CHAPTER 11
I came to as I was being lowered onto a sleeping platform, a feeling of lethargy pervading my senses. Where the hell was I, and what was going on? And why did my ear feel funny?
You wear my rellanti.
Rellanti? An image of the earring with the black stone floated through my mind. Oh, that was right. Elder had pierced my ear.
Something tugged on my kechic, pulled the belt loose, and I forced my heavy eyelids to rise enough that I could see what was happening. There was a vague sense of disorientation when I realized I was inside my adobe hut. And an even greater one when I realized it was Thor removing my kechic.
Now wasn’t this just wonderful? He finally decides to make whoopee, and I was too damn tired to move.
Male amusement touched my mind. It is not required that you move.
“But I’m trained at this stuff,” I told him. “Really, I could make your eyes roll back in your head. Just let me…” A frown furrowed my brow as I tried to lift a hand to assist him. My arm felt like it weighted a ton. “Am I drunk? What was that stuff Auntie Em gave me?”
It is given to facilitate the forming of the bond.
“Okay.” Still frowning, I tried to force my fuzzy brain to function. “Does that mean we aren’t going to make love?”
Penetration must be achieved for the completion of the bond.
“So you’re going to handle the penetration and I don’t have to move?”
Correct.
Huh, so I could relax and enjoy. This should be a novel experience. I’m usually the one who does all the work.
Thor’s big callused hand skimmed slowly down my body, pulling a purr of delight from deep inside my chest. The sound seemed to spur him on, because suddenly his weight covered me. There was a brief feeling of pressure between my legs, and then nothing.
Kiera.
I snapped awake, heart pounding, mouth dry, and stared around at a lush green paradise. It was my dream again, and I turned, already knowing what I’d see. A black hexagonal building made from crystal, floating just above the ground.
Well, hell. Thor was probably boffing my brains out back in the real world, and I was sleeping through it. But if I had to miss the fun and games, I was damn well going to get inside that building, and this time, nothing would stop me.
Back straight and chin lifted, I moved forward, the hip-high grass brushing my bare skin as I walked, the sweet scent of growing things perfuming the air. Disturbed by my passage, thousands of yellow butterflies rose to flutter around me, their delicate wings tickling my arms and shoulders like fairy’s breath. Enthralled by their beauty, I lifted a hand and several lit on my fingers, clinging briefly before rejoining the others to dance along the rays of warm sunlight.
Distracted by their joyful gyrations, I reached the hexagon sooner than expected. It loomed over me, prisms of color sparking from its many facets. An ache of longing filled me, so intense my eyes welled with moisture as I stared at the crystalline surface. It was mine, created just for me, and I wanted it the way I’d never wanted anything before.
What if it vanished again, or I woke up too soon? The thought sent a shaft of fear straight through my middle.
Trembling inside, hands shaking, I reached to touch it. But instead of resting on a cool, solid surface, my hand passed through the crystal as if there were nothing there. Startled, I yanked back, wiggling my fingers to make sure they still worked. Everything seemed to be in order. And this was, after all, just in my head. Nothing here could hurt me.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped up and forward, into the crystal. Immediately, the buzzing in my head rose to a crescendo, a billion wind chimes pealing a rhapsodic welcome. A feeling of such peace settled over me that I staggered my way through the stygian darkness and stumbled out the other side, tears streaking my cheeks. And came to rest in a place that couldn’t possibly exist on Orpheus Two, a place I’d never seen before. It was like being caught in a snow globe, a scene of wondrous beauty contained within the confines of the crystal.
Giant, oddly shaped conifers rimed in ice surrounded me. High in the sky hung a huge red sun, its pale rays casting brownish shadows on the snow-covered ground. In the distance rose a magnificent castle, its towers and minarets reaching into the heavens. The chilly breeze that lifted my hair and brushed my bare skin carried the crisp scent of winter, and yet I felt no cold.
“Why do you weep?”
I turned to look at Thor. He was sitting on the ground, one knee drawn up, his back resting against a massive trunk.
