Frustration pounded through me in waves, and his arms encircled my waist from behind. Soft as a whisper of wings, his lips hovered over my ear. “Your mission in regards to me, whatever you believe it to be, is false. It’s nothing more than a memory implant.”
“A memory implanted by whom?” I felt violated. Used. Anger boiling through me that someone had dared mess with my memories. The people of Delti were feared as dark and powerful psychics. It was one reason my people avoided them.
“We call them Scepters. There are people from Delti who have the psychic skill and power to make you believe anything they want. My sister among them.”
His sister? More than his voice convinced me that he told the truth. Closed doors rattled in my mind, memories screamed behind them, demanding to be revealed. The sweet face of a young woman with sad eyes… Relenting, I leaned into him with a sigh. “If that’s true, what, exactly, do you expect me to do about it?”
“I can help you remember, if you’ll let me. I need you to remember what my sister told you.”
Why was I suddenly certain I didn’t want to? “Why? What about your sister is so important?”
His anger burned through me, set my blood on fire, and kindled a need for revenge so fierce it took me a moment to realize it wasn’t my own.
“Selene was kidnapped two moons ago by slavers. My brother, Markus, and I have been tracking her since then. That’s how Markus ended up on Zatari, and it’s why I’m here. I can’t leave this station without her. I need you to remember what she said to you.”
Selene. The name flitted through my consciousness and an image of dark eyes and long black hair flashed in my mind, the memory bursting free.
“Yes.”
I turned to face him, to make sure he heard and understood what I would say. “She wasn’t kidnapped. She’s there by her own choosing.” I wasn’t sure how I knew this, but I was certain it was fact. Selene was fresh in my memory, intense and determined, a fellow warrior. “She won’t go with you. You’ll just get her killed if you try to interfere.”
Hunter’s hands wrapped around my shoulders convulsively. “I need to know. Let me help you remember.” Despite the drug, his mental energy flared between us, burned through my consciousness for a moment, just long enough to sear three months of his agony, his worry and helpless grief into me.
Unable to resist the urge to comfort him, I raised a hand to his cheek. “All right.” And perhaps, if he spoke the truth, I could let him go free without betraying my High Priestess. “What do you want me to do?”
Chapter Seven
Mira
“Relax. Clear your mind of distractions. Don’t fight me.” Hunter’s fingers massaged my scalp until the roots of my hair tingled. Steaming hot water lapped at my breasts when I shifted my weight in the large tub and let my head fall backward into the hollow of his chest where he sat behind me.
“Easy for you to say. I’m not invading your memories.” Invading my thoughts, my soul. That’s what he was doing. And my heart. “Just get it over with before I change my mind. You Mindjacks aren’t exactly the most popular people on Zatari, you know.”
“I’ve been feared and hated since I was five years old. You’re not telling me anything I don’t know.” His voice held no apologies for what he was, and no regret.
I’d been protecting the High Priestess for years. I’d done my homework on my enemies. “Age five, the time of testing.”
“Yes.”
The age at which he’d been told what his future held. What must it have been like to be hated and feared as a young child? No wonder he’d walked away from his world. But still, what about his duty to his people? Mindjacks were the law, the judges whom none could ever lie to because they moved into your mind, felt your feelings, remembered your crimes, and could control your body. They lived the crimes. Never before had I considered the cost to those judges forced to relive the crimes in spirit. What a nightmare. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m more powerful than any I know, save my sister. No one dares to hunt me, and that’s just the way I like it.”
I snorted, “I dared.”
Hunter’s voice wrapped his smile around me. “Aye. But then, you’re a Mindjack as well.”
Water spilled over the edges of the tub when I jerked to sit up, and was immediately absorbed by the reclaiming units in the floor. Sucked into oblivion by a force I could neither see nor comprehend. Just like the forces at work in my life now, tearing me apart and rearranging the pieces of my soul into a patchwork of temptation and confusion. First my childhood friend taken by a warrior of Delti, my honor surrendered in bed with Hunter, and now this. “No.”
