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“James is a cowardly bastard,” Melli agreed. “But I still don’t want you dying for me, Jodi!”
“You have to let me do what I can,” Jodi said sternly. She turned to the female Varian who had been watching their exchange. “What about it? Can I be the only sacrifice? Please?”
The female nodded.
“I will speak to the elders, but I do not see why not. Only one is needed in a Blood sacrifice, though two are required for Lust.”
“Thank you.” Jodi’s mouth felt as dry as dust but she nodded eagerly. “Thank you so much.”
“You are welcome.” The female Varian extended one seven-fingered, claw-like hand and pointed at her untouched plate of food. “If I were you, I would eat. You will shortly need your strength to cope with the ordeal at the Breeding Forum tonight. Once you are mounted upon the stage, you will know the meaning of true pain as you are slowly bled dry. I suggest you consume the nourishing slugs.”
“I will, uh, certainly take that under advisement,” Jodi said, nodding. “Thank you,’ she added again.
The female Varian simply nodded and glided away, presumably to get the stage where Jodi would be tortured, all set up and ready to go for that night.
“Jodi!” Melli was weeping as she threw her arms around Jodi. “Jodi, please don’t do this!”
“I have to, Melli. Please understand.” Jodi hugged her back fiercely. All their lives she had done her best to protect her tender little sister from the evil and cruelty of the world. She had failed to keep Melli safe on that awful night of her Junior Prom, but she wouldn’t fail now, she swore to herself.
She would keep her little sister safe, even if she had to die to do it.
Forty-One
“Are you certain this technology will work?” Liosh asked, looking at Vorn uncertainly as the Beast Kindred strapped a strange-looking contraption to his forehead. It looked a little like one of those flashlights one might wear to see better in a mine shaft. But as Vorn had explained, it didn’t project light—it projected images.
“Turn yours on and see,” Vorn told him, as he finished adjusting his own device.
Anxiously, Liosh did as he was told, pressing the pressure point at the top of the switch to activate the device he wore around his forehead. He turned to face Vorn.
“Well?”
Vorn nodded in satisfaction.
“Yeah, it’s working all right. Look here.”
He switched on his own device and suddenly disappeared. In his place, was a large, burly Varian soldier complete with a green, scaly snout, a long tail, and seven-fingered, clawed hands.
“Amazing!” Liosh breathed. “You look exactly like a Varian!”
“So do you,” Vorn told him. “Take a look in the 3-D viewer and see.”
The two of them crowded into the fresher of the shuttle together and Liosh saw that he, too, looked like a Varian now. From all angles he and Vorn both appeared exactly like the aliens whose planet they were planning to infiltrate.
“How does this work?” he asked, fascinated when he saw his new snout-mouth moving to form the words.
“The image projectors are all around the headband,” Vorn explained. “So no matter what angle anyone looks at you from, they see what the projector is showing—not you as you truly are.”
“It’s the perfect camouflage,” Liosh admitted.
Vorn grinned.
“Thanks, Brother. I’ve been perfecting it for some time. I was going to introduce it to the High Council after I did a final test for effectiveness.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Guess this is a pretty extreme test, but it ought to prove the image projector works.”
“It certainly should,” Liosh agreed.
“Well, we’re ready to go.” Vorn nodded in apparent satisfaction. “Were you able to isolate the emissions trail of the ship that took our females?” he asked.
“I was,” Liosh said. “They led directly to the largest structure on Varia—a massive dome called The Breeding Forum.”
“What?” Vorn frowned. “What in the Seven Hells is that?”
“Apparently every twenty cycles the Varians perform a kind of sexual ritual in order to fertilize their eggs,” Liosh said. He had been researching the alien race as Vorn piloted. “And this is one of the years they do it—it’s called “The Festival of Fertilization.”
“But why would they take Jodi and Melli there?” Vorn asked, his frown deepening. “What do they have to do with those damn Varians’ breeding rituals?”
“I don’t know.” Liosh shook his head. “But from what I could gather, I think they were using the T’lix Kruthe as a central part of the festival.”
“That still doesn’t tell us what they want with our females,” Vorn growled. “If they lay one scaly finger on them…”
“I don’t think they would be interested in Jodi or Melli sexually,” Liosh said, hoping his research proved to be true. “From what I’ve read, they consider the idea of breeding with a non-Varian species to be anathema—it is abhorrent to them—an utter abomination.”
