Chapter Twenty-Three

     Candy, caught somewhere between dismay and fury, could not
believe the sight that greeted her as she entered Dolph's room.  He was
lying on his bed, the deep brown fur spread beneath him resembling
nothing so much as a funeral shroud.  His head propped up on pillows,
dressed in full battle armor with his sword by his side and his shield
leaning against one hip, he looked ready to fight the Devil himself. 
'Wrong religion,' Candy thought wryly, 'Viking version - ready to greet
Odin and enter Valhalla.'  Her throat tightened as she saw the pallor that
tainted his usually beautiful golden skin.  He looked nearly dead already.
     With one quick, deep fortifying breath, Candy strode determinedly
into the room ahead of Felix.  Flipping the control on the wall beside the
door, she adjusted the light in the room to its brightest.  Dolph's eyes
squeezed more tightly shut and he turned his head to the side as if to get
away from the light.  He groaned softly, a sound more of disgust than
pain.
     Felix began to protest what seemed the senselessly cruel treatment
of an injured warrior, but the look Star gave him made him rethink that
move.  He had brought her here to help Dolph, who was he to question her
methods?  Still, he didn't want to watch the torture she would surely put
his friend through.  With a slight bow to Star, and a worried glance toward
the now immobile figure lying on the bed, Felix took his leave.
     Dolph sensed a presence in his room.  When the light flared, he
thought perhaps the Valkyries had come for him.  He was ready.  His fist
began to tighten on the hilt of his sword just as it was yanked from his
grasp.  A fleeting terror seized his bowels and he forced his eyes to open
against the bright light.  For a moment, he thought it was indeed a
Valkyrie that stood before him, eyes flaring, ready for battle.  Then he
recognized the silver-blonde mane and a soft smile touched his lips.
     "Perhaps the Christians are right about angels.  Have you come to
take me to your Christian Heaven?"
     His voice was weak, full of too much air and not enough muscle. 
Just like he had sounded in her dream right before he died.  Anger and
determination flared behind sapphire eyes as Candy dropped Dolph's
sword to the ground.  It was so heavy that was about all she could do with
it.  She slid her fingers under the edge of Dolph's shield and pushed,
sending it crashing to the floor on the other side of the bed.  She was
happy to see Dolph's eyes narrow.  His voice a little stronger, he growled,
"What are you doing, woman?!"
     Candy stood at the side of the bed nearest his face and glared right
back at him.
     "I'm kicking you in the butt, Viking!"
     Dolph's glare turned to a look of comical confusion, one eyebrow
raising, his mouth quirking into a half-grimace.  He gave an exasperated
sigh.
     "Maybe if I ask an easier question, one with a more definitive
answer.  How did you get here?"
     "Felix brought me."
     Her tone said, 'what else, dummy?', and Dolph realized that had
been rather obvious.  With a curt nod, he opened his mouth to continue his
interrogation, but she interrupted him.  He should have known that answer
had been too succinct for his talkative lady.
     "Actually, Kirk is the one who asked for me.  He seems to be the
only member of his family with any brains.  Or maybe he's just the only
one who refuses to take death lying down!"
     She stepped away and threw her hands into the air.  Sensing the
beginning of one of his beloved's speeches Dolph sighed and smiled.
     "I mean, look at you.  I've known you for quite a while, Dolph," 
Star's voice lowered as she spoke to herself, "well, maybe not, it just
seems like forever.  Time flies when you're having fun."  With a little
shake of her head, she returned to lecture pitch.  "Anyway, in all the time
I've known you, I have never seen you give up.  Until now."
     Dolph's spine stiffened, his shoulders straining back against the
pillows, his chin rising.
     "I have not given up!  A warrior welcomes death if he knows he
has lived a good life and died fighting."
     Star turned her angry gaze full upon him.
     "Am I missing something here?  Is there some opponent in this
room that I, in my womanly stupidity, can't see?"
     Her voice began to rise.
     "I don't think so.  I think you just gave up after you got wounded
because you knew you had made a mistake in sending me back to Earth. 
