Nikhil (Kaliszian Book 1) (29 page)

Jen just stared at her friend, trying to decide if she was telling her the truth. They'd had only each other to rely on for so long that it had gotten to the point where they could finish the other’s sentences and knew what the other one was thinking. She could tell Mac wasn't lying to her now. "Then why didn't you want to tell me?"

"Because I wasn't sure how you'd feel about it... after Todd... I was worried it would upset you."

Jen felt her throat clog with tears at the mention of her husband. God, she wished he were here with her, helping her. But he wasn't, and she had to go on without him. Straightening her shoulders, she forced back her tears. "Do you love him, Mac?" she asked.

"With all my heart," Mac instantly responded, and Jen could see the love shining in her friend's eyes. "I can't explain it, Jen, but I feel it. Here," she touched the spot on her chest where her heart was, "and now that I've found him, I can't imagine my life without him in it. I know we're going to have some rough times. After all we still have a lot to learn about each other. We're two different species, and then, of course, there's the fact that he's male."

That last comment brought a small smile to Jen's lips. She remembered the times she'd struggled with Todd, and they'd known each other a lot longer than Mac had known this Nikhil. "Then I'm happy for you, Mac."

"You are? You're sure?"

"Yes, but does it really matter what I think?"

"Of course, it matters. You're my best friend and the closest thing to a sister I've ever had. I wouldn't have made it through all this if it weren't for you."

"That's a lie. If it hadn't been for me, you would have headed back down the mountain like you originally planned, and you wouldn't even be here. You'd still be on Earth. Safe."

"Maybe, but I don't regret staying. I've found my place, Jen, and while I will always regret what had to happen to get me here, I'll never regret that I am. I found my Soul Mate. My True Mate." She looked down and touched the True Mate bead in her hair.

"Is that another Ashe bead?" Jen asked quietly.

"No. This is one Nikhil's True Mate bead," Mac told her quietly and the love was easily heard in her voice.

"True Mate bead? Nikhil offered that to you too?" Jen asked.

"No, Kaliszians can't offer their True Mate bead," she told her.

"Then how are you wearing it?"

"It’s kind of hard to explain, Suja beads aren't alive, not in the way we think of things being alive, but they kind of are, and like I said, different ones mean different things. The height of the bead on the braid is also important."

"In what way?"

"The height of any bead indicates the importance, worthiness, or strength of what the bead represents."

"So Nikhil's True Mate bead being more than halfway up your braid indicates..."

"That our bond is very strong and that he loves me as much as I love him."

"I'm happy for you, Mackenzie." Jen reached out to squeeze her hand. "Honestly. We've all been through hell and seem to have lost something of ourselves because of it, but you... you've found something very special and very rare. Cherish it. Hold it close to your heart and never let it go. Because when you lose it," this time Jen couldn't stop her tears from falling, "when you lose it, you lose a piece of yourself that you can never get back."

Mac wrapped her arms around Jen pulling her close. She didn't even have to look up to know that the guys had closed ranks around them, blocking them from everyone else in the room.

"If you love him, Mac, hold on to him. Fight to keep him, to stay with him. Fight with everything you are."

"I will, Jen. I swear to the Goddess I will, but I need you to be there with me, helping me. I can't do this alone. We've been through too much together not to be there for each other now. We're the only human females in this entire universe, and I can't do this without you."

"You can."

"Okay, then I don't want to." She gave Jen a small smile. "I told Nikhil about how humans exchange rings instead of beads."

"You did?" Jen couldn't stop herself from looking at the finger where her rings once rested.

"Yes, I wanted him to wear my ring since I have no Dasho bead to offer him."

"Dasho bead?" Jen frowned.

"It's the bead a female Kaliszian offers to a male making him her husband."

"He's agreed to marry you," Jen couldn't keep the astonishment out of her voice "In a human way?"

"Yes. He's willing to commit himself to me, verbally. It's not something Kaliszians do. They rely on this bead instead." She touched her True Mate bead again.

"You don't like that. Why?" Jen asked, frowning at her.

