Through the Veil

by Walker, Shiloh

  She wobbled and fell forward. She hissed out a harsh breath as something sharp shredded the thin cloth of her pajama bottoms and cut into her knees. Her hands, one clean, one bloodied, pressed into the earth, and just like that, the shaking stopped. Wind tore at her hair, blowing the wispy ends of it into her eyes as she looked around.

  Her legs felt unsteady as she stood, and for one humiliating second, she wondered if she was going to pass out. Slowly, her head stopped spinning and the nausea churning in her gut slowly eased. But as she looked around, she wondered if unconsciousness might be a little easier.

  It would certainly be a lot less terrifying.

  All was barren in front of her. Stunted, malformed trees. Bare ground. She felt like she was looking at it through a camera lens, her mind only letting her take in one small thing at a time.

  This land looked familiar . . . very familiar. But she had seen it last with lush green trees, mountains that towered into the sky, their caps covered with pristine white snow. The world had been too beautiful . . . the sky sapphire blue and streaked with auroras at night. “I thought I’d only dreamed this place,” Lee whispered, wiping her tears away halfheartedly.

  Those dreams she remembered from time to time. But they were just dreams. Dreams of a paradise unlike anything she’d ever known. Some whimsical paradise she’d created out of some need to escape the real world.

  “Lee.”

  His voice, low and rough, sent shivers up her spine. Slowly, she turned, and whatever door had let her step into this world was gone. Standing just behind her was a tall, rangy man, with eyes that gleamed like pools of liquid silver, a square-cut jaw, high, almost harsh cheekbones and a broad forehead. He looked almost brutal. His mouth was unsmiling, the sensual line of his lips unyielding as he stared at her with disbelieving eyes. Kalen . . .

  Even before he said anything else, Lee knew how his voice would sound. Deep, dark and velvety, with a lyrical accent that thickened with emotion. He opened his lips and she shivered at the sound. “You haven’t stood in this world while the sun shines in years.”

  “Oh, hell.”

  Lee felt her knees wobble under her. The earth started to churn again, except Lee had a bad feeling the earth wasn’t really moving at all. Everything grew dark, and just as the world rushed up to meet her, she saw his eyes widen.

  He watched as her eyes rolled back until nothing but the whites showed. Her skin was a pale, ashen gray and he swore, leaping forward. She fell into his arms and he grunted as his body absorbed the impact. Her skin was soft, she smelled sweet and clean, and her body was a lethal combination of curves and muscle.

  Kalen gnashed his teeth. It was almost like some dream come to life. He had Lee in his arms—really in his arms—after all this time, and she was half-naked. The soft, thin clothes she wore did absolutely nothing to hide the body underneath. He could see the shadow of her nipples, the cleft between her thighs and every damned inch in between.

  He eased them to the ground and shrugged out of his jacket. He balled it up and stuffed it under her head. Not the most comfortable pillow—the cavinir was pliable, moving with his body, conforming to it and protecting it at the same time, but it was still armor. But he wasn’t going to let her put her head on the ground, and he sure as hell couldn’t rest her head on his thigh. He was too close to jumping her as it was.

  He crouched beside her, examining her. He wished he could be detached about it, but that wasn’t going to happen. He saw the pallor, most likely brought on by shock and exhaustion, but he also saw the smooth, subtle gleam of her flesh. He watched her chest rise and fall in a regular rhythm, but he also found himself staring at the tight little buds of her nipples, pressing into that pathetic excuse for clothing. She moaned, a soft, husky sound that had him gritting his teeth.

  The hungry, needy bastard in him couldn’t help but wonder what kind of noises she’d make when he was inside her. Self-preservation had him straightening and moving away. She moaned again, and from the corner of his eye, he watched as her lashes fluttered, then lifted.

  Her gaze arrowed in on him, but he still didn’t look at her.

  “You.” She spat it out like she had something nasty on her tongue. Kalen couldn’t particularly blame her. Something else he’d seen while he made sure she was unharmed—the long, thin wound on her arm. It was bleeding sluggishly, and he knew from experience it probably burned like crazy. Treu metal did that. It was like something in the metal caused a reaction when it cut into a living being. It was particularly useful against Raviners and Jorniaks. That was why it was a favorite among the resistance.

