At the thought, another of those anonymous memories appeared in his head: Talina, naked as she bathed in a pool of water beside a river. A camp on a gravel bar. A stormy and dark night. Thunder booming. Rain lashed the dark river, pattered on a broadleaf-vine shelter overhead. A fire crackled just beyond the shelter where the remains of a crest cooked. Lightning flashed to illuminate the clouds like giant white lanterns and silvered the rain-stippled river.

Dek could see the guy, ruggedly handsome, head shaved. Realized he lived the memory as Talina, who curled into the crook of the man’s arm. Heard the guy say, “Talina Perez, I’d cross a thousand galaxies just to sit here and share your company.”

She shifted, reached up to pull the man’s lips to hers.

The tingle grew down in his pelvis; he felt the longing, the need for another human being. Talina’s desperate fingers were pulling at the man’s jacket, peeling it from his shoulders as the . . .

The image burst when one of the four-winged canyon fliers rose above the edge of the cliff, gave him a surprised three-eyed stare, and squawked.

Dek jerked. Talina started, instantly awake, and rolled off his stomach to pull at her pistol.

“It’s all right,” Dek told her. “I was having a dream.”

“Oh?” Talina tossed her hair back, rubbed her eyes, and climbed wearily to her feet.

“Gravel bar. Different from the one we were on. Lightning and rain, a broadleaf-vine shelter. I was you. Weird. There was a man there. Said something about crossing a thousand galaxies . . .”

He stopped at the startled and panicked flash of her eyes.

“That was real, wasn’t it?” he asked softly. “You lived that.”

She took a deep breath, walked over to stare down into the morning-dark depths of the canyon. “Wow. Well, I guess it’s not all that unexpected.” She turned, fixing him with a hostile stare. “Just how far did that memory go?”

“You were pulling at the guy’s jacket when I jerked you awake. I can guess where it was going. That was Cap, wasn’t it? The guy looked like a marine.”

She closed her eyes, obviously upset. Jerked a brief nod.

“It’s all right, Tal.” He stood, walked over, and put his hands on her shoulders. “Look at me.” When her uncertain eyes fixed on his, he added, “Remember the part from last night about holding a person’s heart in my hands? You see, this is the part of love that I never understood. Never would have if I hadn’t survived Ashanti, hadn’t come to you.”

“Want to get to the point?”