Handling the Hybrid Page 20

  “I love you too, Tandy!” Her mother was crying openly now—sobbing as tears fell down her flushed cheeks. “Oh my sweet little girl, I love you so much!”

  Tandy felt her heart squeeze in her chest as the guard turned off the viewscreen and her mother’s face disappeared.

  Little girl—that’s what he called me. And now he’s gone without a trace. He must have seen his chance to get away and rescue his friend from Mistress Tornflesh and he took it the moment I left him alone for a minute.

  Tandy couldn’t believe what a fool she’d been—she’d actually believed the big Kindred loved her! She’d actually believed that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. She thought back to the way he’d held her in his arms and talked about their future life together. He had sounded so sincere—so loving. How could anyone fake that kind of emotion?

  Maybe he wasn’t faking, whispered a little voice in the back of her head. Maybe he really did intend to take you with him when he left Yonnie Six until you did the one thing he begged you not to do—until you gave him the rod. You think that might have changed his mind about loving you, Tandy? Maybe made him reconsider if he wanted to spend the rest of his life with the girl who took him against his will in front of the Sacred Seven?

  Tandy put a hand to her eyes. That must be it—the reason Vrox had left her. The reason he had stopped loving her. He just couldn’t bear to be with the one who had stripped him of his male pride and dignity and brought him low.

  He probably hates me now, she thought morosely. Probably wishes I was dead.

  Well, if that was what Vrox wanted, it was likely that his wish would come true. The Sacred Seven weren’t known for their leniency in matters of treason—which was what she had been charged with since she had tried to defraud the ruling body of Yonnie Six. They were going to come down hard on her in every way to make an example for anyone else who might consider copying her crime.

  There was no way out and Tandy knew it. Going to the single metal bunk with its hard, thin mattress, she slumped down and put her head in her hands.

  Goddess, what was she going to do?

  Twenty-Three

  “Thorn, what is that? A derelict ship?” Mistress Neh’sa, formerly of Yonnie Six, stared at the viewscreen of their small, sleek craft with a frown on her face. She was coming back to the female-run planet for the first time since she had defected to live on the Kindred Mother Ship with her mate, and former slave, Thorn. Her intent was to tie up some loose ends and check on the status of the clinic she’d set up. But she hadn’t expected to see a ship in distress in orbit around her old home world.

  Thorn frowned, the glowing sparks in his mismatched green and blue eyes dancing faster, as they did when he was curious or agitated. He was part Kindred and part Pyro—a lethal combination to anyone who threatened him, since he was able to call and channel fire to do his bidding. Neh’sa, however, was perfectly safe from her mate’s deadly flames—their bond protected her completely.

  “Sending out a scan-probe,” Thorn reported, working busily at the controls. “Looks like their engines are dead—not too surprising considering that’s a short-range craft built for planet-side pleasure cruises and they took it out into low orbit. Not too smart.”

  “Are they still alive?” Neh’sa could just imagine some silly, spoiled Mistress and her bodyslave deciding to go out into space in an unsuitable craft and then drifting helplessly until their oxygen gave out. She was part Lylasian—an empathic race who were able to feel the pain of others—and hated to see anyone suffer.

  Thorn looked at the results of the scan-probe again.

  “Yes—I’m reading life signs,” he told her. “Should I hail them?”

  “Please do—at once.” She put a hand on his broad shoulder. “I can’t bear to think of anyone drifting around up here just waiting to die and I don’t see how they can possibly get down if their ship has malfunctioned.”

  Thorn shot her a swift glance. “You have such a soft heart, Mistress,” he murmured fondly.

  He had come to Yonnie Six as a Kindred spy and Neh’sa had bought him unwittingly and trained him as she would any other male slave. When his deception had been found out, she had been very angry and had felt betrayed but they had bonded and she had long since forgiven him.

  It was a long time since Neh’sa had been his Mistress and Thorn had been her bodyslave but he still called her by her old title at times—especially when they reprised their roles of Mistress and slave in the bedroom. Though Thorn was just as likely to play Master, since they liked switching off the dominant and submissive roles.