You didn't want to live the rest of your life without me, but you guys are
too tough to ever admit you've made a boo-boo so you decided that death
would be the easiest way out.  If you ask me, that is the worst kind of
cowardice!"
     Dolph sat up, bracing himself on his arms for a minute as dizziness
spun the room inside his head.  As soon as he thought he could do so
without embarrassing himself, he swung his feet to the floor and stood,
ignoring his screaming muscles.  His fists clenched at his side, his bellow
shook the walls.
     "You dare call me a coward?!"
     Candy stood directly in front of him, as close as she could get and
still glare up into his face.
     "Yeah, you bet I dare!  There's a difference between accepting
death and welcoming it with open arms, you know.  Look at this."
     A sweep of her arm encompassed the room, the bed and the
warrior before her.
     "You practically put out a party banner:," she moved her hand in
the air as if following some unseen words, "'Welcome home, Death!'"
     Desperation, fear, love...they all combined to make her shout into
his stubborn face, "You're not that sick, Dolph!"
     She smacked her palm against the breastplate of his armor hard
enough to make him take a stumble-step backward.  Candy liked that.  For
the first time in weeks she felt like she might be winning.
     "You're.."
     Another smack, another slight backstep.
     "just.."
     Smack, stumble.  His balance had definitely seen better days.
     "unbelievably.."
     Whack!  Uh-oh.  That time he held his ground.
     "stubborn!"
     Star pulled back her hand in preparation for another assault on his
person, but Dolph had had enough.  He grabbed her by the shoulders and
lifted, pulling her off the ground till her feet were dangling helplessly in
the air and she was eye to eye with him.  If he hadn't been so angry, he
would have been proud of the way she kept the fear from her eyes, glaring
right back at him.  In an angry whisper, he chastised her.
     "I am neither stubborn nor a coward.  I made the decision to send
you back to Earth to protect you.  I didn't want to see you die because I
had allowed you into one dangerous situation too many."
     His voice began to rise as irritation set in.  He gave her a little
shake.
     "I couldn't leave you with the poor, unsuspecting people back at
my home.  The gods themselves couldn't cause as much trouble in a
lifetime as you can wreak in one day, woman!  If I reneged on that
decision, I would be putting your life in danger for my own selfish desires. 
That is neither stubbornness nor cowardice."
     His tone softened slightly, holding a hint of wonder - realization,
perhaps - as he concluded.
     "That is love."
     He lowered her feet to the ground and gently pushed her away
from him.
     "And if you ever again call me a coward I will give you a beating
you will not soon forget!"
     Candy shook her head, ripples of silver punctuating her disbelief. 
Her voice dripped with incredulous scorn.
     "You have got to be kidding!"
     She raised her hands, palms down.
     "Now let me get this straight.  You sent me away because you love
me and want to protect me, A.K.A. 'for my own good'?"
     Dolph crossed his arms over his massive chest and nodded, a look
of condescension on his face that made Candy's blood begin to boil!  With
an angry flip of her hand, platinum strands flew into the air to land behind
her shoulders.  She turned and walked away from him a few paces, hoping
to cool her temper with distance.  No good.  She spun on her heel to face
him, a vision of outraged female.
     "You stupid...," she squeezed her eyes shut as she searched for just
the right word, then glared in triumph as she found it, "man!"
     That was the worst insult she could think of at the moment.
     "You call that love?  Dying alone and lonely, leaving your lover to
do the same, just because she might get killed if she were with you? 
Mister, you have got one distorted image of love."
     The memory of long, lonely days and unbearably cold, dark nights
suddenly flooded her mind.  Dolph felt an inward cringe as her beautiful
blue eyes flooded with pain.  
     "Did you really think that I would just get on with my life as
though nothing had happened?  Did you really think that I could just
forget you, Dolph?"
     She gave a little self-deprecating laugh so full of pain that Dolph
suddenly had the urge to take her in his arms.  He knew she would not
welcome the interruption.  And for some reason he could not yet fathom,
he wanted, perhaps even needed, to hear her out.
