Kierra's Thread (Argadian Heart Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  Kierra Andromeda and Jarek Bakari discovered an unexpected path to love and sanity when sold into captivity to the masochistic Tribunal Leader Odon to serve at his compound on Argadia. Saved from certain death by Eluria Zydon, they became part of the Freelion Rebellion, fighting to save Argadia from the stranglehold of the power-hungry Tribunal. Yet the scars of the past continue to haunt them.

  Although Jarek, a Serionese Mindwanderer, was able to protect Kierra’s mind from complete destruction during their time in captivity, she is unable to physically withstand the touch of another, including Jarek. Jarek carries his own hidden scars. How much of Jarek’s soul did he barter to save Kierra from certain death before they were rescued?

  A slender thread binds them together, but will the violent past break through to claim them once again and destroy the fragile healing they have begun to achieve? Will the thread be severed or strengthened by at last facing the monsters that will be revealed?

  This story is a work of original fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author.

  This book remains the copyrighted property of the author.

  Copyright ©2016 by Adrianna Dane

  Cover Art by T.A. Gallup

  This story was originally released in August 2006 by Amber Quill Press/Amber Heat

  CAUTION: This story contains explicit sexual situations and strong language. You must be over the age of 18 years of age to read this story.

  The Argadian Heart Trilogy

  Eluria’s Enforcer

  Kierra’s Thread

  Ravager’s Redemption

  Kierra’s Thread

  By Adrianna Dane

  Dream Romantic Unlimited, LLC

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Glossary

  Author Bio

  Networking Links

  CHAPTER ONE

  She’d never expected to see him again. The ship was about to land and within moments she would know Guardian had answered her request.

  Her mother turned to her, reached out a hand, and then hesitated. Kierra panicked, flinched, and instinctively stepped back. Seeing the pain flash into her mother’s eyes, Kierra immediately regretted the impulsive act. Unfortunately, the past kept intruding on her present. Since her release from Odon’s clutches, Kierra had been unable to tolerate anyone’s touch—even her mother’s. From the minute she’d arrived on Ednos, Gavrielle had hardly left her side. Slowly their family was being woven back together. Thanks to Eluria Zydon—her brother’s true taman. If only my mind could be repaired as easily.

  “Come, Kierra. I can’t wait here any longer. I must be out there when their ship lands.” Gavrielle’s expression smoothed and she turned to open the door.

  Kierra hadn’t meant to hurt her. Her retreat was a reflex response. One tended to protect herself from the source of anticipated pain if at all possible. There had been a time when she’d been unable to avoid contact, and everyone she loved now paid the price. Sighing, she followed her mother out to the landing bay.

  Eluria, her best friend since they were young Maigens, was the one to rescue Kierra from bondage on their home planet of Argadia. And now she returned with Devon. Kierra’s brother had been taken from them seven years previous to serve the Argadian Tribunal as an Elite Enforcer, a Nanus-infused warrior commanded by the Tribunal—more assassin than soldier, more robot than male.

  “Mother, wait,” Kierra warned, seeing she was poised to race up the gangway as soon as it descended when the ship landed. “They will come to us. Give them time.” She understood her mother’s urgency, but felt they should allow Eluria and Devon to report to the commander on duty before throwing themselves at him.

  The Freelion Forces, rebels determined to take back their planet, had discovered a way to successfully neutralize the Nanus technology. Use of the new drug could mean the destruction of the deadly Enforcers, leaving the Tribunal vulnerable to attack, and eventual defeat.

  Upon her release, once Kierra had physically healed, she threw herself into assisting with the research, determined to be a part of the downfall of the hated Tribunal. Positive proof the antidote worked was about to be presented to all of those who waited. It was a glimmer of hope they’d sought for so long.

  The heavy overhead doors slid open and a ship hovered above the bay, slowly descended to land, and powered down.

  Gavrielle tensed in excited anticipation. “I can’t believe he’s actually here, and alive,” she whispered. “If only Alekos could—”

  The door to the ship opened and two figures descended.

  “Devon,” she cried, racing forward and throwing herself into the arms of the tall, muscular man who clasped her against his chest. Kierra followed at a slower pace, each step seemed like she waded through quicksand.

  “Mother.” Devon’s voice was deeper than Kierra remembered. It was thick and husky, filled with deep emotion. His arms tightened around the slender form of their mother. Here was the long-awaited vision of the brother she’d thought lost to them long ago.

  Kierra’s heart thudded to a halt, her feet rooted to the spot, unable to move at the image of Devon in the flesh. She tried to swallow her fear, attempted not to cringe, not to turn and run. Her gaze clung to the signature white hair of an Enforcer, so much a part of her nightmares.

  Devon had served the Tribunal as an Elite Enforcer, she’d known that, had prepared herself to confront the fact, had even thought she was ready to fight against her fears.