Slowly, I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s just that I’ve never…” Again, I shook my head. “I’m not sure I can explain.” I paused. “What is this place?”
His gaze swept the horizon before returning to me. “All that I am.”
“It’s so beautiful.” Another tear made its way down my cheek and I reached up to swipe it away.
“This is why you weep? From the beauty?” His voice was deep and dusky, the gruff overtones giving it a resonance that vibrated deep inside me.
“Partly. But there are other reasons too.”
“Come.” He held out a hand. “Tell me these reasons so I might understand.”
What the heck. It wasn’t like I’d be sharing my innermost yearnings with a real person. This was dream Thor. I could safely tell him anything I wanted.
When I took his hand, he pulled me down onto his lap and curled one arm around my waist. I snuggled until the fit was right, and then faced him. The tenderness in his ebony eyes damn near did me in. No one had ever looked at me that way before, and my explanation froze on my lips.
“Tell me.” A lock of hair had escaped my braid, and his strong fingers gently brushed it away from my face.
I swallowed hard, and forced myself to speak about what I’d never shared with another living creature. “I’ve been alone my whole life. There’s no other like me, and there never will be again.” I looked down, unable to meet his gaze. “I’ve never belonged before. Until now. Here, in this place, inside the crystal, I feel like I’ve found something I didn’t even know I was searching for. A part of me that was missing. It’s as if this place was created just for me, to make me whole.”
He was silent for so long that I finally looked up to gauge his reaction. His expression was thoughtful, but not fearful, and I knew he hadn’t understood. How could he when I barely understood myself? I had to try again.
“There are two kinds of humans, Thor. Naturals and GEPs. Naturals are people who are born of two parents, a male and a female. GEPs are created in a lab. DNA is taken from any number of Naturals based on their superior talents and intellect, and then it’s patched together and improvements are made. The end result is a human that’s stronger, faster and smarter than a Natural.”
A frown wrinkled his brow. “You are one of these ‘made’ people?”
“More so than most GEPs.” I took a deep breath, gathered my courage, and continued. “There are very strict laws that govern the creation of GEPs. For instance, a GEP can’t be created unless they’ve been commissioned by a government-sanctioned business or institution. That’s why I was made. The Bureau of Alien Affairs paid an extremely high price for my creation because they wanted a special agent, one who was an empath. A GEP with psi abilities had never been made before, and the geneticist who fashioned me went a little overboard.”
I picked up the end of my braid and toyed with it so I wouldn’t have to look at him during this next part. “Instead of taking DNA from Naturals as he should have, Dr. Gertz, the geneticist, illegally took it from other GEPs. And then he manipulated that DNA in ways only the Goddess knows. As a result, the Bureau got more than they bargained for. They got me. A fully functional female with a psi ability, who’s faster and stronger than any GEP ever created, with a metabolism capable of healing near fatal wounds in record time.
“The boss was furious when he realized what Gertz had done. He went after him. But Gertz knew he’d been caught, and he killed himself before the boss could arrest him.” I shrugged. “Unfortunately, Gertz destroyed all his records, so no one else knows precisely what he did to me. You see, I’m not a Natural, but I’m not exactly a normal GEP either. Neither the boss nor I know what I am, or what I’m capable of.”
Thor’s hand moved in slow stroking motions on my skin, and when he spoke I heard puzzlement in his voice. “This is bad, to be better?”
“It’s not bad to be better, it’s bad to be different. And I was…am. Even the other GEPs in my crèche sensed it somehow, though I tried very hard to hide it.”
“I am different from you. Does this make me bad?”
“No, of course not.” I looked up at him earnestly. “You’re exactly what nature intended you to be. Strong, beautiful and healthy.”
“You are strong and beautiful and healthy,” he said. “Does the way it happened matter so very much when the results are the same?”