     "I had this little ritual.  Every night I would tell myself I wasn't
going to look into the sky.  After all, my logical mind knew there wouldn't
be anything there.  I'd go to bed, lay there for an hour or so, tossing and
turning, then come up with some excuse to get back out of bed.  I had to
go to the bathroom, I was hungry, had I turned off the oven?, whatever,
just so I could get up and look out the window into that empty night sky."
     Tears began their slow descent down her beautiful cheeks, as she
lowered her eyes to the ground and slowly shook her head.  Emotion
softened her words to barely a whisper.
     "You were never there."
     Seeing Star in such pain, Dolph wanted to comfort her, to tell her
how much he had wanted, deep down in his soul, to be with her.  She
seemed so vulnerable.  Yet, when he stepped forward and wrapped his
arms around her, she sprang to life like an erupting volcano, pushing him
away so hard he stumbled and nearly fell onto the bed.
     "Where were you?!"
     Sobs tore at her throat as she struggled to speak.  She slammed
both fists into the breastplate of Dolph's battle armor as she shrieked at
him.
     "You son-of-a-bitch, where were you?!"
     She collapsed against him, her palms flat against his armor.  She
refused to wrap her arms around him.  Dolph started to raise his arms, but
Star pushed away from him once again.  Beautiful pools of sapphire
spilled their diamond tears down her cheeks as she raised her confused
gaze to meet his eyes.  Her tone had become that of an injured child trying
to explain some unfathomable, but oh-so-important, thing.
     "I love you."
     Strength slowly returned to her words.
     "I would rather die in your arms on some horrible little rock of a
planet tomorrow than live to a ripe old age in my safe little world without
you.  Don't you understand, Dolph, without you I don't live, I just exist.  I
go through life like some kind of automaton.  It's just not worth the
effort."
     Dolph shook his head.  He had to make her understand that his
concern was for her safety.  Her head was full of the romantic ideas of a
woman, not the reality of a warrior's existence.  And yet, deep in his heart,
her words touched something, something he...what? ...wanted? ...needed? 
Was she right?  Would loving her and taking the chance of losing her in
the future be better than the living hell of losing her now to his desire to
protect her?  Dolph frowned.  He needed to think this through.
     Candy saw the deep thought in his eyes.  She was getting to him,
his resistance definitely waning.  Maybe all he needed was a little shot of
her dramatic flair, a little hold-in-your-hands demonstration of her
determination to stay or die trying.  Yeah, that was what these guys
understood best.  Something they could see and touch and relate to on a
personal level.  Besides, she knew she couldn't afford to let him think too
much.  He might come up with another stupid man's reason for sending
her away again.
     Dolph's warrior instincts made him take a step backward as Star
leaned down and grasped the hilt of his sword in her hand.  She could
raise barely half the length of the blade off the floor.  She dragged it the
short distance to his side, then held it toward him, making it clear that she
wanted him to take it.  Dolph arched an eyebrow in question but wrapped
his fist around the hilt.  How good it felt to hold steel once again!
     Star dropped to her knees before him.  She raised her eyes to his
and made a desperate, and very dramatic, plea.
     "If you don't want me anymore, Dolph, then kill me."
     She splayed her arms wide, exposing her chest to his sword.  Her
azure eyes shone bright with...What?  Dolph wondered.  Was that fear or
was it...a dare?!  Was she actually daring him to do something other than
that which she expected him to do?  The little minx had either developed
a death wish or she was so sure of herself, she dared to challenge him! 
Heeding his wicked desire to teach her a lesson, Dolph placed the point of
the sword against the flesh of her breast.  Her sharp intake of breath and
startled, wide-eyed expression were ample reward.
     Smiling broadly, Dolph lowered the swordtip to the floor as he
softly reprimanded her.
     "Never try to predict what a warrior will do with his sword,
sweetling."
     Star narrowed her eyes and stood.  His soft tone combined with the
double entendre' made the hair on her neck rise and other parts of her
body begin to sit up and take notice.  'He's smiling,' her heart practically
sang in her chest, 'we've got him on the run.  Now what?  Logic?'  Candy
smiled to herself. 'Nah, never worked before.'  An idea grabbed her.  'He
wants to protect me?  Okay, let's try a threat!'
