Dissonance: Aurora Renegades Book Two (Aurora Rhapsody 5) Read online

  “I don’t understand. Do you mean…we have microbes in our bodies, bacteria that isn’t really ‘us.’ ”

  “As do we all. This is something else—small like microbes, yes, and many, flowing through your bloodstreams, yet also one. It is faint, but it has consciousness of some form. It hums of renewal, of eternal replenishment. Unfathomable, alien to me in a way you are not, but it is there. In this, I am not mistaken.”

  Perplexed yet again, Alex racked her brain for what Beshai could be sensing. The Caomh clearly didn’t understand human physiology, though….

  Renewal. Replenishment.

  Akeso.

  Wow.

  Her face lit up. “I think I know what you mean. It’s a long story, and we didn’t realize, but thank you for telling me.”

  Beshai grasped her hands anew and studied their intertwining fingers. “These extraordinary things do not burden you, and yet…” she blinked, but her irises revealed nothing “…you are burdened. Beyond this hole, this absence in your mind, I sense in you a growing hunger. A need, an agitation in your very essence. I thought it connected to your missing ‘other.’ I do not presume to know your ways, only what I see.”

  A ringing in Alex’s ears grew in volume, banging harsh, strident chords against her eardrums. She blamed it on the haunting reverberations of Ahearne’s memory. “It’s just my desire to be able to connect with her, to tell her I’m okay and make sure she’s okay as well.”

  “As you say, my child. Rest here tonight, then go as you must. I hope you find what you seek.”

  Caleb was running out of ways to stall Jaisc on dinner when Alex emerged from Beshai’s home. He caught her attention as it roved across the village and motioned her over.

  He was intensely curious about what the Caomh had discussed with her; when she reached him, however, they were instantly surrounded by not solely Jaisc but half a dozen other residents.

  They were then herded off to dinner in a spacious dining room and provided multiple courses of berries, sprouts and beans served in bronzed bowls crafted from the same metal as Beshai’s mugs. Meat was a delicacy for the Taenarin, small rodents and worms its only source, and they presented it in bite-sized chunks on kabobs. Prime rib, it was not.

  Dessert surprised him by being a savory mousse, but he was glad when the meal ended. They were shown to an empty room at the far right end of the semicircle of buildings.

  Alex collapsed on the quilted bedmat with a groan. “These Taenarin are so high-maintenance. Between the touching and the glowing and the chattering, the formalities and the fretting…. I’m exhausted, and not from the grueling all-day hike.”

  He tugged his jacket off and settled beside her. The air was cool up here, so far from the springs and so close to the ice, but the rooms were warmed by hearths.

  “I admit, they are a little on the fussy side. And since they share their feelings so visibly, privacy isn’t high on their priority list.”

  Belatedly noticing it was actually warm in the small room, she wiggled out of her pullover and he tossed it in the corner on top of her pack.

  “So I know we need to discuss Ahearne’s memory, but what did Beshai want to talk to you about?”

  “Turns out she could tell quite a bit more about us through touch than we realized. She said…” he noticed the tiniest flicker in her expression “…she could sense Valkyrie’s absence in my mind. She didn’t understand what she sensed and was interested. More importantly, though, she noticed another oddity as well. She said I have a microscopic entity living inside my body, one different from our natural bacteria and bearing some form of consciousness. I think she meant a remnant of Akeso.”

  He sank down on his back, the better for her not to be able to see the shadow crossing his face. “From when it healed your arm—it makes sense some cells would have been left behind.”

  “I can’t perceive it. If there’s any awareness in those cells, it doesn’t…talk to me.”

  He exhaled deliberately, trying to push away the unwelcome emotions surging in his mind. He didn’t want to feel them toward her. If she carried a piece of Akeso inside her, it was a gift—a wonderful reward that came with the gift of her life.

  She propped up on a forearm and leaned over him. “Something you wanted to say?”

