Light of Kaska (22 page)

He studied the young man for a moment. “Funny, you’re the only one who looks like her.”

Rogue shrugged. “Different fathers.”

“Where are they?” Stryker asked with an unexpected bite to his tone. He wasn’t sure why it mattered.

Keza’s brother lost some of the glint in his eyes, his smile fading. “One died. Accident. The other one visits when he’s got time. He’s almost as busy as I am.”

Stryker knew he shouldn’t take the bait but he was curious. “Doing what?”

“Repopulating Kaska,” Rogue said with a flashing grin. “Trying to, anyway. Since my father’s already proved that he can produce a Kaskan male, he’s in high demand. And I’m one of the few fertile males on this planet. So ditto on me.”

Stryker blinked at him. “All you do is fuck?”

“Hey, it’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it,” Rogue answered with a low laugh. “Don’t get me wrong—I figure I’ll take a lifemate someday, but until then, I love ‘em all. The Goddess made me for a reason. Can’t disappoint the old girl.”

“Lifemate,” Stryker repeated, both fascinated and unnerved by the word.

“Yeah, like Nade and Harle. She found him on her Guidance and came back early. Said she was done looking, ‘cause she’d found what she needed to be happy. Took him as lifemate and revoked her
Materi
status. Can’t say as I blame her—who wants to be responsible for all of
them?”
He jerked a thumb at the crowd with amused horror.

“Keza ran away from it,” he found himself saying and wanted to bite through his tongue. That wasn’t his to tell.

But Rogue only shrugged and glanced over the crowd to find his sister. His smile matured with thoughtful affection. “She came back, though, didn’t she?”

Chapter 11

Keza rolled over, kicked the covers off her legs, and wrestled the pillow into submission under her head. Her eyes felt full of sand, dry and scratchy as a desert, but the damned things didn’t want to stay closed. Her muscles twitched with exhaustion, weariness pressing on her like a large, ruthless hand, but her mind wouldn’t shut off long enough to let her body relax into sleep.

Was he gone yet?
She groaned and flopped onto her back, staring at the dark ceiling through gritty eyes. Why was she torturing herself like this? In the morning she would go down to breakfast and find her mother sitting with Kaskan security, organizing a search for Stryker.
Then
she could torture herself, worrying about how he would get through the security grid and the looming Collectors in their Kaskan orbit to flee this place. The man was going to be the death of her.

With a sigh, she sat up and rubbed her painful eyes. They were swollen and scratchy from more than tiredness, but tears had done her even less good than lying awake. Pushing to her feet, she padded across her bedroom and out onto the veranda, taking a deep, invigorating breath of cool, salt-kissed air. The breeze blew her hair back from her forehead and snuck up her nightshirt slyly. She ignored it, resting her hands on the railing and staring down into the dark, listening to the crash of waves below. The moons weren’t up yet, so the night was a blind, midnight blanket broken only by scattered lights in the house below, distant lights in the nearby town, and the sparkle of stars overhead peeking through a scrim of clouds like hints of diamonds.

She sighed again heavily. This was not the homecoming she’d dreamed of. Then she shook her head and revised that thought. Actually it had been exactly the homecoming she’d dreamed, down to the
brecaria
and sweet brussberry pie Nade had made for dinner. The warm, loud, chaotic welcome of her family and the softer but no less warm and playful welcome of her selkie friends had been just the balm she’d needed. But it hadn’t lasted, not with circumstances being what they were.

“Chase Stryker, if you don’t get away clean, I swear I will strangle you myself,” she whispered to the night.

She had no doubt that he was already on his way. She remembered that night was his comfort zone and wondered how he’d endured the bright sun of her homeworld. He hadn’t seemed particularly pleased the last time she’d spoken with him. The fury and accusation in his voice had torn at her conscience, while seeing him in only thin sleep slacks had shredded the rest of her. She’d meant to reason with him, to show him that living here was doable, that if he had to stay in a prison, Kaska was the nicest option available. But seeing him standing there, so damned
beautiful
and furious, she’d crumpled under guilt and pain. She’d told him to go. Even though it was more than likely going to be her downfall.

