by Nalini Singh
Also on the data crystal had been the damaging news that the Alliance was planning to set up its own shipping armada in competition with the mainly Psy conglomerates that currently controlled oceanic shipping. That, however, could be explained away as commercial aggressiveness. BlackSea had a fleet, too, but the clan wasn't interested in going after Psy-held contracts. The Alliance, in contrast, wanted to set itself up as a direct rival.
For that, they'd need BlackSea's cooperation.
And, as Hugo had pointed out, the only reason BlackSea had even considered the idea of friendship with humans was the vanishings. Yes, humans hadn't been the clan's first choice of ally when they realized they were being hunted, but a man who played a long game would be patient, would wait until BlackSea was desperate enough to stretch out a hand to humanity.
Bowen Knight struck her as that kind of a hunter.
That theory also perfectly explained the presence of ships from the tiny Alliance Fleet in BlackSea's territorial waters; the Fleet ships had been cunningly hidden among the fishing traffic, but Hugo was a comms expert. He'd tracked down beacons, gotten satellite locks, had absolute confirmation that Bowen Knight's ships had been in their waters when some of their people were taken.
The Alliance had played BlackSea for a fool.
The last and most painful item on the data crystal had been an image that showed the brutalized bodies of two of their vanished--on the deck of a vessel that bore the Alliance logo and was officially part of the Alliance Fleet.
She kept that damaging fact to herself because Mal had asked her to do so; he hadn't even informed the families of the victims about the Alliance involvement yet. Conscious that Kaia's anger was too hot a thing to be contained, he hadn't told her to keep Bowen in the dark about the allegations against the Fleet, just to not tell him the brutal extent of what they had.
"I want to be sure beyond any shadow of a doubt," he'd said, the pale, pale gold of his eyes like frozen sunlight. "We're talking about an act of war, Kaia. We cannot be wrong."
Kaia blinked back the burning at the backs of her eyes. "A large vessel wearing the Alliance Fleet logo was passing just beyond our territorial waters around the time Hugo was taken." Removing the creamed butter and sugar, she began to sift in the flour. "There are no records of any other vessels nearby. And it's not the first time Alliance vessels have been spotted near people who later disappeared, and a number of those vessels crept over BlackSea's border."
The fact that those incursions had been timed to avoid the clan's security sweeps added more fuel to the fire. That BlackSea had a traitor was an awful truth no one could ignore; Hugo's dossier made the link between that traitor and the Alliance as clear as glass. Luck couldn't explain the Fleet's faultless timing. "Hugo was the one who connected the dots between the vanishings and the Alliance Fleet--and now Hugo is gone."
A muscle pulsed along Bowen's jawline. "Do you have the data? I need to look at it myself, find out what the fuck is going on."
"You can ask Mal for it." Blood bubbling, she lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "Right now, you're just arguing with a cook."
"I don't think you're 'just' anything." Bowen was struggling to make sense of what Kaia had told him. If ships belonging to the small Alliance Fleet had truly skirted over BlackSea's territorial boundaries, then he had a serious problem--because all Fleet ships knew to give BlackSea space. The Fleet was also under the direct command of Heenali Roy, the Alliance's effective third in command and one of Bo's trusted knights.
His hand fisted on the counter. "Is there a comm I can use to contact Malachai?"
"The data panel in your room has a comm function." Picking up her organizer, she did something on the screen. "I've used my login to authorize you for full access." She put the organizer back down. "No point calling Mal right now, though."
"He still out searching for the vanished?"
"No." Her cousin and Miane had both come back furiously empty-handed. "He's gone for a swim."
Bowen had the feeling she wasn't talking about a few freestyle laps. "How do you know?" He glanced in the direction of the seaward wall, remembering how Malachai's eyes had gone from brown to an inhuman light gold, remembering, too, the sense of size around the other man. "Did you see him?"
"No, but one of the others did." Kaia had quickly rolled out the shortbread dough, now began to cut it into shapes with metal cookie cutters. "He'll probably be back in another two hours."
