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  Then, just as Xairn was beginning to trust him, beginning to think that this time his father truly cared, he would do something vicious and cruel, something Xairn could never have expected. This time they had been walking by the urlich kennels while the AllFather lectured him about the proper way to train the modified animals. Then, with no warning at all, his bony, scabrous hands had closed on Xairn’s arms and he had flung him into the deepest tank.

  “Father, please!” Xairn flailed wildly at the viscous black ooze that surrounded him. “Please, I can’t swim!”

  “I know you cannot, my ssson.” The AllFather could barely stop laughing long enough to speak. “But you ssshall learn. Or like the weakest urlich, you ssshall die. Remember, only the ssstrong are fit to sssurvive.”

  “Father, help! I’m scared! I can’t—” He went under, his mouth filled with the noxious slime. Fighting his way to the surface, he spat it out. His arms and legs were getting tired—it was like swimming in glue. But he knew if he didn’t make it out on his own, he would die in the tank. Die and sink to the bottom to join the bones below. Summoning the last of his strength, he somehow made his way to the side of the tank. To his immense relief, the AllFather reached down and offered him a hand.

  “Come, my ssson.” His soft, hissing voice was almost soothing. “You have proved yourssself. Well done.”

  “Thank you, Father.” Xairn took the offered hand gratefully and allowed himself to be dragged out of the tank. He lay on his side on the cold metal floor, choking and gasping, trying to get his breath. Over, it was over now. He’d proven to his father that he could survive the tanks. Maybe now he would be loved…

  And that was when those same, bony, horribly strong hands picked him up and threw him in again.

  Xairn forced himself to look away from the window which framed the cool, lapping blue waters of the pool. It was nothing like the slimy black ooze of the drowning tanks aboard the Fathership, but the thought of immersing himself in any kind of deep water still made his flesh crawl.

  He’d lost count of how many times his father threw him into the tanks before he finally let Xairn come out for good. True, he had learned to swim, but it had almost cost him his life. He had been ill for days in the small, lying in the small, bare cot he’d claimed for himself in a hidden corner of the vast Fathership. He’d been half delirious with fear and loneliness as he choked the black slime of the tanks from his lungs.

  Visions of his mother, she of the beautiful green eyes, had danced in his head. Xairn knew she couldn’t come to him no matter how much he longed for her—but his father could. Just one kind word, one gentle touch would have healed not only his body, but his wounded young soul as well. But though he had cried out for him, the tears sliding down his cheeks and wetting his flat, thin pillow, his father hadn’t come to see him. Not once.

  Xairn forced himself to stop remembering. He was surprised at the tightness in his chest and the stinging in his eyes. Why get upset about something that was in the distant past? It’s over, he told himself harshly, turning to pace the rest of the small living space. Why let it affect me now?

  Walking back to the living area, he sank down on the small couch and picked up the remote control for Lauren’s flatscreen. The humans used such devices for entertainment—projecting programs about everything from sporting events to cooking techniques to fictional stories with idealized endings. Xairn didn’t have much interest in any of it but there was nothing else to do. He pointed the remote and clicked.

  “…local girl disappeared from a famous Sarasota landmark just last week,” a human male with perfectly coiffed hair and brilliantly white teeth was saying.

  Xairn frowned as a picture flashed on the flatscreen. A human female who looked to be about Lauren’s age was smiling in the picture. At first, he almost thought she was Lauren. The bone structure of her face was a similar pattern to Lauren’s and she had lovely, creamy brown skin in the exact same shade as Lauren’s too. The eyes were wrong, though. Instead of Lauren’s arresting amber they were a dark brown and her hair was much curlier than Lauren’s long black waterfall. Still, she looked enough like the female he loved for Xairn to find the resemblance disturbing.

  He watched the report awhile longer and heard more about the girl’s disappearance. “Found only her clothes,” the human male was saying. “Her friends said she was with them one moment and the next…she mysteriously vanished.”

  Xairn jumped to his feet. Could it be? Could his father be taking females that looked like Lauren to send him a message? He ran a hand though his hair. Surely not. He has no idea where we are and no way to link to our location. I would have felt him in my mind. It must be a coincidence. Another human must have taken her and left her clothes behind. Right?

  He wasn’t sure if he believed it or not but one thing was certain: he couldn’t sit here idle while Lauren was out by herself in the dim early morning light, alone and unprotected. What if something happened to her? Even if his father wasn’t involved in the other human female’s abduction, it proved that there was danger on this tiny blue planet. Danger that could neither be discounted or ignored.

  Xairn had never been to Lauren’s place of work, but he knew where it was located. She had pointed it out to him when they drove through the circular shopping district near her home. It shouldn’t be hard to find—especially with her sweet scent still lingering in the air to guide him.

  Quickly he pulled on some of his new clothing and started for the door. He would be damned if he’s sit around the living area doing nothing for one minute more. He was going to protect the female he loved whether she wanted him to or not.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  “It’s you again.” Detective Rast didn’t seem particularly happy to see her. “What do you want?”

  Nadiah took a deep breath. “I came all the way down from the Mother ship to talk to you. The least you can do is act like a civilized male.”

  “And I came all the way over to the damn HKR building because they called and told me it was urgent,” he growled, crossing his arms over his broad chest and glaring down at her. “So I repeat—what do you want? I thought you’d had enough of me and my attitude—why are you even here?”

  “I’m not here because I wanted to see you,” Nadiah snapped.

  “That makes two of us, sweetheart because I’m not interested in seeing you either.” He frowned at her. “Talk fast or I’m leaving.”

  All the way down in the shuttle from the Mother ship Nadiah had prepared her speech. It was calm and collected and designed to convince him that what she had to say was true. But when she opened her mouth, all that came out was, “He’s going to take another one.”

  “Another one?” Rast raised one eyebrow at her. “Another girl?”

  “Yes. The AllFather is going to snatch her from a dark place.”

  He nodded. “Uh-huh and what else can you tell me?”

  Nadiah frowned and looked down at the scuffed gray carpeting. “That’s all I got this time—I couldn’t even see her face. Sophia woke me up when she heard me, uh, screaming.”

  For a moment, Rast’s icy veneer almost seemed to melt. “Screaming, huh?” he said softly. “Must have been some nightmare.”

  Nadiah looked up at him earnestly, her anger melting away when she remembered the terror of her dream. “I felt her fear. Her pain. He’s going to take her very soon—I’m sure of it.”

  Rast let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head. “Look Nadiah, I believe that you believe what you’re telling me—honestly I do. But I think maybe you should let it go now.”

  “Let it go?” Nadiah frowned at him. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that what you claim to be able to do just can’t be done. And the bad dream you had—maybe it was just that—a bad dream. Maybe it was caused by the bump you took on the head.” His warm fingertips brushed over the tiny mark on her forehead, causing Nadiah’s heart to jump. “Thought I told you to get that looked at.”

&n