With a sigh, I leaned against his chest and let my head rest on his shoulder. “You sound like the boss. He keeps telling me that I’m probably what humans will evolve into, given time. But neither of you can grasp how it feels to know that you’re the only member of your species, that you’ll never look into another face and find traces of yourself there, because no other exists. Or know what it’s like to be so alone among thousands of other people and races.”
“I know what it is like to be alone.” He rested his chin on the top of my head and rubbed it gently back and forth.
“You? You aren’t alone. You have your clan, your sibling.”
“Yes, but there are ways of being alone even among others. I am their…”
The word he spoke was in Buri, and I frowned. That was certainly odd. This was my dream and I didn’t speak Buri. Shouldn’t my dream Thor speak only Galactic Standard? I pushed away from him so I could see his face. “You’re their what? Leader?”
He seemed to struggle with the word for a moment, then nodded. “Their leader. Each day I make decisions that affect the welfare of my people. They trust me to protect them, to do what is necessary even when they don’t like or agree with my decisions. It is my responsibility, and no one can take it from my shoulders. This has held me separate from my people, and so I, too, know what it is to be alone. Until now.” He put a finger under my chin and lifted until our eyes met. “Now, neither of us will ever be alone again.”
“We won’t?” My voice came out in a wistful puff of air, and his lips curved in a smile.
“Never again.”
“It sounds so wonderful. I only wish it were real.”
His smile faded abruptly. “Why should it not be real?”
“Because this is a dream.” I lifted a hand to cup his cheek.
“And because I’m not free. The Bureau needs me. I’m the best agent they have, plus they own my indenture. Until it’s paid off, I go where they tell me to go, and do what they tell me to do.”
He looked horrified, and I rushed to clarify what I’d said. “The Bureau doesn’t own me, Thor. Not in the sense you’re thinking. I have the same rights as any other citizen. But they did invest a lot of money in my creation. I have a moral and legal obligation to repay that debt. But that’s not the only reason.”
I hesitated, then spoke again. “This is what I was created for. Without my job, I have no purpose, no reason for being.”
The concept of a “job” seemed to give him problems for a second, and I studied him in perplexity. If this were a dream, he should know everything I did. Unless my subconscious didn’t want him to know for some weird reason. Maybe I should go along with it and see where it led me.
“This ‘job’ is why you came here?”
“Yes.”
“Explain to me your purpose.”
I rested against his upraised knee and hooked one arm around his thickly muscled thigh. “The other humans who are here work for a trade company called Dynatec. They want to claim this planet as their own so they can derive material gain from its resources. Our laws allow them to do this if the planet isn’t occupied by a sentient species, or if the sentient species in residence is dying out. That last one is what they’re claiming about your people. There are only a few of you left, and your birthrate is almost nonexistent. Dynatec believes that in a hundred cycles, none of your people will be left.”
“But you do not work for these humans.” He had the most inscrutable look on his face I’d ever seen, almost as if he knew something I didn’t.
“No, I work for our government. It’s my job to protect species from companies like Dynatec, to make sure they aren’t taken advantage of. And if a company breaks the law, I see to it they’re brought to justice. But that’s only part of what I do. The main reason I’m here is to find out why your clan is dwindling away, and hopefully, reverse it.”
He stared at me, his gaze hooded. “I see. And when this ‘job’ is done, when you’ve saved my people, you will leave.”
“Yes.”
Ice-covered branches tinkled in the breeze as he turned his head to look at the distant castle. “How long will this take?”
“I’m not having much luck so far. There doesn’t seem to be any physical reason for your low birthrate. Unfortunately, by law, I only have two months to complete my mission and render a decision.”
“Why only two months?” His gaze shifted back to me.
“Because the people who wrote the law never envisioned a scenario quite like this one. Normally an entire team of specialists would have cycles to study the problem before I was called in.”
Another second ticked by in silence, then he precipitously changed the subject. “Why do you call me this name, Thor? It is very small.”
“Unlike you?” I grinned. “It’s because you remind me of him. On Old Earth, the planet where my species originated, Thor was the Norse god of thunder. He was second only to Odin, his father. He has a beard like yours, and a hammer called Mjolnir that he uses to create the thunder. He was known for his immense strength.”
