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  Mind made up, Stav rose, lifting her in his arms. The pain was still bad but easing bit by bit. Now that he had a direct course of action, he felt more than able to carry her out to the car and get where they needed to go.

  Charlotte, however, seemed to have other ideas.

  “Hey, wait!” She struggled weakly in his arms. “What are you doing? Where are you taking me?”

  “Somewhere you can get help,” he growled. “Now stop struggling and tell me where the keys to your vehicle and these damn cuffs are. We don’t have much time.”

  Chapter Six

  Charlie tried to fight him but it was like beating against a brick wall. Before she knew it they were in her car and on the way back to the place she’d found him in the first place—the dirt road behind Bad Decisions. Shortly after that he was carrying her through a field and folding her gently into one of the little Kindred shuttle cars that he must have parked and left before she got to him.

  She tried to protest but the medicine was finally beginning to work and her mouth didn’t want to work. Later, she knew from experience, it wouldn’t want to stop working—the muscle relaxers had that effect on her. But for now she was mute as the car transformed into a shuttle and lifted off the ground taking her away from her home and everything she had ever known.

  “You’re going to be all right.” Stavros cast a glance at her as he manipulated the steering yoke and the array of complicated looking controls. “I’m taking you someplace they can cure you of your affliction.”

  My affliction? she thought fuzzily. What the hell is he talking about? What affliction? But when she opened her mouth to ask, the sight outside the shuttle’s window took her breath away.

  As they pulled away from Earth’s surface, she could see the grid of lights blinking on the darkened globe like a giant map. The sight was both beautiful and frightening—and something she had never expected to see. She’d taken great pains to be sure she would never be called as a Kindred bride and now, here she was being abducted by one of the big aliens anyway.

  They were headed out fast and she could see the various satellites that orbited her home planet whizzing past. Somehow, Stavros managed to avoid them all.

  Then a new satellite showed up—a black one-so black it was hard to see. What made it visible was the fact that it pulsed with some dark energy. To Charlie, it almost looked like a hole in space outlined by a black light.

  “What in the Seven Hells?” she heard the big Kindred beside her mutter and then the satellite—or was it a ship?—was shooting at them.

  Beams of light fired silently from the black ship and she felt their small shuttle shutter as one made contact. Stavros cursed in that same, strange guttural language and twisted the steering yoke, causing the little ship to dip and dive alarmingly.

  “Oh my God!” Charlie gasped, finding her voice at last. Her stomach rolled as the shuttle dipped again and then did a barrel roll. The black ship was still following them but now Stavros turned quickly and returned fire.

  Perhaps it was the suddenness of his move but he scored a direct hit. Charlie saw the other ship blow in a silent explosion of light and tiny fragments. Wait a minute—that was a big-ass bang. Why didn’t I hear it?

  “We’re in space,” Stavros answered and Charlie realized she must have spoken her question aloud. “Sound waves can’t travel in a vacuum. The only reason you can feel the effects of the ship maneuvering instead of just floating weightlessly is the artificial grav-con.”

  “What…what was that thing you blew up?” Charlie asked, speaking with some difficulty since her head was still fuzzy.

  “Not what—who.” He spoke tensely, never taking his eyes from the viewscreen at the front of the ship. “I am not certain but it looked like the ship of a Dark Kindred. Though why they are in Earth’s air space I do not know.”

  “Dark Kindred? Who the hell are th—”

  “Another one!” He swore softly under his breath. “There’s a whole fleet out there. Hang on—I wanted to take us straight to the Mother Ship but I can’t. We need to take evasive action and stay hidden somewhere for a short time.”

  “So we’re gonna lay low for a while?” Charlie asked. “Where?”

  He spared her a quick glance. “Earth’s sister planet isn’t far from here and I believe its cover of green house gasses should mask our energy signal.”

  “Sister planet? What?” Charlie frowned.

  “Venus,” he said impatiently. “Named for your goddess of love, is it not?”

