Twisted: Brides of the Kindred 23

by Evangeline Anderson

  “Many things are not fair, warrior.” The powerful but gentle female voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. From the rustling trees and the softly babbling brook that flowed nearby—even from the silvery moonlight that poured down from above.

  “Goddess? Mother of All Life?” Instinctively, Malik fell to his knees. He felt her holy presence all around him and knew he must show respect.

  “My son…” The voice was gentle now. “You have worked long and sacrificed much to fulfill the difficult task I set you. And now you ask why you are still here, instead of with me in the heavens?”

  “I don’t understand,” Malik admitted. “I thought I was supposed to fade away when this was all done. But I’ve been wandering around for a week and I’m still here—only I have no place here anymore. Uriel Two no longer feels like my home.”

  “That is because your home is where your heart is and that is no longer here,” the Goddess murmured. “And the reason you remain in this time, instead of fading, is the bond you formed during the last part of your quest.”

  “With Nicole,” Malik breathed and the sorrow and loss he’d been fighting to hold back threatened to overwhelm him.

  He’d thought about taking a ship and going to Earth to try and find her but he knew the Nicole he found would be different—wouldn’t be the woman he had bonded with. The time device he had used on the Knower had blown him ten cycles into the past. Even if she found Nicole in this time, she would be ten years younger and still tied to her mate—unworthy bastard though he was.

  He might have been able to woo her away, but it wouldn’t be the same as being with the Nicole he knew—the one who had gone through so much with him—who had taken him and been taken by him—who had loved him so much she was willing to give him up to save his planet from destruction and doom. That Nicole wasn’t here—would never be here because the past was now changed. He had changed it—for the better.

  But he had paid a heavy price to do so.

  “Yes, warrior—with Nicole,” the Goddess murmured. “Though the love you felt was of a short duration, it was very strong—strong enough to anchor you to reality, even when the reality you knew was swept away, never to return.”

  “Please Goddess, if I can’t be with her, take me home to be with you,” Malik pleaded, his voice hoarse. “I can bear the pain of our broken bond no longer. It is as though someone has cut out half my heart and I cannot go on without it.”

  “I will give you a choice, Warrior,” the Goddess’s voice said. “The Nicole you knew and bonded with still lives, but now the events the two of you shared remain only in her mind as shadow memories.”

  “Shadow memories?” Malik echoed.

  “Yes. She has forgotten you with her mind, but not with her heart.” The Goddess spoke seriously. “I cannot promise you will be able to remind her of the things you shared or bring her back to you, but I am willing to let you try, if you like. If not, I will take you to your eternal reward—you have certainly earned it.”

  Malik’s reply was immediate and definite.

  “I want to try! Please, Goddess—let me try,” he begged hoarsely.

  “She has three sons who need a father, now that theirs has been taken,” the Goddess said warningly. “Will you be to them what the man who originally fathered them was not?”

  “I swear I will,” Malik said fervently. “I told Nicole as much myself. You know I will be a good father to them, Goddess.”

  “I know that you will. You are faithful, my son. Your world could only be saved by the supreme sacrifice—the sacrifice of life and of love so great it breaks the bearer of it,” the Goddess murmured. “You made that sacrifice, and I know how difficult it was. I am well pleased with you.”

  The Goddess’s voice was soft and full of caring—it washed over him like a wave and for a moment, Malik simply breathed, and let himself realize how completely the Mother of All Life loved her children, of which he was one. Then she spoke again.

  “It will not be easy, but I believe if you approach your bonded mate carefully, she will remember you and the shadow memories will come back to her in time,” she told him. “I have arranged with the Time Warden to transport you forward ten cycles, to Nicole’s home world of Earth. From there, what happens is up to you.”

  “Thank you for this chance, Goddess. I won’t waste it.” Malik lifted his face to the sky, feeling gratitude pour through him. “Thank you.”

  “You are welcome, my son,” she murmured. “I will be watching. Now go through the door. Soon you will be with your bonded mate again.”

  What door? Malik started to ask but when he turned his head, he saw a shining line of light drawing itself, as though by some invisible hand, right in the middle of the Sacred Grove. As he watched, the brilliant golden light widened until it resembled a door standing ajar right there among the trees.

  Wonder filled him and he stumbled to his feet and through the door, expecting to find himself at once in Nicole’s world of ten cycles in the future…

  Instead, he found himself in a small, bare room furnished only with a simple wooden table and one wooden chair. On the chair, perched a small male dressed in strange clothing with flowering designs on it. The male was working on something small and bright that seemed to be all colors and no color at once. No matter how he stared at it, Malik couldn’t seem to make out what it was.

  He knew at once where he was because he had been here before, when he was given the device that would reverse time on his planet and destroy the Knower. But it wasn’t what he had been expecting.

  “Time Warden!” he exclaimed, looking at the little male, who didn’t seem to be inclined to acknowledge him. “What am I doing here? Where’s Earth?”

  “Well you’re an impatient one, aren’t you?” The little male looked up and Malik saw that he had a pair of wire and glass oculars perched on the end of his sharply pointed nose. “It’s good to see you again,” he added. “The Goddess has asked me to grant you a special dispensation to travel through both time and space.”

