The guard shrugged his scaly shoulders.
“It isss DNA activated. Only the touch of the one who put the Skin on in the first place can make it cease itsss current motion.” He looked at her. “Asss I understand it, you are the one who put it on him, Mistress. So only you can ssstop it.”
Lilli felt as though someone had dumped a bucket of ice cubes into the pit of her stomach. Should she try touching the Obedience Skin? She had, of course, half of her mother’s DNA so it might work. But if it didn’t, her cover would be blown. The Horvaths would probably detain her and report her and then Karn would die and she would be sent back to Yonnie Six and have her baby killed so she could incubate an heir her mother liked better.
Her mind was pulled in two directions. On one hand, she loved Karn desperately and wanted to save him. But on the other hand, she also felt fiercely protective of the new life inside her. She had to save her baby! What should she do?
Suddenly the Goddess’s words came back to her.
“Do not be afraid to attempt the impossible,” she had said. Also, she had promised to send Lilli help to escape and she had done it.
I need to trust, Lilli told herself. The Goddess wouldn’t have brought me this far only to let me fail now. She means for me to rescue Karn and our baby. She’s with me now—I will not be afraid.
Taking a deep breath, she reached out with one hand and laid it lightly on the silver plates that covered Karn’s broad back.
“Stop,” she said in a clear voice. “Stop working and come with me.”
Karn’s arms stopped in mid-swing and he abruptly dropped the pickaxe to the ground. He turned and faced Lilli, clearly waiting to follow wherever she led.
Lilli let out a breath of relief and thought, Thank you, Goddess!
“Very good,” she said, trying to keep her voice strong, though inside she was as weak as jiggle-jelly with relief. “Let’s go to my ship. Thank you, guard,” she added, as the Horvath began to accompany them. “That will be all—you can go now.”
“Yessss, Mistress Mirabella,” the guard hissed and slunk off, his long lizard-like tail dragging in the greenish-gray Diluthian dust as he went.
“Come,” Lilli said to Karn and started for the ship. She was determined not to break character until they were safely underway, just in case any of the other Horvath guards might be watching.
He followed obediently as she led the way, his heavy footsteps puffing up little jets of dust as they walked. She was glad again that she was wearing protective gear. This stuff was completely toxic. In fact, she would have to remove the Obedience Skin just before he stepped aboard the ship—she didn’t want any of the Diluthian dust in the air circulating system once she took off her mask.
As soon as they reached the ship, she waved at H’rare to open the door and turned to the big Kindred, who had stopped obediently just in front of her. She wished she could read his face, but the bottom half of it was still obscured by the metal of the Obedience Skin and his eyes simply looked tired. No, more than tired—weary almost to death, Lilli saw with concern.
She touched his chest, letting her hand rest over the metal of the skin and said, “Skin, remove yourself from this male.”
She had no idea if this order would work and, indeed, at first it didn’t seem to. Karn just stood there, looking at her with those dead-tired eyes and for a moment Lilli was worried that he might collapse right in front of her.
Then the metal of the skin began to heat up—just a little at first, but soon it was so hot Lilli could barely stand to keep touching it. She held her hand there anyway, right over the big Kindred’s heart and repeated her command.
“Come off him, Skin!” she demanded. “Come off now!”
Abruptly the metal plates began to separate and melt away. Soon they were nothing but a handful of hot silver balls cupped in the center of Lilli’s palm. With a gasp, she threw them away, not wanting anything to do with the thing that had hurt the man she loved.
“Karn?” she asked, looking up at him. “Karn, are you all right?”
“Is it you the, little Mistress?” he rasped and then began to cough.
“It’s me,” Lilli told him. “But I have to keep the mask on as long as we’re near the Diluthian dust and gasses. I can’t risk it hurting the baby.”
“The…baby.” His mismatched eyes filled with wonderment. “My…son,” he said hoarsely.
And then he collapsed at her feet.
Forty-Seven
“In here—get him in the ship! Hurry! And bring me some water, H’rare! Oh please—we have to get out of here!”