  Lee had given him the blade years ago. He’d used it to mark that soft flesh . . . Grimly, Kalen acknowledged the guilt and then he shoved it deep. He’d done it. He regretted it. But he wouldn’t take it back.

  He wouldn’t avoid her over it either. Slowly, he turned and faced her. She looked—different. But the same. Almost like she was more substantial. Her skin had always been pale—now, in the light of day, he saw that she had a porcelain complexion and there was a light blush of color on her cheeks. Her eyes were a vivid, almost surreal shade of blue. The skies had once been that same shade of blue. Her hair was loose, and it fell more than halfway down her back in a tumbling riot of curls and spirals. It was the palest shade of blond imaginable, shot through with darker streaks.

  God in heaven, she was beautiful. There was a life inside her, something that made his skin buzz being this close to her.

  “What am I doing here?” she asked. He saw a muscle jerk in her cheek, and he realized she was clenching her jaw together. It didn’t help much. Her soft mouth trembled as she spoke, and he realized belatedly that she was absolutely terrified.

  Lee hadn’t ever been this scared in her life. The man in front of her was partly responsible. As familiar as he seemed, there was also something alien about him. A look in his eyes that shook her to her very core. A faint smile curled his lips and she figured he was trying to reassure her. “Don’t be so afraid, Lee.”

  She blinked at him. Yeah. Right. Don’t be afraid. Afraid didn’t even begin to cover what she was feeling. “What in the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t know,” he responded, shaking his head. The long black silk of his hair flowed around his shoulders with his movement, and his face was as unyielding as stone.

  “I know your face,” she whispered, shaking her head, feeling the knot in her throat rise and threaten to choke her. “Why do I know you?”

  As he shrugged, she felt her eyes drawn to the thick pad of muscle that covered his shoulder. He wore dull black clothing that resembled leather, but she suspected it served a more serious purpose than just standard clothing. The sleeveless shirt ended at his waist, a trim narrow waist, and her eyes traveled on down the long muscled length of his legs, also covered with the weird pseudoleather. Licking her lips, she stared back into his eyes.

  “I think I’ve had enough of this,” she muttered, more to herself than anything. Shoving to her feet, she looked around and wondered why in the hell she hadn’t made that call to the shrink. “Get me back home and I’ll make the call. I swear.”

  “You can’t go back so easily now,” he murmured, his eyes scanning around them as he moved closer. “The doorway that let you in has closed. I don’t understand how you crossed over as it is.”

  As he started across the uneven ground, she stepped back, but a sharp rock cut into the tender flesh of her instep and she flinched.

  “So I’m stuck here?” she demanded, terror seizing her as she thought of never seeing home again.

  A tiny smile finally appeared on his granite-hard face. “Well, most people would be. I doubt you are. You’ll find a way. But it will take some time,” he said. “But while you’re here . . . I’ve a promise to keep.”

  “A promise?” she whispered.

  The smile widened and his eyes gleamed with devilish intent. It should have warned her, but before she could even think of moving away, hard, scarred han
ds were cupping and lifting her face, as his mouth lowered and took hers. Lee gasped as his tongue pushed hungrily into her mouth, stealing her breath away. With a delicious forceful-ness that had her swimming, he took and claimed, threading his hands through her hair as his tongue stroked across hers.

  Lee whimpered deep in her throat, rising on her toes and curling her hands into the surprisingly supple material of his shirt. With teeth and tongue, he kissed her, making love to her mouth with a thoroughness that she knew would leave a mark on her for the rest of her life.

  An animalistic growl rose on the air as he withdrew to nip on her lip and then kiss a hot, stinging line of kisses down the curve of her throat. Lee grabbed at his hair, the thick, silken locks sliding through her fingers. “This shirt you wear—I can see the shadow of your nipples through it,” he rasped as he traced the low scooping neckline of the halter top. The pale lavender top knotted at her neck and low on her spine, and she wore it with a pair of harem-style pants that rode low on her hips. The sheer material of both garments was entirely too transparent to wear anywhere outside of her office, but since she hadn’t exactly been planning on going visiting when she put it on, she hadn’t thought anything of it. “Why bother wearing it at all? You might as well be naked.”

