“Cherri!” Nina tried to frown but Cherri’s naughty little grin was catching. “You’re lucky Bob has already gone home,” she told the girl, shaking a finger at her. “If he heard you talking like that…” Bob was the manager of Massage Envy and extremely strict.
“I know, I know—we’re a professional place and no talking about the clients.” Cherri sighed. “But seriously, Nina—”
“I know, wait until I see him. Right.” Nina shook her head. “Okay, I’m going to go get him done so we can go home.” She looked at her watch. “Is everyone else gone?”
“Mostly. I think Marie was finishing up in room two, but she may be gone by now.”
Great. So we’re all alone here at nine thirty at night with a new patient. A male patient. Nina frowned. It was against company protocol, but now that Cherri had put the client in a room, there was nothing much they could do about it. She wasn’t really worried, though—this was South Tampa, the most affluent and prestigious part of the Tampa Bay area, so it wasn’t like they had a lot of crime. Still, Cherri was going to have to learn to put a rein on her hormones and not let just any good-looking guy talk his way into having a massage after hours.
“Did he fill out a form?” she asked, looking for a clipboard.
Cherri shook her head. “He just said his arm hurt.”
“Fine. See you in a few.”
“Have fun.” Cherri winked at her. “I hope he fits on your table—he’s a big boy.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Nina nodded and left the reception area. As she made her way down the long, dim hallway, she couldn’t help thinking how quiet it was. Usually you could hear the soft strains of relaxation music and the muted murmur of voices. Now that everyone was gone home, there was just nothing…it was beginning to freak her out a little.
Stop being silly, she told herself. Just go get this last massage done so you can go home.
She stopped in front of room nine, her room, and looked at the closed door. Why did she have such a feeling of unease all of a sudden? Her neck and shoulders were suddenly tight, and the hairs at the back of her neck were prickling with tension.
This is ridiculous. Go in and get it over with.
She shook out her arms and rolled her shoulders to try and ease her tension. After this was over, she was going to need a massage herself!
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and stepped inside, expecting to see her client lying undressed on the table and draped in a sheet. At least, she hoped he’d be draped in a sheet. She hated it when some clients “misunderstood” and forgot to put the sheet on. It was mostly men who did that. Nina didn’t know what they were thinking. No matter how good looking they were, they didn’t need to be lying there naked and sunny side up when she…
The thought died the instant she saw her new client.
“Oh…oh my God,” she whispered, taking a step back.
He wasn’t undressed or lying on the table. He was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, and his face was hidden in shadow.
But still Nina knew him.
It can’t be him. The man from my dreams—it can’t be. Can it?
She peered at him, her heart pounding. Part of her was screaming Run! But the pragmatic part of her brain was telling her not to be silly and unprofessional. True, he was huge and resembled the man she’d been dreaming about. But that has to be just a coincidence because dreams don’t come true, right?
If only the room was lighter so she could get a better look. But the massage rooms were always kept pretty dim to add to the atmosphere of relaxation and help clients who had body issues feel less self-conscious. Not that this guy appeared to have anything to be self-conscious about. Even sitting down, he was the biggest, most muscular man Nina had ever seen. He was built along the lines of a defensive lineman or pro wrestler.
A bear, she heard Mehoo-Jimmy whisper in her head. He’s a bear, eecho…
“Nina?” He shifted slightly, and she saw his eyes flash in the shadows. Were they…silver? Surely that had to be a trick of the light…didn’t it? No human man had silver eyes. For a moment, she wondered if maybe he wasn’t human, but that was silly. Unless he was one of the Kindred…but you almost never saw any of those guys. They stayed up in their ship unless they were coming down to claim some poor helpless girl as their bride.
Well, at least I don’t have to worry about that! Because of her Native American status, Nina was exempted from the “draft” that most other girls had been forced to register for. Knowing that made her feel a little better.
