“Really?” She looked up at him uncertainly.
“Really.” Trey nodded. He wanted to tell her so much more—tell her that she was his fated mate—the one the Goddess had chosen for him. But he was afraid to scare her off. He was half afraid Mia might ask more about the Dream Sharing—she had a curious look on her face, and she seemed the type to want to know things. But after a moment she only said,
“So…I can stay with you? Just until I pass the exam and get a job?”
“Little one,” he said, making his voice low and gentle. “You can stay with me for as long as you want. Are you ready to go now?”
“Yes, please.” Mia’s eyes flicked to his and he thought he could have happily let himself drown in the pearly blue depths of her gaze. But after the barest moment, she dropped her eyes and looked away. “Thank you, Trey,” she said. “For everything.”
“No thanks necessary.” Trey dared to stroke a single long strand of silky black hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. “I’m just glad to see you outside my dreams,” he said softly. “Come on, Mia—let’s go home.”
The transport station was even more crowded than the first time she’d been there, Mia thought. She looked in dismay at the mass of people on the platform. God, how would they get through this mess to get to their transport?
Trey didn’t look worried, however. A quick glance at his face showed an expression of irritated resignation.
“Goddess damned rush hour,” he muttered under his breath. “And the transport back to my domicile is all the way at the other end of the platform.”
“It is?” Mia looked up at him. “How are we ever going to get there?”
“We’ll get there,” he said grimly. “Just take my hand—I’ll manage.”
Grasping her hand firmly and entwining his long fingers with hers, he began to lead her, shouldering his way through the crowd like a man wading through tall waves at the beach.
Mia, following in his wake, felt squeezed on all sides. It seemed everyone here in the South was taller than she was and she felt like a child surrounded by adults.
The feeling began to bring back a memory—one she’d tried not to think of for years. But now it came rushing back, no matter how hard she tried to suppress it…
She remembered a huge crowd outside the Palace of the Council, which had once been the home of the Emperor. But the Emperor had been overthrown in the Glorious Revolution and the Ruling Council, supported by The EYE, had taken his place and built the big, shining blue wall that was supposed to protect them from everything bad. Only it seemed like maybe the people didn’t like the wall very much after all, because a lot of them were angry.
Mia remembered her parents holding her hands as people pushed and shoved, shouting slogans and throwing angry words like bricks at the windows of the palace.
“Freedom for All!”
“Tear Down the Barrier!”
“The Wall Must Fall!”
“Let us Go, Repression No! Let us Go, Repression No!”
Mia remembered that her father had been one of the ones shouting at the palace—shouting at the Ruling Council. She even remembered the placard he’d been carrying. It had a picture of a large, angry fist slamming into a single eye and the words beneath said, “No more spying!”
Her mother had been holding Mia’s hand in one of her own, trying to keep her close in the surging, angry crowd and tugging at her father’s arm, begging him to come home “Before someone sees us!” with the other. But her father had refused to go until the agents of The EYE came out and started spraying everyone with some kind of mist that made tears stream down your cheeks and burned the insides of your mouth and nose and throat.
Even then her father didn’t want to go but her mother screamed at him, “What about our daughter? Do you want to lose her? Do you want her to lose us?”
That had scared Mia most of all—more than the crowds and the shouts and the stinging mist—the idea of losing her beloved parents. Papa with his fiery temper and deep sense of justice and Mama with her kind, sweet, quiet ways and her cool hands that always felt so soothing on Mia’s forehead…they were Mia’s whole world. She couldn’t imagine life without them.
They had run away then—had turned and left the crowd and the agents and the palace behind. Mama had made Papa throw his placard away in an empty alley and they had gone back to the flat they shared with Neemah. Mia remembered her mother weeping with relief that they had gotten home safely, with no agents of The EYE after them. They had all gone quickly to bed…
Only to be awakened by a pounding on the door in the middle of the night.
Mia remembered sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes sleepily. She’d been having a terrible dream, a dream about a huge, scary eye that followed her everywhere and never stopped watching her. Then she heard shouting voices in the living area and Neemah saying, “You can’t take them! They haven’t done anything wrong! My daughter is innocent and so is her husband!”
But they took them anyway…and I never saw them again.
Mia came back to the present and found that her eyes were filled with tears and her heart was pounding in her chest.
Trey was still leading her through the crowd, and they were getting closer to the transport. But all around her the crush of people was getting worse and worse—closer and tighter until she felt like she couldn’t get a deep enough breath. Worse, her grip on the big Kindred’s hand had loosened and she could feel his fingers sliding through hers.
Up ahead, the doors of a transport slid open and the people all around her surged forward, trying to be sure they got a spot inside. In the wild forward motion, Mia lost hold of Trey’s hand entirely.
Without the big Kindred to force their way through the crowd, she immediately lost her forward momentum. There was another transport opening to her right and she found she was being carried along with a group of people who were trying to get on it.
