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“Warriors!” The authoritative, feminine voice echoed through their small domicile, making both of them jerk their heads up like puppets on a string.
“Goddess?” Light breathed, for it could be no other.
“Hear me!” the voice demanded, not answering his question—for it really needed no answer. “The two of you will go at once to the Tribunal meeting! Because you abandoned her and went to a dangerous place where she was forced to follow, the female I have chosen for you is in grave danger!”
“Lili?” Light exclaimed.
“She’s here? How?” Dark asked.
“You will go AT ONCE!” the voice thundered and an overwhelming presence filled the room like the weight of a thousand atmospheric pressures suddenly converging on top of them.
“Yes…Goddess!” Light was bowed to the floor under the crushing presence. Dark was likewise prostrate beside him. It was obvious that the Mother of All Life was not happy with them.
“We will go…at once,” Dark gasped, obviously working to get the words out.
“See that you do! This is your second chance. If you lose the female I have set aside for you or any harm befalls her, you will not be given a third!”
Then the voice stopped speaking and the overwhelming presence was gone, as quickly as it had appeared.
Light rose shakily from the floor, taking huge gasps of air. Fear and anxiety rushed through him—they had to get to Lili! If they lost her, he would hate himself forever! He would…
And then it hit him—his feelings were back! It was as though the voice of the Goddess had blown right through the chemical emotion blocker in his brain.
He looked at Dark, who was getting to his feet as well.
“Brother, do you…feel again?” he asked hesitantly.
“I…don’t know.” Dark shook his head. “But I do know we have to get to Lili. The Tribunal Center is too fucking far away—we’ll have to take the shuttle. Come on!”
35
LILI
“This meeting of the Tribunal will now come to order!” A Dark Kindred with half of his face covered in enhancements and implants banged his metal fist on the table.
There were two other Dark Kindred on either side of him and Lili was standing there in front of them, shivering in her ripped body stocking and dented, fake enhancements. LJ-91 was standing to one side of her with his sniffer, who was still emitting a low, buzzing growl.
Somewhere outside a siren was whooping. It seemed to be some kind of signal because more Dark Kindred were filing in and Lili couldn’t help noticing that many of them had sniffers with them. The large room they were standing in was rapidly filling up.
When there didn’t seem to be any more room, the head of the Tribunal spoke again.
“Now, as I understand it, LJ-91, who is one of our top apprehenders of Feel Crime criminals, has brought a case before us today.” He nodded at LJ-91. “Speak.”
LJ-91 stepped up and puffed out his metal chest importantly.
“Thank you, Tribunal Master. I caught this criminal in the loading docks earlier today.” He gestured at Lili. “I had suspicions right away that there was something wrong with him because my sniffer gave an alert. However, when we got closer, the criminal was somehow able to mask his pheromones and my sniffer could not detect them anymore. I almost let him go.”
“But you chose not to?” The Tribunal Master raised his one visible eyebrow.
“I knew something wasn’t right,” LJ-91 emphasized. “He claimed his name was XR-17 and that he was only seeking comestibles. So I took him to a spot I know of, where Feel Criminals are known to congregate, because they put a special seasoning in their garn.”
“It’s just salt, you idiot,” Lili muttered. She was scared to death but also angry at the self-important asshole who had dragged her in here. If he would have just left her alone she might have been all right. She could have gotten safely back to the Mother Ship—instead she was standing her on trial for the horrible crime of having feelings.
LJ-91 shot her a look but continued speaking.
“As expected, the criminal enjoyed the seasoning, sending me a clear signal that he was feeling as he ate.”
“That’s a lie!” Lili protested. As scary as this situation was, she had to speak up for herself! Clearly she wasn’t going to be provided with a lawyer so she would have to mount her own defense.
