Cursed: Brides of the Kindred 13 (45 page)

It was time—time to alert the authorities at J’lorgan’s Mind that they had a traitor in their midst. One who planned to steal their most prized artifact this very night.

He would have rubbed his hands together with anticipation except he still only had control over the left side of Two’s body. It was most irritating that he couldn’t seem to get more. Even after nights of practice, the right side remained closed to him.

Well, it wouldn’t be a problem for much longer, Ur promised himself as he watched the little human female steal silently down the long, metal corridors towards the treasure lying at the center of the resort.

Why exactly she wanted the Heart of Love still wasn’t clear but Ur intended to find that out. In fact, he planned to ask the authorities at the resort to hand Charlotte and her paramour, the annoying Blood Kindred, over to him at once. The girl he would torture to his heart’s content. But only
after
he took control of the Blood Kindred’s body. He was tired of being within an incompatible host. Two was troublesome and irritating—it was far better to take over a life form completely than to try and share control with them, he had found. And the young, strong body of the Blood Kindred, Stavros, would do nicely.

“
Yes…nicely,”
he muttered through the left side of Two’s mouth, being careful not to wake his sleeping host. “
And now I think it’s time to make a call…”

* * * * *

Deep in the darkness of the Mother Ship, just a few thousand miles from where Two/Ur resided in the Dark Kindred destroyer, Six woke in the inky blackness bathed in sweat with his heart pounding.

“Gods!” his hoarse shout brought Mei-Li awake as well.

“Six? What is it? What’s wrong?” she gasped, sitting bolt upright and feeling for him.

“Mei-Li?” He reached for her, gathering her to him, holding her tightly for comfort. “Oh Gods…” His deep voice was nearly breaking and she could feel him trembling against her.

“Honey, what is it? What’s wrong?” she whispered, running a hand over his forehead as if to search for fever. “You’re
drenched
in sweat—was it another nightmare?”

“No, I…” Still shivering, Six drew a hand over his face, as thought trying to wipe away the horrible images that had pierced his mind. “I had a dream…I can’t remember it now but I know…”

“You know what?” Mei-Li urged. As a trained therapist she firmly believed in getting things out in the open.

“I know that the people they sent to J’lorgan’s Mind—the warrior Stavros and his female companion—what was her name?”

“Charlotte but she goes by Charlie. You know
what
about them?”

“They’re in danger.” Six drew in a deep, gasping breath. “Terrible danger. And there’s something else.”

“What, honey? Tell me,” Mei-Li urged.

Six clutched her tighter.

“I remember the last part of the prophesy. The one my mother taught me when I was just a child so many cycles ago.”

“Tell me,” Mei-Li ordered. “Quickly, before you lose it again. We need to tell Commander Sylvan.”

In a low, shaking voice, Six began to recite. Mei-Li fumbled for a pen and paper on the bedside table and turned the lamp on low, ready to record the last part of the prophesy, the missing piece of the puzzle that would hopefully tell them how to defeat the Dark Kindred once and for all.

“Cursed to find an early grave

Will be the one the Light to Save

The Pain of others he must feel

The wounds of others he can heal

To stop the evil he must find

The Heart of Love in J’lorgon’s Mind

To bring it to the void and cold

And cast it in, he must be bold.

For when the Dark is burned to ash

Only then will danger pass

But when it does, it steals his breath

To seal Dark’s doom, the fate is…

He paused for a moment and Mei-Li touched his arm.

“Go on, sweetheart—the fate is what?”

“Death.” Six’s deep voice was low and harsh. “Gods, Mei-Li—the fate is
death.”

Chapter Twenty-nine

Charlotte held her breath as she pressed her palm to the silver plate beside the red door. She knew she was cleared to enter the inner circle but she couldn’t help expecting a shock every time she had to touch one of these damn things.

To her relief, her hand was outlined in welcoming green light at once. She presented her eye to the ocular scanner and a soft chime sounded. Then, without further ado, the crimson door slid to the side, allowing her entry.

“Okay, here goes,” Charlie muttered to herself. She held her chin high and walked deliberately, not rushing, trying to look like she belonged there in the inner circle. Not that there was anyone to see her—the long metal hallway appeared to be completely deserted. That suited Charlie fine but she kept up her act anyway just in case the whole place was being monitored.

To her dismay, the long corridor ended in another red door. But before she could get too upset, it slid silently to one side to allow her to pass. Charlie walked into a large, round room with a vast metal cylinder dominating its center. The rest of the room was bare and unremarkable but the cylinder drew her eyes. It was a bright, burnished gold, so clean and perfect she could easily see her own reflection in it.

Like some kind of a golden mirror,
she thought.
Is that where the Heart is?

It seemed likely. The room was suffused with a soft, pink light that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. Carefully, Charlie picked her way across the metal floor to study the vast, curving side of the cylinder. It was completely smooth, with no gaps or cracks at all.

Well how am I supposed to get to the damned Heart thing?
she wondered. She circled the entire cylinder, which took several minutes—the space contained inside it must be vast—without finding a way in. It made her wonder how big the Heart was. She had been thinking that it was one of the things mentioned in the Kindred High Council meeting—a plant or a crystal or something small she could hold in her hands. But what if it was actually something huge and immovable? What if she couldn’t even lift it, let alone run nimbly off with it into the sunset with it?

