Forgotten (9 page)

Kate shook her head. “I’ve never been to the
Grand Canyon in my life.”

“
Yes, you have,” he
insisted. “Look—see how you’re pointing and laughing? You were
making a joke. They have those pack animals—those mules—that take
people down the side of the canyon on tours. But none of them could
carry me—I was too big. So you were teasing me that I would have to
be your mule and carry you down the canyon myself. I…” He shook his
head, seeing the blank look on her face. “Is any of this helping
you remember?”

Kate frowned. “I’m sorry but I’ve honestly
never seen you before today.”

“
That’s not true. Look…”
He scrolled through more holographic pictures—too many to count.
Kate saw herself with him in so many poses, so many different
outfits and locations, there was no way he could have faked them.
Especially since a surreptitious look at the watch on her arm told
her it had only been an hour since she’d been at work in the
jewelry store.

But none of the pictures made sense—it was
like gazing at a girl who looked just like her doing things she
couldn’t remember. And it didn’t help that just being near the big
Kindred made her feel panicky and unsettled.

Finally she put out a hand to stop him,
though she was careful not to touch his skin.

“
Please,” she said
quietly. “I…I’m really sorry. Maybe what you’re saying
is
true but I can’t
remember any of it. And being around you…being near you…is really
scary. Please, can’t you just let me go?”

He took a deep breath and
seemed to be trying to master himself. Clearly this was incredibly
frustrating for him but he didn’t shout. Instead he said in a low,
quiet voice, “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go,
Lalli.
But you have to
promise to talk to me once we get there.”

“
Stop calling me that.”
Kate frowned. “What does that even mean, anyway?”

He shook his head tiredly. “It doesn’t
matter. Where do you want to go? The domicile you share with your
roommate?”

“
What? You know where
I
live?”
Kate
felt violated. “How long have you been stalking me?”

He gave her an exasperated look.

“
I only found you today.
But I’ve been searching for you for the past six solar months—ever
since you disappeared.” He raked a hand through his shaggy black
hair. “Kate…baby…you don’t know how scared I was. The awful things
I imaged might be happening to you—”

He started to reach for her but Kate
flinched away, her heart pounding and her breath coming short.

“
Don’t…don’t touch me,”
she managed to gasp.
“Don’t.”

“
All right.” There was a
pained look in his eyes but he withdrew his hand, wincing as he did
so. He clutched his right shoulder. “Damn—that hurts. Do you have a
med kit in your domicile?”

Kate remembered all over
again that he was wounded—and
she
was the one who had wounded him.
It was self-defense,
she
reminded herself.
Not my fault—I was
fighting for my life!
But she still felt
guilty. If what he was saying was true, she had shot her own
husband.
Don’t be stupid,
she told herself fiercely.
He’s crazy—I’m not married to him or anyone else! Why would I
marry somebody who makes me have a panic attack every time he
touches me?

She didn’t know the answer but somewhere in
the back of her mind a seed of doubt had been planted. How could he
have so many pictures of the two of them together if he was lying?
Could it be that she’d had a whole other life she couldn’t
remember? Was that what had happened during the three year gap in
her memory?

But if he’s my husband,
why does he scare me so much?
Even now,
being close to him in the car was difficult. Kate knew the panic
that wanted to take her was irrational but that didn’t stop her
from breaking into a cold sweat if he got too close to her. Why did
she fear him so?

Before she could answer, the car pulled into
the driveway of the apartment she shared with Mimi. The big Kindred
parked and turned to face her again.

“
I’m going to unlock your
door now, Kate. Will you promise not to run?”

“
I…” Her throat got tight.
“I’ll try not to. But this still just doesn’t make any
sense.”

“
To me either,” he said
grimly. “The priestess I spoke to told me the effects of the Dream
Blooms should wear off in a solar day or so.” He leaned over her to
unbuckle the unfamiliar seat harness and Kate stiffened, fighting
the panic that tried to take her at his proximity. The Kindred’s
nose wrinkled and he pulled back abruptly, giving her space. “And
she said nothing about you fearing me like this,” he finished in a
harsh voice.

“
Of course I’m afraid of
you—you’re
huge,”
Kate protested, trying to catch her breath. Why
did
she feel like she
was having a panic attack whenever he got too near? Was it just
that he was a stranger—a really
big
stranger—invading her personal space? But she’d
been the smallest person in any given situation all her life—she
wasn’t afraid of big men. So why—

“
There’s more to it than
just my size, I think,” the Kindred said, breaking her frantic
train of thought. “I do not know what’s going on but we need to get
to the bottom of it. We can’t do that if you run from me the minute
you get a chance.” He ducked his head, looking into her eyes with
an intensity that made Kate’s stomach flutter. “Will you swear not
to run, Kate? Will you at least talk to me some more?”

Reluctantly, Kate nodded. Though she didn’t
want to admit it, even to herself, clearly there was something to
his claims. He wouldn’t have all those pictures, otherwise.

“
All right,” she said.
“Let me out and we’ll talk—but on my turf.”

“
That’s fine with me.” He
nodded gravely and spoke in a different language. “Doors
open.”

Kate knew it wasn’t English but she
understood it anyway.

“
What was that?” she
asked. “That language? Why did I understand it?”

“
It’s the Kindred standard
language,” he said patiently. “You understand it because you had a
shot of translation bacteria—all Kindred brides get it so that they
can understand the language of the natives anywhere they might
travel with their Kindred mates.”

“
Oh…” Kate felt another
little piece of her doubt chip away. “So
that’s
why I can understand and
speak all different languages!”

