Page 53 of Finding Her Heart
"Agent-five?" Annabell asked, not understanding. She knew now that Eid was not a real person but a very smart machine. The concept was not too difficult to grasp. She had used the school's computer interface more than any of the other students, asking it countless questions about geology, history, and the ecology of the world she lived on. She had to ask it a direct question in a complete sentence, and it would answer it as best it could. More than once, Annabell asked a question that it could not answer. Eid had no such limitations.
But she often made no sense.
"Agent-five is a healing salve for humans. It is extremely effective for all wounds. There is a simpler version of it in all the Peace River villages. The Orki trade it."
"The lavender healing ointment."
"Yes, that is a mild version.”
*
It felt like weeks of recovery, but finally, they left the blue room and Eid's presence after being declared healthy and whole. Doku-ni didn't want her to walk on her own, stand on her own, do anything on her own.
"I am well."
"Anna leave Doku-ni," he told her with a grim expression. "Disobey, leave Zerzer, see Ri's redress, risk self, risk life."
Doku-ni had said nothing of this while Annabell was in the blue room, but his words made it clear he had not forgotten she neglected to follow directions.
Annabell hadn't forgotten either. It had all been for nothing. "I risked my life and failed. But I had to try. You don't understand, how can you? Strong and made for war, you have never known indecision. Never known fear. Never faced an enemy that could kill you and everyone around you no matter which direction you turned.”
He stopped her where she stood, doing that thing, taking her over, and taking control with a single hand at her throat—tipping her chin back-boring into her soul. "Doku-ni's Anna talks like a fool. It is she who does not understand. There is One redress. One only. One treasure. One blessing. One relief from the empty, from pain that is never satisfied, for ache. Does Anna understand ache?"
His voice deepened, raw and angry in his correction. He spoke the mix of Orkis and common slowly. Every word pounding at her. There were things the Orkis had no word for, so he filled them in with common, and speaking to them harsh and clear. "There is onlyoneAnna. Only one Anna Doku-ni walk from. Only one Anna Doku-ni failed twice. Doku-ni died in the battle to claim her. Shamed his redress, shamed himself, because he would not wait to ease the scar of living. Doku-ni failed, gave a bad offering to sons of men he knew were not men of honor. And men of honor, peace breakers, keep her. Doko-ni failed his redress."
"No. You did not fail."
With a slight shift of his hand, his thumb covered her lips. Silencing her. "Anna is short-lived child. Anna know nothing. Doku-ni die. Die in shame. No honor. No life. No living. Doku-ni die until it is time to hunt and die again after the hunt. Sons of men break Peace Law and Doku-ni hunt with Ri to find his Anna.
"You died? And your silence? Your loss of honor, your shame—that piece of metal in your throat that silenced you. I never asked that of you, never would have. I imagined you were doing your Orki things, that you had found your peace, found another, found something better than woe. I imagined you on all the adventures and discoveries in the Orki lands."
"Doku-ni goes hunting with the Ri. Hoping. Hoping to find his Anna. Hoping she lives. We hunt the smell of shit and death from the cities to the Peace Lands–too late. Many dead. Grasping sons of men kill many for the hungries pupae to feast on. Anna live. Ri finds redress, Orki find succor. Luth-ni finds redress. Doku-ni takes his redress war bride, mounts her. Mounts his Anna. Takes his Anna." He pulled her into him, looked down into her eyes with every furious word.
Still without clothes, wearing nothing but the leather slippers he gave her, the hot tips of her nipples pressed into the heat of his lower chest. She felt the rise of his shaft against her belly, lifting the leathers of his loin covering.
With her lips pinned closed, she couldn't say a word as he did that thing, that dangerous, erotic thing. She trembled in anticipation, a trill of needy want down her spine. Clasping her throat with his fingers to press just so against a single vein. His grip tightened until he held her air. Her life and her desire. The crazed, insane pulse of her molten want beating in the palm of his hand. Her mouth gaping like a fish, hands twitching, reaching for his waist, clawing at him, he held her just like that until her eyes watered, until her heart screamed, until her core leaked down her thighs with his ownership.
With the barest movement, he gave her air and life back.
Annabell was his. Completely his.
She gasped, inhaling, her core clenching, the nub between her legs enlarged and tumescent with want. She could come. One twitch of his fingers. One word of command. One tiny signal on his part while standing in the quiet hallway with his hand on her throat.
She could come.
He shook his head back and forth—a deliberate negative.
Annabell whimpered, "Please."
"No."
The sob of surrender caught in her throat, held there. What was happening to her? What had happened? Why did she like this? Why did she like coming up against the hard of his unrelenting will and being trapped there like a mouse. Why did it inflame her?
She didn't know. Couldn't answer. And what did it matter? It was between them and who they were together. She didn't understand herself, but she liked it. Liked this complete mastery and losing herself in it. This possession was true. It spiraled through her, took her over, made her weak, took her to a place where she was not alone and where she didn't have to be the strong one taking care of everything.
She could trust him.
As if he saw her come to that moment of realization, he said, "Doku-ni takes his Anna and gives her his voice. His words. His honor. And his Anna redress says she sees him. What did she see?"
