by Kate Rudolph
“He’s stressed,” Linda offered. Her shoulders sagged back against the couch. “He’s running for the state assembly this fall. Lots of work to do. And he’s worried that his name will get dragged through the mud over Wyr—over this unfortunate incident.”
If Linda wasn’t going to abide by her husband’s ‘no talking’ edict, there was no way Amy would. “Was it his idea to come here?”
A laugh burst out of Linda. “Heavens no! He had a barbecue competition with several friends he was hoping to make it to. He even brought all his tools hoping he could sneak away early. But when I suggested that it might be a good idea to meet his constituents, that there would be an opportunity to get his face on the media sites… well, then he saw reason.”
“I can’t say that you strike me as the outdoorsy type.” Amy gave a pointed glance at Linda’s heels.
Linda shrugged. “Perhaps not. But who doesn’t like fresh air?”
“And that’s why you wanted to come? Fresh air?” She could see that Linda wanted to say more, but Peter’s voice got loud outside and she shrank back into herself. Then it got fainter and he seemed to be walking away.
“His campaign manager asks a lot of him,” she said. “He probably needs to get to a holo viewer for the call. There’s one in our room.”
“Does the campaign take a lot of his time?” Amy asked.
And Linda crumpled. “You know, don’t you?”
“About your affair with Captain NaPyrsee?” She wasn’t sure, but Linda’s reaction to the question cinched it.
She burst out crying, wracking sobs that had her curling in on herself as if she could hide the pain away. “I loved him!”
“I’m sorry for your loss, Linda, but I need you to be honest with me. Does your husband know?” Given that the woman hadn’t talked until Peter left, Amy thought it was a no, which was confirmed by a shake of Linda’s head. “Were you purposefully meeting the captain that night? Not just out for a walk, like you said?”
“Yes,” she said in a reedy whisper. “I was supposed to meet him at 12:30 but I was so excited I left early.”
“And was he alive when you arrived?”
“No.” She sat back up on the couch and had managed to stem the flow of tears. “I arrived a little before midnight. Then I saw that other Detyen, not NaMasee, the gold one. I saw him walk up and approach Wyrstin. He was already on the ground. NaMasee showed up a minute or so later.”
“Then why did you scream?”
“The man I love was dead! Wouldn’t you?” She breathed deep and gripped the couch cushion as if it would offer comfort.
“When was the last time you saw the captain alive?” Gears were turning in Amy’s head, a new theory forming, and she was relieved to finally have a witness statement that seemed to exonerate Doryan.
“At dinner.”
“How long had the affair been going on?”
“About six months. We met at a gala for the Detyen Legion and things just… happened.” A small smile graced her lips. “He treated me like…”
Footsteps stomped up the stairs outside and Linda’s face went blank. She desperately wiped at her tears but there was no way of hiding that she’d been crying. Peter opened the door and his eyes narrowed on his wife, then his gaze snapped to Amy. “What did you do to her?” He took a menacing step in her direction.
“Peter, stop,” said Linda, and Amy was surprised that he did. “This is a trying time, but Ms. Dalisay didn’t do anything. I just… it’s hard to think about last night.” She shuddered.
He was turned away, but whatever expression he was wearing didn’t seem to concern Linda. “We’re done here,” he said.
“I’d really like to speak to you, Mr. Marino.”
Now he turned around. “You can speak to my lawyer. We’ve cooperated enough.”
Yes. They had.
The Marinos left and passed Reikal on the way out. He glanced at them and made a face. Amy had to turn away to keep from grinning. “Please take a seat,” she told him.
This was going to be a long day.
DORYAN’S BLOOD HUMMED and he felt the urge to move. He’d spent hours sitting in the kitchen, listening to the muffled voices coming from the other room. Voices that sometimes got loud, threatening. He didn’t like it. He didn’t want people talking to Amy that way.
He was going mad.
If he was a better man he would have marched up to NaMasee and requested retirement right then and there. He couldn’t trust himself, didn’t know if he would deteriorate. It would be better for everyone if he wasn’t a threat.
But if he wasn’t there, who would protect Amy?
After they grabbed a quick dinner, they headed back to her cabin long after sundown. A glance at the clock once they got inside showed him it was close to nine, getting close to an entire day since the murder had taken place. Doryan’s mind reeled with everything he’d heard, but he was no investigator. Amy could pull the pieces together to solve the mystery, he had complete faith in her, but it had been a long day and she needed to rest. Tomorrow would be just as long.
Once they got back to her place, she closed the door and sank back against it, shucking her shoes and jacket off and closing her eyes. She looked exhausted.
“You should sleep,” Doryan said. He didn’t know where this urge to protect her came from, but he wouldn’t resist it. Not when she so clearly needed tending.
Amy pushed off the door and shook her head. “Plenty more thinking time tonight,” she said. “I’ll sleep when we know who killed NaPyrsee.”
He wanted to insist. Wanted to push her towards her room and press her into the bed until she agreed with him. A flash of heat went through him and Doryan realized the want might go deeper than that. He forced himself to ignore it.
“Then how can I help you?” he asked.
