“Harper,” he cried in fear and frustration, still feeling for her with great sweeps of his arms. “Oh Goddess, where is she?”
Then he heard the voice of the Goddess—not She Who Alters but The Mother of All Life, the Kindred Goddess whom he had known so well as a child. She had spoken to him often back then but her voice had faded as he grew. Now it came to him clearly once more.
“Be still, warrior. Be still and watch for a moment.”
It was the hardest thing he’d ever done but Shad forced himself to be still. Ignoring the shouts of the bathing attendant, he watched the surface of the slime which was perfectly flat and calm now that he’d stopped moving. Ripples didn’t carry very far in such a thick surface.
And speaking of ripples—there—right there, by a band of crimson red. Was there a faint ripple? And a bubble rising to the surface?
“Harper!” he roared and surged forward, reaching for her.
This time he caught something—something long and slick and rope-like which nearly slipped out of his hand. Shad tightened his fist, wrapping the slick stuff around his forearm and pulled as hard as he could.
Harper broke the surface gasping for air, blinded by the colored slime which coated her face. It was her hair, which had come down out of the elaborate twist she’d put it up in, that Shad had in his fist.
As soon as he could he got untangled from it and pulled her into his arms.
“Sweetheart—Kallana…” He looked at her anxiously. She was taking deep, heaving breaths as though she couldn’t get enough air and every inch of her was dripping with the multicolored, waxy slime.
“Sh-shad?” she managed to gasp at last. “Oh thank God! They…they grabbed me and they wouldn’t let me go!”
“Who grabbed you?” Shad asked. “Fucking Watchers I guess,” he answered his own question when she shook her head. As he spoke, he felt soft, webbed fingers trying to wrap their way around one ankle again.
With a low curse, he drew back and kicked out, jostling Harper, who cried out weakly.
“Come on, sweetheart—we’re getting the Seven Hells out of here,” he growled.
As he waded towards the deep end of the pool where the color was as black as coal, he became aware that the bathing attendant was still shouting.
“Get out! You have to get out! Two cannot be in the Cleansing Pool at once—it is blasphemy! The Slime has been defiled. You have to get out!” she shrieked, dancing around the edge of the pool in agitation. Her large, yellow eyes blinked continuously as she shouted and begged and gestured for them to leave the pool.
“All right, all right,” Shad growled angrily. “We’re going as fast as we fucking can.”
“No, no—you cannot get out at the same time,” the girl exclaimed. “You must get out first and leave the Empress in the pool. She is the supplicant—only she must remain to be taken by the Goddess!”
“Leave her in here so she can get grabbed by those Watcher things again? I don’t fucking think so,” Shad snarled. “I’m bringing her to the edge and we’ll get out together.”
“You cannot! You must not!” the attendant protested, as he finally reached the far edge of the pool. “If you do—”
But her words were cut off by a low humming sound which grew suddenly so loud Shad couldn’t hear anything else. At the same time, the lights in the vast pool area became blindingly bright.
Shad winced at the sudden brilliance and noise and tightened his grip on Harper. She was slippery in his arms,still covered in waxy slime, but he was damned if he’d let her go again. She—
Everything faded away. The vast pool, the shouting, dancing attendant, the multicolored slime…all of it was replaced by a soft, penetrating golden glow that seemed to come from all directions at once.
Shad looked down at himself. Somehow he was no longer holding Harper—instead she was standing beside him, holding his hand and breathing easy. They were naked and clean—perfectly clean, both of them. Every trace of the colorful slime that had coated their skin only seconds before was gone. It was even gone from Harper’s long hair which now fell in thick, shiny curls around her shoulders.
“Harper? Baby?” Shad looked at her, wondering how all this had happened. Where was the pool and the attendant and the slime? Where had he and Harper ended up? But all of those questions were secondary to finding out if she was all right. “Are you okay?” Shad asked her.
“I…I think I am.” She put a hand to her chest, right between her breasts, as though feeling for her heart. “But for a minute I thought I was drowning. The slime was so thick and I couldn’t breathe…”
She shivered and he put an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close.
“I know, baby, but it’s over now. We’re safe.”
But were they? His thoughts came full circle again—where were they? Was there some new threat to Harper in this strange, softly glowing golden bubble they somehow found themselves in?
Shad looked around alertly, ready to fight anyone or anything that tried to hurt the woman he loved. If anyone tried anything he would kill them with his bare hands! He wouldn’t lose Harper again, Goddess damn it!
“Greetings, travelers.”
The low, feminine voice was filled with power and seemed to come from everywhere at once. It reminded Shad of the voice of the Kindred Goddess, the Mother of All Life, but somehow it was different—clearly a different deity although how he knew he could not have told.
“I perceive that you are most protective of your female,” the voice of She Who Alters—for it must be her—continued, speaking to Shad. “So protective that you refuse to leave her behind, even when you come before me. Though it is well known that I usually receive only one supplicant at a time.”
Shad tried to explain…and found that he couldn’t. Now, in the presence of the Goddess, his throat had somehow locked closed. He tried again, attempting to force words out but not a single sound emerged. Suddenly, he remembered something the bathing attendant had said—“Being in her glory will strike you dumb.”
