Severed Read online

  “Do you remember?” Leah asked, looking at me anxiously.

  “I tried,” I said, pushing my hair out of my face weakly. “I almost can but it hurts my head to try. Who are they, anyway? And what do they have to do with me?”

  “Well…” She hesitated. “How good are you at believing impossible things?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Try me.”

  “All right. Leah took a deep breath. “Here goes…

  * * * * *

  “So…I got sucked up into an alien spacecraft and went on a bunch of adventures with two alien guys who wanted me to help break their psychic bond?” I said, when she was finally finished. “And instead I ended up bonding with them…only the bond got broken anyway and that’s why I can’t get rid of this horrible headache?” I narrowed my eyes at her Are you for real, Leah or am I having another weird dream?”

  “I’m telling you the truth,” she said earnestly. “And the reason I’m telling you is, well…we think the only way to ease the pain you’re in is to let your guys come see you again.”

  “What like…bring them through the mirror the way you came?” I still couldn’t believe I was saying all this. And yet, her words to me did seem to stir something inside me. Some strange memory that kept getting hidden by the fog every time I tried to grab hold of it.

  “Exactly.” Leah looked at me earnestly. “Will you let them try? They feel horrible for what happened to you. And…Rylee, I think they both still love you.”

  “Love me?” I shook my head, making it throb again. “I don’t know, Leah—this is too weird.”

  “Please just give it a shot,” she begged. “I want you to be okay, Rylee. Because part of this is my fault too. I’m the reason you’re a La-ti-zal in the first place, which makes you stand out on the AMI database.”

  “Okay, I still am not understanding half of what you’re saying,” I groaned. “But at this point I’ll try anything to get rid of this pain. It’s awful.”

  “So I can send them down?” she asked cautiously. “And you promise you won’t freak out?”

  “I’ll try not to,” I said. “As long as they don’t try anything, uh, funny.”

  “They just want to hold you,” she assured me anxiously. “They just want to take away your pain.”

  “Well…” I sighed. “What have I got to lose? Okay, sure I guess. Bring ‘em down.”

  “I’ll send them in a minute,” she promised. Leaning down, she kissed me on the cheek. “Get better, Rylee. Zoe is dying to see you again and my other friend, Charlotte wants to meet you too. She said to tell you she’s got a spot all picked out for you in her court if you want it.”

  “A spot in her court?” I looked at her uncertainly. “What does that mean?”

  “Well, Charlotte used to be a medical intern but now she’s the new Goddess-Empress of the galaxy,” Leah explained. “She—well look, it’s another really long story. The main thing is, everything is going to be okay.”

  “Okay, sure.” I shrugged. “Thanks, Leah.”

  “I’ll see you in a little while,” she promised, rising from the bed. “I’ll go send Drace and Lucian down first.”

  Then she disappeared into my bathroom where she’d come from and the door clicked shut behind her.

  I stared at the door for a long moment, trying to decide if I’d imagined the whole thing or not. I must be dreaming, I told myself. Aliens and bonding and spaceships and psychic pain and the Empress of the galaxy…that can’t be real, right?

  I had just about decided I was in so much pain that I was having hallucinations and I had better call my Aunt Celia to take me to the hospital after all, when the bathroom door opened again.

  This time two huge, muscular men, both around seven feet tall, shuffled into my room. They wore remorseful expressions on their faces and tiny white towels—my towels I realized—tied around their waists.

  “Oh shit,” I whispered as I stared at them. It wasn’t a dream!”

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Rylee

  “No, ma 'frela, it was no dream,” the one with olive green skin murmured. He had thick black hair and a deep, smooth voice that seemed to go right through me.

  “Are you okay, baby?” the other one, who had blue skin rumbled. “We’re so fucking sorry you’re sick.”

  “We want to help you feel better,” the other one said.

  “Wait…” I half sat up, despite the throbbing in my head, and pointed at them. “You’re…Drace and…you’re Lucian. Right?”

  “She remembers!” Drace looked at Lucian with a grin. “I can’t believe—she remembers!”

  “No, I don’t remember you two,” I said sharply, cutting him off. “It’s just that my friend Leah was here and she told me your names. She—ahhh!”

  My last words ended in a groan because the pain in my head, which had receded just a little while Leah had been with me, had abruptly come back with a vengeance. I felt like someone was stabbing rusty iron spikes in both eyes and scraping the back of my skull just for fun.

  “Ma 'frela!” Lucian was suddenly on the bed beside me, on my right.

  “Baby, are you okay?” Drace demanded, insinuating himself between me and the wall on my left side. My little bed—which was only a full sized one—was suddenly crammed full of big, muscular, alien bodies and I didn’t know what to think.

  “Hey, wait a minute—I don’t even know you guys,” I said—or wanted to say. What came out was just another groan—I was literally too weak and in too much pain to do anything to stop them. Even though I was only wearing a thin oversized t-shirt and a tiny pair of white panties and I knew this level of intimacy with strangers was totally indecent, I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

  Big hands stroked over my forehead, my throat and shoulder and arms…sliding down my back in long, soothing strokes, touching my thighs. And all the while they were whispering to me, telling me how sorry they were, how much they loved and adored me, how they wanted to make me feel better…to feel good.

  “Hey,” I protested weakly. “You can’t…I’m only wearing a nightshirt. I mean…” But I stopped in mid protest. As strange and frightening as it was to suddenly have two guys who seemed to be complete strangers in my bed, I realized that when they touched me, the awful, throbbing pain in my head faded. Or started to fade, anyway.

  “Ma 'frela,” Lucian murmured, kissing my forehead gently. “How we have missed you! Missed holding you between us and caressing you like this.”

  “Did you?” I whispered, wide-eyed in the semi-gloom of my dim bedroom. “Did you guys really, uh, have me between you a lot?” As the pain faded, a different sensation was taking its place. A kind of need…a hunger that I didn’t quite understand was growing in me.

  “All the time, baby,” Drace rasped in my ear. “Wish you could remember. Lucian and I loved holding you between us.”

  “But…” I cleared my throat. “I’m guessing that, uh, holding wasn’t the only thing going on, was it?”

  “No,” Lucian murmured, looking into my eyes. “How do you feel about that?”

  “I…I’m not sure,” I whispered. “I mean, I don’t even know you two.”

  But though my mind didn’t know them, my body was no stranger to theirs. As they held me between them, the pain faded farther and farther into the distance and a warm tingling took its place. I felt surrounded by them, enveloped completely by their big bodies. And there was something else that was familiar—their scents. They filled my senses—a cool, crisp ocean aroma from Lucian and a dark, spicy musk from Drace. Both were equally delicious but when they mixed together, they made the hunger inside me grow.

  “You do know us,” Drace murmured from behind me. “You just don’t remember. Gods, I wish we could find a way to bring your memory back.”

  “Unfortunately there is no way to reverse a mind-wipe.” Lucian sounded regretful. “Unless…no, never mind.”

  “What?” I asked, looking at him. “What were you going to say? Say it