Parallel Desire (21 page)

Kelsha!
he cried out across their bond, knowing that it would be nearly impossible to make a connection from so many miles away. Thinking hard, he grappled for words. Even his native tongue seemed lost at the bottom of a thick bog. He'd been in this form too long—by now, it had to have been hours since his Change—and clearly he'd become pure energy. In the process, he'd lost everything that came with having a material form—even the capacity for language.

Kelshaaaaaaa!
he cried again, slingshotting the word toward his wife. As if in reaction, the boundaries of his confinement tightened about him—he sensed them contracting, their tension painful to him. He spun within his glass prison, rotating so he could gaze upward, then around.

His energy escalated; in Kelsey's fragile condition, she could not tolerate his capture. There would be no one to save her, no one to protect her. She'd have to lead their people alone … raise Erica alone.

Fear began to choke him, and he pressed harder to reach her through their bond, trying to find words—in
any
language—that she might recognize. But all he could speak was her name.

Trying to calm himself, he focused in, stilled. Forced himself to seek her with his energy and his heart. Finally, he found her, and she was sleeping lightly. He felt her heartbeat thudding out a very slow rhythm. Her belly—what did he sense there?
Erica, was Erica okay?
Panic tried to close in, but he shoved it aside, honing his sensory experience.

There, he had it
! She glowed. Her abdomen, full with their baby, radiated pure energy.
His
energy—Arganate.
This could not be!
Kelsey could not survive the baby's changed state! The little one, what was she doing to her human mother?

They had him right where they wanted him; his enemies knew what they were doing. They'd left him vul
nerable in the worst possible way: tethered, trapped,
and unable to communicate with his human mate when
she was at her most delicate stage.

"J
'Areshkadau, wake," came
the dull voice of his captor. "Time to work, J'Areshkadau."

He stirred, feeling the drugs seep through his energized system. They spoke in some universal language, one he could understand. Not Refarian, not English.…

"Do you understand, J'Areshkadau?"

Mind Talk. That's what the voice used. Preverbal, it was the only thing he could possibly grasp after so many hours in Form.

He spoke back to the voice: "Yes."

"You miss your physical body?"

He refused to answer, sliding toward the bottom of his prison.

"We're told the D'Aravni relishes his natural form. Yet you seem quite vexed," the voice said.

So much power, banking all through his synapses, his cordoned stretches of energy—yet to be incapable of flexing it, it was maddening.

"Maddening, yes."

The Voice had heard. He had not mind-spoken, yet the Voice knew. He vowed to silence himself.

"Wife?" he managed, unable to hold back the question.

"She lives, D'Aravni."

He stifled a cry of relief.

"She still carries your child as well. For now."

Gods, they know about Erica!

From seemingly nowhere, an Antousian soldier appeared. Dressed in full battle gear, he bore the unmistakable air of authority that identified him as a high officer. Circling the glass containment unit, he studied Jared as he would an animal. "We will be transporting you back to Refaria, rebel," the man said coldly.

The words came through to Jared, but the other man was speaking in ordinary language; clearly someone was translating the officer's thoughts into Mind Talk. Jared felt around the room and sensed a faceless Antousian intuitive in the corner.

"Raedus wishes to study you," the officer continued, "like the shameful creature that you are, alien."

Were they on a transport now? Or in a bunker somewhere on Earth?

"The child will be studied also," his captor continued.

Jared held on to the hope that they were lying, but his fury had to have some release, and he slammed against the glass in protest.

"And why would you think you could take a human as mate?" the officer laughed, tapping the power grid with his fingertips and sending a shock wave through Jared's whole body. "That kind of interspecies lust is shameful. Utterly disgraceful. When we are finished, your bedmate will be given to one of our own officers as a reward."

Jared reached desperately for Kelsey.

"Don't feel for her," the man instructed, staring in at him like he was a wild
gnantsa
on public display. "She doesn't belong to you now."

Bond! Bond!
There, he'd managed to lay hold of one very important word. But, he thought dimly, if he had it in his mind, then.…

"The bond is broken," the Antousian said, his eyes growing large. "Do you understand, J'Areshkadau? Broken? You understand this word?"

Jared swelled, his energy roiling high, wide, deep. In answer, the containment system closed in on him, smothering all his power with a single, excruciating blast.
No,
he moaned.
No! No
.… But then all his facility with communication—in Refarian, in English, even Mind Talk—all of it fizzled to nothing as he pictured his wife and baby ripped right out of his arms and handed over to his enemies.

