Ravenna stirred. Bronse was very unused to sleeping with someone, so she woke him with her restlessness for the third time. She was sprawled over his body, her cheek pressed to his heart, her arms flung out in opposite directions, and a leg insinuated around one of his. He touched his hand to her back, instinctively trying to soothe her with his touch. It seemed that every time she fell asleep, she began to dream fitfully. It worried him, considering all she had been through lately.
He tucked a hand into her hair, fondling the strands absently as he stared up at the ceiling through the darkness. It had probably been wrong for him to take her to bed in the face of all the trauma and life changes she’d been pushed through recently, but in his heart he couldn’t make himself feel guilt or regret or even the smallest flash of conscience. She belonged in his arms.
Bronse held his breath at the possessive thought. He consciously controlled his breathing—since his chest was currently fulfilling the role of her pillow—not wanting her disturbed any more than she already was. He had learned long ago that he had no right to make any demands on a woman, and to be honest he’d never had any trouble with that. His one exception, his marriage, had turned out to be a disaster, and he wasn’t willing to go through that again. He’d been devastated on a personal level by that failure. Not because he’d been attached to Liely, though. He’d felt as if he’d failed the code of the exceptional men in his family by ruining their track record of long, fulfilling marriages.
His father had been quick to point out that one failed marriage and the future ability to have a relationship were not exclusive to each other. His mother had agreed. They felt that he had settled with Liely because he hadn’t thought he’d do better, and he hadn’t expected better. A strange realization, considering his penchant for perfectionism, Bronse thought. But Masin had told Bronse his own theories about that as well. Although the brain, Masin had said, looks for perfection, the heart is what actually finds it. Bronse had used his brain when selecting Liely, using rationale and balancing pros and cons. Love had never entered the equation.
It was odd that Bronse, of all people, should make such a mistake. He’d had something that a great many people never had. Perfect examples of love and its enduring qualities. And friends like Justice and Ender, who had grown up so cruelly in worlds so lacking in love, had shown him how fortunate he was. As hard as Bronse had worked for his calling, he had been given the luxury of being perfectly nurtured and groomed for it. Jus and Rush had struggled every inch of the way, making themselves their only source of support. It was what made them so close to one another. Bronse knew that he and Masin with their experience in love and close family, and Justice and Rush and their family deprivation, all combined to make a new family with a mesh of loyalty that couldn’t be broken.
Where would Ravenna fit into such a family?
That was another shock to Bronse’s system. These were very personal, intimate thoughts, and his mind told him that it was far too soon to consider these questions.
Ravenna moaned softly in her sleep, her arm twitching until her hand dropped onto his chest next to her nose. It brought his attention back to her. The previous two times this had happened, his comforting had woken her, and they had ended up making love again. Knowing already that he wanted her still, he refused to wake her. He had gone well beyond all chivalrous intentions tonight as it was. She was too new to this intimacy to take his passion so often without repercussions. She was going to be sore come the morning, and that was bad enough on its own. He didn’t want to compound her discomfort any more than he already had.
So much for all his proclamations of honor and integrity. He’d behaved like an adolescent, completely lacking in self-control. Even as an adolescent, he had actually shown more discretion. Ravenna simply blew his mind. She was beyond even his experiences, both in and out of bed.
She shifted restlessly against him, making a distressed sound that tore at his heart. Her opposite hand drew in as well, sliding beneath his neck and grasping him lightly in her sleep.
Suddenly she jerked, and he looked quickly at her face. Her eyes moved rapidly behind her lids. She seemed to be dreaming, only something was wrong. It felt different, felt wrong and distressing to him somehow. She jerked harder, crying out in a sound of terror that chilled him. He brought both hands to her shoulders, determined to stop this torture, when she suddenly jolted awake on her own.
Ravenna scrambled to her knees, pushing against him as she swayed in disorientation and her eyes shifted in panic.
“Ravenna! It’s okay, sweetheart, it was just a dream,” he said quickly, sitting up to draw her into his embrace. But she only let him take her partially close.