At the time she’d told Harper that, he’d been certain she was speaking figuratively because of the awe she plainly felt for the deity. But now it occurred to him that he really couldn’t speak—which meant he was unable to explain that he was not the supplicant.
He looked frantically at Harper and tapped his throat. She opened her mouth to reply but no sound came out. Frowning, she shook her head.
Shad ground his teeth together silently. Goddess damn it—what were they going to do?
“Shadow Twin.” She Who Alters spoke again in that deep, rolling voice which came from every corner of the room and somehow from inside him as well. “One who is always alone—unable even to bond the female you love to you. Yes, I see the problem now.”
NO! Shad wanted to shout. No, that’s not the problem we need to have fixed! I’m not even the right supplicant! Dimly he remembered the bathing attendant also saying that having more than one supplicant before the Goddess at once could mess up She Who Alters’s perception of what needed to be changed. Was that what was happening here?
Desperately, he tried again—thinking to her as hard as he could.
Please, I am not the supplicant—Harper is. She needs to be changed—she is a ten’sora—one sought by the evil Hive in order to swell their ranks and breed an army to overtake her home planet and destroy my people. Please, listen to me—change Harper. CHANGE HARPER!
But She Who Alters didn’t seem capable of hearing thoughts and prayers the way the Kindred Goddess, the Mother of All life was. When she spoke again, it was still to Shad.
“I will cure this deformity inside you, Shadow Twin,” the deep voice murmured. You will never be alone again for now you shall be able to form a bond with your female the way the rest of your people can. In fact, I perceive that you and your female have drunk deeply of each other before coming to me—so the bond has already begun. You need only to seal it to be together for the rest of your lives.”
�
�No…NO!” Shad wanted to shout, but of course his voice was still locked. At that moment, he felt something shift inside him. Some deep hole inside him—a gaping chasm which had been with him all his life—was suddenly filled. For the first time he felt…whole.
Harper was part of that wholeness. As the Goddess had said, he could feel the beginnings of a bond with her. Through it he felt her uncertainty about what was happening and her worry that things were going wrong—the same emotions he himself was experiencing. He also felt her love for him—a feeling so strong it suffused him with light.
It was such a wonderful sensation he nearly forgot to be upset again. But then he realized afresh what had happened.
He had finally gotten Harper through to the end of the line—to a Goddess who could cure the ten’sora property within her and change the history of his people and hers.
But after all the trouble and toil and doubt and pain and tears, She Who Alters had fixed the wrong person—the wrong thing.
They had failed. It was their last chance and they had failed.
“Goddess!” he screamed at her in his head. “Goddess, please no! Please!”
But it was too late.
“Farewell,” the voice of She Who Alters murmured. “I return you to your original origins.”
The deep humming sound began again and the bubble of light around them grew so brilliant Shad had to squeeze his eyes closed or be blinded.
Everything disappeared and he knew he had failed.
And this time, there was no second chance.
Chapter Eighteen
Sovereign X’izith stared into the green E’lo seer stone in perplexity.
“What just happened?” he demanded of the sentient scholar-worker who was standing, buzzing quietly, at his left shoulder.
“I beg your pardon, my Sovereign?” The scholar groomed its antennae nervously. “Is there a problem? Our plan is right on target. The scout has stung the host and injected the mind-altering serum. Even now the host is on his way, bringing the transport stone to the girl.”
“She…flickered for an instant.” X’izith frowned, a strange expression on his insectile, alien face. “It was almost as though she disappeared and then reappeared in the same spot before my very eyes…eye,” he amended ruefully, rubbing at the empty socket where his second compound eye had once been.
“She appears to be there now,” the scholar-worker pointed out.
“Yes, but does she look…different to you?” X’izith peered closely at the green stone. “Is she somehow altered? Her clothing perhaps?”
“Forgive me, my Sovereign, but the nuances of the strange cloths the Earthling’s use to cover their skin escape me.” The scholar bowed obsequiously.
“It doesn’t feel right,” X’izith announced. “Have the host hurry.”
“But I thought we agreed that a more casual approach was more likely to succeed,” the scholar protested.
“I have changed my mind,” X’izith snapped. “Have him hurry. Use force if necessary but be certain the transport stone makes contact with her skin!”
“Yes, my Sovereign!” The scholar-worker bowed and relayed the message to another sentient worker, who was controlling the host. Then he turned back to X’izith. “You know, my Sovereign, if for some unforeseen reason this plan does not…ahem…come to fruition, there is always the other option we talked about.”
“No!” Sovereign X’izith rounded on the scholar, clacking his mandibles angrily. “I do not even know why I allowed you to talk me into putting that option in place. A hybrid being cannot lead the Hive or be certain that it thrives and grows as the Nameless Ones intend. It is a sacrilege—a blasphemy!”
“Better a hybrid made from your own DNA should lead than that the Hive should die out completely,” the scholar argued, grooming his antennae furiously. “The egg is in the gestation tube—it does not even need a human host to come to maturity. One word from you, my Sovereign—”
“That word will never come.” X’izith’s voice was cold with fury. “The day when I allow a hybrid to be named my successor—”
“My lord, my lord!” the worker controlling the host buzzed excitedly. “The host is on the way and he caries the stone. We must be ready to receive the human girl—he is moving fast!”