  Her cheeks flushed pink. “I . . . ah . . . I sleep in them,” she said.

  The embarrassed flush only spread as he bent her back over his arm and ran his palm down the center of her torso. He petted her through the thin material as he mused, “This wasn’t something made for sleeping in. It’s made to drive a man mad. If you were to lie beside me wearing that, and then expect me to sleep . . .” His voice trailed off and a wicked smile curved his lips. “I do like it, Lee. Quite a lot. Too much.”

  Kalen stared at her breasts through the pajama top. His eyes were hot, so hot she could almost feel the burn. His dark head lowered, and she cried out as the wet, heated silk of his mouth closed over the distended tip of her nipple, his tongue circling over it delicately before he bit down lightly.

  The groan that rumbled out of him vibrated up her skin, and she shivered as he slowly straightened, holding her tight against him. She pressed her fingers against her buzzing lips, still staring up at him.

  Kalen’s eyes were opaque and unreadable, but hot flags of color rode high on his cheeks and she could see a pulse beating rapidly in his throat as he reached up and flicked at the long silver strand of stars that hung from one of her ears. “I’ve wanted to do that for years,” he whispered.

  “You haven’t ever?”

  A hot smile curled his lips and he shrugged. “How much do you understand about what’s going on?”

  Scowling, she said flatly, “Nothing.” Trying to shrug his arms away, she shoved at his chest, but his arms never loosened. “I don’t understand a damn thing.”

  Kalen laughed, hugging her just a little closer. Since she had her hands pressed flat against his chest, he couldn’t draw her upper body too close, but her lower body—she felt the heated length of his cock through the material of their clothes, hard, pulsating against the soft pad of her belly. A rush of blood heated her face as she stared up at him.

  “I wanted nothing more than to do just that, every time I saw you. But saving lives is a little more important than discovering if you taste as sweet as you look. And part of me suspected that if you knew how much I wanted you, you’d take off running,” he whispered, burying his face in the heavy mass of her hair. “But you can’t run away now. Not yet, anyway.”

  His voice went all raspy and intent, practically vibrating with all the emotion she could feel coming off him. “You can’t run.”

  She was here.

  Kalen wasn’t going to question whatever twist of fate, whatever quirk of God had brought her here.

  But she was here.

  The waistband of his jacket just barely skimmed the taut little curve of her ass. Through the sheer material of the flimsy pants she wore, he could see the outline of her legs, and he wanted to tear the pants away and run his hands over those barely hidden curves.

  She called the clothes pajamas. Said she wore them for sleeping, or sometimes to work. He had to wonder what sort of work she did wearing clothes that looked like they had been designed just to drive a man insane.

  Damn it, if another man had seen that sweet body he probably would have leveled his plasma rifle at him until the fool had the sense to direct his eyes elsewhere.

  Get her into base camp and get her dressed. Into some cavinir before some enterprising Sirvani saw the bright head of hair, all that pretty, pale skin, and decided she’d make a nice prize for his superior. All he’d need was a quick moment to use the poison made from the kifer weed. One little shaft that pierced the skin and Lee would be helpless. The poison never killed, just stunned and weakened, giving them a chance to capture their prey and make the journey through the Veil to Anqar.

  The Warlords would wage war to get their hands on Lee. Beautiful and ripe with power—and totally defenseless. He sensed the raw, exposed power inside her and knew he didn’t have much time before someone, or something, else sensed it. Right now, she would look very appetizing. Anqarian bastards had a fondness for swiping talented females, and Lee was about as talented as they came.

  The chilly air felt good along his heated flesh. He wore a black sleeveless cavinir tunic that left his arms bare after he’d taken his jacket off for Lee. She stumbled, and he moved to her side, sharp ears catching the whimper that escaped her lips before she clamped them shut.

