Alien Warrior's Mate (Brion Brides 1)(11)

“I was told none of the chosen were injured too gravely in the battle,” Urenya said. “Or, at least, none I could do anything for.”

“I wasn’t injured, no,” Darien said, unsure of where to begin.

“Good to hear,” Urenya said. “So what brings you to me?”

Darien considered how to phrase what bothered him. Several ideas popped into his mind, but none seemed sufficient for all he wanted answers to.

“Deliya,” he finally said.

“Oh,” Urenya nodded, as though that truly did explain everything. “Diego mentioned I might expect this.”

Darien was too baffled by that to give much thought to the fact she referred to the commander so casually.

“The commander said –” he began, but he had absolutely no idea what their general might have told the healer. “What did he say?”

“That you and Deliya were a possible match in the making,” Urenya replied calmly.

“I take from the fact you’re not beaming brighter than your valor squares that didn’t happen.”

“No,” he said. “But…”

Now Urenya looked up, giving him her entire focus. For some reason, that was eerie. Urenya was famous for almost always knowing something so deep about a person they themselves didn’t even know it yet. Being under her scrutiny was somehow more terrifying than facing a powerful enemy.

“There are usually no ‘but’s with a binding,” the healer said.

“I know,” Darien said.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Deliya and I seem to fit together so perfectly, everything just feels natural. Talking to her, being with her, fighting beside her… And when I’m away from her, I feel empty. Incomplete, somehow. Tell me those aren’t the signs of a fated.”

“They are,” Urenya agreed.

“But I didn’t have the moment. I hoped when we fought together, when I saw her in danger it might provoke the bond to happen.”

Urenya frowned. “Many men have tried that. That’s just wishful thinking.”

“But it has worked, hasn’t it?”

“On occasions. Not a rule,” Urenya said. “Why are you so sure it’s her?”

“I…” Darien hesitated.

“Everything I’ve ever read or heard about the binding. They were all just words to me until I met Deliya. Then I suddenly understood, but the thing itself didn’t happen. I don’t understand.”

Urenya said nothing for a long moment.

“The timing is not always right,” she said at last.

“What do you mean?” Darien asked.

“We think the binding usually happens as soon as the gerion sees the gesha. That’s not always so. Fate has its plans and they are a mystery to us. Sometimes the people who end up together have to grow a bit as individuals before, or one of them has to do something alone before the bond could work. They aren’t many, but there are occasions where people who’ve known each other for years suddenly bond. That is all I can give you.”

It felt like a weight off his heart. It wasn’t entirely impossible that Deliya was meant for him. It might have been that fate simply hadn’t gotten to them yet.

“Thank you,” he said.

“Be careful,” Urenya said.

“Don’t confuse hope for the real thing.”

He took a deep breath.

“You know these things better than anyone. Do you think I’m wrong to trust this?”

Don’t say yes.

Urenya snorted.

“No,” she said, smiling, “I don’t.”

Darien left breathing anew. It was not in a Brion’s nature to brood and despair. In hindsight, he thought, maybe he wouldn’t have liked an answer to fix everything with a word. Deliya was a proud, strong, irresistibly beautiful warrior. Did he expect to have her served to him on a platter?

No. Like all Brions, he wanted a fight. He would get what fate had in store for him one way or another. In the meanwhile, he could tease, and fight with, and dream of Deliya. Possibly even share her bed again. In his heart, he was certain. If all he had to do was wait, then… well, it would be terrible because he wasn’t patient by character, but he’d do it.#p#分页标题#e#

It was the Brion way, after all. Nothing worth having ever came easily. And he was more than ready to go and get his impossible woman.





CHAPTER TEN

Deliya



There, Deliya thought.

It had happened. She’d had him and he’d left. Just like she’d feared.

Her room still smelled like him. In her distress, that somehow seemed like the worst possible thing. It was her room, her sanctuary, and now it was infested with the thing that was bothering her. On the other hand, she didn’t want the smell to ever leave her room. Wanted it to be there, with him preferably right along with it.

She did what usually helped when something was wrong. Carefully and meticulously, she set about her duties. For now, that included getting her gear back in order. Then she could figure out how to mend her heart after what should have been a nice, easy tryst after a good battle.

She cleaned the blade of her spear and placed it into its place on the wall and fastened her armor beside it, after cleaning and repairing the damage done to the plates. Then she polished the blade again, just so she would have something to do. Whatever she did, wherever she looked, still he seemed to be there in the room, as though he’d never truly left. If that was how it was going to be, it was bound to be a nightmare.

Wherever she looked, she could see an echo of him. Of his hands on her body, of his lips on hers or whispering words she thought would never affect her. Deliya’s hands hurt with the knowledge that she couldn’t hold him like she wanted to. The whole thing made her feel rather silly. Physical attraction was a normal thing in Brion culture, but never had a man gotten quite so thoroughly under her skin as Darien had. And even more worryingly, she didn’t want to get rid of that feeling of wanting him, of needing him.

At some point, she had some in-ship duties and those were a small blessing. Overall, it was downtime for them. Antaris was being handed over to the union   as a sign that the Brions weren’t as savage and uncivilized as the Antanaris, and it took time for Briolina’s senators to announce where the Triumphant was heading next. So for the time being, they waited, healing their wounds and stocking up. It was the worst, in Deliya’s opinion, when action and tasks were what she desperately needed to keep her mind off of a certain someone.

Ultimately, Brion spirit took over. When in trouble or emotional turmoil, they found the first possible fight or simply looked for something to hack to pieces. Hoping against hope, Deliya put her faith in the fact that punching something would clear her head. It would have to, because nothing else was and she couldn’t just go back to Darien. She had to be bigger than that… didn’t she?

For a lack of ongoing fights, Deliya had to opt for the second option. The Triumphant was equipped to the teeth with every imaginable battle simulator the Brions could get their hands on, so all she had to do was pick one. Deliya marched into the training area like she owned the place, her eyes staring steadfastly forward and ignoring any distraction. She could take a breath only when she saw that Darien had not used the same tactic to relieve his troubled mind.

She picked a training dummy and set up the simulation, making sure that the options she chose would be sure to leave her hurting if she got even one move wrong. Deliya wanted to feel it deep in her bones, at her very core. Training was the only thing she could think of that could take her mind off of Darien for more than a few fleeting seconds and she needed every damn moment she could get at this point.

Taking a deep breath, she signaled the simulation to start. Immediately, the floor beneath her wobbled and opened up into a deep shaft, which she only avoided by a fraction of an inch by jumping to the side. Her heart rate rose and she opened her eyes as the first dummy came for her, swinging its heavy mechanical arms and making her duck and weave between punches. She brought it down by crouching low and catching it in its legs before it could react, swiftly spinning around and flipping back out of its range as it fell, arms still flailing.

Deliya grinned to herself as a laser shot whizzed over her head, making her hair billow a little. This was what she needed. More robotic opponents came for her, determined to make her feel even better. Moving between the dummies and dodging laser bullets, the AI measuring the damage she would have taken in actual combat, she felt herself coming alive again. Like her lungs could open again and her heart could beat, though perhaps not as quickly as she would have preferred it.

Being naturally optimistic, nothing brought her down for too long. There was no room for depression or moping about if one was a warrior on the Triumphant, but as much as she would have wanted to just shed everything that had happened with Darien like a bad dream, she couldn’t. He had gotten deep and she wasn’t sure if any amount of battle, training or excitement could make her whole again the same way that his touch could. And that had her worried.#p#分页标题#e#

The problem with the exertion and the battle hormones running wild in her body again was that all of them dragged her mind back to Darien.