by Anna Zaires
Getting up, Korum pulled on his clothes and began walking home. It would be a lengthy walk, but he was in no rush. Mia was there, and, for the first time ever, he was less than eager to see her.
He would have to tell her what he learned today. She would want to know, would want to make her own decisions about what to do next.
And if she chose to leave him, he would have to let her go.
Even if it killed him to do so.
* * *
Mia exited the house and walked to the transport pod that was waiting for her. She’d messaged Adam from her wristwatch-bracelet device, and the K had agreed to meet with her, sending his little aircraft to pick her up and take her to the lab.
Getting in, Mia settled on one of the floating seats, feeling it adjusting around her. She was getting so used to K technology that she didn’t even have to think about how to use anything – it was all starting to seem perfectly natural to her.
She was curious to meet her former partner and dive back into that part of her life in Lenkarda. She had found a few recordings where Adam was explaining something, and she had been impressed with not only his intelligence, but also his ability to take complex subjects and put them in simple, easy-to-understand terms.
Two minutes later, she landed in a clearing in front of a mid-sized building that looked like it had been through something extraordinary. The walls were partially gone, as though something had melted them from the top down, but the interior looked perfectly intact.
Adam was standing there, waiting for her. As Mia emerged from the pod, he smiled – a bright and genuine smile that lit up his handsome face. He had what Mia was coming to think of as typical K coloring: dark hair and eyes and that beautifully bronzed skin.
“Well, howdy there, partner,” he said, his eyes crinkling attractively at the corners. “I heard our boss turned out to be Doctor Evil and practiced some of his craft on you.”
Mia grinned, immediately liking this Krinar. “Yep, you heard right. You leave for a week and that’s what happens.”
“So you don’t remember me now?” he asked, his expression becoming more serious. “How much did he wipe out?”
“When I woke up here a couple of days ago, my latest memories were from March,” Mia explained, watching as the K’s jaw tightened.
“That fucking bastard,” Adam said, anger seeping into his voice. “I’m sorry, Mia. I wish I’d been here –”
Mia waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t be silly. Nobody suspected anything; he was too good. He even managed to sneak into the fight yesterday and almost kill Korum.”
“Yeah, I heard about that too,” Adam said. “I watched the recording of the fight this morning.”
“Oh, right.” Mia tried not to blush. If Adam had seen the fight, then he might’ve also watched the celebration afterwards.
“Do you want to go inside?” Adam asked, motioning toward the ruined building. “I think we can extract a lot of the files and data. I spoke with the other apprentices, and they’re fine with it.”
“Sure,” Mia said quickly, grateful for the change of subject.
Walking up to the building, they climbed through a ragged opening in one of the walls. The usual wall-dissolving mechanism appeared to be malfunctioning – which was hardly surprising, considering the condition of the building.
“What’s going to happen to the lab?” Mia asked when they were inside. “What’s the normal protocol for something like this?”
Adam shrugged. “There is no normal protocol. This lab is Saret’s, so technically we’re now trespassing on his property. Although I think the government might own it now, given Saret’s crimes. I’m not really sure how these things work. My best guess is that most of the information will be transferred to the labs in the other Centers – and maybe some other mind expert will want to open a new lab here in Lenkarda.”
“What about you? Why don’t they have you take over the lab?”
“Me?” Adam raised his eyebrows. “I’m too young and inexperienced as far as they’re concerned.”
“You are?” Mia looked at him in surprise. He looked to be a man in his prime, outwardly similar to Korum. “How old are you?”
“Oh, that’s right, I almost forgot that you don’t remember.” Adam smiled. “I’m twenty-eight, only a few years older than you. I am also a fairly recent arrival in the Centers. I grew up in a human family, you see.”
“You did?” Mia’s eyes went wide. “How?”
“I was adopted as an infant,” Adam said. “Now why don’t we start going through some of Saret’s files and see if there’s anything useful there? Maybe we can shed some light on your condition.”
Mia was dying to ask more questions about Adam’s origins, but he didn’t seem to be in a mood to talk about it, so she focused on the task at hand instead. Adam showed her how to operate some of the lab equipment, and they began digging through mountains of information, searching for anything memory-related.
Six hours later, Mia got up and rubbed her neck, her brain feeling like it would explode from everything she’d learned today. Adam was still as focused as ever, going through file after file with no trace of tiredness.
Hearing Mia’s movements, he looked up from the image he was studying and gave her a warm smile. “You should go home, Mia. It’s getting late. I’ll work here some more, and then I’ll leave as well.”
Mia hesitated. “Are you sure?” She was mentally exhausted and starving, but she felt bad leaving Adam on his own.
“Of course,” Adam said. “Now go. This is plenty for today.”
* * *
Korum paced in the living room, too wound up to sit still. When he had gotten home an hour earlier and found the house empty, his immediate thought had been that something had happened to Mia – that Saret had found a way to get to her after all.
Of course, that wasn’t the case. A quick check had revealed her location, and then it had been easy to access the satellite images and see her talking to Adam outside Saret’s lab several hours earlier. Still, those few seconds before Korum had been assured of her safety had chilled him to the bone.