  He must not have been hiding his inner conflict as well as he thought. His gaze swept across and past her stare to a point behind her shoulder. “I suppose I really am jealous this time.”

  He could see her lips curl up in a self-satisfied grin out of the corner of his eye. “Well, don’t be, because she said it’s living in you, too.”

  Now his gaze shot to her. “What?”

  “You heard me right. She assumed all humans had microscopic companions living inside them since we both did. I bet you’re wondering how, but if you think about it, there’s no reason your pores wouldn’t be large enough for tiny molecules to sneak through. Hell, it was probably a requirement for Akeso to commune with you the way it did.”

  He focused inward and searched himself mentally, but he couldn’t perceive it either…or could he?

  Wind rustles a sea of grasses.

  Each stalk bows in submission, yielding to the wind’s will.

  A splash of water escapes a creek to moisten the shore.

  Roots harbored in the soil reach out, yearning for the nourishment the water brings.

  He’d believed them merely vestiges, impressions formed out of the lingering echoes of memories. But maybe they weren’t his memories…and maybe they were something more.

  He laughed, his mood decidedly improved. “Not going to lie, that makes me happy. An uncommon brand of happy.”

  “I thought it would.” She kissed him with such tenderness it felt like a second gift, then rested her head on his chest. “I’m ready to leave now.”

  “I know.” The undercurrent of strain in her voice had been growing throughout the day and evening; it now reverberated like a taut string plucked too hard. He stroked her hair, still smiling. “We’ll head to the main village first thing in the morning, thank Jaisc for his hospitality, and get him to activate the lift for us.”

  She nodded languidly against him. “This is a good plan.”

  29

  TAENARIN ARIS

  TAYNA PORTAL SPACE

  * * *

  AN ELBOW TO THE STERNUM AWOKE CALEB.

  Before he’d reached full awareness he calmed the combat reflexes that had instinctively flared, for the source of the elbow was Alex.

  She jerked around restlessly in his arms while muttering incomprehensible half-syllables. She was having a nightmare.

  “Hey….” He caressed her body as gently as he could. His fingertips drifted along her arm, over her waist and down her hip, and back again. A fine layer of sweat slicked her skin beneath his palm. When his caress returned to her hand he found it clenched into a rigid fist. “It’s okay, baby. It’s just a dream.”

  Her back pressed hard into him; she growled nonsense through gritted teeth. He repeated the words in a soothing tone. She hadn’t slept well the night before, either, but not to this degree. “You’re safe….”

  With a gasp she wrenched around to face him, eyes drawn wide open but irises bleary. She stared at him for an instant in what seemed like confusion—then her mouth was on his and one of her hands snaked down his chest to the waistband of his pants.

  He reigned in the growing ardor her actions unconsciously evoked and pulled away slightly. He coaxed her gaze to focus on him while stroking her cheek. “Alex, are you awake? Are you here?”

  Her nose scrunched up, and her brow knotted. Several seconds passed, and she blinked. “I’m here. But…I need you. Please.”

  Were there any more illicit, arousing words in the pantheon of spoken language? No, there were not.

  He gave up all pretense of restraint. He shifted his weight to ease her onto her back and hover above her. His lips roamed across her neck then collarbone as one hand went to her waist and seiz
ed the hem of her tank. They typically slept in the nude on the ship, but obviously not here.

  He moved down her body as his palm moved up it, nudging the tank up her chest and over the curve of her breasts. He paused to appreciate the sight. He wasn’t going to tire of it…ever, he’d daresay.

  Her nails dug into his shoulders as he trailed kisses along her abdomen. He countered her urgency with veneration, taking care to devote special attention to the skin once torn apart by laser fire in Cavare. No scar remained, but he’d never forget the wound.

  “Caleb….” It was a throaty purr. A plea.

  He complied, but on his own terms. He cut short his journey down the length of her body, instead roving circuitously upward until his tongue danced around a nipple. She gasped and bucked against him in response, which did nothing to dissuade him.