Karn was vaguely aware of the flurry of activity around him—the grunts of effort on the other bodyslave’s part as he dragged Karn into the ship and Lilli hovering around, begging him to hurry.
Sorry, he wanted to say—wanted to apologize for collapsing and for being unable to get himself into the ship. But after hours and hours of unrelenting hard labor with no breaks and no hydration, his body was too weak to do anything but lie there as H’rare and Lilli dragged him aboard.
He blacked out for a moment but something cold and refreshing rubbing all over his face brought him around. Opening his eyes, he saw Lilli bending over him. Yes, it really was his sweet, precious Lilli and not her mother, as he had originally feared when she came to get him. No doubt she’d pretended to be Mistress Mirabella in order to fool the guards. But now, with the black mask off, there could be no doubt.
“Lilli,” he rasped. “Baby…”
“Shhh, don’t try to talk.” She wiped the cool cloth over his forehead gently. “Just rest. And drink. If that awful skin was over your mouth this whole time, you must be so thirsty!”
She held a squeeze bulb of cold, fresh water to his lips and Karn thought he had never tasted anything so wonderful in his life. The finest bubble wine from Zinzu Tertia couldn’t touch it—not even the nectar of the Goddess herself could be as good as the deep, life-saving draughts he sucked from the bulb Lilli held.
“Careful,” she told him, her lovely brown eyes anxious. “Don’t make yourself sick.”
Karn wanted to tell her that he was fine now—that just seeing her was the best medicine any male could ask for. But he had to say something else first.
“So…sorry, baby,” he got out, his voice still hoarse. “Didn’t know I could…get you pregnant without a bond.”
“It’s all right.” Lilli put a hand protectively over her lower belly, which was definitely rounder than it had been the last time he’d seen her. “I’m keeping him,” she said, lifting her chin defiantly. “I don’t care if he is male—I already love him.” her eyes softened. “Just like I love his father.”
“Oh, Lilli…” He started to pull her down, wanting to wrap her in his arms and never let her go, but H’rare’s voice from the front of the ship stopped him.
“Mistress Lilli,” he called anxiously. “We’re being tracked! And your mother is on the viewscreen!”
Forty-Eight
Lilli felt like her heart had stopped dead in her chest.
“My…my mother?” she wheezed, barely able to get the words out.
“I’m afraid so.” H’rare sounded both apologetic and frightened. “And she’s demanding to talk to you.”
Wondering if her legs would hold her, Lilli got shakily to her feet and made her way from the passenger compartment to the front of the ship.
On the viewscreen, to H’rare’s left, was a full-color image of her mother. And Lady Mirabella had a lot of color at the moment—most noticeably in her face, which was nearly purple with rage.
“How dare you?” she said in a low, dangerous voice as soon as Lilli came into view. “How dare you disobey me you insolent girl? How dare you steal my best ship and go after that no-good male who you allowed to penetrate you?”
Lilli raised her chin.
“I love Karn, Mother,” she said, trying not to let her voice tremble. “And I love his baby too—our baby.” She put a hand protectively over her
belly. “I don’t want to lose either one of them. I…I won’t let you kill them!”
Mistress Mirabella’s eyes flashed.
“I’ll kill all three of you if you don’t turn that ship around right now and head for home,” she snarled.
“Just let us go,” Lilli pleaded. “You don’t like me anyway, Mother—you never have. You always thought having a daughter was a chore. Just let me disappear and I swear you’ll never have to see me again.”
“What?” her mother nearly shrieked. “Just let you go—just like that?” She snapped her fingers. “Lilliana, I am a member of the Sacred Seven. Do you know how it would look if anyone found out that I had allowed my daughter to run off with her bodyslave and have his wretched male baby? Do you know what people would say?”
Suddenly Lilli saw red. She’d never dared to get angry at her mother before, no matter what awful, cutting things Mistress Mirabella said to her. But finally, after a lifetime of derogatory comments and nasty words, she felt she’s had enough.
