Sought...Book 3 in the Brides of the Kindred series (28 page)

“What?” Kat’s heart was suddenly in her
throat. Surely she must have misunderstood the old woman? But from
the grim look on Deep’s face and the concerned look on Lock’s, they
had heard the same thing she had. “But…but I don’t
want
to
live in pain the rest of my life,” she whispered through trembling
lips. “And I don’t want to be dependant on some magical flower in
order to function.”

Mother L’rin rose and poked her hard in the
sternum. “Then bonded
you must be.
No way to break the soul
bond there is and so—”

“Yes, there is.” Deep stepped forward,
frowning. “There is a way to break the bond between us—one that has
nothing to do with flowers and foolishness.”

“What are you talking about?” Lock said,
frowning. “There’s clearly no way around this—Kat will have to be
fully bonded to us.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Deep’s
bottomless black eyes narrowed to slits. “Yes, you’d
love
it, dear brother. The problem is, that little Kat here, would
not.”
He turned to Kat.
“Would
you?”

Kat’s heart clenched in her chest. “Up until
recently I would have said I absolutely didn’t want to be with the
two of you,” she said quietly. “But—”

“But now you’ve had a change of heart and
you’ve decided you want to be with us forever?” Deep said
sarcastically.

“I didn’t say that,” Kat protested.

“Of course you didn’t. “Because that’s not
what you want.
We’re
not what you want.”

“Deep,” Lock said warningly, stepping toward
his brother.

Kat waved him back. “No, let’s try and talk
this out. Deep,” she said softly, taking a step toward the dark
twin. “Why are you acting this way? After how we talked in the
cave, I thought…”

“I thought a few things myself.” Deep’s hot
glare turned suddenly cool and distant. “All of them wrong. But as
I was saying, there
is
a way to break the soul bond and let
the three of us go back to living our normal lives.”

“Of what do you speak?” Mother L’rin
demanded.

Deep frowned down at her. “The Scourge.
They
developed a way to break bonds between warriors and
their mates. The psychic knife, they called it—a machine they
developed on their home world.”

Lock stared at him, obviously appalled. “You
can’t be serious. That
machine
, as you call it, was a
torture device.”

“Why shouldn’t I be serious?” Deep demanded.
“The breaking of an incomplete bond wouldn’t hurt any of us. I’ll
admit the machine was invented for diabolical purposes, but why
shouldn’t we use it to our advantage?”

“Maybe because it’s on the
Scourge home
world?”
Lock raised an eyebrow at his brother but Deep was not
so easily deterred.

“Please, Brother, their planet is a
deadworld now. Since the last battle of Berrni nothing lives there
and no one goes there—the entire place is abandoned. We could walk
in, break the bond, and fly off-planet and no one would ever be the
wiser.”

“The Goddess would know.” Mother L’rin
rounded on Deep, waving a crooked finger in his face. “Sacrilege
you speak of.”

Deep frowned. “No, what’s
sacrilege
is bonding an unwilling female to you.” He looked at Kat. “Wouldn’t
you agree?”

Kat’s chest was tight but she lifted her
chin and looked him in the eyes. “Yes,” she said, nodding stiffly.
“I would.”

“Good, then it’s settled.” Deep clapped his
hands together once, in a motion of finality. “We’ll go at
once.”

“Not without permission from the Kindred
High Council, we won’t.” Lock glared at his brother. “Or have you
forgotten that it’s a forbidden zone?”

“We’ll find a way around that,” Deep said
casually. “You know Baird has friends on the Council.”

“But what about lady Kat’s pain?” Lock
demanded. “Or don’t you care about that, anymore?”

“Of course I care.” Deep’s voice was
suddenly gruff. He turned to Mother L’rin. “How long will it take
you to brew that potion?”

“No potion will I make for you!” Mother
L’rin threw the bouquet of black and white blossoms on the ground
and trampled them into the dirt with her tiny feet.

“Hey, wait!” Kat protested. “We went to a
lot of trouble to get those! And anyway, I thought they were
sacred!”

“Sacred they are. But better they should be
crushed than used by such as you. Blasphemers!” She spat at Deep’s
booted feet. “If pain your lady has, ease her yourself.” Then she
stalked off into the tall pink and gold grass muttering
angrily.