  Only when she scratched up his spine savagely enough to draw blood did he journey to her neck, her jawline and at last her lips, taking care to graze the stubble adorning his jaw over all the most sensitive areas on the way.

  Her hands slid beneath his pants at his hips; she sat halfway up in his embrace to shove them off. He took advantage of the motion to slide a hand down her back and do the same. A few minimally graceful but swift movements and no trace of clothing remained.

  Nearly a year after the night that began with a fateful jailbreak and many months after marriage, slipping inside her was profoundly familiar, intimate and as ecstatic as the first time. Every time.

  The sound escaping her throat resided in the space between a moan and a cry. She clamped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide in horror.

  He chuckled softly. She had many exquisite talents, but keeping quiet was not one of them. But here they really, really should be quiet, for sleeping aliens lay meters away.

  His lips hovered a sliver above hers. “Shhhh.”

  A fractional, vertical motion of her head—an acknowledgment—and his mouth crushed hers as her body arched beneath him.

  He knew every centimeter of her body now. He knew what she unapologetically liked and what she secretly craved. He knew how to keep her at the edge and how to make her scream—hopefully silently this one time.

  It had been an endless source of joy for him to learn all these things, one night, morning and afternoon at a time.

  Knowing all he did, he wanted to draw this interlude out. He wanted to stay this way, their bodies wound together in the most precious of ways, until the coming of the strange, subterranean dawn.

  But her words had not been uttered in jest, and her very real need bled out of her and into him, radiating off her skin like searing embers and driving all other thoughts away in favor of blind passion.

  One of the greatest pleasures in life was tasting the desire of one who loved you, and reflecting it back to them in full. His eyes locked on hers and held them relentlessly as her irises blazed a wild, electric silver that was all her own. Their breaths fell into a synchronicity matching the rhythm of their bodies.

  Somewhere along the way he lost control to her, and she carried them to deeper, darker places with an entrancing abandon.

  Her lashes fluttered and her lips parted. One hand grasped for his hair; the other clawed at his shoulder, begging him to stay with her for one…more…breath….

  She did cry out, but he held her tight against his skin, muffling the exclamation in the crook of his neck.

  The next instant he was grabbing the hand on his shoulder and pinning it to the mat. His other hand wrapped around her fingers clenched in his hair, and he surrendered to the rapturous abyss.

  “Ah wuvf uhh.”

  Still surfacing from the deeper, darker place she’d led him to, he found himself, among other things, short of breath.

  He inhaled slowly, then loosened his embrace of her enough to tease her lips with his own. The tip of his nose touched hers. “Something you wanted to say?”

  She laughed breathlessly against his mouth. “I love you. I mean, I was also suffocating, but mostly I love you.”

  “Sorry—about the suffocating. Not much else.” He closed his eyes and let himself simply feel her, flush with sated ecstasy, warm and wonderful beneath him.

  But he’d bruise her if he drifted off to sleep like this, his weight heavy atop her slender frame. He reluctantly rolled onto his side. “What gave you a nightmare?”

  She murmured a noncommittal, “I don’t remember….”

  He traced her cheek with his fingertips. “What was this? Are you okay?”

  “I am now.”

  For the briefest of seconds, a warning chafed at the fringes of his mind, whispering disquiet at her evasion. But he was still floating on an endorphin high, and her countenance looked so delighted and lovely, he elected not to see past it to anything troublesome.

  Instead he fell asleep with her head on his chest, his arms wrapped steadfastly around her.

  30

  TAENARIN ARIS

  TAYNA PORTAL SPACE

  * * *

  “I HOPE WE’VE SHARED valuable information with you and provided you a measure of insight. I have tried to do as Slanait Lakhes asked of me to the best of my ability.”

  Caleb nodded and clasped Jaisc’s hands firmly in his, the better to convey his sincerity. “You have. Thank you for showing such kindness to foreigners, as well as indulging our many questions.”

