Shadowed: Brides of the Kindred book 8 (21 page)

“Must examine him,”
Healing One sent back with pictures of his gray tentacles sliding gently over Reddix’s face and body.

“No!” Reddix sat back in bed. “This is bad enough. If it touches me—”

“You can’t touch him,” Nina tried to send thought messages—images of Healing One touching Reddix with a big red X through them. “It might hurt him. He’s…sensitive.”

“Sen…si…tive?”
Healing One sent feelings of confusion and uncertainty.

Nina felt a surge of frustration. How could she convey what needed to be said? How could she make the alien healer understand?

“Must examine,”
Healing One sent more firmly.
“A matter of honor.”

“He’s saying he has to look at you. I think it’s some kind of doctor code thing or something,” Nina said.

“Yeah, I can fucking tell. It’s like he’s yelling it in my ear ‘til I’m half deaf,” Reddix growled.

Nina glanced at him anxiously, worried that his nose would start to bleed again.

“Are you okay?”

He frowned. “I won’t be if he touches me. Unless…”

“What?” she asked, still watching him apprehensively for signs of overload.

“Touch me.” Reddix held out a hand to her.

“Touch you? No!” She shied away from his offered hand. “You told me not to. You said touching makes your RTS worse.”

“Fuck what I said,” he snarled, then sighed. “I’m sorry, the, uh, healer alien’s emotions are so loud it’s really hard to think. Look, I could be wrong about this, but I want to try something. So touch me, Nina—take my hand. Please.” He held out his hand again, more insistently this time.

“Well, if you’re sure…” Hesitantly Nina took the offered hand. It was as warm as she had imagined it would be and so much larger than hers she felt like a child holding hands with a grownup.

Reddix’s silver eyes widened as his long fingers closed over hers. “Goddess,” he muttered hoarsely. “It’s not just a period of numbness—it’s
you.”

“It’s me what?” Nina asked, still worried.

“You—you’re blocking his emotions.” He gestured at Healing One who was standing quietly to one side of the bed, waiting courteously for them to finish their conversation. “Not only can I not feel your feelings—I can’t feel anyone else’s either when I’m touching you.”

“Really? You’re sure I’m the reason? But how can that be?” Nina felt bewildered but cautiously hopeful.

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “All I know is that a minute ago I felt like someone was shouting as loudly as they could right in my face—it was fucking deafening. And now when I’m touching you—nothing. Silence.”

“That’s amazing. I wonder what causes it? Because it’s nothing I’m doing on purpose. I mean I wish I could, but I have no idea how or why I’m able to act as your, uh, personal damper.”

Reddix’s silver gaze seemed to turn inward. “The witch said a girl with a pure heart and healing hands,” he murmured to himself. “That must be it. But I never thought—”

“What witch?” Nina asked, frowning. “Is she the one who sent you to take me? Does she have anything to do with what you want me for?”

A closed look came over his face, and he pulled his hand away from hers, wincing as he did so.

“Never mind. I told you I can’t talk about that.”

Nina glared at him. “Well, you’re going to have to talk about it sooner or later, buddy. Especially if you want my help to get by here.” Reaching over, she grabbed his big hand in hers again and entwined their fingers. “Now,” she said, turning to Healing One. “You can examine him. But only while he’s touching me.”

Chapter Seventeen

The alien healer examined Reddix, running soft, furry tentacles over his face and body in a way that would have been completely intolerable if Nina hadn’t been holding his hand. But with her to act as his “personal damper” as she had put it, he couldn’t feel a thing and the worst thing that happened was that the healer’s tentacles tickled a little. Nina seemed to be communicating with the alien but mostly in the emotion/thought language, and while she was touching him, Reddix couldn’t hear any of it.

He was well aware of what an unexpected blessing this was—here he was, a sufferer of RTS trapped on a planet of beings who communicated by throwing their emotions. It would likely have been the death of him if Nina wasn’t there. But more than that, the feel of her soft, smooth hand in his occupied his thoughts.

