“We must not give it a chance to activate its rescue beacon or self-destruct,” Merrick said as the Xanti turned toward them with Berta’s body and looked at them with Berta’s eyes.
“Oh, I am so glad you have arrived at last,” the Xanti said, using Berta’s voice. “This man kidnapped me and brought me here so that...that thing lying over there could try to take my place. I injured it, but you should kill it, quickly, before it gets up.”
“Are you ready?” Merrick asked.
“Ready,” Tor replied.
“Go,” Jerri said.
Merrick smiled inwardly as he stepped forward with one clawed foot and, as fast as a striking snake, he bit down on the Xanti’s head with his sharp, curved beak and crushed it. He stepped back almost as quickly, but in the short span of time it had taken him to destroy the Xanti’s head, both Tor and Jerri had shifted into their humanoid forms. Tor wrapped the makina tightly in a hardened shell of air that prevented it from so much as twitching. At the same time, Jerri hardened the air within the makina, preventing the true Xanti inside from moving as well.
Merrick shifted to his humanoid form and reached out with his own Air Magic to help strengthen what his brothers had done. When they were certain that the Xanti could not possibly move, they turned their attention to Sergio. They did not know who he was, or if he was friend or foe, so must deal with him before tending to Berta.
“How did you know which one of them was real?” Sergio asked, watching the three of them with wide eyes.
“What did it do to Berta?” Merrick demanded of Sergio while Tor stepped away and tapped his vox.
“She’s been drugged,” Sergio said, carefully omitting his role in that. “The Xanti said it would kill her within an hour. That’s all I know about it.”
Within moments the Bearens, the Dracons and the Lobos appeared, each Bearen touching one of the Lobos since the Lobos did not have the power to speed-travel on their own. Satisfied that the others could manage the scene, Merrick turned his back on Sergio and hurried toward Berta. He knelt down beside her, relieved to see that her eyes were open and appeared to be alert.
“Can you move?” he asked her gently, the worry in his violet eyes causing her heart to skip a beat. She blinked her eyes once, slowly, since it was the only thing she could move.
Merrick smiled at her. “One blink means no, two means yes?” he asked.
She blinked twice.
“Does this man have more to do with this than he’s saying?”
Two blinks.
“Does he know what the drug is that was used on you?”
Berta hesitated a moment, then blinked once.
“We have some ability with Water Magic,” Merrick said as Tor knelt down on her other side. “That’s healing magic. Will you allow us to check you?”
She blinked twice, and Merrick closed his eyes and reached out to her with his Water magic. What he found scared him.
He opened his eyes and leaned down, his mouth close to hers. “Berta Simms,” he said softly. “I will not lie to you. It is very bad. Will you allow us to perform the transformation on you to save your life if there is no other option?”
Berta blinked her eyes three times. Merrick frowned. She blinked three times again. He looked at Tor, then Jerri who had joined them and now knelt beside him, but both shook their heads.
Jackson Bearen knelt beside Tor. “How is she?”
“The drug she was injected with is blocking her body’s neural and electrical activity,” Merrick told him. “Before long her heart will be unable to beat, and she will not be able to breathe.” When he was finished, he explained about the eye blinking. Jackson smiled.
“She will allow you to perform the transformation,” Jackson said. “She just wants you to know that it’s not just because it will save her life.”
“How do you know this?” Tor asked.
“Because I know Berta,” Jackson replied. “I know what she’s been through, and I know how stubborn she is. She would gladly die a hundred times rather than willingly tie herself to any man, or male-set, that she did not want to spend her life with.”
Merrick looked into Berta’s eyes. “Is that correct?”
She blinked twice and something inside of Merrick seemed to loosen. She wanted to be with them. She’d already made up her mind about that. She didn’t love them, of course. He knew that. They all did. But she wanted to give them a chance. It was enough.
Berta’s eyes closed, and didn’t open again. Merrick’s breath caught in fear, but her chest still rose and fell. Suddenly, he remembered that there was a Healer on the ranch. “Jackson, can you speed-travel her to the Healer?” he asked.
“I could, but he’s in Badia today,” Jackson said. “It might take time to find him though.”
“I don’t think there’s time for that,” Prince Garen said as he knelt down at Berta’s head. He placed one hand lightly on her forehead and closed his eyes. After a moment he opened them and shook his head. “Merrick, if you do not want to lose your Arima, you must inject her immediately. There is no time to lose.”
“But...,” Merrick said, thinking that surely there was time enough to fetch the Healer when it took only seconds to speed travel to Badia and back again.
“We could get there and back in time,” Garen said, reading the expression on Merrick’s face, “but we do not have time to find him. You have seconds, Merrick. You must make up your mind at once.” With that, Garen rose to his feet and stepped back out of the way. Merrick met Tor’s gaze, then Jerri’s. He nodded sharply and moved so that he was kneeling at Berta’s head. He lifted her head gently and placed it in his lap, then bent down to kiss her lightly on the forehead. When he looked up again Jerri was on Berta’s left with her wrist in his hand, and Tor was on her right with her other wrist.
