“I don’t remember my family,” Danielle admitted. “I think I was nearly married twice but I don’t recall the names of either one of the men I almost married. And my mom and dad…” She frowned. “Are they still alive? I can’t remember.”
“My parents are gone and I have no siblings,” Brav said. “The Elite Espionage Corps is my life. I…I suppose I ought to get back to it.”
“You must both get back to your regular lives now, while you are still able,” the Ancient One said. He waved a wrinkled hand at them. “Please go and do not wait for anything or the Mother Stone may draw you back again.”
“All right.” Brav lifted his chin. “Come on, little girl,” he told Danielle. “Let’s get out of here.”
And turning, he guided her across the sands, away from the seductively pulsing power of the Mother Stone and the pull it exerted to keep them there.
Forty-Three
Bravik wouldn’t even let them stop to get some clothes out of their house so they had to leave the village naked.
“If we go inside, we’re going to get sucked into sitting by the fireplace staring at the Mother Stone’s energy,” he insisted, when Danni begged to just go in and get something to cover up with.
“But we’re naked,” she protested, still trying to hide her breasts and sex with her arms. “Bravik, I feel so exposed.”
“Sorry, little girl, but there are clothes back at the ship,” he growled.
He did stop to get the blaster, which he had dropped just outside the village gates when he first started getting sick from the Riiver bite. Danni felt a little better about that—though she still didn’t like going out in the darkness that surrounded the village, naked and vulnerable.
She also hated to leave the H’rakens without saying goodbye. But everyone was tucked away in their houses—doubtless sitting in front of their hearths and staring into the pink beam of energy coming from the Mother Stone—and Bravik wouldn’t let her knock on anyone’s door or delay for any reason.
Danni could feel the determination coming from the big Kindred through their newly forged bond and she was sure he could feel her vulnerability. But she wasn’t sure quite how to use the bond to communicate to him and after that initial burst of mind-speech when the two of them had first bonded, Bravik hadn’t “sent” her anything else.
But using their new bond to communicate was actually the last thing on Danni’s mind as they set off into the darkness outside the village gates. She was worried that the Riivers would be out in force, waiting to attack and exact revenge for the loss of their Leader.
But to her relief, they had no difficulty at all with the mutant Riivers. Either the death of their Leader had so demoralized them they didn’t care to mount an attack or there just weren’t enough of them left to face the big Kindred. Whichever it was, Danni felt grateful that she and Bravik were able to get back to their ship completely unmolested.
“All right, here we are.” Brav put a hand to the side of the smart-metal and the ship’s door opened for him automatically. “Let’s get some clothes on and then get out of here,” he said to Danni, who nodded agreement.
Her own clothing was back in the guest house they’d been living in but Bravik produced an extra uniform shirt for her, which fit like a dress. Danni put it on quickly, grateful not to be naked anymore.
He also had a whole spare uniform, including boots, stored in the back of the long-range shuttle. After putting it on, he came to sit in the pilot’s seat and examine the instruments with a thoughtful frown on his face.
Danni sat beside him and fumbled with the straps of the safety harness, trying to get it fastened.
“Here, little girl—let me help.”
Bravik leaned over her and deftly fastened the straps into the central buckle. As he did, Danni had the strangest memory which flooded into her mind all at once.
He helped me with the straps before, she thought. But he wasn’t nice about it and I thought he was a jerk—an asshole. I didn’t know how sweet and kind he can be—I didn’t love him like I do now.
“Bravik, wait!” She put a hand on his arm, anxiety filling her.
“Yes, little girl? What’s wrong?” he asked, frowning.
“I…I don’t want to go.” Danni bit her lip. “If we go—if we leave Soluu Four—we’ll forget we love each other! I remember how it was now—I hated you! I thought you were rude and misogynistic and mean and…” She felt a sob start in her throat and tried her best to swallow it down. “And I don’t want to feel like that again,” she went on. “I don’t want to lose you, Bravik! I don’t want us to lose each other!”