Dee's Hard Limits (12 page)

Dee’s skin was now gray, devoid of the blood it needed. Talhrn, Marquis and Todd removed the tubes from her body, her lifeless form still. “Maya, are you ready?” Talhrn asked, looking over at her sitting in a chair with the IV hooked up to her arm connected to their woman.

“Let’s do this. I want to hold my daughter again.” Maya snarled as he opened the line, her precious blood flowing into Dee. One quart from her, one quart from Akaos, and the rest would be from them.

For over an hour, Talhrn, Marquis and Todd rubbed every inch of Dee’s skin, working the blood back into her system. Akaos nodded as he disconnected his IV. “We’ll be in the other room waiting.” He led Maya out of the room as he lifted his woman into his arms, taking her to their bedroom where she would feel more comfortable when waking.

Sitting in the middle of the bed, Talhrn cradled Dee in his arms as Marquis and Todd sat next to him. “It’s time to come back, Little Kitten. Take me into you, my pet.” They each placed a hand on to her chest, releasing her spirit that they had kept safe back into her body.

With nothing on except his
styes,
or what humans would call leather pants, Talhrn opened a small line across his chest. “Come on, Little Kitten, you have to feed.”

He held her tight against his chest and waited. At first he thought they’d lost her. Her heart didn’t beat and her body was lifeless, but in a matter of seconds she gasped and cried out at the same time before sinking her fangs into him.

“That’s it my pet, drink.” He looked at Marquis and saw the tears in his eyes. Turning, he knew, Todd’s expression would be the same. They had their
meru
back with them. Talhrn ran his hand down her body watching as the color slowly came back into her skin. Organs started to work again, healing from the poison. She would still be in pain on and off during the night, while her body expelled the last of the poison from inside her. There would be no human for her tonight or for the next two days. Her body would need to rebuild its strength and replace all that she had lost. Their bonding night would also have to wait.

“Talhrn, what happened?” Her voice smoothed the monster inside him.

“Someone programed our Neptune to poison you when you ordered food. I’m sorry, Little Kitten, I have no idea how, why or who yet, but we will know soon.” She closed the holes in his chest and looked up at him, still weak and barely able to lift her head.

“Thank you,” she whispered as he placed her into Marquis’ arms.

“There is nothing to thank me for. I love you, Little Kitten, we all do,” Marquis said and kissed her lips.

“Feed.” He guided her head to his chest and closed his eyes when she sank her teeth into him.

“My brother will be here soon. I thought we could speak with him while Maya and Akaos visit and tell her what he is to her now”

Careful not to jar the bed, Talhrn climbed off the bed and stretched. He needed to clean up, get the smell of death off of him. Candles that smelled like roses were lit around the room. Tomorrow, when all the poison had been drained from her body, they would let her soak in the pool, but for now he cleaned her once more with his thoughts, replacing the blanket around her with a new one.

Once more, Dee sealed the holes and turned to look at him. Her eyes got big when she looked upon his chest. He smiled and nodded. “It seems Cedarclaw has agreed to allow you to see him.” The marking of his animal host—purple, black, red, green—moved around his skin. “You carry a part of him inside you now, Little Kitten.”

She smiled. “I’m honored.” Her eyes were already closing, she was so tired.

Reaching over, Todd took her into his arms. “I know you want to sleep, but you have to finish feeding first. Your mother and her mates are here as well. They need to speak with you for just a few minutes. Then you can sleep.” Todd encouraged her to draw him into her as Marquis got up and stared at him.

“You need, come.” Marquis left the room and he shook his head.

Yes, it was time to release some of this anger and his
weru
needed to as well.

Every inch of her ached and she stunk. Dee didn’t know how her men could hold her as this black gunk came out of every pore in her skin. She would kill the asshole who did this to her, but was it possible her father could have done this? She looked up at Todd as he held her to him, brushing her nasty hair away from her face.

“You will not be killing anyone. We will, and no, it wasn’t your father. It had to be someone here on our planet who knew how to work our system, but don’t worry, he will be found.” Todd kissed her head.

Feeling a little better, Dee lifted her head and frowned at him, as the puncture holes closed. “How can you touch me? I smell, and I am all nasty. This stuff is like cow crap, yuck.”

