know what they were saying. But she refused to eavesdrop. Reddix could do what he wanted—he was a grown man, after all. If he truly intended to follow through on his word and end things with Tilla, he could come and tell her about it himself. In the meantime, Nina was determined to put the matter out of her mind as much as she could.

Reddix had a large spherical house built out of the same shiny black Lego-looking bricks as the other Tarsian homes she had seen, but it was located on the very outskirts of town. Nina wasn’t surprised about that—of course someone with his affliction would want as much privacy as they could get. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d chosen to live in a cave like a hermit. It would have been nice to see more of the town, but actually, Nina rather liked the remote location. The forest across from his home was huge and beautiful and looked like a good place to take her mind off her problems.

The trees on Tarsia were huge with thick, squat trunks. Their shapes reminded Nina of the time she had gone to visit a friend in California and had seen the giant redwoods. But the coloring was completely different. The trees all had green bark with dark orange and yellow leaves and some of them had purple and green flowers as well. The effect was of a forest in autumn back on Earth except there was no chill in the air. Nina wondered if the leaves were these colors all the time here on Tarsia or if they changed completely during the other seasons. If they had other seasons—did they? She really knew nothing at all about this world other than the fact that it was incredibly far from her own and it was Reddix’s home world.

“I wish I had a guide,” she said, half to herself. “Someone to tell me about this place.” She couldn’t ask Lissa or Saber anything—they were too busy preparing for the gathering that night. And of course, Reddix was busy with Tilla…No, she wasn’t going to think about that. She was putting it out of her mind.

“Well now, dearie…what is it exactly you want to know?”

“Oh!” Nina turned in surprise to see an old woman standing just behind her in the forest. She had a kindly, wrinkled face and very unusual eyes—they seemed to be a bright yellow. Of course, maybe that was normal for some Tarsians, Nina had no way of knowing.

“I’m sorry, did I startle you?” The old woman gave her a kindly smile and tucked a wisp of gray hair back into the thick bun at the back of her neck. A large ring she wore on one of her fingers flashed in the sunlight as she did, blinding Nina momentarily.

“Oh, no,” she said, blinking. “I just…’

“I thought I heard you asking for a guide, and you look like a stranger here.” The woman smiled again.

“I
am
a stranger,” Nina confessed. “I’m…not for around here at all. I just, uh, flew in last night, and I was wishing I knew more about the local flora and fauna and customs…really just everything.” She returned the old woman’s smile. “For instance, how old are these trees? We have some like them back where I’m from, and they’re some of the oldest living things on our planet.”

The old lady nodded thoughtfully. “Well now, these trees
are
ancient and very beautiful, but we have something even rarer farther in, toward the center of the forest—near the swamp.”

“The swamp?” Nina’s heart began pounding for some reason. “Did you say swamp?”

“Why yes, of course. It’s a very fertile area. Some of the most beautiful flowers on all of Tarsia bloom there. Would you like me to show you?” As she spoke, she pushed another wisp of white-blonde hair out of her eyes.

Nina frowned. Hadn’t she had
gray
hair before? And why were her fingers so long? She tried to examine them more closely without being obvious about it, but the flashing of reddish sunlight on the pink jewel in the old woman’s ring kept getting in her eyes.

“What do you say, my dear?” The old lady smiled at her again, showing extremely white teeth.

“I…” Nina shook her head. For some reason her thoughts felt sluggish. “I guess so,” she said at last. “Only I can’t be gone too long—I have to be back for the gathering tonight.”

“But that’s hours and hours away,” the old woman said soothingly, her ring flashing again as she spoke. “Plenty of time to see the sights of the swamp.”

“I…suppose.” Nina blinked her eyes. Why did she feel so sleepy all of a sudden?

“Come.” The old woman wrapped her surprisingly long white fingers around Nina’s wrist and pulled her forward, deeper into the woods. “Let’s go see what we can find.”

* * * * *

“For the last time, I do
not
want to be joined to you.” Reddix crossed his arms over his chest and sighed wearily. Tilla was like an animal, reluctant to let go of a bone she wanted to chew—only in this case,
he
was the bone. Her stubbornness gnawed at him with blunt, grinding teeth.

“I don’t care what you want,” she said, putting a hand on her hip. “You promised—you swore I would be your bride.”

“If and
only
if I became the OverChief. That may not even happen now—Saber is back.”

“Right and he brought that little
tzeeba-
haired Lissa with him,” she scoffed. “Who ever heard of a clan leader who joined with his
amalla?
No one, that’s who—it’s
disgusting
. Face it, Reddix,
you
are going to be the next OverChief, and
I
will be there by your side when it happens.”

“You don’t want to be with me any more than I want to be with you, Tilla—you just want the status that goes with being the OverChief’s wife.”

“That’s not true,” she protested.

Reddix sighed wearily and rubbed his right wrist which wouldn’t stop itching. “You can’t lie to me about how you feel. Your loathing for me is almost as strong as mine is for you. You’d rather find a half-eaten
grubba
bug in your meal than touch me.”

“That’s not true, and you know it. We could have a very good joining—a very amicable partnership if you’d just be sensible. I’ll even let you…
touch
me when you want to. Until we finally get a child, that is.”

“You’re too fucking kind,” Reddix growled. “But what makes you think I want to touch you any more now than I did before? I’d rather put my hand in an open flame than make love to you, Tilla. At least with fire the pain is clean.”

Tilla’s face went from red to white. “How dare you insult me this way?”

“I’m not trying to be insulting—well, not much,” he amended. “Just trying to get my point across.
I don’t want you.
And if you’d just admit it, you don’t want me either.”

Suddenly, the itching in his wrist intensified until it was a sharp pain he could no longer ignore. Doubtless the swamp witch was calling him, reminding him of his obligation.

“Reddix,” Tilla said, but he ignored her.

“All right, witch,” he muttered, looking down at the blood red
lthss
on his right wrist. “I’ll be there to deal with you soo…” The words died on his lips as he saw what had happened to the tiny creature Xandra had imbedded in his skin.

Reddix had expected the thing to have grown again—that it would have completely encircled his wrist by now. Instead, it was…shrinking. Already it was half as big as it had been. What the hell was going on?