“You’re right, Jesus, you’re right. It was really pretty bad.”

“Oh, Mark.” She moved to him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and pressed her head against his chest. “I do love you so.”

“When this is over, when you’re back where you belong -”

“You’ll go back where you belong, Mark, I swear it.”

A basement room. At each end a door. Between them a rough block wall, and in each concrete cinder block a screaming mouth. Sound dripped onto the floor, leaving her naked body cold and wet. Blaise was coming, heels drumming on the floor, turning her bones to water. A door opened. Zabb peered in, his hand resting on the knob.

“This way out,” he said cheerfully.

Tisianne glanced to the other door. The footfalls were closer.

“That way pain,” said a bleeding mouth with Cody’s voice.

“Death,” said another with Blythe’s voice.

“Last chance,” said Zabb.

“I can’t. I need more time!” Tis cried.

Soft breathing in the darkness. She was instantly awake, laid her hand on the laser pistol resting by the bed. Recognized him by the scent. Relaxed back among pillows.

“What are you doing here?”

“Answering the call.” Zabb found the edge of the bed with the back of his knees and sat down.

“I’m sorry, bad dream.”

“Ancestors, Tis, can’t you learn a little control? You were bellowing like an orphaned ral.”

“I didn’t realize… you could hear.” She twisted the sheet between her fingers. “I didn’t realize… I wanted you.”

“Well, now I’m here. Do you still want me?”

Tisianne held out her arms to him.

“You’re very efficient at that,” she remarked as he swiftly shed clothes and joined her beneath the covers.

“Long practice.”

They kissed. Several minutes later Tis fell back with a sigh. “It’s hard to be sure, but taking into account the shorter Takisian day, I think tomorrow is my one-year anniversary in this body.”

“Sorry, but I don’t think I can arrange to have you returned by day’s end tomorrow.”

“I don’t expect it. I was just making conversation.”

“Don’t, let’s make love instead.”

Some time later as she lay back replete, savoring the warm heaviness throughout her body, she heard snow begin to peck at the windows. Far to the south it was summer in Vayawand. She wondered about Jay, and Hastet, and Illyana. And Kelly. Sometimes she imagined she could sense him.

Zabb lifted his mouth from an in-depth exploration of her left nipple and said, “I’m going to miss you.”

She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “You could still have me.”

“No, we both like girls too much.”

“True.”

He slid onto her. Pushed a knee insistently between her thighs, parted them. Grinned down into her face. “But I don’t think you’re going to forget me any too soon.”

“No. And I’m going to miss you too.”

Chapter Forty-Two

Air-raid sirens over House Vayawand. For an instant Kelly dithered – run to Jay and Hastet and baby, or outside to investigate? Something drew him out.

The wall batteries had opened up and were laying down a withering fire across the night sky. There were seven ships playing quick tag with the ground-to-air fire and shooting at a lone Vayawand ship that was diving and weaving.

Kelly grabbed a running guard. “What is it?”

“Ilkazam.”

That was very interesting. As Kelly watched, an Ilkazam ship blew a spine off the Vayawand ship, and the ground batteries blew it in turn to its ancestors. He tried a brief telepathic probe, but there was mentatic static filling the overmind. He knew it was a battlefield technique designed to disrupt telepathic communications, but it seemed awfully convenient in this situation.

Kelly turned and bolted back into the House.

“Ideal, Rowan,” Tach said, talking to the captain of the pursuing Ilkazam ship. “You’re not really supposed to shoot us down!” Tis gasped as the Vayawand ship bucked and shook under another hit.

Zabb didn’t respond to her. His face was a mask of concentration as he tried to hold the captured ship on course. Cosmic Traveler/Durg sat before the holoscreen.

“Password,” the defense officer was requesting.

The soul eater who had devoured the mind of the Vayawand captain supplied it. “Stalin.” The deep male voice emerging from the woman’s throat was horrifying.

Tis stared into the soul eater’s empty eyes, shuddered, and looked away. It was a rare gift – if such a term could be applied to a power so grotesque – and trust Zabb to make certain his elite team contained one. Soul eaters didn’t last very long. The toll on mind and body destroyed their mentatic ability in a very few years. Tisianne would refuse to train the gift if it surfaced. Which was probably a good indication of why Zabb was Raiyis of House Ilkazam, and she wasn’t.

There was a silence that stretched for an eternity. Then the defense officer said, “Preparing to drop the field. Come in fast, Durg bo Blaise.”

Traveler’s powers, in addition to insubstantiality, included a remarkable impersonation ability, but it didn’t include things like memories or voices. Tisianne stiffened with concern, but Traveler merely grunted; fortunately, it seemed a sufficiently Morakhian response. The ship dropped sickeningly, then abruptly leveled off, and they were down. Spies in the field had reported that the real Durg was traveling with only thirty soldiers, so the invaders had to scale back from their initial fifty.

Every one of the elite troop was a mentat. Zabb pulled them all into a TacNet, and they burned out the cortex of their captured ship. It was necessary to keep the ship from giving the alarm, but that didn’t make it easier. The troops were quickly mustering, Tis slung her assault rifle and tried to ignore the itch caused by the jewels pasted on her face. It wouldn’t bear close scrutiny, but hopefully they weren’t going to stand still long enough or linger long enough for anyone to notice. And they did have a real Vayawand noble with them. Bat’tam had insisted on accompanying them.

“Can this possibly work?” Tis said softly as the outer door of the ship was slowly cycling open. “A force of twenty-nine men and women and one groundling to assault an entire House.”

“Probably not.” Zabb grinned down at her. “But what a tale it will make.”

“Would you mind terribly much if we lived to hear it? I’ve always thought the concept of a dead hero was something of an oxymoron.”

Zabb closed a hand around her throat and pushed back her head. “Second thoughts?”

She veiled her eyes with her lashes. “A few.”

“It’s not too late to back out.” He ran the tip of his thumb across her lips.

“Yes, it is.”

“One last time for luck,” he said softly as he bent for a kiss.

Tis laid the tips of her fingers across his mouth. Held him at bay. “Better, I think, that we start weaning ourselves from this sort of behavior.”

It hurt him. He hid the hurt with a shrug, and a cocky, “Don’t trust your resolve. I understand I have that effect on women.”

The door was open. “On cousins too,” Tis said softly to his back as he descended the ramp.

“Let’s go.”

Jay looked up at Kelly. “Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”

The man gaped, glanced down at the bulge, back to Jay. The detective set aside his ysan, pulled out the waistband of Kelly’s trousers, and fished out the gun. He had gotten surprisingly deft with his stumps.

“Never.” He shook the laser under Kelly’s nose for emphasis. “Never stick a gun down the front of your pants. You’ll shoot off something you’d rather not lose. Tachyon’ll sure as hell be pissed if you shoot it off, and I don’t know if even the Takisians can grow back a dick. Now, is there some reason you’re running around like Rambo?”