“I will try to be patient, even though I don’t understand why this is happening,” Rone said. “But council isn’t the only reason I came to you. There’s also the problem of my…my…”
“Go on.” The priestess looked at him serenely. “You may speak anything you wish to me, Warrior. I will not be offended.”
“My hunger, all right?” Rone burst out. “I haven’t touched my mate in six solar months and even now that I’ve found her, I still can’t touch her. I ache every time I see her—her soft, pink lips…her long, beautiful hair…her curvy body… I need to hold her and touch her and taste her so badly but I can’t.” He put his head down, embarrassed at his outburst. But he hadn’t been able to help it—everything had just come rushing out. “Please,” he begged in a low, ragged voice. “Can you… will you cool my blood, your holiness?”
“I feel your pain deeply, Warrior,” she said quietly. “And yet the hunger of a Wulven runs deeper and stronger than the ordinary lust of any other Kindred male. Still, I will do what I can to damp the fire that burns you, body and soul. I pray it will be enough.”
“It will have to be,” Rone muttered, thinking again of the way Kate flinched away from him every time he came near her. “I don’t know what else to do…what else to try.”
“Simply talk to her. Woo her as you did when you first met her,” the priestess suggested.
Rone sighed raggedly. “Yes, but when I first met her, she didn’t fear me. She sensed my Beast and she knew it was dangerous, but she wasn’t afraid of me—in fact, she was one of the only people I’d met on Earth who wasn’t. She was fearless and she wouldn’t leave me alone until she found out what I was. In the process…we fell in love.”
“You will have that love again,” the priestess promised. “Although you may have to sacrifice much to find it.”
“Anything,” Rone promised hoarsely. “I would give anything to hold Kate in my arms again. To kiss her…to touch and taste and love her. To worship her as she deserves to be worshiped.”
“A very strong vow and one you will certainly be called upon to keep,” the priestess murmured. “Now calm yourself and let me do what I can to ease your ache.” She pressed cool fingertips to his temples once more and prayed softly.
“Oh, Goddess, we do not know why this warrior must endure the pain and sorrow that have been given to him to bear. But we know that you love all of your children and that you are close to the broken in spirit. Please, guide this warrior towards the path of understanding and heal him. Cool his blood and allow him to endure whatever may come.”
Rone felt a soothing calm wash over his soul—as though someone had poured cool water over his aching brain and quenched some of the fire around his burning heart.
“Thank you,” he whispered hoarsely as the priestess withdrew her fingertips. “Thank you for your help.”
She looked at him, obviously troubled.
“I fear it will not last for long. But I hope that it will be long enough for you to break at least some of the barriers that stand between you and your mate. Go in peace, Warrior.”
She backed away, disappearing with a rustle into the purple and green branches of the sacred trees that filled the grove. Rone watched her go, grateful for her intervention.
Just then, he thought he heard another rustling behind him but when he turned his head, there was no one there. Well, it was probably just another priestess, helping someone else. It was time he got back to the suite he shared with Kate and tried to get some sleep. As if he could sleep knowing she was in the same suite with him while he was unable to hold or touch her.
Oh Kate, he thought sadly, getting to his feet. Oh, Lalli—miss you so much. Need to hold you in my arms and feel your soft little body curled against mine. Need to love you and protect you and taste your sweet honey until you moan and cry for more, until you beg for my tongue inside you as you used to do…
But there was no use thinking such things. For now, at least, he and Kate were estranged. Maybe tomorrow when the lab analysis of the Dream Blooms was complete they would have some answers. In the meantime, he needed to be patient, as the priestess had said and just bide his time.
He just hoped the burning in his blood didn’t return before they solved this problem. If the hunger returned before he and Kate were reconciled, he didn’t know what he would do.
* * * * *
Kate turned over on her side and stared out into the darkened room. She was alone in the big bed—Rone had insisted on taking the couch in the living area, even though Kate had pointed out she would fit on it much better than he would. But he had absolutely refused, saying she should have the bedroom to herself.