“Um…” Her voice cracked, and she coughed and tried again. “Hello Mr.…” Irritated, she realized that Cherri had forgotten to tell her the client’s name. “I’m sorry, I don’t have your name.”
“Reddix,” he rumbled. His tone was harsh and almost inhumanly deep—more like a growl than a voice. It was also strangely familiar. Had she heard it before? Maybe in her dreams?
Don’t be ridiculous! Do your job!
Nina took a deep breath and tried to steady herself. “All right, Mr. Reddix, well, I’m not sure if Cherri explained to you how this works, but you have to be on the table so I can work on you.” Hearing her own voice going into the professional spiel she used every day helped calm her. “So just undress to the level of your own comfort and lie face down on the table with the sheet across your hips. All right?”
Without waiting for an answer, she turned and started fiddling with the CD player. She took her time, selecting some relaxation music that included wind chimes and the sound of waves breaking on the beach. When she thought she had given him enough time, she turned, expecting to see him on the table.
Instead, he was standing right behind her.
“Oh!” Nina’s heart jumped into her throat, and she stumbled back a step. How long had he been standing there? And how had he moved so quietly that she hadn’t even heard him sneaking up behind her?
“Mr. Reddix,” she said, her voice going high and sharp with fear. “I thought I told you to undress and lie down on the table.”
“I don’t undress for anyone. You’re lucky I took off the hood.” He loomed over her, and though Nina was five foot ten in her stocking feet and nobody’s idea of petite, he made her feel suddenly tiny and frail.
“I…I…” Her brain seemed frozen; she couldn’t think what to say. Looking up at him, she could see that his eyes really were silver. And Cherri had been right about him, he was…beautiful.
It was a strange word to use for a man, but no other word seemed to fit. Now that he was out of the shadows, Nina could see he had the face of a fallen angel—a face so lovely it made her ache just to look at him. She saw a high forehead, a straight nose, and cheekbones any model would kill for, not to mention a full, sensual mouth that looked unhappy, even when he wasn’t speaking. Thick black lashes framed the startling silver eyes, and his cheeks were covered in dark stubble, proving he hadn’t shaved in a while. But it was his hair that caught and held Nina’s attention.
Is it really… blue? It was, a blue so dark it was almost but not quite black. To Nina, who had spent years hanging around the salon where her mother had worked, the color looked real, not dyed. But who had silver eyes and blue hair? Nobody human, that’s who. Now she was certain, he had to be Kindred.
“Look,” she said, backing slowly away in the general direction of the door. “I don’t know who you are or what you want but I’m half Native American—that means I can’t be claimed by a Kindred. I can’t—”
“Who said I was claiming you?” he growled softly.
“Oh, uh…” Nina abruptly felt stupid. Just because he was Kindred didn’t mean he was there to get her. Probably, he just wanted a massage, like any other guy. “I’m sorry. I just thought…never mind.” She took a deep breath. “Well, if you want a massage, you’ll have to get on the table. I can’t, uh, work on you like that.”
“Actually, it’s just my wrist that hurts.” He held out a muscular arm to her, and Nina saw that he had a small black t
attoo on the inside of his wrist. It looked kind of like a snake but it was too small to be sure.
“Oh, well…you still have to be on the table.” For some reason, she was reluctant to touch him. Something about that tattoo made her nervous.
“I told you, I don’t get undressed for anyone.” He held out his arm more insistently. “If you could just look at my arm.”
“Well…” Nina didn’t like it, but he was being so insistent she didn’t know what else to do. Pushing aside her fear, she cradled his large hand in her much smaller one.
The minute she touched him, a strange shock of electricity seemed to go through her. It traveled up her arm and straight to her heart, making her feel like someone had just used a defibrillator on her.
“Oh my God!” She tried to pull back, but the man suddenly had her by the wrist. His silver eyes widened as he looked down at her.
“How?” he demanded hoarsely. “How are you doing that?”
“D-doing what?” Nina stuttered.
