Guardian of the Storm (22 page)

Tempest stared at him a moment and started laughing.

He slipped an arm around her shoulders, giving her a mock stern look. “This is no matter for amusement,
Zheri Cha.
I am liable to lose a part of my body I am particularly fond of—and take liberty to consider it something you are fond of, as well—if the belly of our goddess begins to swell and I have not acknowledged to all that I cherish you more than your wondrous little cavern ….”

Tempest wasn’t certain whether to take him seriously or not. She chuckled again, shaking her head. “We can’t risk that. I
am
particularly fond of that part of you! Although … the rest of you is nice, too. Especially your mouth.”

Kiran sent her a look filled with promise as he helped her down from the rocks. He took her hand when they’d reached the plateau again. After a brief search, they found the trail they’d climbed to the summit and began the trek down again.

They found the
aquestan
when they’d been walking for nearly an hour. The beast was still skittish and shaking from its experience but Kiran finally managed to coax it close enough to grab the bridle. Settling their packs on its back, Kiran decided to walk it down rather than to try to mount it as skittish as it. In any case, the trail had seen a good bit of damage. Sections had broken away, narrowing the trail dangerously. In other places rocks barred their passage and they had to find a way around. They were nearly half way down when a scream that raised the hairs along the back of Tempest’s neck brought the party to a halt. A second scream answered it before Tempest managed to spot Kirry among the rocks.

Another grat, noticeably larger than Kirry, had challenged her.

“Kiran!” Tempest gasped. “He’ll kill her!”

Kiran, to her surprise, caught her, holding her tightly to prevent her from rushing to Kirry’s aid. “I do not think that is what he has in mind,” he said, laughter threading his voice.

Tempest glanced up at him with a mixture of anger and fear but, before she could say anything, sounds of battle snagged her attention. Whipping her head back to look, she discovered the two grats had tangled, whirling together in a blur of motion. When they stopped, the larger grat was on top of Kirry, his teeth sunk into the back of her neck. Tempest jerked against Kiran’s hold. “He’s hurting her!” she exclaimed as Kirry let out a sound she’d never heard the little grat make before.

Kiran coughed. She discovered when she looked at him that he was struggling to keep from laughing. “He is not hurting her, Tempest. I swear this, to you. She would not be singing that song if she did not want him where he is.”

Tempest stared at him blankly and finally turned to look at the two grats again. She could see, then, that the male cat was
humping
her baby! Indignation flickered through her, but she felt her face flame as understanding finally dawned.

Kiran nuzzled her ear, nibbling at her ear lobe. “I enjoy it when you sing that song in my ear,” he murmured, his voice shaky with suppressed laughter.

Tempest elbowed him in the belly indignantly, turning to glare at him when he released her. “I do
not
make that kind of noise!” she snapped.

His eyes gleamed with amusement, but he schooled his features to a look of innocence. “Did I not say I loved it when you sang that song to me,
Zheri Cha?”

Uttering a growl, Tempest swatted him in the belly again and stalked off. Kiran followed her, rubbing his belly and chuckling.

He still looked amused when they reached the foot of the mountain, but he’d managed to tamp the urge to chuckle. “Where shall we go, my love?” he murmured, gathering her within his embrace. “You must choose a place for the home that I will build for you … and the babes that you will give me.”

Tempest began to smile once they were mounted on the
aquestan
and had turned it toward the tent village where Kiran’s tribe waited. After a few moments, she chuckled.

She felt Kiran’s answering smile against her cheek as he nestled his head next to hers. “What?”

“I was just thinking … I had
no
idea Kirry was such a little slut!”

His grin broadened. “What is ‘slut’?”

“A female without virtue.”

His smile died. “She has found the one she was destined for,” he said, tightening his arms around her. “I assure you, he knew this, too, and he felt nothing but gratitude to the fates for bringing them together and the joy of joining with his mate.”

Tempest felt a flicker of something unidentifiable inside of her as the realization settled in her that he was no longer talking about Kirry. Relief, she realized after a moment. “You think?” she asked tentatively.