I can touch her. I
am
touching her.
It was amazing, exhilarating…arousing. He had found her beautiful before but in a hopeless kind of way. Now, suddenly all his fantasies about the lovely Earth girl were possible—they could become realities. Reddix couldn’t help imagining what it would be like to kiss her, to touch her—running his hands all over her soft, curvy body. To feel her pressed against him. To—

To deliver her to the swamp witch and hope when Xandra takes her blood it doesn’t kill her,
whispered a mean little voice in his brain. Reddix came back to reality with a thump. It didn’t matter that he had finally found a woman he could touch—he wouldn’t be acting out any of his fantasies with Nina—now or ever. In fact, she was only holding his hand as a gesture of kindness—kindness he didn’t in any way deserve. There was no way she would want to do anything else with him, and Reddix didn’t blame her.
So forget about it—stop fantasizing,
he told himself savagely.
She’s not for you. You don’t deserve her.

Still, he couldn’t help enjoying the feel of her hand in his. He wished it could last forever.

But finally, the alien healer finished his examination and withdrew from the room. When he did, Nina withdrew her hand at once, leaving Reddix feeling strangely bereft.

“You probably want to have a bath and use the restroom after being out for so long,” she said, not looking at him.

“Uh, sure.” He nodded. “That would be good. Where—”

“They have a bathing facility, but it’s communal—everyone uses it.”

“Hmm, not so good.” Reddix didn’t like the idea of taking a bath with a bunch of emotion-throwing aliens.

“No, it’ll be all right. It’s the middle of the day so most of the kids are in school and the adults are at work, um, harvesting or farming or gathering I think. So we should be okay.”

“We?”
Reddix frowned at her. “You’re coming with me?”

Nina got a stubborn look on her face. “I have to. What if too many of the Feeling People come in while you’re in the water? You could black out and drown.”

“The Feeling People?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

“That’s just what I call them. Don’t change the subject—if you want a bath, I have to come too.”

“Fine,” Reddix growled. Although he didn’t like being treated like an invalid, he had to acknowledge that what she said was true. The emotions of the “Feeling People” as she called them, were so strong and intense he might not survive a close encounter with several of them together. Not when his brain already felt scrambled from their adventure with the thing Nina had assured him was a little girl.

“Come on then.” Nina nodded and got up off the bed. “Let’s go.”

“After you.” Reddix followed her, moving stiffly from having been unconscious for so long. His clothes felt grimy and stained—probably from days and nights of sleeping in them. “Uh, is there anything I could change into?” he asked as they made their way out of the small sleeping room and into a long, dark hallway.

“Sure—the Feeling People don’t really have clothes per se because they’re all covered in fur,” Nina said. “But they do have fabrics. See this?” She pointed at the dress she was wearing draped over one shoulder, leaving the other one bare. “It’s actually a blanket, but I found a little sewing kit on the ship and modified it.”

“It’s, uh, nice,” Reddix muttered. Actually, now that she was standing he could see it was much more than just “nice.” The blanket dress appeared to be made of some short, dense light blue fur which glimmered in the low light of the hallway. It clung to Nina’s curving full hips and ass in a way the shapeless garments she’d called scrubs didn’t, making it almost impossible for him to look away from her shapely backside.

“…if you want.”

“Huh?” Reddix realized she’d said something else to him, and he had missed it because he was ogling her like a horny adolescent. He looked up quickly, fighting to keep his eyes on her face.

“I
said
I found a grooming kit too—you know, some clippers, scissors, a razor—I can give you a shave and a haircut after you get your bath. If you trust me to, that is. It’s been awhile since I cut hair,” she said.

“Oh. Sure.” Reddix nodded. It was true he needed a shave, and his hair was certainly much too long, but that wasn’t why he was eager to take her up on her offer. Any excuse to have those small, soft hands on him again was welcome—no matter what it was.

“Good.” Nina looked pleased. “I promise I’ll be careful. Oh—here we are.” They had come to a low door at the end of the hallway that seemed to be made of a thicker, sturdier wood than the light woven grass one on the bedroom. “Brace yourself,” Nina warned him. “We have to go outside to get to the bathhouse, and it’s probably going to be pretty cold. Healing One told me this was the hottest summer they’ve had in years, but it always feels really chilly to me.”

Reddix shrugged. “Cold weather doesn’t bother me.”

“Well it does me.” She shivered. “I’ve lived in Florida all my life. We put on a sweater if the weather gets below seventy-five.”

“Seventy-five what?” he asked, mystified.

