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  “We used her twice.” Deep lifted his chin arrogantly. “And the second time we cast a net from Earth all the way to Tranq Prime. It doesn’t matter that she’s female and we’re male—Kat’s an amazing focus. She has raw natural talent that—”

  “That will die with her,” Mother L’rin interrupted him.

  “What?” Lock’s heart fisted in his chest. “Please, Mother L’rin, no!”

  “Can’t you save her?” Deep’s voice was harsh but he was paler than Lock had ever seen him. “Are you saying we brought her to you too late?”

  “It was too late the first time you two decided to attempt blasphemy with this innocent child.” Mother L’rin stroked Kat’s silky hair tenderly. “An elite, too. One blessed by the Mother. Such a pity.”

  “So she’s going to…to die?” Lock heard the break in his voice but he couldn’t help it. Gods, to think they’d killed the woman they loved! Oh Kat, I’m sorry. So very sorry… From his twin he could feel similar emotions to his own. But Deep’s sorrow was shaded with a guilt so intense it was almost despair. Again, Lock heard his twin thinking in a rare burst of mental empathy. I’ve done it again. Gods…

  “I will do what I can,” Mother L’rin said, pulling Lock back from his brother’s thoughts. “But I make no promises—you deserve none.” She fixed them both with a disapproving glare. “As you know, the bonds between twin males and their female is twofold—there must be a soul bond as well as a physical bond. What you two have done is created an incomplete soul bond with this girl.”

  “An incomplete bond?” Lock frowned. “I didn’t even know such a thing was possible.”

  “It’s very rare. In fact, in all my years of healing I have only seen it happen once before.”

  “So we’re not the first male seeker/finders to use a female as our focus,” Deep said. “What happened in the other case?”

  “The girl died,” Mother L’rin said grimly. “I wasn’t able to save her.”

  Lock sucked in a breath and Deep went pale again. “Mother L’rin, please…”

  “Her spirit is fractured,” she continued. “Which is why she is hovering between this life and the next. You must complete the bond in order to have any hope of healing her.”

  “How can we bond with an unconscious female?” Deep demanded. “That’s called rape and Lock and I don’t practice it.”

  “I didn’t say you should complete the physical bond.” The old woman’s eyes flashed again. “I know this is difficult to understand, warrior, as the soul bond and physical bond are usually formed at the same time during bonding sex. But it is possible to have one without the other—for a time, anyway.”

  “What can we do?” Lock said eagerly. “Tell us, Mother, please.”

  “Her spirit must be tethered to her body. But it must want to stay—you have to tempt it with pleasure, lure it back and heal it with your touch.”

  “Not my touch.” Deep shook his head. “She’s reacted badly to my hands on her since her collapse.”

  “That’s true,” Lock said reluctantly, thinking of the way Kat’s pulse had spiked after her collapse on the Kindred Mothership. “Her heartbeat increased abnormally and she moaned out loud—something about ‘too much’ when Deep put his hands on her.”

  Mother L’rin frowned. “And were you touching her at the same time?”

  Lock nodded. “I was. It was my touch that stabilized her the first time. But then, on our way here, it stopped working.”

  “Because she needs you both. Do not dispute me, warrior,” she said when Deep opened his mouth to protest. “I know what I’m talking about. If you want to have any hope of healing this poor girl you and your brother so callously injured, you’ll listen and do exactly as I say.”

  “All right.” Deep crossed his arms over his broad chest. “What can we do?”

  “As I said, you must bind her spirit back to her body. It has to want to stay on this plane and be bonded to the two of you.”

  Lock cleared his throat. “In that case…”

  “In that case there’s no hope,” Deep finished for him. “Kat wants nothing to do with either of us. A fact I’ve been trying to make clear to you for over a month now, Brother,” he said to Lock.

  Mother L’rin’s pinkish eyebrows shot up. “The three of you had an unwilling joining?”

  “Kat only participated in the joining so that we could locate her friend—another Earth girl who was being held captive by the Scourge,” Deep said. “She never would have joined with us if need hadn’t forced her hand.”

  “But you said the two joinings you did with her were successful?”

  “They exceeded anything we’d ever done with F’lir,” Lock admitted. “Deep is right about one thing—the lady Kat is a natural focus. Her ability is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

  “It’s not just her ability—she has an affinity for the two of you, whether she admits it to herself or not.” Mother L’rin looked thoughtful. “An affinity I’m sure you felt the first moment you laid eyes on her.”

  Lock nodded. “That’s exactly how I felt.”

  Deep said nothing.

  “So if there is some affinity—some spark between the three of you—there is still hope. You have to bring that spark to the surface. Tempt her spirit back with it and then bind her to you with pleasure.”

  “If you’re talking about sexual pleasure then we’re back to where we started,” Deep said icily. “Lock and I won’t take advantage of an unconscious female.”

  “Of course she’s unconscious,” Mother L’rin snapped. “She’s is so much pain she can’t bear it. One of you must take the pain for her. Only when her agony is gone will she be able to receive your touch. Only then can you heal her spirit.”

  “I’ll do it.” Deep stepped forward at once.

  “Deep, no,” Lock protested. “You don’t have to—”

  “I want to. And besides, Kat needs your touch to remain stable.” Deep frowned. “You stay with her, hold her hand. I’ll take care of this.”

  “Before you accept your lady’s pain so easily, you ought to know what it entails,” Mother L’rin said quietly. When psychic pain is transmuted to the physical plane, it trebles in strength. And you should know that I sense a great deal of agony coming from this little one.” She stroked Kat’s hair gently.

  “I don’t give a damn about that,” Deep growled. “Do whatever you have to. Just hurry up and get started.”

  The wise woman nodded. “Very well.” Turning, she motioned to a small clump of golden-pink flana bushes on the far side of the stream. “Doby! Bring the whip.”

  There was a rustling sound in the bushes and then the biggest male Lock had ever seen appeared. He was at least nine feet tall and so heavily muscled it was hard to see how he moved. His mottled pinkish skin proved he was of native Twin Moons stock, the same as Mother L’rin, and he wore only a loincloth made of green and gold leaves to cover himself.

  Lock had never seen a native so large—he must be a genetic anomaly. As far as Lock knew, most of the native inhabitants of his home world were tiny. Small but fierce, they mainly lived in the wild lands of the uncharted continent. Mother L’rin was one of the few who had come to live in the more civilized and cultured world the Kindred had created when they first traded with the natives.

  As the giant’s huge, flat feet splashed in the holy stream the leaves covering his groin fluttered. The flash of leaves caught Lock’s eye and he saw that there was nothing but a ragged stump where the huge male’s shaft should have been.

  Gods! He recoiled at the sight and Mother L’rin saw him and laughed.

  “My faithful Doby here is an eunuch. It is the sacrifice he made to come across the golden sea and live here in the Healing Gardens to attend me daily. Such devotion in a male is rare.”

  “Rare indeed.” Lock cleared his throat uncomfortably. “What does he have in the box?” For the huge Doby had produced a lacquered green box from somewhere. He presented it respectfully to the wis