Changing of the Glads (8 page)

“It is called anger.”

“What?”

Max turned to face her. “That feeling deep inside, it is called anger.  I know it well.  I felt it often when I found out what they did to you.  I feel it more now than ever.  They hurt you, Zalphia.  Kept you from me in more ways than just physically.  If we had not killed Platy back at the arena, I would have been tempted to return and pull her limb from limb.  When I cut that chip out...” He sighed.  “Let us just say that it was almost more than I could bear.  I thought you were lost to me, but I had to try.”

“I’ll be fine.  But, Max.  I don’t know how to deal with everything inside.”

He strode to the bed and brushed the hair from her face.  “Sleep.  It will help you heal.  Let me worry about the rest.”  He laid a hand on her cheek. 

The effect he caused with those few words and his simple touch was all she needed.  Her eyes slid closed, and the strange melody he’d sung before lured her deeper down until she lay in their favorite spot.  His voice became the stream, and his hand the warmth of the sun. 

And she slept.

CHAPTER 8

The velvety inside of the bear hide nestled gently against Zalphia’s skin, and she realized that once again, she lay naked inside it.  The sticky sweat that covered her skin the last couple of times she awoke was gone.  Dampness nestled close to her head.  Yes, her hair, too, had been washed.  Off to her left, a fire burned, shedding light on a framework of sticks close to her feet which held the garments Max fashioned for her.

Max sat on a log, barring the way between her and the warmth of the dancing flames, his attention taken by a small pot sitting amidst the stones at the base of the blaze.  The bubbling mixture sent delicious smells wafting through the air as he stirred it with a stick.  The aroma tantalized her nose and called to her foggy brain.  She marveled that no matter where she awoke to find them, her every need had been tended to.  Without thinking, she sat up. 

The heavy feeling in her head had disappeared, and reaching up, she found the ridge that marked where Max entered to remove the chip had disappeared.  Sliding the bearskin away, she stood, amazed that the world seemed to stay in place.  She leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.  Crisp air filled with the fragrance of pine tickled her nostrils.  Gone was the pain of the chip.  Gone was the rolling of her stomach.  She was reborn, or at least it seemed so.

She blinked several times then looked up.  Stars like a million sparkling grains of sand dotted the inky blackness overhead.  For all the years she’d slept in a Glad cage, she had never seen the sky look so bright.  Even with the mere sliver of the moon, the light across the dirt seemed more luminous than any other night she could remember.

Max must have been very intent on what he was doing, because he hadn’t spoken or acknowledged that she now stood behind him. She cocked her head to one side.  Strange.  He always seemed to know the moment she awoke.

She tiptoed up behind him and threw her arms around his shoulders.

“Oh!”  He dropped the stick he’d been using to mix the contents of the pot and turned.  “You’re awake.  How did I not sense you?”

She shrugged.  “I was just wondering the same thing.”

“I see.”  His lip turned up.  “You have become you again.”

She joined him on the log while he picked up the stick, wiped it off on his covering, and began stirring again.

“What do you mean by that?” she asked.

“That you are you again?”

“Yeah.”

“You see, while your mind was controlled by the chip, your emotions were kept in check.  Therefore, only the practical side of your consciousness was available.  Now you see things as you never saw them before.”  He looked around then glanced up.  “Like... well, like the sky.  Am I right?”

“Exactly.”  She gazed once again at the brilliant specks dotting the sky.  “It’s more beautiful than I’ve ever seen it.”

“But that is just it.  You have never really seen it before.  Or rather, you were not able to react to it before.  I am used to looking for the practical side of you.”  He turned to her, the pot forgotten. 

The sparkle in his eyes sent shivers up her spine.  Even her insides twisted at his visual caress.   

“Now you are impractical, emotional...” He turned back to the pot and cleared his throat.  “Back to my perfect Zalphia.”

She shook her head.  “I’m far from perfect.”

He glanced back at her, his blue eyes a shade darker than they had been just a moment before.  “No.”  He traced the line of her face with the back of his fingers.  “You are exactly as I would have you.”

