“What my brother is trying to say is that we used Kat here as a focus,” Deep interrupted in a bored tone.
Mother L’rin’s golden-pink eyes widened. “You used a female as your focus? And an off-worlder at that—one who is alien to us? You had no idea of what a joining with you might do to her mind—to her body!”
“That is true.” Lock bowed his head, accepting her rebuke. “We were, as I said, in a desperate position but I know that is no excuse.”
“It most certainly is not.” Her eyes flashed angrily. “Males must join with males and females with females on the astral plane—anything else is sacrilege. You know that.”
Lock nodded. “We know,” he murmured in a low voice.
Mother L’rin came to stand at the head of the stretcher and placed her hands on either side of Kat’s shining mass of auburn hair. “Very well.” She took a deep breath. “What were her symptoms after your joining?”
“Well, the first time—” Deep began.
“The first time?” Mother L’rin’s head jerked up and she glared at him. “You used this poor female more than once?”
“We used her twice.” Deep lifted his chin arrogantly. “And the second time we cast a net from Earth all the way to Tranq Prime. It doesn’t matter that she’s female and we’re male—Kat’s an amazing focus. She has raw natural talent that—”
“That will die with her,” Mother L’rin interrupted him.
“What?” Lock’s heart fisted in his chest. “Please, Mother L’rin, no!”
“Can’t you save her?” Deep’s voice was harsh but he was paler than Lock had ever seen him. “Are you saying we brought her to you too late?”
“It was too late the first time you two decided to attempt blasphemy with this innocent child.” Mother L’rin stroked Kat’s silky hair tenderly. “An elite, too. One blessed by the Mother. Such a pity.”
“So she’s going to…to die?” Lock heard the break in his voice but he couldn’t help it. Gods, to think they’d killed the woman they loved! Oh Kat, I’m sorry. So very sorry… From his twin he could feel similar emotions to his own. But Deep’s sorrow was shaded with a guilt so intense it was almost despair. Again, Lock heard his twin thinking in a rare burst of mental empathy. I’ve done it again. Gods…
“I will do what I can,” Mother L’rin said, pulling Lock back from his brother’s thoughts. “But I make no promises—you deserve none.” She fixed them both with a disapproving glare. “As you know, the bonds between twin males and their female is twofold—there must be a soul bond as well as a physical bond. What you two have done is created an incomplete soul bond with this girl.”
“An incomplete bond?” Lock frowned. “I didn’t even know such a thing was possible.”
“It’s very rare. In fact, in all my years of healing I have only seen it happen once before.”
“So we’re not the first male seeker/finders to use a female as our focus,” Deep said. “What happened in the other case?”
“The girl died,” Mother L’rin said grimly. “I wasn’t able to save her.”
Lock sucked in a breath and Deep went pale again. “Mother L’rin, please…”
“Her spirit is fractured,” she continued. “Which is why she is hovering between this life and the next. You must complete the bond in order to have any hope of healing her.”
“How can we bond with an unconscious female?” Deep demanded. “That’s called rape and Lock and I don’t practice it.”
“I didn’t say you should complete the physical bond.” The old woman’s eyes flashed again. “I know this is difficult to understand, warrior, as the soul bond and physical bond are usually formed at the same time during bonding sex. But it is possible to have one without the other—for a time, anyway.”
“What can we do?” Lock said eagerly. “Tell us, Mother, please.”
“Her spirit must be tethered to her body. But it must want to stay—you have to tempt it with pleasure, lure it back and heal it with your touch.”
“Not my touch.” Deep shook his head. “She’s reacted badly to my hands on her since her collapse.”
“That’s true,” Lock said reluctantly, thinking of the way Kat’s pulse had spiked after her collapse on the Kindred Mothership. “Her heartbeat increased abnormally and she moaned out loud—something about ‘too much’ when Deep put his hands on her.”