Revealed (17 page)

Sylvan laughed. “You didn’t ruin it,
Merrick
! I would have rather had you there but as it turns out, Nadiah had someone else to perform the luck kiss with so it all worked out in the end.”

“Nadiah? I’ve never met her but do you mean the daughter of your mother’s sister?”
Merrick
asked.

Sylvan nodded. “Yes, that’s her.”

“Then I’m glad I wasn’t here after all. Forgive me, old friend, but I wouldn’t have wanted to frighten your kin.”

Sylvan frowned. “Don’t be silly, you wouldn’t have frightened her.”

“With this face?”
Merrick
pointed at himself. “Hell yes, I would have frightened her,” he growled. “I frighten any female that looks at me. Except…” His eyes went to the sleeping girl with her cloud of midnight black hair.

“Except who?” Sylvan urged softly. He obviously saw the direction
Merrick
’s gaze was taking because his voice got even softer. “Except her?”

Merrick
scowled. “It means nothing but…”

“But what?” Sylvan asked.

“Well…when I first got her out of stasis I was sure she would scream the minute she opened her eyes and saw me. She’s obviously been through a lot—there are bruises and wounds all over her.” His hands clenched into fists. “I’d like to catch the son-of-a-bitch who did that to her, who hurt her.”

Sylvan shook his head. “I’m afraid there’s no catching him—he’s dead.”

“What?”
Merrick
demanded. “How do you know?”

“Because it was the AllFather. If I’m right, and I think I am, this female is the last one he abducted before his son, Xairn, went to confront him. We looked everywhere on the Fathership for her and couldn’t find her. She must have crawled into the stasis chamber before the life pod deployed.” Sylvan shook his head. “If you hadn’t found her, she might have been lost, floating in deep space forever.”

“The AllFather, huh?”
Merrick
shook his head. “No wonder she looks like she does. That sick bastard must have tortured her.”

“I think that’s a pretty safe bet,” Sylvan said quietly. “She was missing for awhile before he was defeated. It’s hard to say what he did to her but I’m sure it wasn’t pleasant.”

Merrick
looked at the fragile form of the girl and something like awe crept into his heart. “She was abducted and tortured and Goddess knows what else. But despite all that, she wasn’t scared of me when she saw me. She…she clung to me. Wrapped her arms around my neck and didn’t want to let go.” He gave a harsh laugh. “Thought she was going to fucking strangle me before I calmed her down.”

“It sounds like she knew a good male when she saw one,” Sylvan said, smiling. “You see? You’re not so frightening to females after all.”

“Yes, I am—to most of them,”
Merrick
objected. “Which is why I’m damn glad the daughter of your mother’s sister didn’t have to perform the luck kiss with me.”

Sylvan looked troubled. “There isn’t much that frightens Nadiah. In fact, sometimes I think she’s too fearless for her own good.”

“What do you mean?”

His old friend sighed. “Just that things with Nadiah have gotten…complicated lately. She’s back on Tranq Prime now, challenging the blood bond her parents set up for her when she was only six cycles old.”

“Challenging a blood bond?” Merrick, who had been raised on Tranq Prime, knew exactly what that entailed and how risky it was. He gave a long, low whistle. “That’s bold, all right. What kind of warrior did she get to challenge for her?”

Sylvan frowned. “That’s the thing—the one who is seeking to break the bond isn’t Kindred. At least, I don’t
think
he is.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Merrick
asked, perplexed. “How can you not know if he’s Kindred or not?”

Sylvan shook his head. “I really shouldn’t say any more. He’s not exactly my patient but—”

“But you’re worried about your kinswoman and you need to unload.”
Merrick
squeezed his shoulder. “Come on, old friend—say what you need to. I’m as silent as the grave and you know I’ll be leaving as soon as I meet your bride and my duty to this little female is discharged.” He nodded at the shape in the stasis tube. “I’ll probably never even meet the male you’re speaking of.”