  “I thank you,” Malik said eagerly. “Can you send me to Earth?”

  “In good time—all in good time. I have all of it—all the time I need or you need or anyone needs, really,” the Time Warden said. “But before I send you off, I have a warning for you to pass on, I’m afraid.”

  “A warning?” Malik frowned. “A warning for who? About what?”

  The Time Warden sighed and for the first time, Malik realized that the little male looked incredibly weary.

  “It has to do with the ripples caused in the space-time continuum when we changed the fate of your planet,” he said. “Billions…trillions of time threads had to be re-worked and re-woven. Indeed, I have been working on this project for as long as you have been on your quest—for the last ten cycles. It has been a momentous job.”

  “I’m sure it has.” Malik nodded respectfully. He couldn’t even begin to comprehend what the Time Warden did but changing the fate of an entire planet and the two billion souls who occupied it couldn’t have been easy, even with the Goddess’s help.

  “Anyway, I did all I could but there was one thread I couldn’t tie up.” The Time Warden took off the spindly-looking oculars and pinched the bridge of his long, narrow nose. It was a gesture of frustration and exhaustion, Malik thought.

  “What thread was that?” he asked, frowning.

  The Time Warden looked up at him.

  “Moments before you activated the device I gave you, the Knower projected itself into one of its Replicants—as it is able to do, as you know. I say one of its Replicants but it may be more than one,” he added, grimacing. “The time thread is unclear on that point. It may even have projected its consciousness into another entity entirely—some other being with artificial intelligence like a Replicant—another body capable of housing an AI. Again, the time thread is very blurred.”

  “Yes, but all of the Replicants were destroyed,” Malik protested. “I saw it happen myself. They never
were and never will be, now that the future has been changed.”

  “Ah, but the Knower didn’t project itself into one of the Replicants on Uriel Two,” the Time Warden said. “It sent itself further—much further than that. The one projection I was able to follow led to the Cantha System. Though as I say, there may be more out there as well.”

  “What? But how can that be?” Malik demanded. “If the Knower was destroyed then those Replicants should never have existed either.”

  “Remember how I explained it to you—that a change in time is like a rock dropped into a still pond?” the Warden asked, frowning. “And that the further away a place is from the point of impact where the time change happened, the less the ripples affect it?”

  “Yes.” Malik frowned. “So you’re saying that because the Cantha System is on the other end of the galaxy from Uriel Two, it wasn’t affected by the time change?”

  “Unfortunately not.” The Time Warden sighed and pinched his nose again. “I tried and tried but the Knower got ahead of me—I couldn’t tie off its thread.” He looked extremely frustrated. “And that means that the Kindred are still in danger—for the Knower blames you and your kind for its near destruction and the loss of its planet. It will seek revenge.”

  “Must I go and seek it out?” Malik asked, lifting his chin. “I will if I have to, although my heart is with my bonded mate, back on Earth.”

  “No, no.” The Time Warden shook his head. “No, the Goddess has told me that your part is done. You have sacrificed much already. This quest must be passed to someone else. But it isn’t only a quest to find the Knower.”

  “It’s not?” Malik shook his head. “Then what—?”

  “The Shannom-rah was also blown into the space time continuum,” the Time Warden told him. “It must be recovered before the Knower can get it. Without the Shannom-rah, it cannot complete its single-minded mission of transferring the living personalities of the Kindred into artificial hosts it can control and manipulate.”

  “My mate, Nicole, seemed to think it wanted to ‘play’ with its Replicants like a child plays with dolls,” Malik said thoughtfully.

  “I do not know its motivation—I only know the time thread it is on. And the thread I see right now is very grim.” The Time Warden frowned. “Someone must stop it and the best way would be to find the Shannom-rah and hide or destroy it before the Knower can get it.”

  “I will convey your warning to Commander Sylvan of the Kindred of the Mother Ship,” Malik promised.

  “Very good. I was going to send you to the Mother Ship anyway,” the Time Warden told him. “It is a good place for you to get grounded before you try to find your mate.”

  “Could I not try to find her first and then warn Commander Sylvan?” Malik couldn’t help it—he was dying to see Nicole again. The week they had spent apart felt much longer to him.

  “I’m afraid that would be a poor idea,” the Time Warden said. “You see, only living flesh can travel through time. And since your mate has only shadow memories of you, if you were to suddenly appear before her completely nude, stepping out of the middle of thin air…”

  “Ah.” Malik nodded. “I see your point. Very well—send me to the Mother Ship first. I’ve waited this long to see Nicole, I must be patient a little longer.”

  He just hoped he could awaken her memories of him and the time they had spent together—time which now only existed in his own mind and hers since the timeline that it had included had been tied off and closed forever.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  “You have a new client wanting to see that listing out in Lutz,” her boss informed Nikki the moment she walked in the door. He grinned at her. “I think your reputation as a star Realtor is growing—he asked for you by name.”

  “He did?” Nikki frowned. “Did he say who he was referred by?”