“I can’t feel you.” He shook his head. “Or the girl up front. She’s completely muted all of a sudden—I can’t feel a thing!”
“What are you talking about? You’re touching me right now.” Nina twisted in his grip, but he was much too strong for her, and she couldn’t get away. “Let me go!”
“Not until I make sure.” He pulled her closer and forced their hands together, pressing her palm closer and closer to the small black tattoo on his inner wrist.
“No,” Nina gasped. For some reason, the prospect of touching that small, black snake frightened her even more than being attacked by a huge alien warrior. A strange thought ran through her brain: If I touch it there’s no going back.
And then the center of her palm made contact with the snake tattoo, and a sharp pain like she’d been stuck with a needle pierced through her.
“Ow! What the hell is wrong with you? You stuck me!” Nina tried to yank away again, but his hold on her was too tight.
“I knew it—you are the one.” He was staring at his wrist, and Nina saw to her horror that the strange tattoo had somehow changed colors. It was red now—blood red. And was it…bigger? How could that be?
“The one what? Let me go!” she demanded, her voice trembling. “Leave now, and I might not call the police.”
“You’re not calling anyone. You’re coming with me.”
Without warning, he lifted her with one arm as though she weighed no more than a kitten and slung her over one broad shoulder.
Then, despite her kicking and screaming, he carried her right out the door.
Chapter Eight
“Reddix? Are you all right?” Saber walked carefully into the dark guest suite, mindful of what had happened the last time he saw his friend. He knew Saber was on edge and didn’t want to overload his system again. Goddess, it was awful how his best friend had gone downhill, but Saber wasn’t surprised if his RTS was getting worse.
“Reddix?” he called again, tensed to see his friend’s silver eyes somewhere in the darkness. But only silence greeted his call.
I shouldn’t even be in here. I should leave him alone like Sylvan said to.
But he hadn’t been able to bear the guilt he was feeling a moment longer. He needed to tell his friend again how sorry he was. And to shoulder the responsibility that should have been his all along.
Saber didn’t want to go back to Tarsia, didn’t want to face the censure his decision to be with Lissa would cause. But he had to. It had been wrong to assume that Reddix could take over as the next Clan Overlord, wrong to put that burden on him without asking how he felt about it.
At least Lissa will be with me, Saber thought. She doesn’t like it any more than I do, but she’s still willing to go. If only my family could look past our kinship status and see what a wonderful female she is.
But they would never do that. All his mother and father and the rest of the clans would see was that he and Lissa were of the same clan and so technically brother and sister, though there was no blood tie between them. They would probably reject Saber as soon as he announced he had married his amalla and had no intention of leaving her. The taboo he and Lissa were breaking was so ingrained in his people that they would no doubt view him with disgust.
But I have to try. And Lissa will have to try with me. It was almost more than he could stand—he loved Lissa with all his heart, and he didn’t want to cause her this kind of pain and anguish. But after what had happened with Reddix, he didn’t see that he had any choice.
Speaking of Reddix, where was he?
“Reddix?” he called again, going into the sleeping chamber. “Reddix, it’s me—we need to talk. I need to tell you…”
But the words died on his lips—the room was empty. The bed looked rumpled as though Reddix had slept on it, and his case with a few changes of clothes was open on the floor, but the male himself was nowhere to be seen.
Swiftly, Saber searched the rest of the suite, but Reddix wasn’t there. Where could he have gone? Sylvan had put him under strict orders to stay in the suite and rest—why would Reddix get up and leave without telling anyone he was going?
Maybe he decided he couldn’t stand it here on the Mother Ship anymore with all the strange emotions. Maybe he left. But Sylvan said he had his ship locked down. So how would he manage? He didn’t have an answer for that, but he didn’t really need one—Reddix had always been a resourceful bastard. If he wanted to do something, he would find a way to do it. Even if it meant going against his doctor’s orders.
Suddenly, the last conversation he’d had with Reddix rang in his head.
