Forgotten (4 page)

“
I have to close.” She
sighed and then brightened. “But I have a customer coming back that
I think might really pan out. He’s interested in buying one of the
Rolexes. A Yacht-Master edition I think.”

“
Ooo…” Mimi leaned
forward, her kindly face lighting up with interest. “And how much
do those run?”

“
He’s looking at one in
the 70,000 dollar range.” Kate smiled. “Which means I can finally
pay you all the back rent I owe.”

“
Oh please…” Mimi made a
shooing gesture. “You know I don’t care about that!”

“
Yes, but
I
do,” Kate said
stubbornly. “You’ve been so good to me, taking me home and letting
me stay with you, even after I remembered about my mom’s
house.”

“
I’m glad you decided to
come back to Tampa even after our little road trip.” Mimi smiled.
“The apartment would have felt so lonely without you.”

“
Well, there’s nothing for
me in Mississippi.” Kate smiled back. “And a really good friend
here in Tampa. My
only
friend.”

“
Hey—you’ll meet new
people. If you ever come out of your shell.” Mimi patted her hand
gently. “I wish you could come to Pat’s party tonight. It’s going
to be a hoot.”

“
I bet.” Kate tried to
paste a regretful look on her face but the truth was, she was more
than glad to be missing the party Mimi was talking about. The good
thing about Mimi was, she loved everybody. By the same token, the
bad thing about Mimi was, she loved
everybody.

Pat, who was throwing the party, had been
over to their apartment once before. He was tall, balding,
somewhere in his mid-thirties and seemed to be stuck in perpetual
hippie mode. His entire wardrobe consisted of baggy, torn jeans and
big tie-dyed t-shirts that couldn’t quite hide his hairy gut. He
also had long, dirty fingernails and smoked pot that he grew
himself in his own hydroponic garden. Kate would rather watch paint
dry than go to a party at his house.

“
Pat’s going to be upset
you’re not there,” Mimi remarked, finishing the last of her
noodles. “I think he likes you. Like,
really
likes you?”

“
Oh, really?” Kate tried
to keep her voice neutral but inside she was cringing. Now she
was
doubly
glad
she was working late tonight. Just the thought of Pat pawing at her
with those big, hairy mitts and long, dirty fingernails made her
feel queasy.

“
Really.”
Clearly Mimi wasn’t aware of the reaction she’d
caused by mentioning Pat’s feelings, which was just as
well.

“
You know, Mimi…” Kate
tried to find a nice way to say what had to be said. “When it comes
to Pat, well…I really don’t feel ready to date anybody just
yet.”

“
Oh, of course.” Mimi put
a hand to her mouth. “I’m so sorry, Kate—I swear I won’t say
anything to encourage him. Are you…” Her voice dropped. “Are you
still having those bad dreams?”

Kate took a last sip of her juice, trying to
hide her confusion. She wished she hadn’t told Mimi about the
dreams—the ones where a huge, muscular stranger with burning blue
eyes was stalking her. But she’d apparently been thrashing around
and crying out one night and Mimi had woken her up. The whole bad
dream had come pouring out and now her friend knew everything.

Well, not quite
everything.
She only
knew about the man Kate saw in her dreams. She didn’t know about
the other thing—the
Beast—
as Kate had come to call it.
It was somehow attached to the man but she didn’t know how. It
snarled and snapped at her, its burning, silver eyes narrowed in
menace and its knife-like teeth hungry for her blood.

It’s the Beast you really
have to watch out for,
whispered a little
voice in her head.
The man you could take
down with a couple of well-placed shots. But the Beast…nothing’s
bringing that monster down. Not once it sets its sights on you and
decides you’re dinner. If that happens, you’re toast, Kate—as good
as dead.

“
Sometimes,” she admitted,
feeling a cold chill run down her back at the thought. “But I’ll be
okay. I’m just…not ready to date right now.”

“
Of course not. And you
don’t have to until you’re ready.” Mimi patted her arm
comfortingly.

