Chapter Ten
Charlotte
“Sebastian, you are the best friend, ever. I really mean that—thank you so much,” I said.
“You’re welcome. Is he with you now?” Sebastian looked up and down the empty hospital corridor, trying to catch a glimpse of Kristoff.
“I am.” There was a shimmer in the air behind me and my huge, self-appointed bodyguard suddenly appeared. He was dressed as he had been when I first saw him, in the Roman-soldier looking armor with the molded golden breastplate, high black boots, and short leather kilt. He had the long golden sword in a sheath at his back and its hilt stuck up above his blue-black hair.
To be honest, he looked nothing short of amazing and the intense way he watched me made me feel strange inside—kind of shivery. It was like I had my own private gladiator, although it was hard to see how I merited such loyalty and devotion. I couldn’t help thinking of the way he had looked at me and said, “I am yours,” as though it was an irrefutable fact that could never be changed.
Don’t be silly, I told myself, looking away from that changing rainbow gaze. He’s just protecting you because you’re the Empress or whatever. It’s his job, that’s all.
“How does he do that? Just appear and disappear like that?” Sebastian asked, awed. He had reluctantly agreed to go to the hospital and bring the armor to my apartment, but only if I told him absolutely everything. Which I had tried to do, though Kristoff didn’t like it. Still, I felt like I owed my friend an explanation and besides—telling it to someone else and having them believe it made me feel less crazy.
Not that there could be any doubt about Kristoff telling the truth now. Besides the heap of silver metal parts which was all that was left of the assassin-droid, his chameleon-like skin changing abilities, and the small crystal cube which projected a message from the previous Empress, who looked like a much older version of myself, I could now add the irrefutable fact that his technology was clearly not of this world. Case in point, he was somehow able to twist a knob on his thick leather belt and vanish into thin air, only to reappear when I least expected it.
“It is Nicean stealth tech,” he explained to Sebastian who was looking at him with a kind of awe-struck lust. He clearly wasn’t holding a grudge against Kristoff for strangling him the night before, even though I could see the marks of the big alien’s long fingers still on his neck.
Yes, that’s right—I said alien. There was no denying it anymore—Kristoff most definitely was an alien. An alien who had insisted on following me to the hospital when I refused to call in sick for my shift. But at least now that he had his armor he was able to make himself invisible while he watched over me.
“I wish I could get some of that tech,” Sebastian murmured, looking over Kristoff’s lean, muscular physique hungrily. “It would really come in handy when I go clubbing.”
“It would not work for you,” Kristoff told him shortly. “You need Majoran blood in your veins and the ability to change the color of your skin, hair, and eyes at will. We are chromatachromes—the tech simply enhances our talents.”
“You can do all that?” Sebastian asked eagerly. “Show me!”
Kristoff looked at me and I nodded apologetically.
“Could you? He won’t stop asking until you do.”
“Very well.” With a shrug, he turned his skin deep green, then violet, then back to the tan with a gold sheen which was what he most seemed to favor.
“Oh my God,” Sebastian exclaimed. “He’s like a sexy, muscular chameleon!”
“It’s pretty amazing, all right,” I acknowledged. Then I saw a nurse coming down the corridor. “Kristoff,” I hissed, turning my head to him, but he had already disappeared. To anyone watching, it would look like Sebastian and I were alone in the hallway, perhaps discussing a patient. But I knew that Kristoff was just behind me, keeping an eye out for any potential threats, even though I couldn’t see him.
“We’d better get to the Pit,” Sebastian remarked. “Uh…” He cast a glance behind us. “How is he going to, you know, keep from bumping into people if he’s shadowing you all night?”
“Don’t concern yourself,” rumbled a deep voice, pitched for our ears alone. “I will not give away my position.”
It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up to hear his voice coming out of what appeared to be empty air. I took a deep breath and tried to shrug off the feeling of being watched—not just by Kristoff but by some unseen enemy too.
