The furrows in Alli’s brow erased themselves abruptly and her eyes closed as her body relaxed back into sleep.
Kane watched her for a moment longer, his heart throbbing in his chest as the pain of loss speared through him sharply. Gods, he never wanted to leave her! And yet, this was the only way to keep her safe and to redress the wrongs his people had done to her planet in his own universe. The only way to make things right.
Finally, he turned away. As much as he might love Allisandra, now he had to leave her.
And he knew he would never see her again.
Thirty-Five
Alli woke with a mild headache and a feeling that she’d been having crazy dreams…dreams she couldn’t quite remember. The first rays of sunlight were just making their way through her bedroom blinds, showing her fiancé sleeping tangled in the covers beside her.
“Douglas?” she asked, sitting up in bed and blinking. “Douglas, wake up. I had the strangest dream. At least…” She put a hand to her temple which felt tender for some reason. “At least, I think I did.”
“Darling?” Her fiancé’s eyes slitted open, groggy at first. But when he saw her sitting there, his eyes flew wide in apparent surprise. “Alli!” he exclaimed. “Oh my God—you’re back!”
“Back?” Alli frowned. “What are you talking about?”
What followed was a very strange half hour. Douglas insisted that she had been gone for nearly a month—that she had vanished right out of their bed one night and he hadn’t been able to find her anywhere.
“We’ve all been frantic!” he told her, running a hand through his thinning brown hair. “I looked for you everywhere—I called the Mother Ship and they turned the place upside down! Searched high and low but you weren’t to be found!”
Alli shook her head.
“But…I don’t remember going anywhere. What are you talking about?”
She wouldn’t believe him until he showed her the calendar app on his phone.
“See? It’s nearly the end of June! Why, we’re supposed to get married in just two days! But I thought you were gone forever. Do you know how worried I was?” He took Alli by the shoulders and frowned at her fiercely.. “I’m relieved you’re back, of course, but it was really inconsiderate of you to make everyone worry so much.”
“I…I didn’t mean to. Honestly,” Alli protested.
Douglas gave a long-suffering sigh.
“Well, I suppose all that matters is that you’re back and safe. Come here.” And he pulled her into a hug.
Alli let him embrace her, but his arms around her felt…wrong. And the way their faces were on the same level when he hugged her seemed strange too.
His arms should be stronger, longer—more muscular, she thought. And I ought to have to look up to meet his eyes—way up. He should be a lot taller.
Then she pushed the strange thoughts away. Why would she think such things about her fiancé? Douglas was short and thin—he always had been. Why would she expect him to be taller and more muscular all of a sudden?
But he smells wrong, too, whispered a little voice in her head. He doesn’t smell like warm, masculine spice. I don’t like it!
“Douglas,” she said, pulling out of the hug when she absolutely couldn’t stand it anymore. “Did you, er, change your cologne or deodorant while I was…was gone?”
It seemed wrong to even say such a thing. Because as far as Alli could remember, she had never left. But since Douglas kept insisting and the calendar seemed to back him up…
“Of course not—why would you ask such a thing?” he asked and shook his head. “I was too busy looking for you to do anything else! I even handed the Johnson account off to someone else, just so I could concentrate on finding you and you know how lucrative that is! It cost me a great deal of time and effort, you disappearing like you did.”
Alli shook her head.
“I’m sorry, Douglas—I just don’t remember any of this.” She sighed. “Maybe I should go up to the Mother Ship. Maybe someone there can help me make sense of all this. ”
“The Mother Ship?” He frowned. “Why would you go there?”
“I don’t know.” Alli frowned. “I just have a feeling that somehow this…everything that supposedly happened to me…somehow has to do with the Kindred.”
Her fiancé threw up his hands.
“Fine. Just call me once you get there so I know you’re all right. I’ll stay here and make some calls to the Police Department—I have to cancel the Missing Persons report they have on you and ask them to close the case.” He shook his head. “Honestly, this is a relief—they were beginning to ask me some very suspicious questions.”
Alli frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, they seemed to think I had done away with you somehow!” Douglas made a face. “As if I would, after all the money I’ve already put out on the wedding!”