“
Thanks Mimi. Did I ever
tell you how sweet you are?” Kate grinned at her with genuine
affection. “You’re like my guardian angel, you know that,
girlfriend?”

“
Aww…” Mimi’s narrow
cheeks grew red. “Stop it.”

“
I will not,” Kate said.
“If you hadn’t found me when you did, I—”

Her voice died in her throat and a feeling
of dread clutched at her heart like an icy fist.

“
You what? Kate? Are you
okay?” Mimi looked at her anxiously.

“
I…I just…” Kate couldn’t
form anything coherent to say. Across the busy, crowded food court
a tall figure was standing, watching her. A tall, muscular man with
dark hair and burning blue eyes.

The man from her dreams.

Kate felt like her heart was about to stop.
Cold sweat broke out all over her body and suddenly she couldn’t
get a deep enough breath to fill her lungs, even though she was
gasping for air.

Him—it’s him! He’s coming to get me!

Her hands clenched into trembling fists and
she started to see spots dancing in front of her eyes. God, was she
going to black out?

No, can’t do that! Have to take control.
Have to breathe!

“
Kate? What is it? What
are you staring at?” Mimi looked to see what had put the expression
of horror on her friend’s face. But just as she turned her head,
the tall man, who was head and shoulders above anyone else in the
food court, somehow melted into the crowd and
disappeared.

As soon as he left, Kate’s heart gave a
little skip and started beating normally again. Her breathing
slowed and her tense muscles began to relax.

“
Nothing,” she said in a
voice that trembled only a little. “It’s nothing. For a minute I
thought I saw—”

“
Saw what?” Mimi looked at
her with genuine concern on her long face. “Seriously Kate—what?
You looked white as a sheet. For a minute I thought you were going
to faint or have a panic attack!”

“
It was nothing.” Kate
waved a hand, trying to dismiss the dark figure. “A figment of my
imagination, that’s all.”

“
Well…if you’re sure.”
Mimi was clearly reluctant to let it go.

“
I’m sure,” Kate said
briskly. Standing, she grabbed her empty cup and Mimi’s tray. “Come
on—break’s over. Time to get back to work. I have expensive watches
to sell.”

“
But—”

“
And if I sell that
Yacht-Master, we’ll have our
own
party!” Kate promised recklessly. “It’ll be
amazing.”

“
That sounds like fun.”
Mimi seemed willing to let herself be distracted, at least for now.
Kate breathed a sigh of relief. She dumped their trash in the can
and they chatted lightly about possible party themes as they left
the food court together. Of the tall, dark-haired man with blue
eyes, there was no sign. Kate tried to tell herself he was just a
figment of her imagination, brought on by Mimi’s mention of her
dreams. But he’d seemed so
real
standing there, staring at her.

So real and so very, very dangerous.

Chapter Two

Rone watched her from the
shadows of a nearby shop as she walked down the long, winding mall
hallway. The shop was a purveyor of trendy Earth clothing with dim
lighting and loud music blasting from its darkened interior. The
harsh noise hurt his ears but Rone barely even noticed it. All of
his attention was focused on the petite female with a riot of
coppery curls. That was Kate all right—his sensitive Wulven nose
confirmed what his heart had already known. His breath caught in
his chest—
Lalli! Gods, been looking for
you for so long! Thought I’d lost you forever!

She’d disappeared right under his nose from
the Holy Mountains on Rageron—leaving nothing but the white robe
she’d been wearing. He’d searched everywhere, frantic with fear for
her safety and had run himself ragged, unable to sleep at night as
he imagined horrible things being done to her.

Rone’s mind kept showing him pictures of his
beloved mate being tortured or raped and he couldn’t force the
images away long enough to get a moment’s rest. What right had he
to rest when his mate was missing? Every minute must be spent
searching for her but he had searched entirely in vain, until a
trip back to the Mother Ship and a meeting with Commander Sylvan
had given him a clue of where she might have been taken…

“
So she disappeared and
left behind only the clothing she was wearing?” the Kindred leader
had asked. He was the head of the Kindred Council and a very busy
male but he was sympathetic to Rone’s plight, having apparently
gone through something like it in the past.

