“I am,” Stav said although he knew that his Curse put his body under unnatural strain constantly. Still, the Goddess had sent him here for a reason. Surely she wouldn’t let him die before he completed it. Would she?
He started to step into the pinkish-gold cylinder but Six reached out one manacled hand to him.
“Stavros, wait. I feel I must talk to you before you offer yourself in this way.”
“What is it?” Charlotte was looking worried. “Is this stuff going to hurt him?” She nodded at the plasma. “My hand is still numb and tingly from where I touched it. I don’t know about Stav getting all the way into it.”
“It’s not just the plasma…it’s the prophesy,” Six said. “But I can reveal it only to Stavros—I am sorry.”
Charlotte got a stubborn expression on her face.
“Well, I’m his partner. If something affects his health and wellbeing, I’m entitled to know about it.”
Six shook his head, looking every bit as stubborn as she did.
“I am sorry but this is confidential information. I will speak only to Stavros.”
“But—”
“Charlotte, give me a moment.” Stav stepped to the side, drawing Six with him. The Dark Kindred was still manacled and he motioned to one of the remaining guards to unlock him and Mei-Li. After a nod from J’lorgan, the guard did so. They stepped outside the golden pillar and back into the outer room, Stavros trying not to see Charlotte’s angry, worried face as he went.
“Good,” Six said, when they were out of earshot. “This message must be for you alone because you alone can decide what must be done.”
“Tell me,” Stav said. “What about the prophesy?”
“I know the rest of it,” Six said grimly. “And it does not bode well for you. Listen:
For when the Dark is burned to ash
Only then will danger pass
But when it does, it steals his breath
To seal Dark’s doom, the fate is…”
“Is what?” Stav demanded.
Six sighed heavily. “Death—the fate is death. Stavros, if you do this, you will surely die. The prophesy foretells it.”
Stav took a deep breath. Death. He would be going to his death. But I’d be doing it to save Charlotte’s beloved home world, he thought. And what better way to go than that? Besides, it wasn’t like he was going to live past forty cycles anyway. His heart would give out long before then from the constant strain of his Curse. He might be cutting off a few years, but his life was already more than half over—he had never expected to live to a ripe old age anyway.
“I’m going to do it,” he said, looking at Six. “I’m the only one who can. I can’t let Charlotte’s entire world die when I can do something about it.”
“You…love her then?” Six spoke as though the idea of love was a slightly foreign concept—one which he had only recently become familiar with.
“I do,” Stav said. “More than anything. More than life.”
“You will be leaving her behind,” Six pointed out. “She will grieve you.”
Stav shook his head.
“I don’t think so. She doesn’t feel for me as I do for her. She has reasons to dislike our people.” He thought of her sister’s suicide. “Valid reasons.”
“She worries for you,” Six said. “Concern is a sign of love—I have learned that recently.”
“She doesn’t love me,” Stav said roughly. “But I love her. And that is why I must do this.”
The Dark Kindred nodded gravely.
“I understand and respect your decision.”
“Good. Then I must ask for your absolute discretion in this matter,” Stav said seriously. “I do not want Charlotte to know this is going to kill me. She can know that it might be difficult and dangerous but she must not know that it will be fatal.”
“Agreed.” Six nodded again.
“Gods…” Stavros ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t even know what I’m doing. Once I absorb as much of the Heart’s emotion plasma as I can, what am I supposed to do with it? Where can I go with it that will negatively affect the Dark Kindred in any way—let alone completely incapacitate them?”
“As to that,” Six said thoughtfully. “Since the last stanza of the prophesy was sent to me, I have been giving it much thought. I believe I have an idea of where you must go and what you must do. Listen carefully…”
* * * * *
“I don’t like this,” Charlie said to Mei-Li who was waiting with her in front of the vast pillar of pink plasma while Stavros and Six talked outside. J’lorgan had floated to the far side of his plasma tube and was quietly drifting with his eyes closed. “I don’t know what’s going on but something feels wrong…something feels off,” she said, tapping her bare foot nervously against the metal floor.
