“Tomorrow morning.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“Just one more thing.”
I don’t like the way my heart is racing. “Yeah?”
“Feather isn’t on station for a few weeks. Would you like me to have Kicker accompany you around the station?”
I can’t imagine having someone dogging my heels every minute.
“No, I’m totally fine.” I can hear the strain in my voice. I know they do too.
“If you say so.”
They disappear, and I exhale as slowly and as quietly as I can before I walk through the halls. Phantom told me what I came in to find out, and there’s only one more thing to do.
The Trulavian doesn’t know I spend most nights with them, which means that he doesn’t follow me to their place…
I take the long way out of Phantoms, coming back out into the public corridors as far away from the Trulavian’s cafe as possible and then, I wind my way through the corridors to get back to their place without going into the public areas again unless I absolutely have to.
Exploring the station was more useful than I had planned.
When I get back to their place, I’m certain the Trulavian can’t know I’m here… or who’s inside.
Ferrok stands in front of the view port drinking a glass of something that looks like carrot juice, and when he turns to me, his beak clicks on the straw twice before he asks, “What’s wrong?”
“Why does someone want a piece of you?”
Mooralan comes out of the room I so recently left, half naked and drying himself off from a shower. “We are going to need a bit of context.”
“On my way to meet up with Anne, a Trulavian grabbed me?—”
“What do you mean they grabbed you?”
“Right before I was going to go into one of the back entrances to Phantoms, he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me away.
“At first, I thought it was a misunderstanding or something, but he was the same guy who started talking to me at the aquarium a few weeks ago and then, he told me he had Anne.”
“He kidnapped her?”
“And to get her back, I have to bring him a piece of you.” I pull out the vial, waiving it as I talk. “Blood is preferred, but he was willing to take just about any genetic material.”
They share a glance and then Ferrok holds out his hand. “Give me the vial.”
I let him take it, but, “There’s another Sovian scheduled in the booth tomorrow. I’m going to?—”
Ferrok bites his forearm, and rusty brown blood flows into the vial as Mooralan curses, disappearing into the bathroom and coming back out with a bandage as the vial fills.
“Here.”
“Just like that?”
“If your sister is in danger, my blood is a small price to pay to get her back.”
CHAPTER 5
“That was fast.” The Trulavian looks at the vial suspiciously as I hold it out to him.
