Shayn Read online

  Thinking of drugs flashed her back to Konnor’s concoction and she wanted to gag.

  “Is something wrong?” Shayn asked.

  “No,” she assured him. “Just an annoying thing from a test this morning. It’s all better now that I’ve found you.” She couldn’t keep the sentimental words from escaping, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. It felt too nice to be around Shayn and she wanted more. She’d find a way to sneak into his quarters and see what they could get up to.

  Provided he was into that.

  She licked her lips and looked out over the rippling water of the pool. “You called me your denya the other day,” she said quietly. “I didn’t recognize the word so I looked it up.” She could practically hear Aileen chastising her for taking credit for the discovery, but she didn’t have time to explain about her AI companion at the moment.

  Shayn stiffened but he didn’t pull away. “What did you find?” he asked carefully. He must have realized that she wouldn’t have sat down next to him if she was running scared.

  “The definition of the word,” was her reply. “It’s a bit... surprising. Unexpected.”

  “Impossible,” he added, leaning even closer.

  It didn’t feel impossible when they were touching like this. Sure, she was human and he was an alien, but stranger things had happened. Hadn’t they? “Will you tell me about it?” It was one thing to hear the definition from a snarky computer and something else entirely to hear it from the man who kissed her like she mattered.

  “There aren’t many Detyens left,” he began, and already Naomi knew this story would hurt. Though now that she was looking at him, she realized that he looked like that other alien she’d seen in her vision, the one who’d been working with the human. Was that a Detyen? Was the human his denya?

  “What happened?” Naomi often felt the drift from her own people, but there was a comfort in knowing that there were billions of humans all those light-years away back on Earth. What must Shayn feel with his people gone?

  He told her a story that had her heart breaking. Of sudden destruction in the midst of peacetime, of people looking for a home in an unforgiving galaxy, of the ever encroaching helplessness that came from knowing his people were only a few generations from extinction. “And there’s the denya price, of course,” he added as an afterthought.

  “The denya price?” Was that like a dowry?

  He was silent for a long moment, hesitance written on his sharp features. He looked out over the pool and kicked his legs, sending up ripples in the water. “It’s why I’m here. Sort of,” he finally said. “I’m not completely Detyen. My father was. But my mother was Oscavian. I have two younger brothers, and they mean all the worlds to me. And because we are half Detyen we are mired in uncertainty.”

  “Okay?” She was even more confused.

  Shayn shot her a grin and her heart flipped over. “The denya price. It’s a genetic quirk. We recognize our mates on sight.” He squeezed her hand, raising it to his lips and kissing it. “But if we do not bond with them by our thirtieth birthdays we die.”

  Naomi almost ripped her hand away, almost backed up until there was space between them. She almost fell into the pool. But she took a deep breath and steadied herself. “You die? That’s terrible.”

  “I didn’t know if I would be able to recognize my denya, to recognize you. And I don’t know what this means for my fate, or, more importantly, that of my brothers. Sola is studying me to see just how Detyen I am. And I hope that they can give me answers.”

  That made sense. Morgyn always talked about the good that the Corporation did, the good that studying Naomi’s brain brought about. Perhaps that had something to do with Shayn. She hoped it helped. “But what is that bonding thing?”

  His grin turned a bit predatory. “Sex.”

  One word and she went up in flames. “So having sex with you would save your life? I think people warned me about lines like that.” It only occurred to her after she said it that her joke was a bit callous given everything he had told her.

  But Shayn laughed and hugged her close, kissing her cheek and then down along her jaw and back up until her lips met. After a moment he pulled back and their eyes locked. Naomi could feel it all the way to her gut, like there was some kind of cord connecting the two of them already. “You are a delight, denya. Fate has smiled on me.”

  “I still have questions —”

  The sound of his communicator ringing cut her off. Shayn groaned, but it was a good reminder. Naomi didn’t have all of the time in the world to spend with him. “I’ll find you later,” she promised, giving him another kiss. “I’m really glad I met you.”

  He just smiled at her as she walked off.

  She wanted to skip through the halls and she couldn’t stop grinning. Was this what it felt like to like someone? She could get used to it. She opened the red door that led to the corridor that led to her room. And all her happiness came crashing down when she saw Morgyn standing in front of her doorway, information tablet clutched tightly to her chest.

  “Where have you been?” Morgyn asked, as if Naomi had to account for every minute of her day.

  “I was taking a break,” Naomi answered. “It’s been nonstop testing for the past few days.”

  “If we don’t test, then the surgeries are for nothing.”

  Then maybe they should hold off on the surgeries. Naomi didn’t say it; she knew the idea would be shot down immediately. “I’m here now. What is it?”

  Morgyn smiled brightly and Naomi knew something bad was coming. “Given some of the test results we’ve been seeing, Dr. Konnor has an additional procedure he would like to perform. It slightly more invasive, but perfectly safe. I wanted to let you know so you can prepare yourself.”

  Morgyn handed her the tablet and walked off. Naomi looked down at the screen but a vision knocked into her and the only thing she saw in the dark metal was death.

