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  “I told you, that request is denied!” snapped Chancellor Terex and for a moment, Six could have sworn that his pale blue eyes turned a burning red.

  He normally didn’t argue with a superior but Six was beginning to be uneasy about the entire situation. It wasn’t an actual emotion, he told himself—more of a sense of wrongness that originated somewhere in his gut. A warning that all was not well.

  “Forgive me, Chancellor,” he said. “But I truly feel that even an hour of instruction on how to treat Earth females would be beneficial. I met one of them on a medical barge orbiting Z4 and she seemed to feel my appearance and actions would be terrifying to Mei-Li. If there is any information I can gain that would keep that from happening—”

  “Mei-Li, is it?” The cruel smile stretched Chancellor Terex’s lips again. “So now you know her name? Perhaps you’re having feelings for her? Should I report that to your superior, the Mouth of the Collective?”

  Six felt his jaw clench.

  “I have no feelings for the female one way or another. I simply wish for a smooth and stress-free Claiming.”

  The Chancellor’s blue eyes flashed red again. “That is not my wish. In fact, the more attention you attract and the bigger scene you make, the better.” He consulted a chronometer he had strapped to his wrist. “It is almost noon down on your female’s part of the Earth right now—which I assume you know is Tampa, in the Florida peninsula.”

  “Tampa? Florida?” Six shook his head. “I am not familiar with the geography of this planet.”

  “But you do know where to find her, don’t you?” Terex demanded. “I thought all you Kindred idiots had some kind of innate homing device when it came to finding your brides.”

  All you Kindred idiots? Six frowned. Why was the Chancellor speaking as if he was not one of the Kindred? But he sensed it might be unwise to question the other male.

  “I have an idea of where she might be,” he said. “I’m sure that once I get close enough to catch her scent…” Though he had never seen her in person, he had smelled her scent in the many dreams they had shared. It was soft and delicate and very feminine. It bothered him almost as much as the memory of those small, perfectly formed breasts moving under her lace night dress.

  “Never mind,” Chancellor Terex snapped. “I’ve been tracking her position for weeks now. I’ll send her coordinates over as well. The sooner you find her and claim her, the better. As I said, it’s noon there now. You should cause quite a stir dragging her away in the middle of the day.”

  Six had no intention of dragging Mei-Li anywhere but he sensed this wasn’t what Chancellor Terex wanted to hear.

  “All right,” he said simply, and nodded.

  “Good.” The High Chancellor sounded somewhat mollified. “You will go and collect the Earth girl at once and take her back to Zeaga Four. Understood?”

  “Understood.” Six nodded again.

  “Excellent. I am transmitting all the information you requested now. Terex out.” The Chancellor nodded once more, formally, and then the viewscreen went blank. At the same time, the shuttle’s informations system beeped, indicating incoming data—the Claiming Agreement and Rules and Mei-Li’s coordinates, no doubt.

  Six sank back in his pilot’s chair, considering the strange exchange. Even though he was not conversant with emotion, it was clear that the Chancellor Terex was displaying several inappropriate feelings. He also seemed to have some strange ideas. He appeared to want Six to rush down to Earth and make claiming the Earth female into a huge incident. What did he stand to gain if Six did so?

  Another thing that bothered Six was the fact that Chancellor Terex didn’t appear to care how Mei-Li felt about any of this. In fact, he had been almost…gleeful, (was that the word?) when he’d suggested that she would feel trapped on a foreign planet and frightened by the male who claimed her. Why would he feel that way? It had always been Six’s understanding that the other branches of the Kindred valued females and tried to treat them gently and with reverence. How was it that Chancellor Terex had told him to do the opposite?

  He shook his head. No, even without an emotional reference to compare to, he was certain he could not be mistaken. Something about the orders the Chancellor had given him was off. His gut told him so.

  Six was half tempted to simply turn his shuttle around and go back through the fold in space. He would tell One that claiming the little Earth female was impossible. That it felt wrong, somehow.