Maybe he thought it would be too painful to sleep alone in a bed he remembers sharing with me. Of course, she had no such memories. So here she was, feeling tiny and alone in the huge bed while he was sleeping in the other room.
As if I’d want him in bed with me! Kate told herself. The panic reaction would probably be so bad she wouldn’t get a minute of sleep. And yet…somehow she wished it wasn’t so. Wished she didn’t feel too frightened of him to at least be near him.
She turned over restlessly, pressing her face into the pillow. There was a warm scent on the case—a dark, masculine spice that reminded her of fur and leather and some kind of fresh cut wood—cedar maybe. What was that? Was it Rone’s scent? He’d said something about how they had forgotten to change the sheets the last time they were in the Mother Ship together. But that had apparently been more than six months ago. Could his scent linger that long? Or was she specially attuned to it somehow?
Kate didn’t have any answers. She turned over again, her mind going back to the scene she’d watched in the Sacred Grove that evening. After Rone had left, she had felt compelled to follow him—at a safe distance, of course. She’d been a little afraid of losing her way but though her memory of the ship was still nonexistent, her sense of direction had finally kicked in. She’d gotten to the center of the ship where the holy green and purple trees grew and had hidden herself among them and watched as Rone consulted with one of the priestesses.
Kate had been shocked and concerned by what she had seen. Clearly when the priestess “Looked Into” him, it had been a very invasive and uncomfortable experience. Yet Rone had been willing to endure it, for her. And it wasn’t just what he had gone through…some of his words still rang in her head and wouldn’t leave her alone.
“I would give anything to hold Kate in my arms again. To kiss her…to touch and taste and love her. To worship her as she deserves to be worshiped,” he had told the priestess and Kate had heard the sincerity in his deep voice.
He loves me, she thought, tossing restlessly again. Really loves me. And I can’t even stand to be near him.
It made her feel so guilty she could hardly lie still and the guilt, in turn, made her feel defensive and angry. She hadn’t asked to lose her memory or be stolen away from the man she supposedly loved. Just as she hadn’t asked to have a huge, handsome Kindred husband she couldn’t remember show up out of the blue, wanting to resume their relationship where they’d left off even though she couldn’t recall ever seeing him before. A husband she couldn’t even bear to touch because of the panic she felt when she was near him. It was all like some cruel, elaborate prank someone was pulling on her and there was nothing she could do about it.
But that wasn’t the only thing that was bothering her. She wondered about something else Rone had said too. About his Beast…and about the hunger. What was he talking about when he asked the priestess to cool his blood? And what was the hunger anyway? What was he hungry for?
You, whispered a little voice in her head that sounded like the Knowing. He’s hungry for you, Kate. The Beast is always hungry.
Kate shivered and curled up in a ball in the center of the bed. What did it all mean? And would she ever feel safe enough around the big Kindred to find out?
She didn’t know but she pressed her face to the pillow again and breathed
in his scent. For some reason, that helped.
Lulled by the warm smells of fur and leather and fresh cut cedar, Kate finally drifted to sleep.
Chapter Ten
“I’m afraid I don’t have very good news for you regarding the lab analysis,” Sylvan said.
Rone felt his heart sink.
“What did you find? Anything at all?” He strove to keep his voice steady but inside he felt like dying. Would he never get his mate back?
Sylvan sighed. “The better question might be what didn’t we find. Honestly, I have never seen anything like it. The Dream Blooms were coated in a witch’s brew of memory blockers and fear toxins so intricate and entwined it made analysis very difficult.”
“Entwined how? What do you mean?” Kate asked. She was sitting beside Rone—but not too close—on the other side of the couch in Sylvan’s office.
“I mean that the chemicals seemed to trigger each other and feed off one another. The memory blockers were set to erase all traces of the one you love the most and at the same time, the fear toxins triggered an irrational terror of that same individual.”
