Hitting the Target

by Evangeline Anderson

  “But I still haven’t gotten to meet her,” his beast pointed out. “It isn’t fair.”

  “You’ll meet her soon,” Trey promised. “We just don’t want to scare her off.”

  The beast insisted that he wasn’t the least bit scary and that Trey was being selfish. He stirred inside Trey restlessly, insisting that he wanted to meet Mia in person soon.

  “Then we’ll always be able to track her, no matter where she goes,” he pointed out. “You know that letting her meet me will form a quasi-bond even before you Claim her. Don’t you want to bond her to us?”

  “Of course I do—I’m just trying to take things slowly. I only met her in person myself yesterday. Be patient,” Trey begged.

  The beast grumbled but finally agreed to wait at least a little longer.

  Trey wondered how long he could hold his other half back. He had never known the beast to be so insistent about meeting anyone, not even the girl he had been Dream Sharing with on his home planet so long ago before she died.

  He hoped he could hold the beast back until it was the right time for him to come out. He didn’t want to scare Mia to death by revealing that he shared his existence—and his very physical body—with a creature with glowing golden eyes and fangs as long as her hand that was capable of tearing a grown male to pieces in a matter of seconds. A revelation like that had to be carefully timed.

  He was operating that day with Lydiah assisting him and after they finished the surgery—a routine laminectomy—she asked if he wanted to have lunch with her and Teela. Her mate was bringing a home-cooked pan of yinza—a type of casserole with sweet and savory layers that Trey had been wanting to try.

  Seeing it as an opportunity to get a little more insight into Mia’s plight and background, he eagerly accepted, and it wasn’t long before the three of them were sitting in the private healers’ lounge—which they happened to have to themselves—enjoying the steaming dish with its red and yellow and purple layers and its gooey melted pink feenah cheese.

  “This is delicious, Teela,” Trey complimented Lydiah’s mate as he cut into a piece and lifted it to his mouth with the pink strings of melted cheese trailing behind. “Thank you both for inviting me to join you.”

  “You’re very welcome, Healer Treygar.” Teela bowed her head. She was what Trey suspected the Republic considered “ideal.” Tall and slender with long, straight, white-blonde hair and pale blue eyes, he knew many males would have considered her devastatingly beautiful. But though he acknowledged her good looks, they didn’t move him as Mia did. He liked his females with a little more to hold on to, he admitted to himself. Plus, he liked the contrast of Mia’s creamy brown skin against his own tan coloring…

  “There he goes—drifting off again. Are you thinking of that little patient you brought in and healed yesterday?” Lydiah asked, breaking his train of thought.

  “Hmm? Oh yes.” Trey cleared his throat guiltily. “I’m afraid I was.”

  “Lydiah told me how you rescued her from getting run over by a transport and brought her to the Care Center for healing,” Teela said in her soft, sweet voice. “She also said that she came from the People’s Republic, like I did?”

  Trey nodded. “She said she came with a group but everyone but her got caught in the Barrier when it flickered back on.”

  “Really?” Teela frowned. “How many were there?”

  Trey shook his head. “I don’t know. It seemed like a sensitive subject, so I didn’t like to ask too many details.”

  “It sounds like she got away from some of the same things you did, sweetheart,” Lydiah said, pressing her hand. “She seems like a sweet, quiet girl. She was a healer’s aide over in the PR so I’m going to let her take the test and see if she qualifies to work with us here at the Care Center.”

  “That’s nice.” Teela smiled politely but Trey thought the expression didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  “Is something wrong?” he asked her. “I’m sorry if talking about Mia troubles you.”

  “It doesn’t trouble me exactly. Just…brings up old memories.” Teela shook her head, her white-blonde hair floating around her head.

  “If you don’t mind, maybe you can give me some advice on the best way to handle things going forward,” Trey said, taking a sip of his berra-berry juice protein smoothie.

  “I can do that,” Teela said softly. “What do you need advice about?”

