by Regine Abel
“We need to make sure it’s fully functional. Please move around the room to see if it follows your movements.”
She sashayed around the room, swaying her hips to tease me. Forcing my eyes back to the tracker, I was elated to see it work. We pursued the test further by having her walk outside, around the house, while I stayed inside, increasing the distance between us. Confident we had the winning combination, we got ready to go to the rendezvous point with fifteen minutes to spare.
After dropping her off, I waited the agreed upon twenty minutes’ head start before making my way as well towards Capital District. There, the crucial – and risky – second part of the plan needed to be set into motion.
* * *
It was a quiet day at the Council Hall. With no sessions scheduled today, the few Councilors present were, for the most part, in their assigned offices within the Hall.
Lhor was meeting with Councilor Bhek Zirthen, who also acted as our Ambassador with the Galactic Council. Bhek would head there next week to relay the Council’s decision not to hand over Amalia and her children to the intergalactic scientific community. It was a delicate brief to put together as some of the scientists had been very aggressive in demanding access to the Praghans. They saw them as their ticket to fame.
After all, what scientist wouldn’t want to be credited for being behind the rebirth of an entire species?
The Councilor offices were located in a circular hallway around the Council Chamber. The large corridor in shades of white and greys, had a number of sitting areas for the constituents on busy days, as well as numerous alcoves with plants and waterworks providing peaceful rest or work areas. Lurking near Lhor’s office, I pretended to be engrossed in a report on my datapad. Their meeting would end any moment now since Bhek had another one scheduled in the next ten minutes.
I strolled casually closer to his office, pausing here and there, pretending to input some data on my device. My heart leaped in my chest when the door opened and both males walked out, still engaged in an intense discussion. Crushing the nervous fluttering in my stomach, I subtly picked up the pace as I approached my colleagues.
“Greetings, Councilors.” I stopped before them and performed the Xelixian greeting.
“Zhul,” Bhek said, returning the gesture, “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Councilor Dervhen,” Lhor said, greeting me as well.
“Please call me Zhul,” I said with a friendly smile. “We have enough formality in Chambers as it is.”
Lhor narrowed his eyes at me, his look of surprise quickly hidden. “Then please call me Lhor.”
“I had a few things to wrap up. I hope you’ve made good progress on the brief?” I asked casually.
“Forgive my rudeness, Zhul, but I must run. I have another meeting starting any minute,” Bhek said, putting his hand on his heart and bowing his head. “Lhor, we’ll speak again soon.”
“Of course,” I said as both Lhor and I returned the salutation.
Bhek took off just as I’d planned. I turned an expectant look towards Lhor. He tilted his head to the side, his electric-blue eyes studying me as if trying to find the answer to a riddle.
“Yes,” Lhor responded at last, “we made some great progress. There’s still more to address to spare sensibilities and make it foolproof.”
“If you need any help with it, I will gladly provide any assistance I can.”
The same look of confusion flickered over his beautiful face. This time he didn’t try hiding it. My heart pounded in my chest, though I kept a cool facade. I needed him to engage with me in a casual conversation. If he told me to fuck off now and closed the door in my face, things would get a lot more complicated. I kicked myself for not having worked on building a friendly relationship with Lhor sooner.
“That’s very kind of you, Zhul, and we may just take you up on that offer,” Lhor said. “However, I must say your sudden support leaves me rather baffled. You’ve never hidden your dislike of my family. Why the sudden change of heart?”
Perfect.
I couldn’t have hoped for a better opening. Schooling my features not to appear too eager, I made to answer when the sound of approaching voices drew my attention. Lhor frowned then gestured for me to come into his office.
“Please, come in. We’ll be more comfortable to discuss away from prying ears.”
And score.