He stretched out his leg, depriving me of my backrest, and then lowered me gently to the ground before coming to rest at my side. “I like this Thor. It is a good name. You may continue to use it.”
“Thank you, your high-and-mighty-ness. I’m glad you approve.” He looked so smug I couldn’t help laughing. “Especially since I couldn’t say your real name correctly under threat of torture.”
“Enough talk,” he said imperiously. “Time grows short and there are other things we must do.”
“Oh? Like what?”
“This.” He leaned over me, his dark hair forming a shield around us, and let his lips cover mine. Like the man who gave it, the kiss was demanding, heated by the flavor of passion too long withheld.
It’s about time, I thought as desire roared through my veins. His, mine, they tumbled together to form a rapturous whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. My fingers took on a life of their own, touching, exploring, as his hands slid down my body on a mission of their own.
My eyes drifted closed as the last vestiges of restraint fled and I savored the experience of letting someone else take control. This was Thor, the person I’d plotted to be alone with for what felt like ages. Finally, it was happening, and I didn’t care if it were a dream or not. I twisted in his arms until my breasts were against his chest, my arms coiled around his neck. My lips parted under his, offering myself to him in a way I’d never done with any male before.
A low growl sounded deep in his throat, and I trembled at the need expressed in the noise. He moved without warning and I found myself on my back again, the upper part of Thor’s body pinning me to the ground, his mouth demanding on mine. I felt his desire shimmering and dancing throughout my body, creating an answering echo that set my nerves tingling.
The enchantment began, hot and sweet, as his kiss gentled and I felt tenderness fill him. “I need you,” I murmured, giving him my complete surrender as well as my body.
Fire erupted through him at my words, at my touch, raging through him like a conflagration, out of control and devastating everything in its path. I was shaken to the core as he captured my mouth and I felt his lips move against mine, softly at first, until his tongue slipped between my lips. And with it, what little control I had left plunged into nonexistence. My hands buried themselves in the silken mass of his hair, holding his mouth captive.
“Kiera.” My name was forced from him in a shaky breath.
Instantly, my nipples hardened against him and he shifted to cover them with his hand, rolling them between his fingers as I arched to meet him. Pulling his mouth from mine, he trailed it down my neck, fighting desperately to control his need to simply take me.
For just a second, I hesitated, surprised at how clearly I picked up his feelings. But the thought was swamped by the tide of emotions flowing from him. Even Thor was stunned at the depth of his own desire. At his need to possess me, make me his so completely that we would be forever one. And when his lips closed over a nipple, his tongue lathing it taut, I stopped thinking and only felt. And he felt with me. Felt the sharp jab of need that shot through me from his mouth to the center of my legs. Felt the hunger that coiled in my belly, more than a match for his.
Seemingly with a will of its own, his hand slid down to cover that center, his touch soft and slow, tantalizing. I whimpered as his fingers caressed, stoked the flames until I was ready to scream with frustration. It wasn’t enough. He wanted more, wanted to taste.
He slid down, his mouth and tongue leaving a damp path down my stomach. With his eyes on my face he let his breath touch me.
“What—”
Before I could even form the question, his mouth covered me, caressing, tasting, and teasing. My head went back as my hands buried themselves in his hair once again.
“Oh, sweet Goddess!” My cry was choked, feverish, as my hips involuntarily thrust upward, begging for more. And he gave it to me until I was writhing beneath him, out of control. When I was on the edge of climax, he shifted.
On his knees, he pushed his erection against me and paused. “Kiera.” His voice was barely a whisper as I watched him through eyes heavy with desire. “Let the bond be complete.” With one hard thrust, he was inside, filling me in a way I’d never experienced before.
Abruptly, I was dizzy, the trees seeming to spin and swoop as a wave of shimmering light swept over us, and something inside me clicked into place. He froze, waiting for the shimmering to subside, and then sighed when it was gone.
