Hitting the Target Read online

  The smell was damp and coppery—the scent of misery and blood. There was a miasma of urine and feces and unwashed bodies too—the odor of people who had been held like animals in a small, cramped space. Normally the smell would have made Mia sick to her stomach but now she barely noticed—it was like her nose was only working on half capacity.

  At last she’d found everyone she could. She led them back to the center of the room where Trey had found a care kit and was working on everyone he could reach. He looked up when Mia came over, his eyes blazing.

  “There are too many of them to treat down here and there are some injuries that need serious medical care.”

  “Do you want…want to bring them all back to your…your Care Center in Bountiful?” she asked uncertainly. She was having some difficulty getting the words out. In addition to her feet, her hands and tongue were beginning to feel numb. She knew it was probably the effects of the poison, but she couldn’t stop now—the healer’s aide in her felt responsible for these people they had rescued.

  Trey frowned. “They won’t all fit in the ship I brought—it’s just a small one. And besides, they need more help than we can give them in the Care Center. They still haven’t integrated all the new tech we’ve given them yet.”

  “Then where…” Mia began, but she suddenly felt dizzy and couldn’t go on.

  “Mia? Are you all right?” Trey demanded. “Did you find your grandmother?”

  “No. No, Neemah’s not…not here.” She forced herself to speak clearly and took a deep breath to ease the dizziness. “Where…where will you take them?” she asked, pointing to the sick and injured prisoners who were sitting and standing and is some cases laying on the floor because they couldn’t move.

  “I have a friend—another Kindred—who I think will be willing to help. But I need to go up to my ship and call him, which means taking a risk.” He fixed Mia with an intense look. “I need you to stay here with these people and watch over them while I go. Can you do that?”

  “I…I guess so.” Mia wasn’t honestly sure if she’d be able to keep standing upright in the next few minutes but what else could she say?

  “Good.” He pressed the deadly silver Kindred weapon into her hand. “Here’s my blaster. Don’t use it unless you have to.”

  “I…I won’t,” Mia promised, making her mouth form the words though her tongue felt stubbornly numb. “But what about you? Without protection…”

  “I don’t need the blaster for protection,” he said grimly. “I have other weapons at my disposal. Just stay here and watch while I call for help. Okay?”

  Mia nodded. She wished she could hug or kiss him goodbye but there seemed to be a wall between them now—one as hard to get over as the Great Barrier had been. So instead she watched him go, swaying dizzily on her feet as she clutched the blaster to her chest.

  “So you have how many patients you need help with?” Sylvan asked, frowning into the viewscreen.

  “At least fifty,” Trey said grimly. “And some of them are in bad shape, Brother. They’ve been beaten…cut…burned.” He shook his head. “Just about everything and anything you can think of, these poor people have been through it.”

  “Tortured.” Sylvan’s mouth went down at the corners as though the word tasted bad.

  “Yes,” Trey said heavily. “Those bastards from The EYE tortured them. We need to get them medical attention soon. And a lot of them will need psychological counseling as well.”

  “Send me your coordinates,” Sylvan said. “I’ll fold space and send several of our large capacity shuttles to bring them all back to the Mother Ship for treatment.”

  “Thank you.” Trey was beyond relieved and grateful. “I don’t like to impose on you but there really are more than we can treat with the limited resources I have here on Ormyu Five—even if I could get them back to my Care Center in time, which I can’t.”

  “Of course, Brother. We’ll be there very shortly. Should we expect any resistance?” Sylvan asked, frowning.

  “None in the building itself,” Trey promised him. “I let my beast out and he took care of almost all of the guards. I shot the rest.” Speaking of his beast, he could feel that his other half was restless and unhappy for some reason, but he didn’t know why. They had rescued Mia—what else did his other half want?

  “We’ll be there soon,” Sylvan promised and then the viewscreen went black and there was nothing to do but send out the coordinates the other Kindred Commander had asked for as quickly as he could.

  “Trey,” his beast said as he finished the operation. “Trey, something is wrong with Mia—I can feel it.”

  “She’s probably just upset by the state of the prisoners we found,” Trey told his other half distractedly. But the beast’s reply was definite and strong.

  “No! No, that’s not it. Remember I told you she smelled wrong? Well the wrong smell was even stronger right before we left her. I’m worried, Trey—we need to go back to her.”

  “All right, we’ll go,” Trey muttered aloud. He still felt like there was a distance between himself and the little female now. He wasn’t sure of her anymore—wasn’t sure of her motives or feelings for him. Was she a cold-hearted spy who had been trained as a secret operative? Or had she been forced into this life by the Commandant? And why had she killed that patient?

  “I’m sure she had a reason,” his beast said. “She just hasn’t had a chance to tell you—she hasn’t had a chance to do anything. And you have things you haven’t told her about us too, you know. You still haven’t told her about me.”

  His other half’s mental voice was both wounded and accusing. Trey sighed. He knew he would have to admit to Mia that he and the massive targen-like creature she had seen ripping out the EYE agent’s throat were one and the same eventually. But he wanted to wait until he understood her own motives and feelings before he revealed himself. He—

  “Treygar, something is really wrong. I can feel it from here!” his beast sent urgently. “We need to go find Mia—now!”

  “All right, I’m going. Do you think another guard popped up and attacked her? Maybe one we missed?” Trey asked, hurrying from the ship to the entrance of the ominous grey building.

  “I don’t think so—it’s something else. I feel it through the quasi-bond,” the beast told him.

  Trey rushed past the carnage his beast had caused when he’d let it out earlier and down the stairs—not wanting to wait for the lift. When he got to the basement, he saw the prisoners still milling around. Mia was in the middle of them, working with the care kit to try and help as many as she could.

  Trey felt a part of himself soften. Whether she was a spy by choice or not, she certainly did have the healing instinct. Just watching her work—

  His thoughts cut off abruptly when he saw Mia’s eyes roll up in her head. She swayed and, before he could catch her, collapsed on the floor.

  “I told you—I told you there was something wrong!” his beast roared. “Go to her, Trey—help her!”

  Trey hurried to push through the prisoners.

  “Help is coming, be calm, help is coming,” he heard himself telling them mechanically as he shoved a path through them to Mia. He scooped her up off the floor and noticed how pale her face was. “Mia?” he called her name softly. “Mia, little one—what’s wrong?”

  “She smells wrong…wrong!” his beast snarled. “What’s wrong with her, Trey?”

  “I don’t know. Be quiet and let me examine her!”

  He looked her over carefully but couldn’t find any sign of a wound or injury. What was wrong with her? Why had she fainted?

  “Mia?” he called again, cradling her in one arm and patting her cheek with his other hand.

  Her eyelids fluttered open, showing just the bottom rims of her pearly blue eyes.

  “S-sorry,” she muttered hoarsely, slurring her words strangely. “T-tried to stay…tried to pro…protect…”

  “Don’t worry about the prisoners,” Trey said urgently. �