Sought...Book 3 in the Brides of the Kindred series (33 page)

“That’s her house.” The point of view moved
up and down, as though Deep was nodding.

“What’s going on?” Lock asked.

“I don’t know. But it doesn’t look good.”
Deep sounded grim.

“Maybe we should go back to the HKR
building. Come again later. Or send the draft officers for her
instead.”

“We agreed to come for her ourselves. Those
damn draft officers only scare the human females when they drag
them out of their homes. And she’s already scared enough of me as
it is.” Deep sounded unhappy.

“Still, it’s official procedure.” Lock
sighed. “Don’t worry about the dreams, Deep. She just needs to get
to know you. We’ll take things slowly during the Claiming period.
Very slowly.”

“Agreed. If there
is
a Claiming
period.”

“What do you mean by that?” Lock demanded as
they went through the gate of the white picket fence surrounding
the house with the gingerbread trim.

“I’m sorry, sir, but this is an official
crime scene,” a voice said, before Deep could answer. The point of
view looked down and Kat saw a human police officer standing there
with his thumbs hooked in his belt, frowning and blocking the
walkway.

“We’re Kindred,” Deep said smoothly. “Here
on official business.”

The cop got a mulish look on his face.
“Well, I’m afraid your
business
will have to wait. Crime
scene takes precedence.”

“Give it up, Murphy.” Another policeman,
this one a middle aged woman with her black hair scraped back into
a ponytail, came to stand beside him. “It’s not really a crime
scene when she meant to off herself.”

“That’s not our call to make. The Coroner’ll
decide if it was suicide or not,” the first policeman said
stubbornly.

“Suicide?” Lock sounded worried. “What are
you talking about? Who—?”

“There they are! Let them through, officers.
Let them through—those are the murderers.” A young woman with
scraggly, brownish-blonde hair came running out onto the front
porch. She was pointing to Lock and Deep and sobbing
hysterically.

“Murderers, eh?” The first policeman,
Murphy, looked at them with considerably more interest. “You
gentlemen care to explain that?”

“Officer, I assure you that my brother and I
have never even been on this planet until this morning and we—”
Lock began but Deep was already pushing past the officers and
rushing to the front porch.

“Where is she?” Kat saw his large hands grip
the hysterical girl and give her a firm shake. “Where’s Miranda?”
he demanded.

“You want to see her?” the girl shouted
through her sobs. “You want to see what you did to her, you
son-of-a-bitch?”

“Yes, I want to see her, damn it!” Deep’s
voice was fierce now. Fierce and fearful—Kat could hear the dread
throbbing in his tone. The knowledge of what he might find if he
followed the crying girl into the house. But he went with her
anyway, climbing a staircase and going down a hallway to the
bedroom at the end.

Kat could hear soft sounds of grief coming
from behind one door and there were two paramedics just leaving the
far bedroom as they entered it. “Hey, I thought the police didn’t
want anyone going in there,” one protested as Deep and the girl
brushed past them.

“Official business,” Deep said, but his
voice sounded hollow and strained.

At the door to the bedroom, the girl turned
to face him, her face pale and blotchy with tears. “So you finally
came for her. She said you would. It was all she talked about for
the past month.” Her voice went high and scared as though she was
imitating someone. “‘The dark one—I don’t know his name but he
won’t leave me alone. Every time I close my eyes I see him…coming
for me, reaching out to touch me.’”

“Enough. Let me see her,” Deep sounded quiet
but dangerous. “She’s supposed to be our bride—I have a right to
see her.”

“She was
never
going to go with you,”
the girl spat. “She made sure of that. You want to see? Fine, have
a look!”

She flung open the door, revealing a room
that was decorated in cream and pink and butter yellow. A cheerful
room with a canopy bed against one wall and set of French doors
leading out onto a balcony covered with climbing ivy.

It was cheerful, that was, until you noticed
what was lying on the bed. Kat didn’t want to see it but somehow
she couldn’t look away as Deep approached.