  BY THE TIME SHANE HAD pulled out his communicator, Naomi was out of sight. He wanted to chase after her, but Dekon’s face flashed up on the screen and he wasn’t about to ignore his brother. He engaged the call and put on his brightest smile. Was now the time to tell his siblings about Naomi?

  When the call connected and Shayn got a look at his brother’s face he knew his good news could wait a little while longer. Dekon looked shaken, and Brax was nowhere to be seen. “Have you seen the story?” Dekon asked.

  Shayn hadn’t paid much attention to things going on back home since he’d arrived on Oscavia. “What happened? Is everything okay?” Where was Brax? He kept that one to himself. His brothers were twins and did a lot of things together, but they were quick to point out that they were independent individuals capable of existing without one another.

  “The Detyen Legion. It’s real.” Deke wasn’t making much sense and he was speaking more to himself than to Shayn.

  “Isn’t that a legend?” Plenty of stories had arisen after the destruction of Detya, and he had heard whispers of the Detyen Legion his entire life. A military band descended from the warriors of Detya on a generational mission to right the wrongs done to their people. It sounded too fantastical to be true.

  “They’re on Earth. Hundreds of Detyens. And I’m hearing stories about them finding human mates. We need to go there. Need to see what’s happening. Come back home, Shayn. We can go find our people.”

  Hundreds of Detyens? It seemed impossible. There were communities scattered across dozens of planets, but whatever scant Detyen population there was numbered in the handfuls. Hundreds of their people, maybe thousands. A new home, new hope. What would Naomi think of that?

  “I’ve news of my own,” he began.

  But Deke jolted where he was sitting. “A new report came in. I’ll send it on to you. I have to go.” He closed the call without waiting for a response and Shayn stared down at the blank screen in confusion.

  Earth. He’d heard of it, of course, but it wasn’t anything special. It was a long way from the Oscavian
Empire, and from Honora Station, and until this moment he had never dreamed of going there. Now he had much to think about.

  Shayn got up and wiped his feet off before heading back into the building. He had more tests scheduled for the afternoon and he hoped that Naomi would find him again. If not, he could always try to find her.

  Days passed and he began to wonder what he was doing there. The people working with him seemed to be junior technicians who couldn’t answer any of his questions, most importantly, when the first results would be in. And a strange sense of dread had dogged him since Naomi had left. No, not quite that. He’d been fine on the call with Deke, but when that ended he could feel a yawning chasm inside his chest as if he were balanced on the precipice and about to plunge in.

  Was Naomi okay? He needed to find her. Needed to convince himself that nothing was wrong. She had spoken of surgery. Was she ill? No, that wasn’t it. Hadn’t she said something about psychic visions? He had seen a lot in his life. Especially in the last few years at Honora Station. He wasn’t as well-traveled as many of the people he knew, but living on a busy space station meant he saw all different types of people and beings. He’d seen aliens who could manipulate air and light and things he hadn’t even begun to understand. Some could move things with their mind. Some could summon nightmares. It wasn’t common and there was a good deal of trickery, but some of it was real. He believed Naomi when she said it.

  Could it be possible that he was sensing something through their bond? It hadn’t been sealed, but was that necessary to feel her? He didn’t know. And he had no one he could ask. That brought his mind back to Dekon’s news. Perhaps those Detyens on Earth could give him better answers than Sola Corporation. But he had agreed to a month of study and he would honor that commitment for now. Especially since Naomi was somewhere in the building.

  After a few hours of interviews, the technician dismissed him and Shayn headed back to his room. It was a little while before the evening meal and he didn’t feel like socializing with anyone but his denya. If only he could find her.

  When was that surgery? Would she need a lot of time to recover? Would she need company? She had spoken of it so offhandedly that perhaps surgery was commonplace. Shayn had never been under the knife. The closest he could remember was a particularly bad cut on his arm when he was a child. Their settlement had been out of regen gel and the local healer had stitched the wound closed.

  He sat on the bed and pulled out his tablet to play a mindless game for a few minutes, but even that couldn’t hold his attention for long. Something was wrong. He got up and paced like some sort of caged animal. The door wasn’t locked. He could go out whenever he wanted. But he had looked on every residential floor and hadn’t been able to find Naomi’s room. Unless she was sitting outside again he had no idea where to look. She hadn’t been in the dining hall when he took his meals, and she hadn’t been in the entertainment room when he’d gone down to watch a vid. Her quarters had to be in one of the restricted sections. He didn’t know why. But he could ask her the next time he saw her.

  If nothing went wrong.

  That was enough. He couldn’t focus and he had a better chance of finding his denya outside of this room rather than in it. He strode to the door and flung it open, only to find the woman in question standing right outside.

  “We need to get out of here.” She reached out a hand and Shayn grabbed on, ready to run wherever she led.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THE VISION HADN’T GIVEN her much to work with, but maybe Dr. Konnor’s concoction was a little better than Naomi had given it credit for. When she concentrated and begged her mind to give her a path out she saw the way highlighted as if she were looking at a map. And there was no way she was getting out of the building without Shayn. They might have only just met. But she could feel that bond that he talked about. She wasn’t ready to pledge her forever to him, but she was more than willing to save his life, so to speak.