“All right,” Rone said. “So what’s the antidote? How do we cure it?”
“I’m afraid we can’t,” Sylvan shook his head unhappily. “Not through medical means, anyway.”
“So there’s no hope? None?” Rone demanded raggedly. Gods, he felt like he was being pulled inside out! He couldn’t even look at Kate. Instead he put his head in his hands and just tried to breathe.
“I didn’t say there was no hope,” Sylvan said quietly. “I just said we couldn’t cure Kate’s amnesia and fear through the medical means at our disposal on the Mother Ship. The chemical compound is too complex—and it’s invaded her system too thoroughly to be eradicated by conventional means.”
“But that’s…horrible,” Kate whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. “Who would do something like this? Who would want to make someone forget and fear the person…” She cast a sidelong glance at Rone. “The person they cared for most in the world?”
“Two—a Dark Kindred who is also the enemy of the entire Kindred race,” Rone said grimly. “We thought for a while that he was dead but apparently he’s still out there. He was the one that set this trap you fell into.”
“But this trap was not meant for you, Kate,” Sylvan said. “It was set for Emily, the new Khalla of the Temple of Becoming in the Holy Mountains of Rageron.”
“We had tracked her there and we attended her joining ceremony,” Rone told Kate, who looked confused. “You became friends with her—you helped her plan the ceremony. Afterwards, you sniffed the bouquet of flowers meant for her and that was when you…” His voice faltered but he made himself go on. “When you stopped knowing me. Right before you disappeared.”
“Okay,” Kate said slowly. “I can see all that. But why was this Two guy after Emily in the first place?”
“We think that Two wanted to keep Emily from mating with Tragar and thus stop her from becoming the mother of the new race of Kindred that have been foretold,” Sylvan said. “What better way than to make her forget and fear him?”
“But then why snatch her away as soon as she sniffed the infected blossoms?” Rone objected. “And why do it after their joining ceremony when they had already bonded?”
Sylvan shrugged. “Maybe just for spite. Or maybe from impaired judgment. The more I study Two’s actions, the more convinced I am that he is almost certainly clinically insane. Which is why we have a vested interest in tracking him and finding out exactly what his next move may be.”
“I’d like to find him too—and tear him limb from limb,” Rone growled. “Unfortunately, I’m just a tracker now. A good one, but unless I can catch his scent somehow, that won’t be enough. Knowing where to start…that was always Kate’s department.”
“It…it was?” Kate asked softly, looking at him.
Rone nodded. “We were a team. Your gift—your Knowing—let us know where to start looking. Once we found the scent, I was able to take over. We’ve recovered dozens of lost or kidnapped people in the three years we’ve been together.”
“Really?” Kate looked surprised but not upset which was good. She didn’t seem to like him talking about the past and yet, Rone couldn’t help it. It was the only way he could still feel connected to her—talking about the way things used to be.
“Yes, really,” he said softly. “You were amazing, baby. You always knew which direction to point me in.”
“I…I never thought of using the Knowing like that,” she murmured.
Rone frowned. “Yes, you did. That’s how I met you in the first place—you were helping the police find a missing Kindred bride. I was called in to consult too and that was where we met—in the downtown PD in Jacksonville, Mississippi.”
“I was?” She put a hand to her forehead. “I don’t remember that at all. I…there are a lot of things I don’t remember,” she confessed, looking at Sylvan.
“That’s not surprising considering the toxic mixture you inhaled,” he said gently. “There are bound to be holes in your memory—I would not be surprised if more than just your time with Rone was erased.”
“I…think it has been,” Kate admitted. “There are whole gaps of time I just…don’t remember.”
“Kate losing her memory is a terrible blow,” Rone said tensely. “However, new memories may be made. But not if Kate fears me. Not if she panics at my touch.”
“I don’t do it on purpose,” Kate protested, crossing her arms over her breasts protectively. “I just…can’t help it.”
