Cursed: Brides of the Kindred 13 (49 page)

Stavros frowned. Something about that voice…it seemed
wrong.
He tried to picture the vids he’d seen while being debriefed by the Council. Then he remembered—much like the Joined One, Two had appeared to have two entities inside him. The first was the original inhabitant of the body—a Dark Kindred raised on Zeaga Four—and the other was Ur, a demon from the Black Planet which had inhabited Terex, the head of the Kindred High Council for a while. Surely the creature speaking now was not Two but Ur, the demon.

“It is this creature who lies,” he said loudly. “It is not one but two—a demon named Ur and its host who is called Two.”

At the name “Two” the male with the metal teeth and the prosthetic eye began to twitch oddly. The eye blinked several times and began to speak.

“What have you done?” he demanded in a more normal voice. “Who are we speaking to?”

“
This is the exulted Ya’ha’Na’he,”
the deep voice boomed.
“The ruling Joined One of J’lorgan’s mind. I have contacted them to let them know of the thieves and traitors who have infiltrated their resort.”

The thin, liver-colored lips twisted into an angry sneer.

“You fool!” the other voice burst out. “You’ve tipped our hand too early. What in the Seven Hells do you think you’re playing at?”

“
I simply did what was necessary—I took action,”
the deeper voice argued.
“As you refused to do.”

“I refused for good reason! I was going to wait until
after
the Heart was taken. I had a plan—”

“
Which you refused to share with me!”
the other voice boomed.

The two entities continued to bicker which was very strange to watch since they were sharing the same body.

“Yes…well…” The Joined One made a motion and the image suddenly vanished from the side of the golden cylinder. Stavros noted with some hope that there was an uncertain, discomforted expression on both the male and female faces.

“I hope you can see now that the person who contacted you was both lying and deranged,” he said, frowning up at them. “It sounds to me as if he—or they—had designs on the Heart of Love themselves and were simply trying to find someone to pin their crimes on.”

“Exactly—they were trying to frame us,” Charlie said. “We’re innocent.”

“We do not know what problem the Dark Kindred Commander Two was having but we are still inclined to think at least part of his information was correct,” the male face of the Joined One said stubbornly.

“Then why do you not simply check our credentials?” Stavros asked calmly. “I am a Havoc from Xander Prime and Charlotte is my bride.” He knew perfectly well their cover stories would hold up to intense scrutiny. Commander Sylvan had vetted them himself.

“Ahh, but such credentials are all too easy to fake,” the female face purred. “We were thinking of a more definitive test to prove you are who you say you are.”

“And what test would that be?” Stavros was beginning to get a bad feeling about this but he continued to keep his eyes fixed on the Joined One and his voice steady. There was no point in giving anything away.

“Why—the test of love, of course,” the male face said. “It is the final test for all who come to grow in unity, here at J’lorgan’s Mind.”

“And what exactly is the ‘test of love?’” Charlotte asked. She sounded as uneasy as Stav felt.

“It’s simple, really,” the female face said. “The two of you will make love here, before the pillar of the Heart.” The Joined One nodded at the golden cylinder. “If you are truly a couple and there is deep and significant love between you, the outer shell of the pillar will split, revealing the inner sanctum where the Heart of Love is kept.”

“M-make love?
Here?”
Charlotte looked around wildly. “I mean, in front of God and everybody? I’m sorry, but I’m
not
into putting on a show for perverts.”

“We have no wish to watch your tawdry couplings—privacy will be provided. In fact, you will have the entire inner circle to yourselves.” The Joined One made a sweeping motion with both hands. “After all, we know exactly where you are and all the entrances and exits to the circle will be sealed. There will be no possible escape.”

“If you were watching what went on in the Temple of Regrets, you know what Charlotte has just been through,” Stavros growled. “She is emotionally and physically drained. You’re completely misguided if you think I’ll take her after the trauma she just experienced.”

“And
you
are completely misguided if you do not believe we will call the Dark Kindred Commander back and tell him to send a ship for you at once,” the Joined One snapped.

“Just give us some time to recuperate,” Stavros argued. “If the only way to open the Pillar of the Heart is through genuine emotion, you must let us rest and recover ourselves. We have both re-lived the worst events of our lives tonight. You cannot expect us to be able to summon the will and intent to—”

“My, my—for a couple so truly in love that they were promoted to the Circle of Oneness, you certainly seem reluctant to touch each other intimately.” The Joined One raised all four eyebrows again, skeptically. “May we ask
why?”

“I have just
told
you why.” Stavros could hear the frustration creeping into his voice though he tried to hold it back. Somehow he had to argue their way out of this. He
couldn’t
let the damned Joined Ones force them into an act Charlotte would hate him for the rest of her life. If only he could get them to give himself and Charlotte a little more time—time to escape, hopefully—

“We’ll do it.”

“What?” Stav rounded on her, sure he was hearing things. “What did you say?”

“I
said
, we’ll do it.” Charlotte glared at him fiercely.

“But—”

“What’s the big deal, honey?” she asked, obviously speaking for the Joined One’s benefit. “I mean, I know we weren’t getting along when we first got here but since that first night after our Sensual Touching class, we’ve been all over each other. It’s the reason Nar’sa and Ta’no promoted us so quickly.”

