Davin's Quest (13 page)

“Oh, Davin.” She covered his hand with hers, imparting her love with a slight squeeze.

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“Well,” he cleared his throat, continuing, “now that insanity is no longer an issue, I still want to keep this little trick for emergencies. We’re not the Council’s favorite people, in case you hadn’t noticed.” He tapped out a string of commands that brought up something she’d never seen before. “This,” he pointed to the sequence, “is a special code that will douse the crystals of every comm panel connected to this one and cause a cascading failure throughout the system. It will cripple the military and Council alike, at least for a few minutes.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.” He smiled as she leaned in to study the sequence of characters. “I want you to know this, in case something should happen to me, or if you ever need to create a diversion to get away. I don’t know what kind of situations we might face in the future, but I want you to have this insurance against my people, should the worst happen. I don’t want them to ever hurt you, Callie.” He stroked her cheek with one big hand and she relished the caring in his touch.

“I love you too, Davin.”

Rick St. John hadn’t yet found the right time or opportunity to escape the prison that housed him, but he was by no means resigned to his fate. He knew his time would come and when the right chance for freedom came his way, he’d seize it.

But even so, he almost didn’t recognize the opening when it was handed to him.

When the Chief Engineer for the Alvians on planet Earth came to call on the prison beneath the city, Rick was at first as hostile toward the stranger as he was toward all Alvians with whom he didn’t work.

He kept up a constant stream of veiled remarks to the soldiers and most of the caretakers of the jail, refraining only when Mara 36 or one of the other scientists who had the power to change how the humans were treated came by.

So when the Chief Engineer peered into his cell, Rick was his usual, impolite self. Not that it mattered to Alvians. They couldn’t appreciate a good insult. They just didn’t have it in them.

“What do you want?” Rick challenged the man who stood outside the forcefield that kept Rick and the other men contained in the large barrack-style cell.

“I’ve come seeking volunteers to be tested for the crystallography program.” The strange alien was tall, but not as massively built as some of the soldiers. He was pale and blond, elven-looking like all the aliens, but this one had something different about him that Rick couldn’t quite place.

“Why would any of us want to cooperate with one of you?” Rick didn’t hide his sneer.

An eyebrow quirked upward on the patrician face. “Acceptance into my pilot program would mean a significant improvement in your circumstances, including a move to the Southern Engineering Facility and accommodations above ground, which I understand is preferable to most humans.”

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Rick was immediately struck by this Alvian’s words. “You called us human.”

The Chief Engineer gave him a knowing nod. “I did.” Their gaze met and held, sizing each other up. With a slight nod, the Chief Engineer disabled the forcefield and stepped into the cell. “I’m Davin. What’s your name?” He accompanied the startling words with a very human gesture. Davin held out his hand for a shake.

Rick knew then there was something odd going on. He shook the man’s hand, startled when he felt echoes of feeling—true feeling—from this Alvian. Rick’s weak empathy required him to touch a person, skin to skin, in order to get any kind of read on their emotions.

“No numbers? Just Davin?” Rick asked the most obvious question first.

An amazing smile lit the Chief Engineer’s face. “Just Davin. I’m a throwback. That means, unlike other Alvians, I experience emotion, much like you.”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Well, now you have.” Davin ended the business-like handshake and turned to the men standing behind Rick, addressing them all. “I’m starting up a new training program. If accepted, you’ll move to my engineering facility and train to work with our crystal power sources. You’ll have to be tested to see if you have the ability to work with raw crystal before I can invite anyone to join the program, but I’m not forcing the test on anybody. If you want to take the test, step forward now. If not, no harm done.”

“What does the test involve? Is it harmful?” Rick wanted to know. Nobody moved, though Rick could sense some were willing to try almost anything to get out of this damp cell.

“No, not harmful. I just want each of you to hold a raw crystal and concentrate. If you do well with the first, I may ask you to try a harder one, to roughly gauge your level of ability.” Davin turned to Rick with a grin. “And I never did get your name.”

Rick took his words as a challenge and stepped forward. “Rick St. John, at your service,” he said, with his usual sarcasm around the Alvians. “I’ll take the test first, just so we know you’re telling us the truth.”

“Ah, a leader willing to put himself before his men.” Davin reached into his pocket and pulled out a small crystal point. “I think I like you already, Rick St. John.” Davin dropped the quartz crystal into Rick’s open palm and gave him a friendly smile—such an alien thing to see on an Alvian’s face. “Now I want you to listen to the song of the crystal. Shut your eyes if it helps. Concentrate on the tone.”