Then my hands flexed on his back, my lips touched his chest, and Thor was lost. Teeth clamped together, he withdrew and drove into me again. At the same instant, I felt our minds touch, meld as firmly as our bodies were joined. Startled, I tried to pull away but he held on.
Stay. The plea was wordless, impossible to tell if it came from him or me, so closely were we joined. Our bodies seemed to move of their own accord, withdrawing and plunging again as though they couldn’t bear to be apart.
And I surrendered, let him sink into me mentally and physically, be enfolded until we became one entity, our desire burning together. I could hardly breathe.
Yes.
You’re mine. The thought was fiercely protective.
Yes, came the soft reply. We are one.
Thought came to a stop as emotions exploded. Hips moved, tongues brushed, fingers twined together, every feeling sending an echo through the other. The climax was a whirlwind of sensation that turned us into a supernova, the heat of our passion burning us clean of everything but each other.
Sanity was slow to return, and when it did I was lethargic and replete in a way I’d never been before. For that matter, so was Thor. I could feel him, all smug and satisfied as he rolled to the side, taking me with him and curling his warm body around mine. My hair had come loose, covering half my face, and he brushed it back, his lips stroking my temple. “Sleep now,” he murmured. “All is well accomplished.”
I smiled as my eyes drifted closed. What a funny way to put the most earth-shattering experience of my life. Well accomplished. Yes, I suppose you could say that. Except after what had just occurred, it felt as though he were part of me.
That should worry me, I realized, just before sleep pulled me away. It should worry me a lot.
“Kiera!”
I bolted upright on the sleeping platform, hands gripping my head to keep my skull bones from vibrating loose with the force of Max’s yell. “What!”
“You’re awake.” His voice quivered with relief.
“I am now. Why the hell are you yelling?”
“It’s the middle of the morning and I’ve been trying to rouse you all night. You wouldn’t respond, and it scared me. I’m sorry, Kiera, but after you drank the unknown liquid, I had to do something.”
Suspicion stole over me, but I forced myself to remain calm and collected. “What did you do, Max?”
“I sent an emergency call through to Dr. Daniels,” he said meekly. “After watching the vids of the Buri ceremony he agrees with me.”
“About what?”
“There is a ninety-eight point nine percent probability that you wed the Buri leader you call Thor.”
“What!”
Beside me, something warm and hard and muscled stirred, and I spun around like a dervish to meet Thor’s irate gaze. I was still gawking when he spoke.
“Tell this male who speaks in your mind that he must leave now. You belong to me.”
I lifted a shaky finger and pointed it at him. “I heard that. Your lips weren’t moving, but I heard it.”
“Kiera? Who are you talking to?”
“Thor. You can’t hear him?”
“No.”
Thor’s frown deepened. “Tell him to leave.” He spoke aloud now, in Buri. But what I heard was Galactic Standard.
My hand fell limply to my lap. “He’s not a him—sorry, Max. Not in the usual sense. He’s my ship, and I can’t tell him to leave.”
“He wants me to leave?” Max sounded shocked, and I felt like I’d been caught up in a holovid of the old “Who’s on First?” routine.
“Just be quiet for a second. He doesn’t understand who you are, and I’m trying to explain.”
Thor levered himself up on one elbow and stared at me through narrowed eyes. “Ships do not speak this way.”
“This one does. He’s an artificial intelligence. That means he thinks, feels and has the ability to learn, even though he’s a machine. His name is Max and he’s very smart.”
“Thank you.”
“Max, for Goddess’s sake, will you shut up?” I glared at Thor. “Besides, how do you know ships don’t speak this way?”
“I see the ships the others come in. And I see the images in your mind. None of them speaks.”
“Yeah, well, Max is special. Don’t say it,” I held up a hand in warning before Max could get another thank-you out.
“I would see this ship again.” Thor sat up and swung his long legs over the side of the sleeping platform.
“Hold it just a darn minute, there, big boy. I think there are a few other things we need to discuss first.”