Kat felt her heart sink. “Wait! Please,
Mother L’rin,” she called and started to go after her.

“She’s just going to tell you that the only
solution is to let Lock and I bond you to us forever,” Deep said.
“Is that really what you want to hear?”

Kat stopped. “No,” she said, giving him a
cool look. “No, most definitely
not.”

“I didn’t think so.” He smiled but it wasn’t
a happy expression. “So it’s settled. We’ll head straight back to
the Mother ship and get permission to go to the Scourge home world
where we can break our annoying little bond. We’ll be free of each
other before you know it.”

“Wonderful,” Kat said flatly. “As easy as
one, two, three.”

“Exactly.” Deep nodded. “And if your pain
comes back, just tell Lock or I. We’ll take care of you.”

“You’re
too
kind,” Kat said, glaring
at him. “But I feel fine—better than fine, actually. Great.
Especially now that I know I’ll be getting away from
you.
”

Turning, she stalked away. Tears were rising
in her eyes again and she didn’t want to cry in front of either of
the brothers. Especially not Deep—the heartless bastard.

“Why did you do that?” Lock’s voice was soft
and desolate. When he looked at Deep, the hurt in his brown eyes
was almost too much to bear. Deep wanted to shield himself against
his brother’s suffering, but he didn’t deserve not to feel it.
Instead of closing himself off, he opened himself to the painful
emotion.

“I did what was best for her,” he said
evenly. “You know that’s true, Lock.”

“No, you did what was best for
you.”
Lock’s pain turned suddenly to rage. He rounded on Deep, his hands
clenched into fists, his eyes blazing. “Because you
always
do what’s best for you. And because you think if you push her away
first, she won’t have a chance to hurt you.”

“She’s had her chance,” Deep said in a low
voice. “Don’t worry about that, Brother.”

“Well, I haven’t had mine!” Lunging forward,
Lock punched him on the jaw.

Deep saw it coming but he didn’t back away
or try to defend himself. He took the punch full on. And the next
and the next, until his face was as bloody and numb as his
heart.

Finally Lock stopped and stood there
panting. His hands hung limply by his sides, the knuckles
blood-spattered and raw. The blows had hurt him as much as Deep—the
echoes of their shared pain, both emotional and physical—flooded
the closed loop between them.

Deep wiped blood from his lower lip and
winced. “Are you finished? Or do you want to hit me some more?” It
was the first time since they were children that Lock had struck
him. He was hurt but not surprised—not really.
I had it
coming.

Lock looked down at his hands, examining his
bloody knuckles with dead eyes. “No…I’m done.”

“Good.” Deep straightened his shoulders and
sighed. “Let me get some gel packs on my face before it swells
while you go find Kat. If we hike fast and the tide is right, we
can be folding space before the sun sets.”

“If we hurry,” Lock repeated dully. “Because
the faster we get back, the faster you can get us separated from
the only woman I’ve ever really loved. The only woman
either one
of us
has ever really loved.”

Deep raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you
forgetting Miranda?”

“We shared a few dreams with her,” Lock said
wearily. “Not our lives—not like Kat.”

“So she doesn’t count because we never
actually got to meet her in person?” Deep demanded.

Lock looked up at him wearily. “What
happened to Miranda was terrible, Brother. It was a grief deeper
than anything I have ever felt—until now.” He sighed. “But Miranda
is gone and Kat…she’s right here. She’s lovely and intelligent and
perfect in every way. So of
course
you have to drive her
away.”

Deep looked his brother in the eyes. “If you
truly love her, then you’ll help me in this. I’m no good for her,
Lock—for any female. I’ll poison her life if we get too close.”

“Just the way you’ve poisoned mine.” Lock
ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “I wish I could
cut the tie between us. Not just between the two of us and
Kat—between you and me. I wish…I wish we weren’t brothers.” He
glared at Deep. “I’d rather be dead than spend one more day as your
twin.”

Despite his outward composure, Deep’s breath
caught in his throat. He knew his brother—Lock never spoke unkindly
and he never lied. If he said a thing, it was true from the bottom
of his heart. “Brother…” he said uncertainly.

“Don’t call me that.” Lock threw him one
last glance over his shoulder before he walked away. “Not
anymore.”

