Lauren pulled it tight to her chest and slammed the door just as the forked black tongue was curling toward her. The very tip of one fork caught in the ship’s door and was amputated in a gout of slimy black blood as the silver panel shut. It fell to the floor with a wet smack and lay twitching at Lauren’s feet like a snake that’s been cut in half but doesn’t have the sense to die.
“Ugh!” Lauren took a step back, still clutching the bunny creature to her chest. From the pained roaring outside the ship, the dragon was even more upset than she was. She wondered uneasily if it could force its way into the alley and get her. Would the Kindred ship protect her from something with the size and strength of an angry T-rex?
“Don’t worry.” The piping little voice from between her breasts startled her and when Lauren looked down, she realized she was still hugging the bunny tight—like a little girl clutching a stuffed animal.
“Wh…what?” she managed to stutter. “Who…how…who are you and how can you speak English?”
The rabbit shook itself free of her and hopped down. Then is shimmered and suddenly began to glow and grow.
Lauren watched in horrified amazement as it doubled and then trebled in height and mass until it was a pillar of brilliant light higher than her head. She blinked, trying to get used to the bright glow but almost at once the light solidified into the shape of a blond man wearing a purple cape, black pants and brown boots.
He was tall—almost as tall as Xairn though not quite so broad in the shoulders. Still, he was large and muscular enough to be a threat and Lauren took a step back when he raised his head. His eyes were a pale, silvery-purple and they gleamed strangely when smiled at her.
“Hello, Lauren,” he said. “Welcome to O’ah.”
* * * * *
Deep in the bowls of the splicing district, Xairn raised his bloody head.
He’d spent more time than he liked looking for Vrr only to find that the DNA specialist had retired and given the business over to his son, Slk. The Alteration house he ran still appeared reputable, however, though the price for what Xairn needed done was considerably more than Vrr would have charged him.
Indeed, he wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to pay the fee that Slk demanded. But somehow he had to if he and Lauren were ever going to be free of the AllFather’s influence and get beyond his reach. And at least he’d gained permission to access their secure parking area. To bring a ship to the splicing district without secure accommodations was asking to have it stripped in a matter of minutes.
He’d been making his way back through the narrow warren of arching plasti-glass tunnels built high above the skyline of O’ah when a pack of splicers had jumped him.
He hadn’t been expecting the attack because it didn’t make sense. Everyone knew that Scourge DNA was flawed—their stubborn intractability and volatility made them useless as slaves except to other Scourge and their pearlescent grey skin and red-on-black eyes weren’t considered beautiful enough to replicate for cloning. So why would splicers attack him? Putting the question aside, Xairn had fought them off one by one, despite the fact that his weapon was out of charge. But the splicers were very determined and it was a long, messy business—mostly knife work which left him covered in gore.
Five splicers lay dead at his feet, their red-black blood splattering the smudged plasti-glass tunnel before he was done. Only one remained alive and in the state he was in, he wouldn’t last for long.
Xairn knelt on the male’s narrow chest and stared into the pale purple eyes. “Why did you attack me?” he demanded hoarsely, gripping the neck of the splicer’s cloak and twisting. “Is Scourge DNA suddenly in vogue on this benighted planet? I thought we had too many flaws to be of much use to a splicer.”
“Don’t…don’t want your DNA,” the male choked, a thin trickle of reddish-black blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. “Scourge DNA is shit.”
“Why then?” Xairn twisted harder until the male’s face turned as purple as his cloak. “Tell me now and I’ll give you a painless death.”
“T-too late for that.” The male broke into a cracked laugh that turned into a sob. “Gods…think my spine is broken. Can’t feel anything…below my waist.”
“Lucky for you,” Xairn said coldly. “You can’t feel pain in the lower half of your body. But if you don’t want the top half of your miserable carcass to be in absolute fucking agony, you’ll tell me what you know, now.”
“Spider sent us.” The splicer coughed weakly, spewing black droplets from his thin lips. “He wanted us to kill you so he could have your ship.”