by Biance D'Arc
“I can set up some surprises at the perimeter but I don’t have anything that will stop an assault force for long.” Justin’s calm words had a chilling effect on the gathered family.
“If I can get there before the troops, I’ll take her someplace safe. I promise. It’s the safest place I know and no Alvian would dare come after us there.”
“But for how long? You can hide her for a while, but what about the future?” Mick wanted to know.
“I have a plan. It’s not fully formed yet, but I think I can persuade the Council that Callie is better off with me than as a prisoner. If she’s willing to take the chance. Callie, I’m sorry your choice has been all but taken away. I want you with me, but I wanted it to be your choice. I’m sorry things are happening this way.”
“Are you kidding?” Callie’s voice was taut with emotion. “I want to go with you, Davin.”
The next hour passed in tense vigilance. Justin and Mick scouted the perimeter. Justin had taught his brothers most of what he knew about warfare over the years of exile in the Waste. They’d set up some surprises—man-traps, some explosives Mick had cooked up, and early warning signaling devices they’d contrived.
Callie waited in the nursery, the most secure room in the house, with her mother and siblings. Davin kept the communication crystal active and updated them on his progress though most of his concentration was geared toward moving his little ship as fast as it possibly could go.
He arrived in a little less than an hour, setting down right in the home pasture without regard for the frightened horses that scampered away from the craft. Callie ran out to meet him as soon as he landed and he scooped her into his arms with obvious relief, kissing her right there, in front of her mother and siblings. She was a little overwhelmed, but thrilled beyond measure to have him declare his feelings so openly.
When he put her to his side, her mother was there, tears in her eyes.
“I feel your love for my girl.” Her mother’s empathic senses were the strongest of all the family, though she’d passed on some of her talent to each one of her children. Most of her brothers and sisters were grinning like fools, happy for her, and she smiled back, shy but elated.
“I’ll take care of her to the best of my ability.”
“I know you will.” Jane stepped forward and reached up to kiss Davin’s cheek. “Be safe. And be happy.” She hugged Callie again, tightly. “Call us when you can.”
“I will, Mama. I love you! Tell Dad and Papa Mick that I love them.”
With few more words they were airborne. Callie sat in the passenger seat, just behind Davin. The tension was thick as he maneuvered the small craft out of the area as quickly as possible. He’d left the untraceable communication crystal with Jane so they’d have a way to contact the family and let them know when all was well. If they could just get that far.
Callie put her hand on his shoulder, feeling his turmoil with her empathic senses. “It’ll be all right. Have faith.”
“The only thing I have faith in, in this whole crazy universe, is you.” His words were low, serious, and she wished in that moment she could see his face.
They were about halfway to the southern facility when the communication crystal pinged. It was Justin.
“Grady Prime just left here. He’s heading south, Davin.”
“Shards! I was afraid of that.”
“You can’t go home.”
“I know. I have a place in mind. I didn’t expect they’d send Grady Prime, but even he won’t be able to follow where we’re going. We’ll be out of contact for a little while, but we’ll be safe. Don’t worry.” He altered course as he spoke, shifting slightly to the southeast.
“Davin, I know you’ll take care of my girl. Just take care of yourself as well. She needs you, now more than ever.”
Davin took Justin’s words to heart. Now that his people knew Callie was important to him, she would be the subject of study. It was unavoidable. The only way to protect her was to keep her with him. He had to find a way for them both to live safe and free. He had a plan, but a lot of it was contingent on variables he didn’t have solid answers for yet.
Either way, their fate would be decided soon.
“We’ll take care of each other.” Davin looked at Callie as he reassured her father. “We’ll both get through this. Together. That I promise. We’ll be in touch when it’s safe. Until then, try not to worry, and thanks for the warning about Grady Prime.”
Callie leaned forward to speak into the communication crystal. “I love you, Dad!”
“I love you too, Callie mine. Trust Davin and do what he says. There’s no man on this Earth I’d trust more to see to your safety at this particular moment.”
Davin was floored by the trust and confidence Justin O’Hara had just voiced. He’d try hard to live up to the man’s faith in him.
They signed off moments later and Davin concentrated on flying. He’d made some modifications to the power systems of this little craft that should make it untraceable, even by Grady Prime, but he still flew carefully, avoiding detection from the ground bases scattered throughout the jungle.
Before long they arrived at their destination, a patch of jungle that looked no different from the rest of the dense jungle, but this particular place held a miraculous secret. It was a secret only someone with Davin’s gifts could hope to uncover and use, and use it he would.
They disembarked from the small craft and he hid it with vines and fronds from the dense foliage all around. Callie helped, working steadily at his side. When it was well hidden, he guided her through the dense growth to the hidden entrance that only he knew. It led to an underground passage.
They went down the long, natural tunnel to the first turning, until they were in the deep gloom of a subterranean tunnel with Davin’s superior night vision as their guide. He’d brought a pack of items he’d had in the ship, but wanted to conserve power until he discovered if this place would welcome Callie as he hoped it would. He stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder, turning her to face him in the gloom, his expression deadly serious.