“But…” Stavros was at a loss. Was she actually suggesting they do this? “But the Temple of Regrets,” he said at last. “The things you witnessed…”

“Are all old pains,” Charlotte said firmly. “They hurt a lot but the grief isn’t fresh. It’s not like any of it happened yesterday—it just
felt
like that in that damn temple. So…we should be good to go.”

“Charlotte, I don’t know about this.”

“Well,
I
do.” Her brown eyes flashed stubbornly. “Besides, we’re going to have privacy to, you know, figure it out.”

The Joined One leaned forward on its throne-like chair.

“Do not think that just because you will have privacy you can fake or falsify your joining. Only an act of true physical and emotional intimacy will spilt the Pillar of the Heart.”

“Meaning…” Stavros raised his eyebrows.

“Meaning you must penetrate your mate and leave your seed within her.” A mocking smile played around both faces now.
“Deep
within her.”

Beside him, Stavros heard Charlotte swallow nervously. But she still held up her chin and refused to back down.

“That’s fine as long as we know you aren’t watching,” she said steadily. “Like I said, I’m not about to put on a show.”

“Very well then.” The Joined One nodded its bulky, conjoined head and the male face spoke. “We shall give you a certain amount of time—one solar hour should be sufficient. When we return if the outer shell is split, we shall know you were telling the truth about your identities and purposes here.”

“And if it’s not?” Stavros asked.

“Then we shall call the Dark Kindred Commander and tell him you are his for the asking.” The female face smiled sweetly. “Happy joining, my dears. May your union be pleasurable and lasting.”

* * * * *

“Why did you do that?” Stavros demanded the moment the room was cleared and emptied of everything except a large thick blue mattress made of the thera-mat that covered the classroom floors. The
Hossan
guards had placed it right beside the vast cylinder as though getting it closer would help in their impossible task of splitting its golden surface open to expose the Heart. Charlie could see her reflection in it and the eyes staring back at her were scared and uncertain. She did her best to get herself under control and put on a brave face.

“Why did I do
what
—get that damned Joined One off our backs?” she snapped. “You don’t have to sound so accusatory, Stavros. Next time a simple ‘thank you’ would be nice.”

“You haven’t really gotten them off our backs and you know it,” he said grimly. “And you’ve agreed to do something you don’t want to do—and volunteered me to do it as well.”

“You’re saying you don’t want to have sex with me?” Charlie tried to say the words in a casual, offhand way but inside she felt like dying from embarrassment. She’d been so sure of the way he felt about her she hadn’t even stopped to wonder if Stavros would object to them being intimate. It had just seemed like the easiest way out of their dilemma—the
only
way out—and so she had taken it.

“No, I don’t want to have sex with you,” he said roughly and she felt her stomach turn over. “Just as I don’t want to
fuck
you.”

“Okay, I get it—you don’t want to do the deed.” Inside she was shrinking with mortification. “Sorry I volunteered you for such a horrible task.”

“You don’t understand me.” Stavros reached for her, taking both her hands in his. “I don’t want to do any of those things—I want to make love with you.
To
you.” He sighed. “What I’m trying to say is that if we do this, I want it to
mean
something. But it can’t. Because of your past and how you feel about me and my people.”

“I…” Charlie didn’t know what to say. “Stav, I don’t really see that we have much choice,” she said at last. “I’m sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have said anything. I was just looking for the easy way out.”

“The
easy
way out?” He looked at her incredulously. “You think taking you sexually without bonding you to me will be
easy?”

At the word “bonding” Charlie felt an electrical surge run through her from the tips of her breasts to the tingling spot between her legs. She pressed her thighs together and crossed her arms over her chest, trying to ignore it.

“Look, nobody said anything about
that,”
she said, wishing her voice wouldn’t come out sounding so high and breathy. “I just figured we could, you know, keep it impersonal. Like we did when you, um, touched me.”

He laughed harshly, a bitter, unhappy sound.

“Impersonal. Businesslike. Professional
.
I’m so fucking sick of being
professional
with you.”

“You don’t have to say it like
that,”
Charlie snapped, losing patience. “In fact, you don’t have to say anything at all. Just
do
it so we can get the damned pillar open and see if there’s any way to get the Heart.”

“Just do it? Like this?” The big Kindred was suddenly behind her. He pushed her to her hands and knees on the mattress and flipped up the hem of her robe, exposing her bare ass. “Is
this
what you want, Charlotte?” he snarled, forcing her legs apart. “Just a quick fuck to reach your objective?”

“I…” Charlie’s heart was pounding and her mouth was as dry as cotton. But after all the weeping and wailing she’d done in the Temple of Regrets, she wasn’t going to show any more weakness. She was tired of feeling helpless and upset. This wasn’t how she’d imagined sex with Stavros—when she’d allowed herself to picture it at all—but it was, as he said, just a means to an end. So if this was the way he wanted it…

“Well?” he demanded and she felt his big hands on her bare hips, bracing her open. She knew he was in position to enter her, knew that the broad head of his cock must be poised right at the entrance of her pussy.

“Fine,” she said in a voice that only trembled a little. She turned her head to the side and met his eyes in the burnished reflective surface of the Pillar of the Heart. He was standing right behind where she was positioned at the end of the mattress and his eyes were burning with emotion. “If that’s how you want it, then go for it,” she said steadily. “I…I can take anything you can dish out.
Anything.
”

She expected him to take her at her word and shove himself to the hilt inside her. In fact, she was trying to be mentally and physically braced for it. So she was surprised when instead, he sank to the mattress beside her.