Shadowed(15)

Reddix looked away. “Don’t remember.”

Sylvan shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Reddix said flatly. “I don’t want to feel your pity or your sympathy. For just once in my life, I don’t want to feel anything.”

“Then don’t,” Sylvan said firmly. “Go to your suite and go to bed. Rest and try to relax.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“You do that.” Sylvan looked at him gravely. “Let your body heal itself, Reddix. Before it’s too late.”

“I will,” Reddix lied. He was going to bed all right—he was beat and needed at least one good night’s rest in order to be in top shape. But as soon as his battered body and mind were ready, he was going down to Earth to find her—to find the girl whose blood could set him free.

Not so he could bond with her, though. All his life he’d heard other Kindred warriors speak with longing about finding their perfect female—the one soul who could complete them.

Reddix took a much colder view. This female—this Earth girl—was nothing more than a means to an end. He didn’t want her love or compassion or trust. He didn’t want to hold her and look deep into her eyes or rouse her body to pleasure with his touch. He had no interest in building a life with her or giving her sons. It was her blood he was interested in and nothing else.

And he would do anything he had to in order to get it.





Chapter Four



Lissa had waited until Saber was gone to pick up the half-unrolled vid screen Reddix had brought with him off the floor. She’d kept to the back part of the suite while Saber’s friend had been there, but she couldn’t help overhearing bits and pieces of their tense conversation. And then when the big warrior collapsed, she’d run out to help Saber deal with him.

But Saber had shooed her away. “Don’t touch him—he doesn’t like to be touched, especially not by females,” he’d said curtly. He’d called for some medical help and one of the floating stretchers from the Med Center and had followed his friend down, hardly saying a word to her before he shut the door.

Now Lissa sat with the vid screen on her lap, feeling awful. She knew she shouldn’t look at it—Reddix had clearly said it was for Saber’s eyes alone. But she couldn’t help herself—she had to know what it said even though it was sure to be terrible. It was like squishing a big bug under a rock and then feeling the need to look and be sure it was dead even though she knew the sight would turn her stomach.

With trembling fingers, Lissa unrolled the vid screen and turned it on. It hummed for a moment in her hands, and then a 3D image of her adopted mother—Saber’s real mother—suddenly appeared hovering above its surface.

“Saber, my son,” she began, holding out her hands in a beseeching way. “I hardly know what to say or where to start. Receiving your message that you intended to stay on the Kindred Mother Ship and bond yourself to a female of your own clan is almost more than your father or I can take. Think, my son—think what you’re giving up. What you’re doing to your life. This decision will follow you the rest of your days and ruin any hope you might have of leading a normal, ordinary existence. The people—your people—will never respect you again. And Saber…” There were tears glimmering in her eyes now. “You’re breaking your father’s heart. He couldn’t even bear to help me record this. He said to tell you that he still loves you, but he is very, very disappointed. As am I, my son.”

The 3D figure leaned forward, her eyes now overflowing with tears. “What has she done to you, Saber?” she sobbed. “How has she bewitched you into giving up everything that was so important to you? Into betraying your family and your people and throwing everything over for a relationship you must know is unholy and wrong? The Goddess sees what you’re doing with that awful, ungrateful girl, and she weeps. She weeps, my son—”

Unable to take it anymore, Lissa closed the vid screen with a snap, cutting the recording off. But the damage was done.

Though she and Saber had agreed they would ignore the age-old taboo of their people and forget they were from the same clan and thus, by Touch Kindred law, brother and sister, she could feel the old guilt coming back to her now. There’s no blood relation between us—not even a distant one, she reminded herself fiercely.

But the argument, which used to make her feel better, did nothing for her now. All she could hear were the words of Saber’s mother, making accusations and weeping for her lost son…