Sought...Book 3 in the Brides of the Kindred series (21 page)

It was so nice, in fact, that she didn’t
notice the large green bush with vivid pink flowers that was
creeping up behind her. Nor did she see the hand holding a knife
with a strange, clear blade until it was at her throat.

By the time she felt the sharp prick on the
side of her neck, it was too late. “So still—not moving. A
frightened creature ensnared. Lovely prisoner,” whispered a throaty
voice in her ear.

“What?” Kat started to look around in panic
but the sharp point dug deeper into her neck.

“Goddess of full curves. I do not wish to
harm you. Be still in my arms,” the voice commanded as a hard arm
encircled her waist.

“Deep?” she gasped, holding perfectly still.
“Lock? Guys, I think we have company.”

The twins turned in unison and she saw their
faces change from happiness to worry and rage. “You dare…” Deep
took a step toward her and her unseen captor, his eyes turning red
and his huge hands balled into fists. “You
dare
touch our
female? Take your hands off her
now
or suffer the
consequences!”

“Deep, no!” Lock put a restraining hand on
his brother’s shoulder. “Going into
rage
won’t help.”

“It can’t hurt, either.” Deep took another
step forward. He was looking over Kat’s shoulder, clearly
addressing the male who was holding her captive. “Let her go now
and I
might
let you live.”

“This elite beauty. Sunfire hair, throat so
white. One wrong step kills her,” hissed Kat’s captor.

Despite her terror, Kat couldn’t help
wondering about his speech.
Is my convo-pillar acting up again
or is this guy actually speaking in haikus?
If she hadn’t been
so afraid it would have been funny.
Oh well, better haiku than
iambic pentameter,
she thought, feeling slightly hysterical.
I always sucked at that whenever we did Shakespeare in
class.

Deep advanced on her captor, a low growl
rising in his throat
.

“Deep, stop!” Lock sounded desperate now.
“He has a crystal knife—they dip them in
shagra
venom. One
scratch could be fatal to the lady Kat.”

Deep’s eyes narrowed and he took a step
backward with obvious effort. “All right, fine.” His voice still
sounded rough with barely suppressed fury. “Tell us what you want
and then leave us alone.”

“This holy meadow. You trespass here
un-asking. Death is your reward.” The knife at Kat’s throat poked a
little harder but somehow it still didn’t break the skin. From the
corner of her eye she could see a strange sight—the bushes they had
seen in the small copse of trees where Deep had wanted to camp for
the night were all moving toward them. As they came closer, people
emerged from behind them—strange looking people with mottled
pinkish skin and large, golden-pink eyes. Their hair was black with
a purple tinge and they had thin lips and delicate, pointed ears
that made her think of elves or fairies. They were all wearing leaf
loincloths and every single one was short—none of them was even as
tall as Kat’s own five foot six.

With their diminutive stature and strange,
jewel-like eyes, Kat thought they looked an awful lot like Mother
L’rin. And their leaf couture reminded her of the wise woman’s huge
and silent attendant, Doby. But their appearance didn’t worry her
nearly as much as the fact that there appeared to be about fifty of
them and all of them were armed with long, clear knives.

Oh my God…
She felt faint and queasy.
Is this how it ends? Killed by angry alien natives who speak in
haikus? I never should have left Earth…

But then Lock began speaking rapidly, saying
something that her convo-pillar couldn’t even begin to translate.
He gestured at Kat and then made a pleading motion with both hands,
his palms outstretched. Kat didn’t know what he was saying but
slowly, the male holding the knife at her throat relaxed and
finally he withdrew the sharp point all together.

Kat nearly cried in relief but from the look
on Lock’s face, they weren’t out of trouble yet. He was still
talking for all he was worth, gesturing eloquently, as though
trying to make a point. The male behind Kat, who was holding her
arm, replied but she got the feeling that Lock wasn’t convincing
him to let them go.

Her feeling proved to be justified when her
captor came around in front of her and looped a thick strand of
rough rope around her wrists.

“Lock,” she asked, careful to keep her voice
low and nonthreatening. “What’s going on?”

“I’d like to know as well,” Deep growled. He
was eyeing the short, stocky male who had captured Kat in a most
unfriendly way and the pupils of his eyes were still more red than
black.