“Why are you even here if everything he told you is true?” Sebastian demanded, as we walked towards the ER, which was still pretty quiet this time of night. “I mean, if you’re really some kind of goddess or empress or whatever then what are you doing pulling a nine to nine in the Pit? You should be on your way to Glamour-planet, girl!”
“I can’t just pick up and go like that,” I exclaimed, telling Sebastian the same thing I had told Kristoff. “I have a life here! I worked hard to get into this program.”
“Didn’t we all,” he murmured. “But if some massive, muscular, sexy alien showed up and told me I was supposed to be the king of his universe, I sure as hell wouldn’t be hanging around here!”
“Well, I am,” I said stubbornly.
“So then why is he still hanging around if you told him you’re not interested in being the Queen of Everything?” Sebastian threw a look over his shoulder at my invisible bodyguard even though he couldn’t see him.
“I can’t, um, convince him to leave without me,” I said. “He seems to think I’m still at risk.”
“Then you shouldn’t be in the ER,” he pointed out. “You don’t need to bring your stranger danger in here for all of us to share!”
“That’s the thing—I don’t think I am in danger. Not here in a crowded place, anyway,” I said in a low voice, indicating all the people around us now that we were in the ER proper. “The assassin-droid came after me when I was all alone at home. As long as I stay busy and in a place with lots of activity, I should be fine.”
“But why take the chance?” Sebastian demanded.
“Damn it, Sebastian—you’re supposed to be on my side!” I exclaimed. “I can’t just let this reshape my whole life! Even if I did decide to go, I have some loose ends to tie up here. Some patients I’m responsible for. Not to mention I’d want to give our Attending a damn good excuse before I suddenly disappeared off the face of the Earth.”
Just saying that made a shiver go down my spine. That was the real reason I didn’t want to go with Kristoff, even though I now believed him. I didn’t want to leave my safe, normal existence and abandon the only planet I’d ever called home.
I know it sounds foolish, but I was more afraid of the unknown than I was of some possible killer lurking around the corner.
“So he’s just going to shadow you and stay at your place until you change your mind?” Sebastian muttered.
“I don’t know. I guess.” I shrugged and reached for a chart. “Look, we’d better get to work.”
“Okay…see you, I guess. Be careful.” He gave me a cautious look and then threw a glance over his shoulder as well, as if Kristoff might be watching him.
I knew he wasn’t though—he was too busy watching me.
Kristoff
I wished I could have convinced Charlotte to come with me at once. I had already signaled my ship, getting it ready to go. My best shuttle was cloaked in stealth tech, hovering in low Earth orbit, ready to descend the moment I called it to me. But I couldn’t go until my new mistress was ready to come with me.
I considered taking her by force—simply picking her up and slinging her over my shoulder. She was light enough—it would be easy. It would also be for her own good. It was a fool’s errand, shadowing her at the House of Healing, watching and waiting to circumvent any new attacks before they happened.
It was true, I told myself restively. Now that I had made contact with her and she believed me and understood I was telling the truth about the galaxy and her role in it,
I should simply kidnap her and take her back to Femme One. There she could begin the Trials and prove she was the True Incarnation so she could take the Golden Throne.
Except I knew if I did that, she would never forgive me.
Though I hadn’t known her long, I already knew my new mistress well enough to understand that she couldn’t be bullied or coerced into doing something she didn’t want to do. I remembered with admiration the way she had dealt with her male superior, who had come to her domicile seeking her sexual favors. Charlotte had sent him away and not gently either—which was good, such males deserved no gentleness when it came to the rejection of their advances.
Just thinking of the proprietary way he’d touched her made a low growl rise in my throat. Mine, came a thought, unbidden to my mind. She is mine and the next time that bastard touches her I’ll cut off his fucking hand!
The vehemence of my feelings surprised me and made me uneasy. But of course, I was just protecting my mistress—or so I told myself as I threaded my way through the crowded halls of the House of Healing.
