Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga) (89 page)

But he couldn’t do that if the damned woman wouldn’t let him in.

Scowling at the sky, Sean determined to figure out why she was being so stubborn and get her past it, so that he could finally complete their family. Then he sighed, frustrated. He knew that she needed time. She’d nearly died a few days ago. They both had. She needed time to recover from that, time to settle into life with her in-laws constantly underfoot, time to get used to
him
.

“That’s enough self-pity for one morning,” he muttered to himself, disgusted with the emotions roiling through him. He was a warrior of almost two hundred years, not an adolescent in the throes of his first crush. He needed to act like it.

Taking a deep, calming breath, he went through a series of mental exercises to get himself centered and back to a more pacific state of mind.

His belly was killing him, but he was determined to aid the healing of the laser blast he’d taken while trying to defend Ri three days earlier. He shuddered at the memory of Amy, whose insanity had very nearly cost both Sean and Arianna their lives. Amy’s death was regrettable, but Sean had seen into her heart and mind. There had been no bringing the girl back from the depths of insanity to which she’d surrendered.

Recalling the murky, twisted fog of her mind in those last moment, darkness threatened to tug him into its morose embrace. Sean fought it off, searching for the bright light that was his alone, the center of his being. Such darkness often lingered in him after touching the mind of one such as Amy, but he’d never told anyone about that. There were no texts, no archived notes from former Counselors telling of that specific side-effect. He didn’t want anyone else to be affected by such insanity, so he’d kept it to himself. But perhaps he needed to tell Jace. The overpowering feeling of Amy’s sinister spirit remained, though Sean knew she was dead. He’d been looking at her when the top of her head blew off. She was gone.

So why could he not shake the feeling that she was still a threat?

“It’s a beautiful morning,” he reminded himself in a final effort to get back to the present. He took breaths as deep as possible, stopping to lean against a tree in the courtyard, forcing his mind once more to
being
, instead of thinking. As though sensing his distress, the little kimis chirred and rubbed against him, offering comfort through their small but powerful empathic bond. He let their energy flow into him, accepted their simple gifts and allowed the sweetness of their innocent spirits to soothe his.

Smiling down at the cute little things, Sean sank to a bench just to his left. Every one of the kimis tried to jump onto the bench to be with him or tried to climb his legs to reach his lap. Sean’s spirits lifted and he scooped a double-armful of the things against his chest, letting them nuzzle him and thrum at him in contentment as he buried his face in their incredibly soft fur.

After a long moment, though, they began sending him sweet but insistent demands to be groomed. Sean laughed and gently let them go, to fall onto his chest or against his lap. The little creatures were careful not to scrabble against his bandage, for which he murmured a heartfelt thanks. After the climax that wasn’t his, the muscles of his belly were tight and painful. The wound itself was screaming at a dull roar. He could handle the pain for a bit longer, but it was about time for another pain shot, if he allowed Jace to give him one.

He ached, and not just for Ri, he thought ruefully.

As though they sensed his turmoil and thought it less important than their needs, the kimis began chittering and snapping at him, their soft cries for attention growing, drowning out his black mood.

“All right, all right,” he chuckled, reaching into his boot pocket and pulling out a curved, very fine-toothed comb. Hunter had developed the combs just for brushing the kimis, when it was apparent that they were a marvelous renewable resource for spinning fiber. Most of the inhabitants of the compound carried the combs in little sacks that Ri and her women had made from scraps of material, just so they could collect kimi fur whenever one of the little creatures decided they wanted attention. Or when they simply scampered across the path and left tufts of the fur behind. That happened a lot. The compound’s children found it great fun to startle groups of kimis, just to watch the wildly colored tufts of fur eject into the air as the creatures scattered. Then the kids would gather the fur, separate it into color groups, and dutifully hand it over to the spinners, if they didn’t sit down and spin it themselves.

And yet, the kimis returned time and again, knowing that they would probably be surprised again and again. Of course, they got their own back by dropping from tree branches and hitching rides around the compound, or by crawling up to someone’s shoulder and twitching their soft little whiskers in the child’s ear. They’d run away chittering gleefully, just as the kids did. At least animals and children kept it fair.

“One at a time,” Sean laughed as several of the kimis vied for the honor of being the first one combed. He narrowed his gaze on them, finally settling on one that was very nearly red, with little streaks of gold in its fur. Hunter and Jace were working on a very special gift for Ri, and needed as much of the red wool as they could get for the embroidery on the gown.

Fortunately for the kimis, though, all colors of fur were needed. Sean quickly finished with the little red fur-ball and let it nestle on his shoulder, cleaning his earlobe with its tongue as the others pressed against him, pleading to be combed next. Making up a song about combing kimis at sunrise, Sean allowed his music to center and heal him. He let the kimis soothe him with their affection and thrumming approval as he settled in to his task.

* * *

“Sean?”

Ri wandered around the balcony for a moment, though she knew that Sean wasn’t here. She simply enjoyed the lingering traces of his energy. It was potent this morning, more than usual, considering he wasn’t even there.

Opening her senses to search for him, she felt nothing more than the residual energy he and Hunter seemed to shed as they went about their lives. She had only become aware of it in the past few days. Perhaps the intensity of their emotions following Amy’s attack had heightened her awareness of her mate and his brother. Ri didn’t know, but she was learning to accept the wisps of energy, power, and emotion that surrounded her.

When her stroll brought her to the sitting area, she saw that Sean had slept on the couch out there. Again. The crocheted blanket he’d used as a covering was on the stones beside the couch. She stooped and picked it up, unconsciously bringing it to her nose. She wasn’t aware of breathing in his scent, nor of fighting her reaction to it. She was a pro at ignoring emotions she didn’t want to deal with. She’d had far too much opportunity to do so. Memories threatened to cloud her day.

