“Enough, Eluria,” Gavrielle interjected forcefully. “My husband would not have wanted you to carry the weight of this guilt. He admired you for your strength. You are not responsible for your father’s actions. You have suffered through the years as well.”
Kierra knew Eluria felt responsible for Devon having been made an Enforcer. Her father, Commander Clorial Zydon, had sought to bargain her purity with Union to the son of Commander Odon. He had added Devon’s name at the last minute for induction as an Enforcer in an attempt to thwart any relationship between Devon and Eluria.
Eluria had discovered his plan and left to become a Twilight Companion, paid for sexual companionship, thereby destroying her value as a pure Maigen to her father. From that point on, Eluria had vowed to return Devon to his family.
Their own father, Taeryl, had become involved in the rebellion after Devon had been taken, and was assassinated by an Enforcer. Gavrielle escaped with Alekos, their brother, but Kierra was arrested and placed into bondage.
Without Eluria’s determination they probably all would have perished, yet they were together, here in this room, thanks to her.
Kierra took a step forward. “We will win this battle. Look what we’ve already accomplished. Discovering the antidote to the Nanus process will make the difference. It’s already brought Devon back to us. Without you, Eluria, none of this would have been possible.”
“I have done little,” Eluria denied. “You are part of the team that created the miracle of the antidote. How is Daelyn Kapri responding, by the way? Do there seem to be any adverse side effects?”
“None that we’ve encountered so far. She seems to be responding well. We’ve been able to control the flood of emotions as they returned. Dr. Xander has been helping her with the memories. I don’t believe it’s caused her as much pain as you say Devon experienced.”
“We won’t need that many Enforcers to gain access to the Nanus facility,” Jarek said. “We’ve managed to tap into the Nanus computer system and have downloaded the list of Enforcers. Devon has agreed to go through the list to identify the strongest prospects to focus on first. As an Elite, he also has a good sense of which sectors they work in.”
“Enough talk of the rebellion,” Gavrielle stepped forward, hands raised. “We are a family reunited, we must celebrate and be thankful to Guardian for bringing us together once again.”
“You are right, Mother,” Kierra turned back to Devon. “And I am most thankful you’ve been returned to us, Devon. And that you and Eluria have found each other again.” She looked at Eluria and a little of the old Kierra couldn’t help but break free as good memories took over. “Didn’t I tell you that I thought you and Devon were made for each other?”
Eluria laughed. “Not exactly. As I recall, what you said was that Devon and I deserved each other. And I don’t remember you were in a particularly complimentary mood at the time.”
For the first time in years, Kierra laughed with a warmth rooted in true happiness and something within her changed. It was the laughter born of good memories, of shared camaraderie, of innocent youth. “You had just put a huge snag in my very expensive, brand new gold overdress trying to impress him, as I recall. I hadn’t even had a chance to wear it yet.”
Gavrielle shooed them all into the dining room. The warm energy in the room surrounded Kierra, just as Jarek’s soothing colors often did. It was a healing, long needed and long overdue, and Kierra felt it spread through her. She looked around at the people present and felt an overwhelming thankfulness that they were together.
As they sat at the oval glass table, another emotion surged within Kierra. It came from the power of healing. She looked at Jarek and tentatively reached out. He met her gaze, but didn’t move. She felt his stillness. His hand lay on the table, and she knew it would be warm, pulsing with life. She’d felt so cold for so long without the touch of another.
Being here with her family gave her a sense of courage and renewal she’d thought lost to her. Tentatively, she lowered her hand, felt the heat surge through her. A silent waiting lingered in the room, an expectancy. And then she lowered her hand and touched him.
An echo of pain rippled up her arm, but the pleasurable warmth soon overpowered the twinges. Jarek tried to remove his hand—she knew he’d surmised the pain—but she shook her head. The discomfort turned to a dull ache, but the energy of the touch mastered it.
Kierra looked into his eyes. “Soon,” she whispered.
Jarek’s soothing colors washed through her mind. “I can wait,” echoed through her thoughts. “You’re more than worth waiting for. Your healing has begun.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Two weeks after the family dinner, Kierra sat before the microreader again. She’d promised Eluria she would find a way to break down the Nanus process that was used to prevent conception in the Twilight Companions.
At the time Eluria had become a Companion, she’d held no hope of ever obtaining Union with Devon. She’d therefore agreed to the alteration made to all Twilighters. She confided to Kierra how devastated she was to not be able to offer Devon hope of Beyond through conception. As often as Devon assured her it didn’t matter, it bothered her. Eluria wanted to hold his child—one they had created together with their love.
Kierra wanted that for her. Eluria didn’t deserve to be punished for her dedication to returning Devon, and so Kierra had assured Eluria she would attempt to find an antidote. She was close; she was sure of it.
She thought back to the dinner with her family and the breakthrough she felt she’d made. To touch Jarek was an unexpected, pleasant surprise.
It felt as though in accepting Devon she had breached some of the impotent rage she held in her nightmare memories. It was a small step.
Healing. It was like standing beneath the gentle rain of a warm season, washing the pain away. The next night she’d reached out for him again. He never attempted to touch her, but simply waited for her to initiate.