“You see? Here she comes—my plan will come to fruition.” X’izith rubbed two of his long, chitinous claws together eagerly. “Soon I will be planting the royal grubs in her belly!”
Chapter Nineteen
Harper blinked as the brilliance around her faded. She was sitting on the sand at the beach on a slightly chilly day, observing the ocean. Her head ached dizzily, as though she’d just been on an extended ride on the tilt-a-whirl at the State Fair and her stomach felt queasy.
Where am I? What’s going on?
There was something nagging at the corner of her mind—something important had just happened to her. But what?
I came to the beach to do my New Year’s Resolution thing and get out of Mom’s house for a while and then I…
A chilly breeze whipped over the sandy beach. It struck Harper in the face and chest like a slap, making her shiver as her nipples tightened with cold.
Wait…her nipples?
She looked down at herself and was horrified to see she was wearing some kind of garment that seemed to consist entirely of long, green fringes. Her bare breasts were poking out of it, her nipples hardened by the cold wind.
“Oh my God!” Harper gasped. She tried to pull her cardigan closed around the strange, revealing garment only to find that the fabric she was clutching was a far cry from the short-sleeved sweater she had put on that morning.
Around her shoulders was a cloak made of long, rainbow colored spikes—they kind of looked like they came from a porcupine. Maybe a porcupine participating in a Pride parade…
The cloak of thorns, whispered a voice in her brain. The royal fabric.
Wait…what? Harper shook her head as visions suddenly filled her mind.
We were in the Thieves' Market…I touched it and it imprinted on me…the merchant chased me down the street demanding that I buy it.
What were these memories filling her head, flooding in like water filling a pitcher? Faster and faster they came…she saw a desolate Earth, destroyed and polluted… a huge golden space yacht…a flying snake…
What had happened to her? Where was all this coming from?
Suddenly she heard someone calling her name.
Looking up, she saw a man in a black leather vest and trousers running towards her over the sand. He was still far off but she could make out his coal-black hair and blazing white eyes. He looked so familiar…
Shad, whispered a voice in her head. It’s Shad—you love him.
Suddenly everything fell into place, like pieces of a puzzle finally clicking together. Harper remembered everything.
We were together in the presence of She Who Alters and she…she changed Shad, not me. I’m still a ten’sora. But then why are we back here again? Isn’t this the beginning of the loop, where Shad first found me? But I didn’t forget him—I remember everything. What’s going on?
“Shad!” she exclaimed, standing and turning to him. “Oh my God, Shad! What are we doing back here? What’s going on?”
The big Kindred didn’t answer. He was shouting and pointing…pointing behind her.
“Harper—the mind-slave! Watch out—he’s got the stone! Run—run!”
Abruptly, Harper remembered the nice lifeguard-looking guy and the purple M&M he’d tried to give her on this very same beach at this very same spot where Shad had found her what seemed like a hundred years ago.
She turned her head to see the very same man almost right behind her. He was running at her, just as Shad was, but he was so much closer. His bare feet made no sound on the sand, giving her no warning.
“Don’t let him touch you with it!” Shad shouted and she knew he was talking about the transport stone she could see sparkling like an amethyst betw
een the lifeguard guy’s fingers.
Adrenaline spiked in her and Harper’s heart was suddenly beating right between her teeth.
Oh my God, have to get out of here now!
Belatedly, she started to run but her feet got tangled—either in the long fringes of her gown or the folds of the rainbow cloak, she wasn’t sure which. Either way the result was the same—she tripped and fell face first onto the powdery sand.
“Oof!” she gasped as the wind was knocked out of her.
“No!” she heard Shad roaring. “You touch her and you’re fucking dead! Dead!”
Harper tried to scramble to her feet but just then a strong, rough hand caught her by the ankle and pulled off her shoe. Then something that felt like a piece of ice—something so cold it burned—pressed against the sole of her bare foot.
Harper started to scream but the sound never left her lips. For the second time in as many minutes, the world around her faded and she found herself being whirled through nothingness to destinations unknown.
Chapter Twenty
Shad punched the bastard out, as he had so many times before. He wanted to beat the mind-slave bloody, but he knew it wouldn’t do any damn good. Harper had been taken by the Hive and he had to get to her. But how?
He looked around and down at himself. He was dressed as he had been while he was playing her bodyguard in black leather trousers and a matching vest and boots. But his ship was nowhere to be found.
Of course it’s nowhere to be found, idiot, he berated himself. It’s still in my future—the future where the Hive has taken over and this is clearly my past and Harper’s present. She Who Alters sent us back to the beginning of the loop.
Or had she?
Shad looked down at the looper embedded under the skin of his forearm. It was completely dead without even the slightest flicker of light. The meaning of this began to dawn on him and two things became clear: One, She Who Alters hadn’t sent them back to the beginning of the loop because there was no longer any loop. She had simply sent them back to the time and place on Earth where he had first met Harper. And Two, with the looper permanently out of commission, he had no way to get his ship and go after Harper.
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