Slow and steady, he pulled me back until my head settled in the curve of his shoulder. The heat of his naked flesh contrasted sharply with the sudden chill in my heart. “You heard me.”
“You’re mistaken.” My hands trembled, so I hid them beneath the water and closed my eyes.
“Am I? Do you never know what someone is thinking, feeling? Have you not always been able to read people, their desires and their lies?”
“Yes, but I’m just an empath.”
“No, Mira, you’re a Mindjack. Your gift has been suppressed by your elders and their drugs.”
My heart skipped a beat, then resumed. Had my sister Octavia not told me the same thing? In her message she’d accused the elders of that and more. I hadn’t eaten or drunk anything from my home stores since leaving Zatari. And every day I felt the effects more, as something wild and untamed sparked to life inside me.
Soft as sin, Hunter’s lips nuzzled my neck. “Mira, don’t go back.”
“I have to.” I was a personal bodyguard and servant to the next High Priestess. I would be her most trusted councilor and strike fear in the hearts of her enemies. For over seven hundred years, the line of succession had never been broken. My sisters needed my vision, my leadership, and my strength. I couldn’t turn my back on them just because I’d found Hunter, found a man who read my heart far too easily.
“Why? So you can trap more young priestesses with lies? Steal their gifts? Their sons?”
The questions reverberated through my skull, stirring up feelings and memories long forgotten. An ache sprang to life deep in my chest, and my heart actually hurt. Fierce and unexpected, pain stabbed behind my eyes and another memory broke down the door in my mind. A son… they’d taken my sons. Smiling babies with blue eyes and dimples. Ripped from my arms as I screamed over the dead body of my eighteen-year-old lover…
Images crashed in. Relentless and elemental as a tidal wave, they broke through barriers and flooded me with knowledge. Pain. Regret.
I sank beneath the water and opened myself to the flood. Clear and true, I saw myself as a sixteen-year-old living on the outskirts with my mother, learning the secrets of growing Fier flower. A young man from a nearby village caught my eye, and I’d eagerly given myself up to the raging lust of youth and curiosity. My mother returned to the city, but allowed me to remain for two years. But when she’d returned to find me with twins nearly two years old, my mother and the other elders had ripped the children from my arms and ordered my lover’s execution.
Tears escaped into the sea of bathwater surrounding my face. My lungs burned for air, but it was nothing compared to the pain of betrayal I held in my heart. My twins would be nearly eight years old now. Where were they? Alive? Dead?
Unable to hold my breath another moment, I burst from the water and screamed like a wounded animal. My own people had deceived me, and used forbidden gifts to tamper with my memories. And why? Because I’d lain with a male in an attempt to thwart their plans for me. I’d become a mother. Had dared to want a life other than serving the throne.
And the bitch who had walked toward me in flowing silver robes as I lay in a crumpled heap in the dirt, the elder who had locked the memories in my mind… where was she? Hawk-like nose, round eyes in a deep-set face, a face that screamed of unrestrained psychic power. The
woman’s mouth curled at the edges, held a ruthless sneer on her lips. She was one of the oldest, the most revered of all their elders. I had called her Mother.
The woman, that lying bitch of an elder, would die.
Swift and silent, I was out of the tub and fully dressed in hunter’s black by the time Hunter dried off and caught up to me. My silver half-moon shaped daggers slid home on my thigh holsters, whispering promises of death.
“Where are you going?” He reached for my arm, but I pulled out of his grasp.
“I’m sorry, Hunter. I never should’ve endangered you, or held you captive. You’re free to go.”
* * *
Hunter
Air was forced out of my lungs in a silent rush. I’d never truly been her prisoner, and we both knew it. Psychic rage erupted in my chest in response to the adrenaline flooding my system. It refused to let her leave, was shrieking with indignation that I might allow my mate to walk away. “Where are you going?”
