“Kaylee…”
“She’s not sleeping—she’s dead. She went to be with the Goddess. Well, I want to go too. Please, Jax…” She coughed and a gush of blood so dark it was almost black came from her lips and soaked her chest. “Please…” she whispered. “It hurts…”
“Kaylee,” he whispered. “I can’t…I just can’t…I promised Mere and Pere I’d take care of you. Don’t ask me to do that.”
“But I want to go. It hurts so bad…like fire inside me. Please, Jax, let me go…”
It was clear to Mei-Li that Six had been fighting not to cry too much but now he lost the battle and tears poured down his cheeks. The small hope he’d been nursing that he might still save his sister snapped like a dry twig. Mei-Li felt his despair keenly—felt the pain like a knife that sawed at his soul.
“Kaylee, no,” he begged brokenly. “You can’t leave me, too—you’re the last one left. Please, Kaylee…
“Jax…” It was the last whisper of breath from her lungs. Then, mercifully, her eyes fluttered closed and she was gone.
“Kaylee!” Her name from Six’s lips was a cry of pure anguish. He buried his face in his hands and his shoulders heaved. “I promised…” Mei-Li heard him groan. “Gods, I promised but I failed. I failed you all.”
“Oh, Six…” she wanted to say but no words came from her lips and she remembered she was only here as an observer. His pain ate at her with sharp, hungry teeth. It was greater than any child his age—anyone at any age—should have to endure. It was tearing him apart inside, Mei-Li could feel it. Now she understood what Yipper had meant when he said he didn’t think Six could feel this kind of emotional agony and keep his sanity. This level of distress would break anyone—it was torture worse than any kind of physical pain and Six had put himself through it for her.
Me—he did this for me—so I could feel again, she thought. Oh God, look what I’ve put him through! When is this going to end? We’re both going to go crazy if it doesn’t stop soon!
“Alone.” The younger Six hunched in on himself, his arms locked around his knees, his face hidden from the awful sight of death and destruction that had come upon him so suddenly. Mei-Li watched him, aching to go to him and hold him but she couldn’t touch him—not here.
“Oh, Six,” she said softly. “I’m sorry…so sorry…”
“Why did you go?” he whispered brokenly. “How could you all leave me? Take me with you—don’t leave me all alone…”
Alone…
Alone…
Chapter Thirty-two
“Alone,” a low, rough voice whispered.
Suddenly the scene melted away and Mei-Li found herself sitting in a hospital bed with Six—the full grown, adult Six, sitting rigidly beside her. His eyes were wide and fixed, as though he was staring at some horror only he could see and there were silent tears trickling down his cheeks.
“Alone,” he muttered again. “And it is all my fault.”
Mei-Li found that she was crying too. It was as though a dam had burst inside her—a barrier she hadn’t even know was there was now gone. She ached for everything she had seen—ached and burned inside for his pain. Her heart was breaking as she remembered the horrors he had been forced to go through at such a young age and the agony she still felt coming from him.
“Six! Oh, Six!” Turning to him, she got up on her knees and threw her arms around his neck. The strange flexible metal device Yipper had put around the backs of their necks was knocked off and fell with a clatter to the floor but that didn’t matter—all that mattered was being close to him, sharing his pain.
But though she held him close and cried until her tears wet the front of his shirt, Six remained rigid in her arms, neither moving or speaking. In fact, he barely seemed to breathe at all.
Mei-Li looked around anxiously until she saw Yipper, watching warily from the other side of the room.
“Yipper, what’s wrong with him?” she demanded. “Is he still stuck in that awful memory? Do something! Get him out of it! It’s terrible.”
“I do not know what I can do. No I don’t, no I don’t.” The Tolleg looked miserable. “I cannot—”
“The memory is over.” Six’s deep voice sounded rusty and hoarse. “Yet the pain remains as well as the knowledge I have gained from it. I understand now.” He turned a blank, cold stare at Yipper. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Understand what? Tell him what?” Mei-Li asked. “Please, Six, just talk to me. Or at least look at me. What was Yipper supposed to tell you?”
