“You and me both. Here.” V’rex pulled out the black velvet bag, which he had gotten out of the safe earlier. “You give it to him. It was your mission to get it in the first place, after all,” he added when Penny tried to give it back. “So you get to give it to him, sweetheart.”
Penny smiled and nodded, though even holding the bag with the Eye of Ten’gu in it made the short hairs on the backs of her arms stand up.
“Ugh, I hate this thing,” she said, holding it away from her body as they walked through the airlock and into the lounge. “It gives me such a bad feeling!”
“Same here. But we’ll be rid of it soon and Commander Sylvan can deal with it,” V’rex said. “Speaking of which—look, there he is now.”
He pointed at the far end of the luxurious VIP lounge which reminded Penny a little bit of a high-class airport terminal. The floors were a highly polished black marble and there was plush gray leather furniture scattered around as well as some food and entertainment kiosks that looked to be selling very high-end goods. And standing at the far end of the opulent space was the Head of the Kindred High Council along with several other Kindred Warriors.
“Commander Sylvan?” she called and the tall Blood Kindred turned to smile at them.
“Ah, Penelope!” he exclaimed, coming towards them with his hands held out. They met in the middle of the large oval lounge and he shook Penny warmly by the hand. “And Warrior, V’rex—it’s good to meet you as a friend instead of an adversary,” he added, turning to offer V’rex a warrior’s clasp.
After a moment, V’rex took the offered arm and nodded at him.
“It’s…good to see you too,” he said, sounding as though the words of friendship were foreign to him. For a male used to being at odds with the whole world, Penny could bet that they were.
“We brought you the Eye,” she said to Sylvan. She wanted to give it to him at once, but the Kindred Commander only nodded.
“Yes, thank you. But before any of that, I have someone who very much wants to meet V’rex.”
“Oh?” V’rex frowned. “And who might that be?”
“These are Braish and Tairn…” Sylvan ushered two older Beast Kindred warriors forward. Both had long dark hair with streaks of gray in it.
“I see.” V’rex nodded. “And they are…”
“These are the brothers of your mother, V’rex,” Sylvan said.
“Oh!” Penny put a hand to her mouth. “Honey, these are your uncles!”
“My…” V’rex shook his head and took a step back, his face like a thundercloud. “Why would you bring them here?” he demanded, glaring at Sylvan. “When they abandoned my mother and me when I was still in her belly?”
“But they didn’t,” Sylvan said earnestly. “They searched for your mother for years and never found her.”
“The Head of the High Council speaks the truth,” one of the older Beast Kindred said. “We searched for years for our little sister—but we never knew that she had a son.”
“That was privileged information that only the High Council knew,” Sylvan added. “And that has only been in the past several years since we’ve been researching you, V’rex, because of your, ah, activities in this Sector.”
“We searched and searched for her—we never stopped,” the second Beast Kindred said. “I will swear it by my honor as a warrior or by the Goddess herself.”
“You did?” V’rex’s pale gold eyes widened and he looked strangely vulnerable to Penny. “But my Sire said—”
“He lied to you, lad,” the first Beast Kindred said strongly. “We would never abandon our kin—never. Why, when Commander Sylvan here called and told us that you had been found, we both wept tears of joy!”
“We are so eager to welcome you into our clan,” the second Beast Kindred said. “Son of our sister. You will be an honored addition to our family.”
“Even though I’m a half-breed?” V’rex asked uncertainly. “Even though it was my Sire who killed your sister—my mother?”
“Even so. The son is not responsible for the sins of his father.” Both of the older Beast Kindred held out their arms.
“Will you not join our family?” one of them asked softly. “We would be so proud and happy to have you.”
“I…I’ve never had a family. Not since I was put out on the street as a young one.” V’rex’s voice was hoarse. Then he came forward and both of the older Beast Kindred hugged him.
Penny had tears in her eyes at the touching scene. She could feel V’rex’s tentative joy building through the link between them and she longed to hug him too, but she didn’t want to interrupt.
“Excuse me,” she murmured to Commander Sylvan, who was standing to one side smiling. “But do you know if there’s a restroom around here? I…I’m tearing up here.” She sniffed and swiped at her eyes.
“Oh, of course. It’s right there at the far end of the lounge.”
He pointed and Penny thanked him and headed for the plain gray door. She wanted to give her new mate time to reconnect with his family before she intruded and in the meantime she really needed to dry her eyes and blow her nose.
Chapter 112
She was so happy when she walked into the bathroom that she didn’t notice the far stall was opaque, meaning it was occupied. She found some tissue—which they had in abundance here in the VIP lounge, though it had been conspicuously lacking in the Lucky Lounge’s facilities—and dried her eyes. Then she decided she had to pee, too.
She went into the first stall, looping the rope ties of the black velvet bag with the Eye in it carefully over one wrist, and bent over to use the strange suction toilet. As before, the spout-looking attachment coming out of the square hole in the toilet inflated a large bubble for her to press against. And once again, Penny had
