Kraving Khiva by Zoey Draven

Chapter Thirty

Khiva woke when he felt tugging at his back and he groaned, fighting through the fog of deep sleep to resurface.

“I’m sorry, Khiva,” he heard a soft voice whisper. “I’m almost finished changing your bandages.”

Evelyn.

The knowledge that she was there with him gave him slight clarity and he blinked his blurry gaze, realizing that he was not in his own sleeping quarters, or even at Madame Allegria’s for that matter. He recognized the bed he was in, if for no other reason because he could scent her there.

He was in Evelyn’s home.

Once he remembered that, everything else returned to him as well. Including the dull, throbbing pain that radiated down his entire back.

Madame Allegria. The whipping. Asking Valerie to take him to Evelyn. After that, only brief flashes of memory. Going in and out of consciousness.

But he remembered, most importantly, that last night he’d told Evelyn he loved her. Beyond that, he remembered nothing.

Had it been real? Or had he just dreamed it?

Khiva felt Evelyn spread a cooling gel over his back and he closed his eyes in slight relief. His whole body felt cold, except for his back. His back burned like his skin had been set on fire.

After she secured fresh bandages over the healing salve, he sensed her move. In the low light of morning that filtered in through her windows, he watched as she knelt by the side of the bed, so he could see her face.

Khiva gave an automatic trill, pleased, relieved to see her. But then he realized how red her eyes were, evidence that she’d been crying again, and that she looked exhausted.

“Leeldra,” he rasped, his voice unrecognizable, his fingers reaching out to touch the softness of her cheek.

She turned her face into his palm and pressed a kiss right in the center. “How do you feel?”

“Better,” he replied, wanting to soothe the worry and concern he sensed in her gaze.

“Some of the cuts have begun to close, just as Valerie said they would,” she said. “But some of them are too deep and will take longer. There might be permanent scars.”

“I never,” he said quietly, “wanted you to know, to see this. It was my pride once again.”

“Khiva,” she whispered, her face morphing into an expression he’d never seen before. “You know I never would’ve…I never would’ve looked at you differently for it. I wish you had told me.”

“I know,” he said. “Last night, when Valerie found me, all I wanted was to go to you. It was the only thing I wanted. To see you. There was so much I needed you to know.”

Her fingertips traced down his scalp and Khiva closed his eyes for a brief moment, savoring her touch. “What do you remember about last night?” she asked quietly.

“Most of it,” he responded. “I remember telling you that I love you.”

Eve’s breath hitched, her cheeks going slightly pink. Khiva was glad to see the color on her otherwise pale face.

“I apologize, leeldra,” he said quietly. “I made you think otherwise. I should have told you.”

Eve swallowed and she said, “You said you thought you were doing the right thing. Why?”

“I believed that a future would be an impossibility for us,” he said, his voice deepening with the regret he felt. “You are human and I am a Keriv’i, a Krave, on an Earth colony with restrictions about such things. I believed that I would be keeping you from having a future. I feared what Madame Allegria would do, if she discovered us. And I foolishly held onto my pride instead of placing your happiness, my happiness, first.”

“Khiva,” she whispered, her eyes softening.

“It only took you leaving to make me realize that I could make you happy. I could give you a future. My pride means nothing when it concerns you. Since my planet was destroyed, it seemed my pride was the only thing that sustained me, the only thing that made me feel whole, like the Keriv’i male I used to be. Not anymore. You made me realize that I cannot be him any longer, that I do not want to be if it means losing you. It is you who makes me feel whole again.”

Evelyn’s slow smile made him forget his pain and for once, the tears that shimmered in her eyes didn’t make him feel like roaring in agony.

Softly, he asked, “Will you take me with you, Evelyn? To Dumera? Because I never want to spend another night apart from you again.”

It had taken a lot to ask that, to slice open his pride and let her see inside it. But she was worth it. She always had been.

“I do not want to hide anymore, slinking around in shadows,” he continued. “I want to walk with you in daylight, I want to wake next to you and know that I will never have to leave our bed, I want to give you the universe because you deserve it.”

Khiva waited. He only thought afterwards that perhaps she wouldn’t have wanted a declaration of love while he was staining her sheets blue with his blood.

But he knew better. His leeldra wouldn’t care about something so trivial.

“I don’t need the universe, Khiva,” Evelyn finally whispered, leaning forward to press a sweet kiss to his lips. “I just need you.”

Khiva trilled in response, hope exploding in his chest.

“So yes, come with me to Dumera,” she said, pulling away so she could look at him. “Because I love you too. And I want to begin our lives there. Together.”

“Pax, leeldra?” he rasped, cupping her cheek.

Evelyn smiled, a brief, happy laugh bursting from her lips and the sound made his two hearts soar.

“Pax, Khiva.”

* * *

Eve was stillin disbelief over what a difference a single night could make.

The day before, she’d been nursing a broken heart, preparing herself to say goodbye to the male she loved, as she continued to make arrangements to leave Everton.

And now, she was experiencing the warmth, the strength of mutual love and understanding, knowing that she’d soon be leaving Everton with Khiva, for a fresh start together.

It seemed unreal.

