by S. E. Smith
“What do want with me?” Emma asked, mesmerized by the glowing swirls of color in his dark violet eyes. “Why did you take me away?”
Ha’ven studied the confused eyes staring back at him. He ran his hand tenderly up her jaw to carefully push the loose pale strands of hair that had fallen forward back behind her ear. He was fascinated by every detail of her. He could see her aura. It shimmered with colors that he had only seen in the clear skies after a fierce thunderstorm. She was… breathtaking. An air of innocence clung to her as she looked at him, waiting for his answer.
“You are mine,” he responded simply, letting his hand fall away and turning back to the controls.
Emma opened her mouth to demand he clarify what he meant by ‘mine’ but snapped her mouth close instead when colorful bands formed around his hands and merged with the grips he used to pilot the ship. A moment later, the soft hum of the engines engaged and the spaceship began rising up off the field of waist deep purple grass.
“How did you do that?” She asked instead, staring as the bands changed color. “What is that?”
Ha’ven shot her an amused look as he notified the control tower that he was leaving Valdier orbit. He could see the curiosity fighting with her desire to continue arguing with him. He breathed a sigh of relief when curiosity won.
“It is the way of the Curizan,” he said cautiously. “We do not share what we can do openly with other species. Your species is the same. You do not share your ability to harness the energy around you either.”
“Humans can’t do that,” Emma said pushing another loose strand of hair back from her face. “Well, except in books but the characters aren’t usually human.”
“Of course you can,” Ha’ven responded checking the transport as they entered orbit. “Your energy melded with mine the first night before I even saw you. I had barely entered the dining area when I felt your power reach out and link with mine.”
Emma stared open-mouthed at him. “I did not! I mean, something hit me. It felt like what I imagine a Taser would feel like but I never did anything to you. Ever since I met you crazy stuff has been happening. I hear you in my head and you make me see colors and feel things that I don’t understand,” she mumbled under her breath.
Ha’ven glanced at Emma with a frown forming a crease between his eyes. “Of course you did something. I could see it. The colors of your essence reached out and called to mine.”
Emma didn’t know how to respond to his statement. None of what he was saying made any sense to her. She turned as a small transport flew ahead of them and looked through the front view screen in wonder. They were passing a very busy Spaceport. All types of spaceships in a wide variety of shapes and sizes were docked at it. She watched as several paused in the distance, as if waiting for permission to arrive while others moved slowly away as they departed.
“Why?” She wondered, not realizing she had asked the question out loud.
“Why what?” Ha’ven asked as he sped past the Spaceport heading toward deep space. Once they moved through the first Jumpgate, he would program the transport.
Emma turned and looked at Ha’ven. “Why did this happen to me?” She asked huskily. “I just wanted to see a little tiny piece of the world before returning… home to run the dance studio and take care of my mom. Why did this happen to me?”
Ha’ven heard the hurt, confusion and pain in her voice. Her pain pulled at him. He had never before let the feelings of another touch him the way hers did. He did not think even his younger brothers could touch him the way she did with her simple question.
“Only the Goddess knows why she does the things she does,” he told her. “Perhaps she believed you needed to see more of the world than you thought. Or…” he broke off.
“Or…?” Emma asked, waiting for him to finish his sentence.
“Or perhaps she knew that I needed you,” he finished.
*.*.*
Emma watched as the huge male who had basically kidnapped her carefully balanced a tray of food in one hand while he picked up a cup with his other. They had traveled for almost four hours before they made it to the first ‘Jumpgate’ as he called it. She had closed her eyes and prayed she wouldn’t throw up when they had first gone through it. It had taken her several minutes of breathing deeply before she realized that warm calloused hands were caressing her face.
“It gets easier with time,” Ha’ven told her quietly before he carefully unstrapped her from the chair. “Come, I will fix us something to eat.”
Emma paused before she slowly took the hand he offered. An electric shock swept through her every time he touched her. That was one of the reasons she had been so incessant that he not touch her again after he kissed her. She wasn’t sure if it was static electricity or the ‘power’ he said he had inside him. Nothing in her past had prepared her for what was happening and she was at a loss as to what to do.
“How did you make the sword disappear?” She asked as she reached for the tray and set it down on the small table. “I mean, one minute I was pointing it at you and the next it was gone.”
Ha’ven nudged her over a little enjoying the soft pink that washed up into her cheeks as she moved over enough so he could sit next to her. He set the drink down between them. Creon’s words that she might not survive had haunted him every night since he first saw her. That was one reason why he had brought a meal each night. He wanted to make sure she ate. He would do whatever was necessary to make sure she did.
“Everything is made up of energy,” he explained waving his hand over the tray and making it disappear while leaving the plates of food. “I simply focus on what I want to do with the energy and change it to suit my wants and needs.”
Emma ran her fingers over the table where the tray had been seconds ago. She looked up at him with a look of wonder and fear. This was a part of him that she hadn’t seen during their late night chats. She glanced back down at the table before she carefully tucked her hands back into her lap.
“Can you make me disappear?” She asked quietly. “For good like you did the tray and the sword.”