“Oh God—Oh God, please!,” she gasped. There was no question of trying to get back to Trey—it was all she could do to stay upright. Desperately, she tried to keep her feet under her. She knew if she stumbled and fell, she would surely be trampled—what a horrible way to die!
“Mia? Mia!” she heard a deep voice roaring behind her.
Somehow she managed to turn her head and saw that the huge Kindred was forging his way to her, like a man in chest-deep water pushing his way through the sea.
“Trey! Treygar!” she gasped but again, she could make no headway to him at all.
Luckily, Trey was able to reach her before she was swept aboard the wrong transport. Picking her up, he cradled her to his broad chest just as he had when her ankle had been hurt.
“Come on,” he said in her ear. “Should have carried you in the first place through a crowd like this. You all right?”
Mia nodded, not trusting her voice. Now that she was out of danger—though not out of the crowd—her throat felt tight and achy, almost like it had after breathing in the stinging mist when she was a child. She wished they could go somewhere quiet and safe and deserted, but Trey was pushing through the crowd, making their way to the correct transport now.
He got them there just before the doors slid shut but there was no room for him to stand and hold Mia as he was. He had to put her down again and when he did, Mia felt a wave of panic sweep over her as the people squeezed in all around her.
I can’t breathe! she thought desperately. Oh, God—I can’t breathe!
“Mia? Little one? Is something wrong?”
Looking up, she saw that Trey was looking down at her anxiously as they jostled this way and that while even more people tried to squeeze in before the transport’s doors slid shut.
“It’s too much—too many people,” she gasped. “I can’t…can’t breathe.”
Trey frowned. “I’ve never seen a rush hour so crowded,” he admitted in a low voice. “I can’t pick you up in here—there’s no room. But…well, here.”
Somehow he ma
neuvered them to the side of the transport and situated Mia so that her back was to the cool metal. Then he faced her and braced his legs wide apart. Leaning forward a little, he placed his hands on either side of her head—in effect, creating a cage of protection all around her with his big body. She could see people all around him, pushing against the big Kindred, but he held firm, not allowing any of them to get too close to her or crush her.
At last Mia felt like she could draw a deep enough breath to survive. Her heart, which had been pounding harder and harder, finally began to slow and her breathing evened out.
The doors at last slid shut and the transport rolled forward, whisper-quiet as it rode on the cushion of air it projected just over the tracks.
She looked up at Trey, who was braced firmly all around her. There was a look of grim determination on his face and she could see the muscles of his arms and legs bunching tight as he fought against the constant push and squeeze of the bodies all around them. But somehow she knew, no matter how the crowd pushed against him, he wouldn’t let go—wouldn’t let any harm come to her.
She wanted to thank him for saving her—for shielding her—but somehow her voice was locked up tight in her throat and she couldn’t form the words. She felt surrounded by him—by his warm, comforting, spicy scent which seemed to breathe from his pores and also from the wild mane of golden-brown hair that framed his face.
The ride seemed to take a long time with the transport swaying to a stop every now and then to disgorge passengers and let others on. But Trey held his place the whole time—and in doing so, kept the space cleared for her. At last he murmured,
“Okay, this next stop is ours. Will you be okay to get out? I’m sorry I can’t carry you.”
Still not trusting herself to speak, Mia simply nodded.
“All right,” Trey said. When the transport stopped the next time, he straightened up and took her firmly by the hand. Pushing through the crowd, he led her out and onto a paved area which was surrounded by what looked like a park.
The light began to fade to a purply-blue twilight as Trey led her into the sparse woods and neatly trimmed grass of the parkland around the transport station. Mia wasn’t sure where he was taking her, but she was very glad to finally be out of the crowd. She thought they might be walking a while which was fine with her despite how wobbly her legs felt—anything to get away from the transport.
To her surprise, he stopped sooner than she thought—in the middle of the park at a bench with a plasti-wood seat and curving metal slats for a back. Sitting down, he motioned for her to join him.
“Come on—catch your breath,” he said in a low voice.
Mia settled on the seat beside him and let herself take in a really deep breath, drawing the clean, fresh scent of the trees and grass and the sky overhead. It was hard to believe that only last night she’d been shivering in the snow and now she was outdoors in nothing but a thin dress. The night was chilly, but nothing like the biting cold of nights up north.
The deep breath felt good, but it came out in a shuddering gasp. The teaming mass in the station…the crowded transport…the roar of the crowd… Even with Trey to hold back the people from crushing her, it had all been too much…reminded her too much of the last time she’d been with her parents before they were taken.
Mama…Papa…they took you away and I never saw you again. Now I wonder if I’ll ever see Neemah again. I’m so far away…so far from home…
“Hey…” Trey’s deep voice was gentle. “Was the transport ride that bad? Is that why you’re crying?”
“What? I’m not crying!” Mia protested, though her voice came out sounding shaky, even to herself.
“Oh no? Then what are these?” He brushed the backs of his fingers over her cheek and Mia saw that they had come away wet in the purplish light of the setting sun.