  With a scowl, he hunkered down by her feet, lifting the one she had jerked off the ground, probing the little gash with his finger. “Damn it.” He scowled, standing up and reaching into the pouch at his utility belt. “You’ll heal up quick enough but I imagine it hurts.”

  Kneeling back at her feet, he directed a curt “Hold on to me” at her before lifting her slender ankle in his hand and applying a psi-skin bandage to it. Standing up, he saw the mutinous look on her face and rolled his eyes. “What?”

  Crossing her arms over her chest, she snapped, “I didn’t exactly plan on appearing here, slick. I might have packed some hiking clothes if I had.”

  Running his tongue along the inside of his cheek, he suppressed a smile. “I wasn’t scowling at you,” he finally said, knowing he’d guessed right when her eyes flickered. “I should have thought of your bare feet.”

  “Nothing we can do about it, so why does it matter?” she said. He had a desire to lean over and catch that sullen lower lip between his teeth, catch one more sweet taste of her mouth.

  Crooking a grin at her, Kalen responded easily, “Now, I never said there was nothing I could do about it, did I?” Slinging his pulse rife over his shoulder, he caught her up in his arms, hooking one hand under her knees, the other bracing her torso, chuckling as she yelped and threw her arms around his neck.

  It was nearly a mile back to the base camp. Foot travel had become routine again after so many years of using jetcars and avilifts. Even during the day, the motor and rumble of the machinery disturbed some of the bigger creatures that dwelled below. After a few years of nonstop attacks every time somebody climbed into a jetcar for a trip to the mercantilery, the people of Kalen’s world had learned very well how to live without some of the technology they had once thought so vital to their way of life.

  The devastation of Yorkton had seen to that. Even before it had been leveled, the once thriving city had been a feeding ground for one of the most deadly intruders.

  The ever-present rumble of the substation traffic had made it a prime attraction for the zandir wyrms. Those hell-beasts had truly devastated Yorkton. After the wyrms had wiped out the substations, they had gone aboveground in the dead of the night, seeking out the ever-present nightlife and the ongoing flow of cars that rumbled even at three in the morning.

  A cool finger stroked down his cheek. “You look pretty glum, buddy.” Cutting his eyes to Lee’s face, he finally voiced the question that had been lurking insid
e his mind since he had seen her standing just beyond a shimmery mirage of light.

  “How did you come to be here, Lee?”

  Her lashes dropped, covering those pale blue eyes. Finally, she lifted her head and stared at him dead in the eye. “I really don’t know. But I kept hearing your voice. You wouldn’t leave me alone,” she said quietly.

  A slow smile crept across his lips as he continued to stride over the ground, his long legs eating up the distance between the clearing and home. Safety. “You haven’t left me alone for twenty years. High time, I’d say, that I returned the favor,” he drawled.

  “I was a kid twenty years ago. I didn’t start dreaming about this place until I was a teenager.” Her voice was quiet, her face averted.

  “You saved my life the first time when you were seven, Lee. You brought me food. Then you disappeared. A few days later, you freed me from where I was being held in some tiny little hellhole.” Eyes grim, he said quietly, “If you hadn’t freed me, and I still don’t know how you did it, but if you hadn’t, Raviners would have had a bloody party with my sorry ass.”

  THREE

  Lee’s head was spinning. And it wasn’t just from the unbelievable pace he kept up as he carried her across the uneven, rock-strewn terrain. Too much had changed. Too many things that should have been impossible were actually happening—and what was most bizarre, she wasn’t even questioning that any of it could be real.

  She knew it was.

  Knew he was real, even though a man like him seemed to defy every law she had come across when it came to the opposite sex. He was drop-dead gorgeous, a body covered with rock-hard muscle, a warrior, yet it seemed she recalled him asking for her help, time and again. That was almost like men asking for directions . . . wasn’t it?

  She chewed nervously on her lip, staring as they rounded a bend of half-burned trees. In the distance, she could hear faint sounds, voices floating on the wind, a booming pulsation of sound that echoed in her belly, myriad weird sounds that she couldn’t place. “What is that?” Lee finally asked as the booming pulsation rippled through her chest one more time.