Deep watched him go, his heart aching in his
chest. He was only doing what he had to do, but it still hurt.
It’s for the best though,
he told himself.
For Kat. For
all of us.

But seeing misery in the set of his
brother’s hunched shoulders, and feeling the echo of both his pain
and Kat’s, it was hard to believe.

“So you’re going to the Scourge home world?”
Sophie’s green eyes were as wide as saucers.

“Apparently.” Kat took a scoop of the
ultra-premium vanilla bean ice cream and plopped it unceremoniously
onto the homemade chocolate chip cookie. Then she jammed another
cookie on top and sighed. “If Baird can get us permission from the
council.”

“He got it.” Olivia came into the food prep
area and lifted her nose. “Mmm, you can smell those cookies all the
way down the corridor.”

“Liv! These were supposed to be a surprise,”
Sophie protested. “We’re making you homemade chocolate chip ice
cream sandwiches but we’re not nearly done yet. These have to go
into the freezer for at least an hour before…”

“Before what?” Olivia said, around a
mouthful of cookie and ice cream. Her eyes rolled up in her head
and she moaned, “Soooo good!”

Despite her inner turmoil, Kat couldn’t help
laughing. “I swear, she’s getting worse all the time! Liv, honey, I
don’t want to hurt your feelings but you need to ease up on the
sweets or you and I will be able to swap clothes after the baby is
born.”

“Uh-uh.” Liv shook her head and grabbed a
napkin to wipe her chin. “That’s one of the nice things about
carrying a Kindred baby—you don’t have to worry about weight
gain.”

“You don’t?” Kat frowned. “Who told you
that?”

“Sylvan,” Sophie said promptly. “He says
when an Earth woman is carrying a Kindred fetus, she requires so
many extra calories that she could live on Krispy Kreme donuts and
Godiva truffles and not gain an ounce—the real problem is to keep
yourself from
losing
too much weight.”

“Seriously?” Kat could scarcely believe it.
But it was true that though she ate from morning until night, Liv
didn’t appear to have gained a single pound. Which was really kind
of unfair when you thought about it.

“Uh-huh.” Liv nodded and took another bite
of the drippy ice cream sandwich. “Of course I try to get plenty of
fruits and veggies too. But I’m not holding back on the stuff I
like, either.” She turned to Sophie. “And these are
heavenly.
Thank you so much!”

“Well, you
did
say you were craving
something sweet.” Sophie gave her a one armed hug since she was
holding a dripping ice cream scoop in the other hand.

“When am I not?” Olivia laughed and nodded
at the plate. “Well, go on you two—might as well dig in. I can’t
eat them all but I might be tempted to try if you don’t help
out.”

“Oh, all right.” With a sigh, Sophie put
down her scoop and picked up a sandwich. “But you’re
supposed
to freeze them first.” She looked at Kat. “Have
one. You better get them quick before Baird and Sylvan get
home—Baird has a sweet tooth almost as bad as Liv’s.”

Kat shook her head. “You two go ahead. I’m
not hungry.”

“Oh
no.”
Sophie put down her cookie
at once and gave Kat a worried look. “Are you sick again? Did the
pain come back?”

“And how did it go away in the first place?”
Olivia demanded. “Was it that wise woman they took you to see or
what? Now that you’re home and we’re finally all together again you
have to spill.”

“I’m fine,” Kat told them, more or less
truthfully. “I’m a little weak but there’s no pain.”
Not yet,
anyway.
But she didn’t say that aloud—no point in worrying her
friends when there was nothing they could do about it. “As for how
the pain went away in the first place…well, remember that I told
you Deep did something you’d never guess?”

Liv and Sophie gave each other a look she
couldn’t interpret. “We remember, all right,” Liv said. “But
neither Sophie or I could get anything about it out of Baird of
Sylvan.”

Kat frowned. “Baird and Sylvan? How would
they know?”

“I don’t know but they do—only they won’t
tell us,” Sophie said. “Sylvan said he couldn’t reveal the past of
another warrior or something like that.”

“Baird said the same thing,” Olivia chimed
in.

Kat shook her head. “Well, it’s nice that
they’re so trustworthy, but I really don’t see how either one of
then could know that Deep took my pain.”

“What?” Liv asked just as Sophie said,