A girl with long black hair and a tear-streaked face suddenly appeared in the doorway of the ship. She was wearing what looked like a male’s too-large dress shirt that ended at mid-thigh and not much else.
“Please,” she said in Standard. “Can you come help me? I can’t lift Varin and he can’t walk himself. The chip countdown has frozen him somehow. Please!”
“Coming,” Baird shouted, jogging over to her. Sylvan and Yipper followed, leading a floating hover-stretcher behind them.
Sylvan sent a quick prayer skyward. Please Goddess, let us be able to help. And then he sent a thought message through his link to his mate, Sophia.
“Talana, I have a female in need of comfort in the docking bay. Yipper and I are going to examine and possibly operate on her male. Can you come?”
“Of course—the twins are at dayschool right now so I’ll be right over,” Sophia sent back promptly.
“Thank you. Come soon. Oh, and ask Olivia to come too and bring a shot or a capsule of translation bacteria. I think this female only speaks Standard,” Sylvan sent back.
“Got it—be there soon!” His mate sent him the equivalent of a mental kiss and Sylvan knew she was on her way. Looking at the tearful, panicked face of the girl with the long black hair, he hoped she hurried.
Chapter Thirty-two
“Do you think he’ll be all right? Do you think your physicians can help him?” Brynn looked anxiously back and forth between the two nice girls who had come to sit with her while Varin was examined. They looked very alike—so much that they must be sisters, she thought. Though one of them had brown hair and green eyes and the other had blonde hair and gray eyes, their faces were so similar as to be almost indistinguishable.
“I’m sure he will,” said Olivia, the blonde haired girl.
“My husband, Sylvan is the best doctor on the ship,” the brown haired girl, Sophia said, smiling at her. “He’ll do everything in his power to save your guy, I promise.”
“Thank you.” Brynn smiled tremulously at both of them. At first she hadn’t been able to understand a word they said. Then Olivia had given her a large pink capsule to swallow with some water. After a few moments, their words had become clear to her and now Brynn found it easy to talk to them. They were sitting in a waiting area outside the place where the blond doctor and the little animal creature whom she had been assured was also a doctor were operating on Varin.
“So tell us more about Varin,” Sophia urged her. “What kind of Kindred is he?”
Brynn shook her head.
“I don’t know and neither does he. He was sold as a slave to my father, the King of Galen Prime, when he was only seven cycles old and I was just a baby. My father bought him to become my personal bodyguard—they gave him a drop of my blood and he was bonded to me. After that, he had dreams and visions of me and I…” She bit her lip. “I dreamed of him too, although I didn’t realize it until I saw him in person.”
“It sounds like some kind of early dream-sharing thing,” Olivia said thoughtfully. “I’ve never heard of Kindred bonding or dream-sharing so early though.”
“Dream sharing usually happens just a few weeks or months before you meet your guy in person,” Sophia added helpfully. “The fact that the two of you dreamed of each other for years and years like that is just amazing.”
“It’s Varin who’s amazing,” Brynn whispered. “He’s sheltered and protected me…he even shot off his own hand to come rescue me when I was trapped in the Hive.”
“He did?” Olivia’s lovely eyes widened. “Wow—if I didn’t know he was Kindred before, that right there would convince me.”
“It sounds like something a Kindred warrior would do to save the woman he loves,” Sophia agreed. “They’re incredibly devoted to their females.”
“Varin has been devoted to me since they bonded him to me at age seven,” Brynn agreed. “But…but he says he loves me and not just because of the bond.”
“So he was your slave—your bodyguard—but you fell for him anyway?” Olivia raised an eyebrow. “How did that go over with your mom and dad, the king and queen?”
“They sold me—sold me to Sovereign X'izith of the Hive,” Brynn said harshly. She swallowed and her throat gave a dry click. “He…wanted to implant me with his grubs. But Varin came and rescued me before he could…”
“Your parents sold you to a guy who wanted to put grubs in you?” Sophia frowned. “I’m not sure if the translations bacteria is quite doing its job.”