  “I guess,” Charlie muttered. “I’m not up on my Greek mythology. It wasn’t exactly required reading at the police academy I attended.”

  “It is for us,” Stavros said. “We are required to know all about your myths and legends in order to understand your culture.”

  “You are?”

  He nodded shortly.

  “Hang on, I’m going to get us to Venusian air space as quickly as possible. We’ll hide on the far side of the planet until its safe to make another try for the Mother Ship.”

  “’K.” Charlie nodded agreeably. The meds were kicking in stronger than ever and as the last of her pain floated away, she felt like she was being enveloped in a big, puffy cloud. It occurred to her that she might just be having some kind of a hallucination brought on by doubling up on the muscle relaxers. She really wasn’t supposed to take more than one at a time but the pain had been so intense she had instinctively gone for two. Possibly right now she was lying on the carpeted floor of her bedroom and dreaming vividly that she was in an alien’s spaceship flying to Venus.

  That has to be it, she thought and yawned. How else can you explain all this weirdness? How else can you… Her eyes drifted closed before she could finish the thought and she knew no more.

  * * * * *

  When she opened her eyes the first thing she saw a blanket of stars stretched out across a black velvet background.

  The second thing was a huge alien male bending over her with a look of concern on his face. His very handsome, chiseled face, she couldn’t help noticing and a mane of thick, dark auburn hair was clubbed at the back of his neck. She opened her mouth to ask where she was, how she had gotten there, and who he was.

  “Hey, you’re kinda cute,” was what came out instead.

  He frowned and raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Uh…” Suddenly everything came back—capturing the big Kindred, Purvis insisting she take him to her home, her horrible migraine-period, her prisoner breaking her bed and then abducting her…And taking double the amount of medication you’re supposed to have. Don’t forget that part, a little voice in her head reminded her helpfully. But that didn’t seem to matter—none of it did. And all the memories that floated into her head seemed like daydreams—something that had happened to someone else.

  “I see you’re beginning to come back to yourself,” the big Kindred remarked, still looking down at her.

  For the first time, Charlie noticed he was shirtless, although how she could have missed that broad, muscular expanse of chest earlier she didn’t know. He had a towel slung around his neck and there were beads of water dotting his broad, tan shoulders. Peeking out from under the edges of the towel were the thick, curving lines of an intricate tattoo. She wondered if it just covered the back of his neck or if it went all the way down his back.

  “You’re naked,” she said stupidly, her fuzzy brain trying to process what she was seeing.

  “We are safe here so I took a shower while you slept,” he returned. “But I am not nude—I have my leathers on—see?” He motioned down to his black leather trousers and boots.

  “You look good naked,” Charlie murmured, eyeing his chest some more. “Damn good.” He had a small patch of dark auburn hair between the flat copper disks of his nipples and his skin was nicely tan, not fish belly white like so many redheads she’d seen. The six-pack abs were well defined and his arms were heavy with muscle. Yummy!

  “Well…than
k you. I find you, er, most attractive as well.” His deep indigo eyes roamed over her body as she lay there, stretched out in the passenger side chair. “I would be lying if I said otherwise.”

  Charlie struggled to sit up and he put an arm around her shoulders and eased her gently into a sitting position. The clean scent of his skin, masculine and warm and somehow spicy filled her senses. Her already fuzzy head seemed to get even lighter until it felt like someone had replaced her brain with a fluffy pink wad of cotton candy.

  “Mmmm.” Instead of letting him go, she threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his neck, inhaling deeply. “Y’ smell damn good too,” she murmured, slurring her words a little. She knew it was the medicine talking for her—and acting for her too—but at the moment it didn’t seem to matter. A big, sexy guy was holding her in his arms and it had been a looong time since that had happened. Actually, it had been a long time since she’d even wanted it to happen. And she’d never expected to want it to happen with a Kindred. Not since Missy—

  But even in her drug impaired state her mind wouldn’t let her to go there. She’d worked too hard to bury it to bring it up now.