"Because it takes away your responsibility, your commitment, and trust for the other person. Would you have married Todd, trusted him, based solely on a bead transferring to him?"

"No," Jen told her quietly, "I wouldn't have, but it seems
you
have."

"No, I didn't. I argued with Nikhil about it. I even threatened to cut it off."

"You did?"

"Yeah, I didn't care if I was wearing the first True Mate bead to transfer in five hundred years or not.
I
was going to decide who I loved, who my Soul Mate was and if the Goddess didn't like it that was just too bad."

"And you chose Nikhil."

"Yes."

"And Nikhil chose you."

"Yes."

"You know I can't stand beside you, Mac. The Kaliszians don't even know I'm here."

"You could if you let me tell them about you," Mac raised her hand to stop the argument she knew was coming. "There's no danger to you here, Jen. No one’s going to force you to do anything you don't want to do, but you
need
the deep-repair unit. You know you do. You've seen for yourself how much better the guys are doing after being treated. You're fading away right before our eyes, and I can't stand it. Not when there's something I can do about it."

"There's no reason for me to..."

"That's bullshit and you know it! You still matter, Jen!"

"For what?!! To be a charity case?!! I won't be that, Mac!"

"Who's asking you to be?!! Damn it, Jen, you kept us alive in that mine! How, I'll never know, but you made it so the food they gave us was enough. We survived!"

"Not all of us," Jen said quietly, and the pain in her voice had tears rolling down Mac's face.

"And that wasn't your fault, Jen."

"Wasn't it? I was the one that refused to leave that damn ring in the tent."

"So? There was no way you could have known what was going to happen."

"Those damn rings shouldn't have mattered so much."

"Of course, they should have. The man you loved gave them to you.

"Fuck that!
He
should have mattered more."

"And he did.
You
fought for him, Jen. Only you."

"Yeah, and I lost..." The fight went out of Jen's voice. "You should have let me die, Mac."

"No. You were meant to survive, Jen. So you could save the rest of us."

"And now?"

"And now you have to survive so you can make it right with your sister."

"Kimmy," Jen whispered.

"Yes, Kimmy. Remember her? You need to survive so you can get back to her."

"Even if we can get back, she hates me. She has every right to."

"She doesn't. You're her sister, the only family she has left. She's going to want you back."

"You think so?"

"I know and..." Mac trailed off as she looked behind Jen.

"What?" Jen swung around fearing the worst, only to have a smile break out across her face as Paul walked out of the cleansing unit, his hair trimmed and his face clean-shaven. "Paul..."

Mac couldn't believe how good Paul looked. If it weren’t for the weight loss, she'd say he looked as good as he did the day she first met him. "Damn, Paul, if we weren't both married I'd be all over you."

"Yes, well he's all mine, Mackenzie Wharton, so you keep your hands off him," Eric said walking up to his husband. "I always said you cleaned up good."

"Yes, well you're next," Paul said wiggling his knife at Eric. "I've been waiting years to have you at my mercy. So come on, it's time to make you amazingly handsome again."

"Like I haven't always been," Eric argued, but he willingly followed Paul into the cleansing room.

"God, those two never get old," Mac said laughing.

"You should have seen them at Todd's and my wedding."

"A good time?" Mac asked.

"The best," Jen confirmed. "They did this dance that stole the show."

"And that didn't bother you?"

"Me? No. Todd, maybe, but then Todd always liked to be the center of attention. As long as it made him look good."

"Jen..."

"Mac, we've been together too long, you know all my secrets. Todd wasn't perfect, but he didn't deserve to die that way. He was my husband, and I will honor him."

"I know, Jen, but you need to honor him by surviving, and you can't do that if you don't let Luol treat you."

"I'll think about it." She squeezed Mac's hand. "Seriously, I will."

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Nikhil had his blaster drawn as he made his way through the mine, the confines of the walls making it impossible for him to use his sword. So far they'd discovered nothing but empty caves. Stepping in to search the next one, he felt his heart start to pound as he recognized it from Mackenzie's description. This cave was where the Zaludians had kept his True Mate. This was where she'd had to learn to survive with males that, while they had protected her to a point when it came right down to it, they had let her go.