“No! No,” she cried, her breathing ragged. “It was no dream!”
“A premonition?” Bronse’s entire body tensed at the understanding.
“They’re coming. They will be here by dawn! I saw them,” she gasped. “I saw them! Nomaads armed like soldiers, so many of them! I saw the slaughter of the village! Hundreds of people will die! The temple will be desecrated with our blood! I saw …” She was panting and in tears, hardly able to speak. “I saw your death! Everyone will die if … if …”
“If we’re here when they get here,” he finished for her, swinging himself out of bed like lightning. “When is dawn, Ravenna?”
“A few hours …” She glanced at the clock on the table, then at him. “Four hours exactly.”
“Damn! I should have known better than to rest here. I did know better. Rave, I need you to fetch your family and the others. Tell them to pack light and only the essentials. Tell them we’ll be running and to keep that in mind. Try not to panic the young ones, but make it clear that they have to be ready to go in twenty minutes and not an instant longer. Do not tell a single servant until the moment we leave. Then tell them to run and get as far away as they can. Go, Ravenna!”
They both flew into their clothes, Ravenna finishing quicker because she did not have to gear up like Bronse did. But he was not far behind. He also had a shorter distance to go to rouse his companions. He reached Lasher’s quarters first, not even bothering to knock as he burst in. Masin jerked awake, and Bronse ducked when he fell into a laser pistol’s sights.
“Whoa!” he called out. “Masin!”
Lasher recognized him instantly, but he lunged out of bed, knowing something was wrong.
“We’re leaving. And I mean yesterday. Get—”
Bronse broke off in absolute shock when he realized that there was someone else in Masin’s bed. A woman.
No … a girl.
“Wait, it’s not what you think.” Lasher said hastily as Ophelia stirred and raised her sleepy blond head, beaded braids sliding together with several clicks.
Bronse silently let his eyes shift from the girl to his best friend.
“If it were anyone else, Lieutenant, I’m sure it would be what I think. But a time constraint gives you the benefit of the doubt. Explain later. And don’t let anyone catch her in here, Masin, or I swear—”
“Done.” The agreement was swift and sharp. “I’ll be geared to go in five.”
“Less. I’ll wake Mulettere and Blakely.” Bronse made sure he took one last picture of what he was seeing, so that later when he’d have time to go over it he would be sure to remember the clues that would exonerate his friend of what—on the surface—appeared to be a highly unconscionable act.
Then he went to wake Justice and Ender.
“Jet says the ship is okay and prepped for flight,” said Justice. “As soon as we get to a suitable field, it will take me twenty minutes, give or take, to get it here and another ten for the remote landing.”
“That doesn’t give us much time,” Bronse said, rubbing a hand over his tired eyes. “They aren’t more than two hours behind us. They’ll realize right away that the temple is abandoned.” He lowered his voice as he paused between swigs of water. “The fact is that the little ones are slowing us down. Devan is already exhausted, and Ophe
lia …” Bronse glanced at Lasher, who didn’t bother to look away from the assessing eyes of his commander. “She’s very fragile and was weak to begin with because she didn’t get to fully rest up from her healing exertions yesterday.”
“I can carry her. Ender can take Devan,” Lasher said.
“We’ll be just as slow. We need a field,” said Bronse.
“Hard to do in a forest this dense,” Justice said. “Kith knows a suitable one six to seven miles north.”
“Not good enough,” said Bronse. “We’ll take an unsuitable one if we have to. Ask him again. This time I want you to give him bare minimum requirements. Screw the safety parameters, Jus. I trust you.”
“Aye, sir,” she said smartly, about-facing and jogging toward Kith.
“Ender, make sure the kids are well hydrated and understand we won’t be stopping again.”
“Got it, sir.”
Ender left Lasher and Bronse alone, the two of them turning to the issue at hand.
“I have to say, Morse, it’s a hell of a time for me to be dealing with something like this, so please ease my mind and do it quick.”
“Bronse, I would never—”
“I don’t give a damn what you would never do. And I’m not your friend right now; I think you know that.”
