Blood Double (God Wars #1)(52)

Hordace would have killed Cull anyway if he'd ever been arrested and taken in for questioning. Too bad Norian Keef hadn't asked me about my deceased husband and who he'd once been—that would have raised a few eyebrows for sure.

I watched myself in the bathroom mirror, raising the handful of pills to my lips. A glass of water washed them down. Now what? Lie down so they could find me later? Sit on the bed until I toppled over? I opted for that. Sleep eventually threatened, and I knew I wouldn't wake from it. I allowed it to come, my eyes closing in weariness.

Suddenly, the room was boiling with people. I was hauled into the bathroom, Franklin's hands were on my belly and I was forced to vomit. The experience was painful and humiliating. When I was allowed to raise my head eventually, I found myself staring into the deepest blue eyes and stars fell through their depths.





Chapter 11


"I don't know what's wrong with her, now." Franklin shook his head as Ashe stared at him. "I mean, she was talking coherently when she came to us, and even after that * Keef grilled her. Then she attempts suicide, we prevent it and we're left with this." Frank's fingers ruffled through black hair in frustration. Had he known it, he looked very much like Merrill at that moment.

"She's retreated into herself, that's easy enough to see," Bill Jennings, former Director of the Joint NSA and Homeland Security Department on old Earth, muttered. "Nothing we've tried can coax her out of it."

"I've already called Kevis, but he can't get here earlier than tomorrow," Trace sighed. If he'd known that Kay was the one Ashe waited for, he could have sent mindspeech. Kay would have been transported to SouthStar immediately and Norian Keef and Lendill Schaff couldn't have touched her.

It was painful to watch Kay now—all she'd done since Ashe picked her up was rock on her bed while shaking and weeping. Even Ashe couldn't do anything for her, and that troubled Trace a great deal.

"Rabis said she'd need help, but this—this is impossible," Ashe muttered. "Trajan isn't speaking to me, either—I made him take his girl away. I yelled, Trace. That's just not me. Trajan's pissed and I have no idea what it did to the girl he brought here. Rabis said Kalia was close and that she was damaged and frightened of other women. I didn't want another woman at SouthStar, mucking this up. I managed to muck it up instead."

"You made him take Breanne away? Boss, that's not good. She's bad enough off as it is."

"Trace, what the hell are you talking about?"

"I don't know all of it. All I can say is this is the worst thing you could have added to this awful day."

"At least Keef is too afraid to ask to come here," Ashe growled.

"At least he knows you can turn him to sparks if he tries," Trace growled louder.

*

Breanne's Journal

No work got done that day. I was in such deep depression after Trajan dumped me in the arboretum that I curled up next to the trunk of an exotic tree and hugged myself. Could my life get any worse? Probably. I wasn't likely to feel any worse, though. Trajan called him Ashe. His words kept running through my mind, and each time they only served to frighten me more. What had I done? I had no idea. At least I knew what mattered to Trajan, though. The one he called boss. His job was more important.

Reasoning with myself didn't work. I knew I'd only met Trajan, so of course his job ought to matter more than a woman he'd just met. Somehow, I was hoping for more. That wasn't going to happen, and I had to deal with that. I knew, too, that I ought to be out looking for Erithia Cordan. There was no way to tell what evil she might create, and only I knew she still lived.

*

"You said you'd contact me. I have been expecting a visit. I am late taking an answer to your father." Pheligar frowned at Kalenegar.

"I am aware," Kal huffed. "I wished to make my father wait."

"What you have done is make me appear inept," Pheligar snapped.

"Then you have my apologies."

"I do not accept them."

"What do you want, then?"

"Is she, or isn't she? The truth, Kalenegar."

"Very well. All indications say she is, although she may be the worst possible choice for Vhanaraszh."

"Not least because she attempted to drown you in seawater, just as you did her." Pheligar didn't smile, although his eyes gleamed suspiciously.

"I had no idea she might learn so much so quickly," Kal muttered.

"The Vhanaraszh may be a continuous source of wonder to you, then," Pheligar pointed out. "The prophecies say she will be forced to come to terms with what she is."

"What about the Changer, Liaison? They are said to work in tandem, at times. That means that both must exist concurrently."

"Then perhaps you should stop wandering aimlessly and search for that one as well."

"I do not wander aimlessly," Kalenegar sputtered. "I am much older than you, Liaison."

"Then act like it," Pheligar said before disappearing.

*

"Get up, Hawer. Now."

Skel stared at the vampire who'd come to wake him. Where was his salvation? Surely, Erithia wouldn't leave him there to be taken to Evensun. Even the dimmest-witted criminal knew what lay on Evensun—hunger, fear, and (more than likely) death. Only the strongest could survive on that planet.