Sylvan sighed. “All right. Well, he comes from Earth, just like my female, Sophia. But he
looks
Kindred—that’s how the mix-up at my bonding ceremony occurred. Deep and Lock, my second brothers, mistook him for you, since they’d never met you before and didn’t know you’re a hybrid. They forced him into the ceremony and Nadiah kissed him.”

“Some mix-up,”
Merrick
agreed. “The poor male must have been pretty fucking confused.”

Sylvan nodded. “He was—although he rose to the occasion admirably. Later, when he offered to challenge for her, I took some of his blood, trying to find a way to strengthen it and him for the coming conflict.” He rubbed the back of his neck, as though to ease tension. “At first blush, it appears to be completely human which would be in keeping with the fact that he was born and raised on Earth. But the results of the long term analysis are starting to come in and they’re so strange that—”

Suddenly he broke off, his head cocked to one side in a listening gesture.

“Sylvan?”
Merrick
frowned. “You all right?”

“Forgive me.” Sylvan shook his head. “But I’m getting an urgent message from Sophia. Apparently there’s an emergency down at the med station.”

“Then go,”
Merrick
urged him. “The girl will be all right as long as the stasis chamber is sealed, right?”

“Right.” Sylvan nodded. “And I’ll send a team to bring her right away—as soon as I finish dealing with this. He turned to go but
Merrick
put a hand on his shoulder.

“One more thing, Brother, since you know about this little female. What’s her name?”

“Oh, um…” Sylvan frowned, obviously concentrating. “Elise, that’s it. Yes, Elise.”

“Thank you.”
Merrick
looked back at the girl.

“You’re welcome and now I really must go. I’ll talk to you later.” Sylvan clapped him on the shoulder once more and then left the star-duster in a hurry.

“Elise,”
Merrick
murmured to himself, staring at the fragile form still cradled in the dreamless sleep of stasis. “Elise…”

* * * * *

“I’m sorry to have Sophie call you, Sylvan, but nobody seemed to know where you were,” Olivia greeted Sylvan anxiously as he burst into the small exam room near the back of the med station. She and Sophia and Kat were all huddled anxiously on one side of a cot which held Lauren. On the other side of the cot, Xairn hovered anxiously, holding his female’s hand and looking as worried as a male could look.

“It’s all right,” Sylvan assured her. “I was with
Merrick
in the docking bay—he finally got in.” He looked at Lauren. “Now what seems to be the matter?”

“She’s very faint and weak. So dizzy she can’t even sit, let alone walk. I had to carry her here.” Xairn sounded near panic. “This came on very suddenly—I am
extremely
worried.”

“Of course you are,” Sylvan said soothingly. “All right, you say it came on suddenly. What was she doing when the symptoms hit? Any kind of strenuous exercise?”

“Um…” For some reason both Xairn and Lauren looked embarrassed and while it wasn’t easy to tell with the Scourge warrior’s gray skin, Sylvan was almost positive he was blushing.

“We were just…Well, actually we were, um…” Lauren shifted in the cot and the scent of sex wafted to Sylvan’s sensitive nose.
Oh.

“Never mind,” he said briskly. “Let me just draw some blood and run a few tests. We’ll see what’s going on.”

“I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with me except I’m hungry,” Lauren protested, holding out her arm for the needle he was preparing. “Seriously you guys, I feel like I could eat an entire week’s worth of cupcakes right now. And I bake a
lot
of cupcakes in a week.”

Olivia frowned. “You have a really strong feeling of hunger? Like you have to eat
right now
or you’re going to be sick or faint?”

Lauren nodded. “Exactly.” She looked at Sylvan pleadingly. “Please, can’t one of the girls get me something to eat? I swear I’m
starving
over here.”

Sylvan frowned as he collected the blood sample. “I don’t know if that would be a very good idea. If, Goddess forbid, something was truly wrong and we needed to operate, we would want your stomach to be empty.”

“That’s what I feared,” Xairn said, his face turning pale. “Which is why I refused to let her eat before I brought her here.”

“Just let me run those tests,” Sylvan began but
 
Olivia shook her head.