He moved to the back of the cave searching for the crevice she said she'd used to hide in. Finding it, he could understand why the Zaludians had never found her. From the front, it looked like any other wall. It wasn't until you got right up next to it that you saw the narrow opening. How had his Mackenzie managed to fit in there? Nikhil tried and couldn't even get one leg in.

"Find something, Squad Leader?"

Nikhil turned to find Treyvon standing at the cave's entrance. "No, General, just checking something." Nikhil moved toward the entrance. "This area is clear."

"This is where the humans were kept," Treyvon told him.

"I know."

"How? I didn't think you made it this deep into the mine."

"I didn't. Mackenzie described it to me." The sound of the General's comm beeping stopped Nikhil from saying more.

"Rayner."

"We found it General," Gryf's voice came over the comm.

"Where?" Treyvon demanded.

"In the main Zaludian cave,” Gryf told him tensely. “You're going to want to see this."

"On my way."

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Treyvon watched as Gryf connected their interface device to the Zaludian computer sending the transmissions. They'd found no one in the mine and no evidence that anyone had been there since they'd left. All the seals and alarms were still intact and armed.

"Was it preprogrammed, Gryf?" Treyvon asked.

"No. This unit received a signal yesterday telling it to start transmitting that signal. It was also instructed not to try to hide or encode the transmission."

"They wanted us to discover it," Treyvon said thoughtfully, looking at the unit.

"I believe so," Gryf agreed.

"Why? For what purpose? It wasn't a trap," Treyvon looked around the room, "there's no one here." Treyvon's comm went off again. "Rayner!"

"General, this is Warrior Gulzar."

"What is it, Gulzar?" Treyvon asked impatiently, his mind on other things.

"General, I wanted to inform you that the resupply ship is on its final approach."

"What? Why would you contact me about that?" Treyvon demanded.

"I... General, you ordered that you be informed immediately of all ships coming near Pontus."

"Yes, but..." Treyvon trailed off and began to frown. He'd just talked to Darzi the Captain of the Fenton, last night. Darzi was an old friend and had contacted him to let him know they'd gotten delayed leaving Crurn and would be late arriving. That wasn't the Fenton approaching! "Notify the Defender and put the base on high alert!"

"General?" Gulzar questioned.

"That's not the Fenton! Get everyone notified. Now!" As Treyvon gave the order, he heard the first explosion come over the comm. "Gulzar!" When all he received was static, he snapped his comm closed. "Fuck! I want everyone back to the transports! Now!"

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Mac couldn't help but smile as one by one the guys allowed Paul to shave and cut their hair. It was amazing to see the difference it made in them. Each one came out standing a little straighter, their shoulders thrown back a little farther. They were rediscovering who they once were.

"They look good, don't they?" Mac said smiling at Jen.

"They do, but..."

"But what?" Mac asked.

"Why are those Kaliszians staring at them like they have two heads?"

"What?" Mac's eyes flew to where Onp and Nroa were standing by the doors and saw Jen wasn't wrong. The Kaliszians were staring at the guys with such a look of shock and horror that she almost laughed. She needed to explain to them what was happening and why.

"For a Kaliszian, the ultimate punishment is to have their hair cut off. It removes their Suja beads, removing their identity. It is reserved for only the most abhorrent of offenses."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You should have seen Nikhil's reaction when I first got here and commented that mine was such a mess that I should just cut it."

"Not good I take it."

"No. Not good at all. I'd better explain to Onp and Nroa that this is normal for humans. That the guys aren't being punished for something." Giving Jen's arm a squeeze, she rose and crossed the room.

That's when all hell broke loose.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Nikhil didn't bother to sit as the transport shot off the ground in a maneuver typically reserved for only dire combat conditions. His fingers tightened around the structural beam that was constructed from the strongest metal the universes had to offer, leaving deep depressions.

"Who?" Nikhil fired the question at his General and friend.