Now he was fighting an urge to go to the lab and bring Mia home. He wanted to hold her and feel the warmth of her body in his arms, maybe for the last time. Once he told her the truth about her condition, she would be more than justified in wanting to leave him. As terrible as her memory loss had been, the other procedure was far more invasive, altering her brain in a way that she would likely find unforgivable. Now she would never know if the way she felt about Korum – or about anything in general – was real or if it was a result of what Saret had done.
A dark temptation gnawed at Korum. What if he didn’t tell her? What if she continued in blissful ignorance, happy with her life as it was? Other than Saret and Korum, no one else knew the truth. He could keep her, and she would love him – and he would be the only one to know it wasn’t real love.
A couple of months earlier, Korum wouldn’t have hesitated. He had wanted her, and he’d simply taken her, disregarding her wishes. If he had been faced with this dilemma then, it would’ve been an easy decision to make: keep her and all else be damned. But he couldn’t do that anymore, couldn’t treat her like a child or a pet, as she’d once accused him of doing. He wanted her to stay, but it had to be of her own free will – even if that free will had been somewhat tampered with.
No, he had to tell her, and he had to do it soon.
Finally, Korum saw a pod landing outside. Mia came out, and the aircraft took off, heading back to wherever it came from.
Despite his black mood, Korum couldn’t help smiling as she entered the house. She was dressed in a cream-colored dress that left most of her back bare, and her dark hair was pinned up in a thick, messy knot. The hairstyle was surprisingly sexy, exposing her delicate nape and drawing his attention to the elegant column of her throat.
“Honey, I’m home,” she said, grinning from ear to ear.
Unable to help hi
mself, Korum laughed and picked her up, bringing her up for a thorough kiss.
When he lowered her back to her feet, her smile was almost blinding. She looked at him as though he was her entire world – and Korum’s heart felt like it would shatter into a million pieces.
“How was your day, my sweet?” he asked, his hands still holding her waist.
“It was great,” she said, still grinning. “I met Adam again. He’s very nice. I like him a lot.”
Korum felt a surge of jealousy, but he tamped down on it, refusing to give in to the emotion. Mia had always liked her partner, but, as far as Korum knew, her feelings were entirely platonic. Besides, the young K already had a human he was obsessed with; Korum had found that out during a background check he’d done on Adam shortly after Mia started working with him.
“We did a lot of digging through Saret’s files,” Mia continued, her eyes shining with excitement. “Adam thinks we might learn something useful about my condition this way.”
At that moment, her stomach rumbled and her cheeks turned pink in response, making Korum smile. “I’m guessing someone’s hungry,” he teased.
“Busted,” she said, laughing.
Smiling, Korum let her go and headed to the kitchen. A few minutes later, they were sitting down to a meal of grilled vegetable sandwiches with miso-avocado dip.
Mia quickly devoured everything on her plate, and so did he, his appetite strong after his swim earlier today. For dessert, Korum had the house make them a kiwi-mango pie with a crust made of ground macadamia nuts – and tea for Mia.
As they were enjoying the treat, Korum reached across the table and took her hand, stroking the middle of her palm with his thumb. “Mia,” he said quietly, “there’s something I have to tell you.”
She froze for a second, apparently reacting to the serious note in his voice. “What is it?”
“I spoke to Saret today,” Korum said, his fingers tightening around her palm. “He didn’t just wipe out your recent memories. He also did something to make you . . . more accepting of things.”
* * *
Mia stared at her lover, unable to believe what she was hearing. “What? What does that mean?”
“He called it ‘softening’,” Korum said, and the expression on his face was grim. “It was apparently a way to make you more amenable to his advances. If he didn’t lie about it, you don’t experience fear as strongly as you did before . . . and you’re also more open to new impressions.”
Mia frowned. “I don’t understand. How would this have helped Saret?”
“Because you’re not only more open to new impressions – which explains why you’re acclimating so well – but you’re also prone to new attachments.” Korum’s mouth was tight with anger.
“New attachments?” And then it dawned her. “He thought I would fall in love with him? That’s insane!” She laughed, inviting him to share the joke.
Korum didn’t respond, and her amusement faded. “Wait a second,” she said slowly. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?
“I’m sorry, Mia. I really wish it wasn’t true.”
Automatically shaking her head, Mia pulled her hand out of his grasp and rose to her feet. “But that’s ridiculous,” she said. “Are you saying that I’m not myself? That everything I think and feel is a product of some madman’s procedure? That what I feel for you isn’t real?”
Korum got up as well. “It’s all my fault,” he said, his voice heavy with guilt. “I should’ve been there. I should’ve protected you from him –”
“No.” Mia refused to believe this. “How do you know he wasn’t lying? Wouldn’t it make sense for him to lie?”
“It would,” Korum said. “It would make all the sense in the world. And that’s why I want to have you seen by the mind lab in Arizona. We’ll go there tomorrow.”
“But you don’t think he’s lying.”
“No.” Korum gave her a pained look. “I don’t.”