“Before we go any further, you must promise me you’ll tell me if you feel any discomfort at all. This place isn’t entirely safe.”
She tilted her head and smiled. He knew she felt his concern, his love and his protectiveness. Her empathy was so different than the response he was used to from his own people. Each time he saw evidence of her innate ability to understand his emotions, he was touched anew. It was a miracle. She was his miracle.
“I trust you, Davin. With my life.” She reached up and kissed him lightly on the lips. The walls around them seemed to come alive with a peculiar kind of glow. She eased back and looked around, clearly startled. “Where are we?” Her breathy voice conveyed her wonder.
The walls of the tunnel were spotted here and there with glowing crystals. Most were clear or a cloudy white, but some were golden and some a deep, rich purple, like amethyst. She realized a moment later, they were amethyst, and citrine and beautiful pure quartz crystals, and they were lit somehow from within.
“You feel no pain?” Davin was anxious, she could tell, but also felt a deep satisfaction with her rapt expression. Clearly, she realized, this place was important to him.
“I’m fine. But this place! Davin, it’s beautiful!” Her voice was pitched in low, almost reverent tones.
He smiled. “I’m glad you think so. It gets even better, but let me know if anything makes you uncomfortable. The next chamber would be dangerous for most of my kind to enter.”
“But why?” She moved to the end of the corridor where a dark opening loomed.
Davin held her elbow, guiding her. Their brief Kiss had lit up the raw crystal in the corridor sufficiently for them to see easily in the darkness of the tunnel.
“The chamber contains massive quantities of untuned crystal, which can be dangerous to my kind.”
She stopped short. “Is it dangerous to you? I don’t want you getting hurt beca
use of me, Davin.”
He pulled her in for a quick, reassuring hug that brought the Hum of crystal around him to a pleasant tone as he listened to its song.
“No, my heart. I am one of the few who can handle wild crystal. Every Alvian child is tested no matter their lineage, and those with even the slightest ability are trained as crystallographers. It’s an increasingly rare ability and I can say without conceit that I’m probably the best crystallographer my people have seen in generations. Only one or two of my colleagues would dare come into this chamber without protection and even then, they could only stay a short while.” He moved with her into the darkness of the chamber. He watched her carefully for any signs of distress while he attuned his own senses to the raw energy in the air.
“This is the safest place I know. And the most beautiful. I’ve longed to bring you here, to share this with you.”
He removed a small light from his pack and shined it around the chamber. The beam glinted off a myriad of sparkling surfaces sending out dark rainbows of shimmering light.
“Will these crystals glow like the ones in the corridor?”
Davin looked uncertain for a moment. “I believe so, but it could be risky.”
“How so?”
“That much unregulated energy… I’m not really sure what it could do. But we do need to conserve the light and I refuse to go another moment without kissing you.”
He pulled her into his arms, still near enough to the exit to make a dash outside if they needed to. This place was one of those rare, sacred spots—a natural resonance chamber. The crystal deposits in this chamber played in harmony with each other, in massive quantities that could easily kill an Alvian with less crystal talent than Davin possessed, by way of sensory overload. Davin was one of the rare few who could tame the wild crystal and live in harmony with it. He was perhaps the only Alvian on the planet so gifted. He knew he’d be safe here. But what of Callie? As his resonance mate, Davin was betting she vibrated on the same plane—that she’d be able to withstand the wild crystal harmony as easily as he. It was a risk, but she was so perfect for him in every other way, he’d stake his life—her life too—on her being compatible in this most basic of ways.
Callie laughed, distracting him, as did the Hum that sounded when he touched her, skin to skin. His senses were caught up in the wonder of her as he lowered his lips to touch hers in the sweetest kiss they’d yet shared. The chamber began to glow in waves of purple, gold and spots of dazzling white here and there, but he barely noticed. Only when she pulled back, looking around them in wonder did he realize the energy they’d created. The cave was studded on every surface with large shards of amethyst, citrine and clear quartz that sparkled at them with throbbing energy.
“We did that?” She sounded amazed by the idea.
Davin nodded, reaching down to lick her lips before rejoining their kiss. When he finally came up for air, the chamber was brighter, the various forms of quartz lit from within and beginning to resonate with the Hum they created. He stepped back and took note of the amazing reaction. Never before had he seen such an immediate reaction from raw crystal. It was as if it wanted to attune itself to them—to their Hum. Could this be the secret long lost to their people? Could mated pairs work crystal more efficiently together, as was hinted in the ancient texts?
“What causes the glow?” Callie clutched his arm as she stood beside him, taking in the wide expanse of glowing crystal.
“Our energies together cause the glow when we Kiss. The mingling of our energy causes our souls to resonate. The crystal reacts by shining from within, refracting our energy into visible and audible waves.”
“I can’t hear anything.”
He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her palm gently. “I can. Every time I touch you, we Hum. Mick said it’s outside the range of human hearing, but it is quite beautiful to my ear. It’s a sound I’ve waited all my life to hear. The most beautiful sound in my universe—the sound of my resonance mate, touching me.”
“Resonance mate? Truly?”
