Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series (46 page)

“
Maybe I should let the Conglomerate keep you after all,” Alec said with a laugh. He was feeling the effects of the wine now; he took off the ill-fitting uniform shirt, then lay back on the bed, looking up at the ceiling.

Caitlen pulled her towel around her as she rose and then lay down on the bed next to him, her chin on her fist. “You’re having second thoughts?” she laughed. “Here I am ready for you to blood me and unite us. You better do it now, because there may not be a second chance.”

Her words echoed the words of the prophecy Alec recollected. If it was prophesized, it was going to happen. But not right then, he knew. “I would do it with you right now, but you’ve gotten me too drunk, and I can’t raise my powers.”

“
What exactly are you talking about?” Caitlen asked, her eyebrows raised.

Alec blushed. “My ingenaire powers! I have trouble using them when I drink alcohol,” he retorted. He heard footsteps clumping up the stairway of the inn. “That must be the staff,” he told Caitlen, reaching out a hand to stroke the back of her head. “I told them to bring some more hot water to refresh the tub for you.”

And at that moment a tremendous pounding commenced at their door. As Alec and Caitlen looked at one another in dismay, the lock gave way, the door flew open, and a number of Conglomerate soldiers streamed into the room.

“
You, Captain Ferguson, are under arrest for dereliction of duty and kidnapping of the Princess Esmere,” an officer said loudly. “And you,” he looked at Caitlen smugly, “should be arrested for being under-dressed and showing poor taste in men while a member of the former royal family.”

Alec closed his eyes and desperately searched for his ingenaire powers. He focused on finding himself in the space between realities, but his mind kept slipping back to the reality of the armed men around him and Caitlen lying beside him.

“
You sir,” he opened his eyes and replied, “are not enough of a gentleman to deserve to wear the uniform of an officer, apparently, given the easy insults you fling about to a defenseless woman,” he spoke in anger at hearing Caitlen insulted.

The officer looked at Alec in astonishment, then his face grew bright red with anger.

“
Are you afraid to defend your honor?” Alec stood up, and drew his sword.

“
Alec!” Caitlen shouted. “Don’t! Don’t do this,” she reached out a hand to grab his arm, hoping to hold him back. “You know we’ll be fine,” she added.

Alec looked down at her, and as he did, the officer stabbed his own sword at Alec, piercing his stomach.

Caitlen screamed and Alec looked down in astonishment at the wound, as the pain spread in a wave throughout his body. He stared up at the officer in disgust, then collapsed to the floor, overcome with the damage and the pain.

“
Let the princess get dressed, then throw them both in the wagon and let’s get on our way,” the officer said.

“
He told me we were hiding from the Crown Protector,” Caitlen said suddenly. “He knew the Crown Protector was out on the highway looking for me, and he figured the only way to keep me safe was to double back behind the Protector, to keep me hidden here in Vincennes for a day or two.” She pulled the sheet up over her and picked up her clothes from the floor, then struggled beneath the sheet to pull on her clothing.

“
He has treated me most kindly,” she added. “Please let us remain together. I feel much better with him,” Caitlen asked. “Just let us ride together.”

“
You’ll be together alright, in the back of a wagon, for a day or two. Then your hero will either die or be executed,” the officer answered, as he pulled the sheet off Caitlen. Two men picked up Alec, who had passed out, and carried him out of the room.

Caitlen stood up on her own and walked downstairs behind the guards who carried Alec, and she climbed into the back of the wagon where he was unceremoniously thrown. A guard climbed in with them and fastened chains around their ankles, then gave Caitlen a pinch and climbed out with a laugh.

She edged over to the unconscious Alec, and examined his wound. There was a stream of blood coming from the wound. She tore a strip of cloth from the sheet she had carried with her, and held it against the wound. The wagon gave a jolt as it started to move, and Alec groaned. He was sweaty and pale, she noted. She kept her hand on his stomach and rested her head on his shoulder, laying in silence for several minutes.

“
I know you’re going to be alright. I know that there’s no weapon you can’t beat, no wound you can’t heal, no opponent you can’t overcome, but I hate to see you hurt, Alec. I have so much faith in you now. I never want you to leave my side. I’ll do anything you want from now on,” she spoke softly. “Being with you means more to me than being on the throne.”

“
Alec,” she called at last. “Alec, can you hear me?”

“
Yes,” he answered, “I’m not deaf. I was stabbed; I didn’t have my ears cut off.”

She whipped the bandage off his stomach and realized he had healed himself.

He sat up, raising her with him. “Are you ready to go?” he asked.

“
I’m ready,” she said. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and they vanished from the rear of the wagon.

Chapter 30 – Intimate with Caitlen

They arrived sitting on a bed. “This is the apartment I share with Rahm and Bethany,” Alec told her. “Where would you like to spend the night?”

“
I’ll be safest staying wherever you plan to stay,” she replied. “This will be cozy but better than being in captivity.

“
How did you manage to heal yourself so quickly? Why didn’t you tell me? Did you hear the things I said in the wagon?” she asked.

“
I heard everything you said,” Alec replied.

She swung a fist at him, striking his shoulder.

“
Is that any way to treat someone who means more to you than sitting on the throne?” Alec asked drily.

“
It’s the way to treat a sneak!” she answered.

“
We need to do something right now,” Alec told her sitting up. “Caitlen, are you ready to let my blood flow through your veins?”

“
I will Alec, if you think it is the right thing to do. Will it make me a great warrior like you, or able to heal at a touch like you, or to travel,” she gestured with her hand in the air, “from place to place like you?”

“
I don’t know,” Alec answered. “I hope not, because if you can do everything I can do, you’ll decide you don’t need me around after all!”

