PrimalDemand

by Rebecca Airies

  A thud drew her eyes to the shelves in the back. She frowned and eased back into the shadows of the shelves around her. She glanced behind her, half afraid that she’d find one of the monks sneaking up on her. Her muscles relaxed a little when she saw that she was still alone.

  Looking back, she saw two of the black-and-white-robed monks. Then she noticed they weren’t alone. Leah watched in horror as the monks carried the large warrior from the library. He hadn’t been looking at a shelf as she passed him. Why had they targeted him?

  A sick feeling churned in her stomach. She’d walked by the man not too long ago. Could this be my fault? She frowned as she wondered if one of the monks had noticed one of the books out of order or slightly sticking out on the shelf.

  She bit her lip as the last monk left the library following those hauling the man through the streets. She knew some of the texts she’d used were important to them. It wouldn’t have taken much and the suspicion would be enough.

  The man hadn’t even had a book in his hand when she passed him. In fact, he’d looked a little lost. That could have been because he seemed so out of place here. The muscled, tattooed warrior seemed odd in this setting.

  She just didn’t know and her conscience pulled at her. He could have already been targeted by the monks before she encountered him. It was always a possibility. They took single warriors at times and dosed them with the drug that blocked their memory. Without any memory, the warriors became loyal to those who’d “rescued” them. It was how they held and protected their cities and outposts.

  But she had passed him after she’d slipped the books hurriedly back into the shelves. The monk had no idea she’d even been there, she’d glimpsed him as he was walking away from her and hurried to get away from the area. She knew the monks were dangerous, but hadn’t thought anyone else would be in danger while she was searching for what she needed.

  Her mind and conscience pulled her in different directions. She needed to move and get to the closest of those monasteries, but guilt gnawed at her. It could be her fault. As much as she needed to find her sister, she couldn’t let another person go through that mind-destroying drug on account of her actions. She grimaced and left the library.

  She knew where they’d take him, downriver to the more secure city near the monastery. The drug they used would probably last that long. When he woke, the monks would force the Tares potion down his throat and then leave. Sometime later, he’d be freed by warriors under the guise of rescuing him.

  She had to get to him before they did that. Once they’d placed him among the other soldiers under their control, it would be almost impossible to get to him.

  Chapter Two

  Arron, focus. I need you to stay calm and listen to me. Tell me where you are. What’s happened to you?

  Arron blinked, tilting his head. The calm voice eased a little of the panic rushing through him. He knew the words didn’t come from anyone around him. The only person close to him was a woman in a similar position.

  Anxiety still rolled through him. Manacles encircled his wrists, securing his hands above his head. His back pressed against the thick pole to which the manacles were secured. He couldn’t reach the hook where the chain connecting the cuffs hung even when he stretched to his full height.

  Midday sun beat down on him. People walked by him and the woman as if nothing were strange about two people being almost hung by their wrists. The area around him was open but cobbled, and he saw buildings on at least three sides of the square. He didn’t see any armed guards, but someone had to be watching them.

  He knew almost nothing. What memories he had seemed to be fading with every breath. Why was he here? Had he done something wrong? What had happened and what was wrong with his mind?

  Arron! Answer me. The voice sharpened, slicing through the exhaustion and confusion.

  The deep, male voice rumbled in his head. He should know that voice. He felt a recognition that seemed to be instinctual. Whenever he tried to think of who that was, memories seemed to slip away from him as if they were leaves pulled down a river by a strong current. A deep lassitude swept through him making it even harder to think. He drifted, letting his eyes close.

  How? How am I supposed to answer a voice? Arron didn’t even know where the voice was coming from, much less who was talking to him.

  Like that Arron. Just focus on me, the voice responded. Where are you?

  A city, chained to a pole. Arron couldn’t remember why he’d be chained to anything. He couldn’t even remember how he came to be here. He’d simply woken chained with memories fading away. He wasn’t even sure his name was Arron. Only this voice gave him that reference.

  Do you know which city? The deep male voice sounded urgent.

  No. Arron frowned and tried to remember, but met with nothing. Fleeting images flickered through his mind. He couldn’t connect them with anything he knew. Almost as soon as the images appeared though, they were gone and he couldn’t draw them back.

  Arron, we know where you last were. We’ll find you. Remember my name. I’m Raven and I’ll be coming to get you. The voice seemed urgent.

  I’ll remember. You’re coming to get me. Arron felt his consciousness fading again as the exhaustion swept over him in a wave.

  * * * * *

  Arron’s heart slammed in his chest as he felt hands on his arm. He jerked in surprise. His foot lashed out, but was jerked short of hitting anything by the chain attached to the manacles at his feet.

  Confusion and nervousness swept through him. Darkness surrounded him, but he wasn’t alone any longer. He wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

  “He had to be a giant.” The female voice was soft, but carried more than a hint of annoyance.

  A soft, feminine body pressed against his side. He felt only her curves, no weapons. Her body stretched against his and soft fingers touched his arm. The manacle at his wrist turned a little. Smooth skin brushed his hand and he heard a light scratching before the metal bracelet fell from his wrist, freeing it.

