If she would once look him in the eye he'd know how to respond to her. "Whatever you need, babe. Do you have an estimated departure time for us?"

"You're more than ready to go after Draagon. As soon as we can put everything away next door, you can signal the ship to pick us up. Maybe two days?"

"We won't need them. We have the hover-boat and it's faster than the ship. It should only take two or three days to reach the mainland."

When she just nodded, he pulled the door closed behind him.

Shadow lay in the dark for hours, her mind struggling with how to break through Talon's stubborn refusal to acknowledge his past. She didn't know why it was so important for him to make this connection. Her gut churned every time she even thought about leaving here before that happened. That intuition...instinct...feeling...call it what you will, it saved her life more than once. Every atom in her body knew without a doubt it was necessary. She had two days.

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

Shadow was up before the sun. While she heated up the leftovers from last night, she started singing the beer bottle song-at a considerably lower volume. Before she reached eighty bottles on the wall, Talon stomped into the room.

"Good morning!" She practically shouted at him. "It is a gorgeous day and not too cold. We should get quite a bit of this stuff moved."

"You can't tell what kind of day it's going to be BECAUSE THE SUN ISN'T UP!" He bellowed, stumbling to the table where she placed a mug of tea.

"Someone didn't get his nap out. Lighten up, grump b.u.t.t." She turned back to the fire pit so he wouldn't see her grin and picked up where she stopped on the beer bottles.

"What is that noise?" He grumbled, sipping on the hot brew.

"Surely you've heard someone sing before?" Another chorus erupted into the room.

"Singing? Sounds more like the death throes of a giant jungle cat."

"If you can do better, be my guest. If not, I'm entertaining myself." She placed their plates on the table. "Eat up. We've got a busy day ahead of us."

"Thank the G.o.ds! You can't abuse my ears with food in your mouth."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She mumbled, hiding a grin.

After their meal, they began the slow process of dismantling the cozy home she had created with the bits and pieces of salvaged refuse. She was surprised at how sad she was to be leaving. It didn't make any sense, but she couldn't think about it right now. If being around all of her treasures bothered Talon he hid it well. Not even his mother's desk and lamp broke through his sh.e.l.l. She had to keep the pressure up. During their breaks, she plunked on the mouth harp. As soon as they got back to work, she started singing again.

Talon grunted and groaned during the ninety-nine bottles of beer verses but the kava song had him growling. He did have a valid point. She was completely and totally sick of the single sentence she repeated for over an hour at the time. Sometimes she even lowered her voice enough that he had to strain to hear it.

When the light started fading, she called a halt to the moving. They made dozens of trips between the two houses and had almost everything moved. When she picked up the usable items over the past two months, it didn't seem like a lot. The secret room behind the burial urns was almost filled to capacity. All they had left were the dishes and kitchen essentials, the sealed food canisters, and the book. She would get one more night to read about the history of this place and the people who used to live here. Dawn the day after tomorrow would see them on the water again.

Talon was saved from a second day of the constant barrage of discordant sounds coming from Shadow's mouth when he declared he needed to stock the hover-boat with provisions for their voyage.

"That makes sense, but I can't move the book by myself." Shadow couldn't think of a single reason to keep him close nor a reason to go with him.

"We'll move it before it gets too dark to see. It shouldn't take more than four or five hours to stock the hover-boat. Hardest part will be hauling the drinking water. Hover-boats are powered by the sea water so fuel isn't an issue."

As soon as he disappeared from view, Shadow started preparing the food for their return trip. She had to use the opened canisters of food so she baked a mountain of hard, flat, bread and wrapped each one in a clean cloth before stacking them in a wooden crate. With no way to keep food cold, she fried, baked, roasted, and boiled every sc.r.a.p of meat on hand. It would have been better to smoke the meat but she couldn't go near the smoke house without seeing the living blanket of carrion beetles. She hoped the colder temperatures of approaching winter would keep the spoilage to a minimum. A case of food poisoning was bad enough on land. Being sick on the open water was too scary to even think about.

It was mid-afternoon when everything was cooked, wrapped, and packed. When she stepped outside for a breath of fresh air she spotted the two-wheeled cart Talon used to haul the boar carca.s.s from the Marina. He said he couldn't use it for the water bags but it didn't take a genius to figure out that it would take him a lot longer to haul two bags at a time instead of making one trip. More time on the job-less time with her.