He turned his head to look at her and the coldness in his eyes made her heart freeze. He no longer looked…entirely sane. And yet he spoke calmly.
“I was the agent of their destruction. The carrier that made Kaylee sick—that made them all sick.”
“Technically the female who gave your sister the bread was the original carrier,” Yipper protested quickly. “You just happened to be the first person she made skin-to-skin contact with. That was all, that was all.”
“That old woman,” Mei-Li exclaimed. “That old baker woman had a disease she passed to you—didn’t she? I knew something wasn’t right about her. I knew it.”
“The Scarlet Plague,” Yipper said sadly. “It can only pass between hosts who have at least some similar DNA. In this case, after studying Six’s Memory Cache I believe she must have been a very, very distant relative from his mother’s side. It passes instantly through even minimal skin contact but it doesn’t kill the first person it touches—it colonizes them—uses them as a vector. Yes it does, yes it does.”
“It used me. And marked me.” Six pointed to the red ring around his left iris. “I knew I felt shame for the mark and wanted to cover it up but I didn’t realize why until I saw the memory again after all these years. If I had just let Kaylee eat the hi-ni bread instead of giving it back, we would have been fine. It can only pass skin-to-skin. If only I hadn’t touched her…”
“But it wasn’t your fault—it was that old baker woman!” Mei-Li protested. “She even said you looked familiar! Why would she do that to you?”
“The virus can lay dormant for years,” Yipper said. “And she probably wasn’t even aware that she’d touched Six at all. The contact was so fleeting I had to watch the memories myself several times to even be sure it happened. Yes I did, yes I did.”
“But Six used that light wand thingy.” Mei-Li made a waving motion with one hand. “I thought it was supposed to kill anything!”
“Not the virus that causes Scarlet Plague,” Yipper said. “At the moment of contact it burrows invisibly, painlessly and almost instantly through flesh until it finds a blood vessel.”
“It probably entered Kaylee’s blood stream almost the second I touched her.” Six rubbed his hands together in a washing motion. Mei-Li wanted to ask him to stop but she didn’t think he was conscious he was doing it. “I killed her the moment I touched her,” he said in a low, hoarse voice. “The people I loved most in the world and I killed them all…”
“Oh, Six, no!” Mei-Li tried to put her arms around his neck again but he pushed her away.
“Stop.”
“But, Six…” She was crying again, the tears streaming helplessly down her face. “Six, please—”
“I need to leave.” He stood abruptly, leaving her weeping on the bed. He turned to Sylvan, who had been standing and watching quietly in the corner. “Is there a place I could be alone?”
“Of course.” The other male nodded quietly. “Come. I’ll take you there.”
“No,” Mei-Li protested. “No, he shouldn’t be alone! Not after going through all that! He…he could hurt himself,” she finished in a near whisper, looking at Sylvan appealingly. “Please…”
The Kindred commander shook his head firmly. “Don’t worry—I’ll be certain that doesn’t happen. Come, Six.” And he led the other male away.
Mei-Li watched them go feeling that Six’s family weren’t the only ones who had died. In reliving the horrible memory and r
ealizing that he had been the agent of his loved ones’ deaths, a part of Six had died as well.
And she didn’t know if she could ever bring him back again.
Chapter Thirty-three
There was a soft knock on the door and then a pretty girl with brown hair and green eyes peeked into Mei-Li’s room.
“Hi there, do you mind if we come in?”
Mei-Li looked up from the magazine she’d been trying to read. It was one of the few paper periodicals still printed on Earth—a gossip rag she and Claudia always laughed at in the checkout line at the grocery store. It was full of ridiculous stories that never failed to make her smile yet for the past hour she’d just been staring at it, unable to even focus on the smudgy print and obviously photo-shopped pictures.
There was too much on her mind—too many awful images, too much sorrow and fear for the future. Especially after what Yipper had just come to tell her…Mei-Li tried to push that thought away. It was too awful. She didn’t want to think about it now.
It had been a night and most of the day since Six had walked out after sharing his traumatic past with her. Now he refused to see her or talk to her—not that Mei-Li blamed him. He had basically gone through Hell for her and it had been more than he could handle. She just wished he would talk to her about it instead of shutting her out. She wished…
Suddenly she realized the girl was still standing there with a questioning look on her face while Mei-Li just sat there stupidly, her mind working in the same tired, monotonous loops.
