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“No, I’m going home. I might be able to get Lalo, that hot Latin guy I met at the club the other night, to come over.”

  “Sebastian!” I exclaimed, frowning at him. “We’re supposed to be going home to sleep—not get laid.”

  “Who said anything about getting laid—I just want to cuddle,” he said coyly. Then, when I continued to glare at him he shrugged his shoulders. “Fine, so I want to get some. So what? You know, you wouldn’t be so judgmental if you ever got laid yourself.”

  “Leave me out of this,” I said.

  “No, seriously.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “You’re pretty, Charlotte—hell, you’re gorgeous. And I can say that without things getting weird between us because you know I have absolutely no urge to be with you.”

  “Oh, thanks,” I said dryly. “You’re right—zero weirdness.”

  “No, I mean it,” he insisted. “You’re gorgeous—so why aren’t you with anyone?”

  “With the life we lead?” I said, raising my eyebrows. “Crazy-busy morning, noon, and night? Who would have me?”

  “Any number of the guys at the hospital,” Sebastian said quietly. “Like Dr. Hunter, who I heard you turned down last week. Seriously, you can’t use our schedule as an excuse. Anybody who works here would understand.”

  “Well maybe I don’t want to date anyone where I work,” I said crisply. “Besides, Drake Hunter is a predatory jerk.”

  “Maybe you just don’t want to date anyone at all,” my friend said quietly.

  “Maybe it’s none of your business,” I snapped back.

  “All right. Okay.” Sebastian put up both hands in a ‘don’t shoot’ gesture. “Wasn’t trying to piss you off. I’m just saying—you should get some once in a while. It really helps to take the edge off.”

  “I don’t want to lose my edge,” I said. “Which is why I’m going home to sleep—not get laid.”

  “Jeez, I’m sorry, Charlotte, I was just trying to be a friend.” He looked really offended now. “Forget I said anything.”

  I knew I had gone too far and I felt bad about it. But still, my romantic life—or lack thereof—was a sore subject with me. Leah and Zoe had always assumed I almost never dated anyone because I was attacked once in college and it put me off men in general.

  I let them think that—and that was part of it, I admit. It was also why I carried a taser in my purse everywhere I went. But there was more to the story than just a drunken frat guy and an attempted rape. There was also the fact that I had never been sexually turned on by any guy I’d ever met. That included Dr. Drake Hunter, who every other single woman (and some that weren’t so single) in the hospital, was panting after.

  I don’t mean I’m gay—in the past I had often wished that I was. How much easier it would have been! But women didn’t attract me either. No one attracted me and no one would—that was the thing I always knew through my touch-sense when I was touching a man—whether he could turn me on or not. And I had never found anyone who could. Until…

  “Look, I’d better just go,” Sebastian said, breaking my dismal train of thought.

  “Sebastian, I’m sorry,” I said lamely. “I just…don’t like talking about that kind of stuff.”

  “Fine. I’ll remember that,” he said frostily. “Bye, Charlotte. Have a good time sleeping.”

  Before I could say anything else, he had turned and was trudging down the rows of parked cars, looking for his Jeep. I thought about calling him back, but what else could I say?

  Reluctantly, I unlocked my little Spark and got inside. It was stifling already thanks to the Florida weather. I cranked up the AC and headed for home which was an apartment complex just a few blocks from the hospital.

  Well, even if my only remaining friend was mad at me, at least I could get some sleep, I told myself. After a good eight hours in bed, I would wake up feeling like a new woman. Everything would be better soon.

  I had no idea how wrong I was.

  Chapter Four

  Kristoff

  I don’t know what time I woke—sometime after dawn, I think. There was a warm, golden light pouring in through the nearby window which was quite different from the pinkish light of Femme One. The Majoran solar system has a red giant star at its center so even at noon, our day looks much like an Earth sunset.

  I would have gone to look out the window but when I tried, I found that someone had tied my wrists and ankles to the strange, metal-framed sleeping platform I was on. Not only that, but they had taken my armor and sword. I was wearing a thin, short shift-type garment which ended well above my knees, probably because it had been sewn for one of the inhabitants of Earth.

  I had been on the small green and blue planet for a number of days and the first thing I had noticed was how small they all were here. They might well be Pure Ones, with rare DNA, but it didn’t seem to have done them any good—at least none that I could tell. Even the new Incarnation of the Goddess-Empress, whom I had been watching over, was smaller than her predecessors. Though tall for an Earth female, she would still only come halfway up to my shoulder if we stood side by side.

  The Goddess-Empress! Charlotte Walker!

  Suddenly, my activities of the night before came back in a flood. I had been watching over Charlotte, waiting to reveal myself until I could first identify the threat I was certain was stalking her. Why was I certain? Because of the Court politics on Femme One. There was always someone seeking to gain power and the Ascension of a new Empress to the throne was a perfect time to gain it.

  The moment the news spread that the old Goddess-Empress, Sundalla the 999th, had Ascended to the Heavens, the race had begun to find and crown her new Incarnation. Of course, there could be only one true Goddess-Empress, but that wouldn’t stop ruthless power mongers like Prince Morbain—a male I particularly loathed—from trying to put their own imposters on the throne. Morbain and others like him would seek to put a weak, easily controlled female in the place of ultimate power—that way they could rule through her and twist the galaxy to their own will.

  Sure enough, someone—probably Morbain—had sent an assassin-droid after Charlotte. I had been waiting, hidden by Nicean stealth technology that essentially rendered me invisible, and watching the entrance to her place of work where she was apparently a Healer. From my vantage point, I had seen the droid appear, stepping from mid-air to make a grab for a young male wearing the same long white coat many of the attendants at this House of Healing wore. So, apparently I wasn’t the only one with stealth tech—it was an unwelcome surprise but good to know.

  I had grabbed for the droid—which was faceless and silver at the time—and kept it from taking its intended victim. Who just happened to be the same male that had insulted the new Empress in my presence later that night. The one I had felt compelled to punish for his insolence. At the time, however, I only knew I had to stop the assassin from finding its target.

  I knew what the droid was trying to do—the moment it snatched some helpless, unsuspecting idiot, it could suck out their life-force and assume their identity. And by choosing someone who was already emotionally close to Charlotte Walker—someone she considered harmless and not a threat—it could kill her quickly and easily, the moment it got her alone.

  I had dragged the struggling droid around to the abandoned side of the building, trying to disable it. But the sleek, silver killing machine had another surprise for me—nano-tech.

  My armor is incredibly strong—made of the best alloys the galaxy can produce. But it’s not meant to repel a weapon so small it can seep through any chink or crevice. As I struggled with the droid, I felt them working on me—thousands, perhaps millions, burrowing into my skin to make the long, jagged wound which Charlotte had sewn up last night.

  Though I fought with all my might, the nanites had taken me down, ripping into my flesh, seeping inwards to attack my vital organs. In fact, I had no doubt that without the transfusion of sacred blood the new Empress had given me, I would have died of their damage.

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