Mei-Li bit her lip.
“I…I don’t know what’s going on either, exactly.”
“What are they talking about?” Charlie started pacing. “What the hell are they planning?”
“Strategy, maybe?” the other girl suggested.
“So why couldn’t they talk strategy in front of us? In front of me?” Charlie demanded. “I’m his partner—we trust each other with our lives. We’re not supposed to have secrets.”
“So he’s just your partner?” Mei-Li murmured, raising one slim black eyebrow at her. “I mean, that’s all? You two…didn’t get, you know, any closer while you were here pretending to play house?”
Charlie felt her cheeks getting hot.
“Well, I mean…we did what we had to do, you know? But no, he’s my partner, that’s all,” she said firmly.
“Oh, okay.” Mei-Li shrugged. “I just thought…but never mind. It’s probably for the best anyway. Forming relationships with coworkers is always messy.”
“Exactly.” Charlie felt relieved that she understood. “Too messy. Especially when the stakes are so high. God…” She shook her head. “I just can’t believe Rome is gone. I was going to visit there someday, you know?”
“I’ve been,” Mei-Li said quietly. “With my dad. It’s really loud and noisy and crowded. Well anyway, it used to be.” She stopped abruptly.
“Well, when I get back home,” Charlie began but just then Stavros and Six came back in through the opening in the golden outer pillar.
“We have a plan,” Stav announced. “J’lorgan, we need the Joined One to do something before you, uh, imprison it or whatever you’re planning to do.”
“Of course, of course…” The old male’s eyes fluttered open and he drifted back through the plasma to look at them. “Tell me what you need.”
Stavros took a deep breath.
“We need them to call Two, the Commander of the Dark Kindred, and tell him they have a prisoner to hand over to him.”
“What? So that’s the plan—just let the Dark Kindred take us?” Charlie demanded.
“Not us—just me.” Stav stepped past her. “Now if you will excuse me, I have a plasma bath to take.”
Chapter Thirty-three
“I can’t believe we just let them take him,” Charlie whispered, staring out of the viewscreen of the ship which Six was piloting. It was a Dark Kindred craft, one he had taken from their home world of Zeaga Four when he and Mei-Li made their escape. This was good, according to him, because it had special technology which allowed them to fly in some kind of camouflage mode if they needed to.
He and Mei-Li had only been captured by the Hossan guards in the first place because they were out of stealth mode and attempting to dock peacefully at the resort. But Six seemed confident they could get back to the Mother Ship without the Dark Kindred being the wiser as long as they were careful.
Trouble was, Charlie didn’t want to go back to the Mother Ship. She didn’t want to go anywhere but after Stavros who was rapidly disappearing in the Dark Kindred battle cruiser which had just lifted off from the resort. She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of the way they had parted…
She’d be
en so worried when he first went into the plasma—he’d stumbled and gone to his knees when he was fully submersed, making her want to run in after him. Only Six holding her back and Mei-Li whispering in her ear that she had to stay here, that it wasn’t safe, had stopped her.
But slowly Stav staggered to his feet and waved at her.
“Okay—I am all right,” he said, his voice carrying through the strange medium as well as J’lorgan’s did.
“What is it like in there?” Charlie demanded. “Are you in pain? If you are you ought to come out right now!”
“It’s not painful,” Stav assured her. His long hair floated up around his head, looking strangely like a halo. “It’s intense but not painful. I feel as if…” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. “As if I am being infused with pure light. As though light is taking the place of all the blood in my body.”
“I don’t like that,” Charlie said nervously. “Light can’t carry oxygen to your heart and brain and organs! I think you’d better get out.”
“In good time, my dear. All in good time,” J’lorgan said in a placating tone. “Give your lover’s body time to absorb the Heart’s energy and emotion.”