Containing his impatient frustration in a vicious grip, Bowen watched her competent yet graceful movements. "Is that what you think of me?" The realization hit him hard in the solar plexus, driving all the air from his lungs. "That I'm a monster who's behind the torture and deaths of your people?"
Her hand jerked, crushing the edge of the dough she'd been about to cut. She quickly nudged it back into shape and continued on. "You're a human stranger who's managed to create a relationship with BlackSea within two years of taking over the Alliance." She swapped the rectangle cutter for a circular one. "You also have a reputation for ruthless dedication to your goals."
Bowen clenched his jaw, tried to see things from her perspective. "You could say the same for Miane."
When she glanced up with lines marring her brow, he said, "Your alpha has managed to make an alliance with the two most powerful packs in the world despite BlackSea only recently breaking isolation. And I don't think either one of us will argue against her ruthlessness." Miane Leveque was a sleek, deadly predator.
Thrusting her prepared trays of shortbread into the oven, Kaia shut the door, then programmed the correct cooking temperature and time. The device started with a hum, the temperature racing from zero to the set number in a matter of seconds. "We didn't build a paramilitary army prior to seeking a relationship."
Bowen frowned. "Kaia, BlackSea has a massive number of men and women with military training. You also have armed submersibles, missile launchers capable of shooting down flying craft, jetboats, weaponized jet-choppers, hovercraft--the list is long and it's full of people and things that can kill."
Chapter 16
We will never again be prey.
--Tao Leveque, the founding First of BlackSea
BOWEN'S WORDS DIGGING into her brain and refusing to leave, Kaia began to throw together the ingredients for her second batch of cookies. And she kept thinking of Malachai and Armand, Teizo and Tevesi. All of them strong dominants. Mal as dangerous as Bowen Knight, the other three not far behind.
Armand was an expert at air defense, could pinpoint a target with laser accuracy, while Teizo and Tevesi were submersible experts--offensive and defensive.
"Our resources are necessary," she said at last. "Water changelings have been targeted and hurt through the centuries." Spread out as they were, they'd had no power and thus no one had respected their rights or territorial claims.
"Humans can't escape into water." Bowen's voice was hard. "We have to live on land where Psy can rape our minds and where strong changelings can take what's ours by force."
Horror uncurled in Kaia's gut. "To take forcibly from humans is against changeling law." Different rules applied between changeling groups--for a clan or pack wasn't meant to claim what it couldn't hold.
Bowen's lips tugged up in a humorless smile. "There are bad changelings just as there are bad humans." He rubbed at his face. "Two months before I was shot, I went in with our paramilitary team to protect an isolated human settlement against a violently aggressive group of changeling mountain lions. The fuckers had terrorized those people for days."
Staring frozen at him, Kaia whispered, "Did they hurt anyone?"
"Three men who went out to confront them." Bo got off the stool and began to pace, pressing his weight down on the cane with each jagged step. "All three were still in the hospital by the time I went off the bridge in Venice."
Kaia lifted trembling fingers to her mouth.
But Bowen wasn't done yet. "We tranqued the hell out of the bastards--should've shot them, but we're try
ing to build bonds, not break them. Took days to track down their pack, and when we did, their alpha told us the group had been made outclan." Shifting to face her, he said, "Because their alpha couldn't bring himself to execute members of his pack after they first committed crimes punishable by death, humans paid the price."
Dropping her hand, Kaia looked unseeing at the jar of raisins. "You need the fighters." It seemed so self-evident a truth when Bowen laid it out--but Hugo had seen a monstrous hunger for power in the Alliance's quiet increase in military capabilities. "Why so many?"
Bowen shoved a hand roughly through his hair. "We only have one main unit. The Alliance isn't big enough to spread out our might--we have to mobilize to multiple parts of the world as needed."
Meanwhile, BlackSea had a massive security presence on both Cifica and Lantia, as well as units on the smaller floating cities around the world. Kaia's inherent sense of fairness saw nothing wrong with humans having knives against a world that would otherwise step on them.
