Page 96 of Warrior's Captive
“Vivian?” Banujani called. “We need to track. I’m taking you home.”
Vivian opened the paper, skimmed the short handwritten note, and slipped it inside the pocket of her slim pants.
She turned, leaving the room, and met Banujani’s gaze. “That’s fine. You’ll keep me updated?”
Banujani stared hard, but there wasn’t much she could protest about Vivian’s calm acceptance.
“We’ll keep you updated,” the guard said after a minute.
* * *
Vivian warred with herself.
She lifted Mayleen out of her crib and sat in the rocking chair. The baby stirred, and Vivian let her latch onto a nipple. “Love you so much,” she murmured. She would do anything for this child. Tear the world apart to keep her safe and happy.
But there was another mother and baby out there who weren’t safe and happy, and the thought of what could be happening to them right now was as agonizing as the thought of what could happen to Mayleen. Mayleen was safe behind this fortress. Ori and Shira weren’t.
After the baby was sound asleep in her crib again, Vivian went up to her studio. It was night, and the light shining through the ceiling windows was the ethereal glow from stars. The stars on Yedahn were brighter than Earth’s, or maybe their atmosphere was clearer.
She’d made a home here for herself, one she was hoping to show to her parents soon. A long craft table stacked neatly with brushes, inks, and a piece in progress. The shelves of carefully organized supplies. In the corner a seating area for when she just wanted to sit and think.
In that same corner, a discreet wall inset datasphere console blinked, indicating a message in the inbox.
She approached. “Open and display unread message.”
Coordinates flashed on screen. She had sixty seconds to commit them to memory, and like the handwritten note had instructed, the message self-destructed.
Come. Bring no one. Wear no devices. Their lives hinged on her cooperation.
Vivian wasn’t stupid. As soon as she was in their power, the enemy wouldn’t release Shira or Ori. But Tai’ri would come for her—she was the living breadcrumb that would lead to the end of this danger once and for all. They were fully bonded now. He would find her.
She continued to breathe evenly, allowing calm to flow through her. Spikes of anxiety here and there would be expected since he would know about Shira’s kidnapping by now. He would anticipate her worry. But any sudden, prolonged distress would alert him before she was ready.
Vivian took a sheet of parchment paper and a black ink pen, and wrote down the coordinates. She withdrew the original note from her pocket and set it down as well.
“House, in two hours inform Banujani that there is a message for her on my workstation.”
“Noted.”
She had to trust they would come for her, and that they were professionals and knew her life, and Shira and Ori’s depended on their stealth.
“I won’t be taken again,”she’d said to Vykhan.
“I believe you. I believe you will survive this.”
* * *
Banujani stared past Tai’ri’s shoulder as she made her report, expression blank, the tight skin around her eyes the only sign of her grim guilt. They stood in Vivian’s studio where she’d been discovered missing. He couldn’t drop everything and go after her—rash actions might endanger her life and prevent them from finding her forever.
But Tai’ri took the words like a blow to the stomach. No, knives, each one stabbing a rent into his chest. He delved down, down into his matebond, reaching for any sense of his mate. Too far . . . wherever she was, she was too far for him to sense anything other than that she was alive.
The only thing that kept him sane and Silent was the baby cradled in his arms, her small face nuzzling his chest in her sleep.
“Sir,” Banujani said, voice gentle. “Call your mother.”
One breath. Two. He couldn’t find Vivian, rescue Vivian from their enemies, unless his daughter was safe. He kissed her tiny forehead.
“House, contact Agata.”