  Jaisc chuckled in a shimmer of lavender and aquamarine. “They were indeed many. But your curiosity is refreshing. As Iona-Cead, perhaps I should consider engaging in a manner of it myself.”

  The niceties and platitudes continued on and on, and on, while Alex fidgeted beside Caleb.

  They had been hours trekking back from the Caomh’s home. She was sweaty, and she’d been wearing the same clothes for going on sixty hours. She wanted a shower, clean clothes, a steak and a glass—or a bottle—of wine, not necessarily in that order. She wanted to talk to Valkyrie. She wanted to touch the Siyane with her mind. And at this point she wanted all these things with a fierceness bordering on madness.

  There was no way Caleb hadn’t recognized her increasing agitation by now. But just in case, she cleared her throat loudly.

  He glanced over at her as the muscles in his jaw twitched beneath the skin, then redirected his attention to Jaisc. “Now we should really be going, and you can return to your normal life.”

  “Yes, yes.” The Iona-Cead gestured up the pathway. “I must accompany you up, to see to the procedures.”

  “Of course. Whenever you’re ready.”

  She kicked Caleb’s foot, but he kept a perfect poker face as Jaisc began heading up the pathway toward the lift entrance.

  Stop that. Five minutes won’t make a difference.

  No, but then five minutes becomes ten minutes becomes ten hours. I’m ready to go.

  I did notice.

  Finally, mercifully, they were in fact leaving. The lift spun upward in excruciatingly slow revolutions. Had the descent been this slow? She didn’t remember it being this slow.

  She waited as long as she could stand, then reached out in her mind.

  Valkyrie?

  Nothing.

  Five more seconds.

  Valkyrie?

  Nothing.

  The false ice hologram came into view above. Three more seconds.

  Valk—

  There you are. What was a subterranean civilization like? Show me.

  Wait a minute. Weren’t you worried about us?

  A little. But a Metigen paid me a visit to assure me you weren’t in any danger and inform me you would return in a few days.

  WHAT?

  SIYANE

  “There was a Metigen. On the ship. In the cabin—this cabin.”

  ‘Yes. It appeared out of nowhere, breached the shielding and hull as if they did not exist, and hovered around inside for several minutes. We had a most frustrating conversation. I have to admit, Alex, I now more fully understand what you’ve always said about their aggravating manner. It declined to answer most o
f my questions and departed without a polite farewell.’

  Caleb emptied his pack onto the table. “Let me guess—did this Metigen happen to go by the name ‘Lakhes?’ ”

  ‘It did. Interesting that you know this. By the way, I should mention the Metigens call their own species ‘Katasketousya.’ ”

  Alex tossed her pack into a corner; she’d unpack and repack it later. “Yeah, we heard that, too. We got to hear quite a lot about the great and benevolent Lakhes while we were below. Their savior and protector.”

  ‘Another species worshiping Metigens as gods?’

  She frowned and went to grab a chilled water, then leaned against the back of the couch to sip on it. “Not exactly. They revere Lakhes, but not as a god. There’s also the distinct possibility this Metigen actually did save them.”

  ‘From what?’

  Caleb came over and took a swig of her water. “An interstellar superhighway.”

  She screwed her face up at him. “Huh?”

  “Never mind. From invaders of some sort—a fleet of ships harvesting the planets in their system.”

  Valkyrie sounded rather intrigued now. ‘Another system here in this space?’

  He shook his head. “Nope. In the universe through the master portal. They—or the Metigens—seem to call it Amaranthe.”

  ‘Fascinating. Amaranthe: undying, everlasting.’

  “That’s what the dictionary says.” Alex took the water back and went to the cockpit. “Let’s go ahead and get out of here. Knowing the ground is hollow beneath us, I’m suddenly imagining it opening up and devouring us.”

  “Okay.” Caleb kissed the top of her head. “I’m going to shower while you get us off this rock, then I’ll cook.”

  “Cook steak. Or pork. Basically all the meat, please.”

  His response was laughter as he disappeared downstairs.