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  “Together forever,” Rast agreed, kissing her. The soft brush of her lips against his enflamed him all over again. “God, you taste sweet,” he growled. “Everywhere.”

  “I like the way you taste too.” Nadiah’s voice had gone breathy and soft again. “Rast, please, I want you. Let’s make each other come again.”

  They did.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Sylvan waited anxiously for the small ship to dock. Solar flares from the Earth’s sun had made communication patchy at best and he hadn’t been able to get any details about what had happened on Tranq Prime. He did know two things for sure, however: one, Rast had somehow won the challenge because Nadiah was with him. And two, Rast has been true to his word—Nadiah’s eyes were the same dark blue they had always been.

  Sylvan was glad to see that Rast had kept his promise. He hadn’t been greatly impressed with most of the human males he’d met and–No, he told himself, frowning. Have to stop thinking of him like that. After seeing the final results on his blood test—

  “Oh, look, they’ve landed!” Beside him, Sophia was nearly jumping up and down with excitement. Sylvan was glad to see her looking happy for once. Ever since the fertility tests he had run on the both of them had come back with the unhappy verdict of Tander’s Syndrome, she’d been quiet and sad. And the strange, morbid outcome of her visit to the sacred grove hadn’t helped a bit.

  Sylvan wished, as he often had, that the priestesses would speak plain truth instead of couching their prophecies in riddles and enigmas. If he could, he would have gone to the sacred grove himself to demand an explanation. But in this case, it wouldn’t have done any good since the one who had made the prophecy was dead, and all the rest of the priestesses were in mourning and would be for the next solar month.

  They would see no one during this time and everyone else aboard the ship was ordered to avoid seeing them as well, to preserve their modesty. As a sign of their mourning for the high priestess, all of them would shave their hair and wear no clothing at all until the time of sadness had passed. It was a good thing the artificial green sun warmed the sacred grove, Sylvan thought. If they attempted to observe such a custom on Tranq Prime they would have all frozen to death in a matter of minutes.

  “Here they come! Oh, Nadiah!” Sophia couldn’t hold herself back anymore. As the hatch of the little ship opened, she ran forward and wrapped her arms around his kinswoman exuberantly.

  Nadiah hugged her back and seemed to be laughing and crying at the same time. “I’m free,” Sylvan heard her tell Sophia. “I’m free—Rast won my freedom for me.”

  “I knew he would!” Sophia smiled at the tall male who was climbing out of the ship after Nadiah. He smiled back, nodding. “I knew you could do it,” Sophia told him.

  And I know why he could do it, Sylvan thought to himself grimly. What I don’t know is how in the universe he wound up on Earth in the first place.

  Nadiah and Sophia seemed intent on catching up on all the details of the journey and blood challenge but Rast came right up to Sylvan, a determined look on his face.

  “I have something to say to you,” he told Sylvan, his eyes flashing.

  “I have something to tell you as well,” Sylvan said quietly. “And I think you should hear it before you speak further. In fact, I think it would be best if we went someplace private.”

  Rast shook his head. “Sorry to be rude, Sylvan, but I’m going first and what I’ve got to say can be said right out in the open.” He took a deep breath and looked Sylvan in the eyes. “Nadiah and I are deeply in love and we’re going to be married. Now, I know you don’t like me for her because I’m human—”

  “But, you’re not,” Sylvan said.

  “But I went through the blood challenge and I feel I won the right to—excuse me?” Rast frowned. Apparently Sylvan’s words were finally sinking in. “What did you say? I’m not what?”

  “I said, you’re not human,” Sylvan repeated, frowning. “Do you understand?”

  “No.” Rast looked both confused and angry. “Of course I don’t understand. What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Yes, what are you talking about?” Nadiah came up behind them with a worried look on her face. Sophia trailed behind her anxiously.

  Sylvan sighed. “Do you see why I wanted to speak about this in private? Come on, let’s at least leave the docking bay.”

  “No.” Rast planted his feet squarely and crossed his arms over his chest. “No, I want an explanation now. You can’t just come up and tell me something like that and expect me to wait to hear the rest. So come on, Sylvan, spit it out.”

  Sylvan spread his hands. “Very well, if you wish to give up the privilege of confidentiality we can talk here. To be blunt, the deep analysis of your blood test shows that you’re not human. Oh, you have human traits on the surface—it’s almost as if someone engineered your DNA to appear strictly Earth-like to the casual observer. But more in-depth testing proves that your human façade is literally only skin deep.”

  “Only skin deep, huh?” Rast frowned angrily. “Well then what the hell am I?’

  “You’re Kindred,” Sylvan told him, hoping he wouldn’t be upset by the news.

  “Kindred? I knew it!” Nadiah’s eyes were shining. “I felt it from the very first.”

  “It’s true Rast is Kindred,” Sylvan said, trying to choose his words carefully. “But he’s no species of Kindred I’ve ever seen before.”

  “But I thought you said he looked like a First Kindred,” Sophia said. “Isn’t that why everyone mistook him for Merrick at our ceremony? Nobody knew Merrick was a hybrid because Sylvan never thought to tell them so they just assumed because Rast had the truegreen eyes—”

  “Merrick’s hybrid status is a sensitive subject with him,” Sylvan interrupted, frowning. “As for Rast’s heredity, he is closer to the First Kindred than anything else. He is close…but not an exact match.”

  “Well, what the hell am I then?” Rast demanded, repeating his question.

  “I don’t know yet,” Sylvan said evenly. “But I would like a chance to find out before you bond my kinswoman—my cousin, as you say—to you for life.”

  “You’re too late for that—we’re already bonded.” Rast’s eyes flashed like green fire. “I took over the blood bond she has with that Y’dex asshole.”

  “Yes, but the bond is not sealed,” Sylvan said. “I can tell because Nadiah’s eyes are still the same color.”

  Nadiah blushed but lifted her chin defiantly. “I don’t care what you say, Sylvan and I don’t care if Rast is human or Kindred or a Hyperion shadow-caster. I love him. He saved my life—did you know that? You warned him not to touch me, not to bond with me but the bond I had with Y’dex was too strong. If Rast hadn’t taken the severed end of it into his own heart, I would have died. In fact, I did die for a minute—I saw Grandmaman in a dark tunnel with a bright, white light at the end of it.”

  “Wait a minute…” Sophia grabbed her arm. “You actually saw your dead grandmother? What did she say?”

  “Yes, what did she say?” Rast demanded. “And how come you didn’t tell me about it?”

  Nadiah looked down. “I guess I had…other things on my mind.” She glanced at Rast rapidly and blushed. “Anyway, I don’t remember it very clearly. Mostly I think she said it wasn’t my time to go. Oh, and she said she loved me.”

  Sylvan felt his heart clench like a fist. To think that Nadiah had come so close to going to the Goddess! To think she had almost died because of his directions to Rast… “Forgive me, Nadiah,” he said hoarsely. “I knew the blood bond was strong but I thought the chance that breaking it would hurt you was remote. I only spoke of such dangers to warn Rast off.”

  “Well, it nearly worked.” Rast’s eyes were suspiciously bright and he swallowed convulsively. “I’m telling you, when she went limp in my arms and stopped breathing…” He shook his head. “Look, the point is, I fought for her and won her. I hate to sound like a goddamn cave