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  A bleak smile came to War’s face.

  “Then we have to make certain to give you a big send off, Brother.”

  “The biggest,” Peace agreed. “Last time pays for all.”

  Daniel looked like he wanted to protest the twin’s fatalism but he glanced at the holo of Ziza that Peace still held in his hand and simply shook his head. He looked at Shad and Harper.

  “Do your best,” he growled. “And may we meet again at the path’s end.”

  “If we do, none of you will have any memory of this,” Shad reminded them. “It will be as if nothing ever happened. I will be the only one to remember.” He would be alone in his knowledge of the past, just as he had been alone and set apart all of his life.

  “Good,” Peace said. “I don’t want to remember. And I don’t want to live in a world without our mate.” He looked at War who nodded.

  “Peace is right. Either Shad succeeds, the past is changed, and we all live a peaceful life…or Peace and I get blown to the Goddess.”

  “Either way, the pain ends,” Peace said quietly. “Go to your ship, Shad. War and I will make certain the Hive doesn’t see you leave.”

  Though he had gone through this scenario more times than he could count, Shad still felt his heart twist in his chest. Beside him, he saw Harper’s wide green eyes looking at him uncertainly. He knew all the questions she had but he couldn’t bear to answer them right now.

  Striding forward, he embraced his two brothers and then Daniel, who had led them all for so many years, ever since the fateful field trip to Earth when the Mother Ship was blown apart and the Hive had taken over the small blue and green planet.

  “Go with the Goddess,” Daniel said in his ear. He released Shad and looked at Harper. “Lady, may you take the right path and may your past be changed,” he said formally.

  “I…thank you.” Harper clearly didn’t know what to say.

  “Welcome,” Daniel said gruffly. He sighed and ran a hand through his black and blond mane. “Well, I’d better go round up Kara and Kaleb.” He nodded at them briskly and then strode away, but not before Shad saw the grief on his face. They’d lost so many of their original group and now they would lose War and Peace too. It had to be unbearable for Daniel but the big Beast Kindred who was the oldest of them all kept going, no matter what. He had an indomitable will which had kept them together and strong, despite the ravages of the Hive.

  Have to make their sacrifice count, he told himself fiercely. This time I cannot, I must not fail. This time I will reach the end of the loop.

  “Come on,” he said and took Harper by the arm. “We need to go.”

  Chapter Three

  Harper looked down apprehensively as the small, invisible space ship took off from the cracked pavement in front of the Tampa Theater. Her mind was still reeling from all she’d heard and seen. She felt like she’d suddenly been transported into the middle of a sci-fi dystopian novel—the kind of cheesy, guilty pleasure book she brought to the beach.

  The beach…my God, all I wanted was a few hours to myself alone at the beach. And look at what happened. Where is Shad taking me? What the hell is going to happen?

  As the small craft rose through the smoggy air, she realized she had no answers.

  She wanted to get some though—wanted to try and clarify everything she’d seen and heard during their brief, bewildering layover at the theater—but she hardly knew where to start. Also, there was an intensely focused look on the big Kindred’s face which made her think now would be a bad time for conversation.

  They were rising steadily through the air, straight up this time instead of skimming along just above the pavement as they had before. The Tampa Theater had already dwindled to the size of a shed below them when she heard a whooping alarm start to go off outside. The alarm was so loud that she could hear it clearly, even through the walls of the ship.

  “What is that?” she gasped, as the alarm grew louder still, enveloping the small ship in a wall of shrieking sound.

  “Proximity alert,” Shad shouted back. “It goes off when any unauthorized ship tries to leave Earth’s atmosphere. Alerts every Hive ship in the vicinity to come to the source of the sound. Which in this case, is us.”

  Harper swallowed hard. In the viewscreen, she could see numerous ships converging on them. Were they still invisible? Could the Hive ships find them anyway, even with the stealth tech on Shad’s vehicle?

  “Will they catch us?” She heard the terror in her own voice but she couldn’t quite help it. The whooping alarm made her feel panicky—like her throat was stuffed with cotton so she couldn’t breathe or swallow properly.

  “Not with War and Peace on watch,” he replied and the look on his face was unreadable.

  Suddenly, there was an even louder sound—a claxon or a bell tolling and then lights began to flash from the Tampa Theater down below. The Hive ships—which had the same, lumpy, extruded appearance as the new, weird buildings she’d seen—suddenly dropped, zeroing in on the more obvious target.

  As Harper watched, her heart in her mouth, they started firing. Shad’s ship was rising fast but she could still see the moment when the old theater crumbled in on itself. The lights stopped flashing and the two alarms cut off almost simultaneously. Then all was silent and as they rose still higher into the sky and then into the blackness of space.

  “My God,” she whispered, feeling a lump form in her throat as she realized what had just happened. “Your brothers…War and Peace…they sacrificed themselves for us.”

  “Yes.” Shad’s eyes were dry but one look at him let her know every muscle in his big body was tensed.

  Harper just couldn’t wrap her head around it.

  “I heard them talking about it but I thought…I guess I thought maybe they’d get away at the last minute,” she said.

  “That was impossible,” Shad said flatly. “And a Kindred always keeps his word—even unto death. They had to stay at their post and so they did.”

  He was hurting, Harper could tell—he just didn’t know how to express it.

  “Shad…” Though she hardly knew him, Harper had the impulse to comfort the big Kindred. She could almost feel the pain rolling off him in waves—what they had just seen, what had happened to his brothers—it was too much for him to bear alone. Tentatively, she reached out and laid a gentle hand on his broad shoulder.

  Shad was still bare-chested and his muscles tensed as he jerked away.

  “Don’t,” he said in a low voice. “Don’t touch me.”

  “Sorry.” Harper drew back, offended. “I was only trying to make you feel better.”

  “I know. You always do.” His hands tightened on the steering yoke until his knuckles were white and he shot her a glare. “But it’s better if you don’t. Better if we just…keep our distance. All right?”

  “All right, fine.”

  Harper couldn’t help feeling hurt and rebuffed. But people grieved in different ways and if that was the way he wanted it, fine, she’d stay away from him. As much as she could while they were on the run together in a small space ship, that was. Anyway he wasn’t exactly her type. He…

  She got a sudden flash—this one stronger than either of the other two she’d experienced before.

  She saw herself laying a hand on his muscular arm, as she had just now. But instead of rebuffing her, Shad covered her hand with his own. He looked at her, his strange, opalescent eyes burning with emotion.

  “Harper,” he murmured and reached for her.

  In the strange vision, Harper saw herself going to him, twining her arms around his strong neck as his big hands stroked her back. His scent was all around her—some dark spice she found irresistible—and she couldn’t help kissing him, wanting to wash away the grief and pain she saw in his strangely beautiful eyes. Shad stiffened for a moment but then he kissed her back, taking her mouth with his hungrily, as though he couldn’t get enough of her…

  And then the flash was over—leaving her reeling with