The thought of running into him with another woman on his arm was excruciating—but still not as bad as the thought of the big Kindred living his last years in a cruel, blood-soaked ring fighting for his life.
Kalis only shook his head.
“For me, there’s no one but you, little Mistress,” he said softly. “I don’t want any other female. If I can’t have you, I have to leave. I’m sorry.”
“When will you go?” Jillian whispered, looking up at him with stinging eyes.
“Tomorrow after dinner service,” he said promptly. “Don’t want to leave you short-handed the very first night you’re rolling out a new menu.”
“Okay.” Jillian supposed she ought to say something about him giving her two weeks notice, but really, what point was there? He’d clearly made up his mind to go and there was nothing she could do about it.
“Okay,” Kalis echoed her. He reached out and brushed her flushed cheek with his knuckles gently. “Take care of yourself, Jillian. Promise me you won’t go to the Buy-All-Sell-All alone.”
“I…I won’t,” she whispered. “Hard or Kind will go with me.”
He nodded.
“Good. Then when I think of you, I can picture you safe and happy aboard the Mother Ship.”
Safe but not happy, whispered a little voice in Jillian’s head. Don’t let him go, Jillian—tell him to stay! Tell him you’ll try!
But the memory of the huge green Grizzly thing rose in her mind’s eye, its snarling jaws and steak-knife fangs—and the words stuck in her throat. She could only say, “Goodbye,” and nod as the big Kindred walked slowly away down the corridor, soon to be out of her life forever.
42
“Well, they seemed to like the new menu,” Lydia said brightly, as they were closing down the kitchen for the night. She and her husband, Lor, had been back for some time now and were working as diligently as ever.
They were going to have to work a little harder until she could find a replacement for Kalis, Jillian thought dully. The big Kindred had finished with his station and then, when the last ticket was filled, he had excused himself quietly and left. She hadn’t been able to watch him go, knowing as she did, that she would never see him again. That had been almost an hour ago
“Chef? I said the customers seemed to like the new menu,” Lydia said again, pulling Jillian out of her morose thoughts.
“Oh, yes—it seems to be a big hit,” Jillian said dully. She tried to smile, but the expression felt more like a grimace.
“Say, are you all right?” Lydia looked at her with concern on her freckled face. “I don’t want to step over the line, but you haven’t seemed like yourself tonight at all. In fact—”
“Chef? Call for you.” Lor’s deep voice cut through his wife’s worried words.
Jillian looked up quickly, eager to get away from her line cook’s searching eyes.
“Yes? Who is it?” she asked.
Lor shrugged.
“Someone from Communications says they have a call from Earth for you. You want to take it?”
He was still holding the cordless communications device, which provided the line the restaurant used for outside calls and to take reservations. You couldn’t use a Think-me for things like that because mental communication was so intimate and usually reserved for people you already knew.
“Yes, I’d better take it.” Jillian took the com-u from him and nodded her thanks. Then she took it into the pantry for privacy and closed the door behind her.
“Hello?” she said, putting the small device to her ear.
“Ms. Jillian Marks?” a Kindred voice said.
“Yes—that’s me,” Jillian replied.
“We have a call for you from Earth. Will you accept it?” the Communications officer asked.
“Yes. Yes, of course.” Jillian nodded, though she knew the officer couldn’t see her.
Her heart was pounding as she wondered if maybe it was Kalis calling. Maybe he’d decided to make a trip to Earth for some reason and he was asking her to come down and spend some time with him so they could talk a little more. Maybe he was willing to compromise and leave his Ursus out of the equation after all…
But her hopes were shattered when an unfamiliar voice came on the line.
“Hello? Is this Jillian Marks on the Kindred Mother Ship?” a man asked.
“Yes, this is she.” Jillian sighed inwardly. “Who are you and what can I do for you?”
“I’m just calling to inform you that your husband, Brad, has been in an accident,” the man said.
Jillian frowned.