I watched as Charlotte assessed the hurt and injured and dealt out treatment. She worked with quiet efficiency and I saw as an observer what I had not been able to understand as a participant in this drama the night before—she truly loved her calling. Though her La-ti-zal power was not as a Healer, still she poured her whole heart into practicing her profession.
I saw that she knew when to be gentle and when to be brusque—saw how she worked with grim determination to save a child’s life, who had come in after having some kind of allergic reaction. I saw how the little girl’s parents hugged Charlotte and kissed her and cried with relief when it was clear their child was going to survive.
What an Empress she’ll make! I couldn’t help thinking in admiration. She truly has a heart for her people.
After Sundalla the 999th had Ascended to the Heavens, I had never believed that her successor could win the boundless admiration I’d had for the old Empress. And yet, almost against my will, I felt respect growing in my heart for my new mistress. I remembered the words of Sundalla the 999th when she had asked me to go search for her next Incarnation and keep her safe. She had begged me to show her new Incarnation the same love and devotion I had shown to her.
Though I had tried, I had been unable to give my promise, saying that I could never love and respect anyone as I did my old mistress. And yet the old Empress had known—she always knew somehow.
“When you find her…you will also find her worthy. Worthy of the same love and devotion you have shown to me all these years,” she had told me. “Now go, my dear Kristoff—the wisest and bravest of all my Guards. Go and seek her out.”
I had sought her out…and I was beginning to think the old Empress had been right. Now if only I could convince Charlotte that she belonged on Femme One instead of Earth… In the meantime, though, all I could do was watch over her and protect her.
But when the threat came, it was so cunningly hidden I almost didn’t see it before it was too late.
Charlotte
I wished I could get rid of that “somebody’s watching me” feeling. It wasn’t just from having Kristoff somewhere behind me, shadowing me with silent stealth, either. I felt like someone else was watching—someone who wished me harm.
I told myself I was being foolish but I couldn’t shake the feeling. It was creepy—like an itching sensation right between my shoulder blades.
Come to think of it—my whole body was beginning to feel itchy and strange. The skin of my arms and legs and torso felt tight. But when I ducked into the bathroom to check myself—after first letting Kristoff make sure no one else was inside—I saw nothing that could be the cause of my discomfort. No obvious rash—no reason my skin should feel inflamed.
I shrugged it off as paranoia—a psychosomatic outward manifestation of the inner turmoil I was feeling. But as the night went on, I began to feel more and more unwell—almost as though I was running a low-level fever.
Sebastian noticed it too. At around three in the morning, we had a lull in the action, which sometimes happens, even on the busiest night. Just a little quiet time when one set of patients had been taken care of and right before a fresh set comes in.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” he asked, pulling me into an empty care area—the name we gave to the little, curtained off cubbies where we put patients as they came in to the ER.
“What…what do you mean?” I frowned and shook my head. “What are you talking about?”
“Your eyes are bright, your cheeks are flushed… I would say it was love but you look more like someone getting sick than someone falling head-over-heels. Uh…no offense.” He looked all around us. “Is, uh, he still here?”
‘He’ meaning Kristoff, of course.
“I don’t know,” I said irritably. “I guess so.”
As the hectic night in the ER had worn on and I had gone about my usual routine, the idea that a huge alien warrior was invisibly shadowing me had begun to seem unreal again. I had stopped being careful where I walked or how I moved and Kristoff, for his part, had never run into me once.
In fact, as I stood there feeling dazed and half drugged with the strange hot, tight sensation that had enveloped my whole body, it was almost easier to convince myself the whole thing was just a dream and I didn’t actually have an invisible seven-foot tall body guard following me around at all.
“I mean it, Charlotte—you don’t look so good. Here.” Sebastian pulled a portable temperature gauge out of his lab coat pocket and poked it into one of the disposable plastic sleeves we use to keep from spreading germs.
“Sebastian—” I tried to protest but he shook his head.
“Uh-uh, sweetie—no complaints. Open up and say ‘ah.’ I need to know what’s going on with you.”
“Fine.” I sighed and let him slip the temperature probe under my tongue.