“I…” She sniffed, trying to control herself. “I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You’ve been through a hell of a lot today,” he rumbled. “I’m sorry I couldn’t keep you from the crowds completely—I think there was some kind of festival today and that’s why it was so crazy.”
“It wasn’t the crowds—or not just the crowds,” Mia told him. “It just…the whole situation reminded me of…” She trailed off, biting her lip.
“Reminded you of what, little one?” Trey prodded softly. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
Mia opened her mouth to say “never mind” but instead, she found the whole story pouring out. The protest rally with her parents…her mother begging her father to go…the agents of The EYE and the stinging mist they sprayed…the awful run home and the deep sense of relief when it seemed they had gotten back to the flat safely with no one the wiser. Then the booming knock at the door in the middle of the night and the sound of her grandmother’s voice, cracked and angry, first demanding they let her daughter go, then begging and pleading…
“I was too little to know what was going on, but I had an idea,” Mia told the big Kindred, who listened quietly as she spoke. “I got out of bed and snuck to the living area and hid behind the door to the hallway. I saw them—the agents—taking my parents. They were still in their nightclothes and they had their hands cuffed behind their backs. Neemah—my grandmother—was nearly hysterical—begging and crying for them to let my mother and father go. But the agents didn’t say anything—they acted like they didn’t even see her. They shoved my parents out the door and I remember…”
She took a deep shaky breath and realized the tears were coming faster now but somehow she couldn’t stop them, just as she couldn’t stop talking.
“I remember my mother looking back, looking over her shoulder,” she told Trey. “She had skin the color of mine usually, but her face was so pale with terror she looked almost as light as my father. When she saw me watching, she mouthed, ‘I love you.’ And then…then…” She drew a deep, shaky breath.
“Then what?” Trey asked softly.
“And then they pushed her and my father out the front door and they were gone and…and I never saw either of them again.” Mia looked down at her hands, her fingers twisting together in her lap as they did when she was nervous or unhappy. “I guess that’s why the crowded station and transport made me so upset. I don’t think I’ve thought of that day—that night—for years. But it just…brought it all back. So fresh…” She shivered. “So raw.”
“I should have waited until after rush hour.” Trey’s deep voice sounded remorseful. “I’m so sorry, Mia. If I had known—”
“How could you?” she asked. “You don’t really know anything about me.”
“I know a little more now.” He reached for her hand and entwined their fingers, squeezing gently. “Thank you for sharing a piece of your past with me. I know it couldn’t have been easy to talk about.”
Actually, it had been easier than Mia would have dreamed possible. The bad old memory had just flowed out and even though she had never shared it with another soul—hadn’t even talked about it with Neemah—it felt right somehow to tell the big Kindred. Right and safe, though she couldn’t understand how or why.
“Thank you for listening,” she said, looking up at him. “And for shielding me on the train. I think…think I might have gone crazy if you hadn’t. I couldn’t breathe in there.”
“We’ll never take the transport in such crowded conditions again,” he promised. “I have a vehicle I can drive instead.”
“That sounds good.” Mia nodded and wiped at her cheeks with shaky fingers. “Um…where are we going? Do you live in this park?”
“Sort of.” He laughed, a warm, rumbly sound that she liked at once. “When the Kindred first came to Ormyu Five, we were all flying our own shuttles. Some of the warriors decided to take housing here but a few of us were granted special access to park our shuttles in secluded spots and continue living in them.”
“So…you live in your vehicle?” Mia wondered if there was going to be room for her.
He nodded. “But it’s a domicile too. You’ll see—I’m parked at the very back of the park, past all the public areas. Come on.”
They got up and started walking again, into the trees. While they talked, the sun had finished setting and it was almost full dark now. Mia could barely see three feet in front of her, but the big Kindred seemed to have no trouble at all. He kept a firm grip on her hand and led her unerringly forward, as though he could see through the gloom with ease.
It occurred to Mia that she was doing something her Neemah had warned her never to do—going with a strange man to a strange location with no one around to see if she was safe or not. Her heart sped up a little faster—was she being foolish? Should she trust Trey this much, after only knowing him a few hours? Was this safe?
Then she remembered the way he had saved her from the transport and protected her from the crowds. Not to mention the way she had dreamed of him.
This must be an extenuating circumstance, she told herself. Trey was obviously a nice guy—a gentleman. Everything would be all right—she could trust him. He—
Suddenly they stopped dead in the darkness.
“Here we are.” His deep voice came rumbling out of the night and Mia’s heart started pounding again. She couldn’t see anything—where was the shuttle he had talked about? Oh God, had he brought her to a dark, deserted part of the park to hurt her? To kill her? Had he—
And then she heard a metallic sound beside her—almost like keys jingling—and suddenly the darkness was lit with a golden glow.
Chapter Nine
“Oh!” Mia blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to get them used to the light. When she could see again, she made out the vast shape of a sleek, silver craft that looked like something from out of the future. Trey was already leading her to it. as they walked, he pressed a button on a little silver fob he was holding in his hand and a set of steps unfolded from the metal side of the ship seemingly of their own accord.
Hitting the Target Page 8