“There’s only one test you need to run, Sylvan.”

“What?” He finished taking the sample and sealed the small wound in Lauren’s arm with flesh glue. “What are you talking about?”

“Come here.” Olivia beckoned to him and whispered in his ear.

After a moment Sylvan nodded. “All right. We’ll do it at once.” He looked at Lauren and Xairn. “Just sit tight for a moment. I’ll be back in five standard minutes.”

* * * * *

Lauren watched fearfully as Sylvan left the room and went to run whatever tests he needed to find out what was the matter with her. Could it be that there truly was something really wrong? Was she dangerously ill? Was she—

“Stop worrying, doll.” Kat patted her on the arm comfortingly. “You’re going to be fine—Sylvan’s the best doctor on the whole Mother Ship. Isn’t that right, Liv?”

Olivia nodded. There was a secretive smile playing around the corners of her mouth that Lauren couldn’t understand. “Absolutely. And I bet he’ll come back with good news.”

“Good news?”
Xairn growled. “How in the seven hells could anything which makes Lauren faint and sick good news?”

“We don’t know for sure yet so I’m not saying anything,” Liv said. “But just wait—it shouldn’t take long to check.”

“What
shouldn’t take long to check?” Sophie sounded exasperated. “Honestly, Liv, why are you being so secretive? Would you mind telling us exactly what’s going on here?”

“I’m not saying anything until we know.” Olivia
 
looked stubborn. “I don’t want to raise any false hopes.”

“False hopes?” Lauren shook her head. “Now you’ve lost me completely, cuz. Seriously can’t you just tell me—”

“I’m not saying anything,” Liv repeated. “Just wait.”

The time seemed to crawl, and Lauren swore that the five minutes Sylvan had asked her for had turned into five days or possibly five years. But just as she couldn’t take it anymore and was about to grab her cousin and demand an explanation, Sylvan came back inside the room. Olivia looked at him and he nodded once, a small smile on his lips.

“I was right then?” she asked.

Sylvan nodded again. “You’re quite the diagnostician, mate-of-my-kin.”

“Right about what?” Lauren nearly yelled. “Come on, you guys, I’m
dying
over here. Well, not literally, I mean…that is, I hope,” she added, feeling suddenly uncertain. “But I—”

Olivia laughed. “You’re not dying, Lauren. You’re
pregnant.
Sylvan, show her.”

With a smile, Sylvan produced a small, perfectly formed pink flower and handed it to Lauren who took it and stared at it. She’d heard about the Kindred pregnancy test from her cousins and Kat but the results were almost always a blue flower. A pink flower meant…

“A little girl! Oh my God, you’re going to have a
little girl!”
Kat yelled. With a squeal of excitement, she rushed to hug Lauren who accepted the gesture and then hugged her friend back as the reality of the situation began to sink in.

“A little girl,” she whispered. “I didn’t…didn’t think it was possible. Not after Xairn lost the human DNA he had from me when he went back to the Fathership that last time.”

“Enough of it must have remained to make pregnancy possible.” Sylvan smiled. “Congratulations, Lauren, Xairn. In about a year you’re going to be parents.”

“And you’re only a quadmester or two behind me.” Liv grinned. “My little boy and your little girl will grow up together.”

Sophia spoke up suddenly. “It’s the prophecy,” she said, her face strained and white. “The one the AllFather was hunting Liv and me for in the first place. It said that a female would come who would regenerate their race by having girls—isn’t that right?”

“That’s right.” Xairn nodded slowly and Lauren couldn’t help noticing that his face was paper-pale as well. “The prophecy has come true. My female…my female is with child. I am going to be a…a…” He shook his head, clearly unable to finish.

“Honey?” Lauren said anxiously, looking up at him. “Are you all right?”

“I…I’m fine.” He took a single, weaving step toward the door and then another. “I just can’t believe…I…I need some air.” He opened the door and was halfway out before he wobbled and his knees crumpled.

“Oh my God, catch him!” Kat shouted at the same time Liv yelled,