  But first she had to save her own. Never before had she doubted that Morgyn had her best interests at heart. Never before had she thought that Morgyn would make her undergo a risky surgery that would end in her death. But that was how Naomi interpreted the vision. Something was going to go wrong and if she tried to talk Morgyn out of it things would only get worse.

  She had spent the better part of the last five years internally justifying why she was staying at Sola Corp. Why she wasn’t at least moving out and starting her own life. It didn’t mean leaving Morgyn and the staff that was as close as family. She could always visit and could agree to some sort of reduced testing schedule. Instead she had stayed and let the tests escalate, let Morgyn’s excuses grow and grow. And now she didn’t know if Morgyn would let her leave.

  No, she knew. And she hated to face the answer. This place had been her home for fourteen years, and it had been her prison for just as long. If she didn’t get out now she would never escape.

  She dropped Shayn’s hand as they walked down the corridor. She didn’t want to, but it would look strange if anyone saw them. And if things went right, if her vision held true, they could be doing a lot more than holding hands pretty soon.

  It was a straight shot to the elevators and down to the main entrance, but Naomi turned them towards the stairs. Shayn kept opening his mouth as if he had questions, and then shutting it just as quick. Clearly he understood that the time for questions would come later.

  They entered the stairwell and went down two flights, before Naomi led them down the hall to a different staircase that went down to one of the entertainment floors. From there they entered the garden. They had passed a few technicians who waved and smiled and clearly didn’t think anything was wrong. Naomi tried to keep her expression neutral, and she hoped Shayn was doing the same. She was putting her complete faith in her visions and she didn’t know whether that was wise or not. But a spur of the moment escape was her only way of getting out. That she was certain of.

  She only had the clothes on her back, the credits she could access in her bank account, and Aileen, who lived on the tablet in her pocket. As sad as it was there wasn’t anything else for her to take. Aileen was the only memento she had of her parents, and almost everything from her childhood had been thrown away or put in storage when she became an adult. There was no sentimentality at Sola Corp. It hadn’t seemed like a big deal when Naomi was younger, but now she was beginning to realize all she had lost.

  Her vision didn’t need to tell her this part of the escape. There was a small door hidden by the hedges that was used by the garden staff and some of the technicians who wanted to sneak off on their breaks.

  She opened the door and stepped onto the sidewalk, Shayn following close behind. Freedom. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been outside of the facility without Morgyn or one of her staff accompanying her. The door shut behind them with a clang and Naomi knew that if they were caught now there was no talking their way out of it. Naomi didn’t leave the building without permission. It had never occurred to her to do so. And now she was standing outside of an out of the way door with the man she had met two days ago, planning to escape the planet and never return.

  It might have seemed rash, but Sola had a lot of money and a lot of power, not to mention influence within the Oscavian Empire. Naomi feared that if they chased her she would be running for the rest of her life.

  She grabbed Shayn’s hand and led him further down the street before flagging down a taxi. “Come on,” she said. “We need to move.”

  He slid into the seat behind her and watched as she programmed a destination into the autopilot. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  Naomi thought Shayn deserved some kind of reward for his restraint. Not everyone would be able to pull off that exit at her side without asking any questions. But Naomi’s instincts were still on high alert and as the taxi pulled out she snapped her head back to watch the road behind them.

  Three... Two... One.

  “It’s about to get interesting,” s
he said. “Hold on.”

  A vehicle peeled out from the hidden street and chased after their taxi. Naomi reached into her pocket and pulled out Aileen. “Can you get us there?” she asked her AI.

  “Sure thing. I’ve always wanted to go on an adventure,” Aileen replied.

  “What is that?” Shayn asked.

  “Who’s the hunk?” Aileen added. “Scanning life form. Oh, is this your Detyen? You’ve been holding out on me.”

  “Work on driving,” Naomi insisted. “You’ll get the full story later.”

  Shayn was still waiting for answer.

  “Aileen is an AI that my mom programmed. And she’s my oldest friend. My only friend.” Oh, crap, that sounded sad. “And she’s our best hope of escaping whoever Morgyn just sent after us.”

  SHAYN STARED AT NAOMI and waited for things to start making sense. A few seconds went by and nothing clicked into place. The AI on her tablet—named Aileen, apparently—muttered, her voice coming through the vehicle’s speakers, but he couldn’t quite make out what she was saying.

  He put any questions he had about the computer aside. She was an AI, that was easy enough to understand. And from what little Naomi had told him about her time with Sola it was easy to figure out why her closest companion was a machine rather than a person.

  “Why is security chasing us? Why are we running?” He trusted his mate and her powers of prediction, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have questions. “What’s going on?”

  Naomi jerked to the side as they took a turn at full speed, and if Shayn hadn’t been holding on to the door he would’ve crushed her. “Whatever Morgyn had planned was more than I agreed to. And it was going to kill me.”

  Shayn growled. The sound surprised him, and the claws that hid under his knuckles threatened to shoot out. Let the security guards come. He would tear them apart before he let them get to his mate. But they were safe in the vehicle for now, and he still needed answers. “Did you tell her about the vision?”