“Because of the fear toxins that have invaded your entire system,” Sylvan said. “No one is blaming you for that, Kate.”
“Oh, no?” She shot a glance at Rone which felt like a knife in his heart.
“No, baby,” he said quietly. “I know it’s not your fault.”
“I didn’t ask for any of this.” Kate looked down at her feet. “I’m completely lost here.”
“Which is why the two of you need to find each other again,” Sylvan said. “Because until you can reconcile, you’ll be unable to act as an effective tracking team. Which is why the Kindred High Council has agreed to pay for some very special and very expensive therapy for the both of you.”
“What—like couples therapy? What good is that going to do?” Kate objected. “I don’t even remember being part of a couple.”
“This isn’t traditional therapy, per se,” Sylvan said. “It’s a resort located in the B’rrin system on Tegova’s second moon. It’s called—”
“Flame and Frost.” Rone raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re talking about, Flame and Frost, right? You want to send us there?”
“Why? What’s there? What’s wrong with it?” Kate was instantly alert and looking nervous.
“It’s very expensive for one thing,” Rone said. “A place for the galaxy’s elite. And some of the methods there are considered…controversial.”
“Controversial how? What do you mean?” Kate didn’t look a bit reassured. Rone couldn’t say that he blamed her—he wasn’t too keen on the idea himself. The resort had a very strange reputation. Depending on who you talked to, it could be either the most wonderful place in the universe or worse than the seventh level of the Hells.
“It’s not necessarily the therapeutic aspects we’re sending you for, although I do believe you could benefit from a few sessions,” Sylvan remarked. “But Flame and Frost also has a bio-chelation pool which is renowned for its detoxifying properties.” He looked at Kate. “I believe that if the two of you go there and receive the proper treatment, you may be able to rid your system of the fear toxins.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “So you want to send me to soak in a special pool and hope it can suck all the bad ju-ju out of me, I get that. But, uh…” She looked at Rone from the corner of her eye. “But why send Rone too? I mean, if I’m the only one affected—”
“You think I’d let you go to a place like that on your o
wn?” Rone demanded, turning to her. “Never!”
“Why not? What’s so bad about it?” she demanded. “You’re making me think I shouldn’t go there at all.”
“If you don’t, I fear you’ll never get your memory back,” Sylvan said softly. “I’m sorry, Kate, but in my professional opinion, this is your only hope. And you do want back the years you lost, don’t you?”
Kate bit her lush lower lip and Rone had to look away. He was trying not to think of all the times he had nibbled or kissed her soft mouth. Trying not to think of all the times he had licked and kissed her lower too…
“Yes,” she said at last. “Yes, of course I want back my lost time. But you’re scaring me. What’s the deal with this place, anyway?”
“Flame and Frost has…a very mixed reputation,” Sylvan said carefully. “But I wouldn’t send you if I didn’t believe it to be safe. Having said that, however, you have to have Rone with you. It is mainly for couples and triads. Single participants are not welcome there. And besides, I have already spoken to Mistress Light about the two of you. She knows your entire history and why you are coming to see her.”
“Mistress Light, huh?” Rone frowned. “Is she the director of the resort?”
“One of them,” Sylvan nodded.
“So…we’ll go there, I’ll take a dip in the pool, and we’re back here lickety-split?” Kate looked at Sylvan hopefully. “That doesn’t sound so hard.”
He looked troubled. “There may be a bit more to it than that, although I hope not. We need the two of you working as a team again to track down Two. We don’t know where he went when he left the Scourge Fathership—he could be anywhere. And if he truly is insane, his actions will be completely unpredictable. I need both of you together to find him. Will you help us?” He looked at Kate first.
“Fine.” She nodded decisively. “But only because I don’t like having huge gaps in my memory. And I’d like to find the bastard that did this to me and see him punished.”
“Rone?” Sylvan looked at him.
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