Chapter Six
Rone followed her to the domicile, wishing he could touch her in some way. The physical bond between a Wulven and his mate was especially strong—even stronger than the regular Kindred bond, because of the hunger. He longed to gather her into his arms and press her to his chest, to cradle her like a child as he had so many times before.
Kate had always loved curling up in his lap and feeling protected and loved. She would press against him, rubbing her cheek against his throat and her full breasts against his chest. Rone would hold her that way for hours sometimes, both of them just relaxing into each other, loving the feeling of being close.
And now the minute I get anywhere near her, she starts to panic.
Why was that? Could it be that the Dream Blooms she’d been subjected to had other effects besides amnesia? Had they somehow turned the female he loved against him? Made her fear him? Why? And how?
For whatever reason, she did fear him, and so he gave her plenty of space, even though it went against every instinct he had. He stood back as she found the spare key, hidden under a plastic rock, and opened the door with trembling hands. He waited until she was well inside before following her in.
“All right, don’t mind the cats,” she told him as he stepped inside at last. “My roommate, Mimi, kind of collects them and they’re always underfoot. They—”
But her words were interrupted by a chorus of hissing and spitting. Rone looked up to see that six or seven of the small, furry creatures many Earthlings kept as pets were glaring at him angrily.
“Oh my!” Kate put a hand to her chest. “What in the world?”
“Cats don’t like me,” Rone said flatly. “Dogs don’t mind but cats sense the Beast inside me and they don’t like it.”
“They…they don’t?” Kate still had a hand pressed to her heart.
“You used to think it was funny,” Rone told her, before he could stop himself. “It was a joke with us. The cat your mother used to have—Mr. Sissykins—hated me with the fire of a thousand suns. Every time I went in that damn house he would find a way to ambush me and attack me.”
“Mr. Sissykins…you know about Mr. Sissykins?” Her voice was faint.
Rone nodded. “He died not long after…” He cleared his throat. “Not long after your mother did, actually. I helped you bury him, out in the back yard of the domicile in Mississippi. I never saw you cry so hard, Lalli. I think because you held it in so hard during your mom’s funeral. And then when her cat died too, it was like you’d lost your last little piece of her.”
But Kate was backing away from him and shaking her head.
“No, stop it! Stop talking like that!”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to upset you.” Rone reached for her and then remembered he couldn’t touch her and drew back. “I’m sorry,” he said again, roughly. “I didn’t mean…I shouldn’t have said that. Any of it.”
“I just…I don’t remember my mom’s funeral. I know she’s gone but I don’t…don’t remember burying her or…” Her throat worked convulsively. “Or anything else like that.”
“I’m sorry,” Rone said again, helplessly. He ran both hands through his hair. “Damn it to the Seven Hells, I’m making such a fucking mess of this!”
“Let me just…let me get these guys settled.” Kate turned to herding the cats to another part of the house. Most of them seemed glad to go—the minute she opened a door in the back of the apartment they scampered into the room. “There,” she said, shutting the door and coming back. “Mimi doesn’t want them in the bedrooms but we’ll have to make an exception.”
“I am sorry I spoke about your mother’s death,” Rone said in a low voice. “I should not have said such things.”
“It’s all right.” She took a deep, trembling breath. “Look, come into the kitchen and let me look at that gunshot wound.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “Can you? Stand to be near enough to me to treat me, that is?”
“I…I think so.” She swallowed convulsively. “If…as long as you don’t reach for me or try to touch me. I…I don’t know why that bothers me but it does. It really does.”
“I can tell.” Rone wrinkled his nose, scenting the sharp smell of her fear again. Have to move slowly and take it easy, he cautioned himself. He didn’t want to scare her into flight again—the results had been disastrous last time.
Taking a deep breath, he followed her into the kitchen. They would just have to take this slowly. Very…very slowly.
* * * * *
“Sit here.” Kate pulled out one of the mismatched kitchen chairs, picking what she thought was the sturdiest one. It was heavy and made of solid wood—Mimi’s grandfather had made it for her. Kate was glad they had it now. The Kindred—no, Rone, he’d said his name was Rone—was so big she didn’t think a weaker one could have taken his weight.
