Forgotten (58 page)

“
I can never put what I
did to Kate behind me,” Rone said darkly. “I can never forgive
myself and she shouldn’t either.”

“
Well, at least your bond
is restored now, right?” Tante Corii said, obviously still trying
to put a good face on the situation. “That must be a relief,
mustn’t it?”

For a moment—just a moment—Rone’s hard
expression melted just a little. He looked down at Kate and she
could tell he was trying to communicate with her—trying to use the
mental bond that all Kindred developed with their mates after
bonding sex.

But all she could hear was a deafening
silence.

“
Rone?” she asked
hesitantly. “Are…are you trying to speak to me?”

A look of despair came over his strong
features.

“
Yes…yes, I am. Can you
not hear me at all?” His deep voice sounded so desperate Kate
wished she could say yes. But there was no way to fake this kind of
thing.

“
No,” she whispered.
“I…I’m so sorry but I don’t hear anything.”

“
Gods.” Rone squeezed his
eyes tightly shut for a moment and breathed deeply.

“
Rone?” Kate looked at him
anxiously. “Rone, what does this mean?”

“
It means that our bond is
broken beyond repair,” he said in a low, gruff voice. “If what I
did to you last night didn’t restore it, nothing can.”

“
So…you’re saying our bond
can’t be fixed?” Kate whispered. “But I don’t understand—where does
that leave us?”

“
It leaves us nowhere.” He
looked away from her, clearly unwilling to meet her eyes. “We don’t
belong together anymore, Kate. I think maybe…maybe I should just
take you home.”

Kate felt like someone had punched her in
the stomach.

“
Home to the ship, you
mean?” she asked softly.

Rone shook his head. “No. Home to
Earth.”

Chapter Twenty-seven

“
Sylvan will be in to
examine you in just a minute. Does it hurt much?” Sophie, Commander
Sylvan’s wife was sitting by Kate’s bedside in the med center of
the Mother Ship.

Rone had decided to go there first, before
he dropped Kate back at Mimi’s place in Tampa, because he felt he
had to report everything that had happened to the head of the
Kindred High Council as soon as possible. If he hadn’t had that
duty to discharge, Kate thought bitterly, he would have taken her
directly back to Earth and dropped her like a hot potato.

“
Does what hurt?” she
asked flatly. “If you’re asking about my swollen ankle, yes, it
hurts like a son-of-a-bitch. The rest of me is fine. Just
fine.”

“
Oh…” Sophie bit her lip.
“Uh, well, this is awkward, which is one reason Sylvan asked
me
to ask you about
it…”

“
What’s awkward?” Kate
demanded.

“
Your mate, Rone, has
asked us to do a rape exam on you.” The new voice came from a
blonde girl in pink scrubs who had just entered the
room.

Kate looked up at her and then did a double
take back at Sophie.

“
Hey, you’re…you guys look
just alike.”

“
Except for our hair and
eyes, yeah, we get that a lot,” the girl said. “I’m Olivia, by the
way—Sophie’s twin. But you can call me Liv. All my friends
do.”

“
Well you and I aren’t
going to be friends for long if you keep saying that Rone…that
he
raped
me.”
Kate glared at Olivia fiercely, letting her know exactly what she
thought of such an idea.

“
Hey, I’m not saying
it—
he
is.” Liv
held up her hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture.

“
I think he’s just worried
that you might be, well,
injured,”
Sophie said delicately. “He wants to make sure
you’re all right—that’s all.”

“
Well he can ask me
himself if he wants to know.” Kate crossed her arms over her chest
stubbornly. “Dr. Sylvan can look at my ankle but that’s
all
he’s looking at as
far as I’m concerned.”

“
Sylvan will be with you
as soon as he finishes seeing his own doctor,” Liv said. “He’s
getting his dressing changed.”