The simple strength of his palm against hers, his heated energy mingling with hers, made her seek more.
It was difficult for Jarek, she felt it in his mind, the iron control he maintained on his desire to hold her, to seal with her. The twinges of pain she experienced were less and less.
Soon. Soon the time would come when she would seal with him, not only in his way of the thoughtwalk, as he termed it, but in the physical sense as well.
Each time she saw Devon it was a little easier to see her brother and not the Enforcer. They were all thankful he hadn’t been trained by Odon. Odon warped those he came in contact with. She had been changed by what he’d done.
Jarek had come away altered as well. Instinct told her he hid the full import of that change well away from her. Every now and then she came close to breaching the barrier, but she felt an unusual fear inside him and immediately the barrier would strengthen. What was it that he could possibly fear so much?
Shaking her head, she attempted to clear her thoughts. Her lips curved in a smile as she thought of the night before.
She and Jarek had been alone in her apartments. They’d sat cross-legged on the floor, facing each other. He called it a game of physical quest. One designed just for them.
When he removed his shirt, his broad, solid chest was exposed to her. Ebony, curling hairs thickly splayed across the sculpted surface of a solid contour of deep, sun-kissed flesh, teasing her. His dark brown nipples, beaded hard, beckoned her touch.
His green eyes had glowed like when they were in thoughtwalk, an intense, vibrating florescent gleam of passion.
Her own sexual radiance began to emanate, a deep, rich green cloak of color moving outward to enclose them both in preparation.
His mind reached for her, multitudes of color traveling along the slim silver thread that bound them.
“Touch me.” His voice was a thick, rich cream, enticing her.
Extending a tentative hand, her palm flattened against his pecs, the muscle quivered and tightened beneath her tou
ch. His colors stroked her mind, as she stroked his body.
A quiver of pain echoed along her arm and into her chest.
“Do you wish to stop?” he’d asked, feeling the same vibrations run through her with his mind. She couldn’t break eye contact with him and, instead, simply shook her head.
Her other hand rose to his chest, flattened, and they simply stayed that way for long moments as she let the knowledge of his heat and energy merge and pass through her.
The colors of his essence soothed her, stroked through her mind, settled her within a cocoon of pleasure. She caressed his chest, swirled her thumbs over tight, hard nipples, liked the feeling and an answering response surged in her physical body. Swirling fire entered her stomach and veered downward. Her shax released what seemed to be a liquid fire of pure need, and her radiance shimmered brightly. Her breath quickened.
“I want to seal with you, Jarek.”
“Not yet, na nivia. You’ve only just begun to heal. I would do nothing to cause you pain. We will go slowly.”
All these years he’d been so patient with her. Yet he’d always had faith her spirit and her body would mend.
She felt the glimmer of unshed tears in her eyes. “I love you, Jarek.” His fingers spasmed against his thighs.
“Touch me, Jarek. We can move slowly, but I need you to touch me.”
He raised a hand and placed it lightly over one of hers. She felt a tingle, like an ache, but not quite the same, more a throb of acknowledgment. The sensation was one of excited awareness, the shade of pain was consumed by the pleasure.
“Jarek,” she whispered.
Carefully, he rested his other hand over hers. “I have waited for this moment, dreamed of it.”
The air around them was scented with arousal, hers as well as his, an awareness of need. They sat like that for long moments, as Jarek entered her mind and guided her to sanctuary—a place of safety where his colors would slide through her, pleasuring her in the ways of a Serdionese mindwanderer. Slender shafts stroked her, eased her, teased Kierra, until wave after wave of his passion colors consumed her.
Later, when Kierra returned to awareness, she’d been shocked to discover her nails had dug deep gashes into Jarek’s chest. She’d been horrified, but he’d smiled.
“I have many scars, sweet Kierra. But these will always bring pleasant memories—reminding me of you. Soon, Kierra, I promise you, we will seal in the ways of your people.”
Although Kierra had protested, he had left her with that promise. For the first time, she’d asked Jarek to stay, but he’d refused, telling her his strength could only last so long. And then as she’d held her breath, Jarek had leaned down and lightly glanced a kiss across her lips.
It wasn’t pain that coursed through her, but pleasure. A knowledge of desire Kierra had thought destroyed forever by Odon and his Enforcers.
And then he was gone before she could protest further. She’d floated back to solid ground. The shadow that always hung over her had, for once, disappeared. Kierra would be with Jarek as she was always meant to be. Her lips curved in a smile. Sooner than he expected.
She blinked, trying to focus on the combinations of numbers passing before her on the microreader. She would see Jarek later, but right now Eluria needed her to concentrate and find an answer to her problem.
“Kierra.”
She blinked and looked up when she heard her name. “Eluria, what are you doing here?” There was a tense, closed look about her. “What’s wrong?”
“Come with me, Kierra. Hurry. Something’s happened, but I don’t want to discuss it here.”
Quickly, Kierra slid from the stool, shed the white lab coat, and followed Eluria from the lab. When she entered the conference room, her heart stuttered as she looked around. She clutched a fist to her chest in an attempt to control the rapid beats.