“You heard me correctly,” Brynn said quietly. “He is an evil being—he looks like a giant insect and he has this long, sharp breeding barb that he…” She shook her head, unable to finish.
“My goodness, honey—it sounds like you’ve really been through the wringer!” Olivia exclaimed.
Sophia put a comforting arm around her shoulders.
“I’m so sorry you had such an awful time. But you’re safe here with us. The Kindred protect their own.”
“Thank you.” Brynn gave the two girls a small, grateful smile. How different they were from the catty, gossiping ladies in waiting she’d had on Galen Prime! Of course, all of the girls who had been mean to her were probably decomposing in that awful pit in the center of the Hive or else filled with grubs right now…
The thought made her shiver and she tried to push it away. But no matter how hard she tried not to think of the Hive, she kept hearing the high, buzzing voice of Sovereign X'izith hissing that nothing but a “deep breeding” would ease her need…
“Hello ladies, I’m afraid I need to speak to our new friend alone for a moment.”
Brynn’s head jerked up.
The physician with spiky blond hair and pale blue eyes was standing in front of her with a grave look on his face.
“All right then.” Olivia and Sophia started to get up but Brynn reached for them instinctively.
“Please,” she said, clasping both their hands. “Please, don’t leave me! If…if the worst has happened, I don’t want to be alone.”
At once the two girls sat down again on either side of her.
“Of course we won’t leave you, sweetie!” Sophia pressed her hand comfortingly and Olivia put an arm around her and squeezed.
“We’re right here for you, Brynnalla.”
“Call me Brynn, please.” Brynn tried to smile at them. “It…it’s what my friends call me.”
“Brynn then,” Olivia said decisively. “Brynn, we’re right here with you.” She looked up at the blond Kindred doctor. “All right, Sylvan—go ahead. What happened in the OR?”
He took a deep breath and Brynn saw that his pale blue eyes were grave.
“We managed to stop the chip countdown—momentarily. But it will start back up again if we don’t do something.”
“Can’t…can’t you just replace his chip?” Brynn asked tremulously. “That’s all he needs is just a new chip.”
Sylvan shook his head. “Unfortunately, we don’t have any slave chips aboard the Mother Ships. We find the practice of slavery abhorrent and wrong.”
“Sylvan, you’re going to make her feel bad!” Sophia exclaimed. “Varin was her slave, you know—but then she fell in love with him.”
“Because her parents bonded him to her when she was just a baby,” Olivia put in.
“Really?” Sylvan frowned thoughtfully. “That is most interesting. I’d like to hear more about it later but for now, we have a big problem to solve—and a decision to make.”
“What decision?” Brynn’s mouth was so dry she could barely speak. “Will he live? Can you save him? What can you do if you don’t have a replacement chip on hand?”
“We can take the chip mechanism itself out. Yes we can, yes we can.” The little animal surgeon Olivia had told her was called a Tolleg suddenly came bounding out. “I have done the procedure myself many times in the past. Yes, I have, yes, I have.”
“Well, then do that!” Brynn exclaimed. “That’s perfect—then we would never have to worry about
getting him another chip again!”
“There can be…complications,” the blond doctor called Sylvan said cautiously.
“What complications?” Brynn asked anxiously.
“When dealing with the spine, there is, of course, always the risk of paralysis,” Sylvan said. “Though having an experienced surgeon who has done the procedure before helps.” He nodded at the little Tolleg who nodded back eagerly.
“Well, if it’s a choice between dying and taking a chance, I think Varin would rather take the chance,” Brynn said. “He wouldn’t…wouldn’t want to leave me.” Her throat was tight as she spoke but she managed to hold back the tears that threatened.
“Unfortunately, that’s not the only possible complication,” Sylvan said, frowning. “There is a chance that removing the chip mechanism can affect the memories because such mechanisms are often equipped with a memory blocker—to keep a slave from remembering his former life and wanting to go back to it.”
