Page 194 of Tamed By Her Touch

She spoke no words, but Kaelus knew that she was communicating through their Bond—forgiving her husband, telling him how much she still loved him. It filled his heart to overflowing, when he remembered how Clair had forgiven him as well and told him that she loved him.

After that, they treated another male. Then another and another and finally, all the rest.

By the time Clair and Kaelus left Glenvarren, dozens of infected Kindred had come back to themselves, and shipments of the synthesized compound were arriving from the Mother Ship fast enough to treat any residual cases.

Some families had wounds that would take far longer to heal than the virus itself, and seven women would never come home at all—nothing could change that. But the outbreak was over and no more wives would die.

That knowledge meant more to Kaelus than any commendation Commander Sylvan could give him, and he knew Clair felt the same.

Clair must have felt the direction of his thoughts through the Bond because her hand slipped into his and she entwined her fingers with his, before giving him a gentle squeeze.

Kaelus looked down at their joined fingers and squeezed back.

“You all right, big guy?” she asked silently.

The sound of her mental voice still made warmth spread through his chest.

“Yes, Lissa’ra,” he sent back. “I am always all right when you’re with me.”

Sylvan watched the silent exchange with open interest.

“I’m going to assume that the two of you are currently having a conversation I’m not invited to,” he remarked.

Clair grinned.

“Maybe.”

“I see.” Sylvan folded his hands over his desk. “That brings me to another matter, but before we get to it, I thought you might want to know the final disposition of Doctor Sendar Rax.”

Clair’s smile disappeared and Kaelus felt her hand tighten around his.

“What happened to him?” she asked. “We left Titus Four before they held the trial.”

“The Titus Four Council completed its judgment yesterday,” Sylvan said. “Between the Blood Archive records and the recording made by his own surveillance device, there was no question of guilt. He confessed to engineering and spreading the Savage Syndrome strain, murdering his wife Galandra, and attempting to murder both of you. He also admitted he was planning to infect the entire male population of Titus Four with a strain of the Savage Syndrome virus designed to resist the veloria compound,” he added grimly.

“Please tell me they didn’t give him some comfortable little prison cell with three meals a day and a view of the lake,” Clair said. “The man’s a serial killer! And he was trying to wipe out his whole planet—well, the female half of it, anyway.”

Sylvan’s mouth twitched.

“No. Their punishment is considerably more severe.”

Kaelus raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? What was it?” he asked.

“The Council invoked something called the Judgment of the Hollow Heart,” Sylvan continued. “Apparently it hasn’t been used in several centuries. Sendar has been placed inside a temporal suspension field in the central chamber of the Blood Archive.”

Clair frowned.

“Temporal suspension?”

“It means his body will no longer age,” Sylvan explained. “He cannot move or speak, and according to the Titus Four physicians, his physical processes have been slowed to almost nothing.”

“But he’s alive?” Clair asked. “And conscious?”

Sylvan nodded.

“Yes.”