The moment was both beautiful and surreal. They went gliding through the air with Rast’s huge, silvery wings stretched to either side of them, the feathers flashing in the sunlight. The sky vaulted overhead like a huge blue bowl and far off the sharp cries of avian hunters rang out. Nadiah had never felt such joy. This is how it’s supposed to be between the Challa and his Lyzel, she thought. This joy, this pleasure and love and excitement. He takes her flying often—it’s one of the things that bonds them together.
She didn’t know how she knew that, but somehow she did. This flight—this mating flight—was a sacred ritual between the Counselor and his female. It had been lost for centuries but now that Rast was here, back where he belonged, it could be resurrected, like all the old customs.
Looking down she saw Sylvan and Sophia waving at them and the high priestess standing there with a stricken expression on her face. She never expected him to get his wings, Nadiah thought and knew it was true. She wanted him tied to First World for the extra power it would give her but she thought she’d be able to use him as a puppet while she was the power behind the throne—literally. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. Rast wasn’t the type of male likely to allow another to dictate to him. Maybe the high priestess should look for another line of work.
“There—the Healing Garden,” Rast said and her attention was torn from the high mesa and directed to the lush, verdant garden which grew from the side of the mountain. Another oasis, she thought. An oasis of healing.
And it was healing she desperately needed. Now that the first wild exhilaration of flight had worn off, she was beginning to feel both the fever and the severed bond. The fever made her shiver with cold one moment and hot as an oven the next, while the broken bond felt like a deep blood vessel in her soul which had been cut. From its ragged end, all her strength was rapidly leaking away.
“Rast,” she whispered. “Hurry. Please hurry.”
“Going as fast as I can, sweetheart,” he promised as they hovered over the small patch of green and purple jungle. “I’ve just never done this before. Not quite…sure how to land.”
But as he spoke, the wings seemed to sense his desires. The silvery feathers cupped the warm desert air gently and slowly, they descended. Soon Rast’s feet touched the ground and the wings folded surprisingly small and flat against his back.
“Nice… landing,” Nadiah murmured. She wanted to examine his new wings, to look around the Healing Garden which reminded her of a wilder version of the sacred grove back on the Kindred Mother Ship. But her run to get away from Y’dex and the rush of excitement during the flight had used up her last reserves of strength. Grey and black blotches were appearing in her vision which made it hard to see…hard to think. Dimly she was aware of her own raspy breathing.
“Hold on, sweetheart.” Rast sounded nearly panicked as he held her close to his chest and began striding through the underbrush. “Just got to find the fountain. It’s gotta be around here somewhere—this place really isn’t that big. I just…”
He stopped suddenly and Nadiah wondered why. “Rast?” she whispered, having to force out the words. “Rast is…is everything…all right?”
“No,” he whispered brokenly. “No. Oh, no.”
She wanted to ask what was wrong, wanted to comfort him and tell him she loved him no matter what. But the grey and black blotches had grown until they obscured her entire field of vision.
Nadiah didn’t want to faint—she was afraid if she did, she might never wake up again. The idea of never again opening her eyes, of never seeing Rast’s smile or hearing his deep laughter made her want to cry. Please, she thought. Please, I don’t want to go. I’m not ready. Not ready to leave him.
But though she tried desperately to stay with him, the combined weakness of the fever and the severed blood bond were too much. Her last sight was of Rast’s eyes—his truegreen eyes which had marked him as a Kindred from the first, even before his blood. Rast looked back at her and she saw those eyes were filled with tears.
Then she saw no more.
* * * * *
“No! No, it can’t be. No!” Rast pounded the stone side of the empty fountain with helpless rage. It wasn’t just empty, either. The elaborate structure—which was carved with all kinds of alien beasts he didn’t recognize—was bone dry and looked like it had been for centuries.
“A drink from the fountain of the Healing Garden was said to cure any illness, no matter how severe.” The words echoed in his head, teasing him—mocking him. A drink—she just needs one drink. But there was none to be had.
Well then, I’ll heal her myself. Maybe if the bond is restored I can give her some strength, keep her going a little while longer until I can make that priestess bitch cure the fever. Closing his eyes, Rast concentrated with all his might—reaching out to the woman in his arms, trying to find the connection that had so recently been between them. Before, on Tranq Prime, he’d been able to feel the blood bond with no problem. But this time there was…nothing. Just nothing. It was like feeling around in a dark room for a light switch that wasn’t there.
He didn’t know how long he tried before he realized it was useless. Before he simply held her close, his tears falling on her pale, unmoving face.
She was gone and there was no bringing her back.
He looked hopelessly at the dry fountain. There would be no healing drink for Nadiah—no sudden and miraculous cure for the woman he loved. Everything that had happened—their frantic flight to First World, his unbreakable vows to stay there always, the desperate dive to the sandy floor of the desert—all had been for nothing.
Nothing.