And that’s supposing I can get to it in the first place. How the hell do you get
into
this thing?

Tentatively, she pressed her palm to the burnished, curving surface of the golden cylinder. Despite walking all the way around it, this was the first time she had dared to touch it and she wasn’t sure what to expect. There was a soft humming sound and an electrical tingle ran up her arm but to her disappointment, nothing else happened.

“Damn it!” Charlie snarled under her breath. “How the hell does it
open?”

“It doesn’t. Not for the likes of
you.”
The hateful, familiar voice behind her made her jump. Looking up, she saw another imagine reflected behind hers in the golden surface of the cylinder. One with two faces—one male and one female. Both were filled with outraged anger.

“Joined One!” she gasped, turning quickly to face them…it…whatever you wanted to call the creature.

“Charlotte.” The female face’s lips were thin with disapproval. “Whatever can you be doing here in a forbidden area in the middle of the night?”

“I was…” Charlie swallowed hard and heard a dry clicking in the back of her own throat. “I was…was drawn by the Heart of Love,” she said, improvising. “It…it called to me in the middle of the night. It spoke of healing and…and forgiveness.” God, she really hoped the Joined One was buying this! “And it said I needed to come and be near it to achieve…uh, wholeness.”

“Wholeness?” The male face had a skeptical look. “In what way are you broken?”

“Well, I…I’m…” Charlie groped for an answer but before she could come up with anything the female face cut her off.

“Never mind, Charlotte,” it said, smiling cruelly. “Why should you tell us when you can
show
us instead?”

Charlie began to get a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“What do you mean? Are you going to ‘scan’ me again?”

“No indeed. We think the time for such benign,
noninvasive
techniques is past,” the male face answered. It, too was wearing a small, cruel smile. “We think it is time that you entered the Temple of Regret.”

“Where you will relive your worst and most painful memories,” the female face continued. “And we will be able to observe as well.”

“But…but…I thought you didn’t like to talk about the past.” Charlie began backing away but in a flash her wrist was caught in Ye’ha’Na’ho’s vise-like grip.

“We will not be talking about it but only observing it,” the male face pointed out.

“And then we can determine if you are, as you claim, broken enough for the Heart of Love—an artifact which has not spoken to
anyone
in the last five hundred cycles—to call to you and beg you to come and be made whole.”

“No…no, please!” Charlie pulled against it uselessly. She had police training in hand to hand combat but she knew to attack the Joined One was death. Her only option was to try to get away but the thing’s grip on her arms was as unbreakable as a steel handcuff. Slowly but surely it dragged her out of the vast circular room and down a long, winding hallway that was vaguely familiar.

By the time Charlie recognized the high blue walls of the maze-like corridors and knew where they were going, they were already there. Before she knew it, she was shivering before the entrance to the tunnel-like hallway with its eerie lighting and its pervasive feeling of dread. A chilly blast of dank air blew towards her, lifting the hair from her forehead and cooling the sweat which had formed on her brow.

Charlie shivered. “You…you don’t have to do this, you know,” she said, trying to sound calm and failing miserably. “I might have been mistaken about the Heart calling to me. In fact, now that I think about it, it was probably just a really vivid dream. I have them all the time. I—”

“Silence!” the male face of the Joined One snarled. “You have been caught trespassing in the sacred Circle of Oneness and you
will
bear the punishment allotted to that crime.”

“But…but I…” Charlie’s mouth was dry and her heart was pounding. “Please,” she whispered. “Please don’t make me go in there!”

The cruel smiles on the faces of the Joined One broadened and the female face actually let out a laugh that sounded to Charlie like a witch’s cackle.

“You will enter the Temple of Regrets
now
or you will be put to death. Make your choice,” the male face said harshly. “And do so at once.”

The Joined One made a motion with its free hand and Charlie saw that it had some kind of a weapon. It
looked
like a tazer or a stun gun but it would probably do hell of a lot more than stun or shock her if the Joined One pulled the trigger. She thought about protesting that they couldn’t kill one of their paying customers but the light of madness was flickering behind the two sets of glowing eyes. Charlie had an idea this creature did just about anything it wanted to and if it wanted to kill her, it would.

“All right,” she whispered, trying to straighten her spine. “All right. I…I’m going.”

“Go then. And if you so much as turn your head before you enter the temple, your life is forfeit.” At last the thing let go of her wrist.

Charlie nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was shaking her entire body and the short hairs at the back of her neck were standing on end. The feeling of dread coming from the mouth of the tunnel-like hallway was awful—like the breath of the tomb blowing in her face. At the end of it was a black door—one she was horrible afraid to enter. Still, she had to go in—what other choice did she have?

She had an impulse to fall on her knees before the Joined One and confess everything—to tell why she was here in the first place and beg for mercy. But what good would that do?
It would only give it another reason to punish me,
she thought, remembering the crazy look in both sets of eyes.
And besides, I won’t betray my home world like that!

“Go on!” the Joined One insisted and she felt something hard poke her in the back—the weapon. She couldn’t stall any longer—it was time to go.

Charlie straightened her shoulders and stiffened her spine.
I won’t beg and cry. I won’t let them see I’m afraid. I won’t!
Lifting her chin and clenching her hands into fists, she stepped slowly toward the entrance of the dark tunnel to meet her past and face her doom.

* * * * *