Sought...Book 3 in the Brides of the Kindred series (43 page)

She hoped so. It was going to be really hard
to face Liv and Sophie and tell them that she had found their
long-lost cousin…and then lost her again. Then again, it was going
to be hard to tell them the other news too.

But surely I won’t die—not of a tiny
little scratch!
She touched her wounded cheek gingerly with her
fingertips and winced at the sting.

“I’m sorry.”

Kat looked up to see Deep watching her with
a look of remorse in his black eyes. “What?” she asked.

“I said I’m sorry. All this is my fault. If
I hadn’t insisted we come here, none of it would have happened. You
wouldn’t have been cut and—”

“That’s true,” Kat interrupted, refusing to
discuss her impending doom. “But we were looking for traces of
Lauren too, so the mission wasn’t a complete wash.” She frowned. “I
still don’t understand what happened in the psychic knife
though.”

“
I
understand,” Lock said grimly as
he worked the controls. “The knife is made to cut bonds between
people, but it only cuts the bonds the operator stipulates. When
Deep set the controls, he didn’t program the machine to cut the
soul bond between the two of us and you, my lady. Instead he—”

“Cut the bond between the two of us and
himself,” Kat finished, understanding. “So now you and I are bonded
but neither one of us has any connection to Deep.”

“That’s true.” Deep nodded. “I thought…I
believed that the two of you would be better off together. Without
my interference.”

Lock turned to give his brother a fierce
look. “That’s not right or natural and you know it, Deep. The
Goddess formed Twin Kindred to share a female—I never wanted the
lady Kat all to myself. I wanted to
share
her with you. And
now…” His throat worked convulsively and he shook his head. “And
now I don’t know what will happen to us. Any of us. Because I
cannot live without the two of you and both of you are
wounded.”

“It’s going to be okay. We’re going to get
through this.” Kat tried to sound a lot more positive than she
felt. “Once we get back to the Mother ship, Sylvan will patch us up
physically. And as for the bonding and soul stuff, we can always go
back to Mother L’rin, right? I mean, I know she was pretty pissed
at us last time we saw her but surely she won’t turn us away when
we explain what happened.”

“Maybe she
can
help.” Deep sounded
hopeful. “Hasn’t she treated
kusax
wounds before?”

“I don’t remember.” Lock stared straight
ahead at the viewscreen. “But I think it would be best for us to
contact her as soon as possible to ask.”

“There, see—all better.” Kat tried to smile
at them but neither brother returned her positive expression. She
felt a steady wave of
worry/fear/helplessness
coming from
Lock and from Deep she still felt…nothing.
God, I never thought
I would miss having his feelings in my head! Now I just wish I
could tell what was going on behind those black eyes of his.
But whatever it was, Deep wasn’t telling.

It will be all right,
Kat told
herself uneasily.
We’ve been through a lot but surely we can fix
this, like we fixed everything else. We’re all going to be
okay…aren’t we?

She hoped so. Oh God, she certainly hoped
so.

“I’m afraid you and Olivia need to prepare
yourselves,
Talana.”
Sylvan’s face looked so grave that
Sophie’s heart skipped a beat.

“Prepare ourselves? For what?” Liv
demanded.

“I’ve examined Kat thoroughly and done
everything I could for her. But…” Sylvan hesitated so long that
Sophie couldn’t wait any more.

“But what? What’s wrong with her?”

She was afraid to hear the answer. The
minute Deep and Lock’s ship had returned to the docking bay, they
had requested immediate medical assistance. Deep had been badly
wounded and was being examined by one of Sylvan’s colleagues. But
Kat, well, she’d
looked
all right when they wheeled her into
the med station strapped to one of the floating Kindred stretchers.
She’d even smiled at them and given a big ‘thumbs up.’ She’d had
some weird stuff matted in her hair and on the back of her clothes
but Sophie hadn’t seen any blood or obvious wounds. Well, other
than a tiny red scratch on her cheekbone, but that was nothing. So
what could possibly be wrong?

Sylvan took a deep breath. “Kat has been
wounded with a
kusax.”

“A what?” Olivia gave him a blank look.
“What’s that?”

“A weapon of the Scourge—it poisons the
soul.”

“The
soul?”
Liv raised her eyebrows.
“Seriously?”

“Just because you can’t see it on any kind
of scan or medical exam doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, Olivia,”
Sylvan said quietly. “And that is precisely why this kind of
poisoning is so…difficult to treat.”