  “I just don’t like to see anyone suffer,” she told him. “Hail them, Thorn—if they’re still alive maybe we can tow them to shore or take them aboard.”

  Thorn put in the hailing frequency and after a long moment, their call was answered. But to Neh’sa’s surprise, it was no silly Mistress and her bodyslave who popped up on the screen but two male faces instead.

  “Thank the Goddess,” the pilot rasped. “I’m so fucking glad you found us—thought we were dead meat when the ship died.”

  He had wild, rough black hair and mismatched eyes like Thorn’s, Neh’sa saw—only his were blue and gold instead of blue and green like her mate’s. He also had fangs—she could see them when he spoke—as did the male beside him.

  “Are you Kindred?” she asked hesitantly. “Blood Kindred maybe?”

  “My partner is.” The pilot nodded to the male beside him. “But I’m a hybrid—half Blood, half Beast. And damn grateful that you found us.”

  “What are you doing in low orbit in a short-range ship?” Thorn asked, frowning.

  “It’s a long fucking story, Brother.” The hybrid ran a hand through his rough hair and blew out a breath. “Can you let us come aboard? I don’t think I have the air to tell it here.”

  “Just a moment.” Thorn muted the viewscreen for a moment and turned to Neh’sa. “They look pretty rough. Should we bring them aboard?”

  “They’re Kindred,” she reminded him gently. “I think the Goddess must have put them in our path for a reason. Yes, let’s bring them aboard.”

  “As my Mistress commands,” he remarked, giving her a half-smile.

  Neh’sa smiled back and ran a hand through his hair as he un-muted the screen. Since they were getting close to Yonnie Six, her mate had been reprising his role as her bodyslave more often.

  “Yes, we’ll bring you aboard,” Thorn told the hybrid pilot and his partner after un-muting the screen. “As long as you’re respectful to my mate and Lady, Mistress Neh’sa.”

  “Not another Mistress!” the Blood Kindred male muttered but the hybrid shushed him.

  “She’ll have our full respect,” he told Thorn seriously. “My lady is a Mistress too—or she was before they stripped her of her title. Now she’s in trouble and I can’t get to her.”

  Neh’sa nodded to herself as the feeling she’d had when she first saw the two rough faces on the viewscreen solidified. It was just as she’d thought—this was truly no accident. The Kindred Goddess, who watched over all her children and their chosen mates, must mean for them to help these two.

  “You have my permission to come aboard and tell me your story,” she said to the hybrid. “Let’s see what we can do.”

  “…and that’s our story,” Vrox finished as they sat at the small but well-appointed table in the ship’s food prep area. “Tandy’s being held in the Correctional Facility in downtown Opulex and all the news vids are saying she’s going to be sentenced to fucking death.”

  He could hear the harshness in his own voice—the total desperation—but he couldn’t help it. The idea of his Tandy—the sweet, luscious, kind, generous, wonderful female he loved, being taken from him only days after they had found each other made him half crazy with grief.

  “That’s hard news indeed, Brother.” Thorn, the Kindred who was mated to Mistress Neh’sa, whose ship they were on, put a consoling hand on Vrox’s shoulder and gave him
a squeeze.

  “Are the two of you bonded?” Mistress Neh’sa asked quietly. She had long dark hair and large dark eyes and a quiet, soothing way about her that Vrox appreciated.

  He shook his head. “First generation hybrids like me—whose mother were one kind of Kindred and father were another—aren’t able to bond very often. But I love her and she loves me—or she did before I left to get my partner, Dannen. She probably thinks I abandoned her to her fate. Gods…”

  He raked a hand through his hair again. That thought—the idea that Tandy would think he had left her and didn’t care for her—kept running endlessly through his head, tormenting him. He needed to find a way to tell her it wasn’t so—tell her that he loved her and would never leave her again. If only he could get to her…

  “Do you have any kind of plan to get her back?” Thorn asked, frowning. “You must have been going somewhere in that ridiculous little ship.”

  “Mostly just trying to get away from Opulex,” Dannen, the Blood Kindred muttered. “Vrox’s a wanted male there—they think he killed Mistress Tornflesh when he came to save me.”