“They’re taking us to meet their chief,”
Lock said in a low voice. “Apparently we stumbled into their holy
meadow and the usual penalty is death. But I told him the lady Kat
was a lost sun goddess looking for Moons blossoms to cure her
illness.”

“Very poetic of you, Brother,” Deep said,
frowning. “But a
sun
goddess?”

“She has sunfire red hair and she’s an
elite,” Lock shot back. “It was the best thing I could think of at
the time.”

“So that’s it?” Kat asked as the natives
bound both Lock and Deep’s wrists with the same rough, faded pink
rope. “We’re just going to go with them?”

“I’m afraid we have little choice, my lady,”
Lock said ruefully. “They all have poisoned knives. One scratch
will introduce a neuro-toxin into our systems so deadly we would
never get home alive.”

“All right.” She nodded and swallowed hard,
trying not to think of how close the knife point had come to
cutting into her throat. “But what will they do to us when we get
to their chief?”

“I think I’ll be able to talk to their
chief,” Lock said. “They seem impressed that I know the Elder
Tongue. Hopefully I’ll be able to make some kind of bargain.”

“Hopefully,” Kat echoed faintly.
When I
get out of this, I’m going to have some story for Liv and
Sophie.

She just hoped she lived to tell it.

They threw Kat into a cave. Not just any
cave, either—a dark, dirty cave full of very sharp rocks. The only
light was from some glowing blue fungus that grew on one wall.
There was a large flat boulder not far from the luminescent wall
and Kat dragged herself to it and collapsed on it.

Oh God, my head…my
head
.
The pain was back, just as Mother L’rin had
predicted and this time it felt even worse than Kat remembered. She
wished now that she hadn’t been too proud to tell Lock and Deep
what the wise woman had said and ask for help.
Stupid…I’m so
stupid.
But it was too late to be sorry. The brothers had been
taken somewhere else and she was on her own.

Kat tried to think about escape but really,
where would she go? Even if she could bear to stand upright and try
to sneak past the guards at the mouth of the cave, what then? Of
course, a heroine in one of her favorite romance novels would have
been feisty and smart enough to hatch a plot to save both of her
guys and get them all away to safety.
But I’m not smart,
Kat
thought with a groan.
Or I would have told Deep and Lock what
was going on to begin with. And I’m pretty much the exact opposite
of feisty right now. I’m miserable and weak and drained.

She didn’t know how long she lay on the
cold, flat boulder. The pain in her head and the weakness that had
come over her were so debilitating she could barely move. Her
consciousness seemed to come and go in waves and the glowing blue
wall at her side flickered in and out like a bizarre kind of neon
sign.

“Kat?” The deep voice echoed in the darkness
some unknowable length of time later. “Kat? I know you’re in here—I
can feel how upset you are.”

“Here,” she managed to whisper feebly.
“Who…?”

“It’s me.” Deep came suddenly into view,
picking his way toward her over the fallen rocks. “Lock and I felt
your distress and he managed to convince the natives that one of us
had to be in here with you at all times. Sorry it turned out to be
me, but he has to keep talking to their chief so I’m afraid you’re
stuck with—” He broke off abruptly, obviously getting a good look
at her for the first time. “Gods, Kat! Are you all right?”

“Just peachy.” Kat managed a weak smirk.
Despite her pain she was still reluctant to admit the extent of her
disability to Deep.

“Why are you lying there like that? What’s
wrong?” he demanded, crouching beside her.

“Just getting a little rest.”
This is
stupid—just tell him!
But somehow she couldn’t. “Being
kidnapped at knifepoint by aliens who speak in obscure forms of
poetry always tires me out.” She tried to smile but it was apparent
Deep wasn’t fooled.

“Stop being so goddess damned brave and tell
me what’s wrong.” Tilting his head to one side to look into her
eyes, he cupped her cheek gently. “Please, Kat. Tell me.”

Even that one simple skin-to-skin touch made
things a little better—drove the pain behind her eyes back a bit.
Kat couldn’t help herself, she moaned softly in relief.

“I’m sorry!” Deep pulled his hand away as
though he’d been stung. “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to hurt
you.”

