Read Davin's Quest for Free Online Page B

could be the difference between sanity and death for me, Jane. They monitor me all the time, and though I’m too important to dispose of right now, at the first sign of madness I will be put down, discarded and forgotten like so much rubbish.”
    “That’s awful!”
    “That’s the truth.”
    Jane stood to go, pausing by the door as if coming to some decision while Davin held his breath. So much rested with this one compassionate woman.
    “I’ll send Callie to you with dinner. You won’t be alone, but perhaps you can manage to test your theories about whether or not you Hum if you touch her.” She turned wide, scared eyes on him, driving home how hard this was for her. “But please don’t let her know what you’re about. She won’t be able to hear the Hum. Please don’t tell her. Give her time to grow into the woman who could possibly be your mate. If she’s meant for you, she’ll come to you on her own terms, not because of some resonance tests your people have. She’s human, Davin. Not Alvian.”
    Davin bowed his head. “She is at least part Alvian, my lady. As are you.” He didn’t want to correct her, but he knew this point was important.
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    Jane nodded. “Okay. I accept that. But she’s more human. She doesn’t understand your traditions.
    She’s been raised to expect to love the man she ultimately commits her life to, and always thought it would be a human man, or perhaps more than one human man, not one of your kind. There are so few of our women left. She knows this. She’s seen the reality of what I had to do to keep my family together.
    All I ask is that you let her get used to the idea of you in our lives as a friend.” She looked out the doorway into the distance. “The only Alvians we’ve had contact with are Mara 12 and the soldiers she brings with her. All we’ve known of your people up until now has been fear. Give Callie time to get used to the idea that you’re different.”
    “What you say has merit, my lady. You are truly wise.” Davin sighed. “I’ll do as you wish and you have my word I won’t rush her. Besides,” he smiled at his reluctant hostess, “all this may be for naught. We may not even Hum.” But in his heart of hearts he knew this brave woman’s first-born daughter would be his. They would Hum. He just knew it.
     
    Callie followed Mick into the office later that evening, bearing a tray. Mick was similarly laden, but he motioned to Callie when Davin came forward to help him with his burden. Holding the door wide for the young woman, Davin took the tray from her hands, making sure to brush her skin with his own.
    And his heart nearly stopped.
    The brief touch of her hand to his brought about a rush of sensation the likes of which he had never known. The air vibrated with the Hum of their energies meeting and meshing, then parting as she moved back from him. It was all he could do to stop himself from reaching out to pull her fully into his embrace, touching her skin and reveling in the Hum that he hadn’t dared hope he would ever hear¾the woman he hadn’t dared hope he would ever find.
    Callie looked up at him, her wide, dark eyes bemused as he stood frozen in the doorway. Davin was struck momentarily speechless as he got his first up-close look at the woman who he believed now more than ever had been born for him. Luckily Mick was there to fill in the silence, or Davin’s promise to Jane might have been broken. He wanted so much to tell Callie about his discovery. He wanted to take her with him right this minute, regardless of her youth. She was his!
    Or she would be. In a couple of years.
    That was the bargain he’d struck. He saw the sense of it in his mind, but his heart was screaming out for him to stake his claim on this woman here and now.
    “Come all the way in, girl,” Mick said briskly to his niece.
    Callie blushed prettily and ducked under Davin’s outstretched arm, moving fully into the room. She went about setting the platters