  But the reality was that Enforcers made up the brunt of her nightmares. She’d been purchased for a particular purpose by Tribunal Leader Odon—as a way to introduce Enforcers in the use of sexual expertise on their missions. She’d been a thing, a training device. The white hair swirled all around her. She couldn’t do this—the memories bombarded her, bruising, re-opening the wounds.

  Jarek. Jarek, in bondage like her, had reached out to her. Jarek protected her mind from the worst of what her body was subjected to during the “training exercises.” At first she’d feared him, yet he would force her outside herself, away from what they inflicted on her physically. How would she have survived without Jarek during those years in bondage to Odon?

  He had the mindwanderer abilities of a Serdionese—a planet the Tribunal, with the help of the Enforcers, had ravaged and destroyed. All able-bodied Serdionese who had survived were taken into bondage to Argadia.

  Odon had not been Kierra’s first “owner.” But he certainly was the most evil. A cruel master who took delight in seeing pain inflicted, he purchased males and females offered on the bondage blocks as trainers for the young Enforcers in his service. He never touched the females himself as it was purported his preference was for males who could last longer beneath his masochistic abuse.

  Females acquired for training exercises didn’t survive long, and when they disappeared, they were simply replaced by another. On Argadia there was a surplus of bondage servants available, many arrested for political reasons. No one cared what happened to a bond servant—they were simply another form of chattel, bought and
traded, to be discarded at their owner’s whim.

  Eluria had chosen to become a twilight companion, a highly paid courtesan, able to make choices about her companions, but Kierra had been a thing—used and abused to the point of death. If Eluria hadn’t found her when she did, Kierra doubted she would have survived much longer, even with Jarek’s help. It was only due to his strong, determined presence that she now lived. He’d been her slender thread to sanity—he still was.

  Kierra refused to leave him behind when Eluria came for her. She would rather have died first. He’d pushed in her mind for her to go, but it had been the one time she’d refused his request. And Eluria had been forced to locate his cell and release him. It was in his strong arms Kierra was whisked away to safety. It was the last time he’d been able to physically touch her without causing pain.

  But Jarek was away from Ednos. No one expected Eluria would end up in confrontation with Devon and be presented with the opportunity to test the antidote. Since his release from bondage, Jarek had chosen to stay and serve the rebellion and was now on just such a mission to secure and return with an Enforcer who could be tested under controlled conditions to determine the effectiveness of the new drugs. If they’d been apprised of Eluria’s success, he wouldn’t have been away now.

  Kierra had assured him she would be fine, that he should move forward with his mission. There’d been no episodes of blackness for quite some time. She’d eased her mental guard, thinking it was safe. Obviously, she’d been very wrong.

  She tried to stop herself from retreating from Devon. If she turned and ran, her mother would be devastated, and Devon and Eluria as well. She needed to gain control.

  Devon slowly set his mother aside and turned toward Kierra, smiling, holding out his arms to her, urging her to come to him.

  He was her brother. She stared at him, tried to see Devon, knew his eyes were the vivid blue she remembered as a child, but all she saw was the bottomless coal black abyss of an Enforcer’s glare. In her mind, the smile twisted to a taunting, cruel beckoning of an emotionless fiend she must submit to.

  She blinked rapidly, trying to dispel the illusion, but the image wouldn’t fade. Devon took a step toward her, and she knew she couldn’t do it. Her body ached with the remembrance of the pain her captors inflicted. She’d been a thing they’d used to teach the location of pain and pleasure points, what sensations would elicit the response they sought to secure—like a cadaver used for a class of medical students, with no thought to what they did to her mind, to her body.

  She’d been required to disrobe before them as they mocked and ridiculed her. There were usually two or more of them in a session. It was their task to make her beg for mercy, to determine how much they could torture her before she lost consciousness—and what she would be willing to do to stop the pain. There were times when she was administered an aphrarelaxant to reduce her resistance to the pleasure tests.

  “No,” she whispered raggedly, as the thought came to her that Devon would have gone through the same type of training. It would have been required. “No, Symion, no!” Kierra wheeled around and sprinted away. “Jarek, help me, I cannot do this!”

  But Jarek wasn’t there to help her. She’d convinced him she was strong enough to overcome her fears. She was such a fool!

  And yet she was determined she would rise above her fears. She just needed time alone to come to terms with how much Devon still looked like the Enforcers of her nightmares. She couldn’t face him now. Not yet.

  “Kierra!” Her mother called after her.

  But she couldn’t turn back, couldn’t answer. She was still running from her nightmares. There would come a time when she must face them or she could never be whole.

  Kierra whipped open the door of the reception area and fled through to the corridor beyond. On and on she ran until she arrived at the door of her apartments. She slid the key card into the slot and it opened. Once inside, she turned and engaged the lock. A trembling sigh escaped her. She was safe. They would not hurt her ever again—she would die first.