I waited, not very patiently, until it finally beeped and Sebastian withdrew the probe and shucked the plastic sleeve into the nearby trash.
“Well?” I asked as he examined the unit.
“No.” He frowned to himself in concentration. “No—that can’t be right. Here—try again.”
“What? Why?” I demanded, but he was already fitting a new plastic sleeve on the probe and sticking it in my mouth.
I put up with the process a second time and then a third—this time using my own temperature gauge because Sebastian thought something must be wrong with his—before I finally lost patience.
“No more!” I exclaimed, when he tried to take my temp a fourth time. “What does it say?”
“It can’t be right.” He frowned and finally showed it to me. “According to this, you’re hypothermic.”
I frowned at the reading on the gage—92.6—a full six points lower than the standard human body temperature of 98.6.
“What the Hell?” I muttered. “What does this mean? I don’t feel cold—in fact, I feel like I’m burning up.”
“You do?” Abandoning scientific methods, Sebastian put a hand to my forehead. “Your skin is like ice!” He looked really worried now. “I knew you weren’t looking right. Charlotte, we need to run some tests and find out what’s going on with you. This could be dangerous!”
“I’ll be fine,” I said, trying to wave him off. “I’m just still tired—that’s all. I’ve had, uh, a lot happen today.”
“I know that,” he hissed. “And you’ve also possibly been exposed to some new pathogens today. Pathogens from a whole different planet when the Invisible Hunk came into your life! Remember that TV show we binge-watched together—The Strain?”
“Oh, please, Sebastian—don’t be so dramatic,” I said irritably. “I’ll be fine—I just need a good night’s rest.”
“But Charlotte—”
“I know what may be the cause of this,” a deep voice came out of the air behind me.
Sebastian and I both jumped and looked around guiltily, like kids with our hands caught in the
cookie jar. So Kristoff was still there—he wasn’t a figment of my imagination or a really vivid dream as I had sort of halfway been hoping.
“What is it?” Sebastian hissed out of the corner of his mouth, looking like somebody in a spy movie passing information while trying to look innocent. “If you gave my friend some kind of incurable alien disease—”
“It is not incurable but it’s not easily solved either.” Kristoff sounded unhappy. “I told you, my Lady, that you should not have given me your blood.”
“What?” Sebastian demanded. “How is Charlotte giving you a transfusion of her super-rare blood going to make her sick? It’s not like it was the other way around and she took your blood.”
“It is the Royal Cycle beginning,” Kristoff replied obliquely. I wished I could see him and try to read his face because his words weren’t making any sense.
“What does that mean?” Sebastian hissed.
“That Charlotte must come with me to Femme One and soon—there is no medicine here on your primitive planet that can cure her,” Kristoff said.
“Now, wait just a minute—” I began but that was when I heard another voice calling my name.
“Dr Walker!” a man’s voice shouted across the ER. A familiar voice, I’m sorry to say. I looked up with dread and saw that Dr. Drake Hunter was glaring at me from the other side of the Pit.
“Oh no,” I moaned, feeling my stomach turn over. God, could this night get any worse or weirder?
“What is it?” Sebastian asked. “What does he want?”
“I forgot to tell you but he came to my apartment earlier to ask me out again,” I said under my breath. “Kristoff was already there with me and Hunter saw him. Then I told him to get lost. He, uh, wasn’t very happy about it.”
“And you talk about me being dramatic!” Sebastian’s eyes were shining with excitement. “Girl, you are just dripping with hot, eligible men! I wish you’d tell me your secret.”
“There’s no secret involved,” I muttered. “And I’d be happy to give you this particular ‘hot, eligible’ man. He’s probably here to assign me to go mop vomit and change bandages in the burn unit.”
“Hmm, he does look angry,” Sebastian admitted.
“Dr. Walker, I’d like to talk to you now!” Hunter repeated, glaring at me. Great, so he was prepared to cause a scene.
“I’d better go,” I muttered. “But I want you to stay here, Kristoff,” I said to the empty air behind Sebastian.