With a huge grin, Shadow started pulling the crates, buckets, and bags of food out to the cart. He couldn't complain about her being out there if she was loading supplies. They wouldn't consume a fraction of this before reaching the mainland but a lot of it would travel with them while they tracked Draagon. Anything perishable that was still safe to eat they would donate to the homeless.

An hour later, she was struggling to keep the contraption moving. The bed was made from a sheet of metal from the roof of a collapsed building. It was nailed to the axel brace of the wheels from a small cart. She didn't remember if he told her where he found them. Must not have been important enough for him to pa.s.s the information along or she didn't think it was worth remembering. Two st.u.r.dy limbs about the thickness of her wrists made workable handles. Too bad they had to leave their horses on the mainland. This would be a perfect fit for such an animal.

d.a.m.n! This thing is heavy. She hadn't gone more than a hundred yards before the muscles in her arms and shoulders burned and sweat ran down her face.

"It would be a lot easier if I could push the d.a.m.n thing instead of pulling it." She muttered, sitting cross-legged beside the cart. "s.h.i.t...shoot, woman. There's nothing to stop you from pushing it. This job has made you lazy. Quit b.i.t.c.hin' and get on with it."

Her whispered pep talk to herself worked. It took a little creative maneuvering but once the cart faced the opposite direction, she grabbed the handles. It was a struggle to get the cart in motion, but once it started moving, it rolled much better.

She was proud of her accomplishment and it only took her two hours to make the trip versus the thirty minutes it took the day Talon showed her the white clay. She didn't have the energy to sing and struggle with the cart, too, so her approach was fairly quiet.

The cart suddenly started moving faster down the slight decline in the trail. Before she could figure out how to slow it down, the handles slipped through her sweaty hands and the cart raced toward the clay pit, the hover-boat and Talon.

"Look out!" She yelled, running as hard as she could.

Talon didn't jump for cover like he should. He moved just enough for the cart to miss him and leapt on the handles, forcing them into the clay and turning the cart just enough to miss the hover-boat.

Shadow watched in horrified slow motion as the cart tipped and dumped a week's worth of food all over Talon and the ground. The momentum snapped the handle Talon had pressed into the ground. With nothing anchoring him to the ground, the broken handle flipped him high enough that the remaining handle smacked him in the head. He dropped and the cart rolled against the boulders.

Shadow ran to Talon and gently rolled him to his back. Blood poured from the side of his head and he was unconscious.

"Talon! Come on, baby, open your eyes and yell at me." She begged. "Please, please, please don't die on me." She ran to the boat and grabbed a water bag. Stripping out of her shirt, she doused it in the cold water and pressed it hard against the cut. She used the other end of the shirt to clean the blood and debris from his face, looking for other injuries.

"f.u.c.k! Why are you in a panic?" She muttered, not caring if he demanded a kiss for cussing. As a mercenary she was familiar with battle wounds. She knew head wounds bled a lot. The sight of blood didn't bother her. "So why the f.u.c.k are you freakin' out?" Because I love him. Her heart admitted what she never could. She lost the right to have a man love her a long time ago.

"s.h.i.t. s.h.i.t. s.h.i.t!" She yelled, ignoring the tears running down her face.

"That's about a half-dozen kisses you owe me, Blue." Talon whispered, struggling to sit up.

"Don't move! You might have more injuries but I can't check that out until I get this bleeding under control."

"I'm not hurt anywhere else. It's controlled enough for you to see if I need st.i.tches." He pulled himself to a sitting position using her as an anchor.

"Anyone ever call you pig-headed?" She carefully lifted the b.l.o.o.d.y cloth and breathed a sigh of relief when only a small trickle still escaped. "You might need a couple of st.i.tches. The cut is about an inch long in the middle of your eyebrow."

"There's a first aid kit in the hover-boat, under the driver's seat."

Shadow retrieved the kit and ran back to Talon. Inside the box she found needles, suture, antiseptic wipes, and bandages. Thirty minutes later, three small st.i.tches closed the wound and a small adhesive strip protected it.

