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“The Goddess!” Sylvan said urgently. “It is the Mother of All Life you are speaking to, Grath—she is using Nadiah as her mouthpiece.”
“Goddess!” Grath exclaimed, bowing his head deferentially. “Forgive me—I would hear anything you have to say.”
“Then hear this—the female you were assigned to protect is in grave danger,”the powerful feminine voice informed him.“If you do not go to her, she will not live to see another sunrise.”
“What?” Grath jumped up, fear gripping his heart in an icy fist. “I knew I shouldn’t have let her walk home alone!” he exclaimed, guilt stabbing him in the gut. “Is she freezing to death?”
“That is not the death that stalks her—it comes in the form of a male from her past, one who has long wished to finish the wound he inflicted many years ago,”the Goddess said.
“Fuck!” Grath swore. “Forgive me, Goddess,” he added swiftly. “But I think I know who you’re talking about—I should have killed him when I had the chance!”
“He has your female and he has plans to take her life,”the Goddess warned him.“You must go at once and use all that is in you to fight him.”
“I’ll go right now—but how will I find him?” Grath demanded. “I don’t know where he lives, Goddess!”
“There is a small wooden domicile in the woods in the Northwestern quadrant on the outskirts of the town where you and your female were staying,”the Goddess said.“You will know it by the aura of evil that surrounds it, for many terrible deeds have been done there. I will enable your eyes to see it.”
“Thank you, Goddess!” Grath bowed reflexively. “Er…may I go now? I need to get to Madeline!”
“Go, Protector,”the Goddess said.“And when you find the female, if you are able to save her, remember—the choice to try and bond or not should be hers and hers alone. Now, hurry!”
And suddenly the heavy, powerful presence was gone. Nadiah sagged, a look of unspeakable weariness on her face.
“Are you all right?” Sylvan asked, reaching across the table to take his cousin’s hand, concern on his face.
“Ahhh…hosting the Goddess is an honor but it drains me,” she whispered. Then she looked up at Grath. “What did she say?”
“That I have to go. Thank you, my Lady!” Grath bowed to her again and then nodded at Commander Sylvan.
“Go—save your female,” Sylvan told him. “And let us know if you need backup.”
“Thank you,” Grath said grimly. “But I have a feeling this is something I have to do on my own.”
And he ran back to his ship, praying all the way that he would be in time.
FORTY-ONE
MATTIE
There was quiet for a while, after Luke and Amanda left the car. And then, just when Mattie was telling herself that maybe everything would be all right after all, she heard a piercing scream.
“Oh my God…Oh my God, you’recrazy!”
The voice was definitely Amanda’s and it was filled with unmistakable terror. Mattie wondered with a shiver what horrible thing she had seen or what awful thing Luke had done to make her shriek like that?
Whatever it was, Amanda certainly wasn’t getting over it in a hurry.
“Leave me alone!Leave me alone!”she screamed. “Don’t touch me—get away from me! Don’t—”
And then, horribly, her scream cut off in mid-sentence and there was nothing but silence outside.
Mattie wrapped herself tighter in the smelly quilts, huddling into a ball in the freezing car. What should she do when Luke came out and opened the trunk?
I need to be ready to fight—to run!she told herself.This might be my only chance to escape!
But when the lid of the trunk finally swung open, she found herself face to face with a shotgun.
“All right now, Mattie darlin’.” Luke motioned at her with the gun. “Come out of the trunk nice and easy now and nobody has to get hurt.”