“I’m sorry, but Brad isn’t my husband anymore. We divorced over two years ago.”
“Well, you’re still listed as his next of kin and I’m afraid he’s in a pretty grave condition,” the man insisted. “We need you down here to make some life and death decisions for him. Will you come?”
Jillian bit her lip. She didn’t want to go—she didn’t owe Brad anything after the shitty way he’d treated her. But life and death decisions sounded pretty heavy. As much as she hated him, she didn’t wish him dead.
“Well…” she began.
“Come to Valley Hospital—you know where it is?” the man asked.
“Yes, I know,” Jillian said reluctantly.
“Come to the Emergency entrance,” the man instructed. “And please hurry—lives are on the line!”
Then he hung up before Jillian could ask any more questions.
Jillian looked at the com-u in her hand and sighed. Well, it seemed like her crappy night had just gotten a little bit crappier. The last person she wanted to see right now was her ex, but what else could she do? She was a decent person—she wasn’t going to refuse to go down and check on him if there was no one else.
She’d been slated to spend some time with Suzanne and her babies that evening—her friend didn’t want her to be alone on the night Kalis left. But to be honest, Jillian was a tiny bit glad she would now have to cancel.
Being around her best friend and her two husbands and three sons could be a bit much, especially when she knew she would never have a happy, fulfilling relationship like the one Suzanne was enjoying. All that domestic bliss could really get on a person’s nerves. She had agreed to go only because her friend had insisted and Jillian had to admit that hanging with Suzanne and her hubbies and kids was better than going back to her own suite and drinking too much wine.
Well, now I don’t get to drink wine or hang out with Suzanne and envy her perfect marriage, she told herself as she grabbed her stuff and got ready to go.
Not that spending the night in a hospital with her ex was an improvement, but it was at least a distraction. Sighing, she gave Lydia and Lor a run-down of what was happening and asked Lydia to call Suzanne and make excuses for her.
“I’d call her myself, but it sounds like an emergency down there and I have to get right to the Docking Bay,” she told her line cook, who was nodding rapidly, a look of concern on her freckled face.
“I’ll let her know, Chef—don’t worry,” she said earnestly. “Just be safe. I, er, hope your ex is okay,” she added, rather doubtfully. She and Lor didn’t know the story of how Brad had cheated on Jillian and ruined her life, but they did know enough to understand that she and Brad weren’t on good terms—or any terms at all, for that matter.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” Jillian said neutrally. “Thanks, Lydia.”
“We’ll finish up here,” Lor promised. “You can count on us, Chef.”
“I know. Thanks, guys.” Jillian gave both of them a tired smile. “See you later.”
Then she left, with no idea that she was walking into a trap.
43
“Right here is fine. Thanks for dropping me off,” Jillian said to the Blood Kindred pilot who had brought her down to Earth and then driven her over to the Emergency Entrance of the Valley Hospital. He was one of the pilots always standing by to take people back and forth from the Mother Ship to Earth, but just because he was only
doing his job didn’t mean she couldn’t be grateful.
“Of course.” The pilot nodded in a friendly way. “Would you like me to wait for you?”
“No, that’s okay.” Jillian shook her head. “This might take a while. I’ll just catch a ride to the HKR building and call for a shuttle back to the Mother Ship whenever I get this wrapped up.” The Human/Kindred Relations building was in downtown Vegas, not far from where she was.
The pilot nodded again.
“As you wish. Enjoy your night.”
Jillian very much doubted that she would, but she nodded back politely and thanked him again as she climbed out of the shuttle. The door of the sleek silver craft shut behind her and it sped away into the night.
With a sigh, Jillian headed for the emergency entrance.
But before she could get to the sliding glass doors, a long black limo pulled up beside her, blocking her way to the Emergency Room. Feeling irritated, Jillian started to walk around it, but the window rolled down and a vaguely familiar face looked out at her.