"That should hold until we get to the mainland and you can see a medic." She gripped the first aid box with both hands to hide the tremors she couldn't control. "I'm so sorry, Talon." She whispered. "I didn't...."

He covered her lips with his finger. "It was an accident, Blue." He flashed a quick, small grin. "It's been a while since I made you mad enough to want to hurt me."

"You sit here while I get this mess cleaned up and loaded." She turned her back to him and those green eyes. She could just drown in the warmth and caring she saw there. Would he still look at her the same way after tonight? With a mental shrug, she started the beer-on-the-wall song as she gathered and sorted the food for their voyage.

Chapter Twenty-Nine.

Talon swallowed hard, fighting the fear eating at his soul. He couldn't let Shadow suspect his injuries were more serious than a small cut. Standing before the mirror he used for shaving, he repeated the same 'test' he'd been performing since they returned to the house. Results were the same. The uninjured eye still functioned like it did before he was. .h.i.t by the runaway cart. The right eye, the one he needed to sight the rifle, only saw the heat images like before the new implants. How would the loss affect his aim? They were leaving for the mainland in little less than twelve hours. Not enough time to learn how to shoot left-handed.

Shadow was moving the last of her treasures, as she called them, to the vault but she would return soon. He had to keep this hidden. His Blue felt bad enough without knowing about this loss. That annoying voice in his head kept urging him to tell her. Maybe the shock would finally silence the brain-shattering sound of her singing. He'd go stone-cold deaf before he willingly hurt her like that.

The tw.a.n.g of her 'instrument' told him she was sitting on the porch, probably enjoying the last rays of the sun. He wanted to join her but his fear of discovery kept him rooted to the floor. Her personality echoed through the house. It's funny how one woman, digging through the piles of rubbish left from the destruction of an entire race of people, could bring such life to a house.

Talon added another log on the fire pit before getting comfortable on the mattress dragged in from his room. They decided earlier that it would be warmer since everything except their wilderness bags was packed and loaded. It wouldn't be long before winter settled in for good. Frost already covered the ground every morning. He used to love waking up to fresh snowfall. There were good memories of his childhood. He just buried them along with the horror.

"That fire feels good tonight. The wind's picking up and it feels like rain. As cold as it is, do you think it will be an ice storm or maybe snow?" She held her hands to the fire.

"Too warm for an ice storm but we may have a light dusting of snow." Shadow stood between him and the fire pit. He traced her silhouette, outlined by the blaze, remembering every soft dip and curve. She knew he only saw faint shadowy allusions of auras since the implants so she quit controlling hers. With the damage to his right eye he had that ability back and she sparkled with every color in the rainbow.

He wanted to make love to her so bad he ached. The evidence of his desire strained against the rough fabric of his pants. Would she share his bed one last time?

"I'm gonna take advantage of that bathtub one last time." She stretched her arms high above her head, arching her back to loosen the kinks of a day of heavy lifting.

Talon almost groaned aloud when her b.r.e.a.s.t.s pulled against the b.u.t.tons of her shirt. Flipping the edge of his bag back, he patted the s.p.a.ce beside him. "I'll keep this spot warm for you."

For the s.p.a.ce of a dozen heartbeats, she stared at him. Would she refuse? The only clue he had was the flare of bright, clear red around her head.

"You sure you feel up for that?" She waved her hand at the wilderness bag.

"I'm already up, Blue." Her soft gasp was the verbal confirmation he needed. "You go enjoy your bath, baby."

"You could join me." She whispered.

He shook his head slowly. "Not this time, Shadow. I want you right here beneath me all night. I don't plan on getting much sleep tonight."

"Sleep is highly overrated."

Talon couldn't hold back his laughter when she practically skipped down the hall. He didn't know where those escaped criminals stole the hover-boat but whoever owned it knew quality and appreciated 'gadgets'. This one was equipped with an autopilot feature and a top-of-the-line sonar warning system. He'd be able to catch a nap as soon as they hit open water tomorrow. Tonight was all about Blue.

Shadow was so glad she had heated water earlier for her bath. It was cooled enough now that she wouldn't scald herself. As much as she wanted to crawl into bed with Talon, she had to keep her priorities straight. It was tonight or never to get him to embrace his past in a positive way. If he didn't there was no way he'd survive after Draagon. Oh, he would still walk and talk and breathe, but there would be nothing for him to live for when Draagon was dead. She had to force him to see the difference even if he ended up hating her.