In the background noise of his brain, he heard more Mind Talk but found he could no longer focus on it. Not with the Image there. Over and over he saw the murderous Antousians raping Kelsey and taking his baby, gods knew where. They must have implanted this image in his mind, because it came through so clearly. And it was having the effect they wanted: Panting, he rolled onto his side, weeping inside his soul.

Harsh words that he couldn't understand flew past him—these Antousians were angry at him. They wanted something, a performance of sorts, but knew they could not get it out of him today. Jared slid to the bottom of the glass cage, feeling his energy grow dangerously cool.

S
helby lay strapped on the
table, straining to listen for any hint of sound out in the hallway. Where was Jake? She didn't even want to ask the question for fear of what she knew might be the answer.

From what she could hear, it sounded like someone had gotten into a horrific struggle out in the hallway. After that, there was a long period of agonizing silence, broken finally—she'd already begun to lose track of time here in Tierny's dungeon—by a massive blast. A blast so powerful she could feel the heat from it in here as if a giant searchlight was trained on her face from three feet away.

That was when she knew it for sure: Not only was Jared there, but he'd Changed into his natural form.

And then, just like before, a long silence.
Wait,
she thought. Something was wrong—something else. And then it hit her: the silence. The music had stopped, and that meant … well, that probably meant that the dance club had closed up. Hours had passed since they'd taken her, but that wasn't her first thought upon processing this information.
If everyone else is gone,
she thought to herself with a shudder
.…

She couldn't bear to think of what they might be doing to Jake—from what she'd been able to hear in the hallway, they'd captured him in a vicious manner. And her king … she kept offering prayers for his safety, blabbering aloud in her native Refarian, begging that All would watch over both men.

In the painful, endless stretch of time that she'd been captive, one thing had become vividly clear to her heart: She had fallen in love with Jake Tierny.
Her
Jake, not the horrible, murderous one who had awful plans for her body. Shuddering, her eyes drifted shut. At least Chris Harper was still out there somewhere—she only hoped he hadn't been taken prisoner. It had been freakishly easy for the Antousians to overrun them, almost as if the raid had been a trap—which made no sense because Thea's spy had been totally reliable, rock solid. Whoever the Antousian woman was, she'd already helped free Scott and Hope back in December, so why would she have now been setting them up?

A cranking steel sound jarred her, and with a struggling glance over her shoulder she saw the human Jake returning, still clutching that velvet leash of his with a greedy look of expectation. Like hell was she letting him get a piece of her, she thought, bracing for combat as soon as he sprang her free from the restraints once again.

"So did I miss anything?" Jake drawled, slapping the leash in the palm of his hand.

Twisting her right hand, the one closest to him, she managed to give him the finger—and didn't give a crap when the reflexive binding reacted by crushing against her bones.

Tierny laughed. "Well, well, well. You've got more spirit than most of the girls I bring down here. Then again, you are alien, so that would explain it, I guess."

"How did you wind up with the Antousians?" she demanded.

He held up a palm, silencing her. "The questions are for me to ask. But first, we're going to take a little trip, you and me." He fastened the leash against her collar once again, and her hands and feet were instantly freed. She tried lifting her leg to kick him as she'd done earlier, but after being bound for so long, her whole body had gone prickly and numb. She was just too weak.

"Get up," he told her, yanking on the leash hard, driving her up against his chest.

"Give me a damned minute," she spat back at him, trying to settle her hands against the table. "You've kept me pinned down so long, I can't sit up right."

With a rough gesture—with hands so painfully familiar, yet all wrong—he lifted her to the floor. "Here. Walk with me," he told her, wrapping the velvet cord about his hand in a loop, giving him more control over her.

It was all she could do to follow him, her stiletto boots stumbling and dragging in the wake of his long strides.

I'm glad Scott killed you in the future,
she thought
. And if I have my way about it, we'll
both
kill you this time around.

He nearly dragged her toward the far end of the stone corridor, then around a bend, and at that point she glimpsed a large steel door. It reminded her of a submarine hatch or some sort of bunker. Maybe the whole place down here was far more than the basement of a warehouse, she suddenly thought. What if the seemingly innocent structure up above actually perched atop one of the Antousians' own bases, much like Jared's lodge capped off all of Base Ten?

Jake halted, yanking her flush against his side. She trembled, desperately wanting to shove out of his grasp—he had the same bulk, the same build and height as the man she loved, and yet everything about him revolted her completely.

