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  “Yes,” Lissa whispered again, aloud this time, and then Saber pressed her to her side and cuddled behind her on the bed, holding her tight, letting her know everything would be all right. That no matter what anyone back home thought, they belonged together, and they would never be apart.

  The time after love had always been sweet for them, but this time, Saber reluctantly cut it short.

  “Mmm…” Lissa moaned in protest when he got out of bed. “Where are you going? It’s the middle of the night.”

  “I know it is, but I really need to talk to Reddix.” Saber sighed. “I need to tell him I’ll take back the burden I put on him—tell him the two of us are going back to Tarsia to rule, if they’ll have us.”

  Lissa sat up. “They won’t.”

  “Probably not. But we at least have to try.”

  “Yes,” she said softly. “We’ll try.”

  “And that’s what I have to tell Reddix. Maybe…maybe it will lift some of the burden off his shoulders, let him rest a little easier.”

  Lissa gave him a sad little smile.

  “You truly love him, don’t you?”

  “He’s like a brother to me,” Saber said seriously. “And the way he was earlier—you should have seen him, Lissa—he was almost wild. He told me he’d done things…”

  “What things?” She frowned.

  Saber shook his head. “Never mind. Hopefully, he’ll be able to undo them once he knows he’s not alone in all this. I’m just going to go talk to him, and then I’ll come right back.”

  “You promise?” She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Because I was kind of hoping for a little more love.”

  Saber gave her an appreciative growl.

  “You’ll have as much as you can handle, I promise you, amalla.” Bending down, he took her mouth in a sweet, hot kiss. “Just let me speak to Reddix, and I’ll be right back.”

  “Don’t take too long.” She lay back on the bed and curled up on her side. “It’s lonely in this big bed without you.”

  For a moment, Saber wavered. Reddix was staying in the guest quarters—all the way on the other side of the massive Kindred Mother Ship. And Lissa looked so warm and inviting curled in the bed that way. Saber almost put off talking to his friend until the next day, just to stay with her. Then he remembered the wild look on Reddix’s face and the witch’s mark on his wrist.

  No, he told himself. This can’t wait. I have to go to him now. Have to give him peace so he can rest and heal.

  Kissing Lissa once more, he went out to find his friend and put his mind at ease.

  Chapter Six

  He was flying—flying over the surface of an alien world he’d never seen before. There was a blue ocean, topped with frothing caps of foam, but he didn’t seem to be headed there. Instead, he saw a land mass growing in his field of vision—a long, thick strip of terrain thrust out into the water like an accusing finger. A peninsula.

  “Florida,” he thought to himself, and the name sounded right, although he didn’t know where it had come from.

  But he didn’t have time to worry about his sudden inexplicable knowledge for long. He was coming in faster now, flying over the land at alarming speed like a projectile shot from a weapon. Trees and beaches, alien beasts and buildings were all passing by in the blink of an eye. Clearly, he was aiming for something, but what?

  “So how are you this week? You seem a little tense.”

  Before he could wonder where the voice was coming from, Reddix’s disembodied self was slicing neatly and silently through the roof of a strange building. He caught a glimpse of different rooms as he passed through them. There was a waiting area filled with people sitting on chairs and a pretty girl behind a long rounded counter. Behind that was a series of smaller rooms, each with a padded table in the center. On some of the tables, humans were lying, spread out like dead fish and covered in white sheets. Each of them had an attendant—another human—leaning over them and doing…what were they doing, exactly?

  It took Reddix a moment to figure it out, but when he did, he felt a strange mixture of revulsion and hunger. The attendants were touching the ones on the table. Touching them all over, rubbing, caressing, massaging…everywhere he saw bare hands on naked flesh. There was nothing sexual about it—nothing he could see, anyway, but still, the sight was almost more than he could bear. He spent so much time avoiding being touched himself that the idea of someone voluntarily taking off their clothing and letting someone else rub and massage their bare skin made him tremble. And yet…to have that kind of control. To be able to endure someone else’s hands on his body without feeling their emotions, without triggering his RTS to the point of pain and self-loathing…

  That’s what I want, he thought, filled with sudden, unwilling longing. Just to be touched without feeling pain. Just to talk to another person and have a normal conversation without having to feel their emotions crawl all over me.

  But how stupid was it to wish such a thing? It was impossible…impractical. And it was never going to happen.

  “So tight right here. I think I need to hit some trigger points.”

  There was that voice again—for some reason it sounded familiar. Suddenly, Reddix found himself hovering over a tiny room near the back of the alien building. He watched what was going on in the room with interest.

  Lying on his stomach on the padded table was a large, flabby man with thinning brownish hair.

  “Yeah, I’m a little tense, darlin’” he was saying. “Business, you know. We did several multi-million deals this week, and of course, I had to be involved in them all. Had to keep it all running smoothly.”

  “Of course,” said the girl bending over him. “That sounds stressful.”

  “Well, it is but when you’re the firm’s top earner…”

  The flabby man went on in a boastful voice, but Reddix had already tuned him out. He only had eyes for the girl, because now that he saw her, he realized he had seen her before—many, many times.

  I’ve been dreaming of her for months, he thought, shocked. Why couldn’t I remember until now?

  Looking at her, he couldn’t answer the question. Couldn’t see how in the Seven Hells he could ever forget a face and body like that.

  The girl was tall for a female, though she would still be at least a head and a half shorter than him. She was leaning over her client, working intently on his back and neck. Her slender shoulders were hunched, and her head was tucked down so that Reddix couldn’t see her features.

  His eyes traveled down her body instead.

  She had long black hair with reddish highlights that fell to her curvy waist. Despite her loose uniform smock, he could see she had full hips and a generous heart-shaped ass. Her skin was a warm shade of coppery-brown, which spoke of either hours in the sun or an exotic heritage.

  Well, of course she had an exotic heritage—she was an alien, at least to Reddix. Probably, she looked perfectly normal for Earth. He wondered what her face looked like—for some reason, though he knew the girl, he couldn’t quite remember it. If he’d had a proper Touch sense like every other male of his clan, he could have sent a whisper-tendril to trail along the back of her neck and make her move so he could see her. Instead, he had to content himself with willing her to look up.

  Finally, she stood up straight, and Reddix caught his breath—or would have if he had been breathing.

  She had lovely features—strong for a woman but no less beautiful for all that. Her high cheekbones gave her a striking look, but it was her eyes that really caught his attention. Deep, pure blue with golden flecks, they looked like twin pools filled with sunlight.

  Reddix had never seen eyes like hers before, and he found he couldn’t stop looking at them. They stood out in her face, a vivid contrast to her warm, copper skin. They turned her from merely pretty to strikingly beautiful.

  And they were filled with anger.

  “Please don’t ask me that again, Mr. Witherspoon,” she said tightly, taking a step away f