Wincing, he stripped off his jacket and the black wife-beater t-shirt to bare his shoulder before sitting down. Kate watched him, wide-eyed, as he settled into the chair, looking more like a mountain of muscle than a man. Around his neck he wore a long, fine-link, rose-gold chain. There were two rings strung on it—one was a delicate gold band and the other had a pale green stone with gold flecks at its heart. It was perfectly round and seemed to glow against his olive skin like a small moon.
“What are those?” She gestured at the rings. “I mean that stone—I work in a jewelry store but I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He looked up at her, his piercing blue eyes troubled.
“You really don’t know?” Before she could answer he sighed. “Of course you don’t. These are your wedding band and the engagement ring I gave you when I first asked you to be my bride. The stone is a Rigellian Emerald. Very rare and expensive but it reminded me of your eyes. You loved it. You said…” He looked down at his big hands, lying open in his lap. “You said, ‘Any girl can have a diamond. But who else has a stone that exactly matches their eyes?’”
“Look, I’m sorry…” Kate shifted uneasily. “Really sorry that I can’t remember any of that. But I just can’t, okay? I’m not doing it on purpose to hurt you—I really just don’t remember.”
“It’s all right. Forgive me—I should not have spoken of it.” He sighed. “Do you have any antiseptic wash? This wound must be cleaned before my body can heal it.” He nodded down at the bullet hole, still oozing blood, which had gone through his outer triceps area.
“I have some hydrogen peroxide here.” Kate held up the brown bottle. “It might sting a little but it should do the trick.”
“All right.” He held perfectly still and let her pour the liquid on the bullet wound. It was small and neat at the front of his arm where the bullet had entered, but much larger where it had exited. Still, it didn’t seem to have hit any bones or tendons or blood vessels. Kate thought that all in all the big Kindred had been really lucky she was panicking when she pulled the trigger. She was usually a much better shot than this.
Speaking of panic, she still felt the overwhelming fear wanting to rise in her throat when she got close to him. But she gave herself a stern talking-to, reminding herself that Rone wasn’t here to hurt her, and managed to damp it down. It helped that he held as still as a statue while she treated him and didn’t try to touch her in any way—Kate was grateful for that.
“All right,” she said at last, when the peroxide stopped foaming. “I think that’s it. I’ll just clean this up…” She took a pad of paper towels and blotted gently at the ragged wound. It seemed to have stopped bleeding, she saw with satisfaction. “Looking good,” she told him. “Let me just get a few of these gauze bandages…”
“No need.” He looked down at his arm and Kate did the same. What she saw, made her gasp. Before her eyes, the wounded flesh was growing together—healing at an amazing rate. The bullet hole in his arm got smaller and smaller until there was nothing left on either side but a small, white scar on his smooth, olive skin.
“Wow!” Kate murmured in wonder. Without thinking, she reached out to touch the place where the bullet wound had so recently been.
But the minute her fingertips touched his bare skin, she felt the panic set in. Her pulse started to race and her throat closed up until she couldn’t breathe.
With a ragged gasp, she jumped away, curling her fingers into a fist as though she’d been shocked or burned.
“What is it?” Rone looked at her with obvious concern. Kate could see the wish in his eyes to go to her but to his credit, he must have realized that would only make things worse so he stayed where he was.
“I…I touched you.” Kate put a hand to her heart, trying to still the drumming. “I…I don’t know why I feel like that when I touch you. Like…like I’m having a freaking panic attack.”
“I don’t know either.” He shook his head somberly. “Maybe someone on the Mother Ship will, though.”
“The Mother Ship?” She frowned. “As in, the Kindred Mother Ship that orbits the moon? Why would I go there?”
“To find out why your amnesia is lasting so much longer than it should,” Rone said patiently. “The Dream Blooms—”
“Back up.” Kate made a motion with one hand. “You said something about that back in your car but I didn’t understand it. What are Dream Blooms and what do they have to do with what happened to me?”
Rone took a deep breath. “It’s a very long story but the gist of it is you fell into a trap meant for another. You breathed in the fragrance of the Dream Blooms, which were planted in the wedding bouquet of a friend of yours, and you immediately seemed to forget me. At least, when I reached for you, you drew away. Then you were taken—abducted in a split second by a molecular transfer beam. It takes only living tissue and leaves everything else behind. All that remained was the clothing you’d been wearing and these…” He lifted the two rings which lay against his chest and gripped them tight in one big fist. “I’ve been searching for you ever since, certain you were dead or being tortured somewhere…”
“I’m so sorry.” Kate shrugged helplessly. “But six months is about how long I’ve been here in Florida. My friend Mimi found me naked in a park in Sarasota—about an hour south of here. She let me move in with her and then I got a job and things just began to seem…well, normal I guess.”
