Forgotten (8 page)

“
No—
no!”
She struggled to get away,
fighting even though the alternative to his hand on hers was a
fifty foot drop to the first floor below.

“
Kate—hold still! This arm
is wounded—I can’t hold you if you struggle!”

His blue eyes were fierce with effort as
they looked into hers. Kate felt something warm and wet dripping
over her wrist. With a start, she realized it was his blood. He was
holding her with the arm she had shot him in. God only knew how he
was managing to support her weight with a wounded arm.

The Beast! It’s the
Beast!
screamed the panicky little voice
in her brain. But if the big Kindred really did want to kill or
hurt her, they why was he trying to save her? Especially after she
had wounded him?

“
You asshole!” the guy in
the hoody growled. He was still fighting to get closer to the
Kindred and now he raised his gun, which he must have tucked into
his pocket, and pressed it to the Kindred’s head. Kate had no idea
why he hadn’t used the gun earlier but it didn’t matter—now he had
it out and there was a deadly look in his eyes that said he
wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.

Inside her, the panic warred with the
rational side of her brain. Part of her was screaming that she had
to get away from the big Kindred at all costs but the other part
was yelling that he was trying to save her—that this fear she felt
wasn’t rational or right.

Not knowing what she was going to do, Kate
raised her own gun which was still firmly gripped in her right
hand.

“
Kate,” the big Kindred
said and there was despair in his deep voice. “Kate,
baby…please,
no.”

Kate didn’t answer. She just took aim and
pulled the trigger.

Chapter
Five

“
Gah!” The guy in the
hoody stumbled backwards, grabbing his throat. Blood seeped between
his fingers and then he lost his grip on the big Kindred and fell
over.

Got him,
Kate thought and then huge black blossoms began
to explode in her field of vision. She felt her fingers slipping
again and knew she was losing her grip on the skinny support strut.
Her other shoe fell. Dimly, she heard someone scream from far
below.

Gonna fall,
she thought woozily as the world swayed around
her.
Gonna fall…gonna die. Well, at least
this way the Beast can’t get me.

Then strong hands were gripping her under
her arms and dragging her up. Kate felt herself pulled up and over
the railing. Her eyes closed for a moment and when they opened, she
found she was being cradled against the big Kindred’s broad
chest.

“
Kate?” he asked
hoarsely.
“Lalli?
Are you all right?”

No,
whispered the panicky little voice in her brain.
No, I’m being held in the arms of the Beast. I’ll
never be all right again.

Then blackness ate the world and she knew no
more.

* * * * *

“
Gods!
Lalli?
Please be all right!” Rone
cradled her to him, staring down into the delicate, familiar
features. Kate was completely out—hanging limp in his arms like a
doll. Her breathing was still rapid and light but she didn’t seem
to be injured—at least not in any way that he could see.

He couldn’t understand
what was going on. Why didn’t Kate remember him? And why was she so
afraid of him? It wasn’t just the normal fear of a small woman
confronted by a big male either—he could actually see
panic
in her big green
eyes when she looked at him. And being Wulven, he could smell her
fear—it hung around her like a curtain and intensified every time
he got near her. Why?

It was as though all she
could see when she looked at him was the Beast. What had she said
earlier? That he was the Beast coming to eat her up? Something like
that. Which was crazy—Rone would
never
let his Beast hurt her. He
knew she could sense it inside him but it had never frightened her
so much before—not even back when they were first getting to know
each other.

But now it’s like she
doesn’t know me at all. When will her memory come back? Will
it
ever
come
back?

The sound of shouting from the other end of
the long hallway pulled him out of his dismal thoughts. He realized
that men in uniform were running towards him—guards of some kind,
no doubt. And if they got to him before he could get away, they
would take Kate from him and he might never get to see her
again.

Have to get her out of here! Take her
someplace I can reason with her—try to make her remember.

“
Hey—hey, you!” one of the
guards yelled.

Rone didn’t hesitate any longer. He turned
and ran, sprinting with Kate cradled in his arms, as fast as he
could go. Thanks to his Wulven speed and strength, that was pretty
damn fast. The security guards behind him probably saw only a blur
before he was gone from their line of sight. In just a few seconds
more, he was out of the mall completely and back to the little
Kindred shuttle which doubled as a car when he and Kate were on
Earth.

Gently he put her into the passenger seat
and buckled her in, using the harness which he had modified
specially to fit her small size. Then he got in the driver’s seat
and gunned the engine.

The mall wasn’t a safe place anymore—he had
to get Kate out of here although where he should take her wasn’t
exactly clear. Someplace he could talk to her and get his arm fixed
up. It was really beginning to throb by now and he knew even with
his healing abilities he needed to get it dressed and cleaned
before the flesh and tendons could start to knit together
again.

I could take her to the
Mother Ship but she might wake up along the way and begin to panic
again.
It would probably be even worse if
he took her to
The
Finder
, the ship they shared as their
home, presently in orbit around Earth’s moon. If she woke up in
unfamiliar surroundings and thought he was kidnapping her it wasn’t
going to help her trust him.

So then, where
could
he go? Rone didn’t
know—he only knew they had to get out of here and fast—before the
sirens he heard blaring in the distance caught up with
them.

* * * * *

Kate woke up with a quiet humming sound in
her ears and the feeling that she was moving. She looked down at
herself and saw that she was wearing some kind of strap across her
chest and lap—a seatbelt? Was she in a car?