“To get some answers.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, watched her eyes glaze over with desire as they followed the path of water sliding down my body to disappear into the damp drying cloth I’d wrapped around my waist. “You’re going hunting.”
She didn’t deny it. And after seeing the memories that had flooded her, I couldn’t blame her. I could, in fact, still hear the terror-filled cries of her boys being pulled from her arms. The elders of her culture enslaved her and her sisters as surely as her ancestors had been held by mine. Suddenly, I wished the injection truly had stolen my power. Her pain hurt me much more than my own ever could.
“I’m sorry, Mira.” Torn and tortured inside, she looked away from me. A single tear slid down her cheek and burned my heart like acid. I shouldn’t care. She could be a ruthless bitch. She’d imprisoned my brother and hunted my sister. And she’d been acting all along with a sense of duty and honor. There were no excuses between us. I’d been in her mind, knew her almost as well as I knew myself. Despite her past, I couldn’t let her go.
“Octavia tried to tell me. She sent me a message.” With a forceful thrust, she slammed her gun into its holster in the small of her back. “I wouldn’t believe my whole life was a lie…”
As if the single tear were an abomination, Mira wiped it from her face and pulled on her thigh-length coat. I was sure more weapons were hidden among its dark folds.
“Where is Octavia’s cruiser docked? I’ll meet you there at nightfall. Once we rendezvous with my ship, I’ll leave you in peace.”
“It’s my cruiser.” Taking a deep breath in through my nose, I didn’t dare move. Fierce and adamant, the energy in my soul burst forth, claimed her as my own, weakened my will until I gave in to the urge and slid my hand beneath her hair to massage the tightness from her neck. I could not hold her prisoner, but I wasn’t about to allow her to leave. Not in this state. And not to face an enemy well trained in the mental arts. “Octavia gave it to me. And you haven’t told me about Selene yet.”
For a moment she just stared at me, thinking. A whisper-light touch moved through me, leaving a path of sensual heat in its wake. She would sense that I spoke the truth. Trembling, she closed the distance between us and brushed her forehead to my lips in a silent farewell.
“Tell Octavia to be happy.”
The unexpected request froze me. “I thought you didn’t believe…”
She shook her head, effectively cutting off my answer. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.” Mira rubbed both temples with still shaking hands. Her ability was new to her. Untamed. Powerful. If she were truly my mate, she must be a Mindjack as well. Linked as we were, I knew emotions and thoughts were crowding her mind. Memories. And truth.
With startling clarity, I realized why the elders of her culture forbid the younger to use their mental abilities. The old women did, in fact, taint their food and drink with a drug that held their powers dormant. My brother Markus, and his mate, Octavia had discovered that truth the hard way.
If Mira wanted an honest answer, there was only one way to show her. “If you want to know the truth of your world, use your gifts. Look into my memories of what Octavia told me.”
She raised her head to look at me and a troubled shadow flitted through her eyes, then disappeared beneath steely determination. Softly at first, then with a bolder touch, I felt her spiritual presence. Her energy, her soul merged with mine and absorbed my knowledge like a sponge exposed to water. My energy rose up in greeting, enveloped her in warmth, and I held back nothing. There could be no secrets among my kind. It was the main reason everyone feared them.
* * *
Mira
He was the most powerful being I’d ever encountered. He defied me, argued with me, teased me. Not since I was a child, since before the ritual of womanhood, had anyone dared to tease me. With an almost desperate longing, my body cried out to join with his, to lose myself in the heat of his hands.
Forbidden fruit had never looked any sweeter than Hunter did at that moment. I’d known him one day, and he was the only truth I’d had in my entire life. Unable to resist one last touch, I ran my hands over his massive chest, thick shoulders, and bulging muscles. The scent of his flesh called to me, begging to be tasted. Forced to bite my tongue to prevent it either declaring my feelings or daring to explore him, I let my senses go for one moment, a stolen fraction of time to feel his life force pulsing through my blood, our hearts beating in rhythm, and to hear the siren song of his soul crying out to mine.