Rick shut his eyes, aware of heat coming from the quartz rock in his hand like he’d never felt before. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was startling. After a few seconds, he was able to hear a tone—actually a series of tones playing together in harmony—though one note was slightly off.

“I hear a chord, but it’s not quite right,” he said, his eyes still shut. The sound of the crystal in his mind was entrancing.

“Good.” Rick could hear the encouragement in the alien’s voice, but he still didn’t want to open his eyes and possibly lose the beauty of this experience. He heard Davin’s words as if from far away. “You can make the chord true, Rick. Think it and it can be so. Concentrate on the crystal and bring your will to bear on it.”

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Rick didn’t quite know what he did, but he felt a touch of his healing power rise to encounter the rough crystal in his palm, healing the rift that made the chord sour and producing a trilling descant above the new, perfect harmony of the stone. The act brought a rush of pleasure that felt almost like sexual completion, but more sacred than any he’d ever experienced. It was as if this tiny piece of the Earth itself sang to him. It was awe-inspiring.

Rick opened his eyes and noted the crystal was now giving off a bright white glow in the palm of his hand. He looked up and saw the pleased smile on Davin’s alien face and the skepticism and surprise on the faces of the men gathered around.

“You have a strong and very peculiar crystal gift, Rick St. John. With that performance, you’ve earned a spot in my program, if you’ll have it. Unlike the other experiments you’ve no doubt been made to participate in, this one is truly voluntary, but I can tell you right now, I’d be pleased if you accepted the position.”

Rick handed the crystal back, though if he were honest, he really didn’t want to let it go, and stepped back. “Test the others. I’ll give you my decision before you leave.”

Davin nodded and turned to the waiting men. All of them were willing to try the test now that they’d seen it wasn’t dangerous. They had varying degrees of success with the crystals Davin handed out and Rick watched each carefully. He could hear the tones, and the failures and successes, as each man tried his best to do what he’d done. Many failed, but a few managed passable results. Nobody else produced the pure white glow Rick had but several others were invited to join the program and Rick was torn.

He wanted to get the hell out of this cell, but he also felt a responsibility toward the people he’d come to lead. Davin turned to him, a raised brow questioning his decision, but Rick truly didn’t know what to say.

His indecision must have shown on his face because Davin’s gaze filled with understanding.

“Come with us to the meeting room,” Davin said, pulling Rick aside. “There is someone you should talk to before you make your decision.”

Rick followed the Chief Engineer and the men who’d already accepted positions in the program out of the cell and into a large meeting room. It was filled with people. There were perhaps twenty humans there, with an Alvian soldier posted outside the door, keeping guard.

Rick stopped short in the doorway as he beheld the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, standing at the front of the room, using an Alvian datapad to record names and the numbers that had been assigned to each human prisoner. She had a lovely smile and an understanding expression as she worked with each prisoner individually.

“Callie?” Davin called to the vision and she smiled when she spotted him. “Can you spare a minute?”

Callie made her excuses to the person she’d been talking to and made her way across the room to where Davin stood, just inside the door. Rick moved a pace forward, into the room, allowing the man behind him to enter and take a seat toward the back, but his gaze was glued to the radiant woman heading their way.

She stopped in front of Davin and smiled so beautifully at the alien, Rick’s heart hurt. Never before had he been so taken by a female at first sight, but it was becoming clear, she was already claimed. Rick did his best to tamp down his attraction, lest she see it and pity him. Rick didn’t want or need anyone’s pity.

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“Callie, my love, this is Rick St. John. He hasn’t decided whether to join us yet or not, but he’s very gifted and I think he’d be an asset to the program.”

The woman named Callie turned her luminous blue eyes on Rick and he caught his breath. “You’re hard to read, Rick, but I do sense some conflict in you.”

“You’re an empath?”

She nodded, making an amused yet curious expression as she no doubt tried to feel what he was feeling.

Rick redoubled his shielding. He’d be damned if he’d let her read him so easily.

“Believe it or not, I’m a very strong empath, but you’re a tough nut to crack, Rick. Why such strong shields?”

“It’s pretty miserable where we live. It’s become second nature to block.” Rick grabbed at the most likely excuse he could find.

“You have some empathy?” Callie stopped concentrating and looked up at him with an open, friendly expression.

“Some, but not strong.”

“Telepathy?”
she asked in his mind.

He liked the feel of her thoughts in the intimacy of his mind all too much.
“Some. But not over great
distances.”

“Me either. My range is limited to two or three miles.”

“Yeah, that’s about it for me too.”

