Unbondable(Kindred Birthright #1) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,64

you cannot be present but it is non-invasive and painless. We will save that one for last. Yes we will, yes we will.”

“Okay,” Kara said and winced as a familiar shock of pain ran through her.

Damn it, she was so tired of this endless cycle of agony and need! Despite the fact that Raak had gone down on her and made her come three more times right before they docked in the hospital ship, another essence attack was already hitting her.

“Can we please hurry?” she asked through clenched teeth. “I’m, uh, already in pain again.”

“You need me to help you, baby?” Raak asked, looking at her anxiously.

“No, I’ll be okay.” Kara shook her head. She was determined to get through the tests and find out what was going on as soon as possible. She would just have to endure the agony until that was over.

“All right. Well if you change your mind…” Raak raised his eyebrows expressively. “I mean, we can always go back to our ship for some, uh, privacy.”

“Thanks.” Kara felt her cheeks get hot with a blush. “But I’d rather just get these tests over with.”

“This way then,” Silki said to them, gesturing with one paw-like hand. Though most Tollegs were skilled surgeons, they did their surgeries with their long, talented, prehensile tongues, not their fingers.

Kara followed her, trying to suppress the twinge of fear and uncertainty she felt. Why wouldn’t the little Tolleg give her assurances that everything would be all right? Why did she look so serious?

It’ll be okay, she told herself, trying to ignore the fear that tried to fill her like dark water pouring into a cup. Everything is going to be okay. Everyone knows the Tollegs are the most skilled surgeons and doctors in the galaxy. I’m sure they can help me—I’m sure of it.

But if she was so sure, why did her stomach clench like an icy fist as she followed Silki out of her consultation room and towards the diagnostic suite of the ship?

And why did she feel such a sense of foreboding, as though what she had done to herself by altering her fangs could never be cured?

Thirty-One

“I don’t see why I can’t be in there with her.”

Raak frowned as he stared through the large clear window to where Kara was lying in the center of a vast round bubble filled with diagnostic gas-entities which swirled like colorful wisps of smoke all around her supine form.

“You said the diagnostic gasses weren’t painful or harmful,” he reminded Silki, who was sitting beside him, reading the information the gasses relayed through the bubble on a small, scrolling screen. “So why can’t I sit with Kara while you do the test?”

“You must be here with me so I can talk to you. Yes, you must, yes, you must.”

Silki’s high voice was serious and quiet and there was something like fear in her large, dark eyes, Raak saw with concern. Fear for Kara, he realized suddenly, which caused a knife of terror to twist in his own guts.

“What is it?” he demanded roughly. “What do you need to talk to me about? What’s wrong with Kara?”

“Kara is dying. Yes she is, yes she is.” There were tears in Silki’s eyes now and a mournful howl in her voice. “How I wish you would have come to me at once—yes I do, yes I do! But I’m afraid the essence poisoning is too far gone now to save her.”

“What? Essence poisoning?” Raak had to restrain the urge to grab the little Tolleg doctor by her slight shoulders and shake her. “What in the Seven Hells is that?” he demanded angrily.

“It is a very rare occurrence that happens sometimes to Blood Kindred, yes it does, yes it does,” Silki told him. “When the flow of the essence is reversed and it goes inward instead of outward it can poison the body—overload it with chemicals and hormones. If it isn’t reversed within the first twenty-four hours, I’m afraid it’s fatal. Yes it is, yes it is.” She lifted her pointed little muzzle and howled sadly, as though she could barely stand to think of Kara’s impending death.

Raak knew how she felt.

“Please,” he begged roughly. “Please, there has to be something you can do! Some cure—some therapy or surgery or treatment!”

Silki shook her head, her bushy ears swiveling with the motion.

“I’m afraid there’s no cure. No there isn’t, no there isn’t,” she said mournfully. “Well, except…but no.” She shook her head again. “No, I must not say