     She placed her hands on her hips and let the fires of determination
that shone in her sapphire eyes speak to the stubborn warrior before her.
     "Whether you'll admit it or not, Dolph, you were laying there
waiting to die so that you wouldn't have to live without me.  Well, I'm not
willing to spend the rest of my life without you.  If you try to send me
back, I'll go straight to the FBI or CIA or whatever part of the alphabet is
interested and tell them I've just spent a few weeks aboard a spaceship. 
I'm sure they'll poke me and prod me and ask me questions till I'm blue in
the face.  Then, when I've answered all their questions, they'll probably
dissect me!"
     Dolph smiled at her threat.  She was certainly tenacious when she
set her mind to it.  He pitied the agents of any organization that tried to
ask Star questions.  She had such a creative way of answering.  It would
take them years just to decipher her responses.  If they waited until all her
answers made sense before killing her, she would surely die a very old
woman.
     But she was right about the one thing that really mattered.  Dolph
realized that he had indeed decided somewhere in his stubborn warrior's
subconscious mind that to die would be preferable to living without Star. 
What the hell had he been thinking, worrying about what might happen,
what the future might hold?  That was not a warrior's way.  A Viking took
what he wanted and damn the consequences!  Dolph clenched his jaw,
stiffened his spine and rolled his shoulders, looking every inch the
fearsome warrior.  He had temporarily lost sight of his heritage, his inner
self.  By the gods, he would correct that immediately!
     Wrapping his arms around Star, he brought her down on top of
him on the bed.  Star squeaked a protest as he rolled her beneath him.
     "Wait a minute.  Did I just lose track of this conversation?"
     Remembering all the times he had done just that because of Star's
convoluted thinking, Dolph tossed back his golden head and laughed, a
sound that was absolute music to Candy's ears.
     "How does it feel, my lady Star, to have the tables turned?"
     At her confused scowl, he chuckled and slowly lowered his lips to
hers.  The nectar of the Gods could not have tasted as sweet as her mouth. 
In true warrior style, Dolph plundered her, enjoying her slight resistance,
reveling in her eventual submission.  As his hand slid under her skirt to
caress her thigh, Star pushed as hard as she could against his armored
chest.  Needing a breath anyway, Dolph gave Star her way and raised his
upper body onto his elbows, smiling down at her.  He marveled once again
at her beauty.  Her silver hair flowed all about her in complete and
glorious disarray.  Her eyes had darkened with the beginnings of passion
to deepest sapphire.
     Breathlessly, she asked, "Would you mind explaining what is
going on?"
     Dolph arched an eyebrow, and, smiling seductively, ground his
swollen manhood against her.  Star grimaced.
     "I know what's actually happening right at this minute.  What I
mean is, am I staying here, or is this another goodbye lovemaking session? 
Which, by the way, I did not appreciate."
     Dolph's expression turned serious.  He rolled onto his side,
gathering her into his arms.
     "I swear to you, Star, that I will never leave you again if it is within
my power to stay.  And the Valkyries themselves will have to pry you
from my arms."
     Star grimaced again and mumbled under her breath, "A pleasant
image."
     Dolph engulfed her face in his hands and gazed deeply into her
eyes.
     "I love you, Star.  Your love is my life.  As I look into the night
sky, I am no longer impressed by the spots of light that pepper the
heavens, for I have seen the brightest of all the stars, and she is mine.  I
shall bathe in my Star's warmth till the fires in the heavens are but a vague
memory."
     Candy sighed and relaxed for the first time in weeks.  She ran her
hands over his intricately carved breast-plate, tracing the fiery dragon with
the tip of her finger, then wrapped her arms around Dolph's neck.  Her
smile was content.
     "Boy, you sure can weave a spell with your words, Viking."
     Her eyes clouded slightly.
     "But did you just say that you're going to keep me here without a
fight?"
     Dolph smiled, amused at her slightly disappointed tone.  His Star
was such a warrior, enjoying the fight almost as much as the victory.  He
kissed the tip of her nose.
