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  “Apparently they give special dispensations to visiting dignitaries and the like who wish to come to Zeaga 4 but retain their ability to feel,” Garron sent. “But on one rule they will not bend—everyone who visits the planet’s surface must have an enhancement.”

  “And not a boob job or an eye lift either,” Tess put in. “We’re talking some kind of mechanical addition like a scope for your eyes or a brand new bionic leg or something like that.”

  “Oh, that poor girl!” Becca sounded horrified. “What is she going to do?”

  “A better question might be what will her father do?” Truth sent grimly. “When his cherished daughter comes back modified in ways the citizens of Earth cannot and do not want to understand, what kind of vengeance will he try to take upon all Kindred because of the actions of one?”

  “It’s a pretty scary scenario,” Becca sent. “Which is why we need to break this connection now and let the two of you get moving.”

  “Your best bet is probably to go back to the HKR building in Asheville,” Truth advised. “I believe the Commander there has some extra resources at his disposal.”

  “Oh yes, Commander Stavros,” Tess exclaimed. “He’s the same one who loaned us the shuttle to go to Zeaga 4 in the first place. He also gave me a change of clothes and let me call you guys when we thought Garron had gone D’fex.”

  “I had gone D’fex,” Garron said aloud, taking her hand in his. “You saved me, Tess. If you hadn’t come for me—”

  “Oh, Garron…” She climbed into his lap again and pressed her face to his throat, breathing in his warm bonding scent. “I just—”

  “Still here, guys—okay? We can’t hear what you’re saying but we can guess what’s going on,” Becca sent.

  “And as romantic as it is, you don’t have time for it,” Truth added. “Get up and get back to Asheville now!”

  “Right.” Garron gave Tess a swift kiss and the two of them got up and started pulling on their clothes.

  “We’ll go right away,” Tess sent. “But try to stay in touch, okay?”

  “We’ll try to. We’re not sure if Earth has technology that can block the Think-me calls now or not,” Becca sent. “According to Sylvan, they’ve been working on a lot of new things which could spell trouble for us up here on the Mother Ship. And unfortunately, a lot of it is based on technology the Kindred gave them in the first place!”

  “Stay safe!” Tess sent.

  “You too, hon! And now we’d better let you go. We’ll bespeak you later with more news if we can.”

  “Goodbye, Brother. Be well,” Truth sent.

  And then the four way connection was broken and Tess only felt herself and Garron in her head.

  “Whew.” She looked at him worriedly. “What are we going to do?”

  “Get back to Asheville to start with and see if Commander Stavros can help us. If he can’t…” He shrugged. “I’m not sure what might happen next.”

  “I don’t understand why they can’t just send someone after that girl and bring her back,” Tess said, buttoning her blouse.

  “Are you serious? Remove a female from a male who is claiming her?” Garron gave her a wide-eyed look as he pulled on his black flight leathers. “That is absolutely never done—it would be interfering with the sacred will of the Goddess who puts all males and females together.”

  “Well, I don’t want to stomp on anyone’s religion,” Tess said, struggling into her jeans. “But it seems like maybe they could make an exception to avoid an international incident. Or an interstellar one, I guess.”

  Garron shook his head. “Didn’t you see Zeaga 4 when we were orbiting it? It’s a highly mechanized and advanced society. They have formidable weapons—trying to reverse Six’s claim on the Earth girl would doubtless end in bloodshed. And the Dark Kindred have a much better chance of hurting the Mother Ship than anything they might have developed here on Earth. At least, that would be my guess.”

  “Well, I don’t understand why Six claimed her at all. He seemed so emotionless, so cold when I met him.” Tess made a face. “What does he want with that poor girl anyway if he doesn’t feel anything for her?”

  “I imagine he’s asking himself that right about now,” Garron murmured. “But I’m afraid he might not like the answer…”

  Chapter Eleven

  Six watched Mei-Li from the corner of his eye as they approached the medical barge. She hadn’t said a thing since their last exchange, not even when they flew into the rift—the huge red gash in space which took them from her part of the universe to his instantaneously. She simply sat there, her long, silky black hair like a curtain between them so that he couldn’t even see her small, lovely face. All he could glimpse from time to time were the black frames of her oculars.

  He wondered if he ought to say something—maybe apologize again for making her uncomfortable. He hadn’t known that the simple act of healing her knee would cause such a strong reaction. Not in Mei-Li…or in himself either.

  Against his will, he remembered the warm scent of her arousal. Gods, it had been intoxicating…bewitching. Like nothing he had ever scented before. And it wasn’t just her scent he found enthralling. There was also the salty-sweet taste of her skin and soft little sounds she’d made when he licked her—Six didn’t think she knew she was making them which only made them that much more intriguing. Altogether, healing Mei-Li had been a unique experience—one which Six had to admit, had affected him deeply.

  For a moment, he had actually wished to lick higher, to pull back the lacy barrier of her panties and explore her pussy with his tongue. This wasn’t something he had expected to want, not even after he had read the Claiming Period rules and learned that it would be expected of him in their third solar week together. But just for a split second the urge had been so strong he could hardly stop himself from burying his face between her thighs and finding out if she tasted as good as she smelled. Only his promise to Mei-Li that he wouldn’t taste her on this occasion had stopped him.

  Six frowned. Why had he had such strong urges? Why was it so difficult to make himself stop?

  It was simply a new experience, he told himself uneasily. And more Kindred instincts coming to the surface. After all, the entire point of claiming a female is to breed with her.

  Not that it would actually come to that, he was certain. Oh, he was willing to follow the Claiming Period rules to the letter, as Chancellor Terex had specified, but bonding sex would not be possible—not with his emotion damper implant still in place. And with no bond to tie them together, Mei-Li would have to return to her home world eventually.

  Six experienced a strange hollowness in his stomach at the thought. He tried to imagine himself flying in the other direction, taking Mei-Li back to where she belonged but somehow he couldn’t do it. Couldn’t—

  “This is Med Barge Three calling unidentified shuttle. Please identify yourself and state your intentions,” said a voice from the incoming speaker.

  Mei-Li jumped in her seat. “What? What did they say? What language was that?”

  “The universal Kindred dialect,” Six answered her in English. He then asked permission to land in the Kindred dialect and was directed to a private docking bay for Enhanced Ones only.

  “It’s so guttural—almost like German,” Mei-Li said, frowning at the speaker.

  “I do not know that language. The only Earth dialect I learned was English in order to converse with you,” Six said. “But you will need to be able to converse in my dialect as well. How rapidly are you able to learn languages?”

  “How rapidly are you able to learn languages?” she shot back. “I’m fluent in English of course, and Spanish because of work. Oh, and I know some Mandarin because my adopted mother thought it was important for me to understand my birth culture but I didn’t learn any of those languages overnight.”

  “It took me several hours of intense study to pick up English although, as we discussed earlier, I am still learning the connotations of some wor