Cursed: Brides of the Kindred 13 (55 page)

“I told you, only Two may dock at the Tower—he is the only one with Preferential codes,” Six explained.

“But you just got finished telling me all about this ship’s ‘stealth mode,’” Charlie pointed out. “Why should anyone have to know we’re docking? Why can’t you just shadow his ship—hang on like a flea on a dog’s back?”

“Well…” Six frowned. “Technically it
may
be possible…”

“Then what are you waiting for?” Charlie demanded. “Go—get up after it!”

Instead of looking at her, Six looked at Mei-Li.

“It will be dangerous. If we are caught, Two will show us no mercy. I do not worry for myself but I would not put you in danger.”

“I know it’s dangerous.” Mei-Li reached across the narrow isle to squeeze his hand. “But if it was me, I’d want to go after you, no matter what.” She looked up at Charlie. “He’s more than just a co-worker and partner to you, isn’t he?”

“I don’t know what he is!” Charlie had begun crying by now—she couldn’t help it. “All I know is that we just let him go to his death and I can’t let that happen—I can’t let him die!”

“All right.” Six started manipulating the controls and suddenly the Dark Kindred cruiser, which had shrunk to a speck in their viewscreen, began to grow larger.

“Will we make it? Can we catch them?” Charlie asked doubtfully, swiping at her eyes.

“We will try,” Six said grimly. “I can make no other promise than that. We will try.”

The three of them leaned forward, all eyes on the viewscreen and the Dark Kindred ship ahead.

None of them saw the fourth set of eyes, small and red, concealed under the last passenger chair.

* * * * *

“
I will have him
now.
I want a new host—one which I can control fully.”

“I have told you, Ur, the Collective wishes to interview him first. They cannot get accurate information if you are already infesting him like a swarm of
tzzgs
in a rotten log.”

Stavros sat back in his chair—which he was manacled to with plasti-steel chains that made the Kindred handcuffs Charlotte had put on him when she first captured him look like child’s play—and watched his captor (or was it captors?) fight about his eventual fate. Their fighting didn’t bother him, though. He didn’t really care what they did to him as long as he got to complete his mission first.

Beneath the heavy black uniform shirt he had borrowed from Six, he could feel his mark glowing. It didn’t hurt but it didn’t feel exactly comfortable either. It was like having pure starlight trapped under his skin, trying to get out. He was glad the shirt was of such thick material that the light didn’t show through.

Despite his discomfort, he felt calm. He had always known he would die young and at least this way, he would be dying for a good cause—to save the planet of the woman he loved.

Oh, Charlotte…falinda…

He could not repress a sigh when he thought of her. He wondered where she was right now—hopefully on her way back to the Mother Ship and safety. He just prayed he was in time to stop the Dark Kindred from making another attack on her home planet. She had looked so devastated when Mei-Li told her how some of its major cities had already been destroyed. He wanted to keep that from happening again.

Charlotte was his only regret in all this, he had to admit to himself. But even if he hadn’t been destined to die in order to destroy the Dark Kindred, he never could have claimed her as a bride. Even if she would have had him—and he knew she wouldn’t, not with her past pain in the way—he couldn’t have allowed himself to bond with her. It would be wrong to tie her to him knowing he was Cursed…wrong to form a permanent soul bond knowing he was destined to die young and possibly drag her down with him…

“
I tell you, I
will
have him—I
must!”

“I don’t think so, my demonic friend. Just try to get lose and go to him. Go on—
try.”

Stav looked up to see a very strange sight. Two, the Dark Kindred Commander, was pacing jerkily in front of him up and down the long isle between the seats filled with Dark Kindred warriors. They all stared stoically ahead, obviously not interested in what was happening to their commander. But Stavros couldn’t take his eyes from the scene.

The Dark Kindred Commander was jerking this way and that, twitching as though he was having spasms or seizures. When Ur spoke from his mouth, the left side of his face and body jerked wildly but when Two spoke, the right side was clearly dominant.

Two seemed to be winning this internal war. At least, Stav didn’t
feel
any demonic presence trying to invade him. He wondered what would happen if it did. Could a purely evil being like Ur stand to be in contact with all the positive emotions of love and understanding and kindness which his Mark had soaked up like a sponge? He seemed destined never to find out because clearly Two was keeping the errant demon hostage inside his body.

“
Let…me…go!”
Ur bellowed.
“How dare you hold me against my will?”

“Maybe because I
like
you.” Two seemed to be smirking. “You’re such good
company.”

“
I have never had a host hold me against my will—never!”
the demon seethed.

“Maybe because you’ve never had a willing host before,” Two mused. “But I would be very sorry to lose you—I was so
lonely
before you came. No…I don’t think you’d better leave to inhabit our new friend after all. I
like
having you in me.”

“
Sooner or later you will have to let me go or lose your free will completely,”
Ur snarled.
“I already have control of the left side of your body—how long do you think it will be until I also gain control of the right side?”

“Oh, I would say…probably
forever,”
Two remarked. “You see, my enhancements and all my neural links are on the right side—they form an impassible barrier you will never be able to penetrate.”

