"He won't." A deep, animalistic growl sounded. "And even if he does, the seed has been planted. A seed that grows every day and night. A seed that will bring him back to us."

"I hope you're right." Xandra frowned and stirred the cauldron. "He must if I am ever to have my revenge."

"And if I am to be made flesh...even for a time."

"Do you think his body will last once you enter it? Hosting one of your kind is difficult for us mortals."

"You did fine as I recall," the demon murmured.

"You only f.u.c.ked me," she reminded him. "You wish to indwell Therron-to invade him and push his consciousness aside so you can use his body as your own."

"And so I shall," he growled. "This human girl shall not have him-I won't let her ruin our plans. We have worked too hard and too long to surrender now simply because Therron thinks himself in love."

"But..." Xandra began. However, she was speaking to the empty air. The glowing red eyes were gone.

Chapter Twenty-four.

Maggie woke up to the sound of low, animalistic growling in the darkness.

"Who...what? What's going on?" She sat up abruptly, forgetting where she was and who she was with.

The growl sounded again and this time it was very close-actually in the bed with her! An unspeakable terror came over her and the room suddenly seemed to be twenty degrees colder. Maggie wanted to run, wanted to get away from that low growling but she felt frozen, barely able to move. Turning her head in that slow, horror movie way, she saw a pair of glowing red eyes burning in the darkness. Then a low, grating, inhuman voice began to speak.

"Therron is mine, little human. The seed has been planted. The pain of the past will mix with the pain of the future and he will be mine. My flesh puppet to do with as I wish."

"I...I..." Maggie couldn't make any words come out. Beside her in the darkness the burning red eyes blazed and the growling voice continued.

"I will drag him back to the Black Planet and then I will wear him...wear him until he is useless and worn out and then I will discard him like the others before."

Maggie's vocal chords finally unfroze. She gave a high pitched scream and scrambled off the bed. Oh my G.o.d, oh my G.o.d, OhmyG.o.d! What the h.e.l.l is that thing and where is Kor?

Kor-suddenly everything came back to her. She was supposed to be with Kor. He was sleeping beside her. So what was this creature with the glowing red eyes doing in his place?

"Kor!" she screamed. "Kor, help me! Where are you?"

There was a sudden commotion on the other side of the bed and she heard him roaring for lights. They came on at once, flooding the room with brilliance that made Maggie blink. She looked wildly around for a dark creature with glowing red eyes but there was nothing-no one but Kor and his eyes were still their normal pale blue, though they were filled with concern for her.

"Maggie? Maggie what is it?" He took her by the shoulders and shook her once, firmly. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"I saw a creature-a thing. Its eyes were red and glowing and it said it owned you and it would use you as a..." She started to cry. "As some kind of a puppet, whatever that means."

"Means you had a nightmare," he said, looking into her eyes. "Listen to me, Maggie-it wasn't real."

"It seemed real." Maggie pressed the edge of the sheet to her eyes. "It was sitting right where you are now and I felt such a...such a presence of evil. The room got colder all of a sudden and that thing, it called you 'Therron' or 'Faron' or something like that. I didn't understand why but I knew it was talking about you."

"Therron, you say?" Kor frowned and shifted uncomfortably.

"Yes." Maggie nodded frantically. "Do you...do you know the name?"

Kor shook his head and looked away. "No and neither do you. Because it was just a dream, Maggie-only a dream."

"I'm telling you, it seemed real." Maggie finished drying her eyes on the sheet and frowned at him. "Tell me, where did you say you were going before you came to get me? Was it the Black Planet?"

Kor looked even more uncomfortable. "I was following a lead. Remember what the night porter said about only seeing one other person like me before? I just wanted to know my origins-wanted to be able to control my vision so I didn't hurt anybody. So I didn't hurt you."

"Well, you can't go back there," Maggie said with utter conviction. "You can't, Kor-no matter what. It's a bad place and I'm afraid if you go, something awful will happen to you."

"It was just a dream. Hey, come here, come on..." Slowly he coaxed her back into his arms, stroking her hair and murmuring sweet nothings until she was almost calm. He dimmed the lights but didn't put them all the way out. Then he lay back on the bed and simply held her.

"Promise," Maggie murmured drowsily when her heartbeat had calmed down and she was finally sleepy again. "Promise you won't go there."

But she never heard Kor's promise-before she could, she drifted off to sleep again. This time there were no interruptions and she slept until morning.

Chapter Twenty-five.