“Sorry, sir,” Lasher corrected himself sharply, doing only a partial job of hiding his tension and irritation as he linked his hands behind his back and stood at attention. “Commander, I was in my quarters sleeping when the girl showed up. She was in distress, sir, crying hysterically, and unable to find her brother …,” Lasher’s mouth twitched slightly, “or her sister,” he drawled, daring to give Bronse a direct and pointed look, “in their own beds. I guess we formed a bond during the ordeal earlier, and she trusted me to make her feel safe.” Lasher eased out of attention and crossed his arms over his chest. “Look, she was barely able to breathe from a nightmare she’d had, so I watched over her until she fell asleep. I knew she wasn’t going to find Rave or Kith until the morning. Unless you would have preferred I disturb you … sir?” he asked archly.
Bronse grinned, finally easing his side of the situation. He took a swig of water, not bothering to dignify the question with an answer.
“I put her to bed and sat back, above the covers and as fully clothed as she was, mind you, and I guess I fell asleep because it was dark and I was tired. That tends to happen, I hear.”
“Smart-ass,” Bronse shot at him. He recalled his mental picture of how he’d found Lasher and Ophelia, and it suited everything his friend was claiming. Adding that to what he understood about the other man, he knew it was the truth. “Still, it wasn’t very wise. What if that hothead brother of hers had gone looking for her?”
“Before or after he was done screwing the servant girl?”
“That’s not the point,” Bronse retorted sharply.
“I’m sorry. You’re right. I just …” Masin made a sound of frustration. “Have you seen the way they treat her? Not Ravenna, but the others?”
“I thought they were very protective of her,” Bronse said with surprise.
“To a point. Because she’s a precious commodity. No one, except Ravenna, not even her big brother, pays her the slightest bit of attention unless it’s to make her work or protect their investment. Did you see her brother give her any affection? Ravenna is the only one who touches her. None of these people touch. I knew the minute I held Ophelia in the forest after she healed you. She was hugging me like she was starved for affection. I bet that’s because no one here has even looked at her as anything but a healer since Rave was kidnapped from the temple. She’s a child badly in need of an adult’s love. Even Rave can’t give her all she clearly craves. Frankly, sir, it pisses me off and I can’t seem to help it.”
“Having four little sisters will do that to a man,” Bronse taunted him gently. “But be more careful, please. It would have been bad enough if Kith had come looking for Rave. But at least she is a consenting adult, and as much as he’d have kicked up a fuss, she would have put him in his place—right before I would have put him in it even harder.”
Lasher chuckled. “No doubt. Surely you didn’t think …?”
“Of course I didn’t, Masin, but that’s not my point.”
“I know what your point is. And it’s right. I made a mistake, and I won’t repeat it. Next time I’ll search for Ravenna.”
“That or comfort her in a highly public place, not in your bed.”
“Good point,” Lasher said with a grimace as he rubbed at the tension in his temple. “Honestly, I didn’t even think about it like that.”
“I know you didn’t. Be careful, Masin. Not just because of Kith and the others, either. She’s already got a crush on you.”
“Now you’re delusional.” His second laughed. “She’s a good kid.”
“Yeah. The women of the family are quite exceptional,” Bronse noted absently, his gaze drifting to Ravenna as she sat with Devan, rubbing the youngest girl’s back in comfort. Rave had to be exhausted. She hadn’t slept either, really, and that was entirely his fault.
Well, partially my fault, he thought with an irrepressible grin.
“Wow, that is some goofy grin you got going on,” Lasher mused.
“Shut up. You’re lucky I don’t discipline you.”
“I won’t if you won’t,” Lasher countered.
“Pervert,” Bronse retorted.
“Deflowerer.” Lasher laughed.
“Shut up and get them ready to go. You’re giving me an ulcer.”
“Aye, sir!” Lasher said cheerfully.
Kith was fuming.