Davin pulled her further into the chamber since it appeared she was as safe as he was in the crystal cavern.
“You’re my mate, Callie. I knew it from the first moment I saw you. You were just fifteen then, and your family forbade me to even talk to you alone, but I knew. My soul recognized you. Especially on that last day, when I touched your hand and we Hummed. That gave me hope.”
“So that’s why they let you test me, even then.”
Davin nodded. “They took pity on me. Mick knew what it was like to have the woman you need be out of your reach. He recorded that first Hum so he could show the evidence to your mother and his brothers.”
“They knew.” She thought about that for a moment. “What other tests are there?”
“The Kiss is the second test.” He leaned in and kissed her sweetly on the lips once more, as if unable to resist. “I Kissed you that day by the barn, the second time I visited the ranch, remember? I knew you were the one, but I put a crystal on the fencepost and Mick and your mother saw it glow when we Kissed. I needed them to see the proof with their own eyes.”
“They saw that?” She blushed becomingly and he kissed her reddened cheeks tenderly.
“Yes, and it’s been torture waiting for you to get older so I could perform the final test and finally claim you as my own.”
“What’s the final test?” Her words were a nearly breathless sigh as she watched him.
“The Embrace. Callie, I’ve wanted to Embrace you—to take you in my arms, fit my body to yours and kiss you so deeply we wouldn’t know where you began and I ended. I’ve wanted it for so long.”
“So why didn’t you do it before? Why did you wait until now?”
“Your parents wanted me to wait, but with the threat to you, time has run out. They probably think you’re still too young, but I can’t wait any longer, Callie. The madness is creeping closer each day and I need you to be mine completely, to drive it away with your sweet Embrace.” He pulled her in closer.
“I’m here now, Davin, and I won’t leave you.”
He kissed her again, forcefully, sealing her promise with his kiss. He shrugged out of his shirt, pushing her jacket off her shoulders and down onto the ground a moment later. All the while, he kissed her, baring as much skin as he could so they might Embrace properly. When he was bare from the waist up and she wore only a tank top, he pulled her into his arms and fit her body to his.
She was made for him. He’d known it all along, but the feel of her lithe form against his hardness was enough to make him cry. Or drive him mad. Or save him from madness.
Yes, that’s what Callie was—his sanity in the chaos of this world. He blended their lips in the deepest Kiss they’d ever shared, allowing her to feel his rigid arousal against her softness. She squirmed and moaned in his embrace, music to his ears. As was the Hum that grew to surround them, reflecting off the untuned crystals all around and sheltering them in a cocoon of sound that soothed and protected.
Davin knew the crystals accepted them, though with any two other beings the results could have been alarmingly more dangerous. But it seemed the raw crystals merged with the resonances created by true mates, amplified it and sent it back to them, almost becoming part of them. It was a wondrous experience. Almost as wondrous as having Callie answer his Embrace with all the enthusiasm he could have wished for, and an eagerness that was extremely flattering.
He broke off, only peripherally aware of the brightness in the chamber. He opened his eyes to look and noted the bright sunny glow of the crystal. Here was proof beyond doubt, though he’d held little doubt in his heart after that Embrace. Callie was truly his—as he was hers. They were without question, resonance mates.
“I can never part from you again, Callie. We’ve passed all the tests. We are mates. All that’s left now is the Joining.”
“It’s so bright in here.” Her voice held awe as she looked at the shimmering show of crystal all around.
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“As bright as our hearts, Callie. We were meant to be together. To be friends and lovers for the rest of our lives. If I can find a way for us to be together.” Doubt crept into his mind as he realized they were in quite a bit of danger, resonance mates or not.
“Aside from Harry, you’re my best friend in the whole world, Davin.” She stroked his hair back from his face. “I trust you.”
Davin laughed at that. “I’ll try not to be jealous of your illustrious brother, but sweet, I can give you something your brother can never give you.”
She knew what he was talking about and it made her blush, but she couldn’t hide the eager smile in her eyes as she thought of what he was promising. She’d waited so long to discover the truth about making love. Harry had discussed the mechanics with her, but she wanted what her mother had. She wanted a man to love her and make love to her with his body, his mind and his heart.
And she felt all of that from Davin. She felt the emotions he wasn’t all that great at expressing verbally. She even felt the emotions he tried to hide. She knew he loved her and she loved him too. The years of long talks in the darkness and gentle words of sharing had bonded them together and now she was ready for the next step.
“I want everything you can give me, Davin. I love you with all my heart.”
He pulled her close and hugged her. “As I love you, my heart. I’ll try to be gentle, but I must have you now, or go completely insane.”
She could feel that too, from him. He was close to the edge of madness. The threat to her had shaken him badly, as had her very nearness. He needed her on a cellular level that went beyond emotion and physical need to something almost spiritual. He needed her in a way no other being had ever needed her and it touched her heart deeply.
“I don’t care what this first time is like. I know it’s going to hurt,” she said bravely, “but I don’t care. I want this. I want you, Davin. I need you. As much as you need me.” She shucked her clothes quickly as he watched, distracted, only half-sane. “I love you, Davin. Take me. Take me now.”
