“I might need some help with that,” Mikki murmured, blinking at moisture in her eyes. “All the time I was in that place, I thought I would be okay if I could just get out of there. I’m not.”
“That’s understandable,” Calan said gently. “I believe I can help you with that. I am trained in psionic therapy. It should work for post-traumatic stress syndrome.”
“I’m not sure that I really want you to know all the stuff in my head---the horrible stuff I’ve seen and done.”
“Mikki, I already know,” he said gently. “You survived. What happened the times you refused to fight?”
“Three guys beat the crap out of me… for a start.” She couldn’t even put the rest into words. Mercifully, she didn’t remember most of it. “Just taking the fight was easier. At least I could fight back.”
Ajha’s eyes filled with tears that spilled down her cheeks. Mikki had held off the gangers so Ajha could escape. She told Ajha to run, but there were too many of them for Mikki to get away. The gangers went after pretty young females to sell them to the overlords’ brothels.
That’s where Mikki landed at first until she fought off a john who was attacking one of the girls. Word got back to the overlord, and he decided to put Mikki in the cage to fight since she was so good at it. Her father had taught her to fight to survive.
Ajha didn’t have a lot to feel guilty about. She didn’t get imprisoned to work in a brothel, but she’d had to work at surviving. She’d almost been raped a couple times, but she fought him off and got away. Ajha had numerous hiding places among the ruins.
That on top of the voices in her head and dream sharing with Calan saved her. Connecting with him telepathically was the only thing that kept her sane. The love they shared helped her push the bad experiences to the back of her mind---experiences she learned from but locked away, so they didn’t continue to haunt her.
Ajha had started to gain control of her ability to read other people besides Calan. She could see that her friend was hurting although she put up a tough front for other people. She also sensed that Rax adored her, but Mikki was holding back because of what she’d been through.
“Let’s go back to our flat. Ajha and I need to eat. Healing that serious of an injury took a lot out of us. Calan got up off the bed and helped Ajha up. They both seemed a little shaky as Calan put an arm around Ajha, and they started walking toward the door.
Calan was shirtless as his shirt had been recycled because of all the blood. He would get another from his closet while Ajha ordered food from the processor. Rax and Mikki went with them, accepting the offer ofjern.
Although it was late afternoon, Calan and Ajha chose to have breakfast of eggs, toast and protein slices with mugs ofjern. While they ate, Calan went on to explain to Mikki how he could treat her telepathically for her PTSD. He wouldn’t erase it from her mind, but he would make it a distant memory and take away its power to haunt her.
Mikki would remember if she chose to, but the pain would be gone. She would be able to go on with her life and maybe pursue the relationship Rax wanted with her. After they finished eating, Calan sat Mikki down in a chair and sat facing her in another chair.
He took her hands and told her to close her eyes. Extending his consciousness into her mind, it became crystal clear to him why Mikki was hurting. Some of the things he saw in her memories horrified and saddened him deeply. It caused him nearly as much pain as they caused Mikki.
It wasn’t something he could do on a regular basis; he was doing it out of love for Ajha because she loved Mikki. So Calan loved her as well.
Mentally he ran through the pathways of her mind and picked up the memories of Mikki’s torment, packing them together. He put them all into a back corner of her mind, like putting memories in an old trunk in the attic.
All while he was doing it, Calan felt the pain of each and every one. Jamerin had taught him how to do it; he had learned how to do it from the Wholaskans. But, Jamerin warned him that it was a desperately painful process. He felt her pain with ever memory he collected. By the time he finished both Calan and Mikki had tears streaming down their faces.
Calan released her hands and pressed his hands to his temples, squeezing his eyes shut. Later, he remembered thinking he would rather be shot again than go through that again. He took several minutes to purge his memory of the things he’d seen in Mikki’s mind. They were not only memories of things that had been done to Mikki, but also of things she saw done to others.
The psion could hardly fathom how humans could do those things to other humans. It had to stop.He was going to make it stop.He needed time to recover before he tackled that mission. The first step would be simpler than the second part of the mission---parlor tricks, just like freeing Mikki.
After this ordeal on top of being shot, he wasn’t up to tackling it yet. Even though his physical injury was healed, he still felt drained. Ideally, he should have waited to treat Mikki, but his innate empathy with people’s pain made him anxious to make it stop.
Ajha was distressed because Mikki was, and that compounded her guilt for escaping capture by the gangers when Mikki didn’t. His friend Rax was worried that Mikki would reject him because of everything that had happened to her.
Rax gave Calan credit for saving him because his stasis chamber was failing. The cyborg was devoted to the refuge and to Calan. His assistance had been invaluable in getting the apartment modules set up and hooked up to water and power. Rax had undoubtedly helped when he’d been wounded.
Were he unscrupulous he could have telepathically brainwashed Mikki into accepting Rax as her mate. That would be unethical, not to mention unfair to both of them.
Calan didn’t believe that would be necessary. They just needed time for their relationship to unfold naturally. Without the past haunting her, Mikki could explore possibilities. She was clearly attracted to Rax along with a couple dozen women in the refuge.
The cyborg wasn’t drawn to any of them. He was friendly to them, but that was all. Mikki was different, it was like Calan’s connection to Ajha.
As his thoughts turned to Ajha, she came over and sat on his lap facing him and hugging him.“Sweetheart, that was a wonderful thing you did, but you’re still recovering.”
“I’ll be okay. It’ll just take a few days. I couldn’t have done it if you hadn’t shared life force with me while I was healing.”
“You would do the same for me.”She smiled at him, and they kissed affectionately.
Despite his fatigue, his body reacted to her caresses. Calan chuckled softly. He was so drained he could hardly move, yet he was hard for her. Ajha smiled tenderly and caressed his face.
