Page 18 of Rescued

That term again—it made no sense to Nate.

“Dream-sharing? What the fuck is that?” he demanded, ignoring her request that he not swear.

She looked troubled.

“It’s what happens when the mind of a Kindred aligns with the mind of a male of another species. You have dreams—visions—of each other. You see each others’ daily activities—the trials and tribulations the other person is going through. You and I have been Dream-sharing for months,” she emphasized again.

“So you’ve been watching me for months?” he demanded.

“Only in my dreams. And it wasn’t something I did consciously.” She looked at him earnestly. “Every time I closed my eyes at night, I found myself in your world, Nate. I saw what you went through—my heart aches for your pain.”

He felt something clench in his chest at her soft words. For a moment he was almost tempted to believe her. But no—what she was saying was crazy. She was clearly an alien—she’d even admitted she was a different species. It was probably another plot by the AllFather to fuck with his mind so he could suck up more of Nate’s pain.

“I can feel your disbelief,” she said softly, startling him. “I know it will take some time for me to prove myself to you, but the dreams don’t lie.” She bent closer, her large, lovely eyes looking into his. “Can you honestly say you don’t know me at all? After all the dreams we shared…”

“I never remember my dreams,” Nate said roughly. “So no, lady—I don’t fucking know you! Now are you going to let me go or not?”

An expression of heartbreaking sadness crossed her lovely face and for a moment Nate almost felt sorry for hurting her. But then he hardened himself—it was all a trick! He probably wasn’t even here, floating in this weird, warm pool of milky blue water. He was probably back at the Father Ship, hooked up to all those fucking wires while the Scourge pushed fucked up images into his brain to make his pain taste sweeter for the AllFather…

“Ah…so much pain and fear and distrust!” the girl moaned softly and her eyes closed tight, as though she was fighting not to be overwhelmed. “Oh, Nate…I’m so sorry for all you went through! I’m so sorry I couldn’t get to you earlier!”

When she opened her eyes again, they were bright with tears. Seeing her distress tugged at something in Nate’s heart. He hated to see a woman upset or in tears—his natural urge was to comfort and protect her. But how could he trust that her tears were for real? How could he trust that any of this was for real?

“I can feel you struggling with doubt,” she said, looking down at him. “You wonder if you’re really here or if you’re back at the Father Ship, being tortured, don’t you?”

Nate stiffened—as much as he could anyway, since his body still wasn’t obeying any of his commands.

“How the fuck do you know about that? No wait—let me guess—the ‘Dream-sharing.’ Right?”

He said it sarcastically, but she only nodded.

“Yes. I’ve seen what they did to you—it’s one of the reasons I brought you here, to my home world of Careesa Prime. You need healing, Nate.” She looked at him earnestly. “I just want to help you—to heal you. But I can’t do that if you won’t trust me.”

“Why the fuck should I trust you?” he demanded. “What have you done but kidnap me and paralyze me and put me in a fucking lake where I can’t even fucking swim?”

“This is the Outermost pool—I brought you here to heal your outer wounds,” she said softly. “After I rescued you from being blown out the air lock at the Flesh Bazaar,” she added.

Nate frowned. He did remember the Flesh Bazaar—the huge auditorium bigger than a football stadium lined with pedestals where slaves were displayed. They had thawed him out several times there and tried to sell him—and every time he’d done his level best to kill the fuckers!

“I know what you’ve had to do to survive,” the purple girl said softly. “I’ve watched you, Nate—I’ve ached for your pain. But you’re safe now. No one will hurt you here. You have to try and let go of some of your paranoia and believe me. Trust me.”

Nate felt a growl of frustration rising in his throat.

“How do you expect me to do that? Why should I ever fucking trust you?”

“Because, until you can trust, you cannot begin to heal,” she said softly. “Watch…”

Looking up, she murmured something in a language he didn’t understand. At her call, a long, purple vine dropped down from the ceiling.

Nate wanted to flinch away from it instinctively—it acted too much like a fucking snake for comfort! But he couldn’t move—all he could do was watch as tightly furled buds along the vine’s length burst open and blossomed into large, softly glowing flowers.

The glow lit up the purple girl’s face—what had she said her name was? Lan’ara? Anyway, it lit her face with a dim, golden glow and made her eyes shine like stars.

“Feel me touching you,” she murmured softly, looking into Nate’s eyes. “Feel my hands supporting you—you can trust me not to drop you, Nate—not to let you drown. I only want to help you—I only want to heal you. Release your rage to me—let me take it for you.”

Nate looked up at her and felt something in his chest loosen…just a little bit. He had to admit, none of the images the Scourge had forced into his head were anything like this. They had all been of torture and war—horrible mental snapshots of his family being killed, his little sister being raped. Every single thing they’d showed him had been meant to make him angry and horrified and sad and afraid. There was nothing like this—floating in a calm lake with a beautiful girl speaking softly to him.

As he remembered the awful things the enemy had forced into his mind, Lan’ara closed her eyes again and a look of pain came over her beautiful face.

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