Looking to her right, she
saw street lights and houses whizzing by in the deepening gloom. So
she
was
in a car.
But who was driving? She felt like she ought to know but she didn’t
know why. There was a scent in the air that tickled her nose and
filled her senses—a warm, masculine spice that was somehow familiar
and yet unlike anything she’d ever smelled before. There was
another smell too—a coppery odor that bothered her.

Blood. It’s blood,
she thought drowsily. But who was
bleeding?

She turned her head and saw that the huge
Kindred was driving. Immediately the drowsiness vanished and her
heart kicked into overdrive.

“
Who are you? Where are
you taking me? Let me go!” she blurted, struggling to sit up
straighter in the seat.

He glanced at her, a worried look in his
glowing blue eyes.

“
Thank the Goddess you’re
awake. Do you feel all right?” he asked in that deep, growling
voice.

“
I’ll be fine as soon as I
get out of here.” She began fumbling with one hand for the release
on the unfamiliar seat harness and feeling for the door handle with
the other.

“
That won’t do you any
good,” he said quietly. “The doors are voice locked to my voice
only.”

“
What? Why? Let me out of
here!”

“
I’m sorry,
Lalli.”
He shot her an
apologetic look. “I can’t do that. I have to talk to you…try to
make you remember.”

“
If you think I’m going to
suddenly remember that we’re married you’re crazy,” Kate spat. “Now
let me go you big asshole!”

“
Kate, please…” He pulled
the car to the side of the road and turned to face her. “I can tell
you’re frightened of me although I don’t know why—”

“
After what I saw you do
with your eyes back at the store?” she interrupted him. “What the
hell was that, anyway?”

“
A partial shift.” He
sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I saw that you were in
danger and the Beast came out a little bit. I was feeling…very
protective…very upset. It happens sometimes when I have strong
emotions but I would never let it all the way out. Not around you,
baby.”

Kate shrank back in her seat, trying to get
as far from him as possible.

“
So you
admit
you have a Beast
inside you?”

His eyes blazed. “Hell, yes I admit it! What
good would it do to deny it? I know you can sense it—you have from
the first minute I met you.”

Kate stared at him in
disbelief. She’d thought it was something he wasn’t aware of—or
maybe a warning her Knowing was trying to give her that he was bad
inside somehow. Sometimes it spoke in metaphorical terms but
apparently in this case it was being literal. There really
was
another creature
inside the huge Kindred and he acknowledged it.

“
Let me just show you
something,” he said and started to reach inside his jacket
pocket.

Instinctively, Kate reached for her
Glock—only to find it was gone.

“
It’s someplace safe,” he
told her, plainly seeing her gesture. “You’ll get it back when I’m
sure you won’t shoot me with it again.”

“
You were grabbing for
me,” Kate reminded him tightly. “Of
course
I shot you.”

“
I was trying to keep you
from going over that damn railing,” he growled, still digging in
the inside pocket of his jacket. “Which you did anyway. And then
you nearly shot me again.”

“
I didn’t though,” Kate
pointed out, although she had no idea why she hadn’t. She’d had
every intention of shooting the big Kindred point blank between the
eyes but at the last minute, her hand had jerked and she’d targeted
the robber instead. Why? She didn’t know. She had no answers when
it came to this strange male who now had her in his power. She only
knew that being near him made her heart pound and her breath come
in short, panicky gasps.

Grimly, she struggled to
control the panic.
He hasn’t killed me or
hurt me yet,
she reminded herself.
He thinks I’m his wife. Maybe I can use that to
lull him into trusting me. And as soon as he does I can get away. I
can—

“
Look.” His deep voice cut
into her frantic thoughts. Kate looked up to see he was holding a
small, flat disk the size of a quarter in one broad
palm.

“
What is it? Some kind of
coin?” she asked blankly.

“
No—it’s us. Our
memories,
Lalli.
Memories from the last three cycles.”

He pressed something on the small disk with
his thumb and it hummed to life. Suddenly a holographic image
appeared above it—an image of a couple with their arms around each
other looking into each other’s eyes.

The male was huge—tall and broad shouldered
and muscular. He was wearing a tux and gazing down lovingly at the
red haired woman in his arms who was wearing a wedding dress. She
was tiny and petite—her head barely came up past his elbow, yet he
was holding her so gently and the look in his burning blue eyes was
one of complete adoration. She was looking up at him, an expression
of bliss shining in her pale green eyes. Clearly they were deeply
in love.

Kate stared at it, trying to make sense of
what her eyes were telling her.

“
Oh my God,” she said at
last. “That’s…me.”

“
It’s
us,”
the big Kindred corrected
gently. “This was taken at our Joining Ceremony—on our Wedding Day
as you humans call it.” He looked at her hopefully. “Does it help
you remember anything? Anything at all?”

“
How did you do this?”
Kate looked up at him mistrustfully. “How long have I been out? Did
you somehow get me all dressed up in a wedding dress and drug me
or—”

“
Of course not!” There was
a growl of pure frustration in his deep voice. “Look.”

He pressed the button on the small disk
again and another picture appeared. It was the two of them once
more, only this time wearing more casual clothing. They were
standing in front of the Grand Canyon—or what looked like it
anyway. The big Kindred was holding Kate on his back piggyback
style and she was laughing happily and pointing over his broad
shoulder at the canyon.

“
What’s that?” she said
blankly. “The Grand Canyon? Because that’s what it looks
like.”

“
We went there on our
honeymoon,” he told her. “You agreed to come live with me and
travel the universe as a tracking team. But first you said you
wanted to see some of your own world you’d never had a chance to
explore before.”