Brides of the Kindred(120)
Baird leaned over the console and gripped his arm. “I’m glad I could be there for you, Brother. I’m sorry it has to end like this.”
Sylvan gave him a tiny smile. “It’s just three days. You might make it back.”
“We both know the odds of that.” Baird smiled back grimly.
They were rapidly approaching the Scourge Fathership. As the vast grey metal cylinder grew in the viewscreen a cold hand gripped Sylvan’s heart. He could only imagine how his brother must feel, returning to a place where he had been tortured and tormented. It must be hell and yet Baird wore a serene look on his face—a look that said nothing else mattered but Olivia. Wish I could feel that way for a female again, Sylvan thought. But he knew he never would. That part of his heart was broken beyond fixing and even if it wasn’t he had sworn a sacred oath to the Mother—an oath he never intended to break. “We’re here,” he said unnecessarily. “Their control room has accepted our truce signal.”
“Let’s go then.” Baird leaned forward as the entrance to the Scourge docking bay yawned open beneath them. “She’s been in there too long already. If he’s already gotten into her mind…”
We may be too late, Sylvan finished the thought in his head. But he didn’t say it aloud. Couldn’t bear to imagine his brother’s pain if the female he loved had been hurt beyond repair. They would just have to pray to the Mother that they were in time…
Liv shivered in revulsion as she felt the cold brush of an alien mind against her own. It was like spiders scuttling over her face—a loathsome, ticklish sensation that made her stomach lurch in disgust. Then the sensation went deeper and she felt him inside her brain. Cold hands with worm-like fingers were searching through her memories like an impatient secretary flipping through old fashioned paper files in a desk drawer. Every once in awhile they would linger on a certain memory—something embarrassing or horrifying or desperately unhappy—and examine it more closely. Liv gritted her teeth as she felt the corpse-cold fingers pick these bad memories up and fondle them like precious gems.
The time Sophie and I saw Miss Meow crushed under the neighbor’s truck…The last time we ever saw grandma alive with all those tubes and wires going in and out of her at the hospital…Opening the door to a policeman saying how sorry he was but we had to come down to the morgue and identify Mom and Dad after the drunk driver hit them…
It was all there, right down to the time in fourth grade when she’d had a crush on Patrick Phelps who told everyone he didn’t like her. The AllFather found each hurtful memory and tasted it thoroughly, tasted her pain and disappointment and humiliation as though it was a fine wine he was savoring.
Liv didn’t know how long it went on, only that after awhile she felt like she was going crazy. She tried to remember how Baird had said he was able to stand it—he’d been a prisoner here in this ship for six months. How had he kept his sanity with this hideous being rifling through his head?
He thought of me. He said I kept him sane—the link we had and the dream-sharing. Maybe if I think of him… Closing her eyes, Liv thought of him with all her might. She imagined him standing there in front of her—so tall and strong, his wild black hair and golden eyes filled with love and need. The way his body felt against hers when he held her close, the warm, spicy scent that filled her senses when she was with him. Suddenly her eyes flew open. God, he was right—I love him. How could I not see that before? How could I wait until now when I’m in a hopeless situation to realize that he’s what I want out of life? What’s wrong with me?
“What indeed?” whispered an icy voice in her brain. “Ssso you were bonded to the one who escaped me. Sssuch a pity…his pain was ssso unique and I never quite got all of it.”
Liv felt him in her head again, prying at her memories of Baird. But somehow, this time she resisted. “No, those aren’t for you!” She imagined erecting a wall around her time with Baird, a wall so high and thick he couldn’t scale it or break it no matter how he tried.
Soft laughter, like the rustling of bat wings filled her skull. “Ssso you resist? Very well, I ssshall break you later at my leisure. Depend upon it, little female.”
And then, as suddenly as he had invaded her mind, the AllFather was gone. Liv sagged in relief, nearly falling again. Resisting his prying attempts to see into her time with Baird had taken everything she had. She felt like she’d just run a marathon or swam a hundred laps in the pool.
The AllFather went back to its throne. “Her taste is prosaic but ssshe ssshould provide a few hours of entertainment at least. Hook her up to the viewer and I will review her memories. Her thought images may provide valuable insight.”