“So what has you so conflicted about joining Davin’s program? I can assure you he’s not like the
other Alvians.”

“Yeah, I get that, though it’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. I never thought an Alvian could
have emotion.”

“It’s rare. But it gives him a unique understanding of what our people are going through. He
chose to come here first to test because he knew of all the Alvian settlements, this one treated us
the worst.”

Rick was surprised by the statement, but felt an odd flare of hope kindle inside him. He looked around the room, glad to see Sadie among those chosen for the program.

Watching the dear older lady, Rick spoke more candidly than he otherwise would have.
“I’ve been
doing my best to help them. That’s why I don’t know if I should leave. Who will take care of the
rest?”

A soft hand covered Rick’s and shocked his gaze back to the beautiful young woman standing in front of him. “
You’ve done all you can here, Rick, and you can continue to work toward better conditions
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for humans even more effectively if you come with us. That’s what Davin wants. It’s what he’s
working toward—freedom for us all to live in peace.”

“How do you know we can trust him?”

Callie’s smile lit the universe as she turned back to Davin and took his hand.
“That’s easy, Rick. Davin
is my husband. He has a vested interest in helping humans. If he hadn’t fought for me in front of
the Alvian Council I’d be dead already.”

Rick was floored by the revelation. Here wasn’t just a dalliance between the odd alien and a gorgeous human woman, but a marriage. Callie glowed when she was near the man and was obviously deeply in love. Rick felt his own hopes of catching her eye dwindle, while his hope for humanity rose. Davin was special. He had to be to marry such a special woman. Rick would envy him for that, but he’d also work with the alien if it meant better treatment for the people in this room.

Rick stepped up to Davin and held out his hand. “I’m in.”

Davin shook his hand with strength and a smile of welcome on his face. Rick felt no malice in the other man, dropping his shield just a tiny bit to read what he could of the alien throwback’s character. What he found was steadfast determination and a residual pain so deep, it touched something deep inside Rick as well.

Davin chose Rick as his new assistant. It was unprecedented, but warranted when Rick displayed a crystal gift unlike any Davin had ever seen. Rick was proving gifted in a way that could rival Davin’s own ability, with proper training. Davin wanted to keep an eye on such a strong crystal gift, and having such a potentially powerful assistant, in addition to Callie, might mean he could finally get some of the pressing work done that needed to be accomplished before the Earth could stabilize.

But Rick was a hard case. He was enormously talented with the crystals and learned quickly, but was very quiet, watchful and kept mostly to himself. Davin decided to try to crack his armor with a challenge.

He brought in a badly damaged, large crystal. Whole, this crystal would have been an excellent conduit for large loads of energy, but flawed as it was, it would shatter should even a small amount of power be channeled into it. There was a deep gouge running the length of the crystal along one side, and flaws within. Davin wanted to see if Rick could realign the inner flaws. It was something Davin could do—with great difficulty. This would be a major test of his abilities, though Rick had no idea and Davin didn’t let on.

“Try this,” Davin said casually, producing the crystal. He handed it to Rick across the work table. They were finishing up work for the day with a little one-on-one training.

“Damn.” Rick whistled through his teeth. “This one’s in bad shape. What do you want me to do here?”

Davin shrugged. “Whatever you can. Consider it a little test.”

“I’m not promising anything, but I’ll give it a whirl.” Rick looked doubtfully at the crystal as he studied it, turning it this way and that before laying his hands directly over the gouge. Davin wouldn’t have chosen that plane to start with, but he refrained from correcting Rick. He wanted this test to be completely unimpeded.

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Rick’s eyes glazed as the resonances built. Davin could feel something happening—something unexpected—but he didn’t understand it. A new energy rose to counter the disharmonies in the stone and it seemed to be coming from Rick himself. Davin knew that during great crystal workings, ancient crystallographers had been reported to become tuned to the crystals, giving of their own energies to create masterworks. But such knowledge and abilities were beyond all but the most powerful crystallographers today. Even Davin had never fully tapped into his own personal energy while attempting a difficult tuning. It was hard to do, for one thing. It was instinctive and Davin wasn’t even sure he knew how.

But here was this human, doing it as naturally as breathing. Davin was stunned and more than a little awed.

“Man,” Rick panted as he worked, a grim smile on his face, “this is a stubborn little guy.”

The crystal was one of the larger natural formations, so the word little was a massive understatement.

Davin could hear the inner turmoil of the stone realigning successfully, drawing together the discordant notes into a more harmonious tone and overtones.

“You’ve almost got it,” Davin said, unable to hide the approval in his voice.