“That’s all you care about, isn’t it?” she demanded. “What people will say—how things look. Well, let me tell you something, Mother—I don’t care anymore. It doesn’t matter to me if I ruin my reputation, your reputation, and our family name. I don’t even care if you get kicked out of the Sacred Seven! I’m in love with Karn and we’re going to go someplace where people care about more than just appearances. Where they care about more than who’s got the most money or the highest building or the most expensive dress or bodyslave or hover-car. We’re going to go someplace where people value what’s inside and we’re going to raise our son there together. And you can just…just go to Hell!”
Throughout this speech her mother’s eyes had been getting wider and wider but when Lilli finished they narrowed to slits of rage.
“You’re not going anywhere but straight home, young lady,” she informed Lilli. And if you don’t, the two ships I have on your tail will shoot you out of the sky.”
“What?” Lilli felt sick. “You wouldn’t!”
“Oh, wouldn’t I?” A cruel smile curved Mistress Mirabella’s thin lips. “I’d rather have people think that my heir died in a tragic crash than let them know she was running off with some male in order to have his baby!”
“Mistress Lilli,” H’rare said hoarsely. “We really do have two ships on our tail—both military grade with laser cannons!”
Lilli felt sick. What should they do? If they turned around, both her baby and Karn would be killed. But if they went on, all of them would die, including H’rare whose only crime was being brave enough to leave with her and pilot the ship when she asked him to.
Goddess, she prayed, where are you now?
There was no answer and her heart sank. She looked at H’rare who looked back at her anxiously, his hands hovering over the complicated-looking controls.
“What do you want to do, Mistress?” he asked in a low voice.
“I don’t know.” Lilli bit her lip. “I don’t…don’t know where we can go.”
“There’s nowhere you can go but home,” her mother snapped from the viewscreen. “Come home and surrender yourself at once, Lilliana or face the consequences!”
“I don’t think so.” The deep, familiar voice behind her made Lilli whirl around.
Karn was standing there, still looking weary around the eyes, but standing tall and strong nonetheless.
“You say we have nowhere to go?” he said to Lilli’s Mother.
“Nowhere but back to the Diluthian mines,” she spat at him. “Only this time I’ll make sure they kill you!”
“I’m not going back to the mines and Lilli’s not going back to you, you abusive bitch!” Karn growled. “You’ve hurt her for the last time.”
“Not quite the last.” Mistress Mirabella’s thin lips curved into that cruel smile again. “If you don’t come back, I’ll have you shot out of the sky and that will be the last time I hurt her. It will be terminally final but also extremely satisfying.”
“You will kill no one.”
The deep, resonant voice filled the cabin, making them all jump. On the viewscreen, Mistress Mirabella was looking all around.
“Who said that? Who’s there?” she demanded in a high voice. “Is this some kind of trick?”
There was no answer but suddenly, right in front of them, a swirling blue vortex opened in the blackness of space.
“Fly, my children,” the warm, feminine voice told them. “Go quickly, you are in great peril!”
“Who is that?” H’rare gasped, looking all around. “Who said that?”
“The Goddess,” Karn and Lilli said at the same time and Karn roared, “Fly!” and pointed at the swirling wormhole in front of them.
At the same time, Lilli could hear her mother shouting, “FIRE!”
There was a blast of light behind them and she felt the ship rock dangerously. Sliding to one side, she nearly fell, only to be caught by Karn’s long arm around her waist.
“FLY!” he roared again and then they were diving nose-first into the swirling blue void of the wormhole and leaving Lilli’s mother and everything she had ever known behind forever.
Forty-Nine
“Well, your baby is just fine, thank goodness!” Olivia, the doctor who had met them at the docking bay of the Kindred Mother Ship, ran her scanner wand over Lilli’s belly and smiled.
She and Lilli were in the exam room together while Karn paced anxiously outside, speaking to his commanding officer, whose name was Sylvan. He was also a doctor and had been examining the big Kindred as Liv examined Lilli. Apparently, though he had inhaled a lot of the Diluthian dust, Karn was going to be all right as well.