  Now she just wanted to enjoy herself.

  “Mmmm,” she murmured again, snuggling closer. “God, you smell incredible. Makes me wanna just lick you all over like a big ol’ ice cream cone.” Only the very barest trace of common sense still lingering in her brain kept her from doing just that.

  The big Kindred—who had stiffened at first—relaxed and let her hug him.

  “You smell good to me too. Are you well, Charlotte?” he asked, his breath warm against the side of her neck.

  “Never better,” she purred. “And don’t call me Charlotte, I never liked that name. Call me Charlie.”

  “All right…Charlie.” He said it hesitantly, as though tasting the name. “And you may call me Stav if you like. Uh…” He shifted and she realized he was bending over her awkwardly since she still had her arms around his neck.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, not letting go. “Are you getting a backache standing like this?”

  “It is not the most comfortable position in the world,” he rumbled. “Although I would endure it gladly for your sake. But I do need to keep an eye on the viewscreen.”

  “This seat isn’t very comfortable for me either,” Charlie loosened her grip a little bit and gave him her best pouty face—the one she hadn’t used since she was a little girl and wanted something from her daddy. “I liked it better when you were holding me—like you did at my place.”

  “I can again…if you like. I could still keep an eye on the instrument panel that way,” he offered. When she nodded eagerly, he scooped her up and settled back into the captain’s chair with her in his lap.

  Charlie sighed contentedly and put her arms around his narrow waist and her head on his broad shoulder. Somewhere inside a little voice was screaming that she was acting a fool, that she would pay for all this later but she didn’t even care. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so good. So warm and comfortable and protected. Some instinct buried deep in her subconscious told her she was in the arms of a male who would kill or die to protect her. She didn’t know how she knew it—she just knew it and that knowledge as well as the feeling of his big, muscular arms around her was incredibly comforting.

  “You are acting…very differently from when we first met,” Stav remarked.

  “Mmm-hmm. If you mean I’m not holding a gun on you, it’s ‘cause I don’t have one here. You kicked mine under the bed,” she reminded him.

  “I wanted to keep you from pointing it at me,” he rumbled. “Getting rid of your weapon seemed the best way to avoid getting shot.”

  “You really think I would’ve shot you?” She looked up at him, all wide-eyed innocence.

  “I don’t know—would you?” He looked down at her curiously.

  “Hell yes—if you needed shootin’.” For some reason this struck her as funny and she started to giggle. “Couldn’t…miss you if I did,” she went on, still laughing. “You’re as broad as a…as a damn barn door.”

  He was smiling too, an expression that seemed to originate more in those deep blue eyes though the corner of his full mouth quirked up a little too.

  “I thought we agreed not to talk about each other’s personal assets?”

  “You mean your size?” Charlie giggled again. “Got news for you, cowboy—that’s not the only part of you that’s big.” She wiggled in his lap, rubbing against the growing lump she could feel under her ass. “Mmm, pants-python,” she murmured and then burst into another fit of giggles.

  “Um…” Stavros shifted, his face growing red. “Charlotte—”

  “Charlie!” she corrected him.

  “Yes. Charlie, may I ask what exactly was in that medication you took? Was there some kind of drug that helps loosen inhibitions?”

  “You mean something that would make me do this?” Tangling her fingers in the thick auburn hair at the nape of his neck, she dragged his head down and planted a kiss on his full lips.

  * * * * *

  Stavros stiffened against her at first, then his instincts too over and he kissed her back with passionate intensity. Careless of anything else, he crushed her to him, feeding on her sweet, pink lips, tasting her as he knew he had been wishing to do almost from the moment he heard her silky voice in his ear telling him not to move.