Looking around the room, I was impressed how Lhor managed to make the standard-issue office furniture and compulsory layout of his office feel so warm and inviting. Back when Khel held this office, he kept it clinical like most other offices in the Council Hall. The spacious rectangular room was filled with a large, dark-grey desk with two comfortable guest chairs in front of it. In the back, a ceiling-high window overlooking a luxurious garden served as backdrop for a work table with seating for six. A large vidscreen and a holographic display console occupied the wall beside the table. Various colorful accents, personal mementos, and a few plants added life to the otherwise cold environment.
I stopped in front of a large portrait of his family hanging on the wall across from his desk. Amalia stood between him and Khel, each of the males holding the child they had sired. They were striking in their respective beauty. Their exotic-looking children took my breath away.
“Remember what I said about appearances, Lhor?” I asked, after he closed the door and came to stand next to me.
“That they are deceiving,” Lhor said, looking at the portrait as well before facing me. “But history remains.”
I smiled. “History is written by the victor as seen through his eyes.”
Lhor chuckled. “Fair point.”
My chest constricted looking at Lhor. Being near him was always bittersweet. His presence almost filled the void, the hollowness left by my twin’s death, but it also made me ache all the more for the terrible loss.
Lhor gestured towards the work table by the window. “Care to sit?”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
It was courteous of Lhor to invite me to sit at the work table where all were equal rather than on the guest chair across from his desk where he would be in a position of superiority.
Khel Praghan would have sat behind his desk.
I took a chair and Lhor sat one chair over from me. With the window to his back, he had a view on the door. The soft rays of the noon suns fell over him, almost giving him a glowing aura. With the shoulder-length black curls of his hair framing his beautiful face, Lhor was mesmerizing. No male should be this pretty.
Lhor stirred in his chair, and heat crept up his cheeks. I realized then I had been staring. Getting caught gawking at a male, a mated one at that, should have embarrassed me. But Lhor’s reaction amused me too much. It baffled me how uncomfortable he still felt about his beauty.
“Forgive me for ogling, but you’re ridiculously stunning,” I said mockingly. Lhor gaped at me, the slight look of worry in his eyes making me laugh out loud. “Relax, Lhor. While I am struck dumb by your beauty, I feel no attraction towards you. Contrary to popular belief, I exclusively like females.”
His obvious relief was just as comical. Teasing Lhor was a lot of fun. Once more, I swallowed the pain blossoming in my chest at the thought of my twin.
“That’s reassuring to know,” Lhor said, trying to hide his embarrassment. “My mate might strongly object otherwise.”
“I bet she would. And seeing how she handled that Guldan on the day of your Confirmation Ceremony, I would rather not find myself at the end of her claws.”
But if Valena had them, she could claw me all day long.
Lhor chuckled, puffing his chest with pride. His love for Amalia was plain to see and I couldn’t help a slight pang of envy. Would such a future be possible for me? Until Valena came into my life, I had ruled out ever having a mate or offspring of my own. Since our first kiss, the thought kept popping into my mind. But until we were both free of V, such thoughts weren’t even something to contemplate.
&nb
sp; “Yes, Amalia is quite something,” Lhor said with a wistful smile. His eyes locked with mine as he returned to a more serious expression. “She and my family are everything to me. Which brings us back to my previous question.... Why do you dislike us so much?”
“I don’t dislike you or your family. Quite the opposite.” I chuckled at the dubious look on his face and reclined in my chair. “It’s true, Lhor. I meant every single word I said the other day when that motion against your family was put forth. You and your mate have my utmost respect and admiration. The same was true of Ambassador Dhak Praghan and his mate.”
Lhor’s jaw clenched and the look in his eyes hardened. I knew he and Khel believed I had hired the assassin that sabotaged the Praghan’s shuttle, causing the fatal accident that claimed the lives of Khel’s parents and younger brother, Vahl. Still, his suspicion hurt.
“You respected him so much, you got in his way every chance you got in Chambers,” Lhor said.
