Blood, Body and Mind by Kathi S. Barton

everyone, especially him.” That was the one thing she had done right, not letting anyone know where she had taken Mel.
    “ I wish to see you. Come to me soon. I miss you very much. And, Sara, it has come time for us to talk. We have a great deal to talk about.”
    Sara could probably simply fly out in one of the little Cessnas, but she would have to file a flight plan and that would leave a paper trail that neither she nor Mel could afford. And why all of the sudden did everyone seemed to want to talk? She liked things the way they were before, when she would go days on end without having to have a conversation with anyone with the exception of the controller on the ground.
    “ I need some money first. I’ve had to spend nearly all I have in order to pay the monthly accommodation costs where you are. I will need at least a month to recoup my funds. Can you wait that long?”
    “ I wish you would go to the repository and get what you need. There is plenty there for you to use as you see fit— jewels, cash, and gold. You should be getting paid for what you are doing for me, what you are doing for all mankind. Soon, Sara, all will be well and I will remember all that you have done for me.” Sara could feel herself blush at her praise. They were not even in the same state and she could embarrass her.
    “ You know that I can’t do that,” Sara told her. “How would I explain the need for funding to keep the queen hidden and not have several hundred of your subjects hounding me for details on where you were, why you were there, and why weren’t you home with them? Besides, you know as well as I do there’s still a warrant out for my immediate death. Even if I could get the funding, dear Shermie would use that as a means to find me, then, through me, you.”
    “ You’re right, damn it.”
    ~~~
    Sara had never let Mel know what extent she had gone to keep her safe. But Mel knew, like she knew everything that Sara had gone through.
    Sara had been on patrol when Melody had been injured four years ago during the blast that rocked the castle in the kingdom of Molavonta. Sherman had somehow gotten Mel to go to the lower levels where he had drugged her. He had then put her into cell that had been warded and charmed with black magic. In her weakened state, she could not fight against him and his magic. The explosion was set to go off in the early hours of the evening when everyone was having dinner in the main hall. Mel had reached telepathically for anyone to help her. Luckily, Sara had been the one to hear her. Ten minutes before the bomb went off, Sara reached the cell and began to remove the wards to get her out. The bomb went off, killing six guards and twenty members of the royal staff. Sara had just managed to drag Mel out of the building and into an open field where she delivered Mel’s stillborn child. Moving Mel through a maze of ports into the human world, she settled her in Reno. By then, Mel was so weak and close to the fade of her life that Sara put her into a comalike state until she could recuperate. Royalty, like Melody, were true immortals, never dying. When they tired of life or needed an extended rest, they changed themselves into something magical. Mel’s mother, Savannah, was a fairy ring somewhere in a little town outside of Dunbar, Ireland.
    A warrant was issued for Sara’s immediate death, as well as a separate warrant against the six guards that had died in the explosion. The council had thought the six men, though dead, had been helping Sara remove the queen from the castle, and a slight miscalculation in timing had caught them unawares. The warrant, when served against Sara, would then be issued to the guards’ families and they would be held accountable in lieu of men’s lives. Until Mel, her mother, or grandmother could be found, Sherman was running Molavonta. He could not control the magic, but the castle had become his playground.
    The staff at the nursing home, Sunny Side Up, had no idea