At first it looked like a doll. A life sized
doll with hair the same brownish-blonde as the crying girl’s. But
it was clear when you got closer that the doll was broken—its
large, china blue eyes were wide and staring at the canopy
overhead, its mouth frozen half open, as though it wanted to
speak.

Oh my God,
Kat thought numbly.
It’s not a doll—it’s a girl. And she’s dead. She’s really
dead.

“Gods!” There was a sudden, dizzying shift
in the point of view and Kat realized that Deep had fallen to his
knees. “Miranda!” he whispered hoarsely.

“I found her like this when I came to get
her for breakfast.” The crying girl, who had to be Miranda’s
sister, sounded numb. “She took my mom’s pills—all of them. And she
left this.” She thrust a crumpled piece of notebook paper into
Deep’s hands. “Read it,” she demanded.

Deep bowed his head and the words on the
paper came into focus.

They’re coming for me and the dark one won’t
leave until he gets me. I see them every night getting closer and
closer. I just want him to leave me alone. I just want the dreams
to stop. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…

There might have been more but Kat couldn’t
read it. The point of view was suddenly blurry. When she heard Deep
speak again, she understood why.

“She wrote this?” he asked, his voice
shaking. “Before she…”

“Killed herself. Yes,” the girl said flatly.
“She was so afraid of what you were going to do to her. So afraid
she would rather be
dead
than let you get her.” She ran both
hands through her hair distractedly. “Miranda had her whole life
ahead of her. She was in college—she was going to be a vet because
she loved animals. Did you know that? Did you know anything about
her except that you wanted her?”

“This was never our intention,” Deep
protested. “We’d been dream sharing for weeks. I knew she was
frightened of us…of
me.
But I never thought—”

“That she’d go this far? I didn’t either.”
Her voice began to rise in pitch. “I knew something wasn’t right
last night. I never should have left her. Never should have—”

“None of this is your fault.” Deep stood
slowly, never looking away from the dead girl on the bed. “None of
it. I bear this blame alone.”

“End memory,” a soft, mechanical voice said.
There was a clicking sound and the liquid crystal screen went
black. Then the room was silent except for a low, hoarse sound Kat
didn’t recognize at first.

She looked away from the screen and saw that
Deep had put his head down on the desk, his face buried in his
arms. His broad shoulders were heaving. The hoarse, painful sound
was coming from him.

He’s sobbing,
she realized.
My
God, he’s tearing himself apart.
Despite the way he’d treated
her earlier, she had an overwhelming impulse to go to him, to put
her arms around him and comfort him, to somehow ease the
overwhelming agony she felt coming from him in waves.

But she couldn’t touch him—she could only
watch helplessly as his misery went on and on. At last the sobbing
quieted and Deep raised his head. His face was calm but his eyes
were red. “I’m sorry, Miranda,” he said in a low voice. “So damn
sorry.” He sighed. “I cannot take back what happened to you. But I
can
keep it from happening to another. I can stop it before
it’s too late—before I ruin her life the way I ruined yours. I love
her too much, I can’t let that happen—I
won’t
let it
happen.”

He’s talking about me,
Kat realized.
He
does
care! He thinks he’ll hurt me
if he stays with me, if he and Lock bond with me completely. That’s
why he’s being such an asshole—he’s trying to drive me away. But
now that I know—

“My lady? My lady Kat, I know it’s early but
we agreed that an early start was best.” A gentle hand shook her
shoulder.

Kat burrowed deeper into her pillow.
No,
can’t wake up yet. Have to remember. Have to know…it’s so
important. It’s so—

“My lady?” The hand shook her again and the
last vestiges of the dream wisped away.

Kat sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Is it time to
get up already?”

“I’m afraid so.” Lock sounded apologetic.
“We’re supposed to be in the docking bay by o-six hundred.”

“Okay, okay, I’m up.” She frowned and rubbed
sleep from her eyes. Something was bothering her—something
important was tugging at the corner of her mind.
What was
it?
she thought uneasily.
I told myself not to forget it but
what—

“Would you like the first turn in the
bathing pool?” Lock asked courteously.

