Found (2 page)

The alien hopping and waving in front of the
viewscreen didn’t look the least bit menacing. In fact what he
looked like was a very large…

“Bunny rabbit.” Lauren finished the thought
aloud. “Oh my God, he’s the spitting image of Mr. Kittles!”

Mr. Kittles had been the brown and white lop
eared bunny her mom had bought her for her twelfth birthday. He’d
been Lauren’s favorite pet and had slept in her bed every night.
Extremely intelligent for a bunny, Mr. Kittles had learned to use a
litter box just like a cat and had begged for carrots on his hind
legs like a dog. Lauren had been heartbroken when he’d gotten out
of the house and been run over by a careless driver in a huge SUV
when she was seventeen. And now, here he was again—almost ten years
later and a hundred thousand light years away…how was it
possible?

“Well, he’s not
exactly
like Mr.
Kittles,” Lauren murmured doubtfully. Which was true. For one
thing, Mr. Kittles had never worn clothes and this bunny—or the
alien who looked like a bunny—was. His short, furry frame was
draped in a shimmering purple cape and he wore soft brown boots on
his hind feet. He was still waving frantically as though he wanted
her to let him inside.

Lauren was tempted to do just that from sheer
boredom but she remembered Xairn’s warning and decided against it.
“Sorry, little fellah,” she said, watching the caped and booted
bunny hop around like crazy. “No can do. No matter how cute you
look, you might be bad news and I can’t take the risk.”

No sooner had the words left her mouth than
an earsplitting roar shook the ship. Lauren had the speakers on the
viewscreen turned down but even so, she covered her ears and
winced. What the hell was
that?

The answer wasn’t long in coming. Suddenly
the narrow entrance to the alley was filled with an enormous red
reptilian face. It had fierce white eyes outlined in black and a
square snout, reminding Lauren of the stylized paper dragons that
appeared around the Chinese New Year.

The bunny rabbit’s huge brown eyes suddenly
widened with fear and it hopped up and down even more frantically.
Its whiskers trembled and it seemed to be mouthing a plea at the
viewscreen.

The dragon-like creature saw it and roared
again, its jaws gaping open to reveal rows and rows of jagged pale
blue teeth. It was a tight squeeze but it began pushing its massive
head into the alley. A forked tongue licked out of its mouth and
slithered over the rabbit’s right boot before cinching tight. With
a jerk of its head, the dragon lifted the terrified rabbit into the
air and for a moment it seemed certain that it was going to eat the
helpless little creature right before Lauren’s horrified eyes.

Then, at the last minute, the boot came off
and the rabbit fell back onto the Kindred ship with a hollow thump.
The scrap of brown leather disappeared into the dragon’s gaping maw
and it roared angrily when it found its prey had eluded it. The
tongue snaked out again…

But by this time Lauren had already slapped a
palm over the door release mechanism and was beckoning for the
frightened rabbit-thing to come in. “Hurry!” she urged, waving at
it. “Come on—get in here quick!”

She had no idea if the rabbit could
understand her or not but it seemed to comprehend her gestures.
Barely eluding the seeking tongue again, it slid across the slick
silver surface of the Kindred ship and right into her arms.

Lauren pulled it tight to her chest and
slammed the door just as the forked black tongue was curling toward
her. The very tip of one fork caught in the ship’s door and was
amputated in a gout of slimy black blood as the silver panel shut.
It fell to the floor with a wet
smack
and lay twitching at
Lauren’s feet like a snake that’s been cut in half but doesn’t have
the sense to die.

“Ugh!” Lauren took a step back, still
clutching the bunny creature to her chest. From the pained roaring
outside the ship, the dragon was even more upset than she was. She
wondered uneasily if it could force its way into the alley and get
her. Would the Kindred ship protect her from something with the
size and strength of an angry T-rex?

“Don’t worry.” The piping little voice from
between her breasts startled her and when Lauren looked down, she
realized she was still hugging the bunny tight—like a little girl
clutching a stuffed animal.

“Wh…what?” she managed to stutter.
“Who…how…who are you and how can you speak English?”

The rabbit shook itself free of her and
hopped down. Then is shimmered and suddenly began to glow and
grow.