  “I didn’t though.” Vrox explained quickly how the sadistic Mistress had really died and Neh’sa shook her head.

  “Melva always was inordinately vain about her hair. I never thought it would be the death of her, though.”

  “You knew her?” Vrox demanded. “You knew Mistress Tornflesh? Do you know Tandy too?”

  “I know of her—I knew that her Aunt Zora had adopted her niece as an heir but since Zora was extremely retiring and almost never came to social functions, I never got to meet Tandace,” Neh’sa told him. “I have heard only good things about her, however—even though all the old gossips liked to talk about the fact that she was the product of an illegal seeding.”

  “Illegal seeding? What’s that?” Thorn asked, frowning.

  “What you and I do most every night,” Neh’sa said, giving him a private smile.

  “It’s the Yonnite term for a female who lets a male penetrate her,” Vrox explained. “Tandy’s mother was a Mistress of Yonnie Six and her father was a male who was stolen from Earth. They ran away together, just like Tandy and I were going to do…before everything got so fucked up.” He raked a hand through his hair again.

  “So the Sacred Seven are deciding her fate tomorrow,” Neh’sa mused. “It’s been some time—tell me, Vrox, do you know if Mistress Thrust’much is still heading the Council?”

  Vrox shrugged. “I didn’t hear that name but I didn’t get to know any of them personally. The one who had the most to do with Tandy—the Judge of the Change, I think they called her, was Mistress Sinda. She’s the one who had Tandy buy me from the Flesh Bazaar in the first place.”

  “Mistress Sinda, hmm…” Neh’sa nodded thoughtfully.

  “You know her too?” Vrox asked.

  She nodded. “We have had…dealings in the past. But back to Tandy, does she have any relatives left now that Zora is dead? Anyone who can speak for her?” Neh’sa asked. “Sometimes a personal plea can sway the Sacred Seven to leniency.”

  “We were actually going to try and find her parents—they live on the far side of the planet from Opulex,” Vrox said hopefully. “Do you think that would help? If we found them and brought them to her trial?”

  Neh’sa shook her head regretfully.

  “I’m afraid not. A fallen Mistress who has been stripped of her rank for the exact same sin the accused has committed will hold no weight in the Council’s eyes. She’d be more likely to be arrested and put into the Correctional Facility herself for her past crimes than to convince the Sacred Seven to show leniency. Isn’t there anyone else? Anyone who would talk for her?”

  “The only other relative she has left is her Aunt Deelee,” Vrox growled. “And that bitch is more likely to try and dig Tandy’s grave than pull her out of it. She’s crazy jealous that Tandy’s other aunt left everything to Tandy instead of to her. In fact, I wouldn’t doubt that she’s somehow the reason Tandy was found out and stripped of her Mistress title in the first place.”

  “Oh dear…” Neh’sa’s lovely face had gone pale. “Mistress Deelee, you say? Oh my.”

  “Yes—you know her?” Vrox asked eagerly.

  “I’m afraid I do.” Neh’sa shook her head. “Your little Mistress is in deep trouble indeed if Deelee is the only one she has to depend on.”

  “I knew it. Gods, what a fucking mess! What am I going to do?” Vrox turned to Thorn, feeling desperate. “What kind of weapons do you have aboard, Brother? Can you loan me some kind of a heavy-duty blaster? Maybe a disruptor—something like that?”

  Thorn looked at him warily. “Why? What are you planning to do?”

  “I don’t know—try to break her out, I guess.” Thorn shook his head. “Or if I can’t do that, at least I can go down fighting for her. She’s my mate—even though I can’t bond, that’s how I see her—how I feel about her. I have to save her or die trying!”

  “Tandy will be saved and no one will have to die to do it.” Neh’sa spoke with such authority that Vrox and Dannen looked at her in surprise. Thorn, however, had a little smile on his face, as though his mate’s strong character was no surprise to him.

  “How in the Seven Hells are we going to manage that?” Vrox asked, shaking his head.

  “By leaving it to me.” Neh’sa reached across the table and placed a hand lightly on his arm. “Look, Vrox—I believe the Goddess has put you in our path so that we can help you—and so that I can help a fellow Mistress in need,” she said softly, giving him an intense look with those big, dark eyes of hers. “But I’ll need you to trust me in order to do it. Can you do that? Can you trust me?”