But . . . why would Hugo skew his report to make it sound as if the Alliance was gathering a vast army that could overwhelm BlackSea? All she could think was that he'd misunderstood what he was seeing--her friend was a comms and computronics expert, not well versed in security.
Maybe that was why Mal was being so careful; he must've realized that particular part of Hugo's dossier made no sense. Frowning, the ground no longer so solid beneath her feet, she removed Bowen's now-cold plate of food and slid the leftovers into the organic recycler. She got a fresh plate afterward, dished out an extra serving of the casserole he'd scraped off his plate.
"Eat," she said, putting the plate on the counter.
He glared at her. "We're having an argument."
"It's over." She needed time alone to think, couldn't do it with him in the room. "Eat or all you're getting from now on is gruel." Putting her hands on her hips, she dug up her sternest expression. "And no coconut walnut snowballs, either."
Bowen Knight stood unmoving, his gaze dark on her--but Kaia wasn't afraid. Neither was she in the grip of the black anger that had driven her to throw Hugo's evidence in his face. Confusion had fractured her certainty; the wrenching shift left a gap, and in that instant she felt something else rise up to fill it, a sudden madness fueled by a primal and visceral response she didn't want to acknowledge. Her blood surged, the other half of her diving agitatedly in the sea that was her soul, and her heart pumped.
Holding his gaze, she picked up a handful of walnuts and began to eat them one by one.
"Kaia." Fury continued to hum under his skin.
She crunched another walnut in deliberate provocation.
Eyes narrowed, he began to move . . . but he didn't go to his stool. No, he came around to her counter. And though she could've easily evaded him in his current state, she stood her ground. Even when he came so close that her breasts brushed his chest with every inhale.
His body heat kissed her skin, his chin dark with stubble. "You need to shave," she murmured, her fingers rising almost of their own volition to brush against the roughness.
Cane clattering to the floor, Bowen gripped her chin in one hand without warning and pressed his lips to her own.
Kaia stumbled back, her hands reaching behind her to land on the counter. He came with her. His body was a hard press against her front, his hand still gripping her jaw. But his lips, they were soft, coaxing. And where Kaia could've withstood harsh demand, she found herself sweet-talked by the luscious charm of his invitation of a kiss.
His scent infused her senses, warm and with a hint of the soap he'd used for his shower earlier, but mostly just Bowen. She didn't remember raising her hand again, but her fingers were fisted in his hair, and oh, it was as pettable as it looked. She wanted to--
A shriek of laughter.
Kaia jerked away from the kiss, glancing over her shoulder with her heart booming thunder. They remained alone--but from the noises getting closer, that wouldn't last much longer. Putting one hand on Bowen's chest and trying not to sense the living heat of him under the thin barrier of his shirt, she pushed.
He'd already braced one hand on the counter, didn't lose his balance. His hair was tumbled, his lips wet from their kiss, and his eyes . . . She wondered if her pupils were as hugely dilated.
Smoothing back her hair, she said, "Your food's getting cold."
* * *
*
BOWEN didn't trust himself to move. He'd kissed Kaia in a fit of temper, but that temper had died a quick death at the taste of her, at the feel of her. She was so sweetly curved and silky warm, and she tasted like walnuts and pure, provocative woman.
He wanted to sink into her, wanted to worship her with his mouth, his hands.
No kiss, no woman, had ever before made him lose it. Bo was fucking renowned for his control. More than one lover had left him after screaming that he might as well be Psy himself, he was such a cold bastard. Not even that had truly pricked his temper. He'd been annoyed and a little aggravated at what he'd seen as an unfair accusation, but fury so hot it made him see red?
No woman had ever aroused that kind of passion.
No woman but Kaia.
Back away, said the cold and analytical part of him that had been born in the gush of blood that hit his face after he drove a thin black pen into a telepath's carotid. That part had learned that emotional choices got a man nowhere when he was fighting a battle against an emotionless psychic race.
But even the Psy, another part of him whispered, have given up their chilly Silence. Kaleb Krychek, the most violently powerful telekinetic in the world, had a woman he adored so openly that there could be no doubt of his devotion. Silver Mercant was mated to a bear. The world was changing on a fundamental level . . . while Bo remained stuck in amber.