Ha’ven watched as Emma bit her lip and refused to look at him. He touched her cheek with his finger, running it down along her silky skin until he touched the tip to her lips. Her lips parted and he felt the soft warm air as she released the breath she was holding.
He tilted her face toward him. “The tray and the sword merely moved to a different location. Their energy is still there, just as I moved us when we left the palace. I would never let you disappear, Emma. I told you, I need you.”
Leaning forward, he carefully replaced his finger with his lips. Something told him he needed to take this slowly. Over the past several hours, he discovered something that he had never considered before – that success was not always guaranteed. And, for the first time in his life, he was afraid of failing.
*.*.*
Ha’ven closed his eyes as intense desire and something he didn’t understand moved through his body making it taut. A low moan escaped him as her lips parted under the pressure of his. He slipped his tongue into her mouth, wanting to taste the sweet fruit of her essence that he had been taunted with since the first time he kissed her.
His hand moved around to cup the back of her neck, pulling her closer. His head tilted ever so slightly allowing him to deepen the kiss. He tried to pull her around so he could press her delicate form against his aching body but the table prevented him from gathering her closer.
With a muttered curse, he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. Both of them were breathing heavily. After several long seconds, he sat back and pulled his hand around to pick up the cup. He paused in shock when he saw it tremble.
“What are you doing to me?” He muttered under his breath.
“What… what?” Emma asked softly, raising a hand to her swollen lips.
Ha’ven shifted his eyes away and glared at his plate. “Eat,” he said gruffly. “You are too thin.”
Emma
glared at his dark face. “I’ve gained weight since I met you. Besides, I haven’t been very hungry since…” her voice faded and she looked away as tears filled her eyes as memories suddenly flooded her. “I would like to go to my cabin,” she finished dully as her stomach churned with the stress she always felt when she remembered what happened and where she was.
“No,” Ha’ven said sharply before calming. “Please, eat with me,” he said in a softer voice. “Tell me about your world. I have told you about mine. What is it like? Do you have family there?”
The moment the last words were out of his mouth he felt like kicking his own ass. He thought to distract her from her memories and here he was asking for her to open up and tell him about it. He knew how much it hurt her to think about it. He had to be the stupidest male in all the known star systems – after Vox. Even he wasn’t as stupid as that crazy cat shifter.
Emma’s giggle surprised him and he looked at her with a raised eyebrow in question. She grinned at him showing off small, pearly white straight teeth. Her eyes sparkled with amusement.
“You were thinking pretty loudly,” she confided with a blush. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I wanted to know what I had done to make you mad,” she confessed.
“I was not mad at you. You make me feel things I am not familiar with and it confuses me,” Ha’ven admitted with a grin of his own. “I don’t like things that confuse me.”
“Mm, does that mean you don’t like me?” Emma teased, tilting her head to look pointedly at him.
Ha’ven groaned and broke off a piece of bread on his plate and stuffed it into his mouth. He chewed it slowly glaring at her as if to say he was not about to dig the hole he had started any deeper. Emma giggled again before picking up a piece of fruit off her own plate.
“There is only my mom and me,” she began, pausing to take a bite of the sweet fruit and swallow it before she continued. “My father passed away a couple of years ago from a heart attack.” She looked at him before continuing. “My parents were older when I was born. Mom was in her late forties and dad in his late fifties. They had given up ever having any kids. I was a huge surprise to them. Mom thought she had a stomach bug and went to the doctor to see if it was bacterial or viral. You can imagine her and dad’s surprise when she found out she was pregnant!” Emma smiled and took another bite of food before she continued. “They were ecstatic. My dad had the most beautiful voice and my mom was a professional dancer. I grew up singing and dancing with them. They were the best parents in the whole wide world.”
Ha’ven watched as a wide range of emotions crossed Emma’s expressive face as she talked. He picked up a piece of vegetable with his fork and held it in front of her mouth. His lips curved when her mouth opened like a small bird. He bit back a groan when she reached out and tucked her tongue under it to pull it off.
“You speak as if your mother is no longer living,” he observed. “Yet, you said it was just the two of you.”
Emma nodded and her eyes clouded with regret. “My mom has advanced Alzheimer’s. She doesn’t remember who I am. It became so difficult to care for her on my own that I finally had to place her in a special home so she could get additional care,” she said quietly. “I didn’t want to but she left one night while I was sleeping. I had locked the doors but she undid them. The police found her walking almost two miles from the house in the early morning hours in her nightgown. It was only when I called that they knew who she was. I couldn’t stand to think of something happening to her while I slept but I was so tired. I tried to keep her with me.”
He took her hand as she waved it in aggravation. Raising it to his lips, he pressed a kiss to the tips in an effort to comfort her. He could tell she was very distressed at having to give up caring for her mother.
“How long did you care for her? You could not be expected to care for her alone,” he assured her.