“Sometimes removing the mechanism can create a type of amnesia—it erases the memories that were made after it was first implanted. Yes it does, yes it does.” The Tolleg surgeon nodded his head solemnly.
“But…” Brynn looked back and forth between the two doctors. “But my father bought Varin to be my slave when he was only seven cycles old. Are you saying that removing the chip mechanism will wipe his mind from everything he’s learned…everyone he’s known from that point on? He…he might forget his whole life? Forget me?”
“We hope not,” Sylvan said. “But we have to warn you that it’s a possibility.”
“I have never seen this particular brand of chip before, no I haven’t, no I haven’t,” the little Tolleg surgeon put in. “So I am unsure if it contains a memory block or not.”
“That sounds like a terrible risk to take,” Brynn whispered. “But…what is the alternative?”
“Death, I’m afraid.” Sylvan gave her a sympathetic look. “The countdown can’t be stopped forever—eventually it will restart itself and kill Varin if the chip is not replaced or if the mechanism isn’t removed completely.”
“Then remove it,” Brynn said through numb lips. “I guess we’ll just have to take the chance.”
“It’ll be all right, honey.” Olivia pressed her hand gently. “I mean, you two are bonded, right?”
Brynn thought of the blood-bond that bound Varin to her.
“Well…yes.”
“Then the bond should lead him back to you,” Sophia said firmly. “Even if he loses his memory. Nothing but death can break a Kindred warrior’s bond to his chosen female.”
Her words made Brynn feel somewhat better.
“Thank you.” She gave Sophia a tremulous smile. “Then maybe it will be all right.”
“Yipper and I will do everything in our power to make sure your mate comes through the operation successfully,” Sylvan promised.
“And I can fix his hand too—yes I can, yes I can!” the little Tolleg said excitedly.
“Can you?” Brynn exclaimed. “That would be wonderful.”
“Replacement parts are kind of Yipper’s specialty,” Olivia said, grinning. “The only thing is, you want to make sure he gives your guy a regular hand—not something crazy and bionic that can punch through solid steel.”
“There is nothing wrong with enhancements, no there isn’t, no there isn’t,” Yipper said with dignity. “But I promise to be circumspect in choosing the correct prosthetic. Your male will not even be able to tell the replacement from the hand he lost.”
“All right, thank you.” Brynn nodded and watched as the two doctors turned and went back to do the delicate and dangerous surgery on the male she loved.
She just hoped that when he woke up from the surgery, Varin wouldn’t have lost his memory…or his feelings for her.
Chapter Thirty-three
Bereth Atore opened his eyes to see a lovely but unfamiliar face bending over him.
“Varin?” said the female with large gray eyes and silky black hair. “Varin can you hear me? Are you all right?”
Bereth frowned—she must have mistaken him for someone else.
“Varin,” she said again. “It’s me, Brynn. How do you feel?”
He cleared his throat and shook his head.
“I’m sorry but…do I know you?”
His question seemed to upset her somehow because she put her hand over her mouth and backed away from him, shaking her head.
“No,” she whispered. “Oh, no…”
“It’s all right.” A tall, blond-haired male put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right, Brynn—give him time.”
“Give me time to what?” Bereth demanded. “Who are you people? And where are my mother and father? They—oh!”
He grasped the side of his head as a spike of pain pierced through it. A vision flashed across his mind’s eye—his father grasping at a poison dart planted deep in his heart and his mother with her throat cut—a red gash like a ghastly grin opened just under her chin. The crimson blood was pouring out but she was still reaching for Bereth, still trying to scream for him even as the bad males took him away…
“Gods!” he gasped and put his head in his hands. “Dead. They’re dead, aren’t they?”
“I…I think they are,” the girl said, coming forward again. “I think I heard my father talking about it once. He said the slavers killed your parents when they took you away to sell you.”