  But…Six frowned to himself. But he didn’t want to go back to Z4—not without the female. Not without Mei-Li. He knew it was illogical and irrational, but he wanted her by his side. He wanted to claim her.

  Why do I feel this way? I shouldn’t be feeling at all.

  Except it wasn’t a feeling, not really, he told himself. It was simply his protective instinct, as One had said. It was a normal reaction for a Kindred male who was dream sharing with a female.

  He thought again of her petite frame, so slender and frail. So defenseless. Such a female would be an easy target for an unscrupulous male. No wonder he had the sense that he wanted to claim her—but it wasn’t so. What he really wanted was just to protect her. That was all.

  Perhaps he ought to just look in on her, and make sure that all was well. And once he assured himself of her safety, it would probably be better to leave her there on her home planet.

  Yes, that’s what I’ll do, he told himself as he set a course for Earth. I’ll observe her and make certain she is safe and well. Then I’ll go back to One and tell him that something is wrong with the Kindred High Chancellor here.

  Luckily, his little ship had the latest in Dark Kindred stealth tech. He would be able to observe Mei-Li without her ever being the wiser. That way he could protect her if the need arose, without frightening her.

  But first he had to find her.

  Six swiped at the viewscreen, causing the data Chancellor Terex had just transmitted to begin scrolling rapidly. He frowned as he skimmed through it—there was a lot more to the Claiming Period than he had initially suspected. It would definitely be better not to claim Mei’Li. Some of the requirements would doubtless “frighten her to death” as Tess had said.

  At last, at the bottom of the transmission, he found her coordinates. There wasn’t an exact pinpoint location—more like a map of the areas she frequented. That was enough for Six. He knew instinctively that he would sense her more clearly the closer he got. But she would never sense him. She would never know that he had come to watch over her for a little while before leaving again.

  “Tampa, Florida,” he muttered under his breath as he punched in the coordinates. “Mei-Li, I will see you soon…even if you don’t see me.”

  Chapter Four

  Mei-Li sighed and put her head down on her desk. It was turning out to be the day from Hell and there was no end in sight.

  She had come to work early, intending to make a serious dent on the mountain of paperwork waiting for her before the phones started ringing at nine. But that was not to be. Before she’d even sat down behind her cheap metal desk, the Emergency CPI had told her that the mother of one of her clients had been caught wandering up and down her apartment complex, banging on doors and shouting unintelligibly in the early hours of the morning.

  The minute she got the report, Mei-Li knew who it was about before the Emergency CPI even gave her the name. She had dubbed this particular woman “Drunk Mom” in her head, not to be mean but because she was almost always inebriated. Mei-Li had tried with varying degrees of success to get her into AA but it never worked for long. Drunk Mom always relapsed, usually at three o’clock in the morning, and made a huge, embarrassing scene.

  Mei-Li had no choice—she got in the car and went directly to Drunk Mom’s house. The woman had three children, all under the age of seven, and if she was three sheets to the wind it meant that the six year old was in charge of the toddler and the infant—not a good scenario.

  On arriving at Drunk Mom’s house, Mei-Li had i
ndeed found her sitting on the couch crying and reeking of alcohol and puke which was snarled in her hair and drying down the front of her shirt. Her kids, thank goodness, were all safe and unharmed. They were dirty and the house was messy but there were no bruises or signs of obvious neglect. Better yet, their grandmother was there to watch over them and she assured Mei-Li grimly that her daughter would tow the line from now on. Which would probably last for as long as the grandmother was there. Mei-Li hoped she was planning on a long visit.

  She knew some CPI’s that would have decided to take the kids considering the state of the house but she had seen worse—much worse. And while the grandmother didn’t seem to be much more inclined to clean than Drunk Mom, at least she didn’t reek of alcohol and she was making sure the kids were being fed and cared for. It was a judgment call—sometimes you had to go with your gut. And Mei-Li’s gut told her the kids weren’t in danger which was her main concern.

  Oh, they might need years of therapy when they were grown or have drinking and substance abuse problems themselves but they weren’t going to be any better off ripped away from their biological mom and sent into the foster system. No, better to leave them where they were and just keep a close eye on them. She left, promising herself to do a drive by check later on.

