“Jets of hot air and water that massage you,” she said, stumbling on the steps and nearly falling.
He caught her, jerking her upright, then continued heading upward.
The lighting level was station night when they finally emerged into the hydroponics level. As they started down the main pathway, a small figure suddenly appeared in front of them making Zayshul squeal in shock.
“Talk to you I must,” said the TeLaxaudin’s translator.
“Later,” said Kusac, trying to sidestep him.
“Now!”
He began to growl, and, dropping Zayshul’s hand, advanced on the small alien, who suddenly took a step backward.
“Violence not necessary!”
“Then get out of our way,” he said, tail swaying angrily. Part of his mind was trying to tell him this was not a good idea, but he was acting mainly on instincts right now, and they were telling him he wasn’t going to be stopped by anyone.
As he reached out to take hold of Giyarishis, the TeLaxaudin backed hurriedly into the doorway of his office.
“Only wish talk. No need violence.”
Ignoring him, he reached for Zayshul’s hand again and pulled her along in his wake.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” she said, almost running to keep up with his loping stride. “We need the help he and his people give us.”
“I don’t like him,” he said shortly. “Makes my skin crawl.”
Minutes later, they were in the changing room and he was drinking his fill at the water fountain. As he stood up, a wave of dizziness passed over him, and holding onto the wall for support, he sat down on the bench. Everything was beginning to go a little blurry as the alcohol caught up with him again.
Zayshul came over with a water bottle which she filled and put on the bench beside him.
“We can take this with us.”
“I like the dress,” he said, touching the edge of the hem. He must be more drunk than he thought bringing her up here to the heat and humidity of the pool.
“Thank you. The pool is the best place to talk, actually,” she said quietly. “The bubble pool will help you sober up—and me,” she added, “though I’m nowhere near as bad as you. Dragging me out of the hall like that is going to cause quite a lot of gossip, you know.”
“Let’s get changed,” he said abruptly, getting up and moving toward the lockers.
By the time he’d stripped off, she was waiting for him. He was relieved to see she was dressed in a blue robe because he didn’t want their talk to become too personal. As they went through the door to the pool, she took him by the arm.
He tried to disengage himself but she tightened her grip on him. “Zayshul, if anyone’s here, you’ll draw attention to us,” he whispered.
“It’s all right,” she said. “Trust me, we’ll talk when we get there.”
The grass was soft and springy underfoot, and the air among the tall bushes and plants was less humid than he’d feared. A paved area stretched out ahead of them, leading off on his right to the second bridge over to the island. He could hear the sound of voices coming from that direction.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” he said, feeling warning prickles running up and down his spine.
She began to talk, prattling on about the vagaries of Giyarishis who had haunted her lab that afternoon, giving him no time to answer. When they rounded the bend and came in sight of the small knot of Primes, it appeared as if they were merely colleagues exchanging gossip about their day.
One turned round—Nisho—and promptly drew attention to them. Like a cork from a bottle, a sandy-pelted Sholan suddenly sat bolt upright, looking at him.
“Captain! I thought you’d be down at the main hall.”
“The Captain’s had a little too much to drink,” said Zayshul, steering him toward an empty mat a little distant from them.
“Did you have to say that?” he hissed at Zayshul from the other side of his mouth.
“It’s your alibi,” she chuckled, stopping and turning to take his towel from him. Dropping it on the mat, she pointed across the pool to a raised, stone-ringed structure. “That’s the bubble pool. We can talk there safely and no one can overhear us.”
“Fine,” he growled, turning his back on her as she began to take off her robe.
He’d thought everyone would be down at the celebration and was not pleased to be seen alone publicly with her, especially by one of his crew. Walking into the water, he waded out until it reached his hips then waited for her. In a moment of lucidity, though he knew it was the Human influence in him, it didn’t change the fact that being seen alone with a furless and naked female meant only one thing.
He heard her wading out to join him and when she drew level, he turned round.
“You’re being paranoid,” she chided him. “No one will think anything of us.”
“Stop reading me,” he snapped as he ducked into the water and began to swim to the other side.
He could feel her startlement and immediately regretted what he’d said.
“What did you mean by that?” she asked as she caught up to him.
“Nothing,” he said as they struck out together for the beach ahead.
On dry land, he shook himself, making her exclaim in shock, then laugh. “I wouldn’t bother,” she said, leading the way to the small pool. “You’ll only get wet again.”
“What’s the point of this?” he asked, watching as she lowered herself into it until the water was at the base of her neck. “It’s identical to the main one.”
“Just get in,” she said. “It’s different.”
As he stepped onto the first ledge, he realized the water was almost blood temperature. “So it’s warmer,” he said, sitting down on a ledge near her. “Why did we have to come here to talk?”
She reached behind her for a manual control and the pool instantly began to bubble up.
“What trick are you playing on me?” he demanded over the noise of the churning water.
“I thought you’d have come across these before. The bubbles are caused by jets of the warm water and air, and over the noise, no one can listen in to us.”
