Hitting the Target Read online

  In fact, she felt anything but fine. A heaviness seemed to have settled in the pit of her stomach although whether it was the poison already acting on her or just the fact that she was never going to see Trey again after today that was affecting her, she didn’t know.

  “Well…” The big Kindred was wavering. He seemed to sense that something was wrong with her, but he didn’t know exactly what.

  “I don’t want you to miss your surgery.” Mia tried to smile though the expression felt stiff and unnatural on her face. “I’ll be here studying—I want to pass all the certifications at once so I can assist you during your next one.”

  At last it looked like Trey was going to let himself be persuaded.

  “If you’re really sure…” he began.

  Mia nodded firmly. “I am—yesterday was bad but I’m better now. Honestly.”

  “All right then. I’ll call you on the com-link around noon to check on you.” He pulled her into a swift embrace and Mia had to fight to keep herself from clinging to him.

  Don’t go, she wanted to beg. Don’t leave me—I’ll never see you again. I don’t want to die without you.

  “I love you,” she whispered in his ear instead and then made herself let him go.

  “I love you too, little one.” Trey pulled back and searched her eyes with his own, which flashed from green to gold for a moment. “You know—there are some things I need to tell you about before we’re bonded, but I don’t have time now. Maybe we could make a date to talk tonight after Last Meal?”

  “I’d love to,” Mia said, knowing she would never share a meal with him again. “But for now, you’re going to be late.”

  He sighed ruefully. “You’re right. Why is it so hard for me to leave you?”

  Not half as hard as it is for me to leave you, Mia thought sadly. “I love you,” she said again. “I’ll see you tonight.” Which was a lie.

  “See you tonight.” Trey gave her another big hug and a lingering kiss and then, finally, he opened the door in the ship’s metal and was gone.

  Mia sighed and slumped as he finally left. Now there was nothing to do but wait for her extraction and regret the path that her life had taken. Nothing to do but begin missing the big Kindred because she knew she would never see him again.

  Trey didn’t like leaving her for some reason. Though she claimed to be fine, he thought he saw a haunted look in her pearly blue eyes that bothered him, and she’d barely touched her First Meal food. His beast was worried about her too, and suggested strongly that they stay home.

  There’s something wrong, he told Trey. She smells different. We should stay.

  But Trey overruled his other half. Mia was a grown woman and clearly wanted to be treated as such. Though she had wanted to be held and cuddled the night before, that morning she seemed determined to be strong and put the attack behind her.

  It would still be nice to spend the day together though, Trey thought longingly, remembering the feel of her soft curves pressed to his own hard body. Well, maybe he would go home early today, he told himself, brightening up. He only had the one surgery scheduled and he could ask to have his consults rescheduled for another day. He could go home and surprise her for Mid Meal. Either they could go out on the town to try and forget everything—or else they could just stay home and watch vids and relax on the couch.

  Either option sounded great to him as long as it involved the little female he loved. His beast grumbled some more but he promised his other half they would be going back to Mia soon—right after he finished the surgery.

  Lydiah was assisting him that day in the OR and he was almost done when she said, “Say, I meant to ask you earlier, Healer Treygar—did you hear about the body they found in your park?”

  “The body?” Trey looked up from the patient on his table, his stomach suddenly cold.

  “Yeah—looked like he’d been killed by a targen of all things. But you know we don’t have those this far west,” Lydiah shook her head. “I don’t know how it could be unless one escaped from the zoo.”

  Trey felt a guilty sense of relief. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten about disposing of the body of the man his beast had killed the day before. That was sloppy of him—really damn sloppy. But at least the death had been chalked up to an animal attack and couldn’t be traced back to him in any way.

  “A targen? I’ll have to be careful going back and forth from the transport station to my domicile.”

  “Well, at least the damn thing killed the right person,” Lydiah remarked as she counted the instruments.

  “What?” Trey frowned at her. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Oh, didn’t I say? He was a spy from the PR. At least, that was what the Watch-See News vid said. And they’re usually pretty accurate.” Lydiah shook her head. “You know, they’re always sending their agents down here—I don’t know what they’re trying to accomplish. Half the time I think they’re just trying to cause trouble for no reason.”

  Trey felt sick. “Healer Hrll,” he said, motioning to the younger healer who had been assisting him and observing his surgical technique. “Can you close?”

  “Me?” The young healer’s eyes went wide. “Really?”

  “Yes, really,” Trey snapped. “Can you handle it, or should I call in a more senior member of the surgical staff?”

  “Oh, no—I can handle it,” Hrll said quickly. “Thank you, Healer Treygar, for the opportunity.”

  “You’re welcome. I have to go.”

  He started for the door as Lydiah and the rest of the surgical team looked at him in obvious surprise. He had never been known to leave a surgery early before.

  “You in a hurry to get somewhere?” Lydiah asked. “You know, Teela is coming for lunch and bringing her homemade tisrock stew. You want some?”

  “Thank you but I have to get home,” Trey told her. “As soon as possible.”

  He went running for the lockers and stripped out of his surgical togs in record time. But even before he finished dressing, he tried calling Mia on his hand-held com-link.

  No answer.

  Trey let it ring and ring and then tried again…and again with the same result. Now he was feeling almost panicked.

  Oh Goddess, where is she? Is she all right? Are there more agents of The EYE after her? Were they waiting in the woods until I walked past? Did they already grab her? Can I get to her before it’s too late?

  “I told you something was wrong with her!” his beast growled. “I told you she smelled wrong. We should never have left her—never!”

  “No time for that now,” Trey told his other half. “Right now we have to concentrate on finding her.”

  He kept calling her, all the way home, hoping against hope that she was just in the bathroom taking a long shower and wasn’t hearing the trilling sound of the com-link.

  But when he got to his ship, he couldn’t pretend anymore. He could tell the moment he stepped inside that she was gone. The ship echoed emptily when he called her name and her sweet scent was already fading from the air.

  “Where is she? Where is she—we have to find her!” his beast raged in his head.

  “I don’t know…I don’t know,” Trey groaned aloud. “Shut up a minute—I need to think!”

  He ran his hands through his hair, squeezing his skull between his palms as though willing the knowledge of Mia’s whereabouts to come to him.

  “Think,” he muttered. “Think. The only scent in the ship is hers and there’s no sign of forced entry so if someone took her, they waited until she went outside. But why would she go outside after what happened yesterday?”

  “Let me sniff around the ship,” his beast pleaded. “I might be able to track her.”

  “Wait…” Trey’s eyes had fallen on the small desk where the link-box was still open. He didn’t remember using the desk or the box the night before. So it must have been Mia who had used them. Which made sense if she was studying and then she got grabbed but still…he had a feeling—a strong