  “Well…” Trey cleared his throat. “Mia talked about taking some kind of vow of chastity called ‘The Oath’ and I was just wondering how serious that is?”

  “Extremely,” Teela said seriously. “Any female caught breaking it in any way doesn’t last long.”

  “What?” Trey was shocked. “Do you mean they get dragged into court and prosecuted just for meeting their own sexual needs?”

  “No, of course not.” Teela shook her head. “No one in the PR gets ‘dragged to court.’ The EYE prefers to settle things quietly. They just…disappear. Or sometimes they have an ‘accident’ and die. Nothing that can ever be tied to The EYE but everyone knows who’s really to blame.” She shivered and a hunted look crossed over her delicate features for a moment.

  “That’s awful,” Trey said, frowning. He remembered Mia’s story about her parents being taken in the middle of the night and how she had never seen them again.

  “It’s bad,” Teela admitted in a low voice. “But it’s not the worst they can do to you. Do you know if your Mia was called for reproduction?”

  Trey shook his head. “No, she said she wasn’t because she’s not the Republic’s ‘ideal’ apparently.”

  “She should thank the stars she’s not.” Teela looked down at her plate. Though the yinza casserole was delicious, she had barely touched hers. No wonder she was so thin and pale, Trey thought.

  “Sweetheart…” Lydiah put her hand over her mate’s thin white hand. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

  “No—it’s all right. If Healer Treygar is serious about this girl, he needs to know what she comes from.” Teela looked up at him and Trey saw that her eyes were hard. “When you live in the Republic, they run your entire life,” she told him. “I was chosen for reproduction when I was only fifteen years old. My father tried to protest, of course. He went down to The EYE’s headquarters and told them I was still a child—not even the age of consent. But apparently one of those in power had seen me passing on the street on my way to school and decided he wanted me.”

  “Did your father make any headway?” Trey asked quietly. He could tell by her expression that the answer was probably negative.

  “I don’t know.” Teela looked away. “He never came back. The next day, agents of The EYE dragged me away and gave me to my first reproductive partner—a male from the Ruling Council who was about fifty-five. He used me until I got pregnant. Then they sent me to a birthing center to have the baby and took it away from me and sent me out again. And again. And again.”

  “Teela…” Lydiah’s hand tightened on her mate’s and Trey could see tears in her dark brown eyes. But Teela’s own eyes were still hard and cold, her voice dry and remote as she spoke, as though she was telling someone else’s story.

  Trey had an impulse to stop her—to tell her she didn’t have to share this awful pain if she didn’t want to. But something kept him from it—something told him that she needed to tell. So he listened, though he felt sick inside with rage and sorrow for what she had been through.

  “Finally, I reached the point where I knew I would rather die than live like that anymore,” she said. “I was serving with a highly placed agent of The EYE at the time—the Commandant, was his title. He was such a manipulative bastard—he made his VARs do terrible things.”

  “VARs?” Trey asked, frowning.

  “It stands for Volunteer Agent of the Republic but informant is what it amounts to and there’s nothing voluntary about it,” Teela said dryly. “They pull people in off the street and give them assignments and if they do
n’t complete them, well…let’s just say whoever they love in their life is probably going to wind up in the basement of The EYE and will never be seen again.”

  “That’s horrible,” Lydiah murmured. “You’ve never told me all this before.”

  “It’s hard to talk about,” Teela admitted. Her voice wavered a moment but then she lifted her chin. “Doctor Hlrm, the therapist I’ve been seeing, has been encouraging me to try and get it out, though.”

  “How did you finally escape?” Trey asked. He couldn’t imagine living the life she’d lived—being passed from male to male who didn’t care for her, who only wanted to use her body, being forced to have child after child which were all ripped from her arms. No wonder she’d been desperate to get out!