“And how would you know what cow crap is?” Her mother said from the edge of the bed.

“I’ll let you three talk, we’ll be right back and Dee...” he lifted her chin up and stared into her eyes. “No matter what you smell like, I would always hold and kiss you if I’m able. I love you.” Before he left he changed the bed again and cleaned her body without a thought, earning a moan out of her.

“Thank you. At least for a few minutes, I’ll be clean.” Dee tried to sit up, but couldn’t pull her body up.

“Will you wait? I’ll do that for you. You are not to move an inch. Your body needs to rebuild itself and it’s going to take a few days to do that,” Todd reprimanded her as he picked her up and arranged her on the bed so she was leaning against the wall.

“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure she doesn’t do anything but listen,” Akaos stated, moving to one side of the bed while her mother took the other. Warden and Tesuss each sat at the end of the bed, while Todd headed to the door.

“I have to talk with someone and then we’ll all be back here to tuck you in for the night,” Todd explained. He looked over his shoulder adn winked at her, and then left.

Taking her hand into hers, Maya leaned over and kissed her daughter’s cheek. “All the girls are thinking about you. You scared the living crap out of us, Dee. Don’t do that again,” her mother said, squeezing her hand. “We have some news for you and I hope you like it. I let Akaos explain it since I don’t understand it much.”

She turned to look at the man her mother counted on for everything now. He smiled at her. “The poison that you ingested destroyed your blood. Talhrn and your men had to literally drain every drop of your blood from your body. In doing this, they kept you alive, holding you inside them. This gunk and the smelly stuff is the rest of the poison being pushed out of your body through your organs, but that’s not all. With the draining of your blood, we replaced it. You no longer carry your Koti’s blood in your veins, but you needed a male’s blood that was still part of you to ingest, to heal,” Akaos explained.

All of a sudden the light went on.

“Wait, you mean he won’t be able to get into my head anymore? That I’m free of him?” She looked to her mom, who smiled and nodded.

“That man is not your father anymore. You are Akaos’ child now. Once you fed from me and him, you became his daughter.” Her mother smiled.

Akoas didn’t say anything. He just waited for her as he held her gaze.

“Thank you, but why would you do this?”

“You already carried part of me inside of you. If you remember, I brought him over. How could I not do it? You are just as much a part of me as your mother is. Don’t you think Talhrn, Marquis and Todd would take Hope into their arms as theirs? You are part of Maya and now you are part of us too.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek, then whispered in her ear, but she knew everyone heard.

“Now I really have the right to spank your butt since you’re my daughter.”

For the first time in her life, Dee felt whole. The monster was gone. Well, not gone, but Dee was free from his hold over her. With all the strength she could muster up, Dee threw herself into Akaos’ arms and cried. Deep sobs racked her body as another set of small convulsions ran through her. “Thank...you...”

She heard the trampling of their feet and yelling before Dee actually saw them. The three men came tearing into the room, ready to kill whatever threatened her. Knives were drawn, and if Dee wasn’t crazy, she could have sworn she saw a small bit of fire come out of Talhrn’s mouth.

“What’s wrong? Why did she scream?” Talhrn demanded and Tesuss laughed, standing.

“Nothing’s wrong, old one. Your woman was just expressing her happiness over the news.” Tesuss nodded to her as she lifted her head and stared at Talhrn.

“I’m free...” Too tired to hold her head up anymore, she placed it back into Akaos’ lap. She was safe, surrounded by her family, and her eyes closed. Never would she have to worry about Koti’s sick midnight visits, his sharing of the killings he did. Dee held onto Akaos, the tears falling.

He held her and stroked her back. “He will not invade your head anymore. Daughter, you are safe.”

With gentle hands, Talhrn lifted her up and out of Akaos’ arms. Her head fell back, totally exhausted. “I’ve got you. Let’s go soak in some nice warm water.” He carried her out of the room, but not before Akaos leaned down and kissed her head.

“You can contact me anytime now. I will always know where you are. We’ll see you tomorrow at your party,” he said and gathered her mother up in his arms, disappearing from the room.

