Pursued Read online

  “I don’t know.” Elise looked down at her hands. “I don’t think so…but what else can I do?”

  “Stay with me,” Merrick said. “We can go wherever you want. I don’t care as long as we’re together.”

  “Even without the bond?”

  “Even without the bond.” He stroked a strand of hair out of her eyes. “You know it’s not all about that. Even when we dissolve it, I know I’ll still feel for you, baby. Still want you.”

  Elise bit her lip. “I feel the same way,” she admitted. “I have for awhile, but I’ve been too afraid to tell you. But Merrick…I don’t think I can.”

  “Why not?” He frowned at her. “Look, if it’s because you don’t want to leave your career, I’m okay with that. I’ll come down to Earth with you. Now that the Scourge threat is lifted, the Council has approved cohabitation of Kindred and their brides on Earth.”

  “It’s not that.” Elise looked down at her hands. “What we just did was wonderful, but I don’t know…don’t know if I could ever go farther. If I could ever do more.” She sighed. “I think I was able to go so far because letting you, um, taste me, wasn’t…didn’t trigger anything from my past. But doing anything else…well, I just don’t know.” She looked up at Merrick. “Do you understand? It wouldn’t be fair to you to ask you to deal with all my crap. You don’t need the baggage I bring.”

  Merrick sighed and she felt his frustration, surging through their bond. “Yes, I do! If it’s yours, if it comes with you, I want it. Don’t you understand, baby? I want all of you. The good and the bad.”

  “That’s very kind of you to say, but I don’t know how you’d feel if you knew…” Elise broke off, shaking her head.

  “If I knew what?” Merrick sat up abruptly and faced her. “Maybe if you’d tell me, if you’d just talk about it, there wouldn’t be so Goddess-damned much ‘baggage’ to deal with.”

  Elise felt cold all over. “I thought you said you’d never ask me to remember pain I wanted to forget.”

  Merrick pinched the bridge of his nose as though trying to drive back a headache. “I know, baby, and I don’t want you to have to remember something that brings you so much pain. But sometimes the only way to get over something is to go through it. If you could just trust me—”

  “I do trust you,” Elise whispered, taking his hand. “As much as I can trust anyone. And I want to stay with you, Merrick. I’m just not sure if I should.”

  “Well, I’m sure.” He raised her hand to his lips and placed a sweet, hot kiss on her palm. “Damn sure. You belong with me and you know it. Now come on, say we’ll stay together.”

  Elise bit her lip. Her heart wanted what Merrick was offering so badly she could nearly taste it. But her gut warned that she should be careful, that there were monsters in her past that could drive even a love as strong as Merrick’s away. She sighed. Just once she wanted to listen to her heart. Just once she wanted to give in to emotion and let herself be carried away.

  “Say it,” Merrick urged again, softly. “Let me hear you say it, baby.”

  Elise couldn’t help herself—her heart won out. “All right,” she whispered. “I’ll stay with you. Or you can stay with me if you really think you wouldn’t mind living on Earth.”

  “Baby, I’ll live anywhere as long as you’re there,” he murmured.

  “Oh, Merrick,” she breathed. The sincerity of his love for her came through their bond loud and clear and she couldn’t help wondering what she had done to deserve such devotion. She looked up at him, losing herself in his strange but compelling eyes, letting herself drift forward for a kiss. Merrick pulled her close, his mouth descending to hers and Elise thought her heart would burst when their lips met. “Merrick,” she whispered, pulling away just a little. “I lo—”

  Suddenly the wooden door to the room banged open and Mother Healer appeared in the doorway. “Well,” she said, surveying them coolly. “I see it didn’t take you long to gain your antidote, Kindred.”

  Elise gave a little gasp and scrambled for her robe. “Mother Healer…I…we…”

  “Never mind your fumblings and mumblings,” the old woman snapped. “I don’t care what the two of you do in here as long as it isn’t more blasphemy. But I thought you should know the evening meal is prepared.” She nodded at Merrick. “I’m sure you’re hungry. You can’t live on female life-essence alone.”

  “Wouldn’t mind trying though,” he growled, throwing Elise a look that made her blush.

  “Thank you, Mother-Healer,” she managed, still clutching the robe to her chest. “We…we’ll be out in a minute.”

  The old woman frowned. “See that you don’t take too long, girl-child. The sipva stew will grow cold. And after you eat, the two of you have to start the purification ceremonies.”

  “Purification ceremonies? Why the hell for?” Merrick demanded.

  The old woman raised one snowy white eyebrow. “Why, so you can appear before the Elders and plead your case. This time tomorrow eventide you may be pleading for your very lives—it’s best to be pure in case things don’t go your way and the Elders judge you ready to enter eternity.”

  Then she banged the door shut as suddenly as she had opened it and was gone.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  “Lissa? Lissa, are you all right?”

  Lissa swam upward, slipping the bonds of sleep, which gripped her like cold hands. She groped toward the light and the strangely familiar voice. Someone was calling her name. Someone she cared for very much. At last she opened her eyes.

  “Moch Daer?” she whispered through numb lips. “Saber…is that you?”

  “No, Lissa, it’s just me.” The lady Nadiah pressed her hand gently. “It’s so good to see you awake—you’ve been out for days.”

  “Oh…” Lissa couldn’t control the wave of disappointment that washed over her. So her vision of Saber had been just that—a vision. A mirage brought on by the fierce, unrelenting heat of the desert and her own wishful thinking.

  “Are you all right?” Nadiah looked at her anxiously. “You look so sad.”

  “Forgive me, my lady. I…I thought you were Saber,” Lissa whispered, blinking back tears. “I had a dream of him in the desert. A dream so sweet, so real…but I see now it was only a fantasy concocted in my own addled brain.”

  “It was no dream.” A new voice caused Lissa to whip her head to the left. To her shock, she saw Saber standing there in the flesh, just as she remembered him.

  “Saber?” she whispered. “I must be dreaming again.”

  Nadiah laughed. “It’s not a dream. Saber and his crew are the ones who brought you in.” She winked slyly at Lissa. “He hasn’t left your side for days.”

  “Oh…I…” Lissa shook her head, uncertain of what to say. Clearly the lady Nadiah meant to be encouraging, although it was wrong of her to encourage any sort of romantic gesture between two of the same clan—essentially a brother and sister.

  Saber cleared his throat, looking as uncomfortable as Lissa felt. “I wanted to be certain you were all right, my sister,” he said, speaking formally, as though they were greeting each other back on Tarsia. “It was the least I could do for a member of my clan and family.”

  “Of course, my brother,” Lissa answered numbly. “I thank you for your assistance.”

  Saber nodded gravely. “I was glad to render it.”

  The lady Nadiah looked between the two of them, frowning. “Okaaaay, I’m not exactly certain what’s going on, but I think the two of you should stop acting like strangers. It’s obvious you care about each other, so stop being so stiff and formal.”

  “Forgive me.” Lissa looked down at her hands. “Thank you for saving my life, Saber. How…how did you come to be here on First World, anyway?”

  “I’m here seeking the Councilor's good will and acknowledgement of the Touch Kindred as a people,” he said.

  “And he made a good start, saving our new high priestess from dehydration,” Nadiah said brightly. “Well, L