“Oh, sorry,” she said. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind. Sure you can come in.”
“I’m Sophia—Commander Sylvan’s wife,” the girl said, stepping into the room. “And this is my twin sister, Olivia—but we just call her Liv. Also, Lauren, our cousin.”
“Hi!” A girl with creamy brown skin and lovely amber eyes came through the door behind the blonde girl Sophia had introduced as Liv. She was holding a plate of cupcakes. “Hope you’re hungry,” she said, smiling.
Then a fourth girl came in—a full figured redhead who was moving very slowly.
“This is Kat, our best friend,” Sophia explained. “She looks really tired because she just had triplets not too long ago.”
“Triplets?” That got Mei-Li’s attention. “I didn’t know that happened with Kindred wives. I thought they had twins sometimes but never triplets.”
“It’s rare.” Kat sank down to sit at the foot of her bed. “Do you mind? I really am still exhausted. But being preggers for over a year will do that to a girl.”
“No, of course no. Help yourself.” Mei-Li sat up a little straighter, wishing she was dressed in something besides a hospital johnny. But how could she have predicted the Mother Ship version of the Welcome Wagon would come to her room? “Um, did you say you were pregnant for over a year?” she asked.
“Yup and that’s par for the course with Kindred babies. Something they don’t tell you during the oh-so-romantic Claiming period,” Kat said a little grimly. “Not that I really had one of those. My guys and I just kind of got thrown together.”
“Same here,” Sophia said and Lauren nodded too.
“Well I had a Claiming Period,” Liv said, smiling. “A month up here in the Mother Ship while I was trying to resist Baird—that’s my guy. But it kind of got cut short due to unforeseen circumstances.” She shrugged. “We still wound up together though.”
“My Claiming Period was cut short too,” Mei-Li said in a low voice. “But I don’t think…” She broke off, biting her lip.
“Don’t think what?” Sophia asked gently.
“I don’t think we’re going to wind up together.” Mei-Li’s eyes were suddenly burning but she somehow found a way to keep back the tears. She didn’t even know these women. No matter how friendly and nice they were, she didn’t want to start crying in front of them.
“Keep talking, doll—sounds like you need to get it out,” Kat said. She motioned at Lauren. “Go on—ply her with chocolate.”
Lauren leaned forward and offered the plate of cupcakes. There were several varieties and they all looked amazing but Mei-Li really wasn’t hungry at the moment—not even for junk food. She took a dark chocolate cupcake though, just to be polite.
“Thank you,” she said, trying to smile.
“You’re more than welcome.” Lauren smiled back. “I have a shop on the ship here. I used to have one on Earth and I was thinking of opening one down there again—you know, franchising? But of course now that we’re at war with Earth…” She shook her head.
“God, yes—the stupid war,” Kat groaned. “Now nobody can go down and visit family or shop. I mean, you can get most of what you need on the Mother Ship but there are still a few things…”
“Plus we just miss being able to go home if we want to,” Liv said.
Lauren sighed. “Mostly I miss my mom. I wish I would have brought her back up here to stay before this all happened.”
“The worst thing is, some people are still trapped down there. We have friends—Tess and Garron—who are stuck in Asheville hiding out from the ‘authorities’.” Kat rolled her eyes. “Meaning the stupid new ‘Earth Protection Bureau’ the idiots in charge just formed. Thank goodness the Kindred Commander down there is waiting it out with them so at least they’re not all on their own. According to our other friend, Becca, he’s a good guy.”
“Anyway, that’s one of the reasons we came to see you—since you’re new on the ship and we’re all pretty much stuck here now—we thought you might need some friends,” Sophia said.
Mei-Li felt her stomach drop. “That’s really nice but…you might not want to be friends with me.”
“What makes you say that, hon?” Lauren asked.
“Because, it’s my fault—the war, I mean,” Mei-Li admitted miserably. “My dad is on the World Council and apparently he got really freaked out when Six came to claim me and carried me away to Z4. I’m pretty sure he started the whole thing—or influenced it to start.”
