"Oh, I see." Kate collected her clipboard and stood. "I'll put you down for some yummy purple mash in your boxed lunch. Mm-mm-good. See you later." She winked and wandered off to finish her checklist.
"Purple mash and desert heat—ugh. What a combination." Olivia sighed. She finished her meal and then went in search of Valori. She was missing some vital piece of information which everyone else in Clan Alpha appeared to possess—and here she thought she knew it all since she'd sat in on the council meeting.
A quick run through the corridors of the main part of the clan house revealed nothing about Valori's whereabouts. The few Alphans who wore translators could provide no clues, either. All Olivia could gather was that their new high priestess must be out for the day. In a moment of inspiration, she took a stroll through the purple-black rose garden and reached out to her friend with her mind.
Valori, are you close by? Can I reach your thoughts?
No answer. Perhaps Valori was someplace far away, or was standing behind a lead wall or something. Olivia parked herself on a small metal bench in a secluded spot in the garden and closed her eyes, concentrating her mental processes on receiving a reply. She took a deep breath, enjoying the freshness of the garden air in spite of the lack of rose scent. Just as she was about to give up and go back into the clan house, she heard a familiar voice in her mind.
Olivia, stay there. Hernando sounded nearby. I'm coming to see you. We must talk.
All right. I'll remain in the garden.
She smiled. Hernando could hear her thoughts. Until recently, she had suspected he could at times, but now, back on his home world she was certain he could. Was it something in the atmosphere or the stars' background radiation or in the laws of physics themselves which gave BloodDark inhabitants their telepathic power?
On the other hand, was there something back on Earth which gifted Valori with some of her more unsettling abilities? Her mild-mannered, middle-aged friend, who at Thanksgiving had reminded Olivia's friends and family of a favorite aunt, could knock out hired musclemen with a single thought and shake a building to the ground. Valori wasn't a kindly aunt to be trifled with.
Perhaps it all had something to do with the mixing of genetic information between humanity and the Pure Bloods. What a misnomer—they were far from "pure" or distinct after so many hundreds of generations of mixing and matching genes between the species. A sobering thought occurred to Olivia. Had the blood she had given to Moreau been altered and re-injected into her as well, making her more like them?
She shuddered. Leaving your home planet and traveling to a different world opened up all sorts of possibilities in human evolution... disturbing ones, too. Maybe the Superman comics had been right all along. Kal-El could fly because of the yellow light of Earth's sun and possessed amazing strength and stamina. What would the marshals of war on Earth do if they could train soldiers with such superhuman powers? Would one protective device be enough to hold them off?
A crackle of dry leaves underfoot startled Olivia out of her reverie. "Hernando?" she mumbled.
"No, it's not him, but your pair-bonded mate."
She looked up and saw not the chocolate-brown hair and mahogany eyes of her beloved Hernando, but the golden hair and cold cobalt-blue eyes of Moreau. "Uh, hello there. You out for your daily walk in the gardens?" she asked, trying to sound casual, but knowing she didn't.
"I am. I feel I must explain myself to you." Moreau sat beside her on the small bench. "I don't wish to break off our engagement, as you humans call it, until we have come to a mutual agreement."
"A mutual agreement?" She raised an eyebrow and stared at him. "We both agree to call it quits, you mean?"
"It's traditional. One cannot un-bond alone. It must be mutual."
Olivia furrowed her brow. "You make it sound like we're conjoined twins who need surgery to become separated."
Now it was Moreau's time to act confused. "It's not a surgical procedure, but it can be quite wrenching. We will no longer hear each other's thoughts."
Interesting, since I can hear Valori's and Hernando's thoughts now and yours... I'm not hearing any of your thoughts at the moment. Are you hearing any of mine?
Moreau continued to look puzzled and gave no indication he knew what she was thinking. Olivia took pity on him and patted his hand. "I think we've already un-bonded. I can't hear your thoughts, and I don't think you're able to hear mine anymore."
He nodded. "I believe you are correct, Olivia of the Clan Brown. Perhaps our new high priestess has performed this service to save us both pain and suffering. Still, I wished we could have..."
The staggered breath he took pierced Olivia's heart. He really wanted to remain engaged to her? After all he had done and how cruel he'd acted, Moreau still held feelings for her? What was it he had shared with her in the council chamber? We are both predator and prey. Theirs was to be a marriage of convenience, no doubt. They were pawns in a larger game than either could imagine. He’d told her as much. The real question, then, was who was playing chess with them and what was the endgame?
"I'm sorry it didn't work out. Look, Moreau..." Olivia cleared her throat and hugged his shoulders. "We can still be friends, can't we? I know it's hard to be friends after you break up, but there's way too much at stake here for us to remain mortal enemies. Both our worlds are in trouble. I think you realize it, or else you wouldn't have gone along with your father's plans to sell the artworks to finance the rebuilding of the protective device in the desert. Am I right?"
"You're right. You're quite perceptive." He squeezed her hand
