When The Heart Sings

Chapter 28

Darien's POV:

"The war is to the south, the Dranek control the entire southern quarter of the continent at this point." Alex pointed to a map on the coffee table.

This world was mostly ocean with one large oval shaped continent, so it wasn't as if we could just move to a different land mass. The waygates would not allow people to leave, although we could throw supplies, bundles of objects, and letters through and they successfully went.

Nothing living could pass through the waygates though. It was also much harder to open up the waygates. How this race had managed to affect every gate on this planet without even seeing them was a complete mystery, although the Tarulk were very certain that the Dranek were responsible.

I kept my voice down to avoid waking Serena, who had fallen asleep in my arms, "If this group is just trying to find a person, why doesn't the Council just escort a few of them around to prove that the person they are looking for is not on this planet? It doesn't matter if they see our setup since the army's best efforts aren't even slowing them."

This battle seemed pointless to me. The invaders weren't killing non-combatants and often let our fighters escape the battlefield when they could have easily killed them. That was not how normal armies worked if they were looking to conquer.

Alex sighed quietly, "The Council is being its usual stubborn self. They refuse to consider opening talks even though the Dranek would probably be willing to negotiate."

I closed my eyes with a faint growl, "Stupid old hide-bound prideful fools. Is their ego so over-inflated that they would rather see the entire continent taken over rather than consider making some temporary concessions?"

Serena stirred slightly in my arms, as if picking up my growing anger. She snuggled closer against my chest, and my anger melted as I opened my eyes to look at her. I could never stay very angry for long if she was in contact with me. The blind trust and faith she had in me was staggering. The desire to protect her was beyond measure.

Even in her sleep, she tried to stay close to me. I knew the bond caused most of it, but that didn't matter to me. Had she actually tried to fight the bond, she could have overridden most of the compulsions with some effort since she wasn't a Tarulk.

She didn't seem to be fighting it in the least, although from Alex's comments and what she had said, it seemed that the bond had a strong hold on her. The bond had a powerful hold on me as well, but I wasn't about to fight it either.

From the moment I had seen her, I had known that she was everything to me. She filled the empty holes in my heart that I hadn't even known existed. She nuzzled her face against my shirt lightly before falling into a deeper sleep.

I tilted my head and tried to see if I could read her dreams. It took a fair bit of concentration, but like dim flickers, I started seeing images and picking up hints of emotions. Almost every flicker had my face. Love, trust, and a sense of shelter accompanied those images. I hadn't realized just how much she thought about me. She hadn't been kidding when she said my eyes glowed, my glowing eyes were present in every image.

I tried to place them, but there seemed to be no chronological order to the images. Some I recognized from when she had been on the bus, others were from when we had sat on the bench, a few from in the lab, and more were so focused on my face that the background was too out of focus for me to know where it had been.

Most were of me smiling at her or watching her with a tender expression. Some were of me in a towering rage as I defended her. Even in my rage, she had not been scared of me.

My heart swelled with pride and love as I truly saw how she viewed me. Her dreams were punctuated with a handful of other images. A human woman I had never seen who was laughing with her, happiness and some grief accompanied that image. Brief glimpses of various plants and flowers had happiness and peace tied to them, proving that she really did like gardening.

A few glimpses of Alex roused my jealousy, but only the earliest hints of friendship and a faint sense of protection were tied to him. She counted him as a friend and knew he would try to protect her. One lone flicker of Clair with a guilty look on her face was riddled with confusion. Clair was lucky she had run. If I found her, she was going to regret taking my mate.

A few other images I couldn't quite interpret distracted me as I tried to follow them without success. Most were just nonsense dream images and colors. The face of the hostess with a hostile expression appeared and made my muscles tense. I must have missed it when the hostess had looked at her like that.

The hostess had been against letting Serena in at first and still did not appreciate her presence. Although Serena had unwittingly pointed out her unprofessional behavior when talking with Alex. There was no way that Serena could have known that her quiet voice would have been heard inside by us. Serena had overturned several of the hostess' expectations and had her somewhat off balance.

That faint shimmer of light appeared deep in Serena's mind with a flicker and an image of a heart appeared before a shield moved in front of it. She considered it important, although I couldn't pick anything else up from it. I was certain that the shimmer of light had something to do with her unusual humming ability. I had sensed it at supper when she had hummed for a short time before she ate.

Her mind went dark as she fell into a deep dreamless sleep. I blinked slowly down at her face, coming back to reality. Her dreams had been captivating. I looked forward to watching them whenever she slept. I exhaled slowly before looking up as I came back to reality.

Alex was sipping his tea patiently. His voice was very quiet, "You were watching her dreams?"

I nodded slowly, still thinking about the images and feelings. He looked curious, "What did you see?"

"She loves me."

He chuckled quietly, "Anyone with eyes could see that. Care to share anything more?"

I shook my head, her dreams were like precious gems and I wasn't about to let anyone else enjoy them. They were like a special gift for me alone. Chances were that Serena wouldn't even remember them when she woke.

Alex looked amused, "I think she is the best thing that could have happened to you."

I nodded in full agreement. Without her, I still would have been stuck in that lab. Even if I had been freed, I doubted that I could have ever truly been happy. I had not been known for a good disposition even before I had gone to Earth to try to locate the rare medicinal herbs that would only grow there. Had anyone other than my brother claimed to have seen me smile, most would have refused to believe it.

Alex sighed sadly, "What are you going to do in a century?"

His words cut to my heart like a knife. I closed my eyes at the pain of it. The bond twisted lightly and Serena stirred lightly in my arms again. I held her a bit closer and she quieted. Tarulk lived for almost 900 years if we didn't die of illness or injury. Illnesses that affected us were few and it took a lot to deal a fatal injury with our rapid healing.

The average human lifespan was only about 80 years. I had seen just over two centuries and Alex was approaching 700 years. I lowered my head until my cheek brushed against her hair. My faint voice was pained, "I don't know. It will kill me if she dies."

We both fell silent. Soulmates rarely lived long if their other half died. Serena was human, so she could survive if something happened to me. I knew I wouldn't last long if she died.