     "Our future will hold many blazes of passion, some fighting," his
eyes darkened, the warmth of his words tingling Candy's neck, "some
loving.  Whether it be your stubborn self, the elements, or the gods
themselves, I will always fight to keep you.  And I will always win!"
     His tone full of import, he tightened his arms around her, robbing
her of what little breath his seductive words had left her.
     "Just try to get away from me."
     Candy couldn't resist, the curiosity would surely kill her.  As Dolph
lowered his lips to plunder her again he felt a tug on his hair.  He pulled
back and raised both eyebrows in exasperation.
     "That is not a handle, woman!"
     Candy giggled, releasing his hair and smoothing it down the back
of his neck.  Dolph arched his neck, reveling in her touch.
     "What exactly did I say that convinced you?"
     Dolph laughed.
     "And you call me arrogant?"
     Star's lips puckered and her eyebrows pulled together in a pout. 
Dolph knew he had better answer her question quickly before she had
time to think up ten more to go with it.  They would be talking all night
and that was not what he had in mind for the evening's activities.
     "I fought my love for you as an enemy.  I thought that it would
make me weak and foolish."
     His expression became fierce.
     "Love did not make me weak!  My fear of the softness I thought it
would bring, and my attempts to deny what I was feeling, made me act
stupidly.  I was a fool to let you go and I thank the gods for another
chance.  I am a Viking warrior!  Let the gods toss us as they may, I will
never deny my love for you again!  I will love as I fight--with honor and
passion and pride!"
     Seeing Star's eyes shining with love and pride was all Dolph
needed to let him know that she felt he had made the right decision.  Her
arms tightened around his neck, as she raised her face to his.  Dolph could
hear his warrior's blood singing in his veins.  He felt full of life again,
more so than he had felt since Star had faded from his view to return to
her world.  His loins flooded to a near painful state in seconds.  Ah, yes,
he was alive!
     Just as he felt her sweet breath across his lips, a sharp pain in his
earlobe brought his head flying back up.  A tiny, furry menace jumped
from his bleeding ear to the pillow beside Star's head.  Silky stared up at
him with censure in his Siamese-blue eyes.
     Dolph swore with a vengeance.  He rose from the bed and reached
for the little feline.  Silky gave a sharp meow, slightly tinged by a hidden
purr, and jumped to the floor.  He dropped his chest to the floor and raised
his butt into the air, his tail swishing back and forth.
     "Silky," Dolph roared his frustration, "I don't want to play with you
right now, you little beast!  Can't you see that I have other more pleasant
things on my mind?  Come here before I feed you to a goldfish!"
     Candy leaned up on one elbow and enjoyed the view as Dolph
stalked around the room, absolutely glorious in his battle armor.  As
Dolph spied his prey and slowly moved in for the kill, she giggled.
     "Don't you think you're a little overdressed to do battle with a
mini-Siamese?"
     Dolph stopped and turned a fierce glare on Star.  Her eyes took on
a sultry heat as she rolled onto her back and stretched like a cat.  Speak of
the Devil, Silky jumped into her outstretched hand and proceeded to curl
up as if he were planning to take a long nap.  Star laughed, a sound that
both pulled on Dolph's heart and gave a tug on his tightened loins.  He
reached for the cat but Star sprang from the bed, taking her prize with her. 
Shaking her head, she strutted to the little wire cage that sat in one corner
of the room and placed the cat on his pillow.  With a few turns and fluffs
he made himself comfortable.
     "He seems happy to have me back."
     When she turned to Dolph, the fierce look on his face was almost
frightening.  He began unfastening the straps that held his armor in place. 
As his chestplate fell to the floor, he pointed toward the bed.  With an
imperious nod, and a tone that brooked no opposition, he ordered,
"Woman, remove your clothes and get in my bed."
     Star tossed her hair, defiance etched in every plane of her beautiful
face.  As she pulled open her blouse, buttons flying about the room, she
started slowly toward the bed.  Her slinky movements and sultry purr were
nearly Dolph's undoing.
     "Warrior, prepare for battle."
     Reveling in the battle of love, a battle he knew he could not lose,
Dolph pulled his heavenly blaze of light into his strong arms and held on
for dear life.
                     THE END