Read In the Beginning... for Free Online Page B

didn't want his touch
made it possible at all.
    Each night she curled into a ball as close to
the wall as she could get, trying to keep as much distance between
them as possible. Each morning she answered him in monosyllables
when he attempted to converse with her, a pattern she repeated
throughout the day.
    And last night…last night had hurt him more
than anything he could ever imagined.
    Each day they were together he loved her
more. Yet she obviously felt no such connection.
    What more could he do to show her that he
would do whatever it took to make her happy?
    He pressed the call button
on his office phone. “Jambu, fetch Dhan Emily to me, please. I need to
speak with her.”
     
    ****
     
    "Call your family."
    Emily stared at him, then at the phone in his
hand. "Why?"
    "Because you want to."
    "And that's enough for you?"
    "I want you happy. I've
spent six hundred years waiting for the woman who'd be my Rajni . I won't do anything
to make that woman unhappy now that I've found her. Even if it
means I no longer have her. Call your father. Tell him..." He
looked at her then, and Emily's breath caught at the pain on his
face. "Tell him that I'll bring you home in three days."
    "My cousins, too?"
    He hesitated. That wasn’t his place. "No.
That's up to Cormac and the others."
    "And they won't let them go. But you'll let
me?" Emily's fingers stalled over the numbers. Why was it so hard
to press in the numbers? "You know I can lead the police back
here."
    "I'm asking you not to. I have fourteen
thousand people dependent on me for safety and protection, many of
them women and children. I ask that you consider them. We'll use
the next two days to make sure you'll be able to live safely among
your family. You'll need to feed once a week, but bagged blood will
work. And there are other precautions you must take."
    She nodded, then sucked in a deep breath and
dialed the family vacation home near Denver.
    Her cousin Rebecca answered, then started
crying when Emily said her name, the sound clear over the line.
    "I'm ok. We're all ok. Even Josey's dog."
Emily watched Rydere's face as she spoke, surprised and shocked at
the vulnerability visible for the first time. He was hurting. "No,
I can't tell you where we are...because I'm not one hundred percent
sure. I just want you to know that we're ok. I swear we're ok.
I...don't know. I'll call you again. Tell Daddy that I love
him."
    After she disconnected Emily stared at Rydere
for several long moments. Why hadn’t she told Rebecca where to
find them? "I need to talk to my cousins. I can't leave without
them. I won't."
     
    ****
     
    Mickey was the only one of her cousins in the
sitting room when Emily walked in. "Where's Mal and Josey?"
    "I don't know. I haven't seen them all day."
Mickey wouldn't look at her.
    "Mickey? What's the matter?" Emily sank onto
the sofa beside her cousin. "Did something happen?"
    Mickey bit her lip, hesitated. "Yes...He's
sending me away."
    Emily's mind latched on to the distinction.
"As opposed to letting you go? Where's he sending you?"
    "Home. Back to my dad."
    "And that's a bad thing? I was told the same
thing."
    Mickey nodded, breath catching. "Don't hate
me, Em."
    "I'll never hate you." Emily thought for a
moment about her cousin and about the man who'd claimed her. 
If she was feeling connected to the man who took her, despite his
arrogance and domineering way, why wouldn’t Mickey have fallen for
the Dardaptoan Theo who had treated her so gently? Who so obviously
cared for her? "Why would I?"
    "I want to stay with Theo. I don't think I
can leave him."
    "Do you think you love him?"
    Mickey nodded before wiping away a tear. "I
know I do."
    "And have you told him that?"
    "No. He was so sure that sending me away
would make me happy. So insistent that it was the right thing to
do. And what about Mal, Becca, and Rand and my dad? They'd all hate
me."
    "They wouldn't hate you. Everybody just wants
you to be happy. And if you can be happy with