I nodded. “We were often on opposite sides in Chambers, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t respect him. Praghan was an idealist. Although I agreed with his goals, his approach couldn’t work.” Leaning forward, I folded my hands over the table. “Dhak had too much faith in people’s good nature. The reality is that if given a choice between doing the right thing for the benefit of all, or serving their personal interests to the detriment of the majority, most people will choose the latter. Hence, he and I never saw eye-to-eye. But that doesn’t make me a murderer.”
Lhor’s face shut down. “I didn’t accuse you of anything.”
Shaking my head, I snorted in derision. “You don’t need to. I and everyone else know what you and Praghan think. But I didn’t have them killed.”
Lhor’s eyes narrowed. “There it is again.”
“What is?” I asked, confused.
“That sneer… that contempt when you speak of Khel,” Lhor said. “Why such disdain? What has my Gem ever done to you?”
The usual sense of aggression rose within me as I thought of the General.
“Praghan has done nothing to me. But your affection for him is mind-boggling. He doesn’t deserve it. He’s not worthy of you.”
Lhor’s jaw dropped as he stared at me, wide-eyed. “What do you mean he’s not worthy of me? I live thanks to him.”
“And he almost fucking let you die, Rhal!” I shouted, slamming my fist on the table before jumping to my feet. “What kind of selfish bastard watches his other half slowly wither away just so he can keep his female to himself? How the fuck could he deny you when he could feel your pain? He’s no Anchor. He’s a disgrace!”
Breathing heavily, I leaned on the table and closed my eyes while trying to rein in my anger. I couldn’t believe I had allowed myself to lose control like that. But every time I thought of how Khel treated Lhor, I saw red.
“Who is Rhal?” Lhor asked in a quiet voice.
“What?” I asked, my eyes snapping back open and looking at him.
“You’ve just called me Rhal again.”
I flinched. “Forgive me. It’s irrelevant,” I said, turning away and walking towards the window. The silence settled between us like a living thing.
“He couldn’t feel my pain,” Lhor whispered after a beat.
“What did you say?” I asked, disbelieving.
“Khel didn’t know how bad it was because he couldn’t feel my pain.”
I snorted. “Impossible. You’re Geminates. You feel everything the other does.”
“I blocked him off,” Lhor confessed, a look of shame settling over his noble features.
You did what?
I stared at Lhor, mouth gaping. “Why would you do that?”
Lhor rubbed his face with both hands before running them through his hair, his face twisted with remorse. “Khel never knew I could feel his emotions and I never allowed him to feel mine,” Lhor said. “He only found out a year ago, the day the Taint almost claimed me. That same night he gave his consent to me becoming Amalia’s Second Mate.”
I was speechless.
“What had he done to deserve such cruelty?”
Lhor paled. “I wasn’t trying to be cruel,” he said, his tone defensive. “But Khel is so overprotective… He would have denied himself all he cared about if he knew I could feel his emotions and his pain.”
“As it should be,” I said, unable to believe what I was hearing. “It’s the Anchor’s duty to protect the Core.”
“The Core?” Lhor asked.
“The second born. The essence, the pith, the heart of the Geminate pair. You.”
“Oh wow!” Lhor said, looking surprised. “I didn’t realize there was a name for us.”
“How could you not know this? And how could Khel not know you could feel his emotions? Those are the basic teachings of the mandatory Geminate Mentoring classes,” I said, challenging him.
“Geminate Mentoring? See, that’s another thing I didn’t know about. Khel and I were denied Geminate classification because we aren’t twins. So we figured out how to be a single soul split into two bodies the best way we could.”
That changes everything.
“But you are aware that if Khel dies…”
“Yes,” Lhor interrupted. “If he dies, I die. But if I die, he will continue to live.”
I snorted. “Live? If you can call it that.”
Looking out the window, I stared unseeing at the lone ryspak tree in the garden. Its leaves bristled in the soft wind. Although it was surrounded by every type of luxurious plant, it looked lost, desolate without an orchard to belong to.
