by Bianca D’Arc
Davin looked at her sharply, but seemed to relax as his mate put her hand on his arm. Jaci became aware of the Hum between them and smiled. That sound was fast becoming familiar to her and she welcomed the evidence that what she’d heard when she’d touched the cousins had been the genuine article.
“You are an odd creature, Jaci 192. I am glad Mara sent you. Perhaps in this instance, she knew what she was doing.” Davin retreated, stepping aside so the women could make their way to a small door set in the rear of the room.
Jaci followed meekly behind Callie, realizing the woman was taking her to their private quarters. Suddenly she was alone with the Breed woman.
Callie shut the door and turned on her, hands on her hips.
“There are no monitors of any kind here. We may speak freely.”
Jaci swallowed hard. This woman’s look was too knowing and she feared what she might say. She turned to her small medical kit to busy herself.
“Shall we begin the sample collection? I will need a blood sample.”
When no answer was forthcoming, Jaci had to raise her eyes. The woman hadn’t been fooled at all.
“I’m an empath, Jaci. I feel your fear and your turmoil.”
“Shit.”
Callie laughed as she moved to the couch and sat down. “Now that’s a very human expression. I wonder where you picked it up?”
“I maintain some of the cells where the Maras keep their Breed subjects.”
“Prisoners, you mean?” Callie’s voice had turned cold and Jaci felt uncomfortable in the extreme. “So you’re a jailer? Funny for a jailor to feel the level of guilt you just put out.”
“I don’t like that they’re prisoners. But honestly, it never bothered me before.”
“Before what?”
“Before I could feel.” Jaci’s voice was very soft, almost a whisper as emotion threatened to overwhelm her.
Callie just watched her with non-judgmental eyes. “So what happened? Why can you suddenly feel emotion when every other Alvian but Davin, can’t?”
Jaci knew then she was done for. She pitched herself into a chair and told this strange woman the whole sordid story. She didn’t care anymore. The burden was too great.
“Just do me one favor,” Jaci asked tearfully, her emotions flooding her in a way she just couldn’t handle. “Get word to Michael and Davidand Ruth too. Tell them I never meant to hurt them. I considered them friends and their friendship meant a lot to me. Please, just tell them that.”
Callie put a hand over Jaci’s, bridging the distance between their two chairs and suddenly Jaci started to feel better. It wasn’t the same kind of healing touch David had, but it was soothing and definitely had the flavor of this woman’s psychic abilities. She was calming her, soothing her distraught emotions.
“Come now,” Callie said, compassion in her eyes. “You sound as if you’ll never see them again.”
“I probably won’t. When the Maras find out what’s happened, they’ll put me down or imprison me. I wasn’t worthy of testing the agent. What’s one more Jaci?”
“I don’t know, but I think this Jaci is very important.” Callie’s smile calmed her senses and stopped her tears. “And Mara 12 won’t hear about this from me, or from either of my mates.”
Jaci was stunned for a moment by her use of the plural. “You have more than one? Is that possible?” She hadn’t dared hope.
Callie smiled softly. “I can guess what you’ve heard on the rumor mill. Davin is my true resonance mate, and I love him dearly, but so is Rick. We all found that out in a rather upsetting way when Rick had to save my life. They didn’t get along too well at first, but we’ve all come to accept the arrangement now. After all, I keep telling them, my own mother has three mates, so they should count themselves lucky.” Callie chuckled, but Jaci was astounded by her words.
“But the ancient texts say there is only one resonance mate for each person.”
“Been studying up on the topic, have you?” Callie gave her a knowing smile.
Jaci blushed. “There are two men…I Hum with them and I was wondering if maybe…”
Callie jumped up and went to the cabinet on the far side of the room. She opened a few drawers until she found what she was looking for, then came back to stand before Jaci, holding out her hand. Jaci reacted to the motion by raising her palm and a pure, clear crystal dropped into it.
“Kiss them both. Use this. See what happens.”
“I couldn’t.” Jaci immediately recognized the worth of the small, absolutely perfect crystal Callie had given her.
Callie closed Jaci’s fingers over the warm stone. “You can and you will. It’s quite possible they are both your resonance mates. My mother has three true mates. I have two. Only testing will reveal the truth for you.”
“But there’s only supposed to be one.”
Callie sank back on to the sofa behind her. “We have a theory about that, but it’s a little farfetched. I think it has to do with the shortage of women on Earth. There’s no way there’s one female for every male, even counting your people, so nature, or God, or whatever higher power you believe in, has decided we have to share.”
Jaci paused to consider her words. “I suppose it could be possible.” But she wasn’t convinced.
“Or maybe just one of the men you Hum with will turn out to be your true mate. Or worst case, neither will. Just because you Hum doesn’t mean you are mates.” Callie paused. “Test them. See what happens. And I promise to keep your secret. I agree you probably should keep this hidden as long as you can. Things are changing for my people, slowly but surely. If you can hold out a bit longer, you might find it all works out for you and your potential mates. Have faith.”
They talked a bit more and Jaci took the samples Mara had requested. She tried not to jump when a Breed man came into the room and pulled Callie into his kiss, but she did check the crystal glowing in her hand.