“Normal.” He gave a hollow laugh and scrubbed one big hand over his face. His palm made a whispering sound over his whiskers. “Gods, how can this be normal? You not knowing me…not remembering anything about our life together…”
“I can’t help that. I told you,” Kate said sharply. “And I wish you’d stop talking about all these memories we made and things we did—it makes me uncomfortable. It’s weird to hear about when I feel like I just met you for the first time when you jumped me in that hallway at the mall two hours ago.”
“I did not ‘jump you’,” the big Kindred said with dignity. “I wanted to find a quiet place to speak to you alone. I thought you might be being watched—thought the ones who had stolen you away were using you to bait a trap of some kind. I tried to speak to you through our mind link but you didn’t hear me—maybe because of the building materials the mall is made from. So I had no choice but to try and speak to you privately.”
“Wait a minute…” Kate couldn’t let some of this pass. “Okay, I understand you thought I might be in danger or there some kind of trap but what was that other thing you said? You tried to talk to me through what kind of link?”
“The mental link that all bonded Kindred share with their mates,” Rone said patiently. “Listen…” He closed his mouth and narrowed his eyes, obviously concentrating hard as he stared at her. Clearly he was trying to communicate to her and just as clearly, nothing was happening.
After a long moment of this Kate shook her head.
“Look, I don’t know what you’re trying to do but if it’s some kind of telepathy thing, it’s not working. I don’t hear a thing.”
For the first time since she’d met him and began to believe his story, Rone looked completely stricken.
“Truly?” he asked hoarsely, staring at her. “You heard nothing?”
Kate shook her head. “Was I supposed to?”
“Yes! Yes, of course…” He took a deep breath. “You try. Think something at me as hard as you can—don’t hold back.”
Kate did as he commanded, though it seemed sort of foolish to her. Looking straight at him, she thought, “This is weird. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be thinking. But anyway, hi, I guess.”
After a moment, the big Kindred shook his head and a look of despair came into his blue eyes.
“Gods,” he muttered hoarsely. “Our bond—it’s gone. Broken. Or else buried so deeply it might as well be broken. How could this happen?”
“Um…I don’t understand,” Kate said. “What bond?”
“Every Kindred male forms a mental and emotional connection with his bride when he bonds her to him. Ours was very strong, even if it was incomplete. I would have sworn that nothing but death could break it.”
Kate was tired of apologizing for something she could do nothing about.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said. “Um, would you like some coffee or tea?”
He shook his head. “No. I want nothing. Nothing except you, Lalli.”
There it was—that word again. The nickname that made her so uncomfortable for some reason. As if the intense way he was looking at her wasn’t making her uncomfortable enough. His piercing blue eyes looked like they could burn a hole right through her.
“Well, I…” Kate shifted uneasily.
Just then the apartment door bust open and she heard Mimi rush in, shouting her name.
“Kate—Kate? Are you here?”
Kate ran out of the kitchen to meet her roommate. “I’m here. I’m fine,” she said, putting her hands on the other woman’s arms. She didn’t want Mimi to see Rone just yet.
“Oh, Kate!” Mimi hugged her tightly, her tall, gangly frame trembling against Kate’s much smaller one. “The police said there was an attempted robbery and you’d been abducted! By this huge man with dark hair and blue eyes and they said there was no way he would take you back home but something just seemed to tell me I should look here and…Oh, Kate, I’m so glad you’re all right!”
“I’m fine,” Kate tried to reassure her. “Really, I am.”
“But they said the man that took you was really dangerous. How did you get away?”
“Well…” Kate began, trying to think how to explain.
“Hello.” Rone came around the corner suddenly and Kate felt her friend stiffen in her arms.
“Oh my God,” Mimi said faintly. “It’s him—it has to be! He matches all the descriptions.”