“Honey, everybody freaked out,” Liv assured her. “It was all over the news.”
“I’ve tried talking to him,” Mei-Li said quickly. Indeed, though it was the last thing she felt like doing, she’d spent nearly the entire morning talking to her dad on the viewscreen.
“Did you?” Sophia sounded hopeful. “What did he say?”
Mei-Li shook her head. “That things have gone too far to stop. That he’s not the only one who wants to end the arrangement with the Kindred. I’m sorry…” She looked up at the ring of disappointed faces surrounding her bed. “God, I’m so sorry. I screw up everything I touch. Everything.”
“Okay, now, don’t start playing the blame game on yourself,” Kat said, taking one of Lauren’s cupcakes. “Just tell us what you mean by screwing up everything. I have a feeling you’re not just talking about the Kindred/Earth situation.”
“Which we don’t blame you for, by the way,” Sophia said quickly. “I mean, you couldn’t help being claimed by a Dark Kindred.”
“And I’m guessing you couldn’t help falling in love with him, either. Could you?” Liv raised an eyebrow at her.
“N-no I couldn’t.” Mei-Li was desperately afraid she was going to start crying now. To distract herself, she took a big bite of the chocolate cupcake in her hand.
Immediately her mouth was flooded with the sweet, slightly bitter taste of dark chocolate. The taste of Six’s kisses, she thought and then she couldn’t help herself anymore. Her eyes welled up with hot, miserable tears and a muffled sob escaped her.
“Oh, sweetie!” Sophia was beside her at once, putting an arm around her shaking shoulders. “We’re so sorry! We didn’t mean to upset you!”
“It’s n-not y-you,” Mei-Li somehow managed to stutter through her tears. “It’s this.” She held out the cupcake with the bite out of it.
“Oh no, does it taste bad?” Lauren asked anxiously. “I mean, I’ve had a few batches that didn’t turn out just the way I wanted them to but I’v
e never baked a cupcake so bad it made anyone cry before!”
“No, no,” Mei-Li tried to reassure her through her sobs. “Not crying…because it’s bad. Crying because it tastes good…like…like him.”
“I don’t get it,” said Kat blankly. “Sorry, doll—take a minute to cry it out and then maybe you can explain.”
“I just…I just…” Mei-Li took a deep shuttering breath and blotted her eyes on the floppy sleeve of her hospital gown. “I’m sorry,” she whispered when she’d finally regained some control. “I’m crying because Six…when I kissed him it tasted…tasted just like this.” She held up the cupcake again.
“Seriously?” Kat’s eyes widened. “Wow, I’ve got some hot Twin Kindred husbands but neither one of them tastes like chocolate when I kiss them.” She looked thoughtful. “That’s probably a good thing actually. When I crave chocolate, I get pretty desperate.”
“Afraid you might resort to cannibalism, Kat-woman?” Liv gave her a tiny grin.
“Be serious, girls—she’s means it,” Sophie said sharply. She turned back to Mei-Li. “So his kisses tasted like chocolate? Really?”
Mei-Li nodded. “And now…now I’m never going to kiss him again,” she whispered.
“Oh, now—don’t say that,” Lauren objected. “I mean, you’re both up here on the Mother Ship, right? You’re bound to get back together.”
“Lauren’s right,” Liv said. “If he’s Kindred and he claimed you, he won’t be able to leave you alone.”
“Yes he will,” Mei-Li said dully. “After he takes the shot of emotion blocker serum our friend is brewing for him.”
“What?” Sophia exclaimed. “Sylvan said something about somebody losing their emotions but I thought it was you.”
“I did lose my emotions but Six brought them back. Only in order to do it…” Briefly, Mei-Li told them everything that had happened since she’d woken up on the Mother Ship a day and a night ago. “And now Six has decided that he can’t deal with the emotions he set lose inside himself when he brought back my emotions,” she wound up. “Not that I blame him—what he remembered was awful. And he’s feeling it three times as badly because of the way his body reacted when his original emotion damper implant was removed.”