Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred) (51 page)

Sylvan gripped it hard and advanced on Ur, thrusting it towards
his face. “Hold him,” he said grimly to the other males surrounding the demon.
“Hold him fast while I—”

Suddenly Ur/Terex threw back his head and
gave a long, unearthly howl. Then the Chancellor’s body went limp, slumping
heavily in the arms of the ones holding it.

Sylvan lunged forward and pressed the
chunk of black soul stone to the creature’s cheek but there was no response.
The body stayed limp, the eyes rolled up in its sockets, the breathing shallow
but regular.

“What happened?” asked Six in a low voice.
“Did you capture the thing in the rock?”

“I don’t know.” Sylvan frowned. Still
keeping hold of the soul stone, he used his other hand to examine Terex’s body.
Lifting an eyelid, he stared at the ice blue eye revealed and saw no trace of
red. Then the pupil contracted and Terex’s chest expanded in a ragged gasp. His
body jerked in the hands of those who held it.

“Sylvan?” he muttered hoarsely. “Where am
I? I had the most horrible dream…”

“Terex?” Sylvan asked uncertainly. “Is
that you?”

“Of course it’s me—who else would it be?”
Terex tried to straighten up and almost fell. “Why are you all holding me? Who
won the battle? Did we drive the demons out?”

“Yes.” Sylvan frowned, still troubled. “We
did. For the most part.”

“Is it really Terex?” Councilor Niros
asked hopefully. “Has he truly been released from the demon’s hold?”

“Be careful,” Councilor Sarr said flatly.
“It could be a trap. He could—”

“Look! Look at the viewscreen!” Mei-Li’s
voice was high and panicked.
“Look at Two!”

All eyes turned towards the viewscreen and
what Sylvan saw there made him instantly anxious. The tall, thin emissary of
the Dark Kindred was twisting and contorting as though he was fighting some
kind of internal struggle. Then, as they watched, he stood straight again and smiled.
He looked exactly the same to Sylvan…except for the fact that his exposed left
eye—the one not covered by the metal scope—was now glowing a hot crimson.

“Two?” Six asked hoarsely.

“You may call me that,” Two said.
“Or
you may call me Ur,”
he continued in a different, deeper voice. “I have agreed to host our mutual
friend,” he went on in the first voice. “It should be a mutually beneficial
arrangement.”

Six shook his head. “Two, you willingly
let a demon into your body? Have you lost all reason?”

“Well, I already have the Collective in
here.” Two tapped the side of his head where the sensors were. “So it’s not as
if I’m used to much privacy. Besides, our friend Ur appears to have all manner of knowledge
that I find most useful. Such as the password to disable your shields,
strategic weaknesses of the Mother Ship…that kind of thing.”

Sylvan felt sick. “If you dare attack the
Mother Ship, you will find a much harder fight than you bargained for.”

“We shall leave the Mother Ship alone…for
now,”
Ur
’s voice snarled.
“As long as you do not interfere
with our conquest of Earth.”
He grinned evilly.
“I will find it amusing
to watch your pain as the people you love are captured and enslaved.”

“You bastard!” Sylvan growled. “Leave
Earth alone!”

His only answer was low, demonic laughter
which pulsed through the viewscreen and filled the room with almost palpable
evil. Then it went blank and the image of their enemy was gone.

Chapter
Thirty-nine

“This is all my fault. I can’t believe I
thought it was just a dream. I can’t believe I didn’t get to Commander Sylvan
in time to warn him.” Mei-Li buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

“It’s not your fault,” Kat protested. She
and Sophie and Liv and Lauren as well as another girl called Becca were all
sitting around Kat’s living area trying to comfort Mei-Li.

In the food prep area—what the Kindred
called the kitchen—Six and Sylvan and Kat’s two husbands, Deep and Lock, were
speaking in hushed tones.

After the meeting had ended in such a
horrible way, they had called an immediate council of war. Passwords had been
changed and so had everything that Ur/Terex had had a hand in—as much as
possible, anyway. Mei-Li had reached out to her father, trying to warn him of
the coming attack by the Dark Kindred. But his only response was to insist she
had Stockholm syndrome and demand she come home at once.

