Page 176 of Tamed By Her Touch

She couldn’t explain how she knew it existed, but she could feel it now—a smooth, dark barrier somewhere inside her mind, shutting her away from something on the other side.

Something Kaelus was hiding.

Before she could question him further, however, the flying recorder-bee drifted lower.

Clair looked up.

“Can you get that for me?” she asked.

He reached up with his unhurt arm and captured the tiny mechanical insect.

‘Thank you.” Clair retrieved his data tablet from where it had fallen beside the chair. To her immense relief, the screen lit when she touched it. “See?” she said. “Kindred engineering. Built to survive being thrown at psychopaths.”

Kaelus frowned.

“That is not one of its listed specifications.”

Clair laughed.

“It should be.”

She looked through the tablet’s available connections and spotted the recorder-bee almost immediately.

“There you are,” she murmured.

“What are you doing?”

Kaelus asked.

“Downloading the recording,” she said distractedly. “Hang on—I’m almost done.

At that moment Sendar groaned.

Clair eyed him.

“Please tell me he’s not waking up before this finishes.”

“If he does, I will hit him again,” Kaelus growled.

Clair raised one eyebrow.

“With the tablet?”

“No.”

“Good. Because this thing now has our entire criminal case,” she said.

The download finished. Clair immediately duplicated the file—then duplicated it again.

Kaelus watched her.

“Three copies?” he asked.

“You know I like to back everything up,” Clair told him.

“Yes, I know.”

His mouth twitched and for a second, everything felt normal. They were just Clair and Kaelus again—two scientists solving a problem.