Free Rystani Warrior 02 - The Dare by Susan Kearney Page A

she could have consulted every medical text written about her uncontrollable spasms. She would have known which procedures were the likeliest ones to cure her, which doctor had the best rate of success, which hospital on which planet specialized in … Stars … she didn’t even have a name for whatever was wrong with her.
    She’d always known humans had to cope with illness and injuries, and she’d admired the way so many people faced their infirmities with courage. Dora wished to do the same. She would not succumb to the fear that the doctors couldn’t fix her before she’d even been diagnosed. When willing her trembling to cease failed, she used a psi thought to stop her quivers.
    Taking back a measure of control gave her strength. “My lack of knowledge bothers me as much as, if not more than, the muscle spasms.”
    Tessa spoke firmly. “Dora, you need to do what we do when we don’t know something.”
    “What?”
    Tessa’s eyes brightened with amusement and a chuckle escaped. “Ask the computer.”
     

Chapter Five
    ZICAL SUSPECTED TESSA knew that he’d been avoiding a private conversation with her about Dora for several weeks. Luckily, she couldn’t possibly know about his Dora fantasies, which he continued to blame on the golden light. Somehow, Dora’s telling him about her decision to transfer into a body just before the golden light had struck him had flooded his mind with erotic images of Dora that seemed to have taken a permanent residence in his brain. Unwilling to allow his fantasies about Dora to again merge with his visit to Xentos, he’d avoided both of them.
    Besides, the notion of Dora as a woman intrigued him too much, and he couldn’t trust himself around her, just yet. He cared too much for her to have her glimpse his lust and mistake it for more than the aftereffects of the golden light. Dora also didn’t need to deal with Zical’s confusing feelings over her transformation. He still thought of her as a computer, not a sexy voice, who had to be feeling very vulnerable that her transformation had gone awry. The last thing he wanted to do was cast doubts about her humanity on top of her other problems. When the doctors couldn’t find a reason for Dora’s physical twitching and uncontrollable muscle spasms, she’d holed up and hidden herself from the few family gatherings he’d attended.
    Tessa had finally tracked him down in the gym where he and Kahn had been training. A Rystani woman wouldn’t have interrupted men during combat exercise. But Tessa was from Earth, and she was more skilled than most Rystani warriors in combat and very comfortable in this masculine environment. Normally, Zical would have welcomed her presence, but no man appreciated having an audience for his defeat. Kahn had just thrown and pinned him.
    While there was no shame in losing a bout to one of the foremost fighters in the Federation, Zical wondered if the two were teaming up on him. Kahn had him physically exhausted, and then Tessa came straight to the point, ignoring Zical’s muffled groan as he employed aching muscles and a weary psi to shove to his feet.
    She shot a look at her husband as sharp as a laser. “Kahn, tell him that if he cares about Dora that he should visit her.”
    “Tell him yourself.” Kahn grinned lazily, his eyes full of affection and amusement.
    Zical turned to leave, careful to keep his tone casual, as if he had nothing to hide. Although he considered Dora a friend, he didn’t feel close enough to her to intrude on her privacy. “I have to get back to Mount Shachauri.”
    He’d spoken no more than the truth. While he’d been saddled with the chore of ferrying engineers and scientists into the mountain, he’d put off making any career choices. But he wasn’t complaining. As much as he missed piloting his starship, his crew was taking a well-deserved vacation, and besides, the alien machinery fascinated him. He also enjoyed listening to the scientists speculate about the