It upset Mei-Li that she hadn’t been able
to make him see that the Kindred of the Mother Ship were not the threat the
Earth needed to be worried about. Even more upsetting was the thought of
Claudia and everyone else she cared about down on Earth being at risk for death
and enslavement. But she hadn’t been able to get her best friend on the
viewscreen to warn her—most of the communications systems between Earth and the
Mother Ship were being jammed. Even the Think-Me devices the Kindred used to
communicate with distant loved ones were useless because they couldn't
establish a complete connection.

“They’re all going to die. Die or lose
their emotions which is even worse,” she whispered brokenly. “And it’s all my
fault! I should have found Commander Sylvan and warned him sooner! I should
have done it
last night.
Instead when Six woke up, he and I just went
back to…well, you know.” She could feel her cheeks getting red as the other
girls looked at each other knowingly.

“Listen, doll, nobody expects you to up
and leave in the middle of bonding sex,” Kat said reasonably. “It’s just not
done.”

“Well,
I
should have done it,”
Mei-Li said stubbornly. “After all, we’d already bonded by then. We were just
kind of still…”

“Still wanting each other?” Sophie
finished for her. “That’s not unusual, hon. The Kindred sex drive is
legendary.”

“Still—” Mei-Li began.

“Look, the Dark Kindred were already on
their way, right?” Liv asked practically. “I mean Ur had invited them a long time before he
went into Two. In fact, he called them up and offered them Earth on a platter
when he was still in Terex. Right?”

Mei-Li sniffed and nodded. “Yes. But if Ur hadn’t gone into him…I
mean, now he knows so much about the ship and all the weak spots—”

“I don’t think the Mother Ship
has
that many weak spots,” Sophie said stoutly. “Sylvan has told me before it’s
nearly impregnable. It’s built to be. So don’t worry about what that horrible Ur thing said—he’s
bluffing.”

Mei-Li wiped her eyes. “I hope you’re
right but I’m still worried about the people on Earth. My father wouldn’t
listen to me when I tried to warn him about the Dark Kindred. They’re sitting
ducks down there! My best friend Claudia and all the kids on my workload…” She
shook her head. “I’m just so scared for them.”

“We’re scared too, hon, but we have
faith,” Lauren said quietly. “The Goddess wouldn’t have given you a problem
with no solution.”

“Lauren’s right.” Kat, who was holding one
of her new babies, leaned forward. He had a shock of silvery blond hair and
dark silver eyes. The other two were sleeping quietly in baby carriers beside
the couch. “What exactly did she say?” she asked. “Do you remember it all?”

“She said Six would remember something
important,” Mei-Li said frowning.

“And has he?” Becca asked.

Mei-Li shook her head. “No but he’s
supposed to. I think it has to do with some kind of prophesy but I only heard
part of it back when I was on Z4.”

“A prophesy?” Liv, Kat, Sophie and Lauren all
exchanged glances.

“Yes, is that bad?” Mei-Li asked, looking
at them doubtfully.

“Well, in our experience it’s not exactly
good,”
Lauren said delicately.

“But it might not be so bad,” Sophie said
quickly. “Tell us what you heard.”

“Okay, well I think it’s about the
liberation of Zeaga 4. There are lots of Kindred there who don’t
want
to
lose their feelings but they’re scared of the Collective—the ruling body of
sentient machines that run the place.”

“Sounds awful,” Liv said.

Mei-Li nodded. “It really is. Anyway, I
met an old man—an old Kindred, I guess I should say—named Malak. And this is
what he told me before…” She swallowed. “Before Two killed him.”

“From the look on your face we
don’t
want
to know the details,” Kat said grimly. “So just go on with the prophesy.”

“Okay. He got all excited when he saw me
because there are no females on Z4. So the prophesy goes something like this:
‘And one shall come—a female of …of…” Mei-Li frowned. “Damn it—I should have
written it down. Let me try and remember. I think it was—”

“A female of surpassing loveliness,” a
deep, familiar voice said.

Mei-Li looked up with a little gasp.
“Six?”

He was standing in the doorway between the
living area and the kitchen and there was a strange look on his face that she’d
never seen before.

“A female of surpassing loveliness,” he
repeated. “Small in stature but large in spirit. When you see her you shall
know…for she marks the beginning of the end.”

“How do you know that?” Mei-Li asked,
staring at him. “Are you all right?”

“I have a headache.” He frowned and rubbed
his temples with both hands. “I…I do not know where those words came from. I
heard you speak them and I had to finish.”

“Six?” Yipper was suddenly beside the big
Kindred, looking up at him with concern.

“Yipper, what’s wrong with him?” Mei-Li
got up and went to her man, who was still holding his head. “What’s going on?”

