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  “What in the Seven Hells?” he growled, giving Donald a very unfriendly look. “Why the fuck did you do that?”

  Donald smiled. “You’ll see my friend.”

  “You—” Suddenly the Beast Kindred’s face changed. His features began to contort and shift, melting and reforming almost like candle wax. The change only took a second to complete. When it was done, though his bone structure and features were essentially the same, it was clear there was another being looking out from the Kindred’s golden eyes.

  Donald grinned even wider. “There now. Feeling better?”

  An answering grin overspread the face of the former Beast Kindred. An expression of unspeakable evil.

  “I feel.” The deep, grating voice issuing from the warrior was too deep and distorted even for his huge frame. “I breathe.” The vast chest inhaled deeply. “I live!”

  “Good,” Donald snapped. “Now take the mesh off the vent intake.” He nodded approvingly as the guard did as he said.

  “And now?” it asked, straightening up again after leaning the two foot by three foot metal mesh against the wall.

  “Now guard this vent while I seed it. I must not be interrupted until all the dust has been distributed. Once it is, go and wake the other sleeping males—but not until each has been inhabited by one of your brothers.” He had given similar orders, relayed to him by the dark voice, to the other two guards he had “converted” at vents one and two.

  The former Kindred inclined his shaggy head.

  “To hear is to obey. But how will I know if they have been indwelled? I find I cannot hear the voices of my brethren in this body.” He frowned. “It is most…disturbing.”

  “There is not visible outward sign—except for the eyes.”

  “Indeed.” The former Kindred warrior’s golden eyes flashed red, then he hesitated. “But if they are sleeping and their eyes are closed…”

  Donald frowned. “I thought all demons were maniacal masterminds. But you’re not going to be earning a genius grant any time soon, are you, my friend?”

  The former Kindred frowned. “Are you insulting me, puny human? You are but a tool of Ur, he that leads us, you know.”

  “Yes, yes…” Donald waved his rotting arm airily and a few more bits of flesh dropped off with sick plopping sounds. “I’m a tool, you’re a tool—in fact, you’re the biggest tool I’ve ever seen.” He snickered. “As to how you will tell if they are indwelled, you don’t have to see it happen. Just one deep breath of the dust is all it takes to open a pathway in an unmated male. Give the dust a chance to fill the air in the third part of the area and all will be well.”

  “Understood.” The shaggy head nodded again.

  “But…” Donald put up one finger. One rotten finger, whispered a little voice in his head and for some reason this, as well as the sight of his own skeletal and blackened finger, made him giggle again.

  “Yes?” The demon housed within the Beast Kindred’s body sounded impatient.

  “Remember, the dust will only work on unmated males. If you see a male without red eyes wandering around in the dust, one who is clearly not indwelled, do not hesitate to kill him. If he is mated, his mind will be shielded against your kind. We cannot risk anyone sounding the alarm before all the unmated are indwelled. Understand?”

  “Yes,” the demon growled.

  “Good. Then I must—”

  “Step away from the fucking vent!”

  The new voice was deep and also familiar. Donald felt a tingle of anticipation as he turned to face Maggie’s new paramour.

  * * * * *

  “Well, well, if it isn’t the Neanderthal that walks like a man. How are you, Kor?”

  “Better than you’re about to be,” Kor growled. His eyes flicked over the human scientist who looked really fucking awful. Not surprising if he’d been keeping company with the demon Ur.

  “Oh, I don’t think so.” Donald smiled, showing a mouthful of gray teeth. Kor frowned. Gods, had the corruption spread everywhere throughout him? The sight of Donald rotting from the inside out turned his stomach but at the same time, he felt pity creeping through him as well. This poor bastard was done for and he didn’t even seem to know it.

  “Put down that sack,” he said, motioning to the bag slung over the human’s scrawny shoulder. “What is it full of anyway? Shadow stone?” That had to be it, if what he’d heard while listening outside the small room was true. Had Donald truly gone to the Black Planet and brought back the evil substance along with a host of demons to inhabit the unmated Kindred? Kor was very much afraid that he had.

  “Very apt.” Donald nodded thoughtfully. “One might almost be tempted to think there was a brain in that thick skulled head of yours after all.” He nodded at the Beast Kindred beside him. “What are you waiting for? I thought I told you to kill all mated Kindred on sight?”

  The Beast Kindred looked confused.

  “But his eyes…”

  The inhumanly deep and resonant sound of his voice as well as the flash of red in his golden eyes let Kor know what was happening. The Beast Kindred had been indwelled—thankfully not with the sharpest of demons, apparently, because the thing was just standing there staring at him.

  He let his own eyes get red and hot, feeling their heat as he allowed his power to come to the surface as he hadn’t since he expelled Ur.

  “That’s right,” he growled. “I may have cast out Ur—the demon who rode me—but I retained my powers. They’re a birthright. One I choose not to use anymore—unless I have no other choice.”

  “But…” The Beast Kindred demon looked more confused than ever. “You are the one who cast Ur out?”

  “I am.” With a sudden lunge, Kor struck, snatching the blaster from the Beast Kindred’s belt. A quick glance showed it was on stun setting. “Sorry about this, Brother,” he rumbled and shot the other male in the chest.

  With a low groan, the Beast Kindred went to his knees and then slumped to one side in front of the vent intake. Without his shoulders in the way, the opening seemed to yawn like a hungry mouth, waiting to be fed.

  Donald hissed in annoyance and Kor gave a sigh of relief. He hadn’t been at all sure that the blaster would work on the possessed male. When he himself had been indwelled by Ur, his physical body had become invulnerable to almost any kind of attack. However, Ur was an exceptionally strong and smart demon, who had been able to extend his power outward to ward Kor’s physical body, which he had been wearing as a skin suit at the time. Luckily, the demon who had taken over this particular Beast Kindred appeared to be neither very strong or very intelligent.

  He was still a threat, however, for he was still inside his host. Kor knew that just because the body had been knocked out, didn’t mean the demon was gone. On the contrary, the moment the physical form of the big Kindred regained consciousness, the demon would come to the forefront again and control the body it had taken over. Without a bond with a female to anchor the Kindred warrior and help him fight to expel the demon, he would be trapped, a prisoner inside his own body while the demon used him to do whatever it liked.

  “Well, well—still quick on the draw, I see,” Donald said, breaking into his grim thoughts.

  Kor waved the blaster at him. “Drop the sack.”

  “As you wish.” Donald turned quickly and dumped the contents of the sack into the open mouth of the vent intake. Then he dropped the sack on the metal floor. “Oops,” he said blandly. “I may have spilled some.”

  “You little bastard!” Kor growled. But to his relief, the dust wasn’t being sucked up into the air system. It was still just lying there in a glittering black heap like a pile of volcanic sand in the floor of the vent intake.

  “Funny thing about these vents,” Donald remarked conversationally. “I noticed it when I was studying the Mother Ship’s schematics—which were not easy to get, by the way. Anyway, the thing is that they’re on a kind of cycle. I mean, the air gets circulated constantly of course, but once every hour there�€