  He wanted to know who this was, but saw only a blurry shadow. His eyes burned and he squinted and blinked trying to get rid of the gritty, stinging feeling. The irritation faded slowly.

  He looked down and saw a woman with dark hair. In the light from the moon, he couldn’t tell what shade it was. Did he know her? He frowned and resisted the urge to shake his head. The question probably should be the other way around. He wouldn’t recognize her now. He couldn’t even remember yesterday.

  She moved around him and began to work on the other manacle.

  “Who…” He kept his voice low.

  Her scent drifted up to him as she moved on to the metal enclosing his ankles. He tensed as a wave of lust slammed through his body. He wanted to grab her, strip those pants down her legs and take her against the nearest wall.

  She was his. The urge to fuck her pulled at him, but this wasn’t a safe place. Some deeply protective part of him quickly negated the idea. He wasn’t sure who did this, why or where they were. There could be guards close or watching. She could get hurt.

  Lust pounded through his body, hardening his cock, but there was more. A confusing mix of thoughts and feelings ran through his mind. He needed to keep her safe and knew that she should probably be anywhere but close to him. At the same time, he couldn’t think of her being anywhere but with him. He couldn’t lose her. Part of him wanted to grab her and haul her close.

  “Shh… We can’t talk here.” She pressed close. Her voice was the barest whisper. “Come with me.”

  He looked around the area. The female who’d been chained to the other pole was gone. Had the woman already freed her? Why was this person freeing him? The questions seemed never ending and he had no way to answer them at the moment.

  The woman took his hand. She urged him away from the pole and down the street. Moving down the middle of the street, she walked in the flickering glow of the lights from the occasional lantern. He pulled her to the darkest side, keeping t
hem in shadow as much as possible.

  She led the way out of the city and into the forest. He was wondering if she knew where she was going when she stopped in a grouping of trees. A pack and a large pouch rested against a tree. She knelt beside the pack and drew a bottle from it as well as a small metal cup. She poured some liquid into the cup before turning to him.

  “Please drink this.” She held it out to him.

  He stared at the cup. What is that? “Why?”

  “It will help you. Please, we have to go soon.” She held the cup closer to him.

  What is what? The male voice, Raven’s voice, came to him again.

  Arron remembered Raven’s voice and name from earlier. It was almost the only thing that he did know.

  Something in a cup. A woman is offering me something in a cup. She freed me and got me out of the city. Now she’s holding out a cup. He didn’t know why he trusted the male voice, but he did.

  She freed you? Why? Has she said? Raven asked.

  We just got out of the city. I’ll ask. He locked eyes with the woman. “Why did you help me?”

  She grimaced and looked down at her feet for a moment before meeting his eyes again. “I think I’m the reason you were taken and dosed with the drug that took your memory. I passed you in the library in Osput, the city you were taken from. I’d just put back some of the books, but I saw some of the Tareshi monks nearby.”

  “The monks.” He frowned as he heard a little fear in her voice. He tried to think of why he’d be in a library and what she’d have to fear from monks.

  Well? What did she say? Raven asked.

  Arron really wanted to know more about the man who seemed to be connected to his mind. The first thing was how that came to be. He got the sense that the man expected an answer. Maybe he was the leader.

  She said that she thinks she’s the reason I was drugged and taken from the city. I haven’t gotten the complete answer yet, but we were in the same library. She saw me and then some monks. I think she’s afraid of the monks. Arron took a deep breath. Her scent filled him. Every inhale heightened the urge to protect her and take her away from the danger. He didn’t know where it was or who had chained him to the pole.

  The monks are the reason you were there. You were checking the city because we’d traced rumors of disappearances to that planet. The monks are behind the disappearances and what happened to your memory, Raven explained.

  That did make her fear a little easier to understand. “You were afraid the monks would see you with the books?”

  “One of the books. I might not have put it back right. Since we were both in the same area, they might have thought you did it.” She bit her lip. “Please drink this. It will help you get back what you lost.”

  He looked at the cup in her hand. Part of him saw no reason not to trust her. That same deep, primal part that insisted he keep her with him, that he stay with her. But he hesitated as caution held him back. He didn’t know her. His mind was almost completely blank. He remembered only what Raven had told him.

  “I’m Arron. What’s your name?” He wanted to know as much as possible about her, but her name was a start.

  “Leah Charmea. I didn’t get you free only to poison you. Here. Does this reassure you?” She took a drink from the cup.

  “It will help with my memory?” He reached for the cup. He’d like to remember what he was doing, who he was, and why he trusted Raven so much.

  “Yes, it will take time, but for the short time you were under the potion’s effects, it should only take one dose to release them.” She smiled as he took the cup from her.

  He took a sip from it. Although he couldn’t see what it looked like, it smelled tangy with herbs and had the distinct bite of alcohol. He took another sip.