  “The Commandant took me with him on a trip to review the troops guarding The Great Barrier,” Teela said. “I knew it was then or never. I waited until one night when he had drunk too much, and I sneaked out. Of course, there were guards along the border but I tried to keep to the shadows and wait for the Barrier to flicker.”

  “How did you know it would?” Lydiah asked.

  Teela shook her head. “I didn’t. But I told myself I would give it until morning. If the Barrier hadn’t flickered by then, I would walk into it anyway. Either way, the life I was living would be over.”

  “So, it flickered?” Trey guessed.

  “Not until I was actually walking into it,” Teela admitted. “It blinked out just as I was about to step into the energy field.” She laughed dryly. “It was almost like someone turned it off, just for me. Which is impossible of course, since the only cut-off switch is in The EYE’s headquarters and it’s always heavily guarded.”

  “God, sweetheart, I had no idea you were going to kill yourself!” Lydiah looked more upset than ever.

  “I had to get away, one way or another,” Teela said simply. She pressed her mate’s hand. “But I’m better now, here with you. I only wish…” She sighed and swiped at her eyes. “I only wish I could see the babies they took from me. They all went to the same growth center to be raised, I think and the oldest one would be ten by now. But I’ll never see them again—not as long as the Barrier stays up.”

  “Someone ought to take the fucking thing down,” Trey growled. He had known that The People’s Republic was a repressive police state but until now he hadn’t really understood how evil the people running it were.

  “Good luck with that,” Teela said. “Like I said, the controls are in the headquarters of The EYE in the Capital. And of course, I only know that because I was given to the Commandant. Most people have no idea where they are and even if they did, there’s no way to get past the guards.”

  “There ought to be a way,” Trey insisted. “You shouldn’t be kept from your children. And I know there are other people in Bountiful who have family members behind the Barrier. Why doesn’t the government of Bountiful do anything?”

  “Nobody wants to start a war,” Lydiah said sourly. “At least, that’s what our Prime Minister says. Though I personally think if they could find a way to take down the Great Barrier, a war wouldn’t be necessary. So many people would leave, they wouldn’t have anyone to fight a war with.”

  “It’ll never happen.” Teela sighed and picked at her food, which was now cold. She put down her utensil and looked up at Trey. “But you should be careful, Healer Treygar.”

  “What? Why?” Trey frowned.

  “Remember what I told you about The EYE forcing people to be VARs? Informants?” Teela asked. “Well, how do you know this new girl in your life isn’t one?”

  “Excuse me?” Trey tried to keep the offended tone out of his voice, but he couldn’t quite manage it. “How can you accuse Mia of that?” he asked. “What would make you say it?”

  Teela shook her head. “Just the fact that you’re an alien to our planet—an alien with advanced technology. I could definitely see The EYE sending someone to spy on you and get information on Kindred tech. They’re always looking for new weapons and advantages.”

  “I’m afraid you’re wrong,” Trey said stiffly. “Mia and I have been Dream Sharing—that means dreaming of each other even before we met. That’s the way the Goddess signals that a Kindred warrior has met his true mate—the one female he is destined to be with for the rest of his life. So you see, Mia couldn’t be a spy—she was sent to me by the Goddess.”

  Lydiah had a skeptical look on her face but her voice was neutral when she spoke.

  “I know how devout you are to your religion, Treygar. I’m sure Teela didn’t mean to offend you—she’s just warning you to be on your guard.”

  “I appreciate the warning, but it really isn’t necessary.” Trey rose from the table and picked up his empty plate to dispose of it.

  Teela sat unmoving, a miserable look on her face. Trey thought of the awful things she had been through and how hard it must have been to share them and felt himself melting a little.

  “Thank you for an excellent lunch, Teela. And for sharing your past with me,” he said gently. “I’m sorry if I got a little prickly. It’s just that Mia isn’t like that—she couldn’t be.”

  “Of course not.” Teela looked down at her slim, pale hands. “Forgive me for implying otherwise.”

  “You were just trying to warn him of a possible problem,” Lydiah said, bristling in defense of her mate.