By that evening, some of the cuts on Khiva’s back had healed, but not all of them. Eve guessed some of the lashes would take days to heal fully, as deep as they were, so she kept him confined to bed after she’d changed the sheets, so he wouldn’t reopen any cuts trying to mend.

And throughout their morning and afternoon together, whenever Khiva wasn’t resting, he told her everything about Madame Allegria’s abuse, about the room underneath the first floor of the brothel, that punishments were regular, but she’d never whipped him that hard before, in fear that he wouldn’t be healed in time for his client the next evening.

Eve had listened to it all, though it sickened her. After Khiva had told her about how little she paid them, Eve had always thought she was a monster. But this…this went beyond anything she could have imagined.

And all of the Krave suffered her sick punishments. He’d even hinted that Valerie had been whipped at one time and Eve wondered if that was why the young woman was so afraid of her aunt. Was that what happened after she’d gone to the Earth Council to report her, after Madame Allegria found out it was her?

It only made Eve want to bring her down all the more. A couple days ago, she’d come across her father’s contact at the United Worlds, which she told Khiva once he confessed everything to her. A Gharatan named Phe’vee’ka.

“We need evidence,” she told Khiva. “Anything at all.”

“There is nothing,” he told her, shaking his head. “She will have false records showing she paid us the full amount of credits as stated in the contracts. There is no proof of the abuse. Keriv’i heal fast and she will say that the bottom room is for her own personal use. Every record will show she runs a viable, clean business.”

“Valerie must have something,” Eve tried.

“She is too frightened,” Khiva murmured. “You did not see the state she was in after her own punishment all those years ago. She was young. Too young. Unlike us, she still bears those scars.”

Eve’s chest clenched and she blew out a shaky breath. She couldn’t imagine the horrors that all of them had been witness to. Softly, she murmured to him, “We’ll find a way, Khiva. To help them all.”

Later that night, Eve lit the fire in the hearth of her room. It was chilly outside and Khiva still felt slightly cold from the amount of blood he’d lost. She changed his bandages with more healing salve, pleased that his back was in a much better state than it’d been the night before. He still felt pain and Eve feared he would bear the scars for the rest of his life, despite how quickly Keriv’i healed. It would always be a reminder for him.

When she returned to Khiva, who was still sprawled on his stomach in bed, she carefully slipped in beside him and turned so she was laying on her side.

As she looked at Khiva, a thought occurred to her.

“Valerie said last night that you’d started your Rut,” she said, studying him.

“I had, shortly after you left,” he murmured. “But I do not feel it now, like my body knows the energy is needed elsewhere.”

Eve nodded. Whispering, she teased softly, “Good. We wouldn’t want you to reopen some of your wounds.”

He groaned, but his gaze was calm as he said, “You have not seen me in a Rut yet, leeldra.”

“I will though,” she responded and Khiva trilled low in his throat at her words. “And I’ll be there to satisfy you during it. During all of your Ruts.”

Khiva closed his eyes, his voice ragged as he rasped, “You like to torment me when I cannot act upon what I wish to do to you.”

She bit her lip to keep from smiling. With gentleness, she touched his bottom lip with her thumb. “We have all the time in the universe for that.”

“Once I am recovered, leeldra,” he began, “once I can mate you properly and thoroughly, you might regret those words. Because I will be ravenous.”

She flushed but chuckled. “I would never regret something like that.”

He growled, “Evelyn.”

It still made her belly flutter whenever he said her name. Eva-leen.

They watched one another and listened to the gentle crackling of the fire in the hearth.

“We will leave in three days?” he eventually asked, the question soft.

“Two nights from now,” she corrected.

“What about my visa? Madame Allegria has my documents. She will not give them up.”

Yes, Eve had figured that. “I informed Gorkan this morning about our situation. I didn’t tell him specifics, but he knows enough.”

“Can he be trusted?”

“Yes,” Eve said, nodding. “He was my father’s oldest friend. I trust him.”

“Then I will too,” Khiva said, though she knew it wasn’t an easy thing for him to say.

“I was originally going to meet him at Port Lazo, but he will come here, to Everton. He has a trader vessel, much like my father’s, and because of it, he employs many beings, from all Quadrants. He has forged visas. He says that the Port Control does not look very closely at trader vessels because they simply do not have enough time to search every single one and verify all beings on board. No one seems to care anyways, as long as the shipments come through.”

Khiva nodded. It was risky, but Eve could believe that Port Control wouldn’t be able to regulate all trader vessels. It was passenger vessels that they turned their attention to.

Then he said, “Before we go, there is something I need to do first.”

Eve took in a deep breath, already knowing what it was.

She nodded. “Let me go with you.”

“Veki. It is safer if you remain here. I can ask Valerie to sneak me inside without Madame Allegria knowing. She might even be off colony. She tended to leave after our punishments.”

“Khiva,” she said, determination coloring her tone. “I’m going with you.”

“Leeldra…”

“You know I’ll be stubborn about this,” she warned.

He inhaled a deep breath. “Pax. Alright. I can imagine you following me if I do not let you come.”

She smiled, pleased with her victory, and he shook his head in amazement.

“Already I glimpse our future,” he murmured.

She snuggled more deeply into him, careful of his back. And after she gave him the sweetest kiss, she whispered, “It’s better if you get used to it sooner rather than later.”