Deceived Read online

  Anna thought of going back to Aka’ja and felt loathing rise inside her. That’s where Lazlo took me from in the first place, whispered a little voice in her head. That’s where he found me and decided I was easy prey…

  She supposed she could see her girlfriends again, but what would she tell them? She hadn’t minded spilling all the awful things that had been done to her to Liv and Sophie—they were kind and impartial strangers. But she couldn’t imagine going through the litany of evil and pain she’d endured again with people she knew more intimately.

  “Actually, Mom, I’m really tired,” she said. “Do you mind if I stay here?”

  “Oh honey—” her mom began but Liv stepped in.

  “I really don’t want Anna traveling right now,” she said firmly. “What she needs is rest—lots of it. I was going to release her and put her up in a guest suite close to the Med Center.”

  Anna’s mom bit her lip.

  “But…do you think she ought to be alone right now?” she asked anxiously. “I just thought…after everything she’s been through…”

  “I’m not a suicide risk, Mom,” Anna reassured her. “I fought hard to stay alive so I could see you and Brex again. I’m not going to do anything to myself, I promise—I just want to sleep.” She yawned and put a hand to her mouth. “Oh, I am so tired.”

  “Well, if you’re sure…” Her mom was still hesitating.

  “If it will make you feel any better, I’ll give Anna a think-me so she can contact me any time of the day or night if she feels bad,” Liv told her.

  “You’d do that? Oh thank you!” Finally, Anna’s mom looked relieved. She turned to Anna. “I’m so sorry to be leaving you like this, honey. I promise we’ll be back as soon as we can. If it wasn’t so urgent—”

  “Please don’t worry, Mom,” Anna told her. “I’ll probably just…” She yawned again. “Just sleep the whole time you’re gone,” she finished.

  “All right, well, I want to see you settled in your room before we go at least,” her mom said.

  “Just let me run these blood samples to the lab and I’ll be back to escort her personally,” Liv promised. “Sophie—you want to come with me?”

  “Sure.” Sophie smiled and squeezed Anna’s arm before leaving with her sister.

  * * * * *

  Outside the door, Liv took a deep breath and her sister smiled at her.

  “Well? How is your first night as a full-fledged healer turning out?”

  Liv had just completed the healer training course and she was a nurse no longer, but a Kindred-certified doctor, able to see patients and prescribe treatment or medications on her own. She still couldn’t do surgery, but then, she didn’t really want to. Her passion lay in seeing and treating patients in person and she was happy to leave the surgery to Sylvan and Yipper, the little Tolleg who was the Mother Ship’s surgical specialist.

  “Things are going pretty well, so far,” she told Sophie cautiously. “I mean, I don’t want to jinx myself but it’s been smooth sailing all night.”

  “I’m glad you ended up with Anna as your patient,” Sophie said quietly. “I think she needed your extra-special bedside manner.”

  “You helped her more than I did, I think,” Liv objected. “I think it was important for her to know she’s not alone.”

  “I need to get her information on that survivors support group that meets in the Sacred Grove on Wednesday nights,” Sophie said thoughtfully as they turned the corner and entered the small lab that was part of the Med Center. “She’s been through a lot—first with that horrible jerk who sold her in the first place and then living with a monster just waiting for him to…” She shivered, not finishing the sentence.

  “It’s bad but I think she’ll be okay. Especially if we can get her Blood Kindred back here to talk to her,” Liv said. “If they’ve been Dream Sharing, they need to be together. That’s going to help her more than anything else.”

  “You’re right,” Sophie agreed, watching as Liv fed the blood samples into the Analyzer. It was a compact, silver machine run by a rudimentary AI, as was much of the Kindred medical equipment.

  “Analyze samples,” Liv told it as she shut the silver door. “Look for any traces of foreign toxins as well as running the usual battery of tests.”

  She expected the machine—which she had used a thousand times before—to say, “Acknowledged” in its tinny, mechanical voice and then start humming to itself as it spun down the blood samples. But to her surprise a strangely human-sounding voice replied instead.

  “I don’t know how to do that,” it said uncertainly. “What am I even doing here?”

  “What are you doing here?” Liv asked blankly. “You’re a blood analyzing machine. You’re supposed to be analyzing blood!”

  “No, I’m not!” the Analyzer protested. “I’m Richard Denton of Trenton, Ohio and I demand that you take me home immediately!”

  “Oh my God—what in the world?” Liv took a step back from the shiny silver machine.

  “Oh, I meant to tell you,” Sophie exclaimed. “I had something like this happen to me just before I came to see you and Anna! The twins spilled cereal on the carpet so I called Roombie over to clean it up.”

  Roombie was the name she had given her house-cleaning bot, Liv knew. The bots were immensely helpful since they vacuumed, washed and folded laundry, cleaned dishes, and did various other household chores that always seemed to need doing like making the beds and taking out trash.

  “So what—it wouldn’t clean up the cereal?” she asked her sister.

  Sophie shook her head, her eyes wide.

  “It asked me why didn’t I clean up my own mess and why was I so lazy—can you believe that?”

  “Now I can,” Liv said, eyeing the Analyzer.

  “I tell you, I want to go home!” it said. “I swore to you when you took me that I wouldn’t tell anyone about this, ahem, abduction. But if you don’t take me home immediately, all bets are off. I’ll go to the press! I swear I will!”

  “Wow,” Sophie murmured. “I’m not even sure what to say to it. I think they were having the same kinds of problems on the trams—something to do with a computer glitch or virus in the communications system.”

  “I’m not going to say anything,” Liv remarked. “And I’m not going to let some glitchy machinery ruin my first night as a healer. I’ll send the samples to the Med Center on the other side of the Mother Ship.”

  As she spoke, she took the tubes full of Anna’s blood out of the tray and put them in a chilled envelope which she quickly addressed. She wrote a note of instruction, and slipped the envelope into the pneumatic tube which led to the other Med Center. Due to their proximity to the Docking Bay, they often had too many samples to analyze in this particular center and it was common practice to send them over to the less busy center when there was an overflow or a problem.

  “Are you going to wait for the results to release Anna?” Sylvan asked.

  Liv shook her head. “They’re mostly a formality. I think she’s fine—especially if she’s had a Blood Kindred biting her. His essence should have neutralized any foreign toxins. She just needs to rest.”

  “I’ll go with you to help her get settled in a suite,” Sophie offered. “Sylvan said to take as much time as necessary—he’s putting the twins to bed tonight.”

  “Baird’s putting Daniel to bed too.” Liv smiled. “Are we lucky to have such awesome hubbies?”

  “We’re blessed we ended up with Kindred,” Sophie agreed. “Let’s just pray that Anna ends up with her Kindred as well.”

  “I’m sure the Goddess will work it out,” Liv said confidently. “Come on—let’s go.”

  They left the Analyzer still insisting that it was from Ohio and it wanted to go home and went to get Anna settled.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  “Thank you again.” Anna’s mother shook their hands when they all stepped out of the guest suite. Anna was tucked snugly in bed and already asleep, thanks to the mild