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  “This is the weakness of the Kindred—they care too much for their females. It’s a kind of sickness with you—the reason I wanted to eliminate your bloodlines from our people to begin with. I worked very hard to do it, too—your people might have been larger and stronger than us Nixians but at least we don’t have your fatal flaw.”

  “What are you talking about?” Terex asked hoarsely. “I thought it was your ancestor who wiped out the Kindred.”

  “Yes, well…that’s what most of the rabble outside the palace believe.” Krumf smiled nastily. “But within these walls, it’s a bit of an open secret that Krumf the Fourth is the same as Krumf the First. And the same as Krumf the Second and Third, for that matter.”

  “What?” The branding iron sagged in Terex’s hand. “But how—”

  “The little healer plant I told you about—the one that was originally developed to cure the Need—was the key,” Krumf explained.

  “How?” Terex asked. “I thought it was specifically genetically engineered to cure the Need.”

  “Oh, it was. But it turns out, it’s good at curing almost any disease—including age. I found that with the proper distillation process, the essence of the little healer can be refined into a regeneration formula which takes twenty to twenty-five cycles of age off one’s life.”

  “So of course you used it for yourself instead of curing the females infected with Need,” Terex said flatly.

  “Of course.” Krumf gave an ugly laugh. “It can’t bring back your youth completely—more’s the pity since I was already getting along in years when I discovered it. We Nixians don’t age quite as gracefully as you Kindred.” He looked Terex up and down with a sneer. “Still, it was enough to keep me going in good health and bring me back to a comfortable middle age.”

  “Why not simply stay that age, then?” Terex asked. “Why allow yourself to get old at all?”

  Krumf frowned. “Unfortunately, only one crop can be grown at a time and it takes the plant twenty-five cycles to bloom, so I can harvest and distill it only every quarter of a century or so. But that works just fine.” He laughed heartily. “Just think—soon Krumf the Fifth, my “successor” will come to the throne and no one outside my inner circle at the palace will have any idea that it’s simply me, regenerated and ready to continue my reign. My reign which will never end!”

  Terex shook his head. “I can’t believe you have everyone fooled! So this is why you never cured the Need—you needed all the plant’s blossoms to extend your already unnaturally long life.”

  “Yes, that and the fact that I really do enjoy putting females in their place.” Krumf frowned. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, Commander—you’re trying to keep me talking so the brand won’t be as hot. Well, it won’t work.” He pointed at Elaina, still cuffed and quivering to the metal cross, her eyes wide with fear. “Brand your female now or I’ll have the guards heat it up again—white hot this time. That temperature sears right to the bone, you know.”

  “You bastard,” Terex said thickly. It was exactly what he’d been trying to do—keep Krumf boasting while the iron cooled. But it was still cherry-red when he crossed the dungeon to Elaina.

  He focused on her small feet, bound with the cruel metal cuffs. Gods, how he longed to free her—to throw down the hated brand and rip the manacles off her so they could get out of this accursed place. But the guard beside her, holding a blaster to her temple, kept him from doing anything rash. Trying to free her now would be the same as pulling the trigger himself.

  “Terex,” he heard her say. For a moment, he still couldn’t meet her eyes but then he made himself look up.

  “Yes?” His voice was low and rough and he felt sick with all the emotions swirling around inside him. Hate for Krumf and his cruelty, desperate love for Elaina, disgust and horror and self-loathing at what he was about to do—they filled him like a miasma that wouldn’t dissipate.

  “Terex, I forgive you,” she whispered. “We have no choice. You have no choice.”

  “There’s always a choice.” He gripped the long-handled iron harder.

  “No.” She shook her head. “Not if we want to get out of here. Please, just…just do it.”

  Terex could see that she had nerved herself up to take the pain and just wanted it to be over with. Though he would rather brand his own flesh a thousand times with the hot iron than press it to her skin even once, he understood that delaying the inevitable was a cruelty to her.

  “Where?” he asked simply.

  “My thigh.” Elaina nodded down at her right inner thigh. “Less…less visible there.”

  More painful too, Terex thought, than a more prominent but less sensitive place. Still, he couldn’t blame her for wanting to hide this shameful thing—the sight of his initials burned into her flesh would serve as nothing but a reminder of how he had failed her.

  “All right,” he said, and did it.

  Had he thought he was dead inside? This was the true death. Hearing the scream of pain from Elaina’s lips as she called his name…smelling the scent of her burning skin as he inflicted agony on the female he loved.

  Goddess, he thought as he finally removed the brand and saw his own, hateful initials burned into her flesh. Let me die. Please, it’s all I deserve—let me die.

  * * * * *

  Elaina had never felt such agony in her life—at least for the first half second. Then, strangely, the sensation began to change.

  The Master, she thought wildly, watching Terex as he burned his initials into the tender flesh of her inner thigh. The Master has marked me as his own forever! The Master gives pain and pleasure and both are one!

  Elaina didn’t know where the weird words came from but when they popped into her head, she knew they were true. Suddenly, the pain transmuted itself. First into a warm sensation, and then into pure, all consuming pleasure. As intense as the pain had been, that was how strong and concentrated the pleasure it turned into became.

  Oh my God, Elaina thought dizzily as she struggled to hold back a moan. I’m going to come! How sick is that? I’m going to come from being freaking branded!

  And then the waves of pleasure radiating from the hot iron on her leg reached a crescendo and she couldn’t hold back any longer. A moan of pure desire poured from her lips, her back arched and her toes curled as stars exploded in front of her eyes.

  “Terex!” she heard herself crying. “Oh God, Master! Master, please!”

  Even after he removed the brand, the pleasure continued, bursting over her in waves as the place where his initials were burned into her skin cooled. Dimly, she heard a voice speaking in her memory… “I promise you, though Commander Terex will inflict physical pain on you, he will not hurt you.”

  It was Kate—the girl from the Mother Ship—she said that to me, Elaina remembered. I thought she was crazy but she was right…somehow she was right…

  “Stop!” someone shouted and to her surprise, it wasn’t Terex.

  Her eyelids fluttered open and she saw the big Kindred standing in front of her, the branding iron hanging loose in his big fist. There was a closed, dead look on his face that worried her. But it was Krumf who was approaching her, waving his hands in agitation.

  “Look at her!” he exclaimed, pointing at Elaina. “Someone bring my court physician at once!”

  He’s worried now—after he ordered me branded? Elaina thought hazily. Should have thought of the consequences before he decided to make Terex burn his initials into my skin!

  The intense pleasure was dying away some now but the place where she’d been branded still throbbed and ached, giving her little sexual chills. She didn’t understand why it should feel good instead of bad but she wasn’t going to complain—if she had to be branded it seemed preferable that the sensation give her a screaming orgasm rather than leaving her in screaming agony.

  “Yes, your Supreme Excellency?” A tall, thin Nixian male who looked to be in his late sixties rushed up. He was wearing a long black rob