“But there is a treatment—right?
Right?”
Sophie asked anxiously.

“There has to be,” Liv said. “Poison is
curable if you catch it in time and they just came back an hour
ago. So what’s the antidote?”

Sylvan shook his head reluctantly, his ice
blue eyes sorrowful. “I’m sorry, Olivia, there is none.”

“No antidote?” Sophie fumbled for her
sister’s hand and gripped it hard for support. “Sylvan, please
don’t tell me what I think you’re going to tell me. Please don’t
say that Kat is going to…to…”

“To die,” he finished for her softly. “I’m
so sorry,
Talana.
But there’s no cure. Nothing I can
do.”

“I don’t accept that!” Liv declared. “I
can’t.
The Kindred have an incredibly advanced system of
medicine, Sylvan.
Surely
there must be something you haven’t
tried.”

He shook his head. “Unfortunately, this is
not the first case of soul poisoning I’ve treated—or tried to
treat. It starts in the soul but because your spirit is anchored to
your body, eventually it affects everything. The symptoms are
always the same—at first the victim feels nothing. Then the place
where he—or in this case she—was wounded begins to show curling
dark green lines, just below the surface of the skin. That’s the
poison working its way from the soul into the body and ultimately
to the heart. As the lines progress, the symptoms progress as well.
Weakness, dizziness…”

“And then what?” Sophie demanded.

Sylvan sighed reluctantly. “And finally
intense pain and death. But once she reaches that stage there are
drugs we can give her—”

“To ease her pain? To help her die? No!” Liv
shook her head emphatically. “Kat’s our friend—our
best
friend, Sylvan. And she’s a young, healthy woman. Don’t start
talking that hospice shit to me—don’t you
dare.”

“There has to be another way—something we
can do. There
has
to.” Tears were rolling down Sophie’s
cheeks now but she couldn’t seem to stop them.
“Please,
Sylvan!”

Sylvan looked almost as upset as she felt.
“Talana—”

“There is something—at least we hope there
is.” Lock came up behind them, and despite her distress, Sophie
thought the light twin looked worse than she had ever seen him. His
dark green uniform shirt and black pants were stained and dirty and
the expression on his handsome features was one of weariness beyond
endurance.

“What? What is it?” She and Liv both spoke
eagerly at the same time.

“Deep has gone back to Twin Moons to beg
help from Mother L’rin. She healed Kat the first time, we have
hopes that she may be able to do it again.”

“What?” Sylvan frowned. “Deep has already
left the med station? I was told he was gravely injured.”

Lock shrugged. “You know how quickly we Twin
Kindred heal—Deep was already on the mend, even before we left the
planet.” He cleared his throat. “It is his heart, not his body,
that is broken now. He took a quick shower and left—against the
advice of your colleague, I might add.”

“Twin Kindred do heal well and cleanly,”
Sylvan admitted grudgingly. “You’re especially lucky your internal
organs are self-sealing after any kind of blunt trauma or puncture
wound. But I still would have liked to have a look at him
myself.”

“We felt there wasn’t time to waste.” Lock
spoke in a low voice and nodded at the entrance to the med center
where Kat was resting in one of the private rooms. “If there is a
cure for soul poisoning at all, it would be better to apply it
early rather than to wait until the disease progressed to the…the
later stages.” He coughed and looked away but not before Sophie saw
the glint of tears in his brown eyes.

“True,” Sylvan said. “Well then, please let
me know what he finds out.”

“Can we see Kat now?” Liv demanded.

“Certainly.” He nodded gravely.

Liv was already striding toward the med
center entrance but Sophie hung back. “Does…does she know? About
the poisoning? About how there’s no…no known cure?” Her throat was
so tight she could barely get the words out.

“She knows,” Sylvan said quietly. “I don’t
believe in keeping such things from patients.” He pulled Sophie
into a tight embrace and buried his face in her hair. Softly, he
spoke through their link. “
I’m sorry, Talana. So sorry there
isn’t more I can do. I know how very dear Kat is to you and
Olivia.”

“
She’s more than a friend—she’s like our
sister.”
Sophie wanted to cry again but she was afraid she
would never stop if she did. “I know you’re trying,” she said
aloud, kissing Sylvan on the cheek. “I won’t blame you if…if… I
won’t blame you. No matter what happens.”