  “He just said a satisfied client.” Mr. Ray shrugged his pudgy shoulders and grinned again. “That listing is a nice one—hopefully he’ll make an offer.”

  “Hopefully,” Nikki murmured, trying to smile. Lately the sadness and sense of loss she felt had been growing. She was trying not to let it affect her work or her time with her boys but it wasn’t easy.

  “So he’d like to see the property at ten today if possible,” her boss told her. “Oh, and his name is Mr. Malik.”

  “What? What did you say?” Nikki felt a sudden wave of dizziness wash over her. She had to grab for the back of her desk chair to keep from toppling over.

  “Whoa—hey, are you okay?” Mr. Ray caught her arm to steady her. “What happened?”

  “Sorry, just…” Nikki groped for an explanation. “I just didn’t eat breakfast today, that’s all,” she said lamely. “I’ll grab a protein bar on the way over there. It’s almost ten now.”

  “If you’re sure you’re going to be all right. I can always send Missy instead,” Mr. Ray said.

  “No!” Nikki exclaimed, so vehemently that her boss stared at her.

  “All right,” he said, chuckling. “I understand you two have a little friendly competition—I just don’t want you driving off the road, that’s all.”

  “I’ll make it,” Nikki said fervently. “It’s Mr. Malik, right?” The name tasted familiar on her tongue, like a flavor she had once known intimately but hadn’t had in years.

  “That’s what he said. You have the key to the lock box?” Mr. Ray asked.

  Nikki nodded. “I’ll go right away.”

  And before her boss could say another word she was out the door and on her way.

  As she drove, Nikki tried to understand why the strange name stirred her so strongly. Why it seemed to give her a sense of hope when, for the past two weeks, she’d been feeling utterly hopeless.

  Though she tried not to show it, the emptiness and loss inside her had been growing for days, ever since she’d gotten back to Earth, in fact. Though her career was doing well, she was financially set, and her boys were all behaving for the first time in years, she couldn’t seem to be happy.

  Oh, she faked it well enough for her boys. She was the only parent they had left so she had to be strong, she told herself. But inside it felt like a black hole had opened where her heart should be and it was sucking all the light and joy out of her life.

  I’m depressed, Nikki told herself. I should get some therapy. But what could she tell a therapist? That she was missing someone she couldn’t even remember? That her heart felt as though it had been cut in two and was only working at half- capacity? None of it made sense and yet she couldn’t seem to stop feeling this way—couldn’t seem to climb out of the dark pit of despair she had somehow fallen into.

  But that name—Malik—for some reason it seemed to shine a ray of sun down into the pit. Nikki didn’t know why, she only knew she had to see the man attached to it—had to know why just the mention of his name made her feel lighter than she had in weeks.

  The house was a two story with an unusual interior design which brought in lots of interested buyers. When Nikki pulled up in front, she saw that a sleek silver car like nothing she had ever seen before was already parked in the driveway. Out of it stepped an extremely tall man with long, wheat colored hair that hung to his shoulders. When he turned to her, his eyes caught the sunlight and for a moment they almost seemed to flash silver.

  The man with silver eyes! It’s him! whispered a little voice in her head. Nikki had the sudden crazy impulse to run and throw her arms around him but she stopped herself at the last minute. What was wrong with her? This was a client and he was expecting his Realtor to act professional.

  He was wearing the uniform of a Kindred warrior, she saw—tight black trousers tucked into tall black boots and a silver-gray uniform shirt made of some thick, silky material that looked like satin but probably wasn’t.

  “Nicole?” he asked as she came towards him. “I mean, Mrs. Davis?”

  “Oh, please call me Nikki. And you must be Mr. Malik.” Nikki gave him her brightest smile, though her hand was sh
aking as she extended it to shake.

  “Just Malik.” The Kindred enclosed her hand in a much larger one and simply held it for a moment, looking deeply into her eyes.

  It was an uncomfortable but somehow compelling moment. There was something about his touch…something about the way he was looking at her…

  I know him, Nikki thought but that was as crazy as her impulse to hug him had been. Of course she didn’t know him. She’d seen a few Kindred around town, since Tampa had an HKR building and they regularly called brides from the Bay area, but she’d never met one in person—especially not this one. She was certain she’d remember him if she had.

  But I do remember him—I do! insisted that little voice in her head.

  Nikki pushed it away.

  “So, you’re interested in living down here on Earth instead of the Mother Ship?” she asked, still giving him her bright, artificial smile. “I must say, that’s very nice.”

  “Yes…yes, I suppose it is.” The big Kindred released her hand and Nikki thought she saw a flicker of disappointment in his silvery-gray eyes. He looked like a man who had been expecting something and didn’t get it. But what was he expecting?

  “If you’d like to come this way…” she said, fumbling with the key as she tried to get it into the lock box on the front door. Her hands were shaking so badly that she couldn’t, though. The key just kept chattering around the keyhole as though she was drunk or had some kind of palsy.

  “Here—let me.” The big Kindred reached out and took the key from her hand. Carefully, he fit it into the lock and turned it.

  “Oh, thank you.” Nikki gave a breathless little laugh. God, what was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she act normal around him? He was going to think she was high or crazy or something!