“Under no circumstances.” His deep voice was a protective growl. “I will not leave you alone with a male who wishes you harm.”
“It’s not like he’s going to attack me,” I said. “He’s probably just going to say a whole lot of nasty things to me. Things that might make you want to snap and strangle him like you did poor Sebastian last night. I don’t need that kind of a scene right now.”
“I will not leave you,” he insisted, his deep voice sounding tense.
“I’m the Empress, right?” I said, turning to glare at the empty space and wishing I could look him in the eyes. He was so tall I was probably eyeballing his chest—only I couldn’t tell because he was invisible. “I’m the Empress so what I say goes! And I say stay here.”
There was a restive movement in the air, as if he was shifting from foot to foot angrily. But at last he said, in the coldest voice possible, “As my Lady wishes.”
“Good.” I took a deep breath and turned back to the glaring Dr. Hunter. “This hopefully shouldn’t take long.”
I crossed the ER floor, aware that the eyes of all the support staff were on me. Most of them knew by now that Hunter had asked me out and that I had refused him. None of them knew about our second, disastrous meeting, however. I could tell, though, by the angry look in Hunter’s big blue eyes that he most certainly hadn’t forgotten about it.
I was already feeling ill and a confrontation with a sexist asshole was the last thing I wanted right now. But it looked like there was no getting out of it so I squared my shoulders and walked up to him.
“Yes, Dr. Hunter?” I said quietly but clearly. “What can I do for you?”
“I need to talk to you. Now,” he snapped. “Come with me.” He started to lead me away from the main ER but I tried to stop him.
“Dr. Hunter,” I began. “If this is about this afternoon—”
“It’s about a patient of mine whose orders you screwed up,” he snarled. “You nearly Goddamn killed him!”
“What?” I couldn’t help feeling shocked. Suddenly instead of having the upper hand and being the woman turning down a man, I was cast back in the role of the lowly Intern who had screwed up and was being dressed down by the enraged Resident. “There must be some mistake,” I protested. “I don’t have any of your patients on my schedule.”
“That’s what you think. Come with me and I’ll show you.” He turned away again but I was still reluctant to go.
“Dr. Hunter—”
“Dr. Walker,” he said, rounding on me. “Do you want to do this here and now where everyone in the ER can hear about your monumental incompetence? Or do you want to discuss it in private?”
“In private,” I said, feeling my cheeks heat with shame. I kept my chin up, though, as I followed him out of the ER, despite feeling every eye in the place on me. It was a good thing, I thought to myself, that I had ordered Kristoff to stay behind. There was no way he could have listened to the crap that was about to come down on my head without reacting.
Hunter led me down a dark hallway and into a dim, empty X-ray room. The X-ray tube was placed neatly on a pillow, resting on the fluro table and there were a pile of weights and sandbags in one corner and several lead aprons hanging from a rack.
I stood by the chest bucky as he closed the door and rounded on me, his eyes flashing.
“Dr. Hunter, I really think there’s been some mistake—” I tried again but he didn’t let me finish.
“I have a message for you,” he said, taking a step towards me. I saw uneasily that his features had gone blank, though his voice still sounded angry.
“A message?” Without thinking about it, I took a step back. This situation was beginning to make me feel really uncomfortable, and not just because I was about to get chewed out.
“A message, yes. And it is this—True Incarnation or not, you will never sit the Golden Throne.”
“What?” I exclaimed, taking another step back. Suddenly the situation seemed horribly familiar—it was the exact same mess I’d been in when the Carlos-thing came after me. But that time I’d had Kristoff to save me. This time I had ordered him to stay away—how stupid could I be?
“You heard me, Empress.” Hunter’s eyes flashed cold and silver as he reached for me. “You’ll not live to be crowned. Tonight you die.”
“Get away from me!” I screamed but the lead shielding in the walls muffled my voice—I was pretty sure no one outside the door was going to hear me.