“…don’t worry, I’m not running straight back to Tarsia yet. I have some unfinished business right here on that little blue-green ball of rock all our Kindred Brothers seem so fucking taken with.”
“On Earth?” Saber said. “What do you want there?”
“It’s not what—it’s who.”
Saber frowned and headed for the door. It was time to ask if anyone had seen Reddix hanging around the docking bay and check to see if any ships were missing.
He hoped he was wrong, but Saber had a bad feeling about where his friend had gone and what exactly he had gone to do. What price had the swamp witch demanded for her services? And why had she sent Reddix to Earth? He couldn’t be acclaiming a bride—without a proper Touch sense he could never bind one to him. So then what was he going to do? And who was he going to see?
Saber didn’t know, but he was going to find out.
Chapter Nine
She put up a hell of a fight—Reddix gave her that. She screamed bloody murder and beat at his back with her little fists as she tried to twist free. He was having none of that, though—he had her now, and he wasn’t taking any chances on letting her go. He gripped her tightly, keeping her captive despite her struggles.
He’d already ascertained that the place was empty except for the girl at the front so he left by the front door with Nina over his shoulder. The receptionist—Cherri, Nina had called her—was also screaming and punching numbers into a communications device. Reddix assumed she was calling some kind of authority figure or peacekeeper, but it didn’t matter. His ship, which transformed neatly into a good approximation of an Earth vehicle, was parked in the lot just outside. Before they could get anywhere near him, he would be halfway out of Earth’s atmosphere and headed far away.
The one thing he could be thankful for was that despite Nina’s struggles, he couldn’t feel any of her emotions. Reddix didn’t know what to attribute that to—or the fact that he hadn’t been able to feel her or the girl up front when he touched Nina’s bare skin. Maybe it had something to do with the Earth’s atmosphere, or maybe it was a temporary short in his own system. He’d had that before once or twice, when he had been subjected to so many emotions it had overloaded his system, resulting in a temporary numbness. It would pass—it always did. And then he would be back in the middle of a hellish stew of emotions again, feeling everything that everyone felt around
him and helpless to stop it.
Reddix knew the condition wouldn’t last, but for right now, he was damn grateful for the temporary reprieve. If he’d had to feel Nina’s fear crawling all over him, taste her panic at the back of his throat, he wasn’t sure he could have gotten through the kidnapping. As it was, he felt like he’d suddenly gone deaf—emotionally anyway. There was nothing wrong with his actual hearing—he could hear the girl, Nina, screaming in his ear just fine, and it was beginning to get on his nerves.
“You can’t do this!” she gasped as he shoved her into the passenger side seat and attempted to belt the harness in place despite her flailing limbs. “You can’t do this, let me go!”
“I am doing it, and I’m not going to stop so you might as well shut up and sit still,” he growled, fighting to get the harness in place.
“No!” She beat her small fists against his shoulders and fishtailed her body, very nearly slithering out of the harness and into the floor of the ship.
Reddix let the harness go and grabbed her shoulders, shoving her back against the seat. He leaned in close to her face and glared at her.
“Hold…still.”
Her blue eyes flashed defiance.
“Right. Hold still so you can take me away somewhere in your weird Kindred ship and rape me and kill me? I don’t think so.”
She started struggling again, even more than before. In the distance, Reddix could hear some kind of siren wailing…and it was getting closer. He had an idea it had something to do with the girl behind the desk calling for help. Time was running short, and he was out of options.
“Fine,” he growled. “I didn’t want to do this, but you’ve forced me.”
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the metal wrist restraints and slapped them onto her slim wrists. They were too loose, and she started trying to wriggle out of them at once. With a muttered curse, Reddix pulled out the locking mechanism and pressed a button to tighten the restraints. The unbreakable metal immediately molded to her wrists, becoming snug enough that no escape was possible. There was absolutely no getting out of them—not without chopping off her hands, and he didn’t think she’d be willing to go quite that far to get free.