Secret Santa Surprise: Book 29 in the Kindred Tales Series - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,48

already broken down the chemicals we were given quite a bit.” He shook his head. “I need samples from some of the females who were affected. I don’t think they were able to process whatever it was in the punch as effectively as the males who drank it were.”

“It’s too bad you can’t just analyze the punch itself,” Liv pointed out. “But it’s probably all gone and the punchbowl cleaned out at this point.”

“No, it’s not!” Sonja pushed her way into the lab, holding an enormous crystal punchbowl. She put it down on a free space on the counter with a thunk and sighed. “Oof—that was heavy! Luckily, this hasn’t been rinsed out yet. But I have something even better for you.”

“You do?” Strong was already dipping a syringe into the sticky red residue at the bottom of the large bowl to draw up a sample, but he looked up to see what Sonja was talking about.

“Yes, I do—I have Patient Zero.” Sonja turned to the doorway where a figure dressed all in white was hovering hesitantly. “Come on in,” she said, beckoning with one hand. “Don’t be shy—nobody here is going to bite you.”

The person came out of the shadows and Strong saw that she was a priestess from the Sacred Grove. She was wearing a long, white robe belted with a pale green sash—the sign of a novice who had just entered the order.

Also, though there were emerald green streaks in her long blonde hair, the whites of her eyes were still white rather than green, which meant she hadn’t been a priestess very long. Priestesses who had been in the service of the Goddess for an extended period of time had the signature green-within-green eyes which were impossible to miss.

“Come on,” Sonja urged her again. She turned to Liv. “I think she’s the first one who drank the punch.” She took the shy priestess’s hand and brought her closer to the human doctor. “Tell her what you told me, Ellilah,” she said encouragingly, pronouncing the girl’s name “Ah-lee-lah.” “Don’t be afraid.”

“I…I came to the party last night with a few of the other novices, even though we were not supposed to leave the Sacred Grove.” The girl spoke in a soft, trembling voice, looking down at her hands as she talked. “I know this was wrong and I ask forgiveness.”

“Don’t worry, hon.” Liv put a hand on her arm gently. “Nobody is going to punish you.”

“The Priestess Superior will when she knows what I have done,” the girl whispered. “Although I feel I have already been punished.”

“Don’t worry about her. Just tell the nice doctor what happened,” Sonja urged gently.

“There was a male at the party,” Ellilah whispered. “He was tall and dark—at first I thought he was a Beast Kindred because of his black hair and beard—which was braided at the end. But his eyes were not golden. It was dark and I couldn’t tell what color they were, but they didn’t glow gold. They—” She shook her head. “I…I am getting away from the point, forgive me.”

“It’s all right,” Liv said gently. “Just tell it however you want to, hon.”

“The male, he…he had on a red hat trimmed in white fur. With a fur tassel on the end,” the priestess went on.

“A Santa hat,” Sonja put in.

“Yes, I suppose.” Ellilah nodded. “I…I saw him putting something in the punch. Something from a small, blue bottle. I shouldn’t have talked to him—shouldn’t have even gone near him—I know that…” She bit her lip. “But…I went up and asked him what he was doing.”

“And what did he say?” Liv asked, frowning.

“He said he was…was putting something in the punch that would make everyone feel happy. ‘Especially the females’ he said. And then he made me try some.”

“You saw him putting something in the punch and then you drank it anyway?” Strong demanded, frowning.

The little priestess’s cheeks went red and she looked near tears.

“He didn’t give me a choice. He put the cup to my lips and I…I swallowed.” She shook her head. “But then I started to feel…so strange.”

“Like nothing mattered and you could do anything you wanted, right?” Sonja demanded.

Ellilah nodded.

“Exactly. So when he told me…” She cleared her throat. “When he told me to come into a dark room with him—I think it was a storage closet—in the back of the conference room, I…” She swallowed hard. “I went.”

“Oh, honey…” Liv’s hand tightened on the girl’s arm. “Did he hurt you? Take advantage of you