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  “Hello? Who is this?” she demanded, her brows drawing low in disapproval. “Who disturbs my retirement? And how dare you use the ‘Empress in grave danger’ code?”

  “Because she is,” I said grimly. “Dr. Churika, it’s Captain Verrai. I have the True Incarnation with me—Sundalla the 1000th. But she is gravely ill. I need your help.”

  “You have? She is? Show her to me and tell me what’s the matter!” the old female demanded imperiously.

  I turned Charlotte’s head gently and brushed aside some strands of long blonde hair to show her delicate features.

  Churika leaned in close to her viewscreen and then sucked in a gasp.

  “It’s her—it’s truly her!” I heard her mutter and she made a sign in the air, her wrinkled forefinger tracing a circle and pointing to the Heavens—the holy signal of the Goddess-Empress.

  “I know,” I said. “She has the rainbow aura just like Sundalla the 999th had. But she is deathly ill. I fear…” I forced myself to make my voice cold and dispassionate. “I fear she’s going to die.”

  “Nonsense,” Dr. Churika snapped, practical as ever. “Tell me her symptoms and how long she’s been sick.”

  “I think she has the Calet Sanguis—the Burning Blood,” I said. “But I’ve never heard of a case this extreme before.”

  “What?” The old female frowned. “How would she get the Burning Blood if you’ve just found her? There hasn’t even been time for her to give her blood to any of the candidates for Consort yet. In fact, if you just found her, the Council hasn’t even picked any candidates yet!”

  “She didn’t give her blood to a Consort candidate,” I said, gritting my teeth against the shame of my admission. “She gave it to me.”

  “What?” Dr. Churika looked scandalized, as though I had admitted to improper sexual contact with the Empress instead of just having some of her blood. “Why would she do that? And why would you take it? What happened?”

  I told her about my fight with the first assassin-droid, my blood-loss and the subsequent blood transfusion.

  “Goddess of Mercy!” the old healer exclaimed when I finished my explanation. “So she didn’t just give you a few drops to drink—she transfused you with her own blood?”

  I nodded. “I tried to stop her but by the time I realized what was happening, most of the damage was already done. I thought my blood wasn’t exulted enough to call to hers at first because she had no symptoms. Then tonight, she started saying she was hot—burning up. Yet her temperature is well below normal and she’s cold to the touch.”

  “Don’t fool yourself, Verrai,” Churika snapped. “Your blood is most certainly not exulted enough to call to hers. She needs a full-blooded Royal as her consort. But if she pumped that much of her own essence into a rock it would call to her. The problem here isn’t the quality—it’s the quantity.”

  I didn’t resent her words in the least—I knew them to be true. I was a lesser noble—good enough to be the captain of the Goddess-Empress’s Guard but not Consort material—not even in my wildest dreams.

  “What must I do for her?” I asked. “Tell me how to save her.”

  She sighed. “How far are you from Denaris?”

  “A solar day’s journey—no more,” I said. “The True Incarnation’s home world, Earth, is a closed planet in the same sector as Denaris.”

  “Bring her to me as fast as you can,” Churika ordered.

  “What must I do in the meantime?” I asked, cradling Charlotte to me anxiously. “She’s so cold and her pulse is too fast. Also, her breathing is shallow and rapid.”

  “She’s going into the withdrawal stage of her Royal Cycle. When an Empress gives her blood to the Consort candidates, her body chooses which one it is drawn to and yearns for him. ” The old female frowned. “Unfortunately, right now what her body is yearning for is you, Verrai.”

  “Me? But you just finished telling me I’m not Consort material!” I exclaimed.

  “And you’re not. But the new Incarnation’s body doesn’t know that. You’ve gotten so much of her blood in you it’s created a false positive. Her body thinks you’re meant to be her Consort, even though there’s no way in the Frozen Hells you could be.”

  “What can I do?” I asked. “I cannot bond her to me.”

  “No-no!” Her faded eyes flashed. “You most certainly must not do that! It would be a sacrilege and treason of the highest order!”

  “I’m aware of how unworthy I am to be with her,” I said evenly. “So tell me how to keep her alive until I get to you without doing anything treasonous.”

  She frowned, considering. At last, she sighed.

  “You’ll have to warm her.”

  “That’s fine,” I said, relieved to have some concrete instructions at last. “I have some chemical warming blankets in my hold.”

  “No, no—you misunderstand.” She scowled. “You’ll have to warm her with your body. When an Empress Incarnate is in the withdrawal stage of her Royal Cycle, only the body heat of the one she’s being drawn to will bring up her core temperature and ease the sickness she feels.”

  “But I’m holding her now,” I pointed out, indicating the way Charlotte was curled in my lap, my arms securely around her. “And it’s not helping.”

  Churika’s scowl deepened. “She needs skin-to-skin contact, Verrai. Nothing else will do. Take off your uniform and those odd garments she’s wearing—what are those anyway?”

  “The uniform of the House of Healing she was working in,” I explained. “As I told you before, she’s been trained as a Healer, Dr. Churika—like yourself.”

  “Ah, that’s right. An Empress Healer—imagine that!” For a moment she looked pleased—then she went back to scowling. “As I said—she’ll need your bare skin against her own.” She raised one crooked finger and shook it at me. “Only mind you don’t do anything you shouldn’t! Skin contact only—nothing more!”

  “I’ve been chaste these past ten years in Sundalla the 999th’s service,” Churika,” I said dryly. “I think I can manage a few more hours until we get to you.”

  “See that you do. And hurry—we don’t need the Withdrawal stage to turn into the Needing stage. Though the Goddess of Mercy alone knows what may happen since she pumped so much of her blood into you.”

  “I’ll set my hyperdrive to maximum,” I promised.

  “Do that. Hopefully I can do something for her. Then, when you get her to Femme One, she can have a proper Culling Ceremony and choose a Royal Consort.”

  The thought of Charlotte giving her blood to other males—of her body yearning for one of them until she felt the Need and had to go to him—made me feel tight all over for some reason. But I pushed the emotion away.

  “We will be with you soon. I must go set a course and do what I can for my Lady,” I told Churika.

  The old healer nodded curtly and signed off. I did the same and went to plot our course, still holding Charlotte in my arms. I would heal her, I promised myself. Heal her of this affliction she had because of me—this false positive as Churika had called it. But I would be very careful when I did—I did not wish to push the boundaries between my new mistress and myself too far.

  Chapter Twelve

  Charlotte

  I woke up in the dark, feeling horribly hot and tight all over my body. I had been dreaming of the snake again—the one made of flames that wrapped itself around my body and squeezed and squeezed until I couldn’t get any air into my lungs. I didn’t know if I was going to burn to death or asphyxiate or both.

  All I knew was that I was burning up and I couldn’t breathe.

  “Help!” I tried to say, but my voice came out in a faint, panicked whisper. I simply couldn’t get enough air to make much noise.

  Still, someone heard me.

  “It’s all right,” a deep voice said. “You’re going to be all right, my Lady.”

  Whoever had spoken was taking off my clothes. I sighed in relief as the hot, itchy lab coat and scrubs came off,