“I believe more memories are coming
forward. Yes they are, yes they are. Let’s get him sitting down.”

Between them they led Six to the
overstuffed armchair Mei-Li had just been sitting in. He sank down into it and
buried his head in his hands.

“Gods,” Mei-Li heard him mutter in a
muffled voice. “Mere and Pere…Kaylee. And the legends…the tales Mere told…”

“Is he okay?” Kat asked in a low voice.
“Would you like us to leave?”

“No, of course not.” Mei-Li suddenly
remembered the Goddess saying that she should love Six and help him let the
memories come forward. She might have messed up the warning she’d been given to
deliver but this she could at least get right. Slowly, she rubbed his broad
shoulders. “It’s all right, Six,” she murmured in a soothing voice. “It’s all
right—just let it come out.”

By now Sylvan and Deep and Lock had come
out into the living area as well.

“Is he all right?” Sylvan asked softly. “I
can examine him if you like. The effects of having an implant like his removed
so suddenly can be far reaching and—”

Suddenly Six sat up and began to speak
again.

“Cursed
to find an early grave

Will be
he the Light who saves

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…for
if he…”

He frowned and tried again. “For…” He shook his head. “It’s
gone. I thought I had it for a moment but I cannot remember now.”

“Wow—what
was
all that?” Mei-Li asked in a low voice. “A
memory from your past?”

Slowly, Six nodded. “A poem my mother taught me. She was
Tergish and all Tergish are traders and story tellers. That poem was supposed
to be about Zeaga 4, I believe. But I do not understand its significance.”

“I think I do,” Lock said, stepping forward. “Coupled with the
first part of the prophesy, it seems to tell about the eventual destruction of
the Dark—the evil force enslaving the planet and seeking to reach out to the
rest of the universe.”

“The Collective,” Mei-Li breathed. “The Goddess
did
say
that the evil had to be stopped at its source. She said someone had to make a
sacrifice but she didn’t say who.”

“The Pain of others he must feel…the wounds of others he may
heal,” Sylvan repeated, frowning. “That must be one of the Cursed.”

“What are the Cursed?” Sophie asked, coming to stand beside
him. “Some other kind of Kindred?”

“In a way. The Cursed are a rare anomaly among the Blood
Kindred. They’re also called Sin Eaters.”

“Sin Eaters? What does that mean?” Mei-Li asked.

“They feel the physical pain of others as if it was their own,”
Sylvan explained. “It greatly shortens their lifespan—that would be the ‘early
grave’ part of the prophesy, I imagine. They can also absorb and heal wounds
inflicted on those they care about.”

“You mean like their mates? They can heal them the same way
other Blood Kindred can heal their females?” Deep, Lock’s brother asked,
frowning.

“In a way,” Sylvan said. “But the Cursed don’t often call
brides. They know they are destined to die young—bearing all the wounds and
pain of everyone around you is very wearing on the circulatory and nervous
system. Most die of heart failure before they reach their fortieth name day.”

“But that’s awful!” Sophie exclaimed.

“Yes it is,” Sylvan said grimly. “Hence the name ‘Cursed.’ But
a Cursed one is who we need to fulfill this prophesy. To go to—what was the
other part?”

“J’lorgon’s Mind,” Lock said. “It is a place of healing and
wisdom in the Crab Nebula founded by the great Syntharian healer, T’dai al
J’lorgon. But what the ‘Heart of Love’ is, I do not know.”

“Do some research and find out what you can,” Deep said. “And
in the meantime, I guess we need to find one of the Cursed somewhere. Do you
know of anyone Sylvan?”

Sylvan frowned. “I know of only one—Commander Stavros Rii. And
he is beyond our reach on Earth.”

“But all the communications between us and Earth are jammed now
except for the direct lines and even those are becoming really unpredictable,”
Deep protested.

“Then we must find a way to get him to a direct line,” Lock
said.

“But even if we can talk to him and give him the assignment,
how can we get him off Earth? Especially with the Dark Kindred coming?” Deep
asked. “The space around the planet is going to get extremely crowded and
dangerous in the next few solar days.”

“I don’t know.” Sylvan shook his head, looking troubled. “I
don’t know how we’ll contact Stavros or get him where he needs to go. I only
know we have to try. He may be our only hope.”

END

Read
on for the first two chapters of Cursed, Brides of the Kindred 13, coming this
fall…