“You heard the interviews?” She took a seat at the counter in her kitchen area and pulled out her notes. Some of them were on paper, others appeared on the holodisplay from her comm.
Doryan walked up behind her but he didn’t take a seat. He could see the way that tension tightened all the way up and down her spine. It had to hurt. “Yes, I heard.”
“Any of them stand out to you?”
He was still caught looking at the exposed strip of skin along her neck and shoulder. He had to blink to refocus. “Not particularly. Reikal did not strike me as the murderous type, if that’s any help. Nor did Joaquin or Nicole.”
Amy rested her head in her hands. “Yeah, that’s about where I am too. What’s your take on the lieutenant—” she sighed. “I really shouldn’t be talking to you like this. You’re technically a suspect.”
He ran his fingers over her shoulder and she shivered. “We both know I didn’t do it. You’re all tense. Can I at least help you with this?”
“How?” She sounded doubtful.
“Just a massage to work out the tension.” Now that his hand was on her he couldn’t pull away. He wanted to rip away at her shirt so he could feel the softness of her skin, but that was too extreme. He’d settle for this.
Amy took a deep breath, as if she had to think hard about his offer, but in the end she agreed. “Okay.”
Doryan started slowly, getting her used to his touch and savoring the feel of her heat under him. “I never took NaMasee for the murderous type,” he said as he worked his hands from side to side. He found a particularly nasty knot and took his time to loosen it. “We rarely worked together, but from what I remember of his reputation he’s well-respected.”
“You say this… ohhh!” Her moan cut through the air and went straight through his body. “You’re good at that.” She rolled her neck a little to give him better access. “You say this of a man who’s hellbent on killing you.”
“It’s different,” Doryan insisted. “A soulless warrior is only useful for so long.”
She glanced over her shoulder, but the angle was wrong to read her expression. As if he could even if he tried. “A person is more than th
eir usefulness.”
“Not the soulless.”
They lapsed into silence and Doryan continued to work. As his fingers smoothed over her skin, she loosened under him, letting out little sounds that threatened his equilibrium. He was fooling himself to believe that he felt nothing in this moment. That should have made him walk away, but her skin called to him, overriding his sense.
Every time he teased her exposed skin a ripple of pain tore through him, but the more he did it, the more he craved it. He was being excavated, something torn out from inside of him and exposed to the surface after years buried deep.
He leaned in and brushed his lips against her neck, no longer able to resist the tender flesh. The pain intensified, but not enough to make him back away. The only thing that could make him stop was Amy. And she tilted her head even further to the side with a sighed out, “yes.”
His hands rested on her shoulders and his tongue darted out for a taste of its own. Then his lips closed in again, trailing their way down from her jaw to her collar bone. The pain was nothing, not in the face of getting to touch this glorious woman.
Amy shifted on the stool, turning to face him. Their eyes locked for a frozen second and he didn’t know what she saw in him, but her hand crept around his neck and she pulled him close until her lips closed over his.
There was no interruption this time, nothing to stop this inevitable joining.
If he’d thought the pain was bad before, he’d been in deep denial. He had to squeeze his eyes against it now and he ripped his arms away from Amy to keep from clutching her too tight, but he didn’t pull his face back.
It hurt, but he let himself sink into the pain. He’d become one with it if it meant he could keep her forever.
He couldn’t want this. Couldn’t need this. But she was branded on the soul he’d sacrificed years ago.
She pulled back and the only sounds in the cabin were the sounds of their heavy breathing.
Doryan opened his eyes and recognition ripped through him.
Denya.
The thing he’d thought impossible. The thing he’d known had to be true. It was her.
Chapter Nine
AMY NEEDED TO GET OFF her stool and out of Doryan’s arms. Or she needed to rip his clothes off and ride him until they were both sore. She knew which one of those options her body and heart craved, but her mind was still trying to talk some sense into the traitors.
It wasn’t working.
His eyes were as red as rubies and seemed to shine with an inner light. And he stared at her like she’d grown a second head. A second head he wanted to devour. She should run. She should get far away and let whatever was supposed to happen to him happen.
He’d told her he didn’t have a soul! What kind of woman got involved with someone like that?
But his face was full of emotion right now and she couldn’t believe that it was nothing. Maybe there was some kind of disconnect in his mind, something that prevented him from processing what he was so clearly feeling, but he was feeling it.
No one could kiss like that if they didn’t feel.
His mouth opened, but no sound came out. His eyes fell closed and he breathed deep before they opened once more, black again, but with a depth she hadn’t seen before. It was like there was more to him now, some unseen depth that her kiss had unlocked.
That was crazy. A kiss couldn’t do that, not outside of a fairy tale.
But with the taste of Doryan still on her lips, Amy didn’t care what a kiss could or couldn’t do. Not so long as she could do it again.
She wasn’t sure who leaned in this time, but their lips met and it was like coming home. This time his hands grasped her shoulders, anchoring him against her. Amy slid off the stool until she was standing against him. It shifted the angle, but allowed her to press herself against all his hard muscles and imagine what it would be like if they moved this just a few meters away to her bedroom.