  Gods, I shouldn’t be doing this! Shouldn’t be taking advantage… He was reasonably certain the way she was acting had more to do with her medication than a sudden liking she might have taken to him. But she just felt so right in his arms—though her body was small compared to his, she was lush and ripe in all the right places. Her soft, full breasts crushed against his bare chest and the feel of her rounded bottom rubbing against his rock-hard shaft was almost more than he could bear. Her lips were sweet too, as kissably soft as he’d imagined and the tip of her tongue was dancing lightly inside his mouth, teasing him, provoking him to pull her closer, to kiss her harder…

  Suddenly she stiffened in his arms and pulled back.

  “Ouch!”

  “What is it?” Stavros pulled back, panting and shamefaced. He shouldn’t have taken advantage of her that way. But somehow when she’d pressed herself against him he had lost all control. What was wrong with him?

  “You bit me—hard!” she put a finger to her mouth and it came away bloody. She stared at it, wide-eyed. “Why did you do that?”

  “An accident. Forgive me.” It was hard to talk since his fangs had grown suddenly so long and sharp. They throbbed from base to tip and when he dared to run the tip of his tongue over one sharp edge, he tasted a salty droplet and knew it was her blood.

  There was another taste too—something only he could have detected. Subtly numbing and cooling at the same time, it tingled on his tongue.

  Essence. Did I inject her? If so, how much did she get?

  He knew he should examine her and offer to heal the wound his fangs had made but she was staring at him mistrustfully now and honestly, Stavros didn’t blame her. He wasn’t entirely sure he could trust himself at this moment. What was wrong with him, taking advantage of her that way? Clearly the medicine had incapacitated her. How could he look himself in the viewer again after acting in such a way with a helpless female?

  “Forgive me,” he said, lifting her and placing her carefully back in the passenger side chair. “I…am not sure what came over me.”

  “I…” She shook her head. “I don’t know either but I liked it—liked it a hell of a lot. Except for the biting, that is. You have to warn a girl if you’re gonna get kinky.”

  “It was not my intention to get…kinky,” Stavros said stiffly. “If you’ll pardon me a moment, I think it should be safe to try and contact the Mother Ship now.”

  “Sure…” She waved one hand expansively, the small injury apparently already forgotten. “Go for it. Just don’t get us shot at again.”

  “The Dark Kind
red usually fly their formations at intervals,” Stavros explained as he worked to establish a connection. “We just need to find a time when they’re not in the immediate air space of the Mother Ship and make a swift, direct approach.”

  “Uh-huh, sounds good.” Her eyes were closing again—the medication she had taken was apparently still in effect. Stavros wondered uneasily what she would remember when it wore off and how she would feel about what had occurred between them? Well, he supposed he would find out later.

  As the viewscreen finally popped into life and its cool glow filled the shuttle’s cabin, he wondered again if he had injected her with his essence. And what was he going to do if he had?

  Chapter Seven

  Charlie woke with the taste of blood in her mouth and the vague feeling that she’d been acting the fool, although how exactly her fuzzy brain refuse to explain. She groaned and blinked, trying to make the blurry room come into focus. Am I in some kind of hospital? Is this a hospital bed? Why am I wearing a gown instead of my clothes? How did I get here?

  “Oh look—she’s coming around,” an unfamiliar feminine voice said. Suddenly a redheaded girl was leaning over her. She was holding a baby with a shock of almost white hair in her arms. Though the baby appeared quite young, it gazed alertly at Charlie with odd, silvery-gray eyes. They reminded her of the color of mercury when you broke an old fashioned thermometer and the liquid metal came pouring out.

  “Um,” she said, struggling to sit up.

  “Just stay where you are—you’ve been through a lot.” Another anxious face peered at her—a girl with smooth, creamy brown skin and gorgeous green eyes. “Hi, I’m Becca.” She was holding a baby as well—this one had black hair and grayish-blue eyes.

  “And I’m Mei-Li,” a third girl said. She was petite and had long, silky black hair that hung in a curtain around her face. Her dark almond-shaped eyes were filled with concern and for some reason, Charlie thought she looked familiar. The baby she held had blond hair and green eyes.