“What are these things?”
As he spoke, he stood and turned to face me. I blinked. He wasn’t wearing a loincloth. He wasn’t wearing anything. Yeppers, he’d definitely requested they supersize that order at the old galactic burger drive-thru window.
Instantly I became aware of mild discomfort in the nether regions of my person, a place where there had only been pleasure before. Nervously, I licked my dry lips and forced my gaze upward. “Uh, I had this dream last night…” My voice tapered off as his lips curved in a satisfied smile.
Oh, shit. “It wasn’t a dream, was it?” I asked weakly.
“No.”
“I had a feeling you were going to say that. Just tell me this. Are we married?”
“Married?” He rolled the word over while he reached for his loincloth.
“Mated. As in bound together for life.” I scrambled off the sleeping platform, grabbed a jumpsuit, and pulled it on. For some reason, it felt safer to be dressed in my own clothes.
“The bond was sealed. We are mated.”
“That’s impossible! GEPs don’t marry.” My legs were wobbling so hard I sank down on the edge of the sleeping platform to keep from falling. For someone who was supposed to be smarter than the average GEP, I sure had screwed up big this time.
“You are GEP. We are mated. Therefore, it is possible. Yelling will not change this truth.”
“Kiera.”
“Not now, Max. And I wasn’t yelling.” Much. I shot a glare at Thor as he walked to a shelf and picked up a piece of fruit. “How did this happen?”
He took a bite from the pale yellow globe and chewed thoughtfully for a second. “I felt the connection the first night you were here, as did you. Then, when you came to my village, you groomed me and gave me a gift. I accepted. As you accepted my offering gift in return. The Rellantiim Ceremony is completed. We are bonded.” He finished off the fruit in another bite, and then looked around for more.
Come to think about it, I was damn near starved myself. I went to rummage through a knapsack stacked in the corner, and pulled out two Zip Bars. I tossed one to Thor and tore into the other one, speaking with my mouth full. “Are you telling me I proposed to you?”
“Kiera.”
“Later, Max.”
Thor sniffed the bar, then took a bite that consumed half of it in one fell swoop. “Proposed?”
“Asked you to be my mate.” I swallowed, and reached for my boots with my free hand.
“Yes.” He popped the last half of the bar into his mouth and headed for my knapsack. “But even if you hadn’t, I would not have let you go.”
“Kiera.”
“What!” I threw my hands up in exasperation at Max’s continued interruptions.
“Dr. Daniels would like to speak with you.”
I closed my eyes and swore steadily for three minutes, even calling into question the paternity of the man who’d created faster-than-light communication. It took three days for a ship like Max to warp here from ZT Twelve, but I could talk to the boss as if he were in the next room. Occasionally, technology has its drawbacks.
“When?” I opened my eyes to see Thor staring at me with a great deal of interest, another Zip Bar suspended halfway to his mouth.
“In one hour. The transmission will be beamed into my control room. He doesn’t want to disturb the Buri by suddenly appearing in their village.”
“Fine, I’ll be there.”
“As will I,” Thor said. “Who is this person that you do not wish to speak with?”
“The man I work for. My leader,” I clarified. “Just out of curiosity, did you understand everything I told you last night?”
“Yes.” Even white teeth flashed as he grinned at me. Damn, but he was gorgeous.
“As are you.”
“Whoa. Do you hear everything I think?”
He finished off the second Zip Bar, then stretched out on the sleeping platform, back propped against the wall.
“Yes. You broadcast very strongly and have not yet learned to shield.”
“How?” I shifted to face him, and he lifted a hand and set my new earring swinging. The touch of his finger on the stone was oddly erotic, and I shivered.
“Through the mind bond formed by the rellanti.”
I remembered the word from last night, but now I was thinking more clearly. The rellanti was obviously the black stone in the earring. “Why can’t I hear your thoughts?”
“You can.” His lips weren’t moving. “In time, you will stop fighting the connection and learn to control the bond with more accuracy.”