"You found her?" Sylvan stared at the long-distance viewscreen he'd recently had installed in his suite. Since becoming a member of the Kindred High Council, he'd been conducting a lot more interstellar business and he found it easier to do it from home. After all, he couldn't constantly be running off to the viewing room-not now that he and Sophia had the twins to look after.

"I found traces of her." The male on the viewscreen was tall with dark hair and eyes-his right eye, anyway. The left was covered with a black patch. Combined with the closely clipped mustache and goatee that framed his square jaw, it gave him a rakish, untrustworthy air.

Salix L'Tm was a bounty hunter and Sylvan didn't trust him-not as far as he could throw him. The male was part Blood Kindred...and part something else. What, Sylvan didn't know and he didn't particularly care, either. All that mattered was that Salix was the best at what he did-finding people who were lost or who didn't want to be found. Which was why Sylvan had decided to hire him to find Maggie Jordon when the regular Kindred search team had failed.

"What traces? Where are you at?" he demanded, frowning at Salix. "Still on Yonnie Six?"

"Not any more. I'm on my way to the Flesh Bazaar-in the Hub."

"What?" Sylvan exclaimed. "You think she was sold as a slave?"

Salix gave him a most unpleasant grin, his one visible eye twinkling darkly.

"I know she was. And she's not the only one."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"First things first." Salix held up one leather gloved hand. "I picked up the trail at Lady Pope'nose's place."

"The female who denied ever having met Maggie?"

"The same." Salix grinned and stroked his closely clipped goatee. "It appears that her ladyship wasn't exactly honest with us. In fact, she's the one who grabbed Maggie in the first place."

"What?" Sylvan's hands clenched into fists at his sides. "That's outrageous! Maggie was under our protection. This Lady Pope'nose will pay for daring to-"

Salix held up a hand to stop him.

"She already has."

"What? How?" Sylvan demanded.

"It seems that Maggie has a protector-a male slave she helped escape right out from under Lady Pope'nose's...well, nose." Salix grinned, clearly amused. "Anyway, he came looking for her and found out what her ladyship had done. According to one of her other slaves, he cornered Lady Pope'nose and made her tell him everything."

"And?" Sylvan prompted.

Salix shrugged. "And then they both disappeared. I don't know what happened to Pope'nose but nothing pleasant, I'm sure. As for the escaped slave, I'm pretty sure I'll find his trail at the Flesh Bazaar."

"Isn't anyone mounting a rescue mission for Lady Pope'nose?" Sylvan asked.

Salix shrugged again. "You'd think so, as rich as she is. But apparently she's a nasty piece of work-none of her slaves were too sad to see her go and all of her 'friends' seem content to wring their hands and talk about how awful it is that she disappeared without actually doing anything about it."

"You think he killed her?" Sylvan asked directly.

"Who knows? It's possible-he was none too happy with her for what she did to Maggie and he's not a male you'd want to meet in a dark alley."

"How so?" Sylvan asked.

"Korexiroth-The Demon as he was known in his time on the Blood Circuit-is an eight level felon. He killed his own master which is why he was sentenced to death. Pope'nose bought him instead and held him for a good long time before Maggie helped him escape. I would consider him extremely dangerous."

"But Maggie didn't-or she wouldn't have helped him escape," Sylvan said thoughtfully. "Do you think he has her best interests at heart?"

"Hard to say," Salix said blandly. "I guess I'll find out-my guess is that when I find him, I'll find her."

"All right, very good." Sylvan nodded at the bounty hunter. "Keep following the trail-oh, and do you have the long distance transmitter I sent?"

"I do." Salix patted his pocket. "Right here."

"Good. Maggie's family is standing by-I want them to be able to talk to her as soon as you find her. Call me again when you find out what happened at the Flesh Bazaar."

"Will do, Commander." Salix gave him an overly elaborate salute that bordered on sarcastic and one last, mocking grin before the viewscreen went dark.

Sylvan sighed and stood there for awhile, thinking. He didn't like having to use Salix but he had to admit that so far it had paid off. The male had come closer to finding Maggie than anyone else and that was saying something.

Sylvan was glad about that-he felt personally responsible for the little Earth female as he had been one of the Council members who voted to let her go on her mission to Gaia in the first place. He had also been in constant contact with her family and her fiance for months-although honestly, her parents seemed much more worried and distraught than the male who was going to join with her. Sylvan hoped to give them all good news soon.

"Please, G.o.ddess, let her be found. And let her be whole and well, unharmed by what has befallen her," he prayed softly. "She is in your hands now-do not let her come to harm."