Lauren watched in horrified amazement as it
doubled and then trebled in height and mass until it was a pillar
of brilliant light higher than her head. She blinked, trying to get
used to the bright glow but almost at once the light solidified
into the shape of a blond man wearing a purple cape, black pants
and brown boots.

He was tall—almost as tall as Xairn though
not quite so broad in the shoulders. Still, he was large and
muscular enough to be a threat and Lauren took a step back when he
raised his head. His eyes were a pale, silvery-purple and they
gleamed strangely when smiled at her.

“Hello, Lauren,” he said. “Welcome to
O’ah.”

Deep in the bowls of the splicing district,
Xairn raised his bloody head.

He’d spent more time than he liked looking
for Vrr only to find that the DNA specialist had retired and given
the business over to his son, Slk. The Alteration house he ran
still appeared reputable, however, though the price for what Xairn
needed done was considerably more than Vrr would have charged
him.

Indeed, he wasn’t entirely sure how he was
going to pay the fee that Slk demanded. But somehow he had to if he
and Lauren were ever going to be free of the AllFather’s influence
and get beyond his reach. And at least he’d gained permission to
access their secure parking area. To bring a ship to the splicing
district without secure accommodations was asking to have it
stripped in a matter of minutes.

He’d been making his way back through the
narrow warren of arching plasti-glass tunnels built high above the
skyline of
O’ah
when a pack of splicers had jumped him.

He hadn’t been expecting the attack because
it didn’t make sense. Everyone knew that Scourge DNA was
flawed—their stubborn intractability and volatility made them
useless as slaves except to other Scourge and their pearlescent
grey skin and red-on-black eyes weren’t considered beautiful enough
to replicate for cloning. So why would splicers attack him? Putting
the question aside, Xairn had fought them off one by one, despite
the fact that his weapon was out of charge. But the splicers were
very determined and it was a long, messy business—mostly knife work
which left him covered in gore.

Five splicers lay dead at his feet, their
red-black blood splattering the smudged plasti-glass tunnel before
he was done. Only one remained alive and in the state he was in, he
wouldn’t last for long.

Xairn knelt on the male’s narrow chest and
stared into the pale purple eyes. “Why did you attack me?” he
demanded hoarsely, gripping the neck of the splicer’s cloak and
twisting. “Is Scourge DNA suddenly in vogue on this benighted
planet? I thought we had too many flaws to be of much use to a
splicer.”

“Don’t…don’t want your DNA,” the male choked,
a thin trickle of reddish-black blood spilling from the corner of
his mouth. “Scourge DNA is shit.”

“Why then?” Xairn twisted harder until the
male’s face turned as purple as his cloak. “Tell me now and I’ll
give you a painless death.”

“T-too late for that.” The male broke into a
cracked laugh that turned into a sob. “Gods…think my spine is
broken. Can’t feel anything…below my waist.”

“Lucky for you,” Xairn said coldly. “You
can’t feel pain in the lower half of your body. But if you don’t
want the top half of your miserable carcass to be in absolute
fucking agony, you’ll tell me what you know,
now.”

“Spider sent us.” The splicer coughed weakly,
spewing black droplets from his thin lips. “He wanted us to kill
you so he could have your ship.”

“My ship?” Xairn frowned. “What the hell does
he want with a Kindred Outrider? The damn thing is fifty cycles old
if it’s a day—surely he could see that.”

“He doesn’t…doesn’t want the ship itself.”
The light in the pale purple eyes was dying and the splicer’s voice
was growing faint. “He wants…what’s inside it.” He coughed again.
“Treasure…”

“Treasure? I don’t have any fucking…” Xairn’s
voice trailed off and his eyes widened. “Gods, Lauren!”

He shook the splicer hard. “What was he going
to do to her? Where was he taking her?”

But the light in the splicer’s pale purple
eyes had gone out—he was talking to a corpse.

Dropping the lifeless body, Xairn leapt to
his feet and took off down the warren of smudged, plasti-glass
tunnels at a dead run. If he didn’t get back to Lauren soon, there
would be nothing to get back to. And if he was too late to save
her…

Xairn didn’t let himself think about that.
Didn’t allow himself to explore the new emotions exploding inside
him. Rage…possession…desperation…

Please,
he prayed, not knowing who he
was praying to.
Please don’t let me be too late. Oh
Lauren…

Sophie was nervous.

