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  “Good.” I took a deep breath and turned back to the glaring Dr. Hunter. “This hopefully shouldn’t take long.”

  I crossed the ER floor, aware that the eyes of all the support staff were on me. Most of them knew by now that Hunter had asked me out and that I had refused him. None of them knew about our second, disastrous meeting, however. I could tell, though, by the angry look in Hunter’s big blue eyes that he most certainly hadn’t forgotten about it.

  I was already feeling ill and a confrontation with a sexist asshole was the last thing I wanted right now. But it looked like there was no getting out of it so I squared my shoulders and walked up to him.

  “Yes, Dr. Hunter?” I said quietly but clearly. “What can I do for you?”

  “I need to talk to you. Now,” he snapped. “Come with me.” He started to lead me away from the main ER but I tried to stop him.

  “Dr. Hunter,” I began. “If this is about this afternoon—”

  “It’s about a patient of mine whose orders you screwed up,” he snarled. “You nearly Goddamn killed him!”

  “What?” I couldn’t help feeling shocked. Suddenly instead of having the upper hand and being the woman turning down a man, I was cast back in the role of the lowly Intern who had screwed up and was being dressed down by the enraged Resident. “There must be some mistake,” I protested. “I don’t have any of your patients on my schedule.”

  “That’s what you think. Come with me and I’ll show you.” He turned away again but I was still reluctant to go.

  “Dr. Hunter—”

  “Dr. Walker,” he said, rounding on me. “Do you want to do this here and now where everyone in the ER can hear about your monumental incompetence? Or do you want to discuss it in private?”

  “In private,” I said, feeling my cheeks heat with shame. I kept my chin up, though, as I followed him out of the ER, despite feeling every eye in the place on me. It was a good thing, I thought to myself, that I had ordered Kristoff to stay behind. There was no way he could have listened to the crap that was about to come down on my head without reacting.

  Hunter led me down a dark hallway and into a dim, empty X-ray room. The X-ray tube was placed neatly on a pillow, resting on the fluro table and there were a pile of weights and sandbags in one corner and several lead aprons hanging from a rack.

  I stood by the chest bucky as he closed the door and rounded on me, his eyes flashing.

  “Dr. Hunter, I really think there’s been some mistake—” I tried again but he didn’t let me finish.

  “I have a message for you,” he said, taking a step towards me. I saw uneasily that his features had gone blank, though his voice still sounded angry.

  “A message?” Without thinking about it, I took a step back. This situation was beginning to make me feel really uncomfortable, and not just because I was about to get chewed out.

  “A message, yes. And it is this—True Incarnation or not, you will never sit the Golden Throne.”

  “What?” I exclaimed, taking another step back. Suddenly the situation seemed horribly familiar—it was the exact same mess I’d been in when the Carlos-thing came after me. But that time I’d had Kristoff to save me. This time I had ordered him to stay away—how stupid could I be?

  “You heard me, Empress.” Hunter’s eyes flashed cold and silver as he reached for me. “You’ll not live to be crowned. Tonight you die.”

  “Get away from me!” I screamed but the lead shielding in the walls muffled my voice—I was pretty sure no one outside the door was going to hear me.

  “Come to me. Do not delay the inevitable,” the thing which had taken on Drake Hunter’s appearance crooned. It came at me, hands stretched wide and I ducked wildly, trying to avoid it. I remembered well enough what had happened when the Carlos-thing had only brushed my skin with its hand. If this thing even touched me I could be dead.

  It was between me and the door but there was a small control area in the back of the room where the tech would stand to take the X-ray. I dodged for the little cubby, trying to get through it so I could run through the Radiology suite and come out the other side.

  Before I could get two steps, the thing caught me by the hair and yanked me back. “Don’t fight your fate, Goddess,” it said and put its cold, cold hands around my throat, choking off the scream that was rising to my lips.

  Suddenly the door of the X-ray room crashed open and Kristoff appeared, as from out of nowhere. The look of rage on his face was awful to behold—there was a fury like I’d never seen before in his whirling rainbow eyes which were switching colors too fast for my frantic brain to register.

  “You shall not have her!” he snarled and then he drew the incredibly long sword which was strapped to a scabbard on his back. A Great sword or a Bastard Sword. My mind gabbled RPG gamer terms even as the thing’s hands crushed my windpipe. I wished inanely that I was someplace safe, playing Diablo II with my friend Zoe instead of being choked to death by a killer robot thing.

  Then Kristoff’s sword arced through the air and Hunter’s head parted company with his body. It spun through the air like a hairy bowling ball but as it whirled, I saw it change. Hunter’s handsome features became smooth and blank and silver until there was nothing left when it hit the floor but a vaguely head-shaped shiny sphere.

  The hands, however, continued to choke the life out of me.

  “Goddess!” Kristoff growled, coming forward to yank the spasming hands away from my throat.

  “You…came,” I whispered and dissolved into a coughing fit. Thank God my windpipe wasn’t crushed but I could tell I was going to have some serious bruising and I still felt light headed due to oxygen loss. “You came,” I repeated when I could. “Even though…I told you…not to.”

  “I should have come sooner,” he said grimly. “You can court-martial me for disobedience later, my Lady.”

  He was examining me anxiously as he spoke and just then Sebastian came rushing into the room.

  “What did I miss? What happened?” he demanded. Then he saw the still-jerking pile of metal scrap that had been Dr. Hunter and his eyes got wide. “Oh my God! What is that?”

  “Assassin-droid,” Kristoff said grimly. “And I’m afraid it had nanites in its hands. See? Here—and here.” He pointed to my throat, which now felt like it was on fire. “We have to get them out and then I need to get her up to my ship.”

  “No, no—” I started to protest but Kristoff took me by the shoulders and shook me.

  “Listen to me, Charlotte,” he said, using my name for the first time since I’d first seen him in the ER. “Your life is in danger here. Not only yours but the lives of all you hold dear! Do you know what these droids do? They attack someone you know—someone close to you—and suck out their life essence so they can make an exact replica. A replica that will lull you into a false sense of security so they can kill you!”

  “You…” I choked. “You mean Dr. Hunter is really…really dead? And Carlos too?”

  “Dead and sucked dry—unrecognizable husks, even to their loved ones,” Kristoff said grimly. “The droid probably picked this male because it saw him leaving your residence. But it could just as easily have picked him.” He pointed to Sebastian who went pale. “Or someone else you love—a friend or family member.”

  “Oh my God,” I whispered and coughed again. “I…I didn’t realize.”

  “While you stay here on Earth everyone you know and love is in danger,” Kristoff said harshly. “And you yourself are ill. I do not want to force your hand, my Lady—it is a crime punishable by death. But if I must take you to Femme One against your will in order for you to survive, then so be it. I will do what is in your best interests even if I am killed for it.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I don’t…don’t want you to be killed. I…I’ll go.”

  “Good.” He looked relieved. “But we have to do something about the nanites first.”

  “The MRI room,” I said. “It’s just down the hall.” I took a step t