Kat sighed and gave up the hopeless quest.
Whatever it was, it would come back to her if it was important
enough. Right now she had to get ready to go. “Yeah, I’ll go
first,” she said, nodding. “But I warn you, I have nothing to wear.
Not that I can even begin to guess the correct dress code for
exploring an abandoned alien planet and getting a double
divorce.”

Lock winced and she was sorry she’d been so
snarky. “Wear whatever is comfortable and practical, my lady,” he
said in a low voice. “We’re likely to be walking through some dark
and dirty areas and the entire planet is polluted.”

“Got it.” Kat sighed. “Wading through
polluted muck. So I guess my favorite pair of kitten heels is
out.”

Lock gave her a wan smile. “I wouldn’t
recommend them. Unless you want me to carry you the whole way. I
wouldn’t mind.”

Kat straightened up and lifted her chin.
“Thank you, Lock, but I think I’ve had enough of the damsel in
distress routine for a little while.”
I got myself into this
mess, and I guess I can get myself out of it.
But she didn’t
speak the thought aloud—she couldn’t bear to see the sorrow and
loss on Lock’s face again. Couldn’t stand the thought that by this
time tomorrow, she would no longer be bonded to him or to Deep.

Deep…that was it. It was something about
him. Something I was supposed to remember…
But though it seemed
terribly important, the memory eluded her as she showered and
dressed.

Kat sighed.
The only thing I need to
remember about Deep is to steer clear of him until we get this damn
soul-divorce. Then he can do whatever he wants and we can all go
our separate ways—which is what I wanted in the beginning.

She only wished it was what she wanted
now.

“Land usss in the hidden passageway of the
Command Complex,” the AllFather directed as their ship approached
the dark gray-green world that was the Scourge home planet.

“As you wish,” Xairn said tightly. He was
struggling to keep his emotions in check—at least until he could
get away from his father. After Sanja’s death, he had felt hollow
inside—empty…emotionless. And he had assumed he would never feel
anything ever again. But after his last exchange with Lauren,
something was stirring within him—something dark and sinister.
Something too frightening to face.

Then don’t face it. Push it down. Ignore
it!

Trying to follow his own advice, Xairn
piloted the ship through the layers of atmosphere until they were
just skimming over the surface of the black, oily sea. Once, so
he’d been told, this immense ocean had been teeming with life—from
tiny, delicate fire fish no bigger than a fingernail to the huge
purple-green leviathans, larger than the Fathership. But they were
all gone—extinct for hundreds of years. Nothing lived in the vast
oily waste now but a few hearty strains of algae that had adapted
to the chemicals and pollutants which had poisoned the rest of the
marine life.

Finally the brown shore of the beach came
into view and shortly after that, the old battlefield and the
towering edifice of the Command Complex. Xairn knew the dirty gray
towers soaring into the soot-smudged sky were mostly for show. The
majority of the Complex was located underground, in a sprawling
warren of tunnels.

Xairn had been to the home world—called
Zlicth
in the Scourge tongue—only once before in his life.
But he remembered the visit vividly and had no problem finding the
hidden passageway around the back of the Complex. It was so well
camouflaged that a person walking on the ground would have fallen
into it before they saw it. Xairn guided the ship in smoothly and
flew through the tunnel until he came to the back entrance of the
large building.

“Very good.” The AllFather nodded. “When we
disssembark, lock the girl in a holding cell in the medical
wing.”

“What of you, father? What of your peak?”
Xairn hoped his voice didn’t come out sounding strained. He didn’t
want the AllFather to have any idea of the newfound emotions
churning inside him.

“It isss not yet upon me. I must ssspend
time in my
Sssouda.
A few hoursss or perhapsss a little
longer and I ssshall be ready to breed her.”

Xairn’s hands clenched into fists but he
only nodded his head. “As you wish. I will see to the girl but what
of your guard?”

“They ssshall come with me.” The AllFather
nodded to the four massive soldiers who were crammed into the back
of the ship. They had been crouching there, unmoving for hours in
what looked like extremely uncomfortable positions, but none of
them had complained. In fact, none of them said anything at all.
They just sat there, staring straight ahead with dead black
eyes.