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  “I’m going to kill you, Earth bitch,” he snarled.

  I was going to die.

  And then a huge blue shape came roaring into the room. It rushed around me and bowled into Doloroso as he knelt on the floor. The blaster went off but the shot went wild, spending itself harmlessly in a shower of sparks on the metal ceiling overhead.

  Next I heard a very distinct crack and then Doloroso started making a high, screeching wail that made me cover my ears with my hands.

  “You fuckin’ asshole—shut up!” Grav—(because it was Grav, of course it was)—growled. He had Doloroso flat on his back, one knee planted firmly on the sprawling alien’s writhing midsection and the blaster in his hand.

  But Doloroso wouldn’t shut up. He kept screaming and moaning until at last Grav got up and took a step back.

  Doloroso clutched at his groin.

  “You broke it!” he wailed, rocking back and forth. “You broke my bratwurst!”

  “What?” Grav frowned. “I broke your what? That’s not possible.”

  “Look—look!” Doloroso pulled his hands away and I saw that, indeed, the top part of his equipment was bent at a very strange and unnatural angle. I hoped that Teeny, who I thought was still behind me, wasn’t looking.

  “Goddess of Mercy!” Grav actually went pale. “What the fuck?”

  “I think that’s called a penile fracture,” I said, feeling a little sick. “My friend Charlotte told me about it. She’s seen a lot of wild things at the ER.”

  “That’s pretty fuckin’ wild all right,” he agreed. “I must have got him with my knee when I tackled him. I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard.”

  “Don’t,” I said grimly. “He had some pretty unpleasant plans for me.”

  A low growl rumbled up Grav’s throat and his white-on-black eyes flashed.

  “You okay?” he asked, looking me over carefully. “He didn’t hurt you with that little thing, did he?” He nodded contemptuously at Doloroso’s broken bratwurst. “Because if he did, I’ll fuckin’ kill him. But first he’s gonna wish he was never born.”

  “No, he didn’t hurt me,” I said quickly. “And you can’t kill him—that body isn’t really his. It’s stolen and we have to return it to its owner.”

  “Gotta tell you, I’m not sure it’s owner is gonna want it back,” Grav remarked. “Not like that, anyway.”

  “Well maybe he can fix it,” I said. “Or buy a new one or something—he’s rich enough.”

  “Well, I don’t know how to remove an Assimilated from a Host body but I guess we can try,” Grav remarked.

  “There is no way.” The new voice made me jump. Looking up, I saw the tall Majoran Captain of the Guard looking down at me. His skin and hair and eyes were all dark blue, as before, though I knew he could go back to gold—or any color, for that matter—whenever he wanted.

  “Captain Verrai?” I said uncertainly. “How, uh, nice to see you. Um…what are you doing here?”

  “It’s a long story,” Grav growled. “Basically he and his men were tracking us. They slipped through the hole in the Web I told you about and cut their way into the Widow’s control station not long after you and Teeny got taken. Which took some serious balls,” he added, throwing Verrai a look of grudging admiration. “And then they decide to come along and help get you back from Doloroso.”

  “So…you’re friends now?” I eyed the two big aliens uncertainly. They were both huge but Verrai was perhaps an inch taller while Grav was just a little broader through the shoulders.

  “I wouldn’t say friends exactly,” Grav growled.

  “The Braxian saved my life,” Verrai said formally. “It’s a debt I will not repay with treachery. I have sworn not to try to arrest him or take him in—I wanted only to help rescue his female.”

  Grav’s face went abruptly stony.

  “She’s not really my female, okay? And it looks like she’s just fine, even if I did break my oath to protect her.”

  “Stop, Grav…” I put my hand on his arm. “You didn’t break your oath. You came to find us..”

  “Not before he almost killed you and Teeny. I never should have let the two of you get into this kind of danger in the first place,” he insisted.

  “Grav?” the new voice was Teeny’s. She’d run to hide, apparently, as I had instructed. Now I saw her creeping out from behind some of the bulkier medical equipment. “Grav, is that you?”

  “Teeny, sweetheart!” His face broke into a big smile and I felt a twinge of emotion that was almost like jealousy. I wished I could get a reaction like that from him!

  “Grav!” She came running to him and he swept her up into his arms, holding her gently as she nuzzled against him like a kitten might nuzzle a Great Dane. “I knew you’d come,” she whispered. “I never doubted you.”

  “Thank you, sweetheart. That means a lot to me.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek.

  I felt a blush of shame rise to my face.

  “I never doubted you,” Teeny had said—and she hadn’t. With a child’s uncomplicated faith, she had trusted that Grav would find us. While I…well, I had had my doubts. And to be honest, I still had some. But now wasn’t the time to voice them.

  “I need to talk to you,” I said, turning to Captain Verrai. “I realized it after we met last time.”

  He looked startled. “Are you certain?”

  “Yes.” I nodded firmly. “And I’ll tell you anything you want to know. But first we have to do something for Count Doloroso there. He’s really a mess.” I nodded at the Count, who was still clutching his equipment and whimpering quietly as he rocked back and forth.

  “I’m afraid there’s not much we can do.” Verrai frowned. “As I said, I don’t think there’s a way to get an Assimilated out of a host body. Once they take over, they own it until it dies.”

  “Well, we have to try,” I said firmly.

  “We’ll take him with us when we go,” the Captain of the Imperial Guards promised. “There may be something we can do for him back on Femme 1. But in the meantime, I have some urgent questions about your friend.”

  “Fine.” I took a deep breath. “What do you want to know?”

  Grav

  Verrai and Leah talked a long time while Doloroso rocked and whimpered and Teeny clung to me like a climbing T’sango vine. Apparently Verrai thought there was something special about Zoe and Leah’s friend, Charlotte. He kept mentioning the “rainbow aura,” which I didn’t understand until I remembered the rainbow glow that seemed to surround the female in question when I’d seen her on the Alien Mate Index light screen.

  Apparently the rainbow aura made her unique and Verrai was worried she might be in trouble.

  “But why does it make her special?” Leah asked as they were finally wrapping up. “I mean, I love Charlotte—she’s really hard working and incredibly smart and down-to-Earth but you’re saying she’s some kind of…royalty?”

  “I believe it may be so. At least, the Goddess Empress believed it.”

  “Wait,” I said. “The Empress believed it? Past tense? Then that must mean the Empress has…”

  “Ascended to the Heavens. Yes. Why do you think I am in mourning, Braxian?” Verrai said quietly, indicating his solid, dark blue color. There was a depth of sorrow in his rainbow hued eyes that was difficult to look at. “I have served her all my life and her last command to me was to find her next incarnation and protect her with my life.”

  “And you think Charlotte is it?” Leah’s eyes grew wide. “I mean that’s…that’s crazy.”

  “It’s perfectly logical,” Verrai said. “Between twenty and thirty cycles before the Goddess Empress ascends to the Heavens, her next incarnation is born. For a time, they share a soul and both have the unique rainbow aura. When the present Goddess Empress passes to the other side, her incarnation is old enough and wise enough to rule in her place.”

  “Well…” Leah looked thoughtful. “If anybody could rule