Rubbing impatiently at tear-stung eyes, she moved out of the cool night air and headed for the hallway. She wasn’t sleeping. She might as well see if the library had anything on the legalities of bringing an escaped convict to her world as a candidate just so he could slip the law again. She was pretty sure it was frowned upon, but it would be instructive to learn the details of her demise.

She padded down the hall and the stairs without turning on lights. It was amazing to her, after the years she’d been away, how comfortable she felt in this place again. It hadn’t changed much. Each flowing line and open space was etched in her memory and on her heart. The scents were the same, the sounds were the same, and the feel of the place seemed as solid and enduring as the planet itself.
Home.
She wanted to reach back through time and kick her younger self for leaving.

Then again,
Materi
went on Guidance cycles for good reason. If she hadn’t left, she would never have learned how precious this place and these people were to her. She would never have learned all the things that Stryker had taught her about herself, that he was still teaching her.

She felt tears prickle again and blinked fiercely, stepping into the library without bothering to turn on the lights. A pale glow caught her eye and she moved to the long panel of windows to watch as the thin curve of the lesser moon peeked over the restless ocean horizon. She touched a fingertip to the window, tracing the curve of that fragile moon with poignant regret. The lesser moon might rise first, but it was soon overtaken by its larger companion and hidden for most of the night, showing again only to say goodbye as it disappeared under the horizon. Elusive beauty.

“Sunshine.”

Sukeza jumped with a squeak, whirling to face the dark room, heart thundering madly in her chest. A deeper shadow in one of the overstuffed chairs shifted and she addressed it in a voice higher than usual. “Why aren’t you gone yet?” She was very aware that the rapid tattoo of her heart had a lot more to do with the man than with being startled in a dark room in the middle of the night.

Stryker made a soft noise that sounded like a snort. “What are you wearing?” he asked, his voice just as low and husky as it had been a moment ago.

She glanced down swiftly and felt her cheeks flame with embarrassment, sidling away from the window that backlit her through the thin fabric. “Look, the moons are starting to rise. It’d be easier in full dark for you to leave without being seen.”

“You in that big a hurry to see me gone?” he asked in a wry tone. She couldn’t see his face, just the outline of his form in the gloom.

She worried at the fabric of her shirt until she realized the movement pulled it further up her thighs. “I’m—I just don’t want you to get caught. I couldn’t stand it if they put the band back on you.” He stayed silent, so she cleared her throat and asked, “So why are you still here?”

He made a sound that reminded her of when he’d been in chains and had made her feel like a foolish farm girl. “Think I should run off without a plan, without even a working knowledge of this damn planet? Wouldn’t be too smart, would it?”

The words were scathing but his voice was not, still low and husky, working on her like a caress. She swallowed hard and turned, fixing her eyes on the rising moon.

“Why did you bring me here, Keza?”

She wrapped her arms around herself, holding in the sudden urge to curl up on his lap. “I didn’t know how else to save you,” she whispered, trying to keep the despair out of her voice.

“Save me,” he repeated, but his voice was so soft that she couldn’t read the tone. “Rescuing another wild animal?”

She felt tears sting again and bit the inside of her cheek to make them stop. When she spoke, her voice was tight and harsh, but she couldn’t help that. “It’s not what you would’ve chosen. I know that. But it’s not the worst place to end up either. You don’t have to stay in this house. Kaska is a big place. As long as they know where you are you can travel around, make your own choice where you want to go, who you want to be with. Women will be stacked ten deep just to be near you.” She paused and swallowed hard.

“Keza—”

She suddenly couldn’t stand it anymore. “Or you can go. Whatever. I need to get some sleep. I’ve got a hearing in the morning.” She spun for the door, but his abrupt movement made her lurch to a stop.

“What hearing?” he asked, voice much sharper.

“Before the Universal Magistrate. I told you, they aren’t too happy with what I did.”

“They called in a UM for this?” He was on his feet now, a looming shadow that made her shift on nervous feet.

“Uh, yeah. I did break the law. Several, actually.”

“But not Kaskan law.”

“No. I just bent those,” she said ruefully and edged toward the door.