“Not quite.” Rick redoubled his efforts and more of his own power went into the crystal to be refracted, refined and multiplied.

Davin couldn’t believe his eyes as Rick lifted his hands away from the now-smooth surface of the quartz.

The gouge was gone. Healed completely.

This was
not
something Davin would have been able to do. At best, he’d hoped to shear off the gouged plane of the crystal and salvage the remaining structure, but Rick has managed a miracle of sorts. He’d repaired the thing completely.

Davin didn’t know how to react. Rick was already one of the most gifted students and he knew it.

Would the knowledge that he had even stronger gifts than his teachers be a good thing or not?

Davin decided to tread carefully. He needed to seek Callie’s opinion before he moved forward, but even she had trouble reading Rick’s emotions. A plan began to form in Davin’s mind. They were due to start a new class next week where teams would work together on crystallographic projects. Perhaps he’d pair Callie with Rick. Working together on difficult projects, he might reveal more of his inner self than he would in normal everyday interaction.

So Callie joined the small class Davin taught, and paired up with Rick for the team experiments and assignments. She was doing well, her own crystal gift emerging strongly, and as a team, she and Rick were at the head of the class, surpassing their classmates easily.

Davin hypothesized that Callie’s progress was due in part to their mating. His innate knowledge had merged with her own fledgling gift to propel her ahead. But Rick was just plain gifted.

Callie and Rick were closely matched in ability, but Callie confided to Davin privately that the silent man scared her a little. When pressed, she couldn’t say exactly what it was about Rick that frightened her, but Davin watched him closely and could see his gaze following Callie when he thought no one was looking.

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Jealousy sparked inside him, but subsided as he realized Rick might be attracted to Callie, but he wouldn’t act on it. It was clear Callie and Davin were mated and Rick appeared to have some respect for that. Among this group there were a surprising number of women and Davin didn’t mind that several of them had paired off with men they found attractive for one reason or another. In fact, Davin observed the pairs that were bonded in some way often worked better together than singlets.

So Davin shouldn’t have been surprised when he first noticed the Hum coming from one of the newer pairs as they held hands surreptitiously during one of his longer lectures. Their human ears couldn’t hear it, but Davin decided to explain to the budding human crystallographers some of his theories about Breeds and the history of Alvian resonance mates.

They were interested, he could tell, and as he demonstrated the way a Kiss could make the crystal glow with his own resonance mate, he was glad to see the Humming pair could do the same. The lesson turned humorous after that and Davin felt he’d finally found some way to break the ice between himself and these people who had been through so much.

The small class of human trainees was working with large pieces of untuned crystal for the first time when disaster struck. The pair next to Callie and Rick moved a little too carelessly. The crystal they’d tried to tackle was too strong for them and their untried abilities. Davin rushed in, but it was too late to avoid a shattering explosion of crystal shards that shot out all over the room.

The two who had been working on the crystal had the sense to duck, but Callie, standing with her back to them, hadn’t even seen the danger coming. She was hit from behind by the full force of sharp shards scattering everywhere. She screamed and fell to the floor. Davin’s heart shot up into his throat from across the large room. He was running before she ever hit the ground.

But she didn’t hit hard. Rick was there to break her fall, gathering her in his strong arms and checking her injuries. Davin reached for his mate, but Rick stopped him.

“She’s hurt bad. I can help her. I’m a healer.” His words were gruff as both men fought with the bloody clothes hampering their ability to see where she was hurt. She’d fallen unconscious with pain, luckily for her, but the paleness of her face struck fear into Davin’s heart.

They turned her over and his heart plummeted as he saw the sharp shard of crystal sticking out from her side. She was bleeding profusely and he doubted medical help would get there in time to save her.

“Do what you can,” Davin said in a low voice as he helped Rick hold her steady.

Rick met his eyes briefly and a flash of respect lit them before he turned back to Callie and the sharp crystal slicing through her flesh. Rick grasped it, his crystal gift tuning the small shard to his energies almost absently as he pulled it from her skin. Blood welled up, spilling over the deep wound, but Rick placed his palm over the gash, closing his eyes in concentration as Davin heard the increase in resonances around them.

He thought he even saw a glow of energy around Rick’s hand, pressing into the wound as the bleeding miraculously slowed to a stop. Rick let up on the pressure as he opened his eyes, watching the reaction of the deep wound to his application of energy. Davin was fascinated as he heard the crystal Rick still held in his hand vibrate with the man’s reflected and amplified energy.

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“It’s working,” Davin gasped, watching as the angry red flesh knitted itself together before his eyes.