His last foolish hope had been dashed to smithereens the way he should have been when he dove off the mesa. As he would have been if the wings hadn’t suddenly manifested at the last possible moment.
Fucking wings, he thought savagely. What good are they now? What am I supposed to do with them except look like a freak? Twisting his head, he stared over his shoulder to glare at them bitterly.
Though they had moved seemingly of their own volition earlier, now the wings were folded flat against his back. In fact, they seemed almost ready to melt back into his skin making him wonder if they might be reabsorbed by his body whenever they weren’t in use.
Use them now.
Rast jumped. It sounded like a thought but the idea had clearly come from outside of his head. From somewhere in the Healing Garden.
“What?” he said. “I mean, hello? Is anybody there?”
Only silence greeted his words and he felt like a fool. Who was he talking to? He was going crazy with grief, so upset he was hearing voices. He—
Use your wings. Enfold your beloved.
Okay, that time he had definitely heard something and it wasn’t just in his head.
“How?” he asked and then answered his own question by flexing his shoulder blades. The huge, shining wings came out at once, as though they had been waiting for his summons. To Rast, they felt like an extra pair of arms and hands sprouting from his shoulders. Imagining them like that, he concentrated on getting them wrapped around himself and Nadiah’s still form, lying in his lap.
Soon he and Nadiah were deep in a rustling nest of silvery, incandescent feathers. They formed a barrier against the world, a shield around himself and the woman he loved that nothing could get through.
Rast found that image strangely comforting. And he also found that something new was happening—something that seemed to involve not just his wings, but his entire body.
As the wings came together and their feathers interlocked, a strange rush of power came over him. It started slowly, as a tingling in his toes. Then it made its way up his calves and legs and thighs. By the time it hit his hips and chest it was rushing upward in such a dynamic, electric burst he thought the top of his head might fly off. It didn’t though, he just felt different…filled with…something, some power, he didn’t understand.
“What the hell?” he muttered, flexing the win
gs again. The power rushed up and down his body in bursts and he was dimly aware of having the hardest erection of his entire life. The strange electricity built and built until he felt like sparks might start shooting from his fingers and toes if it didn’t dissipate soon. What was going on?
It is the power of your wings. Use it. Channel it into your beloved. This time the voice sounded slightly more urgent, as though Rast didn’t have much more time.
“Channel it into Nadiah?” he said doubtfully. “But what if I hurt…” He trailed off as he looked at her lifeless body. Her chest no longer rose and fell and he was fairly sure if her heart was still beating it was only a faint stutter in her chest, soon to be silenced forever. The woman he loved was beyond hurt now. He had nothing to lose by trying.
“Here goes nothing, sweetheart,” Rast whispered to her. Taking a deep breath, he cupped Nadiah’s pale cheek in his hand and willed the power to surge from himself into her.
Please, he thought as he pushed the power into her. Please, I don’t know who you are but please let this work.
At first there didn’t seemed to be any effect except that he felt the power flowing from him into her, like a full cup pouring into an empty one. Only his own cup never ran dry—the power generated by his wings kept it flowing, always flowing.
Then the current seemed to shift somehow. To Rast’s astonishment, he felt the power targeting the hidden, hurt spots inside Nadiah. It found the viruses causing her fever and eradicated every microscopic one of the little bastards. It filled her lungs with air and started her heart beating again. And then the current of healing power found the broken bond—not only Nadiah’s end but Rast’s as well. As he held her tight, he felt the warm, soothing flow as the current knit the two ragged ends together like an expert seamstress mending a garment.
When the last stitch pulled tight and they were back to where they’d been before the high priestess had interfered, Nadiah took a deep gasping breath and opened her eyes.
“Rast?” She sounded confused but completely herself. “Rast, I had the strangest dream.”
“So did I. Thank God it came true.” He blinked back tears. “Or the Goddess, I guess. Thank the Goddess.”
There was no answer but he felt a sense of approval, as though the owner of the voice he’d heard was listening. There is a Goddess, he thought wonderingly. And whoever she is, she wants Nadiah and I to be together—together forever. He felt another, even stronger surge of approval and knew it was true. Somehow, even though they had been born on different planets in different galaxies, he and Nadiah had been made for each other. She was the only one who could complete him, the only one who could make him whole. And he was the only one who could do the same for her.
“Rast?” Nadiah was looking up at him anxiously. “Are you all right?” she asked.
“Are you?” he asked, giving her the question back.
She frowned, appearing to take some internal inventory. “Actually, I feel…wonderful. I’m still a little weak but the fever’s gone.” She looked at him uncertainly. “Did…did you do that?”
“I don’t know,” Rast said honestly. “Maybe not so much me as something—someone working through me…through the wings.” He nodded at them.
“The Goddess,” Nadiah breathed, her eyes shining. “But…are you all right? You have such a far away look in your eyes.”