“Where’s Jarek, Eluria? What’s happened to him?” Kierra closed her eyes and concentrated, attempting to follow the thread that bound them. It stretched too far, wherever he’d gone was beyond communication. “Jarek,” she gasped.
Eluria pulled a chair out from the table. “Sit down, Kierra, please, and we’ll explain.”
Kierra dropped to the offered chair and turned her gaze on Devon. “Where is he? Tell me now.”
Once she sat, Devon also sat in the chair across from her. “We received a communication from one of our patrols. They’d been attacked and their ship disabled. It was supposed to be a quick mission to retrieve the patrol, and return to Ednos. Jarek was the only one available to lead the mission.”
“And?”
Devon heaved a heavy sigh and ran a hand across his brow. “They were ambushed and from what we can determine, Jarek was captured.”
“Where is he now?” she whispered.
Eluria reached out, hesitated, then lay a hand across Kierra’s. A tremor passed through her at the unfamiliar sensation.
“Kierra,” she said quietly, “it was Odon’s Enforcers who captured him.”
“Symion, no!” Kierra jumped from her chair. A sense of horror raced through her. “Not Odon.” A desolate calmness followed, as the reality of Jarek’s capture seeped through her. She knew what she must do. It was as though fate had played this hand.
Her gaze crept back to Devon. “When do we leave?” There was a quiet determination she hoped he understood.
“You’re going nowhere, Kierra,” Devon said.
“Yes. I am. You will not leave Ednos without me.”
“I will not be responsible for taking you anywhere near Odon. If Jarek thought I’d brought you to that compound, he’d beat us both.”
“Well, let him try. Once we’ve found him. I will not rest until Jarek is rescued. And you will not go without me. Once we’re on Argadia, I have a chance of reaching him through the thoughtwalk. You won’t find him without me. You know that.”
“Kierra—”
“It’s settled. No more discussion. If you don’t take me, I’ll just hijack a solo ship. But I will go after him. With your help or without it.”
She and Devon glared at each other across the table.
“Enough,” Eluria finally broke in. “We’ll have to take her with us, Devon, or she’ll try something stupid. We don’t have time to argue.”
Kierra saw surprise register on his face. “Eluria, you are not coming on this mission.”
“Oh, like you can stop me? You can’t possibly have thought I was letting you go alone.”
“I would not be alone. I have a team ready, remember?”
“Forget it. You are my taman.”
“And as such, you will listen to me.”
Eluria drew herself up to her full height, faced him with hands on her hips, chin jutted. “I’ve told you before, I can take care of myself. You keep forgetting that.”
“Female, you try my patience.” His anger included both of them, then his glance slid upward. “Mylonna, why have I been saddled with two such stubborn females?”
“You’re stuck with us, brother. How soon before we leave?”
He heaved another deep sigh. “Meet me on the flight deck in one hour. If you’re not there, I leave without you.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be there.”
“I should just have you both confined until I return.”
“It wouldn’t work and you know it. I’ll see you in an hour.” Kierra turned and left the conference room before Devon could say anything further.
As she walked down the corridor, instinctively she again reached for Jarek. He lived. She knew he was alive or the thread would have been severed.
If she stopped to think about the fact that he was again in Odon’s hands, pure terror would overtake her and render her worthless in locating him. She could not retreat into her secret place, Jarek needed her to be strong.
Odon must be stopped. She’d come full circle to the source of her pain. She should have known she would be forced to face her greatest fear before she would be allowed to move on. One did n
ot heal without lancing the wound and draining the infection. And Odon was indeed the infection. Not only to her, but to all of Argadia.
She also knew Odon would anticipate their attempt to rescue Jarek and most likely increase the guard. They had escaped once; Odon would try to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. If Devon could get them inside the compound, then Kierra could lead them to Jarek. He would keep Jarek alive just to tempt them. But what condition would he be in when they found him? Odon’s specialty was torture and he knew just how to do it, yet keep his victim alive. He had twisted and destroyed more minds than Kierra cared to think about.
“Live, Jarek. Don’t let Odon defeat you after everything. Live.”
CHAPTER SIX
His hands were bound above his head, his legs shackled in metal bands. A wound to his head seeped blood down the side of his face, and discoloring was evident along the expanse of his chest. Trying to breath was not a pleasant experience.
Jarek had flown into a trap. The patrol he’d been sent to rescue were all dead. It was Odon who’d sent the message requesting help, using the communication system of the downed Freelion ship. By the time Jarek had realized their situation, they were surrounded by Odon’s Enforcers as they attempted to disable his ship. Their retreat was cut off.
Even accepting they wouldn’t have a chance to escape alive, Jarek had fought, knowing that if Odon captured them, they were all dead anyway. Just like the patrol they’d been sent to rescue.
His one regret was leaving Kierra behind and that he hadn’t taken the time to go to her before departing—possibly to touch her once more. But he’d expected it to be a short and simple mission and that he’d soon return before she discovered he’d even left.
An explosion had rocked the command deck, he’d been slammed against a console, knocking him out. He’d woken here, locked securely in the shackles he remembered so well, the hated bondage collar enclosing his neck.
Kierra's Thread (Argadian Heart Trilogy Book 2) Page 4