  Dropping onto the lounger, she covered her face with her hands in despair. Devon was her brother and she’d run from him. How was she ever going to face him, embrace him, renew their family bond if she couldn’t fight past these nightmarish visions?

  She curled up in a fetal position on the lounger, wrapping her arms around her as though trying to keep herself from shattering completely. She would not call for Jarek. She would face this alone.

  Mocking laughter filled her mind, echoing and echoing, growing louder as it tried to overtake her—the black eyes, the white hair swirled and surged. Hands and instruments touching her, invading her. She reached up and cupped her hands over her ears, but it didn’t help. Because the voices were inside her head and they weren’t going away—insistent, demanding.

  She receded inward, to the corridors of her mind, followed the dark endless passage to the room inside her head. It was pitch black and soundless. Nothing existed in that room, not even Kierra. Her mind started to calm as she saw the open door of the haven in her mind, beyond all the other doors that held substance. In there, nothing could touch her—not her memories, not the Enforcers, not the pain. The light in her mind would dim until there was nothing but a vast chasm, allowing her to float free.

  She entered the room, and the echo of the door slamming shut behind her was comforting. Now she was safe. It was the room she’d retreated to before Jarek had found his way in. Then he would come and lead her from the room to another place of his creation, a healing place. Sanctuary.

  Tears rolled down her face. Jarek wasn’t here. She had to do this alone, and the only place she had a chance of recovering was in the secret room she’d created to escape.

  She’d failed Jarek and she’d failed Devon. Both of them loved her, and she was unable to give either of them the same in return. Her time in bondage had destroyed her ability to respond. Every time anyone tried to touch her, her body screamed out in anguish. It had been conditioned to pain and so far there’d been nothing anyone could do to heal her.

  She’d tried to let Jarek go so that he could have a life with another female who could offer him happiness. He’d steadfastly refused to leave her. She’d tried to break the bond, that fragile, slender thread that bound them, but for some reason it held stronger than the thickest rope. Jarek refused to release her.

  And every time something like this happened, she felt the same sense of failure. But so much inside her had been destroyed during her years in bondage. She had yet to be able to reclaim those parts and make herself whole again.

  She wanted to seal with Jarek. There were moments, fleeting though they were, that she felt a flicker of sexual desire building inside her. It would be dashed as the memory of other hands on her surged to swamp her.

  The only place she could be with him was when he came to her in her mind and took her to his sanctuary. It wasn’t real, but it was all they had. How long could he be satisfied with that?

  But he wasn’t here now and she couldn’t go to sanctuary alone—it was a place created from his memories. Her secret room was her only refuge. When she entered, she could make every thought disappear and there was silence—no sound, no vision.

  She sank to the cold, hard floor. She’d stay just for a little while, just to gain control, to be free of the memories, the pain, to regroup and gain composure. Then she would face Devon. She had to remember, he was her brother. She had to forget he’d been an Enforcer. Not just any Enforcer, but a First Level Enforcer—the most lethal.

  No. No more thoughts. Just the numbing void of the secret room. She released a breath into the darkness, released the pain, the memories. No sadness. No happiness. No despair. No joy. There was nothing.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Captain, you’ve received a hail from Ednos.”

  Captain Jarek Bakari looked up at the young ensign who stood at attention before him. “Who from?”

  “It’s Gavrielle Andromeda.”
r />   A sense of foreboding rode him, knowing there would be only one reason for Gavrielle to communicate with him. “Did she give an explanation for her hail?”

  The young ensign shook his head. “No, Captain, but she said there was some urgency in her need to speak with you.”

  Jarek rose quickly from his chair, turning away from the observation window. Thank Mylonna they were only hours from reaching Ednos. “Thank you, ensign. That will be all.”

  He hoped this mission turned out to be worth the chance he’d taken in leaving Kierra without protection, because he had a feeling she needed him or Gavrielle wouldn’t have issued the request. Usually, he only took on the assignments that allowed him to return to Ednos within hours. This one had kept him away for several days. At least he was now close enough to thoughtwalk if need be. But why hadn’t Kierra called to him?

  The answer was evident before he’d even completed the question. Kierra had an independent stubborn streak that even in her worst moments hadn’t lessened in the time he’d known her. She hated giving in to her fears, hated the occasions when the memories swamped her, leaving her vulnerable.

  Waves of thought threaded from him to her in mindwanderer fashion. Touching her surface colors, he knew instantly something had frightened her enough to send her retreating to what she called her “secret room.”

  He pulled back from entering beyond the first layer. He needed to speak with Gavrielle before approaching Kierra’s inner thoughts. It was important to know what sent her running into the darkness after so many months without incident.

  His mission had been successful and a female Enforcer now lay in stasis below deck. He’d received word of Kierra’s brother’s successful recovery, and it had been decided that he should try to return with the female so they could determine if there would be any problems with administering the drug to the female Enforcers. Hence, Enforcer Daelyn Kapri had been secured and was being transported back to Ednos.