“This is Rick,” Callie introduced him with a smile. “Rick, meet Jaci.”
“Jaci 192,” she clarified, reaching out to accept the other man’s handshake as was customary between Breeds.
“I don’t hold with numbering people, so I’ll just call you Jaci, okay?” Rick seemed somewhat unfriendly at first, but when Jaci smiled at him, he eased up a bit, confusion on his face as he truly looked at her for the first time. “Have you had contact with a human healer recently?”
Jaci was astounded and not a little afraid. “How can you tell?”
Rick looked at her closely, putting Callie back on the couch. “That sort of energy is rare and it leaves traces another healer can sometimes sense. Your healer is strong. Very strong. What happened that he had to expend so much energy on you?”
Jaci was afraid, but Callie came to her rescue. “I’ll fill you in on all the details later, but suffice to say, poor Jaci has been through a huge upheaval lately. Is the healer one of the men you mentioned?”
Mutely, she nodded.
“Then he expended a lot of his energy on you. How is he doing?”
Jaci’s eyes widened in shock. “It could hurt him? Healing me can harm him? Why didn’t he say something?”
Rick tilted his head, watching her most un-Alvian responses. “It would weaken him. All healing does. Some kinds of healing gifts work differently, but the few healers I’ve known have all experienced power drain of one sort or another. We give it to the people we heal, you see.”
“Oh, no.” Jaci collapsed into her seat. “He touched me earlier today, but he did it yesterday too. Several times. It felt so good. He calmed my turmoil. But I don’t want to hurt him in order to make myself feel better.”
“He’s a mind healer?” Now it was Rick who sounded shocked.
Jaci nodded. “He said he can do both. He can heal physical injuries, but also problems of the mind.”
“Wow.” Rick sat on the couch next to Callie, putting his arm around her shoulders, playing absently with the ends of her hair. “He must be something. I’ve heard
rumors of mind healers, but they’re few and far between. The power needed is enormous, and the drain of that kind of work is serious.”
Jaci shot to her feet. “I’ve got to get back! I’ve got to check on him!”
Callie could feel the Alvian woman’s panic and she knew it would do her no good.
“Wait, Jaci. Think. You can’t show them your fear and I might just have a way to check on your man without your people knowing. Will you let me try?”
Jaci sank back down still agitated, but willing to listen. “How?”
“My brother is a strong telepath. You probably have heard of him. The Alvians call him Hara.”
“Hara is your brother? Holy shit!”
“She’s definitely been hanging around with humans,” Rick observed with a chuckle at the earthy expression coming out of this very proper Alvian woman.
Callie smiled. “Are any of your Breed friends telepathic at all?”
“David is. And so is Michael. Ruth too, but she has to be close to someone to hear them, she said.”
“All right,” Callie said, leaning forward, “here’s what we’re going to do.”
After a bit of planning, Callie contacted her brother using a secure crystal. Jaci was warmed by the obvious love in his voice as he talked with his sister and she filled him in on Jaci’s situation. She was growing uncomfortable with how many people were learning her secret, but she realized quickly that she needed them. She needed a support system of some kind if she were to survive, changed as she was.
Hara was in the northern city and took only a moment to seek out David’s mind in the pens beneath. He reported back that David was tired, but otherwise all right. David himself had said he was fine, but Hara could see deeper. He could use his extraordinary gifts to feel the energy levels of the mind he contacted, and he reported the truth back to his sister.
“Dave wants to know how Jaci’s doing. Actually, both he and Mike are a bit irate. They’re worried about her going off with someone they’re calling ‘that scumbag Grady’. Do you think they mean our old pal Grady Prime?” Callie chuckled at her brother’s humor but Jaci was too on edge.
“Tell them I’m fine. Grady Prime would never harm me.”
Apparently he heard that through the communication crystal because he answered her directly. “I think they’re more worried that he’s going to put the move on you. They sound very possessive. Why’s that?”
She didn’t understand all of his words, but the tone was clear. “I don’t want him.”
Callie caught her attention. “You and I both know with a man that highly ranked in your society, it’s not a matter of what you want.”
Jaci shrugged uncomfortably. “Yes, he has asked me to consider having sex with him again, but I don’t think he would force the issue. He seems to think that even with his rank, because he’s a soldier, he’d be insulting me.”
“Again?” It was Rick who caught her guilty flush. “You’ve had sex with him before?”
“Only once,” she admitted uncomfortably, “and only because it was my duty. He’s an elite. I was filling in for the girl who usually services him for sample collection. It was last week, just after the test agent started to change me and he seemed to notice how much I…uh…well…how much I enjoyed having sex with him. He told me he liked it and wanted to do it again, but he gave me the choice to seek him out. I haven’t and I won’t. I don’t want him.”
Two pairs of Breed eyes watched her in shocked silence. It was Hara who came to her rescue, his voice sounding through the room over the communication crystal.
“I can’t tell them that.”
“No!” she shouted in alarm. “You can’t!”
“I just said that, didn’t I?” He seemed to chuckle a bit at her vehemence. “I’ll tell them not to worry. I’ve known Grady Prime all my life and I know he wouldn’t force himself on any woman. That’s a truth they can find some comfort in, but if I were you, I’d straighten out this thing with them when you get back. They are jealous men and they really seem to hate Grady for some reason.”
