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  “Gods,” Mei-Li heard him mutter in a muffled voice. “Mere and Pere…Kaylee. And the legends…the tales Mere told…”

  “Is he okay?” Kat asked in a low voice. “Would you like us to leave?”

  “No, of course not.” Mei-Li suddenly remembered the Goddess saying that she should love Six and help him let the memories come forward. She might have messed up the warning she’d been given to deliver but this she could at least get right. Slowly, she rubbed his broad shoulders. “It’s all right, Six,” she murmured in a soothing voice. “It’s all right—just let it come out.”

  By now Sylvan and Deep and Lock had come out into the living area as well.

  “Is he all right?” Sylvan asked softly. “I can examine him if you like. The effects of having an implant like his removed so suddenly can be far reaching and—”

  Suddenly Six sat up and began to speak again.

  “Cursed to find an early grave

  Will be he the Light who saves

  The Pain of others he must feel

  The wounds of others he can heal

  To stop the evil he must find

  The Heart of Love in J’lorgon’s Mind

  To bring it to the void and cold

  And cast it in, he must be bold.

  For…for if he…”

  He frowned and tried again. “For…” He shook his head. “It’s gone. I thought I had it for a moment but I cannot remember now.”

  “Wow—what was all that?” Mei-Li asked in a low voice. “A memory from your past?”

  Slowly, Six nodded. “A poem my mother taught me. She was Tergish and all Tergish are traders and story tellers. That poem was supposed to be about Zeaga 4, I believe. But I do not understand its significance.”

  “I think I do,” Lock said, stepping forward. “Coupled with the first part of the prophesy, it seems to tell about the eventual destruction of the Dark—the evil force enslaving the planet and seeking to reach out to the rest of the universe.”

  “The Collective,” Mei-Li breathed. “The Goddess did say that the evil had to be stopped at its source. She said someone had to make a sacrifice but she didn’t say who.”

  “The Pain of others he must feel…the wounds of others he may heal,” Sylvan repeated, frowning. “That must be one of the Cursed.”

  “What are the Cursed?” Sophie asked, coming to stand beside him. “Some other kind of Kindred?”

  “In a way. The Cursed are a rare anomaly among the Blood Kindred. They’re also called Sin Eaters.”

  “Sin Eaters? What does that mean?” Mei-Li asked.

  “They feel the physical pain of others as if it was their own,” Sylvan explained. “It greatly shortens their lifespan—that would be the ‘early grave’ part of the prophesy, I imagine. They can also absorb and heal wounds inflicted on those they care about.”

  “You mean like their mates? They can heal them the same way other Blood Kindred can heal their females?” Deep, Lock’s brother asked, frowning.

  “In a way,” Sylvan said. “But the Cursed don’t often call brides. They know they are destined to die young—bearing all the wounds and pain of everyone around you is very wearing on the circulatory and nervous system. Most die of heart failure before they reach their fortieth name day.”

  “But that’s awful!” Sophie exclaimed.

  “Yes it is,” Sylvan said grimly. “Hence the name ‘Cursed.’ But a Cursed one is who we need to fulfill this prophesy. To go to—what was the other part?”

  “J’lorgon’s Mind,” Lock said. “It is a place of healing and wisdom in the Crab Nebula founded by the great Syntharian healer, T’dai al J’lorgon. But what the ‘Heart of Love’ is, I do not know.”

  “Do some research and find out what you can,” Deep said. “And in the meantime, I guess we need to find one of the Cursed somewhere. Do you know of anyone Sylvan?”

  Sylvan frowned. “I know of only one—Commander Stavros Rii. And he is beyond our reach on Earth.”

  “But all the communications between us and Earth are jammed now except for the direct lines and even those are becoming really unpredictable,” Deep protested.

  “Then we must find a way to get him to a direct line,” Lock said.

  “But even if we can talk to him and give him the assignment, how can we get him off Earth? Especially with the Dark Kindred coming?” Deep asked. “The space around the planet is going to get extremely crowded and dangerous in the next few solar days.”

  “I don’t know.” Sylvan shook his head, looking troubled. “I don’t know how we’ll contact Stavros or get him where he needs to go. I only know we have to try. He may be our only hope.”

  END

  Read on for the first two chapters of Cursed, Brides of the Kindred 13, coming this fall…

  Cursed: Brides of the Kindred 13

  Chapter One

  Commander Stavros Rii slipped out of his shuttle—which had converted itself to look like one of the small vehicles Earthlings called “cars”—and shut the door softly. He made certain the small craft was well hidden behind a screen of bushes that edged the narrow dirt road—more of a track, really—before he left it.

  A glance at the moon told him it was nearly midnight—the perfect time for a secret recognizance mission. Not that he wanted to be up in the middle of the night—he found it irritating and ridiculous. But it was necessary, at least for now, as was the fact that he was currently hiding in a cabin in the woods outside of Asheville instead of working honestly, out in the open as he ought to be.

  Stavros sighed. All this sneaking around was wearing on him. In the years he’d been stationed on Earth, he had been able to drive openly to and from the HKR building and anywhere else he needed to go. Now that the Earthlings had declared war, he and his kind were outlawed. Which meant he had to resort to hiding in shadows just to get back to his office.

  He wouldn’t even be going back now if it wasn’t for the feeling he kept getting in his mind. It was a kind of internal itching or tickling and he knew what it meant—someone desperately wanted to talk to him. Someone was trying to bespeak him using a Think-me but somehow the Earthlings had jammed the communications systems between the planet and the Mother Ship. Only the viewscreens with direct lines were still any good. Luckily, the Asheville HKR was one of those few. So Stavros was trying to make his way as quickly and quietly to his old office as he could in the dead of night in order to communicate with the Mother Ship and find out what they wanted.

  Off in the distance a siren sounded and Stav froze where he stood. He’d been certain for part of his trip that some agents of the newly created Earth Protection Bureau were following him, though he had made his shuttle/car look as nondescript as possible. The EPB was tasked with hunting down and locking up any Kindred who were still on Earth and Stavros didn’t have time to be locked up just now. Not with the Mother Ship urgently trying to contact him. The sound of the siren faded off into the distance and he gave a sigh of relief. His earlier suspicion that they were following him was probably ridiculous. After all, how could they know where he was or even that he was here at all?

  He and Garron and Tess were staying in a cabin far back in the woods which belonged to a friend of Tess’s. They were fine people and Stavros had stayed with them voluntarily because he refused to abandon his post. He firmly believed no Kindred should be left behind without a comrade at arms to back him up. But though they were the nicest couple, living with them could be a bit…wearing. Mostly because the two of them were newly bonded and couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

  Not that Stav minded all their loving looks and cutesy nicknames for each other but he’d spent most of his adult life avoiding romance and relationships. Calling a bride as most warriors did, wasn’t an option for him. A Sin Eater didn’t have a long lifespan and bonding a female to him wouldn’t have been responsible or right, not when he knew he would probably die before he reached forty.

  Stavros pushed aside the morbid thought of his own de