“Why not?” Mia whispered, her voice starting to shake.
“Because you haven’t been fully yourself, my sweet,” he said gently. “The differences are subtle, but they’re there. You’ve noticed it too, haven’t you?”
Mia sucked in her breath. She had. Of course she had. She’d wondered at how well she was adjusting to her new world, to living in an alien colony with a lover she’d just met. A lover who was now as necessary to her as food and air.
“Couldn’t there be a different explanation for this?” Mia knew she was clutching at straws, but the alternative was too much to process. “What if my memories aren’t really gone? What if they’re still there, suppressed somewhere deep inside? That would explain everything: why I feel so comfortable here, why I’m learning so fast, why I fell in love with you –”
Korum closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, his gaze was bleak. “You didn’t, Mia. You didn’t fall in love with me. You barely know me.”
“But if I still remember you on some level –”
He drew in a deep breath. “You don’t, my sweet. Ellet ran tests on you before you woke up, and there were signs of damage consistent with a memory loss. I really wish it were otherwise, believe me.”
Mia blinked, swallowing hard to contain the growing knot in her throat. He thought she was damaged. Defective. Incapable of real emotions. “So what now?”
“It’s your decision,” Korum said, his voice oddly flat. “You can either stay with me or return to your old life.”
“Return to my old life?” She could barely say the words. “You . . . Y-you want me to go?”
“What? No!” He looked startled at the idea. “Of course I don’t want you to go. You’re my entire life now, don’t you understand that?”
Mia almost shuddered with relief. He still wanted her, despite the damage from the procedure.
“You are my entire life as well,” she told him. “I know you think the way I feel is the result of what Saret did, but I don’t believe it. I loved you before, despite everything that happened between us, and I fell in love with you again in these past couple of days. You may not think it’s real, but I know my own mind. Yes, I noticed I’m not reacting to things as I would’ve expected, but so what? Isn’t it a good thing that I’m learning so fast? That I’m becoming as comfortable in Lenkarda as I was once in New York? Even if it is a result of Saret’s procedure, it doesn’t change the fact that that’s how I am now – that that’s the way I think and feel. It doesn’t make my emotions any less strong . . . or any less real.”
As she spoke, the little grooves of tension bracketing his mouth began to dissipate. “Are you sure, Mia?” he asked, his eyes filling with familiar golden heat. “Is this what you really want?”
“To be with you? Yes!” Mia had never been more certain of anything in her life. The thought of leaving him, of going back home and never seeing him again, was unbearable. When she’d thought he was dead, she had wanted to die too. Life without Korum was not worth living.
“Then you will be with me.” His voice was rough, his hands hurried as they reached for her and pulled her into his arms.
His mouth was ravenous, like he wanted to consume her, and Mia responded in kind, her hunger matching his. She ached for his touch, his embrace. The shocking ecstasy of their post-Arena lovemaking had left her wrung out, drained, and yet she already wanted more. More of Korum, more of the magic.
His hands were frantic on her body, ripping off the dress, leaving it lying in shreds on the floor. His clothes met the same fate. Before she could blink, she found herself pressed against the wall, her thighs spread wide as he lifted her up, rubbing his erection against her bare sex.
“Fuck,” he growled. His expression was that of a man in pain, his breathing harsh and uneven. “I have to be inside you, Mia. Now.”
“Yes,” she whispered, holding his blazing gaze. “Yes . . . please . . .”
As though she had given him permission, he plunged into her, his shaft unbearably thick and long, s
tretching her, filling her to the brim. Mia cried out, the pleasure-pain of his possession as intense as it was startling. With the way he was holding her, she was completely open to him, unable to control the depth of his penetration in any way. He was in so deep she could feel him nudging against her cervix, her channel tightening in a futile effort to keep him out.
He paused for a brief second, letting her catch her breath, and then he began hammering into her, his thrusts pressing her into the wall. Mia moaned, her body overwhelmed by the sensations. There was no slow build, no gradual transition from discomfort to pleasure; instead, the orgasm hit her suddenly, her inner muscles spasming around his cock with no warning.
He groaned, his pace picking up further, and she climaxed again with a scream, unable to control her body’s helpless response. Her skin was too hot, and she was panting, gasping for breath, but he was relentless, driving her toward her third peak mere minutes after her second.
And just when Mia thought she couldn’t take anymore, he came with a savage roar, his head thrown back and his cock pulsing deep inside her.
* * *
The next morning, Korum waited impatiently as Haron – the mind expert in the Arizona Center – carefully examined Mia.
She was lying on a float, her eyes closed and her expression relaxed. She had been lightly sedated to allow for a more thorough examination of her brain. Haron was brushing her hair back, exposing more of her forehead to attach his equipment there.
Korum had given the other male permission to touch her in this instance, but he still felt like ripping him apart for it. He had been equally angry to learn of Arus restraining her during the fight, even though he knew it had been for Mia’s own protection. The territorial instinct was primitive – and completely irrational given the circumstances – but Korum couldn’t help it. When it came to Mia, he was no more evolved than an amoeba.