Switched: Brides of the Kindred 17 (52 page)

He’d been flung from his own body, as though
by a slingshot, and now he was rushing down the corridors of the
Mother Ship, going through walls and doors alike. Nothing could
stop him because he was pure spirit. Pure—

His journey came to an end
with an almost audible
thud.
Kerov felt jarred,
as
though he had hit a brick wall
.
Suddenly he found himself inside a body—a male
body, he could tell at once. He blinked and took in a breath,
expanding lungs that weren’t his.

When he was with Frankie, being inside her
body was a smooth transition. It had felt strange at first but he
could make all of her limbs and digits work easily with no
problem—he would never have been able to do such complicated yoga
poses while he was inside her otherwise. However, this body fought
him—it was as though the one he had invaded sensed him at once and
immediately began struggling for control.

“
What?” gasped the male he
suddenly found himself in. “What the—”

“
Enough, Two,” Kerov
growled, seizing control of the mouth with some difficulty. “We
know what you’re trying to do and it stops
now.”

“
Perov? Is that
you?”
Two sent incredulously.
“I knew I should have killed you
earlier!”

“
It’s
Kerov
,”
Kerov grated out. “Fucking get it
right
for once!”

Looking through the other male’s eyes, he
could see a vast metal room filled with huge, round tanks, each as
large as a single dwelling domicile. They were raised high in the
air and all connected by pipes which led outward in every
direction.

Kerov was awed by the
vastness of the area. Clearly this system could hold an immense
amount of water. And yet—it was all connected. If one of the
enormous tanks became infected with Two’s poison, they would
all
be
infected.

“
Perov or Kerov or
whatever your name is, you can’t stop me!” Two snarled, taking back
the control Kerov had fought so hard to get.

Kerov struggled to take back the body and
felt his weight shift dangerously. For the first time he realized
he—or rather Two—was standing on a thin metal ladder attached to
the side of a tank that was even larger than the others. It
occupied a central place in the room and Kerov thought it must be
the main water unit. The ladder was incredibly long but he was only
halfway up it—about two or threee stories high, he judged. It
wasn’t as if he was at the very top of the ladder but it was still
farther than he wanted to fall.

Gods!
Seizing control of half the body at least, he locked one arm
around the thin railing of the ladder. He had to be careful here or
he would go plummeting to the ground below and likely break both
legs and his back as well.

“
Let go my arm, you
idiot,” Two hissed, still using the mouth though Kerov tried not to
let him. “I’m almost done! I just need to add a drop of my blood to
activate the nanobots!”

With mounting horror, Kerov saw that a small
hatch was open in the side of the enormous metal water vat. The
black satchel the fake Commander Sylvan had shown him earlier was
hanging from a rung of the ladder by a strap and the test tubes
inside it were empty.

In the hand Two was still controlling was a
knife with a long, black blade. As Kerov watched, Two attempted to
wrestle control of the other hand too. Clearly he was trying to get
closer to the opening in the side of the tank.

“
Don’t let him do
it!”
A new voice spoke up, startling Kerov
so much he jerked and almost lost control of the half of the body
he had managed to take over.

“
Who…what?”
he thought at it—how was there a
third
person inside this
body?

“
I’m Y—the one he stole
this body from in the first place,”
the
voice whispered inside Kerov’s mind.
“Direct your thoughts to me and be quiet so he can’t hear
us.”

“
All right,”
Kerov sent back a guarded reply, hoping that his
mental voice would go undetected by his unwilling host.

“
He wants to infect the
water supply of the entire Mother Ship,”
Y
whispered. His voice sounded tired and paper-thin as though he was
barely hanging on to his place here in what had used to be his
body.
“He wants to take over every living
soul aboard, the same way he took me over and if he gets even a
single drop of his blood into the water he’ll do it.”

“
I’m not going to let that
happen!”
Kerov promised grimly. But he was
fighting to retain control of the half of the body he had. Two was
strong and determined. Inch by inch he moved the arm Kerov had
curled around the ladder. He had the knife at the ready, eager to
slice.

Kerov knew if Two managed to get his hand
over the opening in the side of the tank and cut it with the knife,
his blood would activate the nanobots and infect the water supply.
Then the pipes rushing outward would carry it all over the ship,
circulating it to Two’s unsuspecting victims before anyone could
stop it.

He thought of Commander
Sylvan’s words—the substance the Dark Kindred had put into the
water would kill twenty percent of the ship. And the rest would
lose themselves entirely—becoming puppets for Two to control. He
couldn’t let that happen—he
had
to stop it.

But how? Slowly but surely, Two was
regaining control of the body they were in. Kerov tried to hold him
back but his host’s will was incredibly powerful and he had
inhabited the body much longer—Kerov was fighting a losing
battle.

“
You have to kill
him,”
Y whispered in his mind.
“You have to be sure he can never hurt anyone
again!”

“
But if I do that, you’ll
die too,”
Kerov pointed out. He would die
himself as well but he didn’t say that. He didn’t even want to
think it.

“
I’m dead already—or as
good as dead,”
Y whispered.
“I should have taken the chance to get away from
him while I could—now it’s too late. I’m permanently bound to him
and every moment is pure agony. I
want
to die. If I can take him with
me, so much the better,”
he added
bitterly.

Kerov could feel the hatred in his words,
the helpless rage against the one who had stolen his body and
refused to give it back. Death was the only escape for Y but he
wanted to take his tormentor to the Seven Hells with him.

“
What can we do?”
he sent urgently. Two was uncurling his arm from
around the metal rung of the ladder. Soon it would be too
late.