“It’s all right,” Kate tried to reassure her. “I mean, he’s all right. And he didn’t exactly abduct me. He just sort of…took me out of the mall. While I was unconscious.” She sighed. “Okay, he kind of abducted me. But he seems to have a good reason for it.”
“I am Kate’s mate—her husband,” the big Kindred said quietly, looking intently at Mimi, who was still clutching Kate tightly.
“Her what?” Mimi eyed him skeptically.
“I can see you need proof for which I don’t blame you.” Rone dug the small coin-sized projector out of the pocket of his tight leather trousers and pressed the tiny button. At once, the holo of him and Kate in their wedding clothes popped up.
“Oh my God—that’s you!” Mimi exclaimed, looking at Kate. “And look at that gorgeous gown!”
“It was Vera’s Wang,” Rone said seriously.
“It was what?” Mimi giggled. “Do you mean a Vera Wang? It was a Vera Wang gown?”
“Yes, forgive me. Apparently it’s a very famous Earth designer. Kate thought it was too expensive but I wanted her to have her Joining Ceremony exactly as she had always imagined it.”
“Oh…” Mimi pressed a hand to her chest. “That’s so romantic.”
“It was a beautiful day. The happiest of my life,” Rone said quietly. “And here’s one from our honeymoon…” He flipped through the images, showing them to Mimi who exclaimed over them eagerly. He was keeping half an eye on Kate—she could feel him watching her—as he showed the images. She wondered if he was hoping that seeing them again would jog something loose but it was no good—she still couldn’t remember a thing.
At last Rone put the small projector away and looked at Mimi.
“I have been searching for
Kate for these past six solar months,
he said seriously. “I understand you found her and sheltered her
all this time—for that I am beyond grateful.”
“Oh, well…” Mimi smiled shyly at Rone. “I was just doing what any decent person would do.”
“That’s not true, Mimi,” Kate said. “Anyone else would have probably had the crazy naked girl locked up in the funny farm or at least just dropped me off at the Salvation Army as somebody else’s problem.”
“Stop it…” Mimi was blushing now.
“You protected my mate and gave her shelter and clothing and food when another might have turned her away or taken advantage of her,” Rone said seriously. “For that, I am deeply in your debt. Kate is everything to me—she is my heart.” He thumped his broad, bare chest. “I’ve been half out of my mind with worry and fear. Thank you for all you did for her.” He held out his arms to Mimi who stepped forward uncertainly.
“Oh, uh…”
“Thank you,” Rone said again and his deep voice throbbed with sincerity. He took Mimi in his arms and gave her a hug, then kissed her solemnly on each cheek.
“Oh my…” Mimi was blushing scarlet. Kate couldn’t help noticing that her tall friend looked almost petite in the big Kindred’s arms and she felt a stab of something like jealousy at the sight of him embracing her.
“You can do that?” she blurted before she thought about it. “I mean, you can…can touch him without feeling like you’re going to have a panic attack?”
“Why would I have a panic attack?” Mimi asked, clearly confused as Rone released her.
“I don’t know.” Kate looked away. “Never mind. It’s complicated.”
“Kate does not remember me. And…she fears me,” Rone said. There was a sorrow in his voice so deep it made Kate ache. “I believe it has something to do with the agent which caused her to lose her memory in the first place but I cannot be sure until I take her up to the Mother Ship to be examined by the doctors there.”
“The Mother Ship?” Mimi’s mild brown eyes widened. “You’re going to the Mother Ship?”
“I haven’t…exactly decided yet,” Kate muttered.
“You haven’t? But Kate—he’s your husband. And just look at him.” Mimi gestured at Rone’s muscular, bare chest. “I mean, come on—it’s like you won the husband lottery. He’s gorgeous.” She looked hastily at Rone. “Uh, no offense. I just meant…”
“None taken.” Rone cleared his throat. “I think I will go back to the kitchen for a moment. May I help myself to some refreshment?”
“Oh, sure.” Mimi still seemed a little dazzled. “I mean, anything you want in the fridge. Just go for it.”
“Thank you.” The big Kindred nodded and disappeared back around the corner. Clearly he was trying to be tactful and give them some time and privacy. And just as clearly, Mimi was going to take this opportunity to dish the dirt with Kate—not that there was much dirt to dish since she couldn’t remember anything. Still, there was a gleam in her roommate’s brown eyes that said she couldn’t wait to get Kate alone.