“Come to me. Do not delay the inevitable,” the thing which had taken on Drake Hunter’s appearance crooned. It came at me, hands stretched wide and I ducked wildly, trying to avoid it. I remembered well enough what had happened when the Carlos-thing had only brushed my skin with its hand. If this thing even touched me I could be dead.
It was between me and the door but there was a small control area in the back of the room where the tech would stand to take the X-ray. I dodged for the little cubby, trying to get through it so I could run through the Radiology suite and come out the other side.
Before I could get two steps, the thing caught me by the hair and yanked me back. “Don’t fight your fate, Goddess,” it said and put its cold, cold hands around my throat, choking off the scream that was rising to my lips.
Suddenly the door of the X-ray room crashed open and Kristoff appeared, as from out of nowhere. The look of rage on his face was awful to behold—there was a fury like I’d never seen before in his whirling rainbow eyes which were switching colors too fast for my frantic brain to registe
r.
“You shall not have her!” he snarled and then he drew the incredibly long sword which was strapped to a scabbard on his back. A Great sword or a Bastard Sword. My mind gabbled RPG gamer terms even as the thing’s hands crushed my windpipe. I wished inanely that I was someplace safe, playing Diablo II with my friend Zoe instead of being choked to death by a killer robot thing.
Then Kristoff’s sword arced through the air and Hunter’s head parted company with his body. It spun through the air like a hairy bowling ball but as it whirled, I saw it change. Hunter’s handsome features became smooth and blank and silver until there was nothing left when it hit the floor but a vaguely head-shaped shiny sphere.
The hands, however, continued to choke the life out of me.
“Goddess!” Kristoff growled, coming forward to yank the spasming hands away from my throat.
“You…came,” I whispered and dissolved into a coughing fit. Thank God my windpipe wasn’t crushed but I could tell I was going to have some serious bruising and I still felt light headed due to oxygen loss. “You came,” I repeated when I could. “Even though…I told you…not to.”
“I should have come sooner,” he said grimly. “You can court-martial me for disobedience later, my Lady.”
He was examining me anxiously as he spoke and just then Sebastian came rushing into the room.
“What did I miss? What happened?” he demanded. Then he saw the still-jerking pile of metal scrap that had been Dr. Hunter and his eyes got wide. “Oh my God! What is that?”
“Assassin-droid,” Kristoff said grimly. “And I’m afraid it had nanites in its hands. See? Here—and here.” He pointed to my throat, which now felt like it was on fire. “We have to get them out and then I need to get her up to my ship.”
“No, no—” I started to protest but Kristoff took me by the shoulders and shook me.
“Listen to me, Charlotte,” he said, using my name for the first time since I’d first seen him in the ER. “Your life is in danger here. Not only yours but the lives of all you hold dear! Do you know what these droids do? They attack someone you know—someone close to you—and suck out their life essence so they can make an exact replica. A replica that will lull you into a false sense of security so they can kill you!”
“You…” I choked. “You mean Dr. Hunter is really…really dead? And Carlos too?”
“Dead and sucked dry—unrecognizable husks, even to their loved ones,” Kristoff said grimly. “The droid probably picked this male because it saw him leaving your residence. But it could just as easily picked him.” He pointed to Sebastian who went pale. “Or someone else you love—a friend or family member.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered and coughed again. “I…I didn’t realize.”
“While you stay here on Earth everyone you know and love is in danger,” Kristoff said harshly. “And you yourself are ill. I do not want to force your hand, my Lady—it is a crime punishable by death. But if I must take you to Femme One against your will in order for you to survive, then so be it. I will do what is in your best interests even if I am killed for it.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t…don’t want you to be killed. I…I’ll go.”
“Good.” He looked relieved. “But we have to do something about the nanites first.”
“The MRI room,” I said. “It’s just down the hall.” I took a step towards the door of the X-Ray room, stumbled, and nearly fell. My throat was on fire and my legs felt weak and wobbly.
“Where is it?” Kristoff stooped swiftly to swing me into his arms. He looked at Sebastian. “Lead me there.”