“
Oh? What happened to
him?” Kate felt a twinge of worry for the blond Kindred doctor.
Though she was still kind of upset with him for sending her and
Rone to Flame and Frost, which had turned into such a fiasco, she
believed he had done it in good faith. And he had been awfully nice
to her the last time she’d been aboard the Mother Ship.

“
He was bitten by some
kind of a rat or Guinea pig or something,” Liv said. “It didn’t do
much more than take a chunk out of his thumb but we’re being extra
cautious because we don’t know what it was or where it came
from.”

“
Can’t you study it? Run
some tests on it to make sure it’s not carrying anything?” Kate
asked.

“
Well, we could if we
could
find
it,”
Liv said. “But it ran off before he could catch it and now we can’t
locate the darn thing. We’ve seriously been over the entire Mother
Ship with a fine tooth comb and it’s gone—just
gone
. Like it disappeared right off
the ship somehow.”

“
Ugh! I hate rats!” Sophie
said and shivered. “But Sylvan is healing up nicely and there’s no
sign of infection or anything else, thank the Goddess.”

“
When did it happen?” Kate
asked.

“
Not long after the two of
you left for Flame and Frost,” Sophie told her. “By the way—how was
it? Were they able to get all the fear toxins out of you and
restore your memory?”

Kate shifted uneasily.
“I’m afraid not. I mean, they
did
get the fear toxins out—by almost drowning me in
a pool of black goop. But the hole in my memory is still there.”
She sighed. “And now it looks like it always will be.”

“
Hang on—back up.” Liv
held up a hand. “You said they nearly
drowned
you in
goop?
What kind of a place is this
Flame and Frost?”

“
Well, they’re
supposed
to be a
couple’s resort kind of place, right?” Sophie asked.

Kate nodded. “I’m sure it’s probably a nice
place if you stay in the Flame part of it—if you stay in the light.
Unfortunately, Rone and I got diverted into the Shadow and wound up
in the Frost part. That was…interesting.”

“
Interesting how? What did
they do to you?” Liv wanted to know.

Kate gave them a quick run-down on the Madam
of Shadows and the apartment they had put her and Rone in. She
omitted the caning she’d taken because she didn’t want Sophie to
feel bad.

“
Wow—so everything you
did, you had to do together?” Liv asked. “That sounds
amazing.”

“
It was amazing, all
right,” Kate admitted. “It forced us to get closer—to touch each
other. Which was really what we needed since I was so reluctant to
touch Rone. First because of the fear toxins and afterwards because
I didn’t really feel like I knew him. Anyway, I got to know him
pretty quick while we were there.” She sighed. “And now
he’s
the one who doesn’t
want to touch
me.”

“
Oh, honey…I’m sure that’s
not true.” Sophie patted her arm comfortingly.

“
It
is
true.” Kate felt a lump in her
throat and did her best to swallow it back down. “Ever…ever since
we woke up the morning after…after I, uh, tamed his Beast, he can’t
even
look
at
me—let alone touch me.”

“
He must feel like he
really hurt you,” Liv said softly. “Otherwise he wouldn’t have
asked us to check you out, uh, down below.”

“
But that’s the
thing—he
didn’t.
I mean, it was rough and intense but I expected it to be. And
even though he was in his Beast form—which was pretty much the same
as his regular form, only a little harrier—he wasn’t cruel to me,”
Kate said. “I mean, he was demanding and insistent and scary but he
was sexy too. Oh God…” She put her face in her hands. “I’m sorry—I
really can’t explain this without sounding like a total
freak.”

“
You’re not a freak, hon,”
Liv said firmly, patting her other arm. “You’re just bonded to a
Kindred male. They’re they nicest guys in the universe but
things
do
tend to
get a little weird when you’re with one. Believe me—Sophie and I
know. Oh, the stories we could tell…”

“
But that’s just the
thing,” Kate burst out. “We’re
not
bonded—not anymore. When Two, the Dark Kindred
stole me away and took my memories, he did something to our bond as
well. Even after…after all the sex Rone and I had the other night,
our bond still didn’t come back and I still can’t remember him. And
he says…he says…” She almost couldn’t go on, her throat was so
tight.