“I’m fine,” he said firmly, pulling her closer. “Perfectly fine now that you’re okay and our bond is back in place.”
“Yes, I feel it too.” She shifted in his arms. “It’s back just the way it was before that awful priestess cut it. Thank the Goddess Y’dex wasn’t able to regraft himself to me. Ugh.” She shuddered. “I don’t think I could have stood that.”
“Don’t think about him now,” Rast said. Leaning down, he kissed her gently on the mouth. “Don’t think about anything but us, here, now, alone.”
To be honest, he wasn’t quite sure that they were alone, but the presence in the garden seemed to be completely benevolent. He didn’t think the Goddess would mind if he held the woman he loved.
“We are alone, aren’t we?” Nadiah smiled. “Finally.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Rast kissed her again. “No parents to disapprove, no slimy ex- fiancée to get in the way,” he murmured. “No one at all to interfere…”
“No one to interfere with what?” Nadiah asked a little breathlessly.
“With this.” Rast traced with one finger down her jaw and throat and around to the low scooped neck of the gauzy white priestess gown she was wearing. “You know,” he murmured, “I never realized how thin this material is. I can practically see right through it.”
“Rast.” Her cheeks were beginning to get pink with embarrassment and he thought how wonderful it was to see them flushed with life and health instead of fever.
“Sorry,” he murmured. “I can’t help it. You’re just so beautiful.”
“You’re not too bad yourself…for a male with wings.” She smiled at him and then nodded at the surrounding wings. “I like this you know—it’s like having our own little private space right in the middle of the garden.” She stroked the sleek, iridescent feathers gently with her fingertips.
A shiver of pleasurable sensation ran through Rast’s entire body, surprising him. It felt like a warm, gentle hand was stroking him, caressing his entire body whenever Nadiah touched the wings.
No, not just the wings—my wings, he thought. As strange as it might seem, he was beginning to think of the new feathered appendages as being part of him—part of his body.
Nadiah must have noticed his reaction because she pulled her hand away. “Did that hurt?” she asked, looking at him anxiously. “You shivered and I thought—”
“No, really, don’t stop. It felt good.” Rast gave her a hungry look. “Really good.”
Nadiah stroked him again, petting the individual feathers. “They’re so amazing. They saved us, you know—if they hadn’t come out—manifested at just the right time….”
“I know.” Rast arched his back as the warm stroking sensations increased. Looks like I’ve just grown a whole new erogenous zone, he thought. A damn big one.
“Did you do it on purpose?” Nadia asked. “I mean, did you consciously think about making them come out when you came after me?”
Rast shook his head. “No, that was the last thing on my mind. All I could think about was getting to you—holding you one more time before… well, before the end, I guess.”
Her eyes widened. “So you just dove after me, thinking you were going to die?”
He shrugged, making the feathers rustle. “I guess so. I just knew I couldn’t be without you.”
“Oh, Rast…” Leaning forward, she buried her face in his neck for a moment. “I love you,” she whispered brokenly. “Love you so much.”
“I love you too, sweetheart.” He kissed the top of her head and cradled her close, breathing her in, loving the feel of her in his arms.
At last she sat up and wiped her eyes. “Sorry.” She sniffed. “I just…I can’t believe you would…” She shook her head, unable to continue.
“It’s okay,” Rast assured her, stroking her hair. “Everything is going to be okay now. I promise.”
She gave him a slightly watery smile. “I think you’re right.”
“I know I am.”
“But the wings…” Nadiah began stroking them again. The delicate feeling of her fingers caressing him was driving Rast crazy.
“Yeah, what about them?” he asked hoarsely.
“Well, they came out when you came after me,” Nadiah said, sounding thoughtful. “Do you think…does that mean I am the right female for you after all?”
“Sweetheart, you’re the only female for me,” Rast assured her. “You know that, don’t you?”
“Now I do.” She gave him a tentative smile. “For awhile there, though, I was worried that I might be impeding your progress. You know, keeping you from answering your higher calling as the Counselor
of First World.”
“You could never do that.” Making a decision, Rast cupped her cheek and looked into her face. “Enough about my wings—let’s talk about your eyes. Have I told you what a beautiful color they are?”
Nadiah bit her lip. “Yes,” she whispered. “Several times, I think.”
“Because it’s true—your eyes are the most gorgeous shade of blue I’ve ever seen.” He paused for a moment. “But I never want to see it again.”
“What?” Nadiah looked at him uncertainly. “What do you mean, Rast? You’re scaring me a little.”
“I mean…” He stroked her cheek tenderly. “After our time together here in this garden, I never want to see that shade of blue again. I want to change it. I want to change you.”
“Oh, Rast…” Understanding bloomed on her face and her cheeks were flushed with pleasure. “Are you sure? I thought you wanted to wait until we were joined.”
“That was before,” Rast told her. “I wanted to prove to Sylvan that I was a man of my word—to let him know he could trust me to take care of you.”
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