“Jillian Marks? That you?” The man had a thick, New York accent and a beefy red face. His bushy black eyebrows shaded small, beady eyes.
“Um, yes?” Jillian wasn’t sure what to make of this. “Who are you?”
“Jimmy Moreno—used to have dinner at The Palms sometimes,” the man told her. “You made the best fuckin’ steak I ever ate—never forgot it, honeybee! The place is a dump now, without you. New chef they hired can’t cook to save his fuckin’ life!”
“Oh, that’s right!” Jillian remembered him now—he had always been seated in the high-roller’s section, often with Brad. “Um, how are you?” she asked politely.
“I’m just fine, but I’m afraid Brad’s in some trouble. That’s why I was sent to come get you,” Jimmy told her. He opened the door of the limo. “Get in.”
“What?” Jillian looked at him in confusion. “But I was told that Brad was in the hospital and that it was a life and death situation.”
“Nah, honeybee, you were told to come to the hospital.”
Jimmy was out of the limo now. He was a big guy—not Kindred big, but big enough that he loomed over her in a somewhat simian manner. Jillian thought—as she had when she’d seen him at The Palms—that the big man looked like a gorilla someone had shaved and put into an expensive suit.
“We just wanted to give you a landmark you’d know,” he went on, taking her by the arm to help her into the limo’s plush interior. “Brad’s somewhere close by, in a private facility. He’s safe—for now.”
“But I don’t understand,” she protested, even as she got into the long black car.
“That’s okay—you will,” Jimmy assured her as he closed the door behind them. “Get comfy, honeybee—we’ve got a little ride ahead of us.”
And with that, the limo sped off, taking Jillian with it.
44
“Warrior, your female is in danger.”
The strong, feminine voice in his ear startled Kalis so much his hands jerked on the steering yoke of the shuttle he was flying. The ship made a little jump and stopped dead, when he pulled back hard.
“What…who…?” He looked around uncertainly. He was alone in the shuttle—he was sure of it. Commander Sylvan had given it to him and thanked him again for defusing the situation with the Nebrian ambassador before he left the Mother Ship.
“I hope you find what you’re looking for, Brother,” he said formally, offering his arm for a warrior’s clasp before Kalis climbed into the ship. “And please know that you are always welcome aboard the Mother Ship.”
Kalis had thanked him and then flown the shuttle through the red fold in space, back to the Colubrian System, where the off-season home of the Blood Circuit was. He had just been trying to decide which of his old Mistress’s business contacts to get in touch with about fighting again, when the voice had spoken in his ear.
“Warrior,” it said again. “I tell you, you must go back. The female that I sent you to protect is in danger—she may die if you do not reach her in time.”
This time Kalis understood to whom he was speaking.
“Goddess,” he said reverently, bowing his head. “Forgive me, but the female doesn’t want me. She cannot accept my Ursus, who is part of me.”
“Be that as it may, you must return to her now,” the Goddess said sternly. “She has been lured down to Earth and is in the hands of evil ones. It is your Ursus that she will need before the night is through.”
“I don’t understand.” Kalis shook his head. “What evil ones? And how could she need my Ursus? And how will I find her?”
“I will guide you,” the Goddess informed him, answering only his last question. “But you must go now or it will be too late. Hurry, Warrior!”
“I will!” Kalis agreed, his heart thudding in his chest. “I’ll go right away, Goddess. Only I have to call the Mother Ship and ask them to fold space for me again.”
“There is no time for that. Here, I will open a way.”
Suddenly, a spinning blue vortex opened in the blackness of space right in front of his shuttle. Kalis recognized what it was at once.
“A wormhole,” he breathed, staring at the viewscreen.
“Take it,” the Goddess commanded. “It will lead you straight back to Earth. From there, I will take the controls and guide your shuttle myself. We must hurry—Jillian is in grave danger!”
“Yes, Goddess!” Kalis pushed on the steering yoke, guiding the shuttle straight into the swirling blue vortex. He had no idea what was happening to Jillian—he only knew he still loved her with all his heart and he would do anything in his power to save her.