His only answer was an inarticulate howl of rage—clearly the demon was venting his wrath about being trapped within his host.

“Now, now,” Two said, when he had complete control of his mouth again. “I think you should be glad that I still want you, after all the trouble you’ve caused. You haven’t exactly been the easiest guest, you know—tipping our hand too early to get the Heart of Love or to find out why the Kindred want it. Unsettling the
Hossans
so that they would only release
one
of the prisoners to us.” He nodded at Stavros who stared blandly back.

“Not to mention destroying all those lovely cities on Earth before I got a chance to properly
play
with the inhabitants first.” Two made a
tsking
sound with his long, thin tongue against his metal teeth. “Really, if you weren’t so much fun to have around, I would have taken you back to the Black Planet by now. You’re lucky I like you, Ur.”

Stavros frowned as he watched the bizarre exchange. It occurred to him that Two was not in the strictest sense of the word
sane.
For why would any sane person
want
a demon living inside them? And why would he wish to keep Ur from leaving? Not that Stav was complaining—he preferred
not
to be possessed. If he was going to die doing his duty, he wanted to be in his right mind when he did it.

“Now do try to relax,” Two said, still apparently talking to his demonic passenger. “We’re about to go through the fold in space and I don’t want you getting all excited when we do. It’s…unsettling.”

“
I will show you ‘unsettling’,”
Ur growled.
“I
will
be free of you, Two. And with the next host I take I will wreak such vengeance on you as will make you fucking
beg
for mercy and
pray
for death.”

Two
tsked
again. “Now, now—such language! Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Oh wait, you don’t because it is
my
mouth and I never had a mother!” He broke into peals of strange, jagged laugher that set the short hairs at the back of Stav’s neck standing on end.

Insane—he’s definitely gone insane. Holding the demon within him for so long has broken his mind.

As though he could feel Stavros thinking about him, Two turned to stare at him with an amused expression on his face.

“And you, my dear Kindred—still nothing to say?”

Stav just stared at him.

“I suppose you’re thinking of your little paramour—the one the Joined One refused to release to us,” Two mused. “I expect you’re sitting there, consoling yourself that at least
she
got away, hmmm?”

Still Stav said nothing.

“Well, it might interest you to know that she
didn’t
get away.” Two smirked at him. “In fact, she and my old colleague, Six and
his
lovely little bride are hot on our tail right this minute.”

Stav surged forward to the limit of his manacles.

“You lie,” he growled.

“Oh but it’s
true.”
Two’s one visible eye glittered with glee. “They think because they are using stealth mode that I don’t know they’re there. But I have eyes everywhere and they
are
following. No doubt they are coming to your rescue.”

“They wouldn’t!” Stavros protested. But he was dying inside. Though he hated to admit it, Two
must
be telling the truth. How else could he know about Six and Mei-Li?

“They would and they are.” Two grinned at him nastily, exposing all his metal teeth. “And so we’re going to have a little surprise all set up for them the minute we all reach the Tower of the Collective.”

He turned away, still grinning nastily, and left Stav to fight with his manacles. He had to get free—had to get away and warn them—warn Charlotte!

But though he twisted and fought until his wrists were raw and bleeding, he couldn’t get loose. The Dark Kindred ship carried him on into the red, jagged rift in space towards a destiny he couldn’t control or avoid.

Chapter Thirty-four

“I don’t like this. It’s too easy.” Six frowned as they stepped into the metal vestibule that connected to the outside docking platform. It had been left conveniently unguarded after the Dark Kindred had exited their craft. Two had been among them, leading Stavros who was bound with thick, unbreakable chains.

The Tower of the Collective was easily the tallest building in a city filled with monstrous sky-scrapers. Charlie, who had been to New York, thought it was at least twice as tall as the Empire State building. Inside, it was a featureless series of wide, windowless, dull silver hallways which branched out into several smaller corridors as they went along.

Six had informed them they were headed to the Hall of the Collective—the main room where all the sentient machines were housed. Charlie just hoped they could get there before it was too late but now he was saying it was “too easy.” And while it was
true
they hadn’t run into any guards, couldn’t they all just be busy doing other things?

“Do you think we should go back?” Mei-Li asked in a low voice. She and Charlie were both dressed in long black robes with hoods which at least hid the fact that they were female. Charlie would have been glad to have something to go over the mostly see-through white novice gown she’d been wearing for days but she was too worried about Stav to care.

“No, we can’t go back!” she hissed. “They have him—they took him inside. We have to get to him before they do something horrible!”

“Or before he fulfills his mission,” Six said, frowning. “Has it occurred to you, Charlotte, that Stavros may hold the only key to defeating our enemies? If he doesn’t act now, your entire world may die.”

Charlie shook her head stubbornly. “No, I don’t accept that. We’ll find a way—we have to. But in the mean time, I don’t think Stavros should have to die for a world that isn’t even his own.”

“You do have a point there,” Mei-Li said. “Although I can’t help worrying about what’s going to happen to Earth if Stavros doesn’t do what he came to. And we—”

They were rounding a corner as she spoke, and her words came to an abrupt halt as they nearly ran into Two and a whole battalion of Dark Kindred warriors.