Vanished:Brides of the Kindred 21 Read online

  But he’d been down that road and had suffered the pain and loss it brought in the end. Even if they succeeded this time in reaching the end of the loop, he would still lose her, he reminded himself. The past would be changed and the path they had taken to change it would be erased from existence—completely eradicated from everyone’s mind but his own. He had the looper which meant he alone would know what had taken place. To Harper, he would be just another Kindred…another stranger…

  No, it was better not to get involved this time. Better to keep things as impersonal as possible. He might love Harper hopelessly and helplessly with every fiber of his being…but that didn’t mean she had to know it.

  “We need to get to the Thieves' Market,” he told her shortly. “To do that, we’ll need to hire a V-copter to take us.”

  “A V-copter?” she said, frowning. “I thought this was a vehicle restricted planet.”

  “It is—for large vehicles like my ship. “A V-copter is small and maneuverable—a little like a motorcycle on Earth only it’s capable of flight.”

  “A flying motorcycle?” Harper sounded doubtful. “That doesn’t sound very safe. I thought you said the, uh, past was constantly trying to kill us because it resists change?”

  “It is but we’re on a new path now,” Shad told her. “We’ve never been here before. And besides during the last, uh, reset—that’s what I call it when the loop is restarting itself…” He cleared his throat. “During the last reset the Goddess told me to trust more. It’s…one of the reasons I chose to take you here in the first place, rather than trying once more to get your DNA changed in O’ha.”

  “The Goddess? You mean the Kindred Goddess?” Harper frowned. “She, uh, talks to you?”

  “Ever since I was a child,” Shad told her plainly. “She showed me your image before I was even six cycles old.” He looked her in the eyes. “I’ve known for years it was my mission to rescue and protect you, Harper. Almost all my life.”

  “I…” Harper shook her head, clearly uncertain of what to say.

  Shad was used to this response—he had told her in other paths that she had been his mission since childhood. It always took her some time to process the information.

  “Besides,” he said, trying to get back to the subject at hand. “It’s either ride a V-copter or walk. Thieves' Market is about…oh…” He consulted the memories in his head. “Twenty prilecks that way.” He pointed. “That’s about thirty miles or forty-eight kilometers, depending on which Earth measurement you prefer.”

  “Oh…” Harper’s face fell. “Okay. These shoes you gave me are comfortable but they’re not that comfortable.”

  “All right. Come on—I’m going to hail a copter. Just one thing…”

  Harper raised an eyebrow. “Besides riding on a flying motorcycle you mean? Sure, what’s the one more thing?”

  “The Junians who drive these copters are extremely sensitive and easily offended. So watch what you say,” Shad told her.

  She shrugged. “Fine—I won’t say anything.”

  That would probably be for the best since, according to the memories of his fathers, these people were ridiculously easy to offend.

  Shad nodded and started to turn away but she plucked at his arm.

  “Yes?” He turned back.

  “Your…shirt,” she said hesitantly. “It’s pretty much ruined. You ought to take your jacket back—it’s warm enough here that I don’t need it.”

  Shad had to admit she was right. The Controller’s burning, whip-like tongue had almost completely singed away the entire back of his t-shirt. All that was left were ribbons and rags.

  “Fine.” He pulled the shirt over his head, leaving his chest bare for a moment.

  Harper’s eyes widened and she looked away hastily as she shrugged out of the jacket and handed it to him.

  “Is…is your back all right?” she asked, still not looking as he pulled on the old leather jacket. It creaked comfortably as it settled against his bare skin, still warm and with a hint of her sweet fragrance. “I mean, what that bastard did to you—”

  “I’m fine,” Shad said shortly. “It wasn’t pleasant but it’s over now.”

  “Wasn’t pleasant?” She looked at him incredulously. “Shad, that asshole beat—whipped you—because of me.” Her lovely jade green eyes were suspiciously bright and Shad realized she was upset.

  He wasn’t sure what to do—what to say. They were on a new path here—one he’d never taken with her before, despite all the times they had traveled the time-loop together. He had never seen this particular reaction—it was hard to know how to act.

  He shrugged uncomfortably. “One of us had to pay the tax.”

  “It didn’t have to be you,” Harper protested. “You didn’t have to do that. He wouldn’t have hurt me. It would have been disgusting but—”

  “Wouldn’t have hurt you?” Shad glared down at her. “He was planning to penetrate you—to violate you, Harper! I couldn’t let that happen.” Just the thought made him feel murderous with rage.

  “But he nearly killed you!” she exclaimed. “If I’d known how awful it was going to be for you, I never would have let you—”

  “Let me what? Protect your honor? Guard your body with my own?”

  “I…I just…” She fell back uncertainly. “I just don’t want you to get hurt on my account. I’m a grown-ass woman. I can take care of myself.”

  “Clearly not in this case,” Shad snapped.

  Her eyes narrowed.

  “I still don’t understand why you did it. You don’t even—”

  “Don’t even what?” he demanded.

  But Harper looked away.

  “Never mind. Nothing. I guess you think it’s your job or something.”

  Shad shook his head. As many times as he’d traveled the time-loop with her, she was still sometimes a mystery to him.

  Maybe that was why he loved her so much it hurt.

  “Protecting you is more than my job, Harper,” he told her. Leaning down, he allowed himself to touch her sweet, soft skin, lifting her chin so that she looked reluctantly into his eyes. “Protecting you is my reason for being,” he told her. Then he let her go and turned away, unable to stand being so close—close enough to kiss—without leaning down to taste her sweet lips.

  He felt like a male who was thirsting to death pushing aside a glass of cool water but he left her and went to the side of the broad road. It was paved in round, dark green stones as big as his palm and led out of the space port and into the city of Twilah. Shad looked up and down it, searching for a hailing post. After a moment, he saw one—a tall, slender fixture of flexible black metal which looked a little like a flagpole.

  He found the recessed control box and tapped in a code. At once, a line of red and yellow lights flickered to life and ran up the side of the post like a line of ants. When they reached the top, a blazing beacon of red and yellow light came from the very tip of the pole and a high, piercing note began to sound.

  After a moment, a V-copter skimmed over the top of the pole, the driver extinguishing the light and the sound with one booted foot. He sank slowly to the ground, the flashing silver of his copter glowing in the sunlight. The copter had no wheels at all—instead, hover jets which burned with noisy, crackling blue flames kept the vehicle humming just above the surface of the pavement.

  “You looking for a ride, yah?” the driver asked Shad. He was tall and thin with bulging yellow eyes and deep bluish-green skin that exuded a pungent personal odor Shad tried to ignore. It certainly wasn’t very pleasant. “You got credit to pay, yah?”

  “Yah.” Shad nodded. “We have credit. Need to get to Thieves' Market.”

  The driver whistled between his teeth—he only had two—big, tombstone-like slabs which looked ridiculous in his small, pursed mouth.

  “Pretty long trip, yah? Gonna cost you, yah!”

  He named a price and Shad pretended to be shocked. He named a price of his own which the driver clai