The MRI machine at North Florida Regional was a closed bore, superconducting magnet which meant that the magnetic field was never off. For safety’s sake, the door to the main magnet room is kept locked—so some idiot with a pacemaker or an aneurism clip won’t ignore all the warning signs and wander into the magnetic field and kill themselves.
Luckily for me, there was a tech there, preparing to scan a STAT patient who was being sent down from the floor.
“What in the world?” she exclaimed when we appeared in her doorway with Kristoff holding me and Sebastian tagging along, wide-eyed.
“We need to get in the magnet room—now!” he exclaimed. “Get the key and unlock it—hurry!”
“I’m sorry, Doctor but I can’t let you go in just like that!” the tech protested. “You haven’t been screened! And you…” She eyed Kristoff with his thick metal breastplate and greaves—not to mention the tall sword with its hilt poking over his shoulder. “You’ll get sucked in and I’d have to quench the magnet to get you out!”
“She’s right,” I managed to croak. “Kristoff…can’t come in.”
“Then I’ll go with her. Here, just bring her to the doorway,” Sebastian snapped. Then he looked at the tech. “I’m Dr. Trent and I take full responsibility for this. Dr. Walker and I need to get in the magnet room and I promise you, neither of us has any implants or pacemakers or clips.”
The tech looked like she wanted to protest but a growl from Kristoff got her moving. Grabbing the key, she unlocked the heavy, shielded door and swung it open so that we could hear the quiet pulsing of the superconducting magnet.
“Here.” Sebastian stripped off his lab coat which held most of his electronics. Kristoff set me on my feet and Sebastian grabbed me by the waist, slinging my arm across his shoulder. He wasn’t strong enough to carry me like Kristoff—then again, almost no one would be—as I said before, I’m not a lightweight—but he was able to help support me. Half walking, half dragging, we finally made it into the magnetic field.
I didn’t even have to go into the MRI machine itself—the relief was immediate. The burning in my throat stopped and the feeling of doom which had been building inside me since the Hunter-thing wrapped its hands around my neck seemed to subside. I still felt dizzy and light headed, but I was able to stand on my own.
“Okay…I’m okay,” I whispered to Sebastian and straightened up so I wasn’t leaning on him quite so hard.
“Good—you’re heavy.” He took a deep breath and then looked anxiously at my throat. “The red marks are fading. How do you feel?”
“Better,” I said. “But still not completely right.”
“Come back out in the hall so I can take your temperature again.”
He led me out to where Kristoff was watching anxiously and the tech was staring with wide eyes. Sebastian shooed her back to her room saying something about patient privacy. Picking up his lab coat, he found his temperature gauge and popped it under my tongue. When it beeped, he frowned anxiously.
“What?” I asked when he took the probe out of my mouth.
“See for yourself.” He handed me the unit. “A fight and an adrenaline rush like you just had should have raised your temperature, not lowered it. But you’re down to 89.8. That’s not good, Charlotte. Really not good. How do you feel?”
“Hotter than ever.” I tugged at the loose neck of my scrub top. “Like I’m burning up.”
“It’s the Calet Sanguis—the Burning Blood.” Kristoff sounded as anxious as Sebastian looked. “It is part of the Royal Cycle, as I said before. Empress, you must leave this place now and come with me.”
“He’s right.” Sebastian nodded. “You need to go, Charlotte.”
It didn’t seem I had any choice.
“All right,” I said heavily to Kristoff. “How do we get out of here?”
“I need a large, open area to call my shuttle to,” he said.
Kristoff snapped his fingers. “The helicopter pad. On the roof of the hospital.”
“Let’s go.”
I would have walked but Kristoff swung me into his arms again as though I weighed no more than a feather.
“Lead the way,” he told Sebastian.
Before I knew it, we were standing on the large, flat space watching as Kristoff did something to a control on his belt that presumably called his shuttle.
“He’s like Batman with that t
hing,” Sebastian, who had one supporting arm around me, murmured.