He moved after her, a stalking shadow that tripled her heart rate. His hand snaked around her elbow, pulling her to a halt. “Why?” he asked, his voice a geologic rumble that emphasized the molten heat of his touch.

She tried not to panic. “I—” She needed to try harder. “It wasn’t right. What they did wasn’t right,” she managed in a breathless whisper and pulled away from him, knowing that if he kept touching her the real reason would come spilling out. “I have to go.”

“Keza,” he stopped her. She paused on the threshold, looking over her shoulder at his dark shape. “You never smiled until you got here.”

What should have been an irrelevant comment sank into her like a blade. She opened her mouth, closed it again to swallow the lump that was blocking her voice, and then managed to croak, “Smiling is overrated.”

Then she hurried away, nearly running back up the stairs to her room, haunted by the memory of his devastating smile.

The morning took its sweet time making an appearance, but once it did the day began with a whirlwind of activity. Her mother rushed her through breakfast, lecturing the entire while on Kaskan law and what their defense would be to the Magistrate. Myelle also managed to ignore Keza’s siblings, who were determined to go to the hearing with them. Liss ranted, Nade reasoned, and Rogue demanded, but their mother acted as if they were just background noise. Loud, obnoxious background noise.

Keza finally had to tell them to stop. They were giving her a migraine. They followed her and her mother out to the landing field, but when they tried to board the shuttle Myelle stopped them with her best icy glare and a clear, “No!”

Rogue turned sullen for the time it took Keza to say goodbye to her sisters. Liss was irreverently philosophical about the whole ordeal, giving her a hug while chirping, “That old dodger doesn’t stand a chance against the dragon anyway.”

Keza almost smiled at that one. “You know, he might not be old. Or a he.”

Liss shrugged. “Try offering sex, than.”

Rogue laughed at that one while Myelle called a rebuke from inside the shuttle, “Mariliss bet Marish!”

“What?” Liss called back with wide-eyed innocence.

Nade hugged Keza as well and then gave her a solemn look that belied the twinkle in her eyes. “Just remember, if all else fails you can kidnap the Magistrate, bring him home, and we’ll force-feed him my brussberry pie. He’ll be ours forever.”

Keza snickered then lightly punched her brother when he said, “Shouldn’t be hard for you, since you’ve had practice with that whole kidnapping thing.” He pretended to be mortally wounded for a second before wrapping her in a warm hug.

“Thanks,” she said to her three siblings, stepping out of Rogue’s arms and into the shuttle. “See you soon.”

Keza endured Myelle’s continuing lecture until midway to the orbiting station. Then she calmly turned to her mother and said, “You’re driving me crazy.”

Myelle opened her mouth, a protest clear in her expression, but she must have seen something in her daughter’s eyes that changed her mind. She closed her mouth and cleared her throat. “Right. Let’s just…try to relax.”

Keza snorted in dark humor and rolled her eyes.

The worst part was the waiting. She didn’t like being treated like a criminal, with the inspection of their shuttle and belongings and being asked to step through scanner after scanner on their way through the station. But it was the waiting at each point that drove her batty. Wait for the inspection, wait for the scan results, wait outside the hearing rooms, wait inside the hearing rooms with the Collectors.

When the Universal Magistrate finally made an appearance, Sukeza almost got up and kissed his lined face. She liked him even better when he got right down to business. Smoothing the front of his matt-black, collarless jacket before he sat, he looked at them over his spectacles and said, “Opening case number KH3958, Universal Collection Agency versus Sukeza bet Marish.” He paused, clearing his throat and looking down through his spectacles, reading the holo-images projected for his viewing only. “The accusation is aiding and abetting the escape of a known convicted criminal, Chase Stryker, aliases too numerous to mention, from mental containment.” He looked back up at Sukeza with the blandest expression she’d ever seen on another human being. “How do you plead?”

“Guilty,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster.

A hint of humor softened his lined visage. “Well, that makes for a short hearing.”

“Your Honor,” Sukeza’s mother began, but the Magistrate made a conciliatory gesture.

“Yes, Myelle, I know.”

Sukeza twitched and glanced at her mother in surprise, but Myelle acted as though she was unaware that the man had addressed her so familiarly.