He nodded briefly and reached for the door
latch…then winced.

“
Forgive me but you never
answered my question—
do
you have a med kit in your domicile?”

“
I have a first aid kit,”
Kate said, making a decision. “Come on inside—let’s see what we can
do for you, uh…” She cleared her throat. “I just realized I don’t
even know your name.”

He winced again and this time she was sure
his pain wasn’t physical. But he only said, “Rone. My name is
Rone,” in that quiet, deep voice of his.

Kate felt a stab of guilt, as though she
should have known his name already. But how could she? No matter
how many pictures he showed her or how many facts he told her about
this supposed former life they’d shared, she still couldn’t
remember a bit of it.

She didn’t know if she ever would.

Chapter
Six

Rone followed her to the
domicile, wishing he could touch her in some way. The physical bond
between a Wulven and his mate was especially strong—even stronger
than the regular Kindred bond, because of the
hunger.
He longed to gather her into
his arms and press her to his chest, to cradle her like a child as
he had so many times before.

Kate had always loved curling up in his lap
and feeling protected and loved. She would press against him,
rubbing her cheek against his throat and her full breasts against
his chest. Rone would hold her that way for hours sometimes, both
of them just relaxing into each other, loving the feeling of being
close.

And now the minute I get anywhere near her,
she starts to panic.

Why was that? Could it be that the Dream
Blooms she’d been subjected to had other effects besides amnesia?
Had they somehow turned the female he loved against him? Made her
fear him? Why? And how?

For whatever reason,
she
did
fear him,
and so he gave her plenty of space, even though it went against
every instinct he had. He stood back as she found the spare key,
hidden under a plastic rock, and opened the door with trembling
hands. He waited until she was well inside before following her
in.

“
All right, don’t mind the
cats,” she told him as he stepped inside at last. “My roommate,
Mimi, kind of collects them and they’re always underfoot.
They—”

But her words were interrupted by a chorus
of hissing and spitting. Rone looked up to see that six or seven of
the small, furry creatures many Earthlings kept as pets were
glaring at him angrily.

“
Oh my!” Kate put a hand
to her chest. “What in the
world?”

“
Cats don’t like me,” Rone
said flatly. “Dogs don’t mind but cats sense the Beast inside me
and they don’t like it.”

“
They…they don’t?” Kate
still had a hand pressed to her heart.

“
You used to think it was
funny,” Rone told her, before he could stop himself. “It was a joke
with us. The cat your mother used to have—Mr. Sissykins—hated me
with the fire of a thousand suns. Every time I went in that damn
house he would find a way to ambush me and attack me.”

“
Mr. Sissykins…you know
about
Mr. Sissykins?”
Her voice was faint.

Rone nodded. “He died not
long after…” He cleared his throat. “Not long after your mother
did, actually. I helped you bury him, out in the back yard of the
domicile in Mississippi. I never saw you cry so hard,
Lalli.
I think because
you held it in so hard during your mom’s funeral. And then when her
cat died too, it was like you’d lost your last little piece of
her.”

But Kate was backing away from him and
shaking her head.

“
No, stop it! Stop talking
like that!”

“
I’m sorry! I didn’t mean
to upset you.” Rone reached for her and then remembered he couldn’t
touch her and drew back. “I’m sorry,” he said again, roughly. “I
didn’t mean…I shouldn’t have said that. Any of it.”

“
I just…I don’t remember
my mom’s funeral. I know she’s gone but I don’t…don’t remember
burying her or…” Her throat worked convulsively. “Or anything else
like that.”

“
I’m sorry,” Rone said
again, helplessly. He ran both hands through his hair. “Damn it to
the Seven Hells, I’m making such a fucking mess of
this!”

“
Let me just…let me get
these guys settled.” Kate turned to herding the cats to another
part of the house. Most of them seemed glad to go—the minute she
opened a door in the back of the apartment they scampered into the
room. “There,” she said, shutting the door and coming back. “Mimi
doesn’t want them in the bedrooms but we’ll have to make an
exception.”

“
I am sorry I spoke about
your mother’s death,” Rone said in a low voice. “I should not have
said such things.”

“
It’s all right.” She took
a deep, trembling breath. “Look, come into the kitchen and let me
look at that gunshot wound.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Can you? Stand
to be near enough to me to treat me, that is?”

“
I…I think so.” She
swallowed convulsively. “If…as long as you don’t reach for me or
try to touch me. I…I don’t know why that bothers me but it does.
It
really
does.”

“
I can tell.” Rone
wrinkled his nose, scenting the sharp smell of her fear
again.
Have to move slowly and take it
easy,
he cautioned himself. He didn’t want
to scare her into flight again—the results had been disastrous last
time.

Taking a deep breath, he
followed her into the kitchen. They would just have to take this
slowly. Very…
very
slowly.

* * * * *

“
Sit here.” Kate pulled
out one of the mismatched kitchen chairs, picking what she thought
was the sturdiest one. It was heavy and made of solid wood—Mimi’s
grandfather had made it for her. Kate was glad they had it now. The
Kindred—no, Rone, he’d said his name was Rone—was so big she didn’t
think a weaker one could have taken his weight.

Wincing, he stripped off his jacket and the
black wife-beater t-shirt to bare his shoulder before sitting down.
Kate watched him, wide-eyed, as he settled into the chair, looking
more like a mountain of muscle than a man. Around his neck he wore
a long, fine-link, rose-gold chain. There were two rings strung on
it—one was a delicate gold band and the other had a pale green
stone with gold flecks at its heart. It was perfectly round and
seemed to glow against his olive skin like a small moon.