“Yeah—it’s like an alien utility belt.” I tried to laugh but it came out as more of a choked sob. “Sebastian,” I said, “I’m scared.”
“I know, hon but Kristoff seems to know what’s going on with you and I sure as Hell don’t,” he said frankly. “Who ever heard of a sickness that makes your body hypothermic even though you feel like you’re burning up? Also, we don’t need any more killer robots tearing up the ER trying to get to you.”
I knew he was right but it still made me want to cry. Where was this mysterious place I was going and would I ever come home again? Would I ever see the hospital or finish my internship? Something inside me doubted it—doubted it very much. And then there was my family. I wasn’t very close to them—not because I was adopted but just because we had never quite clicked somehow. Still, I didn’t want my mom to worry.
“All right,” I said to Sebastian. “But promise you’ll tell everyone—my family included—that I’m all right.”
“I will.” He was half crying now, too as he hugged me. “I promise I will.”
And then a smooth black craft that looked like something out of a high-end car commercial, only with wings instead of wheels, landed silently on the helicopter pad.
“Come, my Lady,” Kristoff said, taking my arm. “It’s time to leave this place.”
I gave Sebastian one final hug and then Kristoff was swinging me into his arms again and placing me gently in the strange, black craft.
The last thing I saw of Earth was Sebastian waving and the lights of the hospital receding into the night.
I didn’t know when I would ever see either one again.
Want more? I thought so--there are still so many questions left unanswered.
Will Charlotte die of the Burning Blood disease?
Or will Kristoff find a very *intimate* way to save her?
What happens when they reach Femme One?
Who is the imposter trying to steal Charlotte's throne?
And how will she pass the Trials of Ascendancy (which may or may not involve a sentient scepter, a room filled with poison, and a fire breathing dragon.)
But most of all, can Charlotte keep herself from falling for Kristoff knowing that their love is strictly forbidden by the laws of her new planet and the Council of Wisdom?
And what will happen between them at the House of Pleasures?
You'll have to read the rest of Descended, coming at the end of August to find out.
Preorder your copy HERE.
**Note--this book can be read as a stand alone but if you want to find the other books in the series, here they are--
Alien Mate Index Series
Abducted: (also available in print)
Protected: (also available in print)
Descended: Coming August 2016
Severed: Coming Fall of 2016
Also by Evangeline Anderson
Brides of the Kindred books (in order)
Claimed (also available in print and audio)
Hunted (also available in print and audio)
Sought (also available in print and audio)
Found (also available in print and audio)
Revealed (also available in print)
Pursued (also available in print)
Exiled (also available in print)
Shadowed (also available in print)
Chained
Divided
Devoured (also available in print)
Enhanced
Cursed
Enslaved
Targeted
Forgotten
Switched (also available in print)
Kindred 18: Coming Fall of 2016
Mastering the Mistress (A Brides of the Kindred novella)
Alien Mate Index Series
Abducted: (also available in print)
Protected: Coming July 19, 2016
Descended: Coming August 2016
Severed: Coming Fall of 2016
Stand Alone Novels
Purity (also available in audio)
The Institute: Daddy Issues
The Institute: Mishka's Spanking
The Academy (YA novel)
Born to Darkness Paranormal series
Crimson Debt (now available in audio)
Scarlet Heat (now available in audio)
Ruby Shadows (now available in audio)
Cardinal Sins (coming soon)
***The above books are just a small sample of Evangeline's work. For a complete list of books from all publishers, please visit her website***
About the Author
Evangeline Anderson is the New York Times and USA Today Best Selling Author of the Brides of the Kindred, Alien Mate Index, and Born to Darkness series. She is thirty-something and lives in Florida with a husband, a son, and two cats. She had been writing erotic fiction for her own gratification for a number of years before it occurred to her to try and get paid for it. To her delight, she found that it was actually possible to get money for having a dirty mind and she has been writing paranormal and Sci-fi erotica steadily ever since.
You can find her online at her website www.evangelineanderson.com
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Descended Part 1: Queen of the Universe? Who, me? Page 11