“I know,
Zheri Cha
.”

Tempest released a shuddering sigh. “I wonder if I’ll ever see her again?”

Chapter Seventeen

Contentment and peace filled Tempest as she gazed out over the rolling waves of the ocean, sparkling like red gems beneath Talore’s glow. A moment later, she felt a warmth behind her back and then Kiran slipped his arms around her, one beneath her burgeoning breasts, the other along her distended belly. He dipped his head to nuzzle her neck, chuckling when the babe, no doubt displeased about being crowded, pummeled his hand where it lay heavily against her stomach.

“We have a warrior here,” he murmured.

Tempest smiled. “Maybe.” Turning her head, she glanced down at Talor, who’d been chasing Kirry and her kits around on his hands and knees. Dismay filled her when she saw he’d managed to corner one of the kits. Picking it up by its head, he opened his mouth, clearly intent on testing the taste of the kit. “NO!” she snapped commandingly.

Talor jolted, lifting his head and staring at her wide eyed.

“Put it down! Now, Talor!”

His lower lip trembled. Tears pooled in his eyes, but he obediently dropped the kit. Kirry instantly rushed forward to examine her baby carefully and then herded her newest litter back inside the house to hide them.

Talor set up a wail the moment he realized his playthings were escaping. Kiran scooped him up, tossing him in the air until his sobs stopped and he smiled tentatively. Tucking the baby in one arm, he slipped his other arm around Tempest.

A droplet of water stuck his arm and then another. Tempest lifted her face to feel the rain that began to spatter her. Talor wasn’t at all certain he liked it, however. He began to squirm and fuss. Tempest turned and smiled at him. “Rejoice,
Zheri Cha.
This is a wondrous gift. The fates willing, you’ll see many in your lifetime.”

Kiran’s eyes were filled with heat when she met his gaze. “I think Talor will enjoy this more from his bed. I feel a great desire to worship my goddess and give thanks for the rain.”

Tempest studied him expectantly, feeling warmth fill her. “
In
the rain?” she asked, intrigued.

Kiran grinned. “Why not? We have not tried that yet.”

The End

Read an excerpt from the upcoming novel by Kaitlyn O’Connor, coming Fall of 2008 from NCP.

Chapter One

“Houston, this is Dr. Danielle Stevens aboard the ISS Pegasus. Do you read?” Danielle paused, listening intently for several moments and then repeated the transmission. Nothing but dead air greeted her each time she switched from send to receive.

That was all any of the ten member crew aboard the international space station had heard for weeks now. Dead air.

Releasing a pent up breath, Danielle propped her arm on the console and her head on her palm, closing her eyes. They burned, feeling grainy from the little sleep she’d had … not that she was by any means alone. No one was sleeping. Everyone was wrestling with the big question.

What do we do now? Wait here to die? Go home and die with everyone else?

Swallowing past the painful knot what rose to wedge in her throat, Danielle lifted her head. It was too late, she thought, for the last option.

No one wanted to admit it.
She
didn’t want to accept it, but there was no getting around the fact that the more time that passed, the less likely it was that anyone at all was left.

“Any luck?”

Danielle swiveled her seat and stared at Dr. Lindsey Peterson, watching the faint hope in the other woman’s eyes die.

She swallowed with an effort, shaking her head. “I’ve only been trying for about an hour, though. With the delay … and there could be interference.”

They both knew she was grasping at straws.

Danielle swiveled around to face the console again. “Houston, this is Dr. Danielle Stevens ….”

“Give it a rest! You’re using up battery power we can’t afford to waste.”

Danielle twisted to look at the doorway to the com room again. Clancy Morton stood next to Lindsey now, scowling at her. Danielle’s lips tightened. “What the fuck are we going to use it for?” she snapped.

Clancy’s scowl deepened. “Watch your mouth,
Doctor
Stevens,” he growled. “I’m still the head of this mission.”

“What mission, for Christ’s sake?” Danielle demanded. “They’re all dead! What the hell are we doing up here?”