“
This gets more tempting,” Caitlen countered. “But I’d have to keep you around for instructions for a while anyway, so don’t expect to get away that easily.

“
Go ahead, Alec. Let’s do this while I have the courage to believe that it has to be done,” she suggested.

“
Please take off your blouse so I can see you arm, and lie back here,” Alec told her.

He removed his own shirt, and pulled his knife out of his belt. He lay down beside her, facing her, and took her hand in his to raise it in position, then he sliced his arm quickly with his knife, twisted the blade and cut her arm as well.

Caitlen gave a small cry of pain, but Alec pressed his arm against hers immediately, clasping her hand with his, their fingers weaving together, as Alec let his healing energy flow to the spot of the two incisions. He carefully united the veins within the arms, then the arteries, so that his blood began to flow into her flesh as he began to receive her blood flow. He followed by closing the cuts on the surface of the arms, his hand still holding hers, his eyes looking directly into hers.

“
I’m going to enter your mind now, Caitlen, and try to seat the Spiritual power within you. We’ll still need much training to make this all work, if it can,” he told her.

I trust you Alec,” she gave a crooked smile, moved her face forward, and kissed his lips. He allowed his Spiritual energy to flow as his own lips began to react to her kiss, and he felt his spirit move with tenderness and gentleness as he began to seek the seat of her own soul. He sensed its location, and pressed his own spirit to join it, softly examining its surface, letting the two interact as they frictionlessly wove around one another, until he found an opening.

Carefully he began to press his awareness within the opening, vaguely feeling the change in her body as more and more of his blood suffused her flesh, flowing to every branching artery, reaching every cell, and delivering his potential within her. Abruptly he found their minds interchanging memories, and he became lost for a moment as he felt her terror and pain when she was a younger girl and fell from a horse, the animal toppling over and landing on her hip. He felt her very young joy as she saw her parents walking towards her at some great ceremony in the palace, and she ran down a long aisle towards them, her mother smiling broadly.

And he found time and time again, loneliness and insecurity within her. She perceived herself as homely, and seldom trusted romance as genuine when it seemed more a function of her royal family status. That had changed when she met him, and she felt real affection from him, and suffered real bitterness when he seemed to reject or desert her.

At the same time Caitlen was in his memories, seeing him play games in the orphanage, he sensed, watching his frustration as an apprentice being tormented on Ingenairii Hill. Alec brought himself back to focus on the Spiritual energy, trying to infuse the belief in God and Jesus within her. He called upon his memories of John Mark, and the touches of love he had felt from the saint.

That was all he could do for now, he concluded. He would have to try more in another visit. Without an evident Spiritual ingenaire foundation he could enhance, he could do no more for now. Instead he continued to leave his impressions of divine love and grace, then slowly withdrew his spirit from hers.

She gave a little mental gasp as they separated, and Alec felt sadness as well, but he continued to disengage. Then he opened his eyes and looked up at her, surprised to find that in their passion they had switched positions. She lay on top of him, and he saw great tears within her eyes.

With his free hand he reached up to her cheek and brushed a tear away. “We can end the transfusion,” he told her. “Are you ready?”

“
Was all of that just from the blood or did you do more?” Caitlen asked.

“
That was more than the blood, much more,” Alec assured her. “The blood flow just happened to be going on while our spirits were together. I can cut our arms apart and we’ll still be able to have that soulful union. I think we’ll have to have it again so that I can continue to try to give you the Spiritual ingenaire power to communicate mind-to-mind.”

His free hand padded the mattress until it found the knife. Alec gently rolled to his side, cradling Caitlen as she rolled with him, then he placed the knife against their joined arms and split the narrow connection, creating a gush of blood that he quenched with a touch of his healing powers for each of their arms.

“
I’ve seen so much of what you’ve done,” Caitlen told him tenderly, her hand behind his head. She kissed him again, and Alec imagined that he felt some spark in the kiss.

“
There’s just one more thing to do, and then we can sleep,” Alec murmured.
I have brought the Princess safely back to our apartment. We’ll come back to headquarters in the morning
, Alec sent a message to Bethany and Rahm, wanting to put their minds at ease.

“
It’s time to rest now, my princess. Tomorrow we’ll return to your people and start to plan a new strategy.”

Chapter 31 – Distrust of Foreigners

Alec awoke in the morning before Caitlen, their bodies were tangled with each other and with the blankets on the bed, tangled to such a degree he knew he couldn’t move without disturbing the princess. His body was urging him to get up however, so he carefully separated himself from his companion and slid off the mattress. He discarded the Conglomerate uniform he had worn and pulled on his own clothes, comfortable again.

Out in the main room of the apartment he found Bethany, calmly cleaning her weapons. She rose when she saw him, and they hugged intensely for a long minute, then sat down. Speaking quietly, Alec gave her a brief, selective explanation of his adventures in pursuit of Caitlen during the prior days.

“
When you left us wearing half the armory, I expected you would return in five minutes with the Princess,” Bethany responded. “As time stretched out we were getting worried, until we got your messages. It’s good to have you back, both of you,” she told him. “Do we have plans for what to do next?” she asked.

Just then Caitlen appeared, causing her and Bethany to have a hug of reunion and further discussions. At length, Bethany suggested they should return to the headquarters to be seen by all her supporters.

“
I’ll need something appropriately regal to wear; this won’t do,” Caitlen gestured to her travel-worn outfit. “Do you have anything here I can wear, or should we send Alec to my closets to fetch something?” she asked, with a broad wink to Bethany.

“
That would seem to be an appropriate use of his talents,” Bethany agreed with an uncharacteristic giggle.