Even if it meant his own death.
45
“What is this place?” Jillian asked, as they stepped out of the limo in front of a deserted warehouse.
It didn’t look like any “private facility” she’d ever seen. Also, they weren’t in a very good part of town. She’d been expecting to be taken to another hospital or an urgent care center—though honestly it was hard to concentrate on wondering where Brad was when Jimmy Moreno kept talking at her.
The big man had kept up a steady stream of conversation as the long black limo drove them through the streets of Vegas. He’d talked about how The Palms had “gone to the dogs” since she had left and how Vegas was getting too crowded and The Strip wasn’t what it used to be and all manner of small talk that was neither here nor there, though it kept Jillian nodding politely and replying in all the right places. In fact, he hadn’t stopped talking for a minute until they’d pulled up in front of this weird, darkened warehouse.
Almost as though he was trying to distract me from where we were going, Jillian thought now. All through the trip, she’d been consumed with making polite answers to Moreno’s small talk. A holdover, she supposed, from the past when she had been the Executive Chef talking to a VIP. But now she was alone with a man she barely knew in a dark, deserted location. It was about ten pm Earth time and there were no other cars in sight and only a single, lonely streetlamp lighting the road.
“Where are we?” she asked, looking around herself warily. “Where’s Brad?”
“Oh, he’s in here.” Moving faster than should be possible for such a big man, Jimmy suddenly grabbed her by the arm. Hooking his arm through hers in an unbreakable grip, he began escorting her towards the warehouse.
“Hey, stop! I don’t like this, I want to go home!” Jillian tried to put on the brakes, but her earlier assessment of Jimmy as a gorilla in a suit was proving to be correct. He dragged her along easily, as though it was no trouble at all.
“Come on now, honeybee, don’t be like that,” he said coaxingly, though Jillian could hear iron underneath his light tone. “Come and see Brad—he’s been missing you, you know.”
And before she could protest further, Jillian found herself being dragged through the doorway of the dark warehouse.
“Help! Stop!” she shouted. Her voice echoed in the deserted building,
but nobody came to her aid. No surprise, since no matter how loud she got, there was apparently nobody around to hear her, she thought dismally.
“That’s enough of that now, honeybee,” Jimmy Moreno crooned in her ear. “No need to shout—I’m just taking you to see Brad.”
“I don’t want—” Jillian began, but just then, Moreno steered her through another doorway in a darkened corner of the warehouse. The doorway led into a small room within the larger structure which was revealed when he flipped a switch.
The single bulb hanging from a ceiling cord made a puddle of brilliance around a figure slumped in a folding chair. After a moment, Jillian realized, with horror, that the figure was her ex.
“Brad?” she whispered, taking a step towards him. “Oh my God, what happened to you?”
For a fact, her ex was looking a lot worse for the wear. His hands were tied behind his back and his brown eyes were red and puffy and nearly swollen shut. There was a huge lump growing on his jaw where someone had apparently punched him and his bottom lip was split and blood had dribbled down his chin onto his rumpled white dress shirt. In short, he looked like someone had really worked him over.
“Jilly-baby? ‘zat you?” he muttered, peering up at her through his puffy, swollen eyes.
“Yup, she came down just like you said she would.” Jimmy Moreno beamed down at Jillian. “Guess she still loves you after all, Braddy-boy.”
“Wait—you tricked me to get me down here?” Jillian stared at him. “What’s going on here? Why would you do that? I haven’t even seen Brad for over two years, since I found him in bed with a Cirque de Soleil performer.”
“Jilly-baby, don’t lie like that,” Brad whispered, giving her a pitiful look from his slitted, swollen eyes. “I know I hurt you real bad, but I swear that girl didn’t mean anything to me—I was just drunk, is all. Please just tell Jimmy where you hid the money so we can both get out of here.”
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