  “And I appreciate the warning—even though it isn’t needed,” Trey said firmly. “Shouldn’t we be getting back? I thought we had a hip nailing this afternoon.”

  “We do.” Lydiah sighed and gave her mate a troubled look. “Thanks for bringing us lunch, sweetheart.”

  “Of course.” Teela gave her a tremulous smile. “I’d better be getting back home now. I have a lot to do this afternoon.”

  “You do that.” Lydiah gave her a warm hug and a swift kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you later tonight.”

  “See you.” Teela gave her a wan smile and began gathering up the remains of the casserole.

  Watching the drawn look on her face, Trey felt bad all over again. He wished he could find a way to get justice for her and all the victims who had suffered at the hands of the People’s Republic and their damn secret police squad, The EYE. He wished he could bring back Mia’s parents and restore Teela’s children to her.

  But for the moment, all he could do was the hip nailing he was scheduled for.

  He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was even more grateful now that Mia wasn’t what the PR considered “ideal.” He knew she had almost been raped but had somehow gotten away. But if she’d looked like Teela she would have had an even worse time in the brutal police state.

  His beast rumbled agreement and added that he would like to find the Ruling Council of the Republic and rip all their throats out.

  “All right now,” Trey told his other half, as he left the break area to go scrub in for his next surgery. “Violence isn’t the answer to everything, you know.”

  “It would be in this case!” the beast insisted.

  And for once, Trey was inclined to agree with him.

  Chapter Thirteen

  After she finished taking careful images of all the Kindred tech she could find, Mia finally settled down at the small desk and began studying. She felt bad about spying on Trey but what else could she do? She just hoped the images she sent back via her Mercy Star pin were enough to keep the Commandant happy…and keep Neemah out of trouble.

  She studied for several hours and picked a meal cube at random to make herself lunch in the re-hydrator—a strange but delicious meal made of long, crispy brown sticks and tiny, tart green berries—and then studied some more. She was relieved to see that there wasn’t much in the material she didn’t already know. Reviewing it couldn’t hurt, though, so she really applied herself. Though she hadn’t picked the profession of healer’s aide for herself but had been assigned to it by the Republic straight out of school, she really did love her job. Or she had before the Commandant had gotten
hold of her and forced her to…

  Nope—no use thinking about that. Resolutely, Mia shoved it from her mind. She had gone through all the material on the page Trey had pulled up for her twice. Maybe it was time for a little break.

  She pulled up a blank window as he had showed her and watched the tiny dot in the question box blink, as though daring her to look up anything she wanted—anything at all. But now that the whole world of information was open to her, Mia found she was drawing a blank. What did she want to know about? Then something Trey had said as he was leaving came back to her.

  Curiously she typed in “porn.”

  “Oh!” Mia gasped as a series of images flashed up on the screen—each more explicit than the last. She saw men and women partially unclothed and completely naked engaged in all kinds of positions and situations and almost all of them violated The Oath.

  Mia scrolled down the page—some of the pictures were shocking and some were off-putting but some…

  Her eyes were caught by a photograph of a man kneeling in front of a woman with her legs spread. The man was pressing his face between her thighs, his tongue out to lick her open pussy.

  The image made her tingly all over and she couldn’t help remembering that Trey had said he wanted to do that to her. Should she let him? It really didn’t count as seduction since it didn’t involve penetration.

  Except for maybe him penetrating your pussy with his tongue, whispered a naughty little voice in her head.

  The thought made her cheeks feel hot and between her thighs, she could feel herself getting hot and wet. God, this felt so forbidden, but she couldn’t help imagining Trey on his knees before her, lapping and kissing her pussy, giving her pleasure as he said he wanted to…

  She started to let her hand creep down to her pussy when the light from the screen caught on something shiny that winked at her, catching her attention. Looking down, Mia realized it was the gold Mercy Star pin she was still wearing on the lapel of the shirt Trey had loaned her.