“You didn’t.” When his hand left her skin,
the pain returned. This time it felt like someone was driving a
rusty iron spike into her brain. Kat squeezed her eyes shut, a
single tear slipping down her cheek though she tried to hold it
back.

“Kat?” He sounded genuinely distressed. His
hand hovered over her cheek again but didn’t quite connect—as
though he was afraid by touching her he would make her worse.

“You didn’t hurt me,” she forced herself to
say again. “This…the pain is back, that’s all.”

“How? How could it come back?” Deep
demanded.

“Doesn’t matter.” Kat tried to shake her
head and groaned. “Knew…knew it would come back. Mother
L’rin…warned me.”

Deep scowled. “I
knew
she’d told you
more than you were letting us know. Tell me now, Kat—what did she
say?”

Kat was still reluctant to talk but it
seemed she couldn’t avoid it any more. “She said…she told me that I
still needed…needed to touch you and….Lock.” The rusty iron spike
was digging into the tender flesh behind her eyes now, making it
hard to think. “Incomplete bond means…pain…weakness….”

Deep ran a hand through his hair
distractedly. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Despite her pain, Kat lifted her chin
defiantly. “Didn’t want…your pity. And after the fight we had I
didn’t…didn’t think you two would want to touch me anyway.”

“You mean you didn’t think
I
would
want to.” Deep shook his head. “Goddess damn you, Kat, for your
stupid, stubborn pride. Don’t you know I’d do anything to keep you
from pain?” Standing, he began stripping off his shirt.

But when he reached for her, Kat had a
sudden thought. “Wait,” she protested as he bent toward her. “Lock
said…said it hurts you to touch too much if…if the other one isn’t
there.” She gestured weakly at his bare chest. “Too much
skin-to-skin contact…without Lock…will hurt you.”

“You think I give a damn about that?” Deep’s
voice was an angry growl but he gathered her into his arms with
surprising gentleness. “Come here, damn you. Let me hold you,” he
murmured, settling himself on the flat boulder with her in his
lap.

Kat couldn’t help it—she didn’t want to give
him pain, but the immediate relief she felt when his broad, warm
chest came in contact with her cheek was too wonderful to deny. His
arms around her were so comforting and strong and the scent of his
skin made her feel safe—protected. Suddenly, though she didn’t know
why, she was crying.

Stop crying, stupid! It’s bad enough that
holding you hurts him, he doesn’t want you crying all over him
too!
But she couldn’t stop. And to her surprise, Deep didn’t
say a thing. No sarcastic remarks or biting observations—he just
held her closer and stroked her hair in a gentle rhythm that
somehow calmed her down.

“I’m sorry,” she said at last, when her
tears slowed. “I didn’t mean to cry like that.”

“Were you crying because it still hurts?”
Pressed against him as she was, his voice rumbled through her in a
way that was oddly comforting.

“No,” Kat said honestly. “I think…I think I
was crying because it finally
stopped
hurting. I know that
doesn’t make any sense…”

“It doesn’t have to.” Deep stroked her hair.
“There’s no rhyme or reason to pain—it just is.”

“I’m feeling better now,” she said
cautiously, raising her head to look at him. In the dim
otherworldly glow from the luminescent moss he looked like a dark
angel. “I…I should probably be all right for a little while
now.”

He shook his head. “Can’t wait to get away
from me, can you?”

“It’s not that,” Kat protested. “But I know
this is
hurting
you. Every minute you touch me without Lock
touching me too—he told me it was like an electrical shock running
through you. That can’t be comfortable.”

“It’s not,” he said shortly. “And yet, I
would hold you a little while longer, if you’ll permit it.”

“Oh, uh…okay.” Kat tried not to let the
surprise show on her face but clearly he could feel it through
their link.

“It surprises you?” Deep asked, settling her
more firmly against him. “That I would want to touch you—to be near
you—for any kind of nonsexual reason?”

“It’s not sexual?” she blurted. “I mean, you
do
have your shirt off and I’m wearing a really thin dress
with no bra—”

“Does this feel sexual to you?” He shifted
his hips, pressing up against her. The intimate contact made it
obvious that he wasn’t hard.

“Uh no,” Kat admitted. “No, I guess
not.”