“Two years,” Emma admitted. “Two very long, very lonely years.” She looked down at her plate surprised to see almost all the food on it was gone. “Momma never had many friends. She always thought of Poppa as her best friend. She was just beginning to suffer from dementia when he died. After that, she went downhill fast and the few friends they had stop coming by. In a way, I don’t think she wanted to remember a life without Poppa.” She sighed and looked up at Ha’ven. “I went to see her every day. I spent time with her, helped her with bathing, fed her and put her to bed every night. Who is doing that now? Who is taking the time to be there for her with me gone? I just wanted a little time to feel alive.” Emma’s voice choked with tears. “I wasn’t going to be gone long. I just wanted to know what it was like to be young and free to discover the world.”
Ha’ven reached out and touched the strand of hair that fell across her cheek. “What happened?”
Even as he asked the question, a part deep inside warned him he wouldn’t like the answer. He had seen bits and pieces in her dreams. Even in those, she closed him off when things became too dark. He could feel her terror before she woke and shut him out.
Emma looked away. “I don’t like to remember,” she said before she scooted out from behind the table and stood up. “I’ll take care of the dishes since you prepared the meal. Shouldn’t you be checking the engines or where we are going or something?”
Ha’ven knew he would get nothing else out of her. She had closed him out again. He could feel the icy touch of the wall she threw up when she didn’t want him seeing into her mind. He was getting better at finding a way to be a shadow in her mind, just as she had found a way to slip into his without him being aware of it. Still, she was very stubborn and very good at withdrawing tightly into herself. He could feel the rough edge of pain and fear but nothing to tell him what caused it.
With a sigh, he stood up and gathered the dishes. “I will show you how to work the cleansing unit then show you where you may rest. I have a few things I need to do.”
He didn’t add that his plans for bedding and claiming her had only slightly changed. He knew now that he needed to proceed with a caution and slowness that was totally alien to him. He had always charged in and to hell with the consequences. That was not an option this time. His first and foremost concern was for Emma. He wanted… needed to know her. He wanted to chase the fear and pain away, not cause more. He looked on as she loaded the cleansing unit and released a silent sigh.
This is going to be one of the toughest battles I have ever fought, he thought as his eyes swept over her rounded bottom and down over her long legs that peeked out from under the skirt she wore. Sometimes being honorable really sucked.
Chapter 10
“How goes your journey?” Adalard asked, sitting back behind the console on his warship. “Were you finally successful in getting your little mate to talk to you?”
Ha’ven ran his hands through his hair and grimaced. “Yes… and no but more yes than no,” he replied.
Adalard rolled his eyes and snickered. “Did she knee you again?”
Ha’ven dropped his arms and snorted. “No, she did not. She pulled a Valdier War Sword on me,” he said with a grin.
Adalard choked out a laugh before he turned and spoke to someone to the left of him. A moment later, Arrow’s face appeared on the screen. His dark violet eyes were lit with amusement.
“I just wanted to see if you were still in one piece,” he grinned. “Adalard told me what happened. Did she really pull a sword on you?”
Ha’ven grunted when he saw his youngest brother grinning like a Sarafin cat who had just discovered a treasure of nippa, one of their favorite treats. His brothers were having far too much entertainment from his love life. The last thing he wanted was for them to say anything to Emma that might make her mad or scare her.
“Yes, she did,” he growled out. “I want you two to be on your best behavior when we get back to Ceran-Pax.”
“You talked her into coming back already? Damn, I thought for sure it would take at least a couple more days,” Adalard exclaimed.
“What did you say?” Arrow asked.
Ha’ven glared at his little brother, if you could call being over six and a half feet tall and almost three hundred pounds of muscle little. He knew Arrow had heard him. Nothing had ever escaped his notice. That was one reason why he had been so good at staying one step ahead of the assassins Ben’qumain had sent after him.
“I said I didn’t exactly talk her into coming,” Ha’ven replied a little louder.
Adalard crowed and slapped his twin on the back. “I knew it! What did you do? Have you claimed her yet?”
Ha’ven released a sigh and sat back. “I kidnapped her and no, I have not claimed her as yet. Things are a little… complicated.”
“Define complicated,” Arrow said sitting down in the chair next to Adalard. “How complicated? We are not going to war with the Valdier again are we? I have to tell you, I was only battling them for a year but they are a deadly lot to piss off.”
“No, we are not going to war with the Valdier. I have given my word to return Emma in six months if she wishes,” Ha’ven replied slowly. “She is different.”
“What do you mean by different?” Arrow insisted. “Adalard said her species can harness and use energy like ours.”
Ha’ven shook his head. “She insists they cannot. She was shocked when she saw me using it, and frightened. I do not understand what is going on yet. I can see the power surrounding her and it calls to my own. She calms me,” he admitted reluctantly.
“How can that be?” Adalard asked sitting forward and looking at Ha’ven with a dark frown. “Do you think she is trying to hide it from you by denying it? Surely she knows we can see the power in her aura.”
“What does it look like?” Arrow asked. “Is it like ours?”
Ha’ven thought for a moment before he shook his head. One advantage he had was he could recognize another’s aura. The color and strength of it defined what they could do and how powerful they were. Melek’s aura was a powerful red, wrapped with gold and yellows. His mother’s was filled with soft greens, pinks, and purples. He knew his own was black with swirls of red, gold, and dark greens. Each reflected his strength. Before his captivity and torture on Hell, the black had only been thin bands but since it had grown until it was difficult to see the other colors.