Chapter Twenty-six.

"Why do you want me to wear this?" Maggie came out of the bedroom, walking carefully in the tight black leather clothing Kor had found for her at the back of Lady Pope'nose's closet. The top was a black bustier that cupped her full b.r.e.a.s.t.s lovingly. On the skinny Lady Pope'nose, the cups might have covered her nipples. Maggie was better endowed, however, and her full b.r.e.a.s.t.s were spilling out of the cups, her nipples completely on display.

A pair of leather, crotchless panties that barely covered the top of her mound and left her p.u.s.s.y lips completely bare went with the bustier and high black leather boots completed the outfit. It made her look like a G.o.ddess as far as Kor was concerned-he got hard just looking at her like this. But he wasn't sure how Maggie would feel about it-especially once he told her where she was going to have to wear it.

"Well?" she said, putting a hand on her hip. "Because I know you wanted me to wear clothes with easy access but this is downright obscene. It's like the outfit I had on in that tree dream times ten."

"I need you to wear those clothes because this is our last day in this ship," he said, sitting down on the couch to admire her better. The past solar week that he'd spent just being close to the little female had been the best of his life. He was reluctant to see it end but it was necessary to keep going if they were going to get the implant out of her.

"What? Why? Are we at the Maw Cl.u.s.ter already?" Maggie walked carefully across the living area, only wobbling a little in the black leather boots, and sat down in his lap without being asked. With a little sigh, she snuggled against his chest. G.o.ds, she was so warm and soft and sweet-Kor loved the way she fit against him, almost as though they were made for each other. And the way the bustier pushed up her full b.r.e.a.s.t.s and put her tight pink nipples on display was almost too hot to stand. He shifted, trying to make more room for his c.o.c.k in the tight leather pants he wore.

"Afraid so," he said. "But from here we have to find a way to get to the Dragon's Mouth." He slipped a hand into the half-cup bustier and palmed her breast, thumbing the tight little point of her nipple. Maggie moaned softly and pressed her breast more fully into his hand.

"How...how do we do that?" she asked a bit breathlessly. "And why can't we just fly there in the ship we have now? And why do I have to wear this?"

"The Dragon's Mouth isn't really a planet-it's a bunch of really large asteroids...o...b..ting a red dwarf star called Helios," Kor explained, twisting her nipple gently until she squirmed. "And it's jealously guarded, both by the males who work there and by their patrons. You have to be the right kind of person to get in...and out."

"What kind of person is that?" Maggie seemed to be trying not to moan.

"The kind who wears what you're wearing now." Kor took a deep breath and stopped touching her for a minute. "You mentioned the outfit you wore when you accidentally touched the black leather tree in the Dreaming Woods. Well..."

Maggie sat up and looked at him. "Well, what?" she asked. "If you're trying to tell me that you want me to act like...like that huge leather giant guy wanted me to act-"

"Maggie..." he began but she shook her head.

"Kor I told you-I don't want to be anybody's mistress-especially not that kind of mistress. With the whips and the floggers..." She shivered. "Ugh, it's just not me."

"You don't have to worry about that," Kor said in a low voice. "Not being the mistress, anyway."

"Then what?" Maggie demanded. "What are you saying?"

Kor sighed. "Most of the people who go to the Dragon's Mouth are interested in controlling and taming their slaves-and they're all males. Males are dominant in the Dragon's Mouth and I'm afraid females are considered little more than property to be bought and sold. The only way to get there is to go as someone who would have a legitimate reason to visit."

"So...we'll pose as a rich Master and his slave girl?" Maggie asked softly.

"Yes." Kor blew out a breath. "I don't know how you feel about it but that's pretty much the only way we can get in. We'll just take it easy and stay in the background."

"The background where?" Maggie asked.

"I've booked us aboard a junket at the edge of the Cl.u.s.ter-we'll travel with a bunch of other masters and slaves. I'm thinking we'll say that your implant is defective somehow and I want to get it fixed. We'll take the junket straight in to the Dragon's Mouth and hopefully find the b.a.s.t.a.r.d who engineered your implant and get him to take it out."

"That doesn't seem too difficult," Maggie said slowly. "Except...how long does the trip take?"

"One solar day and night tops," Kor said. "But we'd have to be playing our parts the whole time."

She frowned. "I don't mind pretending to be your slave-after all, you did the same for me back on Yonnie Six. But do we really have to travel with a bunch of other people?"