Hitting the Target Read online

  “Warrior,” the priestess said again, her voice infinitely gentle. “The Goddess feels your grief as her own. She knows your heart is true and that you have borne much pain in the past.”

  “Did she only send me to Ormyu Five to bring down the Great Barrier?” Trey asked, looking up with wet eyes. “It’s a noble cause, I’ll admit. But losing Mia is tearing me apart!”

  “You shall not lose her if your faith is strong,” the priestess promised.

  “Then…will you heal her? If I believe?” Trey asked hopefully. But the priestess shook her head.

  “No, for you have the capacity within to heal her yourself, Trey.”

  “What? No, I don’t!” he protested. “What are you talking about?”

  “Be quiet and let her speak,” his beast spoke up unexpectedly. “Her words are those of the Goddess, Trey. Listen to her.”

  “The one who shares your soul had good advice,” the priestess said gently, apparently not at all offended by his outburst. “And he is also the key to your dilemma.”

  “My beast is the key? Are you saying he can cure Mia? But how?” Trey protested.

  “It is not given to me to tell you all—some things you must find out for yourself,” the priestess told him. “But I will say this—for Mia to recover, all secrets must be laid bare and all three of you must be one.”

  Trey shook his head.

  “I still don’t understand.”

  “I fear that is all I can tell you for now, warrior. Except for this—the Goddess loves you and she always will, no matter what choices you make. For now, farewell.”

  And she glided out of the room, leaving Trey feeling almost as mystified as before she had come in.

  “Well…that is somewhat confusing,” Sylvan admitted, when Trey told him what the priestess had said. “But we all know that those who live in the Sacred Grove are never direct about anything. I think the Goddess wants us to discover some things for ourselves—we learn more that way.”

  “What I want to learn right now is how to cure Mia,” Trey said. “The priestess said my beast was the key and that the three of us had to become one, but I don’t understand how.”

  Sylvan looked thoughtful. “Maybe she was speaking of bonding. It’s true that if you were bonded to Mia, you might be able to absorb some of the effects of the poison and save her that way.”

  “I can’t bond with her when she’s unconscious and can’t feel anything,” Trey objected. “I won’t rape her—not even to save her life. Besides, bonding with a Lei’on Kindred is a tricky proposition, as you know. Our bonding sex is…different from any other type of Kindred.”

  “Of course, Brother—I never meant to suggest you should take her against her will,” Sylvan said, frowning. “And anyway, that still wouldn’t explain how your beast is involved.”

  “Maybe I have to introduce the two of them,” Trey said. “Then maybe I could borrow my beast’s power to heal her with my tongue? Though I don’t know how that would help neutralize the poison since she inhaled it and took it internally,” he added, shaking his head.

  “Yes, but even though she took it internally, the poison immediately migrated to her outer skin and started working its way back in from there,” Sylvan pointed out. “That’s why the subject starts by losing their sense of touch and taste and smell and then the feeling in their extremities first. Only after those stages have been passed, does the poison migrate inward and start attacking the internal organs.”

  “And…has Mia reached that second stage yet?” Trey made himself ask. He was afraid to know the answer…and yet afraid not to.

  To his limited relief, Sylvan shook his head.

  “I don’t think that will happen for a few hours at least, yet. The poison is still near the surface of her body for now.”

  Trey frowned and made a decision.

  “All right. You said you could give her a stimulant to wake her up so we could talk, right?”

  Sylvan nodded. “I can.”

  “Then I’d like to do that,” Trey said. “I want to move Mia to a private suite and then wake her up.”

  “Why?” Sylvan frowned. “What are you planning?”

  Trey took a deep breath.

  “I’m going to do what the priestess said I should do—I’m going to introduce Mia to my beast and tell her the truth about what I am. After that…” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll just have to see what happens next and try to have faith, I guess.”

  “Well…” Sylvan seemed to deliberate. “I wouldn’t normally allow a patient in Mia’s condition to leave the Med Center. But I’ve seen your beast before and I certainly agree that it wouldn’t be good to have any of the patients encounter it.” He frowned thoughtfully. “I believe it looks very like a wild predator from Earth called a lion—there would be panic everywhere and I could never explain that it was a sentient part of you and not a wild beast.”

  “On Ormyu Five they think it looks like a creature called a targen,” Trey said. “And you’re right—it would be hard to explain. Look, Sylvan—just put us in a suite close to the Med Center. I’ll be able to tell if I need to bring Mia back here for treatment.”

  “Yes, of course you will.” Sylvan nodded. “All right—we’ll do it as quickly as possible, before the poison spreads any further.”

  “Thank you, old friend.” Trey held out his arm for a warrior’s clasp and Sylvan took it, then drew him into a tight hug.

  “No matter what happens, I’ll be here,” he said, very low in Trey’s ear and then released him.

  “Thank you.” Trey nodded gratefully. He appreciated the help and support of his old friend and for the first time he felt a glimmer of hope. He just hoped that he could figure out what the Goddess meant for him to do for Mia…before it was too late.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Mia woke to find she couldn’t move anything—not even her mouth. In fact, she wasn’t even sure how her eyes were staying open. After a moment, they focused and she saw that Trey was sitting on the side of her bed, staring at her with an anxious look on his face. They were in the bedroom all alone, though it didn’t look familiar to her. But it was nicely decorated with a dark green spread and the bed she was in was huge—clearly Kindred-sized.

  Also, Trey was bare-chested and wearing nothing but a towel. What was that all about? His muscular chest and the set of his broad shoulders seemed tense.

  “Mia…little one,” he murmured caressingly, taking her hand in his and squeezing it.

  Mia could see him make the gesture, but she couldn’t feel it. She still couldn’t feel anything—why was that?

  Oh right—the poison, whispered a little voice in her head. You’re dying and the senses—including the sense of touch—is the first thing to go.

  The thought made her feel sad and scared and shaky but of course she couldn’t express any of that—she could only stare at Trey and wait for him to speak again.

  “Little one,” he said again. “I have…a secret I have been concealing from you. And it’s kind of a big one.”

  He paused as though he expected her to answer. Mia wished she could. She wished she could confess the secrets she’d been hiding too. Wished she could tell him she was sorry for everything she’d held back and that she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, no matter what his own secret was. But all she could do was make an indeterminate humming sound in the back of her throat and even that was a huge effort.

  Trey seemed to take the small sound as a cue to go on.

  “I should have told you this earlier,” he said, shame-facedly. “But I didn’t want to frighten you. Do you remember the huge targen-like creature you saw in the park? The one that killed the man who was attacking you?”

  Mia made the noise again. Of course she remembered—how could she forget the huge, shaggy, golden beast who had come to her rescue and then nudged her hand as though asking to be petted?

  “Well…” Trey took a deep breath and seemed to gather himself. “The targe