He drew back, searching her eyes for a long
moment. “But I’ll blame myself. I want so much to make you
happy—I’d do anything I could to keep you from pain. Anything.”

“Don’t. Don’t, Sylvan. I know.” Sophie
kissed him again. “I have to go, Liv is waiting for me.”

He nodded. “Go then. I’ll be here if you
need me.”

“I know.” She tried to smile but couldn’t
quite manage it. She was still swiping tears from her eyes when she
caught up to Olivia, who was hovering just outside the closed door
of Kat’s room.

“I don’t know what to say.” Liv’s voice, so
strong a moment ago, was wavery and uncertain.

“I don’t know either,” Sophie admitted. “I
just…what can you say about something like this?”

“You
could
say, ‘Hi Kat, welcome
home.’” The door slid open to reveal Kat standing there with one
hand on her ample hip and a little smile on her face. Her long red
hair was damp—obviously she’d just gotten out of the shower. Sophie
couldn’t see a thing wrong with her except for a tiny green
half-circle that looked like the start of a shamrock tattoo on her
right cheekbone.

“Hi, Kat-woman.” Olivia looked at her
uncertainly. “Are you okay?”

“Peachy, aside from the fact that I’m
supposed to die in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”
Kat’s voice was perfectly calm but there was something wild in her
eyes—a despair that Sophie could see even if their friend wasn’t
willing to speak it out loud.

“Kat,” she choked, holding out her arms.
“Oh, Kat…”

Suddenly all three of them were hugging and
crying, right there in the hallway of the med center. Sophie held
her friend tight, feeling like if she could just hold her close
enough, she might never have to let go.

Surprisingly, Kat was the one to recover
first. Sniffing, she pulled back from the little huddle of misery
they had formed and blotted her eyes on the sleeve of the hospital
gown she was wearing. The Kindred version of the gown was made of
much nicer fabric and came in a variety of stylish colors but
unfortunately still gaped open in the back.

“Okay, that’s enough of that,” she said,
wiping her eyes one last time. “I don’t have time to waste getting
all emotional.”

“Sorry,” Sophie whispered, blotting her own
eyes. “I just…I can’t believe it. It can’t be true.”

“It doesn’t feel real to me either.” Kat
lifted her chin. “But I guess it is. Sylvan’s the best and if he
says there’s nothing they can do…”

“Don’t give up hope yet,” Liv said, sniffing
fiercely. “We just saw Lock and he said Deep was on his way to Twin
Moons to find Mother L’rin. She healed you before—I’m sure she can
help this time, too.”

“Yeah, that’s what we were talking about on
the way up here.” Kat frowned. “But should Deep be going such a
long distance after the wound he got? I mean, you should have
seen
the knife he got stuck with. It was practically as long
as my arm.”

“Lock said he felt he was healed well enough
to travel,” Sophie said. “And Sylvan said something about the Twin
Kindred having self healing or self sealing organs or something, I
think. Anyway, Lock said they didn’t want to waste any time in
case…well, you know.”

“I know.” Kat nodded.

“I don’t understand why
Lock
didn’t
just go and let Deep stay here and recuperate,” Olivia said.

“He probably wants to apologize in person,”
Kat murmured.

“Apologize? For what?” Liv said. “Was it his
fault you…” She motioned to the tiny green mark on Kat’s cheek.

“Oh no, that was just bad luck.” Kat
swallowed. “Really,
really
bad luck. But Mother L’rin was
extremely angry at us the last time we saw her—especially at Deep
because he was the one who insisted we cut our bond.”

“And did you?” Sophie asked. “Did you get it
cut?”

“In a way.” Kat sighed. “Look, it’s a long
story and I don’t want to tell it here. Hang on while I get
dressed—I had Lock go get me some clothes. Just give me a second
and then we can go back to my suite and talk.”

“Wait a minute.” Liv frowned. “You can’t
just leave AMA, Kat.”

“Watch me,” Kat said grimly. “You think I’m
going to spend my last day or days cooped up in here wearing a
hospital jonnie? I don’t
think
so. If I’m going to die I
need chocolate STAT. And I want to wear my favorite dress—you know,
the green one I spent a fortune on and keep in the back of the
closet? I’ve never dared to wear it out because it’s too low cut so
I feel like my boobs are falling out of it. But I’m going for it
now. And I also want to…to…” Her voice began to waver. “Oh hell, I
want to talk to my Grandma. I think…I guess I’d better warn her
what’s going on. What’s going to happen.”