Enslaved Read online

  “I’ll attend to it.” Far was already standing. “I’ll go to the main communications desk and run a comprehensive search.”

  “Do that,” Sylvan said, nodding. “And while you’re at it—”

  He was interrupted by a buzzing from the large viewscreen on the wall.

  “Answer it quick!” Sophia exclaimed. “It’ll wake up the twins!”

  “Allow call,” Sylvan said. At once an image of Six popped up on the screen.

  “Oh good,” Sophie murmured. “Somebody bespeak Mei-Li and tell her that her man is fine. She was so worried she had to lay down with a headache.”

  “On it.” Becca was already reaching for the thin silver wire of a Think-me in order to communicate with their friend.

  Sylvan also seemed pleased. “Six, good. I asked the communications officers to patch you directly through when you called. What have you found?”

  “Destruction and death.” Six sounded sober. “The lab is where Two modified all of his sniffers—canine-like creatures who were able to scent emotions. He always kept it in immaculate condition but now, well…see for yourself, Commander.”

  He panned the hand-held camera across the lab showing broken glass and twisted metal along with some suspicious looking brownish-red stains.

  “Is that blood?” Sylvan asked, frowning at the screen.

  “It appears to be. But there is more—look.”

  Six walked to a different part of the lab, his boots crunching on the scattered glass fragments. He came to a stop in front of two huge cylinders which had been broken open, though one was still half filled with greenish goo.

  But it was what the cylinders contained that caught Thrace’s eye—two twisted forms, both of them clearly dead, were lying locked together, half-in, half-out of the shattered containers.

  “Is that…Two?” Thrace asked.

  Six nodded. “He looks much changed but yes, I believe it is him. The teeth are unmistakable.”

  Two had died with a look of agony on his face—his thin lips were peeled back in a snarl that revealed his steel teeth. Beside him, with long fingers wrapped around Two’s skinny throat, lay another figure Thrace recognized.

  “Lord X!” Trin exclaimed.

  “Is this the scion Two made of himself?” Six asked, looking down.

  “If it’s not it’s close enough to be his twin,” Trin murmured. “Look—is that a blaster hole in his chest?”

  “I believe so,” Six answered her. “And look—” He lifted Two’s stiff hand with the toe of one boot. It was still gripping a blaster.

  “I wonder what happened to them?” Charlie said.

  “It appears that Two was trying to make some kind of transference—maybe he wanted to put his consciousness directly into his scion’s body,” Six said. “Apparently, the scion did not approve of this.”

  “He didn’t want Two taking over his body so he strangled him,” Charlie said. “And then Two shot him—they must have died together.”

  Becca shivered. “It’s not pretty but at least now we know Two and his scion are out of the picture.” She turned to Thrace. “That must be a load off your mind!”

  “Of course.” Thrace tried to smile but for some reason, he couldn’t feel the elation he knew he ought to. There was something too easy…to convenient about the scene Six had found in the abandoned laboratory…

  “Well, that’s part of the problem solved, anyway,” Trin remarked, squeezing his hand. “Now we just have to find this Brooks girl somewhere on Earth and get to her before the Verrak assassin does.”

  “I’ll send a special prayer to the Goddess that you’ll find her in time,” Nadiah murmured. “But something tells me that this girl, whoever she is, has a long journey ahead of her…and she might not like what she finds along the way.”

  Epilogue

  Somewhere in the darkness, hidden from view, the muffled sound of heavy boots crunching on broken glass grew more and more distant. The deep voice of the alien intruder was fading as he moved away, finishing his business here.

  The sounds were muffled by the nutrient bath that filled the tube so the one inside it could not make out the words the intruder spoke but that didn’t matter—his memory would store it all for later and bring it back when necessary.

  There was much to bring back when the time was right…memories of another—the maker who had created the one in the tube in the first place. Memories and directives…tasks to fulfill…missions to complete…a race of people to destroy.

  For a moment a pair of burning black eyes with reddish glints opened in the darkness and looked through the cool green nutrient soup. Black hair floated around his face and every muscle in his big body tensed in anticipation. But the time was not right…the cycle was not complete. Soon his time would come but it was not here yet.

  The one within the tube closed his eyes and slept for a little while longer, dreaming of the day when he would wake to kill and kill again until the maker’s orders were fulfilled…or he died trying.

  The End

  Read on for an exclusive look at Kindred 15, Targeted, coming in Spring of 2015 as well as a taste of Solar’s story Mastering the Mistress in the Mastered II box set here for only 99 cents.

  Chapter One

  It was happening again.

  Emily Brooks gasped as a flash of heat swept over her body. It started in her lower pelvis and rolled outward, like flames licking her skin from the inside out, stealing her breath and making every inch of her tingle with unwanted heat.

  Oh God, ohGodohGod…No, please—not this—not this again!

  Her hands clenched into fists at her sides and her toes curled in her sensible low heeled shoes. The shapeless cotton dress she wore was suddenly too hot—sticking to her full-figured body with the dew of sweat that bloomed across her flushed skin. The hair at the nape of her neck suddenly prickling and her eyes burned. Not like she’d gotten soap in them, though—they burned as if there was some strange heat source behind them.

  But though all these weird physical problems were uncomfortable and strange, they weren’t what Emily feared the most. She feared the other coming out. The one she sometimes glimpsed in the mirror. The one inside of her who was getting closer to the surface every day…

  “Miss Brooks? Miss Brooks, Avery pushed me!”

  “Did not. Anyway, she pushed me first.”

  “Did not!”

  “Did so!”

  “Class!” Taking a deep breath, Emily forced herself to forget about what was happening inside her and concentrate on the kindergarten class under her care at George Washington Elementary.

  Her stress must have come through in her voice, because all fifteen of her kids got suddenly quiet and looked at her with large eyes.

  Oh God, what do they see? Do they see what I see when I look in the mirror?

  Emily took a deep breath…then another. Calm, she had to be calm. It was only 9:30 and she had to make it until 2 when the bell rang for dismissal.

  “Miss Brooks,” ventured Avery Andrews. “Do you feel okay? Maybe you oughta go to the nurse.”

  “I’m fine, Avery. Thank you for your concern though—that’s sweet.”

  Emily did her best to smile at the little boy who was the class clown but so endearing you couldn’t help but love him.

  “You don’t look fine,” Kelsey Pincter remarked.

  “Yeah, your eyes look funny.” Miracle Jackson said. “All sparky and hot. Like you gots a candle in your head, right behind your eyes—like a jack-o-lantern.”

  Like a jack-o-lantern… Emily took another deep breath.

  “I’m just fine,” she said again more firmly. “Or I will be if everyone will settle down before we go into the library. Other students are studying in here so we need to be…what?”

  “Quiet!” they all chorused loudly and each of them put a finger to his or her lips. “Shhhh!”

  Emily tried to smile. Normally her class was the light of her life—she loved kids and since she was never