Page 15

When Vahn returned to his quarters, he found Kara washed and changed. Not that he could still call them his quarters, he thought sourly. Her belongings were strewn everywhere.

“Are you always this messy?”

She looked surprised.

“This isn’t anything unusual. You didn’t complain before.”

“Clearly the old me was less particular.”

“Or he didn’t have a stick up his ass.”

Vahn narrowed his gaze.

“You said you wanted to talk. So talk.”

“Okay. Shall we… shall we sit?”

He took the armchair and she curled up on the sofa. Its proportions were made for Vraxians and she looked lost among the cushions. She waited till he was seated and then took a deep breath.

“A lot’s happened since we crashed on Minerva-6. You must have a lot of questions and I’ll try to answer all of them. But in return, you have to stop keeping me at arms length. I honestly believe it’s the only way to get your memories back. And, um…”

she looked away, embarrassed. “There’s also the matter of teshekalehsh.”

He stiffened.

“What of it?”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m not sleeping properly. And it’s only going to get worse.”

He gave a bark of laughter.

“Teshekalehsh only applies if we are true mates, human. And I’m still not convinced of that.”

“You’re wrong.”

She held out her hand. Something was coiled in her palm and it took him a second to realize what it was.

A braid of white hair, secured at each end with beads. His hair. His beads.

“How did you get that?”

“You gave it to me to wear during shaa’baara so I wouldn’t be distracted by withdrawal symptoms.”

She shrugged. “It doesn’t work now, the oils in the strands have dried out. But it proves we’re mates.”

“Or perhaps I was just humoring you.”

“No. We’ve both experienced teshekalehsh before. I recognize the signs. I think it’s why you’ve been so grumpy.”

Her quiet conviction brought him up short. Was it possible she was right?

He hadn’t been sleeping. He was bad-tempered and irritable. And he had insulted his closest friend over his war experience. He’d put it down to the bomb blast and the stress of his memory loss. But now that he thought about it…

Vahn groaned inwardly. By the Temple of Ayanlesh, how had he not seen it before?

Because you don’t want to accept this human is your kalehsha.

Seemed like he had little choice now.

“What do you propose?”

he growled. “That I cut off more of my hair?”

“I’m not trying to force you into anything,”

she said evenly. “But the bottom line is, you can’t keep avoiding me. We have to stick together. And that means you move back in here and we keep up pretenses until your memory comes back.”

“I have already pledged to take you to the banquet.”

“That’s not enough. We need to be together all the time. You can’t run off again and you can’t pretend I don’t exist.”

He glared at her. He wanted to tell her he would see her in the pit of Xesh before agreeing to her demands. But if he was indeed suffering teshekalehsh, it made him vulnerable. He could do or say the wrong thing and thus reveal his amnesia. And that was a risk he couldn’t take.

“Fine.”

“You agree?”

“I said fine, didn’t I? We will live together here. You may take the bed. I will sleep on the couch.”

“Wow, such a gentleman. And the teshekalehsh?”

Cursing under his breath, he got up and walked to the sofa.

“Let us get this over with.”

She scooched up as he sat next to her but even so his thigh pressed into hers. Tentatively, she held her hand out and after a moment, he took it.

The wave of euphoria, when it came, was just as intense as the first time she’d experienced it. It trickled through her cells like a tide of warm honey, sweeping away the tension which had been splintering her body.

She didn’t know how Vahn was feeling, but he didn’t demur when she leaned against him. Her head dropped onto his chest and it was the happiest she’d been in days.

For Vahn the sensation had a different effect. For the first time since the assassination attempt, he felt calm and in control. The edge of rage which had permeated every waking moment receded, leaving him clear-headed.

Vannla’s Sword. The human was right. I was suffering teshekalehsh.

Without any conscious thought he pulled her onto his lap. She buried her face in his neck and he wrapped his serpetri around her. She removed her hand from his to slide it under his tunic, maintaining the skin-to-skin contact but this time on his abdomen.

Her hair was fanned across his chest and he pulled a skein of it through his fingers, watching it ripple like silk.

“Purple,”

he murmured.

“Mm?”

“Sometimes, when I look at you, I expect your hair to be purple. Why is that?”

“The light was strange on Minerva-6.”

Her voice was husky. “It made my hair look violet. And my skin golden.”

“That explains it.”

She curled against him, spreading her fingers over the taut muscles of his stomach. Her scent was in his nostrils, as seductive as a siren song, and Vahn knew in another moment he would be lost.

All he had to do was move his head just a little, and his lips would make contact with hers. And a short time after that, any hope of declaring his marriage denerra would be gone.

He knew that, and yet somehow he no longer cared. All he wanted to do was push her back among the pillows and ravish her until he was spent.

He took her jaw in his hand and tilted her face up. Her eyes were glazed, as he knew his must be too.

He focused on her mouth.

“Kalehsha,”

he whispered, as sensuously as a caress. He bent towards her and her lips parted. Wanting him. Inviting him.

There was a knock at the door.