Divided Read online

  Becca pushed it aside with some difficulty, telling herself she could think about it later. She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes with a corner of the silver heat blanket.

  “Now tell me what happened,” she demanded. “How could I have seen you get stabbed in the heart and yet you’re still alive?”

  “Twin Kindred have self-sealing organs,” Truth explained. “It makes us very hard to kill.”

  “Self-sealing…what does that mean?” Becca asked.

  “They knit together automatically. Any time there is any kind of puncture or injury, a Twin Kindred’s organs immediately begin to repair themselves. It takes a while and a serious wound can incapacitate them for a time but they will heal eventually,” Garron explained. He smiled wryly. “I found that out the hard way, didn’t I, Brother?”

  “You surely did.” Truth smiled back. “We were playing with sharpened stakes—pretending they were ghats—one day when we were children. Garron got a little excited and actually ran me through.”

  “I thought Ama would die of fright,” Garron said. “And I was certain you were dead—you lay so still.”

  “It hurt a hell of a lot,” Truth said. “With a life threatening injury, the body shuts down temporarily as mine did tonight—it aids the healing process.”

  “So that’s what you were talking about before you fought the Y’grin? The fight you had when you were kids?” Becca looked from one to the other.

  Truth nodded and Garron said,

  “I am sorry we couldn’t be more forthcoming with you, Becca. But if the Rai’ku had learned what we were planning…”

  “They would have killed us all and eaten us,” Truth finished grimly.

  “Ugh!” Becca gave a shiver of involuntary disgust. “How could they?”

  “It’s the dr’gin within them—it craves flesh,” Garron said quietly.

  “I still don’t understand.” Becca shook her head. “Why couldn’t I at least feel you through our bond? I understand about Far—he was out for the count because of the poison. But you…you could have at least sent me some kind of feeling or something. Seeing you…thinking you were…were dead was horrible. Just like Kenneth all over again but ten times worse!”

  “I am truly sorry, Rebecca,” Truth said earnestly. “But as I said, my body shut down for a while. I was joking with Garron earlier but I really do think he might have nicked my heart—I was unconscious while my body made repairs so I was unable to send you anything.”

  “All right.” Becca nodded slowly. “But what about the Rai’ku? Wouldn’t they know you could survive being impaled? I mean, if it happened before, back when you were a kid?”

  The dark twin shook his head. “Our ama hushed it up. Other than my apa—my father—I was the only full blooded Twin Kindred on Pax. It was just another way I was different and she didn’t want me to be different.”

  “Plus, nothing says bad parenting like letting one of your children impale another,” Far murmured. “I’m certain she wasn’t eager for anyone to know of what happened for any reason.”

  “You’re probably right,” Garron said. “Ama always was very concerned about appearances. She…hid many things.” His turquoise eyes darkened and Becca guessed he was thinking of Feels Pain and the abuse they had been subjected to as children.

  Truth must have sensed the same thing.

  “That is over now, Brother,” he said gently, reaching up to put a hand on Garron’s arm. “You need never think of it again now that you are leaving Pax behind.”

  “Have we left, then?” Becca looked at them, bewildered. “But…what about the cache? What about finding the truthonium amulet thingy to heal the unmated males?”

  “Oh, we have that. Do you wish to see it?” Garron asked eagerly. He was up and out of the room before she could answer. He reappeared carrying a dull metal box about the size of a small footlocker. “Behold….” He opened it with a flourish and held it out for Becca to see.

  “Ohhhhh,” she breathed. Lying in the center of the box, on a thick layer of some black, velvety material, was the most amazing piece of jewelry she had ever seen.

  It was hanging on a plain red cord that had nearly rotted away—no surprise since it had been buried for two thousand years, Becca thought. But the amulet itself was perfectly intact. It was made of a gleaming, opalescent metal that made even the brightest diamonds or the most highly burnished platinum seem dull in comparison.

  “It’s beautiful,” Becca whispered at last. “But…what shape is it?” Because though she stared and stared, she couldn’t be sure what the amulet was supposed to be. At first it had looked like a heart, then a star, then a perfect spiral which seemed to circle in on itself forever. Trying to decipher it was beginning to give her a headache and yet she found she couldn’t look away.

  “We’re not sure,” Garron said. “It seems to change.”

  “But how…how did you get it?” Becca felt hypnotized, almost drugged by the beautiful alien thing.

  “I found the coordinates in Truth’s handheld device,” Garron explained. “And since we had to wait a little while for the antidote to take hold in Far’s system, I got the Kindred warriors who brought the three of you to my lodge to help me dig. We found it very quickly—I don’t know where you got your new coordinates but they were extremely accurate.”

  What we did to get the coordinates…Becca remembered the way she had pleasured both men at once and felt a rush of shame. What we did…what I should never have done…

  “You took a grave risk, not leaving at once,” Truth said, breaking into her guilty thoughts. “The Rai’ku could have come back at any time.”

  “I know, but I was certain we would never get a chance to dig among the elder trees again,” Garron said. “I did the best I could while the three of you were all unconscious for one reason or another.”

  “You did very well,” Far assured him. Becca thought his voice sounded strained and she wanted to look up and see if the light twin was well. But she still couldn’t drag her eyes from the glowing, shifting pendant in the box.

  “Can you…touch it?” she asked. “I mean, is it dangerous?”

  “It’s not radioactive, if that’s what you’re asking,” Truth said. “But I don’t recommend touchi—”

  Before he could finish, Becca reached out a hand and lightly stroked the strange, shifting metal with one fingertip.

  Suddenly Mother Superior was standing right in front of her.

  Mother of God! Becca nearly choked with surprise. She looked around to see if the twins or Garron could see Mother Superior but they seemed to be frozen somehow.

  “Don’t bother—they can’t see me. I’m just here for you.”

  “What…what do you want?” Becca whispered.

  “I think you know what I want.” Mother Superior fixed her with a cold look.

  “No, I—”

  “Very well, I will show you.”

  Immediately she was flooded with the memories and emotions of the past several hours. It was as though someone was replaying her life, but not from her perspective—it was as though she was an outside observer, watching everything that had transpired in the recent past.

  She saw the way she and Truth and Far had touched each other, the way she had brought them both to the edge and made them come with her hands and mouth. The way she had given herself to them and offered to give more…to give them everything and bond with them completely.

  Watching the brazen way she’d touched them—and knowing that Mother Superior was watching too—made Becca blush miserably with shame. Just look at the way I’m acting—at the things we’re doing. Two guys and one girl in a fur bikini—it’s like the premise of a really bad porno movie. How could I?

  After showing every excruciating detail, the memory rushed on to show the Rai’ku mob breaking down the door to attack and abduct them.

  Becca winced as she saw herself taken from the lodge and flown on the back of a dr’gin to the Ancient’s clearing. Even wor