Resisting the urge to glance over his shoulder at Jayza and the others, warily he lowered himself in, letting the jets play against his body.
“How do you like it?” she asked.
It felt as good as a massage, he decided, turning his back so the kink just under his right shoulder blade was in the stream of the nearest jet. “Good,” he said, beginning to grin. “Very good. I could get to like this.”
“Now we can talk,” she said, hooking the back of her neck over the inner lip of the pool and allowing her body to float just below the surface. “I need to tell you something.”
“In a minute,” he said, his eyes half closing and a look of bliss crossing his face as he adjusted his position slightly. She’d been right about the pool, he was beginning to feel better already. “I’ve had this knot in my back for a week now, since the last training session.”
“You only need to listen to me,” she said.
“I’m listening,” he said lazily.
“Kezule knows about us,” she said.
Ice clutched his stomach and he sat up abruptly, sending the water surging round them. “What?”
She reached out with her foot and touched him. “It’s all right,” she said. “He understands about the marker and realizes it’s causing us problems. All he asks is that I work on a way to turn it off.”
“How did he find out?” he asked.
“I told him,” she said, closing her eyes. “But he came to me about it first,” she added. “There’s no need for us to worry any more.”
He stared at her. “When did this happen?”
“A day or two after you were drugged.”
Now he knew why her attitude to him had changed. “I won’t be seen as your lover, Zayshul,” he said firmly. “There’s a world of difference between what Jayza’s sharing with Shezhul,
and us. It wasn’t voluntary on my part.”
“I know,” she agreed calmly. “To be seen behaving like them isn’t want I want either. It does give us more freedom, though. We can be in the same company, both be missing at the same time, all with less gossip.”
“I want it ended, Zayshul, I don’t want it made easier,” he told her forcefully, grasping her by the ankle and jerking it to make her pay attention to him.
“Hey!” she said, flailing her arms to stop herself from sinking as she was pulled off the edge.
He let go of her ankle to lean forward and grab her round the chest to keep her from going under. “All I want is to be free of this marker and to take my son home,” he said, trying not to wonder if he meant it or if it was merely words.
Beads of sweat were forming on her brow and despite the pool chemicals, he could smell her scent. He let her go hurriedly. Bathing in water this hot made his groin muscles respond as they did when aroused, and it wouldn’t be long before he’d have to leave the pool, for modesty’s sake if nothing else.
Her feet on the pool bottom, she moved away from him to lean her forearms on the stone surround and look out across the main pool. “Be careful, Kusac,” she said quietly, lifting an arm to wave at her friends. “You’re drawing just the kind of attention to us that you want to avoid.”
With a rumble of anger, he took the place she’d vacated in time to see her friends wave back. Jayza was being prudent enough to have his face turned the other way.
“Stop worrying,” she continued. “Ghidd’ah and I are working on trying to find an antidote, or substitute for what your body seems to be interpreting as a drug.”
“Why didn’t you try this sooner?” he demanded, standing up. His body was beginning to send him warnings he’d be foolish to ignore. “Why did I have to be told this by Ghidd’ah, not you?”
“Fear that Kezule would find out what I was doing,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at him. “Now it doesn’t matter if he knows. And Ghidd’ah shouldn’t have told you about it. I intended to tell you myself. There’s no need to leave the pool, you know. It’s too public for them to think we’d do anything.”
The hot water was having one desired effect—he was beginning to sober up, and beginning to make sense of what he was picking up mentally from her.
“You might not want me seen as your lover, but now Kezule’s allowing you to pair with me to try and turn off the marker, you do want people to know I’m interested in you,” he said angrily.
“What’s wrong with that?” she demanded, looking at him again. “I’ve had to put up with your public lack of interest in me despite everyone assuming we have coupled! It’s been humiliating for both of us. Why shouldn’t I want you to at least acknowledge in public that you’re interested in me?”
“If it wasn’t for the marker, I wouldn’t be,” he said angrily. “You know that!”
“You’re lying to yourself, Kusac,” she replied quietly. “And you know it. On the Kz’adul, when you said I’d been with you the night before, you showed me you cared about me and enjoyed coupling with me.”
He thought back to that day, remembering that she’d been the first person to show him gentleness, that he’d enjoyed their pairing despite himself—and he remembered more. He remembered telling Kaid she might be in danger, that he was worried for her because she’d warned him he’d been drugged. He’d forgotten that in the anger he’d felt at finding out about the marker.
“You’d forgotten about that, because of your anger when you found out I’d scent-marked you. You think it doesn’t matter now, that you can blame those feelings on the marker.”
“Dammit, Zayshul, stop it,” he insisted. “You don’t know what I’m thinking!”
Startled, she stared at him.
Fury flared though every atom of his being. “You think you know me, Zayshul, but believe me, you don’t,” he said, his voice deceptively quiet as he moved up behind her.
His vision was beginning to darken round the edges. He stopped trying to hold back his reaction to the hot water and her scent and focused instead on preventing the darkness from growing.