Eager to truly know him, to delve deeply into his memories, I embraced the odd wrenching sensation as part of me left my own body behind and entered his. A lifetime flashed before my eyes, flooded me with his every moment of triumph and pain. He was an honorable man, someone I could live with, if the situation had been different.
Worry for both me and his sister, Selene, was utmost in his mind. Confident that he could take care of himself, he had less faith in our abilities. Fragile women who needed to be protected. That made me smile as I withdrew. All the skills he employed to control his mind were now mine. He didn’t belong in the war I wanted to start. I couldn’t bear the weight of his death on my conscience. My young lover, though not a true love match, had been funny, and full of life. He hadn’t deserved the tortured death dealt him. I was determined Hunter not suffer a similar fate.
Softly, I brushed my lips against his, savored the strength of his touch, and worked up the will I needed to leave him forever.
Now that my mind was my own, other memories surfaced. I had met his sister. Spoken to her. And she’d told me things, things I was supposed to tell Hunter.
“Selene is tracking a killer. She pulled his identity from Aria’s mind before she lost consciousness.” Hunter’s muscles clenched beneath my hands. I knew from his memories that Aria was his cousin, young, innocent, and beautiful—until she’d been brutally attacked. “Your sister can sense the killer’s presence, and he’s getting close, watching her. If you interfere, you’ll reveal her true identity and he’ll kill her.”
“Damnation. You women are going to be the death of me.”
“You have to leave her alone.”
Frustration and fear for his sister rose to choke him, choke me. “Who is he?”
“The killer? She wouldn’t say, but I’m sure she knows his name. She said he’s a Sentinel.”
Hunter framed my face in his hands and glared down at me. “Perfect. You’re hunting a Specter, and she’s hunting a royal spy.”
“A Specter?”
“Aye. Someone like Selene. Someone who implants memories, or visions with a touch. They can make you see things that aren’t real, take away memories until they’re nothing more than whispers in your mind, ghosts of images.”
“Isn’t that what you do?”
He shook his head. “No. I can see what you see, pull your memories up and look at them, but I can’t force you to forget, or convince you to see something that isn’t there.”
“No wonder we are at
war with your people.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice.
I had to admit, the odds were not stacked in our favor. But life was never easy. Wasting energy bemoaning the fact was not my style. I shrugged and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulled his lips down to mine, and kissed him.
He opened his mouth to me at once, thrusting his tongue to duel mine in a battle of wills that left us both breathless and hungry for more. Hunter wrenched open the zip seam of my uniform and exposed my core. Never in my life had I wanted anything more than to wrap my legs around his waist and slide down over him. My pussy throbbed. My outer lips ached with the pain of being overly engorged and desperate.
Power rose, vibrated in the air and heightened my awareness of him. Every breath he took burned in my lungs. Every beat of his heart pounded through my chest. And his desire roared through me to explode deep inside.
“Hunter…” My fingertips jumped, zapped by small sparks of psychic energy where they moved to his waist. I couldn’t wait another moment without spontaneously combusting. Yanking the towel from his hips, I jumped up, locked my legs behind his back, and then joined our bodies. Teeth clenched, Hunter hesitated, then slowly slid his hands around to hold my buttocks. I realized he must be careful to avoid the curved daggers strapped to either thigh. He carried me forward until my back met the soft padding on the wall, pinning me there. I actually feared the heat of my skin would burn through my uniform.
“You’re not going anywhere alone.” Hunter’s strong body pounded into my flesh, accentuating every word. “That old bitch will destroy you.”
And you’re mine.
The last thought hung in the air between us. A part of me wanted to deny his claim, but the rest of me, my body, my soul, the hands buried in his hair, the traitorous voice in my heart that begged to keep him, thrilled at the idea. “What would you do with me, Hunter? I’m a priestess, not a pet to be kept on a leash.”
Conquering His Mate (Mates of Zatari Book 2) Page 7
