Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred) by Evangeline Anderson Page B

back to her own
house and then come back for her cell phone when she and Six were gone. To her
relief, Mrs. Hurley did just that. She scampered across the front lawn with
surprising speed for a woman in her seventies, and only turned to point her
finger at Six when she was safely on her own sidewalk.
    “You won’t get away with this, young man,”
she shouted. “Mei-Li’s father is on the World Council! He’ll hunt you down. And
the police are coming too!”
    As if to emphasize her words, the sound of
blaring sirens could suddenly be heard in the distance.
    But any hope that she might be rescued at
the last minute was dashed when Six made a gesture and a door opened in midair.
Mei-Li had a confused image of what looked like the interior of some kind of
cockpit filled with complicated controls and then Six was putting her inside
and strapping her down.
    “You won’t get away w—” Mrs. Hurley’s
voice was abruptly cut off when the door slammed shut.
    Mei-Li looked wildly around as Six climbed
in the other side of the strange vehicle. She could see flashing lights pulling
up in front of her house and Mrs. Hurley running out to talk to the cops but it
was too late. The vehicle—ship?—they were in was suddenly rising straight up
into the air. In another moment, her house was no bigger than an ant and the
police lights looked like fireflies in the darkness.
    Mei-Li closed her eyes, unable to watch
anymore. This was it—she was being taken from Earth by the huge Kindred who had
been haunting her dreams for months.
    Who knew if she would ever get home?

Chapter Nine

 
    Six watched Mei-Li from the corner of his
eye as he guided the shuttle up and away from the Earth’s atmosphere. She had
turned her face away from him and her thin shoulders were shaking. Was she
feeling? More to the point, were her feelings negative? He very much feared
they were.
    Well, so much for your plan to claim her
without threatening or frightening her, a little voice whispered in his head sarcastically. It
worked almost as well as your plan to take her without causing a scene. Despite
High Chancellor Terex’s orders, he hadn’t wanted to make a big commotion when
he took Mei-Li away in his shuttle. But considering the screaming sirens and
flashing lights of the official vehicles that had been pulling up as they
lifted off, not to mention the older female shouting threats, Six was very much
afraid that Chancellor Terex was getting exactly what he had asked for.
    Well, maybe he could talk to her, explain
a little more about what was going on.
    “Mei-Li,” he murmured. When she did not respond,
he put out a hand and brushed her arm with his fingertips.
    “Don’t touch me!” She jerked away from
him, huddling into a tiny ball in the passenger seat as though she could get
away from him if only she could make herself small enough.
    She fears me—she thinks I’m going to hurt
her.
    For some reason the thought made his heart
contract painfully in his chest. It wasn’t as if he had emotions for her or
felt sorry for her pain but still…he didn’t want her to be afraid of him.
    “Mei-Li,” he said in a low voice. “I would
not have hurt the elderly female who came looking for you.”
    “What?” she half turned towards him and he
saw that her eyes were red, as though she was trying not to let her eyes leak.
What was that called again? Crying—yes, that was it. She was trying not to cry.
“You mean Mrs. Hurley?” she asked.
    “You told her it wasn’t safe—that she
should go,” Six said. “But I would not have hurt her—not unless she threatened
you. Also, you could have taken your personal communication device if you
wished to speak to those who are important to you.”
    “So I could have taken my cell phone?” She
gave a jagged little laugh that made the tightness in his chest worse. “Thanks
but even though they have awesome coverage, I don’t think my cell provider can
handle long distance calls from outside the