“
Go on, honey—what does
Rone say?” Sophie encouraged her softly.

“
He says the fact that the
sex didn’t restore our bond or re-bond us means we’re not meant to
be together—ever again.” Kate started crying—she couldn’t help it.
“And I…I was just…just beginning to love him,” she gasped, her
shoulders hitching. “Especially after…after what happened. I mean
I…I made myself
vulnerable
to him! I let him
in.
I’ve never done that with…with
any man before. Not that I can remember. And now he…he just wants
to get…
to get rid of me.”

“
Oh, honey…” both sisters
said at once.

In a moment, Kate found herself enveloped in
a three-way hug with Sophie on one side and Liv on the other. The
comfort they offered was too much—she felt the last of her defenses
crumbling and she gave in entirely to the misery. Big, ugly sobs
tore from her throat as she let out the hurt and fear and pain
she’d been carrying ever since Rone had started rejecting her.

“
He h-hates me now,” she
whispered between sobs. “And I don’t know wh-why.”

“
He doesn’t hate you—I’m
sure he doesn’t hate you,” Sophie told her earnestly.

“
I think it’s much more
likely that he hates himself,” Liv said practically, stroking
Kate’s hair. “These Kindred males—they’re all about honor and
protecting their females. If he feels he hurt you in any
way—”

“
But he didn’t,” Kate
objected, wiping her eyes on the sheet. “I mean, I was…was
assaulted in college, you know? That was horrible—it was completely
nonconsensual. With Rone—with his Beast, I mean, I knew what I was
getting into. I
was
scared but I went in with my eyes open. And I don’t blame him
in any way.”

“
That doesn’t matter if he
blames himself,” Sophie said, frowning. “Liv is right—the Kindred
are very big on protecting and cherishing their mates. To harm the
female you love most in the world, well, that would be a nightmare
for them. The worst kind of nightmare.”

“
They worship the
Goddess,” Liv put in. “And they revere all things female. It’s in
their DNA.”

“
I keep hearing about this
Goddess,” Kate said bitterly. “Everyone says this is her will
somehow and that Rone and I will come out of it stronger than
before. Well, where is she now? Why did she do this to us? Or why
did she let it happen? I don’t understand.
I just don’t understand
.”

Just then there was a soft knock on the
door.

“
Oh!” Sophie hopped up.
“That’ll be Sylvan.” She looked at Kate uncertainly. “Um, should I
let him in or do you need a minute to get yourself back
together?”

“
I’m fine.” Kate swiped at
her eyes again and straightened her shoulders. “Thank you both—I’m
sorry I kind of lost my mind there for a minute.”

“
No problem at all,” Liv
assured her warmly. “We’re all half-crazy around here, anyway. A
little crying jag once in a while is nothing.”

Kate tried to smile at her and almost
succeeded. She wished she could have met both girls under happier
circumstances—they seemed so nice she was certain they could have
been good friends.

“
I’m fine,” she repeated.
“And I’m not normally so emotional. It’s probably just that time of
the month. In fact…” She frowned and looked at Sophie. “I know this
sounds crazy but what day is it? By the Earth calendar I mean. I’ve
lost track of time whizzing around the universe.”

“
It’s the twenty-eight.
Why?” Sophie asked.

Kate shook her head. “Nothing, it’s just
that—”

The knocking sounded at the door again, this
time louder.

“
Oh…” Sophie looked at her
uncertainly. “Should I tell him to wait?”

“
No, no.” Kate shook her
head. “Go ahead and let him in.”

“
Okay.” Sophie opened the
door but it wasn’t Commander Sylvan on the other side of it.
Instead, a young priestess with long blond hair that had emerald
green streaks running through it stood there. Kate knew she was a
priestess by her flowing robes and bare feet—and also because she
recognized her as the same one that Rone had consulted the night
she followed him to the Sacred Grove.