The fact that her bodyslave wasn’t actually a bodyslave at all and was, in fact, a Kindred spy had been news to Lilli. At first, when Karn had admitted it, she’d simply stared at him with her mouth hanging open. But the vast white bulk of the Mother Ship, orbiting a strange moon she had never seen before, convinced her. It had just appeared like magic, the moment they exited the wormhole and that was when Karn had admitted everything.
Lilli wasn’t upset to learn the man she loved was a spy. Mostly, she was just glad they had someplace to go. She’d had visions of them roaming around the galaxy, looking for a place to hide where her vindictive mother couldn’t find them. Now, it turned out that Karn had a safe home and people of his own—very nice people, if Liv was any indication.
“So you’re sure he’s okay?” she asked anxiously.
“Perfectly okay,” Liv assured her. “Though he appears to be growing like a weed—I do believe he’s a few centimeters longer than he was just a minute ago!” She shook her head in wonder.
“It must be the quick-grow hormones I was injected with,” Lilli told her. “They’re supposed to make a pregnancy three months long instead of nine.”
“Well, when you’re pregnant with a Kindred baby, you usually end up being pregnant for twelve months,” Liv told her. “So I guess that means you’ll only be pregnant for four of those—lucky you! It’s miserable to be pregnant for a whole year—which is one reason I only have one kid.” She grinned at Lilli and then she got serious. “It’s also why the Goddess sent you that wormhole. Karn had called us and Sylvan was about to bend space for you, but pregnant women can’t travel through the rift.”
“They can’t? Why not?” Lilli asked.
Liv shook her head. “It’s bad for the baby. Karn knew that, of course, but what could he do when your ship was about to be blown out of the sky? But then the Goddess intervened and came to your rescue.”
“I’m so grateful she did,” Lilli said sincerely. “You know, Karn had told me about her, but I didn’t know she really existed until she spoke to me from out of nowhere.”
“Yeah, she can surprise you like that.” Liv grinned at her again. “It’s pretty shocking the first time it happens to you and you just hear her voice out of thin air. It’s wonderful too, the way she watches out for her children.”
&nbs
p; “I guess I’m one of her children now, since I’m carrying Karn’s baby,” Lilli said, smiling. “Speaking of which…” She leaned forward on the exam table and looked at Liv earnestly. “Karn told me he couldn’t er, get me pregnant unless we were bonded. And he said he couldn’t bond me to him because he’s a Hybrid. Was any of that true? Because…look at me.” she pointed to her slightly rounded belly. “I’m pregnant but we’re not bonded—at least, I don’t think we are.”
“Can you hear his voice in your head and can you send your own mental voice into his head?” Liv asked.
Lilli gave her a shocked look.
“No! Why, is that part of being bonded?”
“It is.” Liv nodded and smiled. “A wonderful part, actually. When you bond with a Kindred, your souls touch and you just have this wonderful, deep understanding of what the other person wants and thinks and needs and feels.”
“And you have that, with your mate?” Lilli sighed longingly. “That sounds amazing.”
“It is,” Liv assured her. She shook her head. “But I’ve never heard of any Kindred being able to get a girl pregnant until he bonded her to him. So you’ll have to forgive Karn—he must have been as shocked to learn that you were pregnant as you were.”
“Everybody was pretty shocked,” Lilli said grimly. “Shocked and appalled in the case of my mother.”
“She doesn’t sound like she treated you very well,” Liv said tactfully.
“If you call trying to shoot the ship I was on out of the sky and kill me ‘not treating me very well’ then yes, that’s true.” Lilli tried to snort, but it turned into a sob. She gulped and put a hand to her mouth. “Sorry. I just…can’t believe she tried to do that. But she’s never liked me very much—I was a disappointment to her because I’m too nice and I don’t have a head for business or care about material possessions and always having the best of everything the way other Yonnites do.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about her anymore,” Liv said firmly, putting an arm around Lilli’s shoulders. “You’ve got a new home now—here with us. And I promise you, here on the Mother Ship we like nice people.”
Protecting His Mistress...Book 24 in the Kindred Tales Series Page 23