  “You need to drink it all. Then we need to get going. You’ll sleep soon and while you’re asleep, some of your memories will return.” She waited as he drank the mix in the cup. “We’ll travel downriver together and when your memory returns, you can go your own way.”

  “What were you doing there?” He waited as she pulled the pack onto her shoulders. She had no weapon that he could see. Not even a knife.

  “Looking for a few specific books so that I can find the locations of their main monasteries and then find my sister.” She led the way.

  “The monks took your sister?” He understood now why she’d been there.

  He’d want to find his sister or brother if they were taken. He frowned. Do I have a brother or sister? He wondered if Raven would hear that question, but no answer was forthcoming.

  “Nothing that simple. We’re almost there.” She kept walking.

  Even he realized that she didn’t want to talk about what happened with her sister. Slowly, a wave of exhaustion crept over him. He couldn’t focus on what he needed to ask her and she was resistant. Not that he’d let that be the end of the discussion. He was pulled to her too strongly.

  Without a doubt, he wasn’t walking away from her. Whatever she was involved in, he’d be involved in as well. He was going to know exactly what she planned and what happened to send her on this journey. If there was danger following her, he wanted to know about it before it found her.

  She stopped near the edge of the river and pulled some leafy branches away, revealing a long, thin boat. A few packs rested in the bottom of the vessel as well as two paddles. He shook his head. She’d left her things there for anyone to take or find.

  “You’d better get in the boat before you go to sleep standing up.” She gestured to one of the seats at the end and tossed the bag she carried in as well.

  “I’ll want to know more about why they’d do this to me over a book.” He took a seat in the boat.

  She nodded and smiled at him. As she pushed the boat away from the riverbank, she stepped into the boat and picked up one of the paddles. Just as he was thinking he should get up and help her paddle, the lassitude hit hard and he slumped backward, sliding into the bottom of the boat.

  Chapter Three

  Leah paddled the boat and looked at the man sprawled at the other end of the canoe. She was glad to be away from Tyrse. The city was filled with monks, their warriors and people loyal to them. Those monks controlled that city.

  The sun had risen over the treetops some time ago. Now she could see him clearly. He was every bit as disturbingly attractive as she’d thought. She tilted her head as she studied him. He definitely wasn’t the same as most men. The funny thing was he reminded her of the man who’d been courting her sister Fae.

  Not that they looked the same, outside of being extraordinarily muscular and tall. Fae’s man had some kind of tattoo or birthmarks on his face. All of the men with him had it, so she suspected those splotches had been inked on. No, it was something about their attitude or bearing. Arron had that same wild essence and arrogance even though his memories were gone. She had a feeling he’d be even more so when his memory returned.

  She had changed her plans to go get him. The detour to Tyrse had cost her two days, but there hadn’t been much of a choice. She knew what they’d do to him. She couldn’t let them turn him into one of their guards when it might be her fault they’d targeted him.

  Now, she had to get back to her search for her sister. Not that she even knew where specifically to look for Fae, but she needed to keep moving. Leah suspected that her brothers would follow her when they discovered she was gone. They wouldn’t let the knowledge she held slip away from them. Not after they’d already handed Fae over to those monks when she refused to cooperate with them.

  Arron should wake up soon. She didn’t know how he remembered his name. Maybe that was what the priests had decided to call him. No one knew much about how or when they started feeding their captives information. It might start soon after they administered the Tares potion.

  That drug they used blocked all knowledge of the past, providing an almost complete loss of memory. Only skills and physical abilities remained. The monks could then tell the person what
they wanted them to believe. Even after the drug stopped being administered, the effects lingered. Memories wouldn’t return on their own.

  How that memory block remained for so long was a mystery. Her father had never been able to explain that persistence, other than there must be some kind of residual trace of the drug left in the body.

  It was a perfect way for those monks to acquire the men they used to protect their monasteries and cities and fatten their pockets by taking those people others wanted out of the way. The monks didn’t stop there. They took money to remove specific people.

  They’d done that to her sister. Someone had come to their isolated little mountain village and stolen her as she worked in their garden. Leah knew that her mother and brothers had been aware of it, if not behind it.

  Her brothers only cared about their warrior clan and power. Her mother wanted anything that would bring her a higher position within their village. They all wanted to give their warrior clan the knowledge of how to counteract the Tares potion. She had no idea if it was the clan leader’s idea or her family’s idea. It didn’t matter though.

  Fae had refused to go along with their plans. So they’d gotten rid of her. Leah had no idea what they intended to do when she refused. There was no way she was going to marry one of the warriors from their clan.

  She wasn’t giving them what they wanted. Her father had kept separate from the village and warrior clans for a reason. Their behavior and that of the warrior clan only reinforced that the decision had been right.

  She tilted her head and looked at Arron as thoughts swirled through her mind. He was obviously a warrior, but she didn’t know what he’d been doing in that library. Was he looking for someone or searching for knowledge? Why was he alone there? Warriors hardly ever traveled alone, yet she hadn’t seen another man like him in the city. She’d been watching him since before sunset and hadn’t noticed anyone trying to get to him.