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“Thank you, Commander,” Sky’lar said simply, nodding her head. “But it’s my case too, since the last murder was committed in my city. And I’m afraid we still have a lot to do to analyze all these files.”
“We’re already hard at work on it—solving this case and catching the killer is our highest priority here aboard the Mother Ship. And we’ve already performed an autopsy on Ambassador WinterBright,” Sylvan said. His voice grew hoarse with emotion. “She was…violated and killed in the same way as the other two ambassadors we sent to Zeta Prime and Yonnie Six.”
Torin was surprised, As a Blood Kindred, his Superior Officer was almost always cool, calm, and collected, but it was clear these murders were really affecting him. He noticed for the first time that Sylvan’s pale blue eyes were bloodshot—as though he hadn’t gotten much sleep lately. Probably the weight of these murders was weighing on him heavily.
“You can’t blame yourself for this, Commander Sylvan,” he said sympathetically. “You didn’t know this killer would appear when you appointed those females to their respective posts.”
“No, but I still feel responsible. I asked all three of them to serve the best interests of the Kindred people. In return, I promised them protection. I failed all three of them.” Commander Sylvan shook his head—there was a look of misery in his pale blue eyes that made Torin’s heart fist in his chest.
“We’ll catch this son-of-a-bitch,” he swore, leaning towards the viewscreen. “Surely this new evidence will help!”
“Yes, I hope so.” Sylvan nodded. “In the meantime, I have called all our other female ambassadors back to the Mother Ship.”
“A good move until we catch him,” Torin agreed.
“Commander Sylvan, not to interrupt but were you able to interpret the writing that was found at some of the scenes?” Sky’lar asked, leaning forward.
Sylvan shook his head.
“Not yet but we’re running it through an interpretation program that has access to most of the dialects of the known universe. If you’ll call back in a standard hour or so, we might have something for you then. We’re also analyzing the samples you sent with Ambassador WinterBright’s body,” he added, speaking to Torin. “We’re hoping to have a chemical make-up of the black slime you found soon.”
“You keep running tests,” Torin told him. “That should hopefully give us time to interview the only survivor—Mistress Mirabella—the one member of the Sacred Seven who got away when the killer attacked her.”
“Excellent.” Sylvan nodded and ran a hand through his short, spiky blond hair. “Carry on, Commander. We’ll call you later when we have the analysis of the black slime and the language left that the crime scenes and you can give me your report on her statement.”
“Will do.” Torin nodded. “Talk soon, Commander.”
Sylvan nodded once more and the viewscreen went black.
“Well…” Torin sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “At least we know the Mother Ship is working hard—hopefully they’ll have some results to share next time they call.”
“Your Superior Officer seems really distressed by these murders.” Sky’lar sounded thoughtful. “He really cares that much for females?”
“All Kindred do,” Torin assured her. “As I said, we see a divine spark in all of you. To snuff that spark out is unthinkable…unforgivable. Also, we also have an extremely strong protective instinct when it comes to females.”
“That’s admirable,” Sky’lar murmured. “It’s nothing like the Serpentine males I grew up with.”
“Oh?” Torin frowned. “Are they not protective of their females?”
“No, but they’re not expected to be. In Serpentine culture, it’s the other way around—the female is the stronger and larger partner and she’s also the only one with natural weapons—her fangs,” Sky’lar explained. “So on Portex Three, it’s actually up to the female to protect her mate.”
“Fascinating,” Torin said, though he couldn’t imagine sitting back and waiting for a female to protect him.
Though you’ve been awfully eager to let a female take the lead in other ways, lately, haven’t you? whispered a little voice in his head and he had a mental image of himself kneeling before Sky’lar and calling her, “Mistress.”
I had to do that, he argued with himself. We were playing our parts.
Yes, but it made you hotter than anything else you’ve ever done, didn’t it? the little voice asked. Kneeling before her…calling her “Mistress…submitting…
Torin pushed the thought away. It was ridiculous—he wasn’t the submissive type. He was just thinking this way because he could still taste Sky’lar’s honey on his lips, he told himself.
“I guess your point of view depends on how you were raised,” Sky’lar remarked, breaking into his train of thought. She sighed. “Well, we’d better go try to contact Mistress Mirabella. Maybe she can give us more of an idea of who—or what—we’re looking for.”
“Plotting a course now. We’ll be there very shortly—it’s an address on the outskirts of the city,” Torin told her as he fed the coordinates into the ship’s Nav-com.
