Bridging the Distance Read online

  It seemed to move in a silver blur as he gripped one alien by the throat and broke its neck with a single squeeze, then punched the other in the thorax so hard that the entire arm disappeared inside its armored shell and came out the other side, covered in black and green guts.

  Lorelei shivered in disgust and fear. She had scrambled to the far corner of the bed and huddled there, wishing she could look away from the carnage but unable to close her eyes, even for a second.

  In a matter of minutes all three of the blue beetle aliens were dead or twitching on the floor and Torn was standing there, one arm dangling useless and the other dripping, the black fist clenched at his side.

  He turned to face her, his gaze still wild and blank. The shadows were gathered around his blazing green eyes and for a moment Lorelei was so frightened she could hardly breathe.

  The nanites have taken over again! He doesn’t know me! He’ll kill me too!

  “Call him by name, daughter.” The warm, comforting voice filled her mind. “Claim him and he will know you.”

  “T-torn?” Lorelei whispered in a low, stuttering voice. “Torn, come back to me, please? It’s Lorelei. It’s your…your Mistress.”

  “Mistress?” The shadows cleared as the nanites dispersed. “Lorelei!” The huge Kindred went to her, coming to the side of the bed to fall to his knees beside her. “Gods,” he groaned and dropped his dark, shaggy head to her lap. “Oh Goddess…I should have heard them coming! Fucking Genoshian slavers…”

  “No, Torn! It’s not your fault.” She cuddled him close, feeling tears rise to her eyes as she stroked her fingers through his wild hair. “You were so brave!” She whispered. “You saved us!”

  “Maybe not.” He rose with another groan, his broken arm still dangling, and reached for his twin. “Bound!” he growled, shaking the other warrior’s shoulder. “Bound, what the fuck is wrong with you? Wake up, Brother!”

  At the sound of his name, Bound blinked and finally stirred. But when he looked up at Torn, his face was blank.

  “Who are you?” he asked, his voice puzzled as he looked from Torn to Lorelei and back again. “And…who am I?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Well, Torn’s broken arm is as good as new, yes it is, yes it is! But I am afraid that most of Bound’s memory has been wiped. Yes it has, yes it has.” The little Tolleg surgeon nodded vigorously, his long, furry ears flopping.

  Lorelei thought he looked a little like a cross between a Basset hound and a chimpanzee—he had the long muzzle and floppy, soft ears of the hound and the quick, clever fingers of a chimp. His big brown eyes were intelligent and sober as he looked at her, making her realize that despite his funny way of speaking, what he was saying was all too real.

  “What are you saying, Yipper?” Kat asked. She had come to sit with Lorelei for moral support while the little Tolleg surgeon worked on both twins. Now her hand tightened in Lorelei’s as she leaned forward anxiously.

  “Yes, what…what does that mean, exactly? About Bound’s memory being wiped?” Lorelei asked, her heart in her throat. “I mean, can’t you help him somehow? Jog his memory? Do something? He…he told me you were the best surgeon on the Mother Ship.”

  “How I wish I could help. Yes I do, yes I do!” Yipper said earnestly. “But before I fixed his arm, Torn told me he heard the Genoshians talking about using an instrument called a ‘Memory Thief’ on Bound.”

  “Yes, and?” Kat asked pointedly. “What is it? What does it do?”

  “Its filaments penetrate the skull and target the temporal lobes where much of a person’s long-term memories are stored, yes they are, yes they are! The filaments literally suck away the past thoughts and experiences, leaving the person what you humans call a ‘blank slate.’”

  “Can’t…can’t anything be done at all?” Lorelei felt the tears rising in her eyes and blinked hard, trying to keep them back.

  “I’m afraid not.” Yipper’s big brown eyes looked so mournful she was certain the little surgeon was about to start crying himself. It was clear he wanted to help and the fact that he couldn’t was nearly killing him. “His past is lost and I cannot bring it back. No I can’t, no I can’t.”

  He bowed his head, his long furry ears flopping forward to cover his eyes and a low, mournful howl came from his muzzle-like mouth.

  “Oh Yipper, please don’t cry!” Kat said hurriedly. “Oh dear, he feels so bad if he can’t help.”

  “I know how he feels,” Lorelei murmured. Her own eyes were streaming by this time and she felt bad enough to throw back her own head and howl like Yipper.

  Poor Bound, without any memory of his past or the people he loved. And poor Torn—he had only just come back from a traumatic incident and now his brother—the person he was closest to in the world—couldn’t remember him.

  And he won’t remember you either, whispered a little voice in her brain. Won’t remember that he loved you…or that you love him and Torn…

  Wait…she loved them? With a fresh sob, Lorelei realized it was true. Though she had known Bound such a short time—and Torn even shorter—being with the twin warriors just felt right. She was certain she would have been eating the bonding fruit Kat had left in her guest suite as a welcome home present and waiting eagerly to feel its effects if they hadn’t been attacked on their way home.

  Why did this happen to us, just when we found each other? she thought, despair filling her like dark, cloudy water. What’s the point of the three of us falling in love if we can’t be together?

  “Do not despair, my daughter.” The soft voice filled her head and, at the same time, a warm presence seemed to fill the cold waiting room outside Yipper’s surgical suite.

  “What?” Lorelei gasped, looking around before she could stop herself.

  “What…what?” Kat asked her. Then she frowned. “Do you feel that?”

  “The Mother of All Life.” Yipper raised his head, his big brown eyes wide and attentive. “Who is she speaking to?”

  “She? You mean…you feel it too?” Lorelei looked at the other two in disbelief.

  “Not it, doll—her.” Kat spoke in hushed, reverent tones. She looked at Lorelei. “Is she speaking to you?”

  “I…I keep hearing a voice giving me advice,” Lorelei admitted in a small voice. “I…thought I was just under stress. But now I wonder if I’m going crazy.”

  “You’re not going crazy—you’ve been visited by the Goddess, yes you have, yes you have!” Yipper nodded his head so vigorously his long ears flopped. “You must listen and do as she says.”

  “But…but I don’t believe in any Gods or Goddesses,” Lorelei protested. “I’m an atheist.”

  “It doesn’t matter if you believe in the Goddess, doll,” Kat told her, smiling a little. “She clearly believes in you. And if she’s giving you advice, you’d better listen.”

  “Do not despair,” the warm, feminine voice spoke again in Lorelei’s head. “All things happen for a purpose. Remember, you are the bridge that spans the distance.”

  Then the voice and the presence were abruptly gone—vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.

  “Well?”

  Lorelei glanced up to see that Kat was looking at her expectantly.

  “Well, what?” she asked, still feeling kind of stunned.

  “What did she say? What did she tell you to do?” Kat asked excitedly.

  “She…she just said for me not to despair.” Lorelei felt strangely reluctant to share the last part of what the voice had said.

  Also, she was still feeling stunned. For so many years she’d believed she was alone in the universe—that there was no creator, benevolent or otherwise, running things behind the scenes. To realize suddenly that the supernatural was real blew her mind and opened a whole host of other possibilities. Questions like “what happens after we die?” were suddenly relevant again. She felt like her head was spinning.

  I guess I’m not an atheist anymore—I can’t be. But then…what am I? And what’s go