It hadn’t taken him long to feel the massive waves of connection that had developed between his sister and the commander. The sexual attraction between them had more than tripled overnight, it seemed, and the way they kept looking at each other was sending off huge bursts of erotic emotional energy between them.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
Appalled by his sister’s behavior and downright infuriated by the commander’s, Kith took out his anger on the easier of the two targets. As they marched through the wilderness in a line, Kith hurried to catch up with Ravenna.
“You slept with him!” he hissed at her in introduction.
Ravenna was startled by the accusation for all of a second, then she flashed angry eyes at him, whispering, “Keep your voice down!” She glanced back at Ender who was following up the rear of the line.
“Why? Are you ashamed?” Kith sneered.
“Hardly that,” she snapped. “I just don’t want my business announced to the whole world! And that is what it is, you know. My business. Not yours!” Ravenna punctuated every word with the cadence of her marching feet as she followed Bronse’s back with enthusiasm.
The problem with empaths, she thought, was that they were entirely too nosey and too sensitive. Male empaths were by far the worst, she was sure. Males were horrible when it came to handling their own emotions. Imagine that and the emotions of others! Add to it Kith’s emotional immaturity and his persistent need to see himself as the man in charge of their family, and it made for a serious ego problem.
And once again it forced Rave into the position of having to set him down a few pegs. Every time Kith flared up like this, acting too big for his own good, he left her no choice. Not only was she the eldest and the head of their sectioned-off little family, she was also the high priestess of the temple. Just because they were abandoning that temple did not mean that sovereignty was going to alter between them.
“I think it is my business when it affects all of us here! If he’s spending all of his time chasing your skirts, just how good will he be at keeping us alive and getting us the hell out of here?”
She stopped and turned on him, her face aflame with fury. “If Bronse was having the worst day of his life and was plagued with twenty different distractions, he’d still have a better chance of getting us all out of here than you would!
I swear to the gods, Kith, if you don’t quit this puffed-up attitude, you’re going to force me to pop that big head of yours like a balloon! You mistakenly think you’re in charge around here when you most certainly are not. I’m in charge of the Chosen Ones. They are my responsibility. Not yours!”
“Don’t you know he’s using you?” Kith railed back at her. “Men like him pick up girls everywhere they go. You’re just another port to park it in, Sis.”
That remark compelled Rave to do something she’d never done. She whipped out her hand and slapped him hard across the face. The sound of the strike cracked through the forest like a shot, and the entire line jolted to a halt. Ender, however, had seen the source of the sound, so he cut his fingers over his throat and shook his head at the others.
“How dare you!” Rave spat, not caring that they had drawn everyone’s attention, including Bronse’s. Kith was nursing a hand to his abused cheek and he recoiled, looking at her with utter shock. For all his empathy, he had not seen that coming. “You who tosses up the skirts of any comely servant girl! After I expressly asked you to be more discreet and caring of your choices! Think you I don’t know what occurs in my own temple? You foolish, arrogant boy! Think you there are no repercussions to what you do so casually? So carelessly? You puff and preen and think to make yourself the man among us. No true man would spill his seed left and right with no thought or qualm as to what may become of it. Do you know what it does to those girls when they have to beg Ophelia, a mere child herself, to give them the herbs that will purge your bastards from their wombs? Do you think about what it does to Ophelia—when all she wants in the world is to save and protect life—to be the method by which they must destroy a life?
“No! You never think,” she answered for him. “I love you dearly, Kith, but sometimes you disgust me! How I shudder with agony some nights when I see you all, my children, growing to become less than what you are capable of. Domino and his jaded heart are not my burden because it happened before he came to us, but you … and now Fallon, who refuses to use his gifts. Ophelia who overuses hers. Poor Devan, who looks up at all of you in confusion, seeking a path to follow, and none of you can satisfy her. Her temper notwithstanding, the only one who gives me no grief is Vivienne. She, thank the gods, is a woman of strength and independence and has a heart made of Delran platinum. If anything happened to me, Kith, she is the one who would step into my place. Certainly not you! So you take a moment, just this once, and think before you stand there trying to dress me down!
Three Worlds 01 - Seduce Me In Dreams Page 20