  Next it was back to the office for a seemingly endless meeting about policy change. After that, Mei-Li had just been sitting down to her mound of paperwork again when she got a new call to check out. Someone had complained that a neighbor’s house was infested with vermin and her children were at risk.

  Sighing, she had gotten back into the car and gone to take the call which was on the bad side of

  Nebraska Avenue. Which was saying something since none of Nebraska was very pretty. The address was the left half of a rundown duplex and when Mei-Li rang the doorbell, a tired looking girl with straggly blonde hair who couldn’t have been older than nineteen opened the door. She had dark circles under her eyes and was holding a red-faced squalling baby in one arm. A toddler with grape jelly smeared on his mouth was clinging to the skirt of her waitressing uniform.

  When Mei-Li explained why she was there, the girl glowered at her.

  “You can’t come in. My kids are fine.”

  “I’m sorry, Ma’am but once a complaint is filed, we have to check it out. This should only take a short time.” Mei-Li made her voice firm and uncompromising. Her tiny stature had forced her to develop a fierce professional personality which she employed now.

  “But…” The girl began to look uneasy.

  “I need to come in.” Mei-Li tilted her chin to look the girl squarely in the eyes. “I need to look around.”

  “Oh…all right,” the girl said hopelessly. Her thin shoulders sagged as she stepped away from the doorway which she had been blocking.

  When she finally got entry to the little duplex, Me-Li almost wished she hadn’t. The place made Drunk Mom’s messy apartment look nearly pristine.

  Trash covered the floors—so much that she had to kick it away to walk. Paper plates, some with half eaten, moldy food still on them, empty drink cans, broken toys, and other debris was everywhere. The couch in the living room was piled with mounds of dirty clothes and Sponge Bob was blasting from the battered TV set.

  The ceiling fan overhead whirred ceaselessly, probably because there didn’t appear to be any central air. The heat was stifling. Mei-Li could feel herself sweating beneath her professional dove gray jacket and skirt combo but she made no move to take her jacket off—there was no place to put it and besides, she wasn’t sure what else she might encounter. She wanted a barrier between herself and any creepy crawlies that might be lurking.

  The bedroom was in the same shape. There was no bed frame—just a bare mattress on the floor covered in junk and wadded up blankets. The air smelled like garbage and urine—probably because of all the dirty diapers piled in one corner.

  But the kitchen was the worst room of all. Dishes filled the sink and overflowed onto both countertops. A pot on the stove looked like it had once held oatmeal. Now it was home to a growing colony of squirming maggots. Mei-Li kept her face blank and struggled not to gag. When she lifted an empty Corn Pops box from the pile of garbage that dominated the tiny kitchen table, a roach ran up her arm.

  Mei-Li gave a muffled shriek and dropped the box reflexively. She could handle mice or rats but she hated roaches. It took all her professionalism not to dance around shaking her arm to get the roach off. Instead she took a deep breath and, with a practiced flick, she sent the insect skittering to the floor. It rushed away and squirmed into a dirty crevice under the stove, disappearing from sight if not from mind.

  Mei-Li turned to face the mother who had been trailing her around the whole time as she went from room to room.

  “Ms. Fagen…”

  “Just call me Brandi,” the girl said. “Look, I know this don’t look so good but I can explain. I work nights at the Ihop and my aunt watches the kids but she comes over once they’re asleep and she sleeps too. When I come home I’m really tired. I know things are kinda piled up but—”

  “I need to look at your children,” Mei-Li said. “What are their names?”

  The girl lifted her chin. “I told you—my kids are fine. Not a mark on ‘em.”

  “Still.” Mei-Li kept her voice calm but firm. “I need to look.”

  “Okay, fine. This one’s Carl,” Brandi said, nodding at the baby which was still crying. “I think he’s hungry. You can look at Butch, here,” she nodded at the toddler, “While I get Carl a bottle. Go on, look ‘im over—I ain’t got nothing to hide.”

