Stolen (Brides of the Kindred #26) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,1

feathers.

“What is it, sweetheart?” he murmured, stroking her golden hair and holding her close, trying to comfort her. “What’s wrong? You must have had a nightmare.”

“N-not a n-nightmare.” Nadiah’s teeth were still chattering in fright. Rast held her tighter, disturbed. He had never seen his mate so upset before.

“If it wasn’t a nightmare then what was it?” he asked gently.

“A vision.” She sat up and her eyes turned suddenly from blue-green to pure emerald—the color of the Goddess. When she spoke again, her voice was not her own.

“The Father of Cruelty with reach from Afar

To the Eye of his scion asleep in the Dark

Buried so deep ‘neath the mountain Ra’gar

It must not awake or the future is Stark

Do not let its lid rise, do not let it awake

For if it sees daylight, our ‘verse is at Stake!”

Though he and Nadiah had been joined for years now and had three children together and he knew she was the Mouthpiece of the Goddess, it still unnerved Rast when the Mother of all Life spoke through his wife.

“Goddess,” he said, addressing the deity who was speaking through Nadiah. “What must we do?”

“Warn Sylvan of the Mother Ship,” the Goddess said through Nadiah. “The Eye of Ten’gu must be unearthed and destroyed before it awakens.”

“The Eye of Ten’gu? What’s that? And how can we destroy it?” Rast asked, but the Goddess had gone. Only Nadiah was left, drooping in his arms, completely worn out from acting as a vessel to the Goddess.

“Oh, Rast,” she whispered, leaning heavily against him. “That was so scary—I don’t know when I’ve been so frightened!”

“Are you all right now?” Rast looked at her anxiously.

“Not scared anymore. Just…tired.” She leaned her head against his shoulder. “The Goddess drove out the fear but hosting her is…taxing.”

“Of course it is, my Lyzel,” Rast murmured, stroking her hair tenderly.

“What did the Goddess say through me?” Nadiah asked. “What must we do to keep the Cruel Father at bay?”

“She said we must destroy the Eye of Ten’gu—whatever that is.” Rast frowned.

“The Eye of Ten’gu?” Nadiah sat up straight. “But that’s been hidden for millennia!”

“You know about it?” Rast asked in surprise.

She nodded, her long blonde hair swishing around her slender shoulders.

“Of course—it’s in some of our earliest scrolls and documents. It’s an ancient artifact, as old as the Kindred race itself.”

“Well, what does it do?” Rast asked, frowning.

“I don’t know,” Nadiah admitted. “But I do know that the very first thing the Kindred males who originally left First World did was to get rid of it. They buried it in the side of a mountain on Yown Beta where no one could ever find it.”

“Well it sounds like someone is on their way to find it now,” Rast said grimly. “The Goddess told me we must warn Sylvan and that someone has to go dig it up and destroy it before…” He hesitated, not wanting to scare his wife again.

“Before what?” Nadiah demanded. “Come on, Rast, tell me!”

Rast could see she wasn’t going to let up until he told her.

“She said the Eye of Ten’gu must be destroyed,” he repeated. “Before it awakens.”

Nadiah didn’t reply. She just buried her head in Rast’s chest and shivered.

A time of darkness was coming. The question was, would the Kindred be able to stand against it?

One

The first thing V’rex noticed about the little female, when she walked into the Hell’s Gate Spaceport Lounge, was her ass.

Gods! he couldn’t help thinking as his eyes followed her every movement. That ass…

It was so full and round and she had thick thighs and broad hips to match it. Her top was nice too—a little waist and full breasts but it was her ass his eyes kept going back to.

She was shaped like a fertility goddess from Quorset Three.

Everything else in the noisy, crowded bar seemed to fall away as he watched her move. The sharp smell of spilled Brantha gin, the shouts of the other bar patrons, demanding drinks, the low drumming of the hypnobeats playing over the sound system which was meant to keep fights to a minimum, the sweet-sour stench of tookla smoke, all faded into the background as he focused on her in the dim, crowded room.

V knew lots of males had a “type” they always went for, and then there were some dogs who would just bed anything they could get their hands on. But he had always been picky. Maybe it was his half Beast-Kindred heritage, but he wasn’t interested in just anyone. In fact, he