He punched a code into a panel on the wall, shoving her head down cruelly before he did so. He kept her held by the nape of her neck, pinned against his hip, until a beeping noise sounded, and the armored door before them swung open.

With a pinching gesture, he dragged her back upright. "Come on," he told her with a gruff shove. "Get in there."

Shelby blinked at the bright lights on the other side of the door, a contrast to the darkly lit hallway. As grimy and dank as her cell had been, this room nearly sparkled. At the far side was a chrome desk, an array of computers—a whole bank of electronics, in fact—and other monitoring devices. A man with dark hair sat on the other side of the desk, his back to them as he studied some sort of screen.

"I've got her, boss," Jake told the man. "Take a look. Think you'll be impressed."

With a quick sniff, Shelby tried to scent the leader, to determine whether he was alien or human, but came up blank. Odd, usually she could get a reading right away.

But then he slowly rotated in his shiny metal chair, still keeping his gaze on the monitor. "So, looks like my boy's brought us another fine young woman," the man said, at last fixing her with his brown-eyed gaze. When he did, Shelby actually swayed on her feet so badly that Tierny gave the leash a jerk to punish her.

"Stop that!" the alien on the other side of the desk roared. "Release her right now, Tierny."

"But—"

He rose to his feet, sweeping past the desk. "I said release her," he repeated much more softly, his shocked gaze riveted on her face.

Dully she was aware of being unfastened, of Tierny's leash falling with a thud to the floor. Of time itself grinding down, then speeding up.

"You must have drugged me," was all she could think to say, giving her head a little clearing shake.

"No," he half whispered, then addressed Tierny: "Get the hell out of here. I need to talk to Shelby."

"You know this
nank?
" Tierny stepped backward in surprise.

The man looked him up and down. "Just get out."

With a shuffling movement, the human was gone, leaving her to stare up into a pair of eyes that she'd never thought to see again. It wasn't possible; he couldn't be here. She'd watched him die; he'd been inside the Texas facility when it exploded.…

"Nate?" she whispered uncertainly, feeling the floor grow unstable beneath her feet.

T
he emotion in his eyes
was undeniable as he lifted a hand to her cheek. "Shelby," he said softly.

"Don't touch me."

He stepped closer. "Listen to me—"

"Nate is dead." She wheeled to face him, thrusting a finger at him. "You ain't Nate, no way in freaking hell! You're some sort of shape-shifter, trying to manipulate me."

"No," he told her slowly, guiding her with him toward a sofa, "I did not die."

"I saw it happen!" she shrieked, ducking out of his grasp. "I watched as Nate changed into … into … a
vlksai.
And then he had me dragged out of that warehouse before it exploded. He was still inside.
You
were still inside. So you're not here, and you're not alive. Whoever you are, you're just another
vlksai
trying to mind-fuck me."

The alien stared down at her, dark emotion in his eyes. "I survived," was all he said, his gaze never wavering.

"You survived," she repeated bitterly. "Made a miraculous escape, huh? Wow, you're a regular freaking Houdini. Imagine that."

"Do you still have the primexia stone I gave you? Did you keep wearing it?" he whispered, his eyes glinting with emotion. And that was when her tremors truly overtook her, and she had the dull thought that she was heading straight into shock.

"You could have lifted that from my memories, too," she argued weakly, even though her mind was beginning to draw terrible, horrifying conclusions about the Antousian in front of her.

As if sensing her panic, he reached for a bottle of water on his desk. While he was turned away, she took advantage of the moment to study the alien's profile. It was amazing how much like Nate he really did look—but any shape-shifter could easily have accomplished that. "When they drugged me," she said, "they pulled Nate's image from my memories. That's got to be how you're doing this."

"Here," he told her, pushing the cup of water into her hands. But she flung it at him furiously, drenching the front of his tight black T-shirt.

He brushed at the wet fabric. "Shelby, I realize this is all a great shock."

"Don't!" she screamed in a blistering voice. "Don't try and soothe me, not about this!"

She backed away from him, folding her arms protectively across her chest, but stumbled over a small chair right behind her and went sprawling. Nate advanced upon her, brown eyes suddenly blazing bright gold; she scooted backward, closing her eyes.

"I got out of there before the explosion," he explained.

"Lies and more lies." She waved a hand between them. "That's what you trade in. Just like all of your people." She couldn't stop shaking, her whole body wracked with jarring tremors.

The man sighed, squatting down in front of her. "Shelby, whether you want to believe it or not, I'm your Nate."