“Of course you’re nervous.” Liv adjusted her
veil and smiled at her. “It’s your wedding day—everyone’s nervous
on their wedding day.”

“You weren’t,” Sophie accused, looking at
herself in the 3-D viewer. Like Olivia before her, she was wearing
their mother’s wedding dress and she had to admit it looked
beautiful. “You were so happy you were completely blissed out,” she
continued, pointing at her twin. “So happy you didn’t even think
twice about making me do the luck kiss with Sylvan.”

Liv snorted. “Don’t tell me you’re going to
complain about that? You wouldn’t be getting married today if it
wasn’t for that luck kiss.”

“She’s right, you know.” Kat bustled into the
small tent-like changing area just outside the sacred grove. Once
more she was playing the mother of the bride roll and making sure
everything went perfectly. Of course, she had a lot less to do than
she had for Olivia’s wedding because Sophie and Sylvan had decided
to keep their bonding ceremony a small, intimate affair.

“I know.” Sophie smiled at her sister and her
best friend. “And believe me, I’m not complaining. I’m just saying
you weren’t as nervous on your wedding day as I am, Liv.”

“What are you nervous about?” Kat asked,
frowning. “Believe me, there’s nothing to worry you. The guests are
all seated, Sylvan’s waiting at the altar—or in front of the
priestess, I guess. And I have to say he looks pretty amazing in
that native Tranq Prime costume—you didn’t tell me they dressed
like cavemen. I love the fur skirt and boots look.”

Sophie laughed. “I have to agree with you
there—Sylvan looks really good in his native outfit. But I assure
you not all men look as good in that ‘fur skirt’ as you call
it.”

“I don’t know.” Liv smiled. “I saw Baird
wearing his own furry kilt just before the ceremony and he looked
pretty hot in it too.”

“That’s because he and Sylvan both have such
nice muscular chests,” Kat said. “I’d be jealous if I didn’t have a
pair of hot guys of my own to admire.” She smirked. “Though I don’t
know why the guys get to wear boots in the sacred grove while the
rest of us go barefoot.”

“I wondered about that too,” Sophie said.
“It’s something to do with the boots being made of the fur of a
consecrated animal. Apparently the Tranq Prime warriors pray over
the
vranna
before they kill it.”

“If that’s the huge abominable snowman thing
they have to kill to prove they’re a man, I’d think they’d be
praying pretty much every minute they were hunting it,” Liv said
dryly. “Praying the damn thing doesn’t rip their heads off.”

“Well, I have a really cute pair of heels
that exactly match this dress.” Kat nodded at the beautiful
blue-green silk sheath she was wearing. “I’d be happy to say a
quick prayer over them if I could put them on.”

Sophie shook her head. “You know it doesn’t
work that way. No shoes allowed in the sacred grove.”

“I know, I know…” Kat sighed. “But as I was
saying before we got onto the subject of religious shoes,
everything is good to go and the refreshments for the reception are
all laid out. Everything looks fabulous. Well, except for that
weird brown mush from Sylvan’s home world.
That
looks like
dog crap on a plate, unfortunately.”

“That would be the
fleeta
pudding.”
Sophie made a face. “You didn’t try any, did you? You know it’s
made of bug guts, right? There are
legs
in it and
everything.”

“Anything that looks and smells like that
stuff, I’m smart enough not to put in my mouth,” Kat said tartly.
“Oh, but I think we’d better stop talking about it. Look at
Liv.”

Liv, who was nearing the end of her first
quadmester of pregnancy and just beginning to show, had a hand over
her mouth and was looking distinctly green. “I think I need some
air,” she whispered.

“Sorry!” Kat opened the flap of the tent and
waved Olivia out. “Just be sure you’re back in ten minutes. The
ceremony is about to start.”

“And that’s what’s worrying me,” Sophie said,
as soon as her sister left, shutting the tent flap behind her.
“Where’s Nadiah? She was supposed to be here
hours
ago. I
promised her a spot in my wedding but I can’t hold the whole thing
up indefinitely waiting for her.”

“I’m sure she’s on her way.” Kat patted her
arm comfortingly. “Don’t feel bad, doll. That’s one of the
advantages of having a small wedding—you’re not making a huge to-do
so you don’t have to worry if things don’t go off perfectly.”