“Now,” he said softly. As one, all three brothers bent their heads and slid their fangs into Berta’s flesh, Merrick on her neck, Tor and Jerri on her wrists. They remained motionless as their serum drained from their mating fangs into her blood stream. When it was finished, they removed their fangs at the exact same moment, then licked the tiny wounds to aid in their healing.
“It is done,” Merrick said, his voice trembling with the enormity of what they had just begun. “What do we do next?”
“I know that you have Water magic,” Garen said. “Are you able to keep her in a deep and painless sleep?”
Merrick nodded. Like all Clan Jasani, they had read the detailed reports prepared by their Princes and added to by the Lobos, the Katres, and the Bearens as each of them transformed their own Arimas. They knew the different stages, what to expect, and the different ways the difficulties had been overcome by each preceding male-set. But reading about it and doing it were not remotely the same thing.
“I believe we can, Highness,” he said. “We ask if you would assist us in the event we are unable.”
“It would be my honor,” Prince Garen replied. “You are staying at the Katres’ house, correct?”
“Yes, Highness,” Merrick replied.
“Take her there. If you need me, vox me, and I will speed travel to you within moments. I will remain available for several hours just in case you have need of me.”
“Thank you, Highness,” Merrick said as he stood up with Berta in his arms. Tor and Jerri crowded close and the three of them stared at her sleeping face. After a moment they all looked up, their gazes meeting in silent understanding and agreement. They had not had much of a chance to get to know Berta, or she them. But it didn’t matter. She was the most important being in their lives, and always would be. They would fight to keep her here, in the plane of the living, with them. But should they lose this fight, they would not leave her to travel to the next plane alone.
Chapter 10
Berta opened her eyes slowly and stared up at the white ceiling overhead. She blinked, then tried to roll over, but her body felt as though it weighed a ton. She tried to move her fingers instead, relieved when they obe
yed her commands.
“Hello, valedar,” Merrick said, leaning over so that she could see his face. She had a strong urge to reach up and brush the lock of violet hair back off of his forehead and smooth the frown from his mouth. But her arm would not move no matter how hard she tried to force it. She tried to smile, and felt her lips move just a little.
“Just give it another minute or two. You are getting better each moment.”
Berta felt her chest relax with relief and she tried to smile again, feeling her lips move a bit more this time. She wondered where Tor and Jerri were, and tried to turn her head to find them, but her head felt too heavy. She looked around as well as she could using only her eyes, but she saw little more than Merrick and the ceiling. She looked back at Merrick, trying not to be afraid at her inability to find Tor and Jerri, but feeling the panic begin to well up inside of her.
“What is it?” Merrick asked, seeing her distress. She looked around again, then back to him. He frowned and started to shake his head, then realized the problem. “Tor and Jerri?”
She managed to nod her head just a fraction, but it was enough.
“I’m right here, dearest,” Tor said, leaning over so that she could see him. “Jerri went to Arima House to get a bag that Arima Hope packed for you. He’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Do you remember what happened?” Merrick asked after she relaxed again. Berta nodded, realizing that the heavy feeling was fading a bit. She tried opening her mouth, pleased when it worked, but still unable to speak as yet.
“Would you like us to fill you in on the current situation?” Tor asked.
Berta nodded again.
“At the moment the Xanti, the little blue creature, and the human man who was with you, are all being held in custody, by royal order, here on the ranch. The Princes will extract the Xanti from its bio-suit and disable all of its com systems, but otherwise they will all be left alone until you are able to tell us what happened.”
Berta nodded again, relieved that neither Sergio nor the little blue creature would be harmed outright. She didn’t care what they did to the Xanti.
“Prince Garen informed us that you are aware of the transformation process and its purpose, that you know we must inject you three times with our mating fangs, but that you have no other details of it,” Merrick said.
Berta nodded in agreement. She’d wanted to know more, but they’d told her that it was the Ramis’ place to tell their Arima the details. It seemed she was about to learn those details a bit sooner than she’d expected.
“The first injection begins by speeding up your body’s ability to regenerate, to heal itself,” Merrick said. “That is why we injected you. It was either that, or lose you. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Berta whispered softly, thrilled that she’d been able to talk.
“Do you also know that once begun, the process cannot be stopped?” Merrick asked.
Berta smiled. “Yes,” she whispered again, a little louder this time.
“We are sorry that this is being forced on you before you are ready for it,” Merrick said. “I cannot say we are sorry that you will fully be our Arima, though.”
“I must apologize to you most profusely,” Tor said, his orange eyes dim and sad.
“Why?” Berta whispered, the expression on his face making her heart hurt.
“We went into town to purchase a gift for you this morning,” Tor said. “While we were there, I failed to check my hand terminal. If I had, we might have been able to rescue you sooner, and prevent you from being poisoned.”
“No, you would not have,” Berta whispered, her mouth, tongue and throat beginning to feel almost normal, though her vocal chords still weren’t working too well. “I did not set off the alarm until after Sergio injected me, so it would have made no difference.”
Tor’s eyes began to glow with fury. “Sergio?” he demanded. “Is that the human male?”
