“Now, then. Varin has informed me you were forced to ingest the Hive’s Blood Honey?” Commander Sylvan raised one pale blond eyebrow at her. He’d already taken blood samples and run several other tests, much to Harper’s impatience. She didn’t want to talk about herself—she was more worried about Shad.
“Yes, they gave me the Blood Honey stuff but that’s not the main problem right now,” she said earnestly. “Shad’s being pulled back into his own time and we need your help to stop it.”
A look of compassion came over the Kindred doctor’s face—probably the same look he got when he was telling someone they had a terminal illness, Harper thought.
“Harper,” he said gently. “I’m the head of the High Council and a doctor—but I’m not a manipulator of time or space. I’m afraid I can’t help you with that particular problem.”
“But there must be a way,” Harper insisted. “Maybe he’s too close to his younger self here on the Mother Ship. Maybe if we got far away—went back down to Earth—”
“We were just on Mars, Harper,” Shad reminded her, his voice a low, weary growl. “That’s a hell of a lot further from the Mother Ship than Earth is and I had two, uh, ‘fading incidents’ there. I don’t think getting further away from my younger self is the answer.”
“But there has to be something we can do,” she exclaimed. “There has to be, Shad. You can’t just…just leave me!”
“I don’t want to leave you, Kallana,” he murmured. “I just don’t see any way to stop it.”
Sylvan frowned. “If only there was a way to anchor you here…”
“Anchor him—yes, that’s it—that’s the idea!” Harper exclaimed excitedly. “Can’t we find a way to anchor him? To…oh!”
She doubled over suddenly as pain lanced through her.
“Harper? Harper, are you all right?” Shad’s voice sounded nearly frantic as he grabbed her by the shoulders, saving her from pitching off the exam table in the little private exam room they were in.
“I…I don’t know,” Harper gasped. The pain was between her legs but it wasn’t so much a pain as an emptiness. An aching…a need to be filled. After a long moment, it seemed to ease and she was able to sit up again with Shad’s help. But though the sharp pain eased, she still felt wrong. Her breasts hurt—the nipples were too sensitive and the breasts themselves felt suddenly full and heavy.
Feels just like after I had that awful sex-milk, she thought dizzily. God, what’s wrong with me?
“What’s wrong with her?” Shad demanded, asking Sylvan exactly what she was thinking.
Sylvan was frowning.
“I’m afraid I’m not exactly sure. I did see evidence of the Blood Honey she ingested in her labs but I’ve only ever had one other patient who was subjected to it.”
“That would be Varin’s mate, correct?” Shad asked anxiously.
Sylvan nodded. “But I don’t believe her symptoms came on as quickly as Harper’s.” He looked at a vid-clipboard chart, staring at the figures there with a frown. “It’s almost like she already had something in her system—something that accelerated and exacerbated he Blood Honey’s effects on her.”
“The sex-milk,” Harper whispered and even as she spoke, she felt her breasts getting fuller. She remembered thinking that the Blood Honey was a poison like the strange purple liquid she’d been tricked into drinking back at the Thieves' Market. It seemed she had been right. But had the traces of the sex-milk still in her system actually made the effects of the Blood Honey worse?
Sylvan frowned. “I’m sorry—what? What kind of milk?”
“It was a kind of aphrodisiac Harper was given on Juno,” Shad explained in a low voice. “It had…side effects which were most uncomfortable for her. I thought she was cured of it but now…I’m not so sure.” He eyed the red Kindred uniform shirt Harper was wearing, the one Baird had loaned her to cover up with.
Following his gaze, Harper realized there were two wet spots on the front of the thick, silky red fabric.
Oh no—not again! Miserably, she crossed her arms over her chest, trying to hide the stains. God, what was she going to do?
Sylvan was frowning. “It’s possible I should run a few more tests—”
“Testing isn’t what she needs.” The new voice belonged to Varin, the Vision Kindred who had given her back her cloak. He was standing in the doorway of the exam room, a frown on his dark face. Beside him was a petite girl with pale skin and a long waterfall of black hair down to her waist.
“Varin?” Sylvan frowned. “This is a private consultation, I’m afraid.”
“Forgive us for barging in.” The Vision Kindred ducked his head in apology. “But my mate Brynn and I have dealt with the effects of the Blood Honey before.”
The girl spoke up in a soft, bird-like voice.
“We thought we might be able to shed some light on the situation.”
“It’s not just the Blood Honey we’re dealing with,” Sylvan objected. “Harper has been given another substance which greatly intensified and accelerated the Blood Honey’s influence on her.”
“All the more reason you need our help,” Varin said firmly. “Forgive me, Commander Sylvan, but you might have seen what the Blood Honey can do to someone but Brynn here has felt it. And I had a hand in helping to cure her.”
“So this is curable?” Shad asked eagerly. “How?”
Varin cleared his throat and shifted uneasily. “Perhaps it would be easier if you and I spoke in private,” he said to Shad.