“He’s not my lover. Um, I mean…” Charlie coughed, realizing that was no longer strictly true. “Anyway, we’re just partners,” she finished rather lamely.
“Just partners,” Stavros rumbled and had she seen sadness in his eyes?
Charlie told herself it was too hard to be sure—what with the plasma swirling all around him. And anyway, why should it make him sad they were just partners? Sure he’d shouted that he loved her as he came but he was hardly the first man to ever proclaim his love at the heat of the moment. No doubt he was regretting those words already. Wasn’t he?
Stav stayed in the plasma a good twenty minutes, which was about nineteen minutes longer than Charlie was really comfortable with. Her own hand still tingled just from being for a few seconds. How was the weird, concentrated stuff affecting his body?
When he finally came out, she got her answer. Stavros looked the same but his Mark was…different.
The black lines had always had a kind of iridescent rainbow sheen to them—like the little rainbows that form on the surface of an oil slick. But now they seemed to be leaking light too—their edges were outlined with a brilliant golden glow that made the big Kindred look like he had swallowed a small sun which was trying to find a way out from under his skin.
Six took one look at him and shook his head.
“That will never do—Two will know that something is wrong as soon as he sees you.”
He shrugged out of the heavy satin uniform shirt he was wearing—it was black with silver buttons engraved with Kindred symbols on them—and handed it to Stavros.
“Put this one,” he advised. “And turn up the collar. You must hide all of your markings or they will give you away.”
Stav took the shirt and slipped it on. Since he and Six were about the same size, it fit him well enough and hid the tell-tale glowing evidence of his time in the Heart of Love.
“Do you feel all right?” Charlie asked, approaching him as he buttoned the uniform shirt. “I mean, are you…are you well?” She used the same question he had always used on her without thinking about it but the moment it came out of her mouth she knew it felt right.
Stavros gave her a smile that seemed a little sad.
“I am well, falinda,” he murmured, cupping her cheek. “And I hope you will be well too.”
“I’ll be okay as long…as long as you are,” Charlie said. Then backpedaling hastily she added, “I mean, you better come back in one piece. I don’t like turning you over to the enemy like this.”
He shrugged his broad shoulders fatalistically.
“It’s the only way to get to where I need to be. To where this…” he motioned at his back where the now-glowing Mark lay hidden under the black shirt. “Can do the most good.”
“But—”
He cut her off with a kiss. One so bittersweet and hungry that Charlie had found herself opening to him despite the fact that she knew everyone was watching.
The moment her lips parted, she gasped at the strange sensation of some of the glowing pinkish light leaving Stav, entering her body and sliding down her throat. It was like swallowing warm, melted gold but the flavor wasn’t at all metallic—it was more like vanilla and caramel and warm, melted butter all rolled into one. It was at once delicious, addictive, and frighteningly intense.
Then someone was saying that the Dark Kindred were on their way and would be there in a matter of minutes to collect their prisoner. Mei-Li took her by the arm and pulled her away.
“Come on, Charlie—we have to get going. Two can’t find us here or we’ll all be in big trouble.”
“I know, but…” Charlie didn’t to leave. She wanted to stay with Stav, to hold on and never let go. To tell him…to tell him what? What could she possibly say? Charlie had no idea, only that she had something she wanted to tell him only the words just wouldn’t come.
Stavros, however, didn’t seemed to be affected by her lack of speech. As they pulled apart, he cupped her cheek once more and whispered, “I meant everything I said. Goodbye, Charlie.”
And then Mei-Li and Six were hustling her out of the Pillar of the Heart and off to the waiting ship so they could get well away before the Dark Kindred battle cruiser docked. Charlie’s last glimpse of the big Kindred had been of him standing beside the pillar of glowing plasma and looking at her with eyes filled with some emotion she couldn’t name…
“I just can’t believe we handed him over,” Charlie repeated, staring at the huge, departing cruiser. “It doesn’t feel right, somehow.”