“You have no idea of who I really am,” he said. As his genitals descended, he leaned forward, placing an arm to either side of her, gripping her hands against the pool rim.
She gave an exclamation of surprise as she felt him press her belly against the side of the pool and realized she was trapped.
He rested his cheek against hers, licking it, letting the marker’s poison continue what it had begun.
“Don’t make the mistake of assuming what I felt for you then was more than it was. I’d come fresh from J’koshuk’s physical and mental tortures. You came to my bed, drugged me then paired with me. It was the first gentleness, the first kind physical contact I’d known since he woke me from cryo. I was grateful, no more than that, but in my damaged mental state, I was afraid it meant more.”
The darkness in his vision increased. He could feel her fear, smell and taste it now, but it didn’t touch him. It echoed through him as it had done in the days before Kzizysus and Annuur had repaired the damage done to him by Chy’qui.
“I ... I understand,” she stammered.
“No, you don’t understand,” he said, easing himself against her now that he was fully aroused. “But you will. Whether or not you participated willingly, that marker drove a wedge between me and my Triad partners, gave Kezule a weapon to force me to come here.”
“They’ll see what we’re doing,” she whispered, terrified, yet as caught up in the moment as he was.
“It’s what you wanted,” he said, entering her. Then he reached out with his mind and, grasping hers, let her feel what he’d experienced the night he’d been given Kezule’s message, what coming to meet Kezule had cost him personally.
She made whimpering noises and sagged back against him, but he ignored her, lowering his mouth to her shoulder, licking it, letting the marker’s drug surge through him, pinning her fast against the poolside as he began to climax.
Breathing heavily, he leaned against her for a moment before withdrawing. He pulled her round to face him.
“Now you really understand,” he said, tightening his grip on her arms. “You know what I am, and some of what I can do. Don’t presume to know my mind again, Zayshul, do you hear me?”
She nodded, eyes still wide in shock at the onslaught on her mind and body. “You’re still a telepath,” she stuttered, clutching at him for support.
“That you’ll keep to yourself,” he said, showing his teeth. “Especially if you ever want me to show you how to use your own telepathic abilities.” He reached for her mind again to reinforce his command. “You wanted a public show from me, this is it. You’ll get nothing else from me.”
Letting her go, he turned and got out of the pool.
“You can’t go in that state!” she hissed at him. “Burn it, it’s obvious what we’ve been doing!”
He grinned down at her without humor and shrugged. “So? I look no different from how your males look all the time. That’s why I wanted to leave the pool—hot water alone has this effect on me.”
Turning, he walked back to the water’s edge and waded out until it was deep enough to swim. As he approached the other side, he could see by the way the group with Jayza were studiously looking the other way that they were well aware of some of what had been happening between him and Zayshul.
His incipient tunnel vision was still there and he was in no mood to talk to anyone. He knew that when it finally passed, he’d regret what he’d done, but at least she was incapable of telling anyone about his returned abilities—that much he’d made sure of.
Wading out, he headed straight for his towel and began to dry himself, resisting the urge to drape it round his waist. The cooler water of the main pool was having the desired effect anyway and it wouldn’t be long before he could forget about any concerns over modesty.
“Mind if I walk back with you, Captain?” he hear
d Jayza say from a few yards away.
He turned round to glare at him, but even though the youth could see the state of his eyes, he held his ground.
“Why not?” he forced himself to say. He knew he needed the company right now as his judgment was still shot from the aftereffects of the alcohol in his system and the hunter state. At least they were far enough away from the Primes for him not to need to say anything to them.
“The Doctor’s staying?” Jayza asked carefully, coming a few steps closer.
He turned back to look at the bubble pool. Zayshul was getting out now.
“I’ve no idea,” he said shortly, turning away again. “Shall we go?”
“Sure.”
They started walking toward the exit.
“I thought I’d have a hot drink before turning in. Would you like to join me, Captain?” Jayza asked as they reached the path.
His vision had virtually returned to normal by then and he was beginning to realize the utter insanity of what he’d done. “No, but thank you,” he said.
“I just thought you might want someone to talk to before you turn in.”
“No,” he repeated, glancing at Jayza. “The water was too hot, that’s all. The Doctor’s fine,” he added in a low voice.
Jayza nodded. “It’s easy for them to underestimate us at times,” he said. “Especially with them being stronger and faster than we are. I’m beginning to realize how complicated Alien Relations are.”
“Yes, they are. I’m actually intending to recommend you for that when we get home,” he said, pushing the door into the changing rooms open.
“I’d like that.” Jayza hesitated. “Are you sure everything’s all right, Captain? Banner asked me to keep an eye on you when he heard you were coming up to the pool.”
“It’s a private matter between me and Zayshul,” he said reluctantly. “Let’s just say we both had too much to drink and leave it at that. And I’d prefer if you kept it to yourself,” he added.
Jayza nodded. “Of course, Captain. You’re entitled to your privacy. But if I can help ...” He left the rest unsaid.
“Thank you,” said Kusac sincerely.
Between Darkness and Light Page 72