“Yes, but please, do not act until you hear the whole story,” Berta said as quickly as she could. She was relieved to see Tor struggle with his temper and win.
“As you wish,” Tor said. “However, whatever the story is, he still must answer for telling us you were drugged, yet not owning to the deed himself.”
Berta breathed a sigh of relief and changed the subject. “What happens next?” she asked, looking back to Merrick.
“As I said, you are rapidly healing from the drug as your body works to increase your ability to regenerate, or heal,” Merrick said. “In about another half an hour your body will begin rewriting your DNA from human to Falcoran. When that begins you will suddenly fall asleep and remain that way for about another hour. When that process is complete, we will inject you for the second time.
“That is when your physical body will begin to change to match your new DNA. You would be awake for that, except that it is excruciatingly painful. The only way to prevent you from experiencing the pain is to put you into a deep sleep. We believe that we have enough Water Magic to perform that task. If not, Prince Garen has offered to do it for us. That process usually takes hours.”
Berta noticed the slight tightening around Merrick’s eyes when he spoke of that stage. She looked at Tor and saw that he seemed a bit paler than usual. “What is it that you are not telling me?” she asked, her voice slightly above a whisper now.
“We have read accounts of that stage of the process written by the male-sets who have experienced it,” Merrick said. “It is said to be the most horrific experience of their lives. Your body will undergo massive changes, and those changes will be beyond painful. The only saving grace is that you, the Arima, will feel nothing and have no memory of the experience. If you were conscious, and had to endure the pain, it would likely drive all of us mad.”
“Will you stay with me during it?” Berta asked nervously.
“We will remain at your side every moment of this entire process,” Merrick said earnestly. “We will allow no one else in, other than Prince Garen if necessary, and only for as long as he needs to put you into a deep sleep and awaken you later. On this you have our word. We will care for you, Berta, no one else. This is our right and privilege as your Rami.”
Berta wasn’t sure why she felt relieved, but she did. The idea of these three men whom she barely knew caring for her body while she was unconscious should have horrified her. But it didn’t. It reassured and relaxed her.
“What happens next?” she asked.
“When the transformation is complete, you will awaken,” Merrick said. “Shortly afterward, you will go into what we call a mating fever. We will need to perform the Soul-Link Triad, and we’ll need to do it quickly. If we wait too long, the mating fever could take your life.”
“Soul-Link Triad?” Berta asked. She’d never heard that term before.
“The three of us must all enter you at the same time,” Merrick said. “Then we will inject you for the third and final time. That is when the miracle occurs, when the three parts of the soul we share become linked together with your soul, as they are meant to be.”
A wave of unreasoning fear crashed over Berta, blocking out everything he’d said after the first sentence. This was why she’d hesitated to let Jareth make her young again, what she had feared more than anything else. Sex. It had been many years, decades, since she’d been forced to endure the humiliation, pain, horror and degradation of the sex act. She had hoped to never experience it again.
She knew, at least on an intellectual level, that for some women sex was neither humiliating nor painful. From what she could tell, Hope, Saige, Lariah, all of the other women she’d met here on Jasan, actually enjoyed the act and, unless she was greatly mistaken, they found pleasure in it. The same could not be said of herself, nor of any of the other women she’d met during her years as a captive of the Brethren.
She’d thought, for many years, that all women suffered as she did. Recently, she’d begun to suspect that the suffering was due to the Brethren themselves, and would not occur
with normal men. Or Jasani. That was one reason why she’d allowed Jareth to make her young again.
She looked into Merrick’s violet eyes and saw the compassion and concern for her in them. She looked at Tor, and saw the same expression there. She knew that Jerri’s eyes would tell the same story, and that they would never humiliate her. That was what mattered most. Not the pain. Pain would be a small price to pay for love.
As quickly as her thoughts ran through her mind, Tor and Merrick still noticed her hesitation, and her fear. “What is it, Berta?” Merrick asked.
At that moment Jerri rushed into the room, slamming the door behind himself and dropping a suitcase onto the floor. “How is she?” he demanded as he joined Tor beside the bed. “Is she all right? Is it working?”
“I’m fine, Jerri,” Berta said, smiling up at his golden eyes. Her voice was soft, but she no longer had trouble making it work. She even raised her hand enough to touch Jerri’s hand. “Is everything well at Arima House?”
“Yes, all is fine,” Jerri said, raising her hand to his mouth and kissing it warmly. “Arima Hope said you’d be worried, and to tell you she has it covered.”
Berta smiled her thanks, then looked back to Merrick.
“Please, feel free to ask us anything at all,” Merrick said.
“Will it hurt very much?” she asked hesitantly.
“Hurt?” Merrick asked with a frown. He shook his head. “No, valedar, it will not hurt. We would never cause you pain if we can help it. That is why the second stage of the transformation process will be so difficult for us. We will know you are in pain because of us.”
Berta was relieved. She still thought there might be some pain. It was impossible to imagine otherwise. But they wouldn’t deliberately hurt her, and they wouldn’t enjoy her pain.
“I have something to tell you,” she said. “You may wish to reconsider completing this process, and if you do, I will understand. I meant to tell you this today but I didn’t get a chance.”
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