Protecting His Mistress - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,39
he’d come looking for like this.
“Here we go.” Lilli let them into a richly decorated room. The walls were lined with leather-bound tomes of Yonnite law and literature and the space was lit by the soft glows of many tall, purple pulta plants, whose blossoms had a glowing pink center.
“It’s a good thing Mother is gone for the day,” Lilli remarked, shutting the door behind them.
Karn arched an eyebrow.
“Because you don’t think she’d like you being in here on your own?”
“Well, that and the fact that every time she brings me in here she tries to teach me all about her job with the Sacred Seven.” Lilli sighed. “Honestly, the paperwork part of it isn’t so bad. But all the parties and public appearances you have to make are awful.”
“Well, let’s see if we can find what we came for and get out of here,” Karn suggested. This was feeling almost too easy—he didn’t trust it.
“Mother’s communications and computing system is right here.”
Lilli walked around to sit behind a massive crystal desktop which floated, seemingly with no support, about three feet off the richly carpeted floor. On it was placed a single computing unit with a liquid crystal screen. It had a manipu-cube rather that a keyboard, but that was fine with Karn—he was well versed in all kinds of tech.
“Let me see now…” Lilli seated herself in the cushioned leather office chair which immediately conformed to her shape and lifted her to the perfect height to work at the desk. “Mother showed me how to do this,” she muttered, touching the cube hesitantly. “But I haven’t got much experience—there was no communications tech at the convent…”
Karn watched impatiently as she began handling the manipu-cube. He normally would have given her as much time as she needed to do anything which was new and unfamiliar to her, but he really wanted to get in and out of this office. What if lady Mirabella came back unexpectedly?
“Mistress,” he said, “Maybe if you let me have a try? In my last assignment, I was charged with using this kind of tech.” Which was technically the truth.
“Oh, really?” Lilli got up at once and let him have the chair. “What Mistress were you with? Was she kind to you? Did you…like her?”
Karn shot her a glance as he seated himself behind the desk.
“I think what you’re asking is if I liked her as much as I like you,” he remarked as he began manipulating the cube with expert quickness.
“Well…” Lilli blushed prettily, looking down at her hands, as she often did when she was embarrassed. “I mean—”
“The answer is no.” Karn grinned at her. “I’ve never had any Mistress I like as much as you, Lilli.”
Which, again, was technically the truth, since he’d never had any Mistress at all before this mission.
“Really?” Her big brown eyes were bright as stars when she looked up at him and Karn couldn’t help himself—he put an arm around her waist and pulled her down for a gentle kiss. She tasted of the silki fruit she’d been eating at First Meal—a sweet, fragrant delight.
Lilli froze for a moment and then kissed him back eagerly.
“Oh, Karn,” she whispered, when he broke the kiss at last. “I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t do that but it’s really nice.”
“I like it too, baby,” he murmured, smiling at her. “But I guess we’d better get down to business,” he added when the cube beeped at him softly, letting him know it had found what he was looking for.
The liquid crystal screen, which floated above the desk the same way the desktop floated above the carpet, suddenly filled with a list of names and locations.
“Oh…” Lilli leaned on his shoulder and stared at the screen with wide eyes. “What’s that?”
“A listing of all the Kindred who are currently being kept as bodyslaves,” Karn said grimly.
Surreptitiously, he pressed the fingernail of the ring finger on his left hand. The tiny spy device that had been grafted onto the nail buzzed quietly to life at once, sucking data from the computing unit and transferring it directly to the Mother Ship, hundreds of thousands of light years away.
There—mission complete, he thought. But was it? He thought not.
Quickly, he began manipulating the cube again.
“What are you looking for now?” Lilli asked.
“I’m searching the list for any known felons,” Karn answered. “Or any convicted of crimes. I…there—there it is!”
He pointed at the liquid crystal screen where a single name was outlined in red. Quickly, he twisted the cube