  For a moment everything inside him rose up and his male pride demanded that he should be the one to save Tandy. Or, die trying, if need be. But then Vrox caught a look at Thorn and saw the way the other male was looking at his mate. The bright sparks in his mismatched eyes were quiet and there was love and confidence in his face as he looked at her. Clearly he respected her opinion and believed she could deliver what she was promising.

  Suddenly he heard a soft, feminine voice whisper in his mind, “Listen to her warrior—she has been put in your path to help you. Do not turn away the means of salvation I have sent to you.”

  Could it be the Goddess who had spoken to him so briefly? Vrox didn’t know, but he had been praying his head off in the darkened ship, right before Thorn and Neh’sa had come along and rescued them. And they did seem to be better equipped to deal with this situation than he was at the moment. Suddenly, he had a feeling of peace about the situation.

  “All right,” he said, swallowing his pride and nodding. “I’d be pleased to accept your offer of help, Mistress Neh’sa. Thank you.”

  “You’re very welcome, Vrox.” Neh’sa gave him a gentle smile and then she was all business again. “Thorn, set a course for Opulex right away. We have to be at Tandy’s hearing tomorrow. Her life depends on it.”

  Twenty-Four

  “Tandace Sweetbottom, you stand accused of defrauding this Council and in doing so, committing High Treason against the ruling body of Yonnie Six. How do you plead?” They were back in the very same judgment room where Tandy had been confirmed as a Mistress and then stripped of her title only the day before. But this time, the look in Mistress Sinda’s formerly kind face was harsh and angry.

  Tandy didn’t blame her though—she could understand why Mistress Sinda was so upset.

  From the first, the other woman had been her advocate and champion. Throughout the process of choosing a slave and making certain he was well trained, she had been reporting only good things about Tandy to the rest of the Sacred Seven and now Tandy had made a liar out of her.

  The incriminating voice recording that Deelee had submitted into evidence and that all of the Sacred Seven had listened to several times by now, proved that she had planned to cheat the process of training a slave from the first.

  No wonder Mistress Sinda w
as angry and disgusted with her.

  “I am guilty,” she said quietly, though the expensive expert Councilor her mother had hired for her tried to shush her.

  “Well…” Mistress Sinda looked a little surprised. “It’s refreshing to hear you tell the truth at least once, Tandace.”

  “I’m guilty of not having the right temperament to be a Mistress in the first place,” Tandy continued. “I don’t have it in me to shock a slave over and over until he crumples in submission at my feet. I don’t have the stomach for cruelty that our society demands of its most prominent citizens.” She’d thought a lot about this the night before, as she lay sleepless on the hard, cold cot and she had decided if she was going to be sentenced to death, she would damn well have her say first.

  “Tandace, I really don’t think—“ Mistress Sinda began.

  “And I’m guilty of thinking of males as people,” Tandy went on relentlessly. “I was raised in a loving household where my father was equal to my mother and my brother was equal to me. When I was told I had to train a slave through pain and torture, my upbringing wouldn’t allow me to do it with a clear conscious. So instead I struck a deal with the slave I was supposed to train—a harmless arrangement, or so I thought—so that I could pass the Test of Mastery without hurting him.”

  “This is ridiculous,” Aunt Deelee muttered, from her folding chair. “Why are you letting her blather on and on? When do we get to the part about my inheritance?”

  “But most of all,” Tandy continued, ignoring her aunt’s outburst. “I am guilty of letting myself fall in love—in love with my slave—the very one I was supposed to train.” She sighed. “I admit now that it was stupid—that I was stupid and naïve. I thought he actually loved me back and instead he ran away and here I am…” She spread her hands to indicate her position, alone and accused before the highest court in the land. “I know that ignorance and stupidity are no excuse for the crimes I committed or the way I attempted to defraud this Council.” She nodded respectfully at the Sacred Seven, all sitting there behind the high, white podium and looking down on her. “But it is the only excuse I have. And to that I can only add, I’m sorry.”