“He’s the one who finally captured them,” she told him despondently. She wasn’t looking forward to facing her menher friends, she corrected herselfwith the news.
She heard Hara sigh on the other side of the connection. “That explains it then. I’m impressed it took Grady to get them. They only send him out for the hard cases.” He paused just a moment. “Look, Jaci, when you get back I’m going to track you down. Mara 12 won’t suspect anything if I make friends with you now that you’ve met my sister. I’ll find you to thank you for treating her so well. Praising you can only help your career, right?”
“I don’t give a shit about my career.”
Rick chuckled at her use of the human expletive that seemed to have become her favorite.
“I can understand that, given what’s been happening to you, but you can’t let my mother and her pals know that.”
Suddenly she remembered just who she was talking to. Hara was the son of Mara 12 and a Breed male with Hara DNA. Jaci knew because she was a member of Mara 12’s staff, though Hara’s origins weren’t a matter of public knowledge. He was half-Alvian and related to one of the most important scientists in the city. Undoubtedly he was watched closely, but he also deserved great respect, just by virtue of his DNAMara and Hara together was a formidable mix.
“So, I’m going to find you when you get back, to thank you for being nice to my sister and you’re going to become my friend. My mother knows how close I am to Callie.”
“Why would you want to be my friend?” She was dumbfounded by the generosity of these people she’d only just met.
Hara chuckled and it warmed her. “I think you need all the friends you can get right now, Jaci. There are precious few of us with entry to the Alvian culture who can understand and experience emotion. I’m hoping in the long-term we can help our human friends and family by influencing Alvian society for positive change and understanding.”
“I’d be happy if they’d just leave me alone,” Jaci grumbled.
“I understand your feelings, but what about your friends? What about Mike, Dave and Ruth and her baby? Don’t you want them to have a better life too?”
“I do,” she said softly, “but what can I do to help that? I’m only a Jaci and not of high rank.”
“Let me worry about that, sweetheart.” Hara’s voice was calming and soothed her distraught senses, even over the crystal. Only one other man had ever called her by that human endearment and she desperately wanted to feel his arms around her again.
“Tell David I miss him,” she said softly, “and that I won’t let him touch me again unless he promises not to drain himself.”
There was a short silence while she imagined Hara passing on the message telepathically.
“He says you can try to keep him away, but you won’t succeed.” He chuckled. “And Mike’s jealous as hell.”
Her heart lifted for the first time. “Tell Michael not to worry. I miss him too. Just as much.”
“Just so you get the full picture, she Hums with both of them.” Callie chimed in, sharing Jaci’s secret with her brother.
“Really?” Hara sounded interested and a bit amused. “Well, that’s a nice development. Shall I explain to them what it could mean?”
Jaci’s heart started pounding. “I tried, but there was no time. We only have about ten minutes each day. This is all still so new.”
“Well, I have all night to talk with them now that we’ve established contact. I can tell them about the tests if you like, and my own observations of my father’s mating with Mama Jane, as well as my sister’s experience. It might help. Resonance mates are a wholly Alvian concept and not something they would have experienced in the old world.”
“I think that’s a good idea, Harry,” Callie told her brother. “I’ve given her a small crystal she can use to do the tests. If they are mates…” She let the sentence drift off.
“If either or both of t
hose men find that Jaci is their true mate, I’ll do all in my power to see they can be together. It’s the least the Alvians owe humanity for taking and changing their world. But we have to take this one step at a time, and I’m going to talk to Papa Caleb too. Maybe he’s seen something.”
“Thank you, Hara. I fully realize that you don’t have to do any of this for me and I can only surmise you are a wise and kind person. You have my gratitude.” Jaci’s formal words rang clear through the room and her heart was a bit lighter. Somehow that feeling of hope was bubbling up to the surface again, even if she had no real reason to think the future would be any better than the present.
“I think we’re going to be good friends, Jaci. I’ll look for you in a day or two. Until then, take care.”
Jaci took his words to heart. She would have to be extra careful not to show her expanding emotions. They were getting stronger all the time now and each new revelation stunned her with its intensity.
“I love you, Harry.” Callie said to her brother, signing off with clear affection for her sibling, so far away.
They ended the communication and Jaci just sat there in shock for a moment. So much had happened in such a short time.
“I don’t know what to say.”
Callie laughed, putting her small hand over Jaci’s and passing some of that amazing empathic warmth to her, making her feel slightly better. Jaci marveled at the small Breed woman’s intense power.
“Say you won’t mind when I request Mara sends you from now on to check my baby’s progress. I like you, Jaci, and I want to help you.”
Jaci felt a tear slip from her eye. This woman had a huge heart and Jaci could learn a thing or two from her. Silently, she nodded, unable to speak lest her emotions get the best of her. It was a terrifying feeling, but it was also sublime in its way.
Chapter Four
“You’re the one who warned us when that other tech was coming,” Mike accused the new voice in his mind telepathically. They’d been talking back and forth for a good half hour or more now since Harry had sought them out.