15 Targeted (79 page)

There was even a special wedding cake set up on a tall table at the end of the grassy area, although the Temple chefs had been mystified when Emily had asked them to make it. Apparently the Kindred didn’t usually do a wedding cake or the cake cutting ceremony.

“Well…” Emily looked at the penitent priestess uncertainly. Turra hadn’t been in the ceremony and Emily wondered if she knew how the statue of the Goddess had come to life and ordered her mentor out. If she
had
heard, she might be trying to ingratiate herself with the new High Priestess of the Temple—though Emily was still trying to wrap her head around her new title herself.

“Please,” Turra pleaded. “Look—I brought you these as a gesture of apology.” She brought a hand out from around her back and Emily saw with delight that she was holding a huge, lovely bouquet filled with all kinds of wild flowers in every imaginable shade of blue.

“Oh, they’re gorgeous!” she exclaimed, taking the flowers in both hands. They were heavy and their stems felt cool and waxy against her fingertips. The one thing she hadn’t had at her ceremony was a bouquet—mainly because it was considered rude to bring dead plants into the Sacred Grove, at least according to Lit’aal. Everything in the holy chapel should be green and growing in reverence to the Goddess who was the Mother of All Life.

“Do you like them?” Turra smiled shyly. “I had them gathered from the Deep Blue—the jungle that covers much of Rageron. I thought it would be a nice gift to accustom you to your new home.”

“Well,
thank you.”
Emily was deeply touched. Maybe she had been too hasty in judging Turra. Maybe the other girl just wanted to make peace.

“It’s said that the Dream Blooms in the center have the scent of the Goddess’s own home land.” Turra pointed to the deep indigo blossoms in the very center of the bouquet. “Go on—smell them,” she urged.

Emily was about to do just that when Kate and Rone came up on her other side and distracted her.

“Hey, girlfriend.” Kate grinned at her. “Well,
that
was a ceremony I don’t think any of us will ever forget!”

“You’re not kidding.” Emily laughed. “It was…amazing. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”

“It answers a lot of questions, though,” Rone rumbled thoughtfully. “Now we know why you were found on Earth so far from where any other
Khalla
has ever been.”

“And we know that everything that happened to you was the will of the Goddess,” Kate added. “Looks like Rone and I were on a wild goose chase.”

“Oh, I’m sorry you came out here for nothing,” Emily exclaimed but her new friend just laughed.

“Don’t be silly! Of course we didn’t come for nothing. I found a great new friend and we got to see the Goddess in action—not many people can say that!”

“Well, I—”

“A-
hem.”
Turra cleared her throat pointedly and Emily realized she was nodding at the lush bouquet of multi-hued blue blossoms she still held in her hands.

“Oh, excuse me,” she said, smiling politely. “Kate, just look at the gorgeous bouquet Turra gave me.”

“Oh my—those
are
gorgeous!” Kate leaned closer, her face almost right in the flowers. “Are these all native to Rageron?”

“They sure are.” Emily smiled. “And Turra says the ones in the middle are supposed to smell just like Heaven. Go on—take a whiff.”

“No!” Turra shouted at the same time Rone barked, “Wait!”

But Kate had already leaned forward to bury her face in the riot of blue blossoms. She inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with their fragrance.

“Kate—no!” Rone grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her away from the bouquet Emily was still holding.

“What…?” Kate shook her head like a woman waking up from a dream. Then she looked up at Rone and frowned. “Who…who are you?”

“Kate? Lalli? It’s
me.”
Rone took her small hand in both of his much larger ones and looked into her face. “Just me—your mate, Rone.”

“You…” Her pale green eyes widened and filled with fear. “Oh my God—there’s something different about you. Something
wrong.
Get away from me! Leave me alone!”

She yanked her hand out of his grasp and stumbled away, looking over her shoulder as though he was a vicious beast coming to get her.

“Kate…sweetheart…” Rone was reaching for her but suddenly there was a low humming-buzzing sound in the area all around Kate.

For a moment, Emily couldn’t see what was happening. Then the humming sound ended and the ceremonial white robe Kate had been wearing for the ceremony dropped empty to the ground. Of Kate herself there was no sign.

She was gone.

The End

Or is it? Read on for a little taste of Brides of the Kindred 16, Forgotten, coming soon…

And if you have enjoyed this book, please take a moment to leave a review for
Targeted
. Good reviews are worth their weight in gold to an author--they help ensure new readers will find my books. And new readers means good book sales which in turn means I can keep writing for a living to feel all your Kindred cravings. Hugs and thanks so much for reviewing!

Evangeline

Forgotten

coming soon from

Evangeline Anderson

Prologue

“
You fool! You’ve taken the wrong female!”

Y winced as his Master bellowed inside his head. Master Two might be nothing but a chip implanted just under Y’s left ear, but he ruled Y with an iron fist despite his lack of a physical body.