“Don’t ever block your Geminate again, Rhal,” I said wistfully. “The Core is the soul of the pair. Without that connection, the Anchor is a hollow, empty shell that nothing can ever fill. Take care that you do not die. Even Praghan doesn’t deserve to have his soul ripped out of him.”
Lhor’s soft gasp behind me made me turn around to face him. He rose from his chair, a look filled with such compassion, my throat tightened.
“You’re an Anchor,” Lhor whispered, figuring out what I actually had not intended to reveal. “You called me Rhal again. He is… He was your Gem. Wasn’t he?”
The sudden pain that tore through my chest was almost too much to bear. I turned away from him to hide the suffering on my face. Leaning against the windowsill, I inhaled deeply a few times, trying to crush the overwhelming sense of devastation that washed over me. I hadn’t felt the loss of my Geminate so savagely in years.
Lhor’s soft footsteps approached me before his comforting hand came to rest on my shoulder. He shouldn’t touch me like this, but it was exactly what I needed.
“I am so sorry, Zhul.”
“You feel like him,” I said, blinking away the sting in my eyes. “Every time you’re near me, I can almost sense him again. Why didn’t I die with him?”
“Do not speak this way,” Lhor growled, forcing me to face him. “Your Gem would wish you to go on. Don’t you dare dishonor him with such thoughts.”
“You have no idea what it’s like. He was my conscience, my heart. Rhal made me whole. Now, there’s nothing but a gaping void.”
“You’re right. I don’t know what it’s like, and thank the Goddess I never will. But if you were my Anchor, I would want you to celebrate the joy that we shared rather than mourn the times we didn’t have.”
I gave that a moment to sink in.
“Thank you, Lhor. Until now, I hadn’t realized just how much I needed to talk to someone about this.”
“No need to thank me, Zhul. Had our roles been reversed, I would have wanted Khel to have someone he could talk to.”
My throat tightened again as a surge of warmth exploded deep within. It was almost exactly like when Rhal’s emotion would flow through me.
“Goddess, you feel like him,” I said, my voice broken with pain.
Without a word, Lhor pulled me into his arms. We were of similar height and build, making him feel even more like Rhal. I returned the embrace. The pulsing warmt
h within seemed to expand and grow and for a second, I felt Rhal’s presence. In that brief instant, I was whole again.
The sound of the door opening startled us.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Amalia said, her tone cold and hard.
She stood in the doorway, glaring at us. Opalescent claws unsheathed, jaw clenched, Amalia looked like a predator about to spring on its prey.
That’s hot.
Lhor released me and sauntered over to her.
“Dervhen?” she asked, when she realized who her mate had been embracing. Turning back to face Lhor, she gave him a look where shock, confusion, and jealousy warred with each other.
“Claws, my love?” Lhor said. “Is someone in her season?”
That hit me in the gut. Valena had spoken of her season and I needed to do something about that.
“You better believe it,” Amalia snarled. “These claws are about to be all over your face if you don’t start giving me answers right now.”
That’s so fucking sexy.
Once again, I wished Valena had claws.
“I… hmmm,” Lhor said, before giving me an uncomfortable look.
I appreciated his hesitation at revealing what I confided in a moment of weakness, even to his mate.
“It’s okay to tell her. You shouldn’t have secrets with your mate,” I said.
“He had better tell me,” Amalia said.
“Seriously, Lia?” Lhor said sounding somewhat offended. “Do you really think I would cheat on you?”
“Up until two minutes ago, I didn’t. And Dervhen?”
“Zhul just told me that he used to be an Anchor.”
“Used to… Oh.”
Her eyes widened, understanding dawning on her. All aggression bled out of her. Claws receding, she cast a sympathetic look at me.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…”
“Do not worry, Seha Praghan. You couldn’t have known,” I said in a conciliatory tone. “As for your mate, I have no designs on him. Even if I did, he only has eyes for you.”