Inside, her stomach flipped.  A strange feeling in her private parts reacted to the husky tone of his voice and the gentle stroke on her cheek.  She was perfect in his eyes.  Warmth emanated from him like the aroma of the bubbling substance in the pot. 

Her stomach growled.

A quick breath shook his frame, and his eyes opened wide.  He jerked his fingers away and turned back to his pot.   With one hand, he gestured toward the sticks. “Your clothing should be dry.  Please, put them on.”

She studied him for a moment.  Why did the mere touch of his fingers seem to cause everything inside her to quake?  She shook her head, took the clothes from the pole by the fire, and slipped into them then turned to face him.  “Max?”

“What?” he asked, his attention still focused on the pot’s simmering contents.

She placed a hand on the side of his face.  The hairs poked her palm as she turned his head to hers.

He met her gaze.  “You must be hungry.  I bet you do not even remember the last time you ate something, do you?”

She studied his eyes while shaking her head.  “No.  But right now, there’s something else I need... something more than my stomach growling for food.  Tell me what it is that I want.”

He threaded his stick through the handle of the pot and pulled it from the fire then turned to face her.  “What does it feel like?”

“Don’t know how to describe it.”  She sank down beside him on the log.  “When you look at me like that, my stomach forgets about food and flip-flops about like it’s dying.”  She placed a hand on her chest.  “My heart speeds up.” 

“As does mine.”

“And I feel this feeling... down below.”

He took a deep breath and shuddered.  “You desire to be with me.  I, too, feel this.”  He cupped her chin with his hand as he searched her face.  “Do you wish to be mine?”

“What does that mean?  Be yours?”

He took her hands in his.  “It means that you would be my wife, the only person I care to spend the rest of this life with and every life to come.  We would cleave to each other, become one in body, mind, and spirit.  Do you wish for this?”

Her heart raced.  He’d shown her a glimpse of what life would be like with him, and she wanted that more than anything.  The thought of spending an entire lifetime beside him took hold of her and caused her mind to soar.  It floated amidst the sparkling stars and became as light as the brightest one.  She wanted to answer, but the lump in her throat prevented it, so she merely nodded.

“Then we must be joined in the eyes of the Elders, Selestia, and this world.”

“How do we do that?”

“I will show you.”  Max rose, strode over to his pack, and removed the pouch that he repeatedly reached into.  He turned to her.  “Remain here,” he said then walked into the forest. 

As he vanished into the darkness, Zalphia’s heart raced.  Panic made breathing difficult, and her mind screamed at her to jump to her feet and rush after him.  But he had asked her to wait. 

Fighting the urges warring inside, Zalphia pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.   His absence settled around her, adding a chill to the air that even the warmth of the fire couldn’t alleviate.  Moisture brimmed in her eyes, but she tightened the grip around her legs and waited. 

***

Max smiled as he picked his way through the darkness. They were still at least half a day ahead of the trackers.  Should they take the time to become one, completely body and soul?  Was she strong enough?  This was the first time she had stood on her own.  Her brain had healed, but she had eaten very little during her recovery.

None of that mattered.  She wanted to be his. She desired this thing as much as he.  This was what he spent the last eight years dreaming, training, and fighting for.  This would be the night he was again joined with his other half, his Zalphia.  All that was left was to perform the sacred ritual and again become a Selestial pair. 

He paused and searched for the bright star of their home world overhead.  It blended in with the other blinking lights in the distance.  But just to the left of the constellation Sagittarius, he spied it.  Everyone there would tonight witness the ceremony that joined him to Zalphia, and then the two of them would accomplish all they had been sent here to do.  It had been no easy task to feel what she felt for so many years, and yet, since the removal of her chip, he seemed to have lost the ability to slip into her mind.

He rubbed the stubble on his jaw.

It didn’t matter.  She was once again by his side, where she belonged.  It would only be a matter of time before he again was as close to her as they had been before starting their mission on this lower planet.

The mission!
 

What could have happened all those years ago?  Where were their sons, Vitus and Karaticus?  They should have easily changed the path on this planet, but they hadn’t.  On Selestia, Vitus was the third strongest mind.  Only Mantus and, of course, Zalphia could best him.