“I took the one that sniffed the blossoms, Master, just as you requested,” he pointed out.

“
But look at her—this is not the Khalla at all—it’s the mate of that damn tracker
.”

“I can see that.” Y strove to keep his voice level. It would be wrong to raise his voice to the Master…no matter how much he might want to.

On the cold steel floor of the Scourge Fathership, the naked girl with the long, coppery curls moaned and stirred. She had been taken by a molecular transfer beam, a Scourge invention Y had traveled to the abandoned ship to get. It had been set to take whoever inhaled the fragrance of the Dream Blooms, exactly as Master Two had ordered. Y didn’t see how it was his fault the wrong female had been taken.

But so it had happened. This female—Kate, Y thought she was called—had apparently unwittingly sprung the trap set for Emily, the new
Khalla
back on Rageron. Indeed, she still had one of the deep blue blossoms clutched in one hand.

Y wondered how it had come through the transfer beam with her—it was his understanding that only living things were transportable. But maybe the freshly cut flower still had enough vitality to make it through the transfer…or maybe it was the spell the old hag from the Wulven home planet had placed on the blossoms that allowed it to come, clutched in Kate’s small hand. She looked so innocent and vulnerable, lying unconscious on the hard metal floor that Y felt his heart twist with pity. He immediately tried to suppress the emotion—doubtless his Master would see it as nothing but weakness.

“She’s here now,” he said, stolidly. “What shall we do with her? Do you want me to kill her?” He hoped not—he did not enjoy violence, especially towards females. But the Master was not to be denied and anyway, death would be a kinder fate than any of the horrible, twisted tortures the soulless bastard that lived in Y’s brain might devise.

“
I would kill her myself, if I had a body!”
Master Two hissed, his mental voice filled with frustration.
“But no…let me think.”

There was a long silence—so long that Y wondered if the Master had gone to sleep. He did that at times—became inactive during a recharging period. Y had come to look forward to such periods of inactivity—they were the only rest he got from the relentless dictator that lived in his skull.

On the cold floor, Kate stirred again and moaned softly.

“Master,” Y sub-vocalized in case she could hear him. “She is waking.”

“
Hush, you fool! Ah—I have it now. We must send her back.”

“You mean back to Rageron? And try to take the Khalla instead?” Y asked doubtfully. “That won’t be easy—they’ll know she was the true target. Doubtless they’ve taken her someplace shielded.”

“
No, you idiot! Not back to Rageron—back
home
. Her home.”

“I don’t understand. Do you mean her home world of Earth?” Y shook his head in confusion. “But why?”

“
Two reasons,”
Two hissed in his head.
“First because we must send her somewhere—we cannot take her with us. Her mate is a Wulven Kindred and they are absolutely deadly in their fur-form—we cannot risk it. Second, because home is the last place the Kindred will expect her to be. They’ll search the entire universe before they think to look back on Earth—which is just how we want it.”

“We do? But why? Are you hoping to distract them in some way?” Y asked.

“
Finally, you’re learning! Yes—a distraction. That’s exactly what this girl will be. And while the Kindred are busy hunting for her, they won’t even give a thought to what we might be up to.”

“What do mean?” Y asked. “I thought your entire plan hinged on forcing the
Khalla
to forget and fear her mate and then transporting her here to the Father Ship for execution after letting him see that she no longer knew him.”

It was another one of his Master’s convoluted plans which he didn’t agree with. Why take the time and trouble to bewitch the flowers in order to make the
Khalla
react in horror and aversion to the Beast Kindred assassin who had claimed her? Why not just snatch her away and execute her?

But his Master had declared that he wanted the assassin to suffer. He had refused to carry out the contract Two had placed on the
Khalla
’
s
head and Master Two wanted his last memory of his bride to be a painful one.

Let him know that she feared and loathed him at the last. It is a fitting punishment,
he had said. And so the whole elaborate scheme had been carried out exactly as he had ordered…only to fail at the last minute. It made Y wonder if there had been something wrong with his Master’s mind when he recorded the personality chip which was currently embedded under Y’s ear. He vaguely remembered seeing the corpse of his Master when he first awoke back on Z4, the Dark Kindred home world. It seemed to him there had been dark spots on Master Two’s brain…areas of stinking, oozing rot which would not seem to be conducive to logical reasoning…

“
I have been so focused on the Seeing that
B’Rugh
did for me—so focused on the future of the Kindred race,”
Master Two said, interrupting his treasonous thoughts.
“But why settle for destroying their future when I can destroy their present?”

“And how do you plan to do that, Master?” Y asked, careful to keep his voice level and respectful rather that doubtful.

“
Have you not noticed, Y, all the lovely toys the Scourge left lying around when they died?”
His Master’s voice sounded greedy.
“This molecular transfer beam is only one of them. Think of everything else they left! The flesh tanks…the sniffer kennels…there are so many tools here, just waiting for the right set of hands to pick them up.”