Vanished Read online

  Vanished

  Brides of the Kindred # 21

  Evangeline Anderson

  Vanished

  Evangeline Anderson

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Evangeline Anderson Books

  Copyright © 2018 by Evangeline Anderson

  E-book License Notes

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the e-book retailer of your choice and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  *Cover content is for illustrative purposes only. Any person depicted on the cover is a model*

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  *Author's Note: This book starts out a little dark but give it time and I promise everything will come out in the end.

  Hugs and Happy Reading!

  Evangeline 2017

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Epilogue #1

  Epilogue # 2

  Sneak Peek at Taming the Giant, a new Kindred Tales novel

  Also by Evangeline Anderson

  About the Author

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  Prologue

  Sovereign Ysldred X’izith of the Hive paced back and forth, stopping every once in a while to stare into the bright green stone, about as large as a human palm.

  The picture the stone showed was clear—a female sitting alone, staring into the horizon with a thoughtful look on her face. She had light brown skin and long curly hair—she was most lovely for an Earth female, he decided.

  Not that it was her beauty which interested him. This female was special—a ten’sora—the only one they’d been able to find on Earth. Once they had hoped to find many more—dozens or even hundreds—but though X’izith had sent out scout after scout to collect DNA samples, this girl was the only one.

  Never mind—he only needed one.

  “Are we nearly ready? Is the scout in place?” he demanded of the sentient worker who was buzzing nearby.

  “Yes, my Sovereign. And we have found a suitable host at last. Once the scout stings him and injects him with the mind-control venom, he will take the E’lo stone to the girl and she will be instantly transported.”

  “And you’re certain the stones will work?” X’izith demanded. The theft of the Druvian E’lo stones had been a risky enterprise—one which had yet to pay off. He had finally been able to bend the green stone—the seer stone—to his will so that it showed him what he wanted to see instead of random images. But the small purple transport stones had only recently been declared functional.

  He needed the transport stones to work—it was the only way to bring the girl to him—the only way to circumvent the protective energy net those damn Kindred had placed around the Earth to keep it safe. Nothing larger than an insect could get through the net but that was all right—X’izith specialized in insects, being one himself.

  If an Earthling was to see him, they might think he most resembled a cross between a cockroach and a wasp, with the long hard shell-like wings of the former and the narrow waist and stinger of the latter. His head, bulbous and triangular, resembled that of an ant with its curving, serrated mandibles, mobile, twitching antennae, and huge black, soulless eyes. His entire body was shiny black, slashed with crimson, and his long, chitinous legs were lined with coarse, wiry hairs and tipped with gripping claws.

  Regrettably, he was missing one of his long, thin arms and one eye was only an empty socket. The long, insectile abdomen at the bottom of his body was twisted with scar tissue and his black breeding barb, once so sleek and deadly, now appeared withered.

  These injuries were the results of a battle with one of the Kindred—a male who had stolen his rightful Breeding-Queen, she who was to have born the legion of royal grubs X’izith was eager to implant.

  And implant them he would, he vowed to himself. Though his barb was withered, it was yet functional. The girl the E’lo seer stone was showing him would be the mother of a new race—she would bear the royal grubs and then many, many more…

  “Release the scout,” he told the worker at his side. “And be certain that the transport stone is ready. It must touch her skin to take effect.”

  “Yes, my Sovereign,” the worker buzzed.

  “Soon…” X’izith mused to himself as he stared into the green seer stone. “Soon you will be here with me, my dear.”

  On the Breeding platform beside him the twin of the transport stone lay. It was small and purple and perfectly innocuous looking. The E’lo stones had originally been made to allow two similar individuals to switch places instantly from anywhere in the universe. But this particular pair had been calibrated to bring one special female aboard his lair, transporting her in the blink of an eye from Earth to the special base he and his workers had built under the mountains of Mars.

  The Breeding Chamber was in readiness, supplied with oxygen and warmed by the light and heat generated by special workers whose abdomens glowed dull red as they supplied both.

  The little Earth female should feel quite at home.

  “Soon,” X’izith buzzed again. “Soon the royal nurseries will be full and the Hive will live forever.”

  The Nameless Ones, Gods of Nothingness, grant it should be so.

  Chapter One

  It was the middle of January so of course, Harper Wilde was at the beach.

  January—and parts of February—were really the only decent months to visit the beach, in Harper’s opinion. Living in Tampa, it was much too hot and humid the rest of the year. She always felt sorry for the summer tourists who came to Florida to do the theme parks—Busch Gardens and Disney and Universal—in July and August. The weather then was pretty much unbearable. You’d melt into a little puddle standing in line to get into Harry Potter Land or the Small World ride.

  So not worth it.

  In fact, the only way to live during summer—which was about ten months out of the year in Central Florida—was to run from your air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned house or office and just try to stay inside. Which was a shame, since Florida had some beautiful outside areas—most notably the white sand beaches.

  The beach was Harper’s favorite place to be—when it wasn’t broiling outside. And January was her favorite time of year. The crazy hustle and bustle of the holidays was over, it wasn’t unbearably hot yet, and hurricane season was eight blissful months away. (It had been an especially bad season this past year so Harper was extra grateful for that.)

  She liked to come to the beach all by herself at this time of the year and just relax and reflect on her life. Think ab