“We’re doing our jobs!” Clancy snapped. “Some of us, anyway!”

“What the hell do you mean by that?” Danielle shouted at him as he whirled and stalked off. She transferred her attention to Lindsey when he didn’t respond. “What the hell did he mean by that?”

Lindsey shook her head. “Raging at each other isn’t going to change anything.”

Danielle swallowed her fear, anger, and grief with an effort. “It makes me feel better,” she muttered, looking away.

“Does it?”

Danielle dragged in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “No,” she admitted reluctantly.

Lindsey was silent so long she thought the other woman had left. “Do you really think they’re all dead?”

“I don’t know.” She did, she just couldn’t bring herself to repeat it. She wouldn’t have said it all if Clancy hadn’t made her so furious. It was almost as if, as long as she didn’t say it, accept it, it might not be true.

“As long as we don’t know there’s still hope, right?”

Defiantly leaving the com open, Danielle thrust herself away from the console and shoved herself to her feet. “Hope?” She shook her head at Lindsey. “The very last communication we had was from Robert Rawlins. He said not to come home until we got an all clear because the virus was completely out of control. Don’t you think somebody would have contacted us in this length of time if there was anybody down there who could?”

“The could’ve closed down mission control. He said they’d been trying to quarantine to slow the spread.”

Danielle had thought of that. It was what she hoped herself. They’d been ordered to stay put, told the seriousness of the situation. If the virus was spreading, and killing, as fast as Robert had indicated …. “Robert seemed to think the kill rate was in our favor, that the virus was killing off its hosts so fast it was slowing the spread. If it didn’t go airborne ….”

Lindsey managed a tremulous smile. “That’s probably it. They shut everything down and quarantined people in their homes to stop the spread. The kill rate was only about sixty percent when he gave us the first report, right?”

Danielle shrugged. He’d actually said they
thought
the kill rate was around sixty percent. The last report had it at closer to eighty percent.

“Well … a lot more people sick than well. I imagine they have their hands full. We just need to keep trying until we reach somebody. Had you thought about trying another bandwidth?”

Guilt made Danielle’s cheeks redden. “I toyed with it a little,” she lied, avoiding Lindsey’s gaze. The fact was, she’d tried every channel when they’d lost contact with Houston and when she hadn’t been able to pick up any of the other stations, she’d begun frantically scanning the airwaves for anything at all. She’d picked up a few transmissions—all bad, all indicating a global pandemic and then she’d lost even those. All was quiet on planet Earth. There hadn’t been so much as a radio or TV station broadcasting anything but static, or prerecorded shows on a loop, for over a week.

It was almost as if someone had set off a viral bomb.

There hadn’t been any indications, though, that it was viral warfare.

That didn’t preclude the possibility, unfortunately. It just meant that things had gotten so bad so fast that there hadn’t been time to investigate. They hadn’t had time for anything but trying to fight it and burying the dead—not to contain it, not to find a treatment or a cure.

The abrupt surge of static from the microphone made Danielle and Lindsey both nearly jump out of their skin. Both women whipped their heads toward the microphone, holding their breath. “ISS Pegasus, this is Lymra Sabin Au-ture of the Galatic Federation flagship Mertosin.”

Danielle felt her jaw sag. She whipped her head toward Lindsey again. They stared at one another blankly in shock for an endless moment.

“Dr. Danielle Stevens, this is Lymra Sabin Au-ture ….”

Danielle and Lindsey both let out a scream of hysterical joy, launching themselves at each other and bouncing up and down.

“Do you read? Dr. Danielle Stevens of the ISS ….”

Danielle broke from Lindsey’s frantic embrace. “I have to talk to him. Run! Get the others!”

Her hand was shaking so badly when she flopped into her chair and grabbed the microphone that she nearly dropped it. “This Dr. Danielle Stevens of the ISS Pegasus speaking,” she said in a voice quavering with excitement.

“This is Lymra Sabin Au-tere of the Galactic Federation vessel Mertosin ….”

Danielle’s mind went abruptly blank. “
Who?
”