“Sell me?” He frowned, still making an effort to push the awful vision of his parents’ death out of his mind. He somehow knew it had happened a long time ago—that he was grown now and their death had been when he was only a child. But that didn’t make the pain of losing them in such an awful way any less.
“Yes, the slavers sold you to my father—the king of Galen Prime,” the black-haired girl told him. “You were my personal slave—my bodyguard. Don’t you remember?”
“Look, you’re very beautiful but I’m no one’s slave,” Bereth growled.
“But…but my parents gave you a drop of my blood when I was just a baby,” she protested. “That bound you to me. That’s why my father named you Varin. It means ‘Bound One’ in the ancient language of our planet.”
Bereth frowned at her. “My father told me that when he found the right female for me to be mated to, she and I would exchange drops of blood and be bonded. Did you drink my blood too?”
“Well…no.” The girl bit her lip, her gray eyes going wide. “I was only a baby. But you had mine.”
“If you didn’t have mine as well, then we’re not bonded,” Bereth said decisively. He was a little sorry about that—she was a very beautiful female and he did feel a certain tug in her direction. But he didn’t remember anything she was talking about and he certainly had no desire to be anyone’s slave—no matter how pretty she was.
“But…” The girl’s lush lower lip trembled. “But you said you loved me! You even blasted off your own left hand to come rescue me from the Hive!”
“I what?” Bereth frowned and looked at his left hand. It appeared to be perfectly normal—perfectly intact. He flexed it and touched each fingertip to his thumb in turn. Was the girl crazy? “It seems fine now,” he said, not even trying to keep the skepticism out of his voice. “My hand is perfectly normal.”
“Yes, but it wasn’t when the Kindred took us in,” the girl insisted. “Varin—”
“Stop calling me that,” he growled, beginning to feel really irritated. “My name is Bereth. Bereth Atore, son of Tagan Atore of the Vision Kindred. I don’t know where I am or how I got here but I do know my own Goddess damned name!”
“Fine.” The girl took a deep breath, her small but shapely breasts heaving under the strange, too-large garment she wore. “Fine, I’ll call you Bereth if you like. But please—you have to try and remember our past together!”
Suddenly, Bereth was angry. Why was she saying all these crazy things? Insisting these obvious lies were true?
“You mean the past where I was
your slave?” he snapped at her. “Where I was so in love with you I shot off my own hand for you?” He held his perfectly intact hand up for inspection.
“It was surgically repaired,” said the blond male, but Bereth paid him no attention.
“I’m not who you fucking think I am,” he growled at the girl. “So stop saying all these wild things that can’t possibly be true!”
“Look at your chest,” she whispered and pointed to the left side of his chest, right over his heart. “Look at what’s written there.”
Bereth looked down at his left pec…and frowned. There, written in curving, scripted letters were the words, Property of Brynnalla of Galen.
For a moment he thought he felt a memory flickering like a tiny flame, far back in his mind.
Holding still…Gods, it hurts! But I must not move…don’t want the artist to smear her name…the name of the one so precious to me…
Then it was gone again, so completely he doubted its very existence in the first place.
“No,” he said, looking down at himself. “No, I don’t care if you inked your fucking name on me while I was out, that still doesn’t make me your slave.”
“I never said you were my slave now,” she protested. “We’re past all that—we have been for ages. Please, Varin…” She took a step closer and held out her hands to him appealingly. “I love you. And you…you said you loved me too.”
“How can I love you,” he asked blankly. “When I don’t even know you?”
Then he threw back the covers of the bed he was in and stood up. He was wearing a ridiculous gown and from the breeze he felt on his backside, there was nothing on underneath it. He wondered what these crazy people had done with his fucking clothes.
“Wait a minute!” The blond male came forward with one hand out. “You need to be careful, Varin. You’ve just undergone a very delicate spinal surgery.”
“I’m fine,” Bereth snarled. “And for the last time the name is Bereth. Now why don’t you people just leave me the fuck alone?”