“
Jump—the ladder’s
tall.”

“
This fall won’t kill him.
It might break every bone in his body but it won’t kill
him,”
Kerov protested.

“
Not if we jump the right
way.”

Y sent him a mental picture that made
Kerov’s blood run cold. But he knew instinctively that the other
male was right—there was no other way.

“
I don’t know if I have
enough strength,”
he sent.
“He’s very strong and he’s been in this body much
longer than I have.”

“
I’ll help you. I’ve been
holding back a reserve, hoping to be able to get control back from
my old Master. But I’m too weak for that and even if I could, I
don’t think I could survive long in this body. Two has changed it
too much—it’s foreign to me now. But I can lend you my
strength.”

“
I thank you,
Brother,”
Kerov sent formally.
“And I accept your offer.”

“
On three then,”
Y whispered and there was a glimmer of strength
in his tired voice now. Clearly he’d been waiting for an
opportunity like this to take revenge on his captor.

Kerov steeled himself and tried to get
ready. This was it—the end. How had it come so suddenly upon him?
How could he possibly be ready to die? But it was his life or the
lives of tens of thousands of innocents. There was no other way. No
other choice he could make.

Frankie,
he thought, caressing her name like a
prayer.
I wish I could tell you I’m sorry.
I wish I could tell you…I love you.
Because he did love her—so very much. He realized that
now—now that it was too late to do anything about it. Frankie was
beautiful and brave and intelligent and everything he had ever
wanted in a female…and he would never have her.
Goddess,
he prayed.
If I cannot have the one I love, then let my
death count for something. Let me do what must be done.

A sudden peace filled his soul. A feeling of
rightness and a certainty that he was doing the right thing.

“
All is well,”
a new voice—a rich, powerful, feminine voice
whispered in his head.
“Do what is
needful, warrior. Your sacrifice will not go
unrewarded.”

Kerov had a moment to wonder who the voice
belonged to but then the presence was gone and he heard Y once
more.

“
One,”
Y whispered.

Kerov tensed and then, with an effort, let
go his hold on the arm he was still trying to control.

“
Ah-ha!” Two shouted with
triumph as he finally managed to get the arm away from the ladder
rung. Clearly he thought he was winning the struggle.

“
Two,”
Y sent.

“
Giving up so soon my
friend?” Two asked Kerov mockingly. Slowly but surely he stretched
the newly freed hand towards the open hatch of the water tank. In
his other fist, the black dagger glittered in the dim light. He was
inches from making the cut that would spill his blood into the
water supply.

“
Not quite,”
Kerov sent back.
“Not
giving up quite…yet.”

“
Three!”
Y shouted in his mind and Kerov felt a surge of
energy fill him. He burst forward, seizing control of the
body—
complete
control. He wouldn’t be able to hold it for long but that was
all right—he only needed a few seconds.

As Two screamed in rage, he turned on the
ladder and jumped, positioning the body he controlled so that they
would land flat on the chest and belly. At the same time, he
whipped the hand with the knife around and pressed the tip to the
space over his heart. When they landed, the impact would drive the
blade deep, piercing the heart and slicing clean through to the
other side.

“
This is the end—Goddess
help me!”
he thought as the dull silver of
the metal floor rushed up to meet him.

“
The end for me and for
Two perhaps—but it doesn’t have to be for you. Go!”
he heard Y whisper.

Just as the handle of the knife hit the
ground and he felt it begin to penetrate his flesh, there was a
huge push. To Kerov it felt like someone standing behind him had
shoved him hard in the back. He reeled forward, feeling the first
pain of impact as the body he had so lately inhabited hit the
ground and the knife sliced deep.

Then…nothing.

Chapter Twenty-five

“
Is he all right?” Sophie
asked anxiously.

“
I don’t know.” Frankie
stroked Kerov’s cheek gently. “He…he’s still quiet, at least.” As
the tense minutes ticked away, she was still cradling the big
Kindred’s head in her lap, looking down into his slack
face.

“
I was so mad at him, you
know,” she whispered, sparing a quick glance up at Sophie and Kate
who was kneeling beside her.

“
Yes, you were telling us
but you didn’t tell us exactly
why,”
Kate pointed out. “Did the,
uh, priestess’s suggestion on how to make the two of you Switch
back into your right bodies not go as planned?”

Frankie gave a broken little laugh. “You
could say that. It wasn’t anything like I had imagined.”

“
What was it like then?”
Sophie asked curiously. “You can tell us, Frankie. Maybe we can
give you some perspective.”

“
Okay, well…I guess so.”
Frankie sighed. Earlier, when she had been talking to her two new
friends, she’d been reluctant to reveal the exact details of her
encounter with Kerov. Now the whole idea of embarrassment and
privacy and guilt seemed somehow distant…unimportant. Who cared if
Kate and Sophie knew what had gone on between her and Kerov if he
never came back? If he never…

No—can’t think like that.
He’s coming back—he has to,
she told
herself sternly. To take her mind off her morbid thoughts, she
started talking.

“
The priestess said that
in order to be Switched back to our own bodies, we had to give each
other the ‘Kiss of Intimacy,’” she said. “Do you guys know what
that is?”

Sophie and Kate exchanged glances.

“
Um, I’ve never heard it
called that but I think we have an idea,” Sophie said in a low
voice. “So what went wrong?”

“
Well…Kerov went wrong.”
Frankie looked down at his stern features. “He, uh, seemed to go a
little bit crazy. He tied me up with his belt and he…did things we
hadn’t agreed on in the first place.”