“He must go to Zeaga Four,” Six explained patiently. “There is a special building there—the Tower of the Collective. The only way Stavros can get into the Tower is in the company of one who has Primary Access as Two does.”
“The Collective is the group of sentient machines that run Zeaga Four,” Mei-Li explained helpfully. “They make all the decisions for the entire planet—they’re kind of the nerve center for the whole place.”
“And what’s Stav supposed to do once he gets in there?” Charlie grumbled. “Feel the damn computers to death or something?”
“Possibly,” Six replied seriously. “You see, the Collective exists in a very delicate balance within the Tower. They are powered by a bio-electrical silica cable net so thin and fine it makes the web of your Earth arachnid the spider look thick and dull in comparison. This net allows incredibly fast communication between the Collective and the rest of the planet as well as their organic representative—in this case, Two. However, its delicacy means it is extremely sensitive to bio-electromagnetic interference.”
“Okay, not to sound stupid but…huh?” Charlie raised an eyebrow at him.
“Did you know that all living entities give off a low level charge, much like a battery?” Six asked. “This charge grows during times of great emotion or stress.”
“Oh…” Charlie was beginning to get the idea. “So if he goes out in the middle of their power-net thing and lets loose with all that emotional energy he just got from the Heart of Love plasma…”
“The resulting charge may be enough to fry the Collective,” Mei-Li finished for her.
“Wait—fry it like literally fry it? As in some kind of explosion or something? That doesn’t sound so good.” Charlie imagined Stavros in the middle of a bank of exploding computers—the big, bulky cabinet kind like you always saw in really old sci-fi movies. In her mind’s eye, the cabinets all blew sky high—but where did that leave Stavros?
“Well…” Mei-Li and Six exchanged a glance Charlie couldn’t read.
“What about Stavros?” she demanded, beginning to get scared. “Why are you two looking at each other like that? What is this going to do to him?”
“Charlotte…” Six sighed deeply. “I do not think anyone, even someone with the strongest heart, coul
d withstand the blowback surge of bio-electrical energy which may follow an overload of the Collective. Once he touches the Apex Point in the center of the room—”
“What?” Charlie felt a cold heart grip her heart. “So you sent him in there like some kind of…of suicide bomber?”
“Essentially, yes,” Six said.
“And…” Charlie felt sick. “And you’re saying he could die?”
“It is a definite possibility,” Six said reluctantly. Then he frowned. “No, I must be honest though Stavros asked me to dissemble. It is almost a certainty.”
“What?” Charlie was up and out of her seat now. “You mean we just sent him off to his freaking doom? And you thought I’d be okay with that? What’s wrong with you people?”
Mei-Li looked miserable.
“We wanted to tell you but you kept saying you were only friends and co-workers.”
“Besides, Stavros wanted to do this,” Six said firmly. “He told me that he wanted to save your home world for you more than anything else. He said he wanted it more than he wanted to go on living.”
“But…but I don’t want him to die,” Charlie protested. She had begun pacing in the small, cramped ship’s center isle. Six and Mei-Li looked at each other again but neither tried to get her to sit down and shut up. “I don’t want him to die—do you hear me?” Charlie shouted. “We have to go get him. Right now!”
“I told you, only Two may dock at the Tower—he is the only one with Preferential codes,” Six explained.
“But you just got finished telling me all about this ship’s ‘stealth mode,’” Charlie pointed out. “Why should anyone have to know we’re docking? Why can’t you just shadow his ship—hang on like a flea on a dog’s back?”
“Well…” Six frowned. “Technically it may be possible…”
“Then what are you waiting for?” Charlie demanded. “Go—get up after it!”
Instead of looking at her, Six looked at Mei-Li.
“It will be dangerous. If we are caught, Two will show us no mercy. I do not worry for myself but I would not put you in danger.”