She wanted him in her bed, and not just to sleep.
She didn’t get swept up like this. Couldn’t remember ever needing someone like she needed Doryan. It should have terrified her, should have made her slow down. Instead she trailed her hands over his chest until she reached the hem of his shirt and pulled it up, getting her fingers on his taut muscles.
He was hard and hot and she wanted more.
His breathing stuttered, almost as if it hurt, but he didn’t say anything, didn’t ask her to stop, and just as she was about to pull away and check, he laced his fingers through her hair and deepened the kiss. She hadn’t even noticed that her hair had fallen out of its tie and she couldn’t bring herself to care, not when his touch, his kiss, set her body on fire.
She could feel his hardness brushing against her and she wanted to see it. What would it look like? She hadn’t looked up Detyen cocks on the net, no matter how tempting. Looking up the basic information had been enough for the case, looking for more had felt like admitting something.
Though from the way she was kissing Doryan, she had clearly admitted it, at least to herself.
Her hand dipped lower and closed over that hardness. She couldn’t get her fingers around it with his pants in the way, but it was only a prelude of things to come. Now that they were kissing there was no way she could resist, no way she wanted to. Not until they’d finished this thing.
Maybe once would get it out of her system, but she doubted it. Doryan wasn’t the kind of guy that disappeared from a person’s heart.
Doryan gasped as she stroked him, and it took her a moment to realize it was pain, not pleasure, he was feeling. She pulled her hand away, but whatever the damage, it had already been done.
He stumbled back a few steps, his eyes quickly flashing red and then black and then red again until they rolled back in his head and he collapsed back onto the couch.
“Doryan!” Amy rushed over, adrenaline flooding her body as worry coursed through her. What was wrong? What had happened? Had she done something to him? She wanted to touch him, to make sure he was fine, but it seemed like her touch had already put him in this state.
His chest rose and fell, so he was breathing, but Amy didn’t know anything else. Was he sick? Was this some strange Detyen trick?
She didn’t want to move away, but she needed help. Not taking her eyes off Doryan, she backed up until she reached the counter where her comm was waiting. She called Tessa and didn’t quite know what she said, but the medic promised to be there in minutes.
Then Amy was back at Doryan’s side, neither daring to touch him nor walk away.
What was going on?
It was several minutes before he groaned and rolled to his side and Amy could practically float with the relief she felt.
“What happened?” he asked. He sat up slowly. “When did we get here?”
Amy almost touched him, but that had caused this problem in the first place. She didn’t know if she should. That decision was taken away from her as the door opened.
“That should have been locked,” she muttered, as if that was important at the moment.
Tessa waved her hand. “The bio-locks are keyed to me, Kayleb, Penny, and Krayter. We can get into any room at any time, in case of emergencies.”
“Just you four?” Amy was worried about Doryan, but that info could be important later.
“Cleaning staff are also cleared, but only during their shifts.” She closed the door behind her and held up a small medical bag. “Now, what’s wrong? I expected spurting blood and severed limbs.”
“I’m fine,” Doryan said. He was sitting upright, but he hadn’t managed to stand.
Amy snapped her head back and glared. “You’re not fine. You fainted. Collapsed.”
“I feel fine now,” Doryan insisted. “I’m sure it was a fluke.”
“Hmm.” Tessa stepped closer. “Can I get in there?” She nodded to where Amy was crouching beside the couch.
Amy didn’t want to move, and a part of her didn’t like the idea of letting anyone close to Dorya
n. But she tamped that down. She didn’t do jealousy. And certainly not towards a doctor that she had called. She was being ridiculous.
And yet, it took her several seconds to get out of the way.
“I’ll just do a quick scan,” Tessa said. “I’m here anyway, and if you’ve come down with something it would be good to treat it now before it can spread to anyone else.”
Doryan nodded and sat back.
Tessa glanced at Amy and then back at Doryan. She pulled her med scanner out of her bag, but didn’t power it on. “Could you go into the other room, Amy? Patient exams are private.”
Amy wanted to protest, and nothing could make her feet move. But she knew Tessa had a point.
“She can stay,” Doryan said before she moved. “I want her here.”
Tessa shrugged. “Very well.” She powered on the scanner and moved it over him. It didn’t take long, though every second that ticked by was an eternity. Tessa’s face scrunched up as she read the screen. “Well… you’re not sick.”
“I know that,” said Doryan.
“How long were you out for?” she asked.
Doryan looked to Amy.
“A few minutes,” said Amy. “He started coming to right before you got here, and I called you as soon as he…” She couldn’t say it, could barely manage to think it. Had she really let her emotions get so wrapped up in him so soon? This went beyond friendly concern.
“And what were you doing when this happened?” Tessa looked between them, but if she suspected the make out session, nothing gave it away.
And lying wouldn’t get them answers.
“We were kissing,” said Doryan. He’d fallen back into that flat tone she sometimes heard when he spoke to others, and she hated it. She took two steps until she was at the couch where she sat down beside him. She needed to remind herself that he was okay, and seeing him wasn’t enough. Not right now.