She began laughing hysterically. "My Nate?
My
Nate? Oh, puhlease. Even if you did survive, you sure as hell weren't ever
my
Nate." She looked him in the eye. "Don't even try going that route. Nate betrayed me. Betrayed me and our friends—and so many people who I loved died because of what he did." He couldn't seem to meet her gaze. "Nate broke me, my spirit, my heart.… He took everything good inside of me and … and …" She couldn't finish.

The man before her winced visibly. "Too many people died that day," was all he said, and a sick feeling began to crawl across her skin. "I've always regretted that fact—and, whether you believe it or not, I've always regretted hurting you."

"Hurting me?" she scoffed, "Hurting me? You used me, boy, plain and simple. If you
are
Nate, that is."

His expression hardened. "I did what I had to do … for my people."

"Nate." She blinked, pressed her eyes shut, then opened them again. "Tell me how it was I watched you die, then. Huh? I mourned you and grieved you for years. For
years
. Why would you let me hurt like that?" She dropped her head heavily into her hands.

"You saw what I wanted you to see, Shelby." She felt fingertips skim across her forehead, a brush of energy touching her consciousness. "It was safer if you thought I was dead. I wanted to protect you. It was the least I could do after … well, everything. I never intended for us to fall so deeply for each other. It wasn't supposed to happen that way."

If I just stay like this, tight as a ball, the nightmare will end
. She drew deep inside of herself, pulled at her energy until it grew intense and centered right in her core. She struggled to focus on memories, sensations, anything to protect herself from actually feeling the moment.

"What are you going to do to me?" she mumbled, burying her face in her arms. "What are your people going to do?"

"I'll take care of you."

She would have believed that lie, too, once upon a time. And maybe that was why that sick realization became more certain inside of her. Nate had always promised he'd protect her, and even now.…

She dropped her arms away from her face. "You didn't have to ask me to bond with you or give me that stupid mating stone. …"

"Like I said, Shelby, I never intended"—he coughed, cleared his throat, then continued—"I didn't mean for it to go so far. It wasn't the plan."

"Why play me at all?" she shrieked, throwing her hands up. "I was just a flipping medic. I didn't know anything of value. I couldn't have been worth anything to you."

"Having relationships made me look believable. You were part of my cover."

"Fuck you!" she spat.

"This is war, Shelby. You know it, and I know it." He shook his head. "Your people are insurgents, and I did what had to be done in order to stop them."

Without thinking, she drew back her hand and slapped him so hard that her handprint glared harsh red against his fair cheek. He kept his head to the side for a moment, then slowly turned to look at her again. "I'll let you get away with that. Once. I owe you that much. But don't strike me again, Shelby. I don't care who you are or what you once were to me. I won't put up with that kind of thing."

"That was for asking me to marry you when you had no intention of following through."

"I did care for you."

"Yeah? Well, I
loved
you! I loved you, and you took that and just … just …" She drew her hand back again, unable to stop herself, but this time he caught it in his firm grasp.

"Don't hit me again, Shelby. We may have a past, but you're my captive now."

Only then did she realize she'd begun to sob uncontrollably, her shoulders and body shaking with it. "You used me."

"I'm sorry," he said, pulling her against his body with shocking gentleness, "but I'm going to have to put you under."

Then, once again, her entire world went black.

K
elsey heard Jared whispering
in her ear, his voice tickling at the fringes of her consciousness. She groaned, shifting on the bed, and reached for him. She'd been so incredibly exhausted, she couldn't stay awake.

"You're back?" she mumbled, her eyes fluttering open. Relief washed over her as she rolled toward the sound of his voice.

Kelsha!

She jerked awake in alarm. The sound of his voice was panicked, edged with terror. Struggling to sit up, she glanced all around their bedroom. "Jared? Are you here?" she called out.

No answer. With a frantic look at the bedside alarm clock, she realized it was well after two a.m. Without meaning to, she'd slept hours when she'd intended to take just a quick nap. But that wasn't the only thing that frightened her. The semidarkness was being illuminated by Erica: Her entire belly was glowing brighter than it had at any other time during her pregnancy.

What could have sent Erica into her Change like this, and so dramatically? She thought of hearing Jared cry out to her just before she'd woken up. What if Erica sensed something, somehow knew that her daddy was in danger?

Jared is fine. Jared is safe,
she tried telling herself
. You're imagining things. Any minute and you're going to hear from Thea that the mission was a success and that he's back on the hangar deck.