She made herself stay in the tub for thirty minutes. Any less might make him suspicious. Wrapped in a towel, she stared at the clothes hanging from the hook in the bathroom. The soft, blue material would mold to her curves and her hair, left loose around her shoulders, added just the right touch of s.e.xy. Would Talon like it or would he laugh at her attempt at being feminine?

"It's not about you so drop the insecurities and get dressed." She scolded herself. The dress fit her surprisingly well, if a little short. Instead of brushing the tops of her feet, it stopped just above her ankles. The item hidden beneath the clothes in her bag was her hope for his future.

Drawing a deep breath for courage, she turned off the torch and walked out of the bathroom. d.a.m.n. Was this hallway always this long? She stood in the doorway waiting for Talon to realize she was there. The b.u.t.terflies currently doing battle in her stomach jacked her case of nerves to a whole new level.

The look on his face when he spotted her would fuel her fantasies for years to come. Such heat and longing had to come from more than just l.u.s.t. Did he feel more for her than a s.e.x partner? Did she want him to feel more? She'd settle for him not hating her tomorrow.

"d.a.m.n, Blue!" His rough voice raked across her nerve endings, sending her libido into hyper-drive. "You should wear a dress more often." He suddenly sat straight up on his bag. "h.e.l.l no! You can't wear something like that out in public!" His voice was cold and hard.

The pain of his rejection was too sudden for her to mask the gasp when his words pierced her heart. Tears quickly filled her eyes and she had no defense except to turn and leave the room.

Talon caught her before she took three steps down the hall. "What did I say to hurt you, Blue? Don't cry, baby. Talk to me, please."

His arms felt so good wrapped around her, but she needed to get away so she could deal with his reaction. You knew it was a gamble. What do you know about being a woman? Especially around a man like him.

"Let me go, Talon." She pushed against his arms but his strength was more than enough to keep her captive.

"Not until you tell me what happened back there. Why are you running away in tears?"

"I'm not running away." She argued, swiping at the tears on her face. "I'm going to change clothes then make a cup of tea."

"You don't need to change clothes. I like what you're wearing."

He nuzzled her neck like there was nothing at all wrong. Now she was p.i.s.sed.

"What kind of sick a.s.s game are you playing?" She shoved an elbow into his side.

"Me?" He released her and rubbed his ribs. "One minute I'm planning a night of seduction and the next you run crying from the room. What the h.e.l.l?"

"Seduction?" She yelled. "Here's a flash for you, a.s.shole. INSULTS DON'T WORK AS FOREPLAY!"

"Insults?" His arms fell to his sides. "I didn't...."

"Yes, you did." The confusion on his face calmed her anger enough that she quit yelling. "I shouldn't be seen in public wearing a dress. Don't worry. The dress goes in the fire pit and I can guaran-d.a.m.n-tee I won't ever be anything but what I am-a d.a.m.n good merc." She turned away and took another step away from Talon before he grabbed her and lifted her into his arms.

"Put me down!" She kicked and struggled to get free.

"Not until we get this misunderstanding straightened out. Be still before I spank that beautiful, soft a.s.s."

"If you think you can talk your way into my pants...."

"Shut up, Blue." He growled. "The last thing on my mind right now is s.e.x. I want to paddle your a.s.s for expecting every mention of the word, woman, to be an insult. However, my hands on your bare a.s.s would lead to s.e.x. Don't you get it, babe? Every move you make, every word from your mouth, has me thinking about sinking into some part of your luscious body."

He sat down on the wilderness bag and settled her on his lap.

"If you don't want s.e.x why are we on your bed?" She couldn't get the image of her draped over his lap while he slapped her a.s.s out of her mind. That wasn't something she'd ever thought about, but with Talon...yeah, she could do that.

"I don't want you dressing like that in public because I don't want other men seeing what's mine. You're a walking wet dream, Blue. The only thing I give a d.a.m.n about you wearing is that d.a.m.ned binding c.r.a.p that smashes these beauties." He traced a finger around a nipple.

"Oh." She whispered. While she regretted her outburst, the history behind her reaction was valid-at least in her mind.