Hitting the Target Read online

  “She told me that her parents were taken by The EYE,” Trey said slowly. “And that she was raised by her mother’s mother—her ‘Neemah’ I believe she called her.”

  “Do you know if she’s still alive?” Teela asked.

  “Well…yes, I think so. Mia talked about her as though she was still alive, anyway.”

  “That’s who the Commandant is threatening, then.” Teela spoke the name as though it tasted bad in her mouth. “That’s how he works—he finds your weak point and presses it until you knuckle under and do what he wants.”

  Trey frowned. “So you’re saying Mia was an unwilling spy?”

  “That’s my impression from the Commandant’s message.” Teela nodded.

  “That’s what it looked like to me too,” Lydiah said.

  “So she didn’t want to poison me,” Trey said slowly. “But I found an empty green capsule like the one he described by the side of the bed. Look.”

  He looked around and found the small bag he’d put the empty capsule in on the counter. He had put it away from him while Lydiah used the poison checker so as not to cause a false positive.

  Lydiah picked up the wand again and waved it over the empty green pill. Immediately the checker went crazy, its dials spinning and the red and yellow lights on its indicator flashing.

  “That looks like poison all right,” she said dryly, putting the wand down.

  “But it’s empty,” Teela remarked, peering at the open capsule in Trey’s hand. “Where did the poison microgranules the Commandant talked about go?”

  Trey shrugged. “Maybe she dumped them out by the side of the bed?”

  “If so, she’s going to be in a lot of trouble when the Commandant gets hold of her,” Teela said grimly. “He was very explicit about what he wanted her to do to you and he’s not a forgiving man when his orders aren’t followed.”

  Trey felt his heart clench in his chest. He remembered the night before when he’d held Mia close and comforted her. She’d been so upset and had told him for the first time that she loved him. Her words echoed in his head…

  “I love you, Trey. I’ll always love you—please believe me.”

  As though she was trying to reassure me or begging me to understand, Trey thought. She must have known I would find out she was a spy—she was asking for forgiveness, I just didn’t understand her.

  Poor little female! And now she was in the hands of the Commandant who, according to Teela, would probably have her tortured or worse when he found out she hadn’t followed through on the mission he had sent her to do.

  His beast grasped the implications of this at the same time.

  “MIA!” he howled in Trey’s head. “We have to get to her—have to save her!”

  “Trey, what is it?” Lydiah’s face was concerned. “You look awful.”

  “I have to get to her.” He looked up at her, his hands clenched at his sides. “I was so upset with her—I felt so betrayed. But now I understand she couldn’t help herself—the Commandant probably forced her to spy on me. And when he finds out she didn’t poison me as he ordered…” But he couldn’t go on. All he knew was that he had to get to Mia as soon as possible…before it was too late.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you—The EYE’s headquarters is in the center of the city but it’s huge, so you’ll have to search for her,” Teela was saying as Trey prepared to take off.

  “I’ll find her,” he said, knowing it was true. Now that his beast had come out to meet her, they had at least a quasi-bond to Mia. Not useful for communication but tracking was another story. If they were in any proximity to Mia at all, his beast would be able to lead him to her.

  “If the Commandant thinks she carried out her mission, she’ll probably be in his office on the sixth floor,” Teela said. “But if he finds out she didn’t follow orders, well…” She shivered. “Then you’d find her in the basement.”

  “I take it the basement is a place you don’t want to go,” Trey said grimly.

  “It’s where The EYE does their dirty work—torture,” Teela whispered. Her face was still pale and her hands shook but she was doing her best to give him coordinates for his trip over the Great Barrier.

  Both she and Lydiah thought it was a suicide mission—even with his superior Kindred weapons and the stealth tech on his air craft. But since Trey was determined to go, they were helping him all they could.

  “Can’t you hurry?” his beast demanded, breaking his train of thought. “We need to go find Mia before it’s too late! If that male in the message hurts her…”

  He sent a mental image of himself ripping out the Commandant’s throat. Trey heartily agreed with that sentiment. The things Teela had said about the way the Commandant had raped her and hurt her until she just wanted to die made him feel sick. He remembered how Mia had admitted someone had tried to rape her but had been stopped at the last minute. Was that the “unfinished business” the Commandant talked about in his message? He acknowledged grimly that it seemed likely that it was. But if that son of a bitch had laid a single finger on her…

  “Kill him.”

  “What?” It took him a moment to realize that the words had come from outside his head. Looking up, he saw Teela’s white, pinched face. She had come with him out to his air craft, talking rapidly, giving him directions and coordinates but now she just stood there, hands clenched into fists.

  “I said kill him if you can,” she repeated. “For everything he did to me and all the other women he’s had and tortured and hurt. He deserves to die a thousand times over. So if you can—kill him for me.”

  “You can count on it,” Trey said grimly. He finished punching the coordinates she’d given him into the nav-com of his ship. “I need to go now. Thank you so much for your help. You too, Lydiah.”

  “Just be careful, Trey.” The other female looked concerned. “The Barrier is no joke. And taking on the entire EYE by yourself…it’s crazy. You know that, right? Are you sure you won’t wait and get some more people together?”

  “Can’t wait,” Trey said grimly. “I have to go now.”

  “We understand,” Teela said, stepping back from the air craft and drawing Lydiah along with her. “I just hope…” she bit her lip. “I just hope you get to Mia in time, Trey. Before…before the Commandant does to her what he did to me.”

  “I hope so too,” Trey said and added mentally, I have to as he shut the door of the little ship and activated the stealth tech so that it shimmered and seemed to fade from sight to outside eyes.

  “We will find her. We will save her!” his beast growled. “We love her—she is ours, not his. We will kill him and bring Mia back.”

  That was exactly what he planned to do but Trey couldn’t help sending up a prayer to the Goddess as the little ship launched into the air and turned towards the North.

  Please let me find her before he hurts her! Please let me keep her safe!

  Suddenly it felt as though a warm comforting hand settled itself on his shoulder and a strong, feminine voice murmured in his ear,

  “Be strong, warrior. You will find her. But as you search, remember that I have brought you here for a reason greater than both yourself and Mia.”

  Trey was startled—he hadn’t expected to actually hear an answer to his prayer. At first, he wasn’t quite sure what was going on.

  But his beast knew at once.

  “Goddess!” his other half exclaimed. “We are going to rescue Mia—the female you sent to us!”

  “I know, my dear. I will be watching over you.”

  Was there a slight tinge of amusement in the strong, feminine voice? Trey suddenly had a mental image of a slender, glowing female hand stroking his other half’s mane as his beast rubbed against her, voicing his rusty, rumbling purr. Then the image faded and the warm, feminine presence which had accompanied the voice was gone.

  Despite the urgency of the situation, he couldn’t help feeling a glow and his courage and d