I ignored the fighting comment and concentrated on the earring. The stone had to have some kind of psychic properties. Hell, maybe all the colored ones had psychic properties. While I’d always been able to detect emotions, I’d never picked up actual words before. Would I be able to hear everyone’s thoughts now?
“No. Only mine. When a young male becomes an adult, he is given two rellanti. If he has been prepared correctly, the rellanti gradually attune themselves to his mind. He wears both until he finds the female who is destined to form the mind bond with him.”
“What happens if he hasn’t been prepared correctly?”
“He dies.”
A chill ran over me as I remembered Junior receiving his rellanti last night. And what about me? Could I have died, too?
“We were all correctly prepared. I would not have risked you otherwise.”
“If I was ‘correctly’ prepared, then why did your touch hurt me when I first returned to the village?”
“The pathways were opened, but you did not yet wear my rellanti. This created a dissonance which caused pain when we touched.”
That didn’t make me feel a lot better, but I decided to let it pass for now. There was only so much anxiety I could take at one time, and I’d reached my limit. “So, when Elder took the rellanti from you, and put it on me, it what? Became attuned to my mind?”
He thought that over for a second, frowning. “It synchronized the patterns of our minds so they are in accord, and amplified our thoughts. This is why you hear my words in your language, and I hear yours in mine.”
“Will I be able to understand the rest of the tribe?”
“If I hear their words, you would understand through me.”
“Kiera,” Max interrupted. “If you understand what he’s saying, we could easily make a language program.”
Thor frowned again. “Does this ship read your thoughts?”
“No, although it seems that way sometimes.” I picked up his hand and placed his fingers behind my ear. “Feel that?”
He explored for a second, then nodded.
“That’s a computer chip. It contains both a listening and tracking device, as well as a tiny speaker. I can stay in contact with Max from almost anywhere on the planet’s surface.”
His head tilted thoughtfully. “He would protect you?”
“Of course. My protection is his primary directive.”
“Then he may stay.”
“Gee, thanks.”
But I didn’t want to talk about Max now. There was more I needed to know about the rellanti. My braid had come undone during the night and Thor was lifting my hair, letting it slide through his fingers. I caught his hand in mine, and held it still. As pleasant as another round of lovemaking might sound, I was desperate for answers, panic creeping along my nerves.
“You said the bond was sealed last night. How was it sealed?”
“When we made love, both here and within the rellanti.”
“What would have happened if we hadn’t made love?”
His gaze drifted from my hair to my face. “I do not know. No one has ever refused the bond before. It has always been as it was with us, and now it is sealed. You are mine.”
My grip on his hand tightened. “Can the bond be broken once it’s sealed?”
Suddenly he was very alert, his body tense. “Yes.”
“How?”
“If one of us dies, it will be broken.”
“That’s a little more drastic than I was considering.”
He relaxed slightly, but there was still watchfulness in his gaze.
“What’s going to happen to this bond when I leave?”
“I do not know.”
“Thor, I told you that I’d be leaving when my job is done. You knew I meant it, and yet you sealed the bond anyway. Why?”
He looked down at our joined hands. “I have waited all my life to find my bond mate. A true bond has become very rare among my people. I know of only two others. Most of my people mate now in hopelessness. For them, the Rellantiim Ceremony is hollow with no true sharing of spirits. This is why I chose to seal our bond.”
When he looked up, there was a gleam of determination in his eyes. “The answers you seek will not come easily. When you find a way to restore our fertility, you will change your mind about this ‘job.’ You will not leave me.”
“And how do you plan on changing my mind?” I asked quietly.
“You will have a new purpose, a new reason for being. It has begun.” He pulled his hand from mine and stood. “I am still hungry. We will eat now.”
I waited until he’d almost reached the door before I spoke again. “Thor, do you know why the Buri birthrate is so low?”
He stopped, but didn’t turn around. “Come. There is much to do before we meet this leader your ship spoke of.”
A shiver ran over me as I watched him step through the door. I had a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling.