The Goddess knows it needs something to spice it up in here, Chain thought dryly.
He reached the front of the room and stood in front of the huge table which seated all the males on the High Council. Several of the senior Priestesses from the Sacred Grove were there as well. And all of them were watching him.
Chain cleared his throat.
“This is the T’lix-Kruthe,” he said, holding up both halves. “It was separated many eons ago and I had to go and, er, retrieve it from several different locations.”
“It is said that when the two halves are joined, the one who holds the sacred artifact will be gifted with the wisdom of the Goddess herself,” intoned Commander Lordin. “If you please…” He made a sweeping gesture to Chain. “Join the two halves and then hand the T’lix-Kruthe to me.”
Chain shrugged. “All right.”
He made a great show of fitting the small but heavy round ball-shaped bottom of the artifact to the fluted top half. The pieces made a low, rich click as they snapped into place, making something that looked almost like a kind of musical instrument.
“Very good,” Commander Lordin said. “And if you would just hand it over here to m—”
But at that moment the T’lix-Kruthe began to glow. The gems that studded its sides grew brighter and brighter and it started making a musical humming sound. The music started out faint but increased in volume so rapidly that Chain was almost tempted to drop the thing and cover his ears. But when he tried, he found that he couldn’t—his entire body seemed to be frozen in place, unable to do anything but stand there while the light and noise from the artifact grew in intensity until he thought he couldn’t stand it anymore.
The music—just one pure sweet note, growing in intensity—was so loud he could feel his eardrums bulging. And the lights were so bright it seemed like he was holding a small star. And still he couldn’t look away—couldn’t even blink as both light and sound grew and grew and grew…
Gods, make it stop! he thought wildly. If it keeps on I’m going to go blind or deaf or both! Why can’t I let go of it? Why can’t I—
“Warrior,” a strong, feminine voice proclaimed—it seemed to fill the whole Council room. “You should not be here.”
Finally, Chain found he was able to move—well, to move his mouth, at least—the rest of him still seemed to be frozen.
“Why, Goddess?” he asked, because there could be no doubt who was addressing him. “Because I’m an M-Switch Kindred?”
“The gifts which I gave you are of no consequence in this matter,” the Goddess’s voice replied. “You should not be here because your female is in danger.”
“My female?” Chain asked, frowning. “What are you talking about?”
“Do not pretend ignorance with me, Warrior—my patience grows thin!” the Goddess’s voice crackled like lightning in the Council Room, making him wince. “You were longing for companionship with one who would not judge you for your abilities. Your female had been badly treated by her past mate and longed for one to love her and be true to her. I put the two of you together…and then you left her!”
Chain knew she must be talking about Victoria.
“She didn’t want me!” he protested. “We had a chance to bond and she refused it.”
“You never asked her to bond with you,” the Goddess said. “You never told her how you longed for the bonding—you only put the possibility before her without requesting her heart and her hand.”
Chain felt sick. The Goddess was right! He’d never actually asked Victoria to bond with him—he’d only told her that if they made love, a bond was inevitable.
I was too cowardly to tell her how I actually felt for her, he thought. Too afraid of rejection to let her know I loved her and wanted to bond with her.
“Goddess,” he said aloud. “I’ve been a fool. Forgive me.”
“All shall be forgiven but you must hurry to your female’s side,” the Goddess told him. “Even now she is in hiding, fearing for her life. The Varians have returned and trapped her in her home. You must go to her, Warrior—NOW!”
And then, with a final blare of music and light, the T’lix-Kruthe abruptly went silent and dark in his hands.
For a moment Chain just stared at it. Then he dropped it into the hands of the startled Commander Lordin and ran for the door.
Victoria! Victoria was in danger and he wasn’t there to help her, to save her!
Hang on, sweetheart—I’m coming! he thought wildly.
He only prayed he could get to her in time.
Chapter Thirty-nine
“I see them out in the hallway—they’re still all over the place,” Melli whispered, her voice tiny and tight with tears as she pulled away from the crack in the folding closet doors where the three of them were crammed together.
The closet was upstairs in the spare room where no one ever went—it was neat and clean and empty. Vicky was hoping that the Varians would take one look in the room, see that it looked unlived in, and pass it by. But the horrible lizard aliens appeared to be turning her house upside down, doubtless looking for the T’lix-Kruthe. She feared it was only a matter of time before they found her and her girls.
Only a matter of time before they were all captured and possibly even killed.
Oh, Chain—where are you? she thought desperately. If only you’d come like Kat promised you would! I guess she was wrong about how you felt about me but I could really use your help right about now!
“Try your cell phone again,” Jodi whispered.
Melli—who was the only one of them who had grabbed her phone before they’d all gone running for cover—tried.
“No use,” she whispered. “It looks like I have a signal but none of the calls I make goes through. There’s just this weird flat beeping noise and then the line goes dead.”
“They must be using something to block outgoing calls,” Vicky muttered under her breath. “I’m sure they have something like that, with their advanced technology.”
“What are they, Mom?” Jodi whispered. “You seem to know something you’re not telling us.”
“Yeah, Mom—if you know anything about the creepy lizard men, now’s the time to talk,” Melli joined in, also keeping her voice low.
Vicky took a deep breath. It was time to come clean.
“Girls, I have something to confess,” she told them. “Remember how I told you I met a man on Valentine’s Day but it didn’t work out so I went on a little trip to visit Kathy for a couple of days?”
“Yes—so?” Jodi raised her eyebrows and Melli made a go on gesture.
“So…that wasn’t exactly the truth,” Vicky told them. “I did have a date set up, but the man I was meeting took one look at me and left.”
“Oh, that bastard!” Melli hissed indignantly. “How could he?”
“Don’t worry, Mom,” Jodi whispered consolingly. “There are plenty of other fish in the sea and you’re beautiful. You’ll meet somebody else. Well…” She grimaced. “If we get out of this alive.”
“That’s the thing though, girls—I did meet someone else,” Vicky whispered. “He came into the bar and…”
She gave her girls a highly edited version of her adventures with Chain, being careful to leave out the sex stuff. After all, a girl had to have some secrets and she didn’t want to seem like a bad influence on her daughters. She certainly wouldn’t have approved of them going off with a strange man and doing the crazy things she’d done with Chain.
“So we said goodbye and Chain seemed to think I’d be safe because he towed the Varian ship out into deep space. But I guess he was wrong, because here they are again,” she whispered, finishing her tale.
There was complete silence in the closet for a moment—which allowed them to hear the distant sounds of dishes breaking in the kitchen down below and furniture being torn up in one of the other bedrooms.
Then Melli hissed, “Holy shit, Mom! I’m sorry—I know you don’t like it when we curse, but seriously? You
had a Valentine’s fling with an alien hottie and that’s why there are ugly green lizard guys crawling all over the house?”
“I’m afraid so, honey.” Vicky shook her head sadly. “I feel terrible—this is all my fault. We wouldn’t be stuck here right now scared for our lives if I’d followed the advice I always give you two and refused to go along with the strange man—well, strange Kindred—I met in the bar.”
“No, Mom—don’t blame yourself,” Jodi whispered. “I think it’s wonderful that you took a chance on love again after Dad was such an asshole and left you.”
“Chain is certainly everything you’re father isn’t,” Vicky admitted with a sigh. “I was hoping he would come tonight so I could introduce you to him. But, well…” She sighed. “Obviously, he didn’t show.”
“He would certainly come in handy right about now,” Melli murmured.
“Yes, he would,” Vicky agreed. “Unfortunately, it looks like it’s up to us to get out of this—only I’m not sure how.”
“The noises seem to be getting further away from this room,” Jodi said. “Maybe we could try climbing out the window. I know we’re on the second floor but the old spooky tree is right outside.”
“Remember how I refused to come in here at night because it looked so creepy looming right outside the window?” Melli reminisced. “It has such thick branches it seems like anything could be hiding in there.”
“Well maybe we should be the ones hiding in it,” Jodi said. “Even if we can’t get down to the ground because of the lizard aliens, we can still hide in the branches and wait for them to go away. It would probably be safer than hiding in the house, waiting for them to search the spare room.”
“You’re right.” Vicky nodded decisively, though her heart was pounding. “It’s better to get out of the house. You girls go first and I’ll watch to be sure they don’t try to come in here.”
The girls didn’t like this idea—they wanted Vicky to be the first one out. But she put on her “mom” face and glared at both of them.
“I don’t want to hear another word from either one of you. Melli, Jodi—you girls go right now. I’ll bring up the rear.”
Her tone of maternal authority prevailed—as it always did—and the three of them finally crept out of the closet and ran for the window on the other side of the room. As Melli and Jodi lifted the window sash as silently as possible and began to climb out into the branches of the “spooky tree” as they had called it for years, Vicky stood watch by the door.
The Varians seemed to be busy at the other end of the long upstairs hallway. She could see feathers flying as they ripped her pillows to shreds and hear the sound of breaking furniture—they were really gutting the house.
This would have upset her more if she wasn’t in fear for her life and the lives of her daughters. Right now, though, she figured she could worry about the damage to the house later. After all, things could be replaced—she and her daughters couldn’t.
“Okay, Mom—we’re out,” a faint whisper came from the window.
Vicky looked over her shoulder just in time to see a white-sneakered foot—Jodi’s—disappearing out the open window. A slightly chilly breeze was blowing though it wasn’t too cold. Even in February, Tampa temperatures never dropped very low.
“Okay, I’m coming,” she whispered back. “Just going to shut the door so—”
But her words were cut off abruptly when a cold, scaly hand closed on her throat.
Vicky gasped as a pair of yellow, slitted lizard eyes stared directly into hers. The Varian must have snuck up while she had her head turned. With her attention elsewhere, he had slithered right through the barely cracked door and grabbed her.
“Let me go!” she croaked, trying to struggle. But the alien was too fast. With a lightning-like blur, he had both her hands restrained in one of his weird appendages—which had seven fingers, Vicky noticed, feeling sick. His other hand was still wrapped around her neck, choking her.
“Where isss it?” hissed the Varian, a long, forked tongue licking out to flicker over Vicky’s face as his slitted eyes narrowed. “Provide the T’lix-Kruthe immediately or die.”
Chapter Forty
Chain landed his craft well back from Vicky’s domicile, the better to observe what was going on. Sure enough, as he crouched in the thick trees and underbrush abutting her property, he saw not one but two Varian ships—the lizard-like bastards were all over the place!
Somebody needed to tell the Kindred of the Mother Ship that the lizard aliens had found a way to bypass the security net they had put around the Earth. The first time the Varians had followed him, Chain had thought it must be an anomaly—that maybe they had found their way in through a small area of weakness and Sylvan had agreed with him. But two ships indicated a lot more than a small area—there was a big problem with security here.
Well, no matter how they had gotten in, they were here now. And he would have to deal with them—alone.
Just as he thought that, he heard a crunching in the undergrowth behind him.
Drawing his blaster, Chain whipped around, only to see two warriors from the Mother Ship. One appeared to be a Blood Kindred in his early twenties and the other was a slightly older Beast Kindred. Both of their eyes were glowing in the dimness and they both held their hands up as soon as they saw his blaster.
“Peace, Brother,” the Blood Kindred said hastily. “I’m Liosh and this is Vorn—we came to help you. Well—to give you a message, actually, but now it looks like you could use some help.”
He nodded at the house and the Varians everywhere on the lawn like a big scaly nightmare.
“A message?” Chain narrowed his eyes. “What message? From who?”
“From the Lady Kat,” the Blood Kindred who had called himself Liosh said. “I was her pilot earlier today when she came to visit this house along with her friend, the Lady Lizabeth. She gave me a message she meant to deliver herself, but forgot because Lady Lizabeth went into labor on our way back to the Mother Ship.”
“All right—so what’s the message?” Chain growled. He was running out of patience, especially when Victoria was in danger and he had to figure out a way to get her out of the house crawling with Varians.
“She said…” Liosh cleared his throat uncomfortably. “She said to tell you that Vicky doesn’t hate you because you’re an M-Switch Kindred.”
Chain wasn’t completely sure how to interpret this and he didn’t have time to mull it over now.
“All right, you’ve delivered the message,” he said shortly. “Now help me clear out these Varians so I can get to my female.”
Both Liosh and Vorn drew their weapons at once.
“What’s the plan?” Vorn asked, raising one dark eyebrow at Chain.
“Spread out among the trees and pick as many off from the front as possible,” Chain said. “When we’ve cleared that area, follow me into the domicile. Set your blasters to incinerate and shoot to kill—these bastards have to be stopped.”
“Got it.” Liosh nodded and the three of them spread out silently until they had the front covered. At a signal from Chain, they all opened fire at once.
The Varians never knew what hit them. They jerked and screamed, their slitted yellow eyes rolling wildly as they searched for the source of the attack. Some of them ran into the trees which ringed the front of the domicile, but Chain and his two fellow warriors picked them off easily. Both Liosh and Vorn were excellent shots—a fact Chain appreciated immensely.
In a matter of moments, the front lawn was clear of Varians—though the grass had suffered considerably and gained a fair number of greasy black patches in the process.
They came back together and Chain gave the other two warriors a grateful nod.
“Good shooting! Let’s head inside.”
They went cautiously through the front door but no one tried to stop them. Once they got in, Chain could see why. The front of the house had already been thoroughly searched—and thoroughly demolished
in the process.
What a mess! Chain thought as he looked at the ripped and broken furniture…the shattered picture frames…the scattered books… It seemed the Varians were endlessly destructive in their quest for the T’lix-Kruthe—they were tearing up everything.
Not everything, I hope, he thought. He prayed to the Goddess that Vicky herself would be intact when he found her.
They made their slow, careful way through the house but it seemed that most of the invaders had either been outside or were upstairs. Chain wanted to go up to where the action was, but he needed to be certain Victoria wasn’t down here somewhere first. It was impossible to track her by smell because she had been everywhere in this house—so her scent was all over, making it difficult to tell where she might be at this exact moment.
Liosh incinerated two Varians in the food prep area—what the humans called a kitchen—who seemed intent on breaking every dish and bowl in the cupboards. There was white dust coating everything too, which seemed to be coming from a small paper sack with the word, “flour” printed on it. It looked like one of the lizard aliens had stomped on it and sent it flying everywhere because there was a boot print right in the middle.
When the two invaders were nothing but grease spots on the floor, Chain looked around the wreckage, his boots crunching on the broken shards of crockery. Victoria wasn’t here—wasn’t anywhere on the first floor. So she must be upstairs, where he could still hear more of the Varians—unaware that their comrades were dead—trashing the place.
Liosh and Vorn seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“They must be upst—” the Blood Kindred started to say. But his words were interrupted by a crash and a scream that came from outside the house.
Chapter Forty-one
Vicky heard the crash from outside the window and then a scream of pain that sounded like Melli. She struggled harder against the alien holding her.
Stealing Her Heart: A Kindred Tales Novel (Brides of the Kindred) Page 21