  “All right.” Normally Mei-Li liked to sit down somewhere so she could get on the child’s level but there wasn’t a single surface in the whole living area to sit that wasn’t covered in trash. She contented herself with crouching down to get on eye-level with the little boy.

  “Hello, Butch,” she said softly, looking into his wide, mistrustful blue eyes. “That’s a pretty tough name.”

  “It is tough ‘cause I’m named after my Daddy. He’s tough too.” The little boy nodded decisively and scratched his mop of straggly blond hair which looked a lot like his mother’s. “Least he was when he lived here.” His lower lip quivered. “I wish he still did.”

  “I’m sure you do,” Mei-Lei said gently. She scanned rapidly to see if there were any suspicious looking bumps or bruises on the little body. It was easy to see because the little boy was dressed in a white t-shirt and a pair of faded Spiderman underpants and nothing else. Other than the grape jelly smeared on his face, he looked healthy enough. No bumps, cuts, burns, or bruises and he didn’t seem malnourished. Then Mei-Li saw something crawling in his hair.

  Taking a deep breath, she pulled a pair of purple latex gloves from her suit pocket and slipped them on.

  “What’re those?” Butch’s eyes got wider.

  “My magic gloves.” Mei-Li smiled brightly. “They’ll help me find out why your head is itchy. It is itchy—right?”

  “All the time!” He nodded vigorously and scratched again with short, grubby fingernails.

  “Okay, then.” Mei-Li stood up and made sure that the ends of her own long hair were tucked safely back. She wished she’d thought to put her hair in a bun this morning as she usually did but she’d wanted to look nice for court later on. Taking a deep breath, she bent over the small, blond head. It didn’t take long to confirm her suspicions—the little boy’s hair was crawling with lice.

  “It itches a lot!” He scratched his hair again and Mei-Li nodded, keeping her face carefully blank.

  “I bet it does.”

  “Does he have lice again?” the young mother said, coming up behind Mei-Li.

  “Again?” Mei-Li raised an eyebrow.

  “It’s them neighbor kids.” Brandi lifted her chin defiantly. “Butch plays with them and they give him lice. It’s not my fault they’re dirty.” She had the baby clasped firmly in one arm and she was feeding him a bottle which had apparently just
come from the refrigerator because the side was beaded with condensation. Well, at least she wasn’t giving him something that had sat out in the heat of the apartment and spoiled, Mei-Li reflected.

  “He does appear to have lice,” she said neutrally. “That’s going to have to be taken care of.”

  “I’ll take care of it. If I could just get some decent tips…that damn medicated shampoo is so expensive and if you got to choose between feeding ‘em and letting ‘em itch…” Suddenly her lower lip quivered and her formerly defiant eyes filled with tears. “Lady, you’re not gonna take my kids, are you? I know my place ain’t great but I make sure they’re fed and clothed and I love them!”

  “I can tell you do,” Mei-Li said gently. “But, Brandi, it’s not safe for them to live in these conditions. It’s a health hazard.”

  “I’ll clean up,” the girl promised wildly. “I swear I will! Just please, don’t take my kids. They’re all I got and since Butch left me I got no one to help me. I work as many shifts at the Ihop as I can just to make rent on this lousy place and I’m so tired all the time.” She started sobbing. “I’m just so tired.”

  “Mommy, mommy!” The little boy ran to her and threw his arms around her waist. “Mommy, don’t cry! Please!”

  Mei-Li felt her heart clench in her chest. No matter how many times she saw a situation like this, she never got used to it. She couldn’t, in good conscience, leave the kids here in these conditions and she knew if she called in another CPI they would agree with her assessment. Still, the children didn’t appear abused or neglected and it was clear the mother loved them and they loved her. She looked around the duplex and took a deep breath.

  “I tell you what,” she said to the young mother. “Maybe I can help you out a little bit. Just let me go out and get a few things from my car.”

  She returned a moment later with a box of garbage bags, some cleaning supplies, and a bottle of lice shampoo. She always kept a few spare bottles in the trunk for this exact situation which she sadly encountered all too frequently.