Chapter 17
I worry about you, Bo. You deserve a life beyond this fight for humanity. You deserve to fall in love and to travel the world with a carefree heart. You deserve to be more than an eternal soldier.
--Leah Knight (50) in a letter to her son, Bowen (19)
"I'LL GET IT," he said when Kaia moved to retrieve the cane for him. "I need to retrain all muscle groups."
Broken out of the loop of memory, he bent with care for his balance and picked up the cane. He didn't look at Kaia as he walked around the counter, but that did nothing to break the electric connection between them. And it did nothing to erase the cold, hard fact that in fourteen more days' time, Bowen Knight might cease to exist without ever having moved beyond the panicked terror of the thirteen-year-old boy he'd once been.
High-pitched giggles infiltrated the area almost two minutes after Kaia had pushed him away, the sound accompanied by more laconic voices. He looked over to see four teenagers entering the kitchen area. All four shot him quick, curious glances, but they were more interested in their own conversations.
"Aloha, Kaia!" they called out before wandering over to a corner of the kitchen proper and pulling on aprons.
Bo had meant to leave, give himself time to clear his head, decide what the fuck he was going to do about Kaia's accusation regarding the Alliance Fleet. As for Kaia herself . . . His abdomen clenched, his gaze going to her without his conscious volition. She'd just finished pulling both large trays of shortbread out of the oven.
The teens swarmed, but though she warned them off with swats of a tea towel, she also said, "Give the cookies five minutes to cool. After that, it's two each. Any more missing and I'll feed you cauliflower stew three days running."
A boy with pale, pale skin and a shock of blond hair twisted up his face, his forehead scrunched. "Might be worth it," he said slowly.
"I know you like cauliflower." Kaia tweaked his nose. "For you, it'd be a special meal of wilted kale."
Shuddering, the blond kid backed off--and Kaia slipped four cookies onto a saucer, then placed that saucer beside the food she'd dished out for Bowen. Unknowable dark eyes caught his. "I'll heat up the casserole for you."
And Bow
en didn't--couldn't--leave. Not even to save himself from the chaos churning in his blood and in his brain. Retaking his seat across from her, he inhaled the food she gave him, drank the coffee she poured, and ate the cookies she'd set aside for him.
Things deep inside his chest ached.
* * *
*
A RIPPLE in the air currents against Kaia's skin, like the kiss of water, followed by the sonic awareness of a familiar presence entering the kitchen. Atalina. She barely stopped herself from putting her hands on the counter and shuddering, her calf muscles threatening to knot from the sudden release of tension.
The juveniles' chatter had helped, but the four were involved in their own talk as they worked on their set tasks and paid little attention to Bowen and Kaia. It left them in a bubble of privacy that wanted to wrench things out of her she wasn't ready to see, to confront.
Reminding herself that he was the enemy was doing nothing to block her memory of that kiss that shouldn't have happened, or her awareness of his quiet, intense presence. Not after he'd so categorically negated one of Hugo's conclusions.
And he hadn't done it with pretty justifications but with facts she could check.
Hugo would've warned her that Bowen was putting on an act, manipulating her, but every part of her rebelled against the idea of it. Bowen Knight had consigned himself to a ninety-five percent chance of a living death in order to find even the possibility of an answer for the people he most loved.
Kaia couldn't believe a man with that much courage and honor would stain his soul with the ugliness of lies upon lies upon lies. Because if she believed he was a liar, then she had to believe their kiss had been a lie from start to finish. A kiss in which she'd felt his body harden against hers, had heard the thudding beat of his pulse, felt the voracious hunger of his mouth.
"Good, you're up." Atalina's face was flushed with health, her eyes bright. "It's time for a complete evaluation, starting with a comprehensive scan."
Bowen had cleared his plate and eaten two of the cookies. He threw the third into his mouth and grabbed the fourth before rising from the stool. "Thank you for feeding me, Kaia."