The sound of water running had her opening her eyes and staring at the largest tub/small pool she’d ever seen. The water ran into the pool from the wall of rocks in front of them. Steam rose up around the waterfall creating a beautiful scene. She moaned as Talhrn stepped into the water and lowered her into the warm wetness. “I’ve gone to heaven,” she groaned, just letting the water wash over her.

“Just to let you know, I think this is going to be one of my favorite rooms. I might end up being a wrinkled prune, but, hey, I’ll never complain,” Dee said, allowing her men to take care of her. “When will this stuff quit coming out of me?”

The soapy cloth in Todd’s hand smelled of sandalwood as he took one arm and cleaned her, while Marquis did the other. “It all depends on how much you ingested and your how your body re-acts. I have a feeling your food was covered in it with the reaction you got and it’s affecting you so quickly. So I’m afraid you’re going to be suffering most of the night, Little Kitten, but we’ll make sure you’re kept clean and warm.”

“Did you find out anything from your source?” she asked, floating on top of the water. Talhrn stood, ready to grab her as Marquis took a leg and Todd took the other one, cleaning every inch of her body.

“No, nothing yet, but don’t worry about this.” Talhrn almost snarled, but stopped himself.

Opening her eyes, she looked up into his face. The tension was etched all across his brow and his shoulders. “You know we do owe this person a little gratitude. I mean he did help me get rid of Koti for good.” She tried to tease, but angry shouts from the three of them echoed off the stone walls.

***

They did not see it that way. All three of them were ready to pounce on anything or anybody who came into that room. Talhrn said nothing as he tried to cool the murderous rage inside him. It was a good thing his woman was floating, because right now the claws from Cedarclaw would have pierced her delicate skin.

“We could have lost you for good! This person will die, make no mistake, Little Kitten. Whatever good that did come out of this was not the person’s intention. They wanted you dead before we were fully bonded to you,” Talhrn’s voice was deeper, part him and part Cedarclaw.

She smiled. “Flames just came out of your mouth! That is so cool.”

He looked at Marquis and snorted. “Only our Little Kitten could cool the beast.”

“You, my pet, are a menace.” He dipped his head down and nipped her nose.

“Hey, I have to keep you on your toes. Don’t want you to get bored of me.” She frowned. “You can’t get rid of me or divorce me, can you? I didn’t mean to bring so much trouble, really.”

Her insecurities rose to the surface fast. Where she was smiling one minute, Dee now had tears running down her cheeks and struggled to stand but couldn’t.

Her legs gave out as she tried to stand and he quickly grabbed her before she swallowed some of the dirty water. Marquis changed the filthy water with clean before she ended up drinking it.

“I don’t want to even hear those words come out of your mouth. Once our bond is complete, we are committed to you for life. It’s already too late for us. I do not want another female. At least you have some training, and with a little more, you’ll be a perfect pet. Plus, our hearts are bound to you.” He carried her out of the tub, drying her instantly before heading to their bedroom.

“It’s time for you to sleep, Little Kitten. I love you, never doubt that.” Lowering her onto the bed, he tucked the covers all around her. “Now stop the crying and rest. We’ll be in the other room talking with family. No one can enter this room, so you are safe.”

He brushed his lips with hers, wanting to let go and claim her, but now they would have to wait at least two more days before their
meru
was ready for them physically.

She mumbled as he pulled away from her. “Could be a woman, not a man.” He frowned and moved out of the bedroom as Todd and Marquis followed.

“Why would she think it’s a female? There are so few here on the planet and to think one of them would even harm another makes no sense.”

He moved into the kitchen to see Marquis’ brother taking apart the Neptune model in front of him. “I’m putting this back together. Whoever did this got access through the main frame. There has been no tampering here,” Banecaster announced as they gathered around him. He set the one piece down on the table and looked at him.

“There are a total of five of us that work with the main frame. No others are supposed to be in the room, let alone touch the equipment. And before you ask, I’ve already arranged for you to meet with each one of them tonight. They’ll be at the Commons in an hour.”

“Why an hour? I want this done now.” Talhrn wanted the person responsible gone. The longer he was free, who knows what kind of threat he could come up with next?