“And I’ll speak to Harper—with your permission, of course, Commander Sylvan.” Brynn nodded her head deferentially to the blond Kindred doctor.
“As you wish. If you need me, I’ll be here in the med station.” Commander Sylvan didn’t look happy about it but he stepped out into the hallway and left Shad and Harper alone with Varin and Brynn.
“Look, I’m not worried about any of this…this Blood Honey stuff,” Harper protested uneasily as she watched the doctor go. “I’m worried about keeping you here, Shad—anchoring you to this time so you don’t fade away.”
But as she spoke, another bolt of aching emptiness shot through her, making her clench her thighs together and gasp.
“Harper, please.” Shad took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “This is more important right now—curing you is more important. How do you think I’d feel if I was dragged back to my own time knowing you were still ill? Please, sweetheart—let’s get you healed first and then we can worry about my situation.”
Harper wanted to protest but the aching emptiness inside wouldn’t let her. She felt like a black hole had opened up inside her—a hungry need that demanded to be filled. For an intense moment it was nearly unbearable and she squeezed her hands into fists, her nails digging into her palms, and bit her lip until she tasted blood. Slowly, the ache began to ease and the pain gradually left, although her breasts were still as full and heavy as ever.
“All…all right,” she finally managed to get out. “But please, let’s try to move quickly.”
“You can be cured pretty quickly,” Brynn promised her. “Let’s talk—girl to girl, all right?”
“Shad and I will go out into the hallway,” Varin growled.
Harper wanted to object—she was frightened to let Shad out of her sight, even for a moment. Frightened he might fade away and disappear while she wasn’t looking. She somehow had the irrational idea that if she saw him starting to fade she could grab him and keep him in her own time.
But that’s ridiculous, she told herself. He was holding you in his arms the last two times he started to fade and you couldn’t do anything to stop it.
Still, she couldn’t help the feeling that she needed to keep her eyes on him every minute. To her relief, when he stepped outside the room with Varin, she could at least still see their silhouettes against the curtained windows of the exam room. She kept her eyes trained on Shad’s shadow as Brynn spoke.
“You feel like you have an emptiness inside, don’t you?” she said in her soft voice. “You’re aching and you feel you’ll die if you aren’t filled soon.”
Harper looked at her in surprise, forgetting for a moment to keep her eyes on Shad’s silhouette.
“How did you—”
“Know how you’re feeling? It’s because I had the Blood Honey forced on me too.” Brynn came forward and took one of Harper’s hands in her own small, pale one. “You’re going to need your male very badly very soon, Harper. It’s going to feel like if you don’t have him in you, you’ll die. It might feel shameful or wrong but you have to overcome those feelings and ask him for what you need.”
Harper bit her lip. “Why…why are you telling me this?”
“Because I wish someone would have told me,” Brynn said gently. “Of course, no one really knew. But it would have saved me a lot of grief and guilt if they had and could have told me.”
“What exactly are you saying?” Harper asked softly. “What should I do?”
“I’m telling you that the effects of the Blood Honey can only be cured one way,” Brynn said. “A deep breeding.”
* * * * *
“You have to breed her hard.” Varin spoke in a low, intense voice, his eyes fixed on Shad’s face, as though to gauge his reaction. “A lot harder than you probably want to. It might even feel like you’re hurting her but that’s what she’s going to need—it’s the only way to get over the Blood Honey.”
“Gods…” Shad raked a hand through his hair. “We…we’re not even completely bonded.” Nor could they be. Now that he was certain he was being pulled back to his own time, it was a bad idea to complete their bond. It would be hard enough to lose Harper when he had a partial bond with her—if they sealed the bond and then lost each other, it was going to be painful on both sides. More than just painful—the ache of an empty bond was excruciating, or so he’d heard.
“I’m sorry about that.” Varin shook his head. “Slow and gentle is better for the first time. But I’m afraid it’s the only way to get her over the Blood Honey. You have to breed your female and fill her with your seed.”
“I’ll…take your words into consideration,” Shad said formally. “Thank you.”
Varin seemed about to say something else, but then he only shrugged.
“May the Goddess see you through it,” he murmured.
Just then there was a muffled cry from inside the exam room and Shad recognized Harper’s voice.
“Excuse me!” He pushed past Varin and went back in to where Harper was doubled over on the exam table.
Brynn was holding her hand, a worried look on her delicate features.
“I’m afraid she’s having a hard time,” she told Shad. “She needs you now—very badly.”
“I understand.” Shad scooped her into his arms and Harper curled against him like a wounded creature.
“Shad,” she whispered. “Shad, please…I need…need you so much.”
His heart squeezed in his chest.
“I know, sweetheart,” he growled softly. “And I’m going to help you, I swear it.”
Although he still didn’t know how he could do it without forming a permanent bond between them and condemning both of them to a lifetime of misery when he actually did fade away.