Shaking herself to keep the spiral of grief from beginning, she dropped the blanket on the couch and looked down at the cushions.

The restlessness that had made sleep impossible for him still lingered on Sean’s pillow. Caressing the indentation there, Arianna shook her head with regret. She knew that she was the cause of his turmoil, but wasn’t sure what to do about it.

Well, that was a lie. She did know. She just didn’t want to admit it, either to him or to herself. The simplest answer was the most obvious. She could just take him as her lover, as her third mate. His brothers would welcome him, since the five brothers had been a team long before Arianna had crash landed on Hunter’s world. Two of the brothers, Siae and Kale, had been lost in a Solvari attack shortly before Hunter’s transport had settled on Ishira. Sean had been thought dead for several years before the Thorsani had been forced to flee their home planet.

But once the humans had come, Ri had touched Sean’s mind far out into space, guiding him home, to Ishira. To his family.

Ri, Hunter, and Sean were Readers, psychics by another name. Readers were highly empathic and had special skills to help understand their populace, to know when action was needed to prevent disaster.

Sean was an aberration, though a welcome one to his people, with the ability to see far more clearly into another person’s heart and soul, help them break down barriers and come to terms with traumatic events. He was a Counselor and beloved by his people. But even as powerful as he was, being able to reach into space just enough to beckon to Ri’s mind, he was only a fraction as powerful as Arianna.

Ri’s abilities were above and beyond anything the Thorsani had ever experienced. Jace had tried to measure her energy while she was Reading, but his equipment was not able to record her peaks. By accident, she had discovered that when she combined her energy with Hunter’s, she was able to soar out into the cosmos. She had done just that, finding and touching Sean’s mind.

She hadn’t known that the man she’d been sensing was brother to her mates until the second time she’d contacted him. Through their mental connection, Ri and Sean had talked several times before the
Adelphae,
the ship carrying him and his parents, landed on Ishira. Their family was now as reunited as it could be, with two brothers lost in battle and their younger sisters commanding ships of their own, possibly wandering in the black of space.

But Arianna had a plan brewing that might change that.

She smiled to herself, thinking how happy they would all be if she could find another ship and bring it home.

Hunter didn’t know about her idea. She was reluctant to tell any of them, in case it didn’t work. Being able to find Sean might just have been a stroke of incredible luck, something that she couldn’t hope to duplicate for distances outside of this star system. And perhaps her ability to touch his mind was solely because of their unique mental bond. She had no idea if she’d be able to duplicate such a feat with anyone else.

She called his name again, stepping further onto the balcony and around the small stand of trees that grew near the railing, just in case he was trying to hide from her. She snorted to herself. As if he could. Neither of them could hide from the other, even if they wanted to. That was the crux of their problem. That connection had saved her life several days ago, but most of the time it was a bit disconcerting. Especially since the attack. Something fundamental had changed between them that day, and Ri had trouble allowing herself to analyze it too closely. For some reason, she was holding herself from embracing what he offered her. Perhaps in the deepest reaches of her mind, hidden even from herself, the reason waited, watching for the right moment to make itself known. She wondered if she would be able to handle it when that happened, or if she’d deny it, turn away, and continue being a coward.

But for now… she opened her mind and reached out, scanning further from the suite.

I am here, kimi,
Sean’s mental voice was soft and amused. She followed his energy until her eyes lit on him beneath the tree several stories below the balcony. He was surrounded by kimis. Ri grinned helplessly, leaning on the balcony railing to watch him. He looked up at her, his smile sheepish. Her heart melted a little bit more with each of those dimple-framed smiles, every warm glance from his deep green eyes. So like Hunter’s, but so different, as well.

In Hunter’s eyes, Ri could see herself reflected, only better than she’d ever thought she could be. Hunter took her as she was, saw in her the strengths that she hesitated to acknowledge. He might prod her to more responsibility than she thought she was capable of, but he knew she could do it, and his confidence in her had changed the way she thought of herself.

Jace was the same, accepting who and what she was without conditions or reservation. He was very curious about her inner workings, as any good doctor would be when presented with an alien species. But he also respected her mind and adored her creativity, the delight she took in her new world, the curiosity she exhibited when faced with a new creature, plant, or piece of Thorsani history. The researcher in Jace loved that his mate was just as much of a student of life as he was, just as enamored of what made each living thing different from those around it.

But Sean… perhaps part of her hesitance to accept his suit was that she couldn’t completely hide from him, shield her thoughts when he was around. Her mates allowed her to hold parts of herself back from them, but Sean wanted more than that from her. He wanted her secrets, wanted to light every dark corner of her mind. She blinked at the realization. Below her, Sean’s brow furrowed as he sensed her growing dismay. Reinforcing the walls around the darker parts of herself against his gentle probing, Ri sighed.

Would you like some company?
she asked tentatively, hoping to distract him. He hesitated, but then nodded. She could see the warmth in his eyes from here, feel his longing for her.

With you, sweet Arianna, always.
He chuckled again, shaking his head.
Though you should know by now… if you can’t yet shield from Hunter, how do you hope to shield from me? And why would you wish to? There is nothing about you that I would use against you, nothing that you cannot tell me. Besides, if you keep having those heated thoughts about my dimples, there will not be a need to hide for much longer…

Stop that!
She chuckled mentally, though she blushed at his tender words. His grin turned a little wicked and his eyes sparked up at her.

Come down here and make me!
he taunted.