“
Yes, there was a strange
humming sound and a flicker of light and then…then she was
just…gone.”
Rone had barely been able to
swallow past the lump in his throat. He hadn’t allowed himself to
weep after Kate disappeared and he wasn’t about to start now. He
had no time for grieving—she was out there somewhere and he had to
find her. Only then could he give in to emotion.

“
The humming sound…the
light flashing…It sounds exactly the way Sophia was taken back
before we were joined,” Commander Sylvan had said,
frowning.

“
Oh?” Rone’s heart had
leaped in his chest. “Are you certain? Do you think what happened
to your mate might have happened to Kate as well?”

“
The circumstances are
similar but I don’t see how,” Sylvan said. “Sophia was taken by the
Scourge using a molecular transfer beam they perfected.” His eyes
had widened and he had snapped his fingers. “A beam I would wager
is still aboard their FatherShip!”

“
It still exists?” Rone
asked. “But why wasn’t it destroyed after the Kindred finally
defeated the AllFather?”

“
It was not ours to
destroy,” Sylvan had said gravely. “There is an heir—Xairn, the son
of the AllFather, though he does not claim his race and has
renounced his parentage. He wanted nothing to do with the
Fathership but it was thought best to give him time to grieve and
think before making any final decisions about it. So the Council
ordered it to be towed out into deep orbit, which we did. It has
been abandoned ever since. Its weapon systems were disabled, of
course, but the equipment was left alone. It never occurred to
me—to any of us—that someone might infiltrate it and try to use
some of its resources. But maybe that is what happened to your
mate.”

“
Yes—yes!” Rone had
clutched at the hope desperately. “Maybe someone stole Kate using
this beam you were talking about—maybe she’s being held there, even
now, waiting for me to rescue her!”

Sylvan had frowned again. “Gently, my
friend—I do not wish to get your hopes up too high. And are you
certain that Kate is waiting for you? Forgive me but didn’t you say
that she seemed to have forgotten you somehow just before she
disappeared?”

Rone had shifted uncomfortably in his
seat.

“
The blossoms she inhaled
were Dream Blooms which cause a kind of temporary amnesia. But it
will have worn off by now.”

“
Very well. We will send a
squadron of warriors with you this very day to the Fathership,”
Sylvan had decided.

“
We don’t have time to get
a squad—we need to go
now!”
Rone had insisted. “Kate may be hurt…she might
have been…been tortured or…” He shook his head, unable to go
on.

Sympathy flashed in Sylvan’s pale blue
eyes.

“
My Brother, I know so
very well the doubt and fear you are going through now. I too, have
walked through that shadow and I would not wish it on anyone. But
if someone is on the Fathership, using its abandoned equipment for
nefarious purposes, it might not be safe to go alone. Come, I’ll
call a squad right now and they can meet us at the Docking Bay. We
will be there before you know it.”

So they had gathered a full squadron of
heavily armed warriors and gone to the Fathership…only to find it
abandoned.

“
There is nothing here,”
Sylvan said, when they had made a thorough search of the ship and
ended back in the control area. “I am so sorry, my
Brother.”

“
Don’t be.” As they walked
further into the navigation room, which was filled with delicate
looking equipment, his Wulven senses had detected a familiar scent.
Warm and fresh and incredibly faint yet he could smell it, still
lingering like a ghost in the air. “Kate isn’t here,” he’d told
Sylvan. “But she was. And look!”

Lying on the dirty metal floor was something
blue—a tiny flower so crushed and withered Rone almost mistook it
for a piece of discarded trash—something left behind by the now
almost completely extinct Scourge. But there was another familiar
scent coming from it—the sickly, sweet stench of the Dream
Blooms—the ones Kate had been smelling just before she’d
disappeared.