Zalphia stood at the head of the council, and Max had been lucky enough to have gained her favor.  If Mantus had won her heart... but no... of course he couldn’t.  She sensed something sinister in him.  Zalphia kept the suave and debonair Elder at arm’s length.

Max shook his head, glad that Zalphia picked him all those years ago.  Mantus defying the council and interfering on the lesser planets never made sense to Max or Zalphia.  Mantus could have been equal to Max and Zalphia if he had chosen one of the available women on Selestia.  But when he lost Zalphia to Max, he fell.  Then he was stripped of all his powers.  Zalphia pleaded for mercy for Mantus, but the council inflicted the most severe punishment.

Zalphia, dear sweet, Zalphia.  She always saw the best in people, especially Max.  Without her, he would have been lost.  Then she offered to come down and save this planet.  Afraid of what might happen to him, she didn’t want Max to join her.  No, she didn’t truly need him to turn things around here.  She had powers of persuasion that needed no second mind.  But he had been afraid to let her come alone.

He dreaded to think what would have happened to her if he hadn’t been here.  She would have eventually been killed in the arena.  That was for sure.  But now, now they would combine and save this world.

A smile turned up the corner of his mouth. Zalphia would be his again. He remembered vividly the day she was placed with her adoptive parents.  He’d been nearly seven by then, but the feelings of wonder and happiness brought tears to his eyes.  At the time, he hadn’t understood what it meant, but from that point on it seemed as if he had two minds.  One centered on his father’s farm, and one that experienced things he could not have possibly known about.  Seeing through Zalphia’s eyes brought joy he couldn’t express to his human family.  Then, one day, all of that changed.

The day Zalphia was dragged from her mother and placed in the Glad training center loomed dark and dismal.  Zalphia no longer possessed her childish wonderment.  Now replaced by sadness, she soon disappeared entirely.

At age fifteen, the emptiness and loss consumed him.  Anger burned in the pit of his stomach, and he lashed out at those around him, pushing his anger and unhappiness into random minds and causing much strife in the small village where he’d been raised.  He even used his powers to force his older brother to do all his chores.  His human father was caring and supportive.  But he, too, eventually felt Max’s mind inside his own and recognized what his son truly was. 

The day Max turned sixteen his father marched him the two miles to the church and turned him over to the priest.  That was the day Simeon came into his life.

This Elder from Selestia sat Max down and explained that using his mind in the way he had been was wrong.  From that time on, Simeon spent two or three hours each and every day teaching Max about where he was from and what he and Zalphia had come to do.  He also helped Max reach out, find the practical side of his future mate, and how he could use his mind powers to sustain her, add power to her own thoughts, and support her through her trials.

Many times Simeon found his pupil reduced to tears, hiding in the straw pile inside the barn, struggling with all that Zalphia was subjected to.  But Simeon taught that even the pain and suffering would be worth it in the end. 

In the third year of Max’s training, he nearly lost Zalphia to the injury which left the deep scar in her abdomen.  The one she had tried to hide from him.  Simeon lent the strength of his own mind to help heal her, but Max was determined to save her before she was killed in the arena. 

Not long after that, his village was overrun by soldiers.  Simeon hid his young charge and used every trick Max had learned to save him from being taken.  When they were again alone, Simeon explained that someone had discovered Max had powers, just as with Zalphia. 

Now was the time for Max’s life to change.  He needed to focus on Zalphia.  Quit using his mind, so no one would sense what he could do.  Max was sent to a Glad training center, and within a year was fighting for his life inside the arena.  Simeon promised long ago that this part would not last long, but it had been eight years since he’d uttered those words.  Eight long years of waiting, suffering, and fighting.  But now, here they were, about to take the next step and save a whole planet from destruction.

Zalphia had suffered so much in her short life.  But now, they were finally together.  He should have known she’d been chipped, but he was so taken with finding her and escaping that it
simply did not cross his mind.  That certainly explained why he’d lost his connection to her all those years ago.  Platy had used every means to destroy Zalphia, as if she had been informed what means would keep him and his mate apart.  But there was no way she could have known that, could she?