“Degrees. Never mind. I’m sure you have a different system of measurement. The point is, if it’s not blazing hot, it’s cold. At least to me. Come on.” Nina pushed through the wooden door and ducked outside.

The sunlight wasn’t particularly bright, but it still took Reddix’s eyes a moment to adjust. He saw that they were in a small village filled with wooden huts—some small to normal sized, some very tiny that looked like they had been built for children or dolls, and a few huge ones that looked more like facilities for keeping immense animals.

“That’s the kids’ part of the village,” Nina said, following his gaze to the big huts. “They mostly keep them over there to keep the little ones from trampling the town like Godzilla.”

“Who?” he frowned.

“A big scaly movie monster that liked to flatten cities,” Nina said. “If you’d ever promise to take me back to Earth I’d take you to see some classic monster movies—they have them sometimes at the Tampa Theater. They’re a lot of fun if you don’t mind the cheesy acting and terrible special effects.”

“Sounds…interesting,” Reddix said doubtfully.

“It is.” Nina smiled. “Sitting in the darkness in a classic old theater, eating hot buttered popcorn and watching a black and white monster destroy Tokyo—it’s a lot of fun.”

“I don’t know about a monster destroying things or eating hot buddered pockorn, whatever that is, but I’d welcome the chance to sit in the dark with you any time,” Reddix murmured, looking at her.

“Oh.” Her cheeks got pink, and she turned away quickly. “Come on, we’d better go. It’s freezing out here.”

It felt pretty temperate to Reddix, but he followed her willingly enough to a round wooden building at the center of the town. He was apprehensive as Nina swung open the tall wooden door, but when he saw that the interior was empty except for a large steaming pool of pale purple water, he relaxed.

“Here we go. And it looks like we have the place entirely to ourselves.” Nina looked pleased as she settled onto a sturdy gray wooden bench. “Well, go on.” She nodded at the pool. “It’s really shallow until you reach the halfway point. Then it gets pretty deep—I guess so they can wash the kids in there.”

“All right.” Reddix looked around. “Should I just undress here?”

“No, of course not,” she said quickly. “See over there behind the wooden partitions? They have restroom facilities and a changing area. Towels too. You can, um, wrap one around your waist.”

Reddix went behind the wooden partitions to the far side of the steaming pool and relieved himself before stripping down. Then he grabbed a soft furry gray towel and wrapped it around his waist and came back to the pool.

Nina was watching him as he walked out with the towel draped low around his hips, but she looked away hurriedly when he got to the edge of the water and dropped it. He slipped into the pool which came up to his waist at its lowest point and sighed in delight as the warm water caressed him.

“It like the bathing pools they have aboard the Mother Ship,” he remarked, wading out deeper. “Only a hell of a lot bigger.” He ducked down and submerged himself briefly in the slight current. “Any soap?” he asked, coming up and shaking his long wet hair out of his eyes.

“Those little round rock looking things around the edge at intervals are soap,” Nina said. “They work really well.”

“Great.” Reddix found one that did look exactly like a rock, but when he rubbed it against his chest, it lathered up at once, releasing mounds of pale grayish-pink suds. “This feels amazing,” he groaned, working it into his hair. “I haven’t had a shower since the night I…”

“Since the night you snatched me?” Nina asked quietly.

“Well…yes.” He frowned and rinsed his hair.

“I love it in the big bath pool,” she confessed, changing the subject to his relief. “I’ve been out here twice already thought I didn’t get to spend much time.”

“You didn’t like bathing with the aliens?” Reddix asked, wringing some of the water out of his hair. Gods, it was really too long, and his face was covered in a scratchy, full beard which needed to go.

Nina shook her head. “I didn’t like leaving you alone. I didn’t know what might happen if you woke up and I wasn’t there.”

He was touched all over again by the way she’d watched over him when he was helpless. She was too good to him—truly a female with a pure heart. He opened his mouth to thank her, but just then the door opened again, and five of the furry aliens came in, waving their tentacles and chatting to each other.

There was almost no physical noise except for a few clicks and chirps which seemed to be the Feeling People’s only spoken vocabulary. But the emotional outpouring was deafening to Reddix. It felt like someone was simultaneously blasting incredibly loud music in his ears and blinding him with bursts of super bright light.