“Get the rest of this off her,” Rick said between clenched teeth as he moved on to the next, somewhat smaller wound in her side. He tugged at the remnants of her shirt and Davin helped him pull it away so they could find the worst of her injuries.

Rick continued to pour his healing energy into her wounds without regard for himself. The crystal still clutched in one hand seemed to help him focus and was feeding him what felt like limitless energy, but he knew all too soon he would run out of gas. He only hoped she was fully healed before he passed out.

He hadn’t used his gift in such a dire situation in a long time, but he knew from prior experience, he would give until he collapsed. He might even come close to death himself, but he’d gladly trade his life for Callie O’Hara. She was that special to him.

Of course, she’d never know it. She was with Davin, and it was obvious they were deeply in love. Rick wouldn’t intrude on that, but he couldn’t help the feelings that nearly overcame him each time she smiled at him, or touched his hand as they worked together on the crystals. He enjoyed every moment spent in her presence, but he guarded against letting her feel it. She was an empath, he knew, and he didn’t want to burden her with the emotions he couldn’t seem to control.

As a healer, he had a natural ability to keep his thoughts and emotions from affecting those around him and he’d only strengthened those natural shields since coming into his power as a teen. It had served him well in the past, but never more than when he’d first met Callie O’Hara and been broadsided with the most impossible case of love at first sight that had ever occurred in the history of man. Rick never would have believed it if it hadn’t happened to him, but he’d loved her deeply from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her.

The healing was nearly done. Rick had used his own energies to stop the flow of blood from all of her many cuts and knew her internal injuries were healed. She would survive, that’s all that mattered to him as he passed out. He felt Davin’s arms catch him around the shoulders as he slumped, but he remembered nothing after that.

Harry called not long after Callie woke up. She wasn’t surprised. Harry always seemed to know things.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine now. Just a little mishap.” She didn’t want to worry him, but she should’ve known he’d be able to read her tone.

“Come on, Cal, what happened?”

“I got hit by some flying crystal. One of the raw ones exploded. Davin says that happens sometimes.”

“Jeez, Cal! Don’t you know how to duck?”

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She chuckled. “It was behind me. But you can be sure I’ll be on the lookout from now on.”

“Damn straight you will, or I’ll be having some words with that guy who’s supposed to be taking care of you.”

“Oh, Harry, he already feels bad enough. And please don’t tell the family. I don’t want to worry them.”

Harry seemed to hesitate. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Right as rain. Turns out Rick is an honest-to-goodness healer.” Callie had told her brother all about Rick during their frequent calls.

“Really? Healers are rare, Cal. You’re lucky he was there. Or maybe luck had nothing to do with it.”

Callie felt the import of his words. “What are you saying?”

“Nothing, Cal.” Harry sighed. “I don’t know what I’m saying. Papa Caleb’s the oracle in the family, not me. The important thing is, you’re okay.”

They talked for a few more minutes before Callie went to check on Rick. She didn’t like that he’d overextended himself and the worry she felt surprised her. Rick had wormed his way into her heart and she hadn’t even realized it.

When he woke, Rick was in a luxurious bed, in a private suite. The soft linen was very different from that in the barracks where he was used to sleeping. But even those barracks were a major step up in the world from the accommodations he’d been subject to as a prisoner in the pens. As promised, Davin had brought him and the others here and given them a fair shake. They lived above ground now, in sunny, well-supplied buildings, though they were still under guard.

Davin truly wasn’t like the other Alvians. He had feelings and was closer to human than anyone would have guessed. Little by little Rick was coming to respect the alien man who’d stepped in and helped quite a few humans and never treated them badly, but Rick also realized the limitations put on the Chief Engineer. Davin could only do so much. He was watched just as closely—maybe even more closely—than the human prisoners. The guards were a fact of life and even as Rick kept up his insulting barrage, the Alvian soldiers never reacted, just did their jobs like good little unfeeling robots.

“How are you feeling?” Callie’s soft voice floated to Rick out of the darkness at his side. A moment later, she flicked on a bedside lamp and he could see her sitting in an old rocker next to his bed.

Suddenly it all came back to him.

“You should be resting.” He tried to sit up, but the effort required was beyond him. He was too weak.

Callie placed her hand on his shoulder, stilling his movement. “I’m fine. You gave me too much of your energy when you healed me, Rick. You’re the one who needs looking after now. Not me.” Her gentle smile touched him deep inside. He fought against the pull he felt—had always felt—for this special woman. “Thank you for saving me. I didn’t know you were a healer, but it explains a lot.”