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  “Me too!” Olivia put in. “To think that for so long after Mom and Dad died we thought we didn’t have any other family! I can’t wait to have a reunion as soon as she comes back.”

  “If we don’t hear from her soon I’ll get the guys to do another recon mission with me,” Kat promised. “We can keep checking on her until—” She stopped abruptly, a look of intense concentration on her face.

  “Until what?” Olivia asked, frowning.

  Kat looked up, her eyes shining. “Guys, you’re not going to believe it but Lauren is home—I mean, she’s back on Earth. Deep just bespoke me. He’s in the viewing room right now talking to Lauren and her mom and Detective Rast.”

  “Seriously?” Sophia jumped up at once. “Tell them to hold on—we’ll be right there!”

  Kat and Olivia were already off the couch too, looking excited. Nadiah stayed where she was.

  “Hey, aren’t you going to come?” Sophia looked back at her expectantly. “Come on—you’ll get to meet her in person. Or on the viewscreen, anyway, but you know what I mean.”

  “I don’t know,” Nadiah said uncomfortably. “Maybe…maybe I should just stay here. Didn’t Kat say that the human detective was with them?”

  “Who, Rast?” Olivia made a face. “Look, I know what happened with him and the luck kiss was awkward, Nadiah, but don’t let that bother you. Just ignore him and concentrate on Lauren. Come on, we’re all dying to meet her but we want you with us.”

  “Yes, come on.” Sophia and Kat both took one of her hands. Together they tugged her to her feet. “You’re one of the group now,” Kat told her, grinning. “So you have to come with.”

  Nadiah sighed. “Well, all right. But I really don’t want to see him again.”

  “Then pretend that you don’t,” Olivia said. “Don’t let him pee in your Cheerios, Nadiah. Repeat after me, ‘I am too good for Detective Rast.’”

  Nadiah laughed. “I am too good for Detective Rast.”

  “Good.” Olivia nodded approvingly. “Now just keep that in mind.”

  “Come on.” Sophia tugged at her arm impatiently. “I have to see her!”

  “Coming.” Despite her misgivings, Nadiah allowed herself to be led out of the suite and down the hall toward the viewing room. I am too good for Detective Rast, she repeated to herself. And I don’t care a bit about seeing him again. He’s not even Kindred!

  But if she didn’t care about seeing him, why was her heart pounding so hard and why did her palms feel clammy?

  Chapter Nineteen

  It was rather overwhelming to see so many eager faces crowding around the viewscreen at once, but it gave Lauren a warm feeling in the center of her chest, just the same.

  There were her cousins, Olivia and Sophia and their friend Kat, who she’d already met on the Scourge home world. There was also a slender blonde girl with exotic looking eyes who introduced herself as Nadiah. Apparently she was Sophia’s cousin-in-law or something like that. She seemed nice enough but Lauren couldn’t help noticing that Detective Rast, who her mother had hired to help find her, started looking tense the minute she came into sight on the viewscreen.

  “So you’re really okay?” Kat asked anxiously, leaning in toward the viewscreen. “We were so worried about you!”

  “You shouldn’t have been.” Lauren smiled at her warmly. “You knew I had Xairn taking care of me, right?”

  “We figured he would.” Kat nodded. “I was a little worried about him being a, you know, a Scourge, but Deep and Lock were sure he was one of the good guys. Um…” She peered from Lauren to her mom to the detective. “Where is he, by the way?”

  Lauren bit her lip, not wanting to say too much. “He’s someplace safe.”

  “If you’re worried that the Kindred will object to his presence, don’t be.” Deep, one of the Kindred warriors Lauren had met on the Scourge home world, came into view. “If he treated you honorably and brought you safely home, we have no quarrel with him.”

  “Thank you.” Lauren felt a rush of relief. It had been nerve wracking when they were flying through the protective net the Kindred had placed around Earth. Because Xairn was flying a Kindred ship, they were able to get through, but Lauren had been sure they would be captured if they weren’t careful.

  “You are welcome,” Deep said gravely. “And please communicate to him that we are here to help him, should the need arise.”

  “Okay.” Lauren smiled and nodded. “I don’t know what help he might need but I’ll tell him you said so.”

  “Thank you.” Deep nodded and put an arm around Kat. “My brother and my mate and I are very happy to see you safely home on Earth.”

  “Mate?” Lauren looked at Kat questioningly. “But I thought you said…”

  “Things changed.” Kat looked up at her man affectionately. “Deep and Lock and I are together now. We haven’t had a joining ceremony yet but it won’t be long.” She brightened. “Hey, maybe you and Xairn can do the luck kiss!”

  “Luck kiss?” Lauren frowned. “What’s that?”

  The slim blonde girl, Nadiah, spoke up for the first time. “It’s a kiss at the end of the joining ceremony performed by the best man and maid of honor. The intensity and passion displayed during the luck kiss is supposed to be directly related to how lucky the new couple will be in their future lives together.” As she spoke, she looked directly at Detective Rast who turned red and began to cough.

  “Oh, well…” Lauren smiled. “That sounds nice. Just let me know when the ceremony is—I’d love to be part of it.”

  “We’ll let you know as soon as we plan it,” Kat promised.

  “But you shouldn’t wait until then to come up and see us!” Sophia protested. “Liv and I are dying to meet you.”

  “Sophie’s right,” Olivia chimed in. “We didn’t even know we had a cousin—or an aunt for that matter—until Aunt Abby called us after you went missing.”

  Lauren couldn’t help smiling at their eager faces. “I want to meet you guys in person too. I’ve always wished I had more relatives. But, well, I’ve been through kind of a lot in the past month or so and I feel like I need to get my life back on track before I do anything else. I mean, my store has been standing empty and my apartment is full of dust. There’s nothing edible in the entire fridge—you know what I mean.” Not to mention the fact that I have a very restless Scourge warrior pacing around my postage stamp sized condo. She still wasn’t quite sure how she was going to fit Xairn into her life—she only knew she couldn’t do without him.

  “Oh of course, we totally get it.” Sophia nodded quickly. “And don’t worry, we won’t come barging in on you.”

  “Though we can’t promise not to come visit your shop once you get it up and running again.” Olivia licked her lips. “Isn’t it a cupcake boutique? I was reading your menu online—your Deep Dark Devil’s food chocolate cupcakes sound absolutely divine.”

  Kat laughed. “Don’t mind Liv—she’s pregnant.”

  “Oh, are you?” Lauren smiled at her blonde cousin. “Congratulations. Do you know what it is yet?”

  “A boy,” Olivia said promptly. “It’s always a boy with Kindred. Well, almost always.”

  “Oh, of course.” Lauren nodded. “Well I would love to bake you a whole batch of cupcakes—just let me get everything up and running again. In fact, if you want I could send some to your baby shower. Unless you’ve already had it?”

  “Not yet.” Olivia smiled. “I’ve got awhile to go. I’m only just now into my second quadmester.”

  “Quadmester?” Lauren said, frowning.

  “You heard her right.” Kat grinned. “When you’re carrying a Kindred baby the pregnancy lasts a whole year. Can you imagine?”

  “Hey, you’re the one who’s going to have twins—if you ever get around to it,” Olivia pointed out.

  Kat made a face. “God, I can’t even imagine. I’ll get a big as a house.”

  “You’ll be even more lovely, little Kat.” Deep kissed the top of her h