Then she swore she heard Jared once again, his voice so vividly strong, he might as well have been in the room with her … and he sounded agonized. Hands fluttering against her belly, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried her best to tap into the bond, but she couldn't feel him at all.

Kelsey's heartbeat went crazy inside her chest, and she struggled to calm herself so she could soothe Erica. "Baby," she murmured, rubbing her blazing-hot belly, "baby girl, you need to settle down. You're okay, just shh … calm down." In response, her stomach seemed to glow even brighter, and a sharp dagger of pain nailed her in the side.

Not now. I can't go into labor now, not like this.

Between her legs, she felt a faint trickle of dampness, and that was when the full-bore panic descended, robbing the very breath from her lungs.
I have to get help
.

With a careful shove, she moved sideways, and the trickling between her legs got warmer and wetter. Sliding across the bed, moving slowly and cautiously, Kelsey finally reached her comm. Taking a deep breath, she signaled the med complex and tried to convince herself that both Jared and Erica were safe.

T
hea tore down the back stairs
that led to Jared and Kelsey's quarters. The horrible news seemed to only be getting worse, with the comm transmission from the med sector indicating that Kelsey was in the midst of a medical emergency and that Erica was in crisis. She practically tumbled down the final two steps, and the image that greeted her, of the medics working on Kelsey, who lay flat on her back in bed, brought tears to Thea's eyes.

Jared's capture—as well as Jake's and Shelby's—had been terrible enough, the news so horrible that Thea had spent the past hour deliberating how to break it to Kelsey. But this? Seeing their queen laid out, an oxygen mask over her mouth, and Erica glowing so brightly inside her belly that it was a wonder Kelsey hadn't been scorched alive from the inside out … well, it was almost more than Thea could bear.

She took slow steps inside the room, and the chief medical adviser glanced up at her, his expression intent. "I don't want to move her, not yet," he explained.

Kelsey's eyes widened when she caught sight of Thea, and she gestured wildly. "Keep still, my lady," the doctor told her, trying to settle her hands, but Kelsey grew only more agitated, waving at Thea.

The doctor turned to Thea, his expression severe. She wondered if he'd already heard the news of Jared's capture because he gave his head a slight shake—as if to say, "Don't tell her, not now."

Thea swallowed and slowly approached the bedside. Kelsey writhed, yanking at her oxygen mask, and even though the medics tried to stop her, she managed to pop it off. "Tell … me … he's safe," she gasped.

Thea gave her head a slight bob, praying Kelsey would forgive her this lie. "He'll be here … soon. Soon he'll be back," she whispered in a wooden tone, knowing all the color had to be drained out of her face.

Kelsey's eyes welled with tears, and then slid shut as the medics positioned the mask back over her face. Thea knew then and there that Kelsey had already guessed the truth: It was the reason that she and Erica were in such crisis. Thea walked to the far side of the bed, the one where Jared normally slept, and climbed onto the mattress. The medics were at Kelsey's other side; Thea kept herself out of the way, sliding cautiously across the covers until she was right beside her friend, who was covered in wires and surrounded by beeping monitors. Thea reached for her hand, and Kelsey stared up at her, blinking helplessly, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

"It's going to be okay," Thea promised. And she meant it: She would not let Jared's enemies win this battle; she would do everything within her power to bring him home safely. "You just be strong for Erica. That's your only concern right now, all right?"

Through the mask, Kelsey spoke in a muffled voice, and even though the words were slightly garbled, Thea understood them nonetheless: "They have him."

She squeezed her queen's hand. "For now," she admitted quietly. "But not for long, my lady. I promise you, not for long."

"Y
ou tell me where Shelby
is—right now." Jake tried desperately to ignore the hideous garbled sound of his words as they passed over his Antousian vocal cords. Like water breaking over rocks, only with more vibrato and distortion. He'd been transported, blindfolded, through a long series of winding corridors and shafts, held naked and at gunpoint by a female Antousian who had introduced herself as Kryn Zoltners. It was the same curvy brunette he'd seen Jared talking with right before all hell had broken loose.

After some waiting, he'd been taken in a vehicle over bumpy terrain, nighttime air cold against his bare skin. Then, with a graceless shove, he'd been hiked up a small flight of stairs and brought inside what he'd come to realize was a small cabin of sorts. Kryn had explained coolly that Shelby was being held elsewhere—and Jared, well, that wasn't information she was prepared to dispense.