Page 55 of To Quench Her Thirst

“Yes, it is I, the Mother of All Life,”the voice returned.“I am a merciful deity—I created my Kindred with free will, so I will not forbid you to do as you have planned. But I charge you to fulfill my orders before you go.”

“What orders?” Drago gasped. “Please, Goddess—tell me and I’ll obey!”

“Good. Then I order you to give your Fated Mate everything she needs and everything she asks for before you go. Do you understand me? You must not leave until she is healed and satisfied in EVERY way.”

“I understand.” Drago nodded—he would have promised anything at that point! The presence of the Goddess wasoverwhelming. “I swear it will be done.”

“Very well, that is all I ask.”

And abruptly as she had appeared, the Goddess was gone.

Drago sat there in stunned silence for a minute. He had heard of other Kindred warriors having visitations from the Goddess before, but he had never dreamed that it might happen to him. He wondered what the Mother of All Life had meant when she ordered him to make sure that Addison was “healed and satisfied.” Well, the healing part was pretty obvious, but what about his Fated Mate’s satisfaction? How could he achieve that?

He didn’t know, but he had promised to find out and one did not break a promise to the Goddess.

33

ADDIE

Addie sighed in relief as she stepped under the warm spray of water…then yelped in pain as it stung her many cuts and abrasions.

“Ouch!” she muttered as she made herself stand still and endure it. After all, she had to get clean—she didn’t want an infection in any of the many cuts.

Wish I could ask Drago to heal me,she thought sadly. But after she’d drained so much of his blood that she nearly killed him, she doubted the big Kindred would have any further interest in healing her—or being anywhere near her, for that matter. He had nearly died because she’d taken too much from him. He probably wouldn’t ever want to see her again after this mission was over.

The thought made her so sad she wanted to cry. But she couldn’t take back her actions. As her Grandma used to say, “You can’t saw sawdust.” Meaning, the past was in the past and you couldn’t change it.

Addie tried to push the sad thoughts to the back of her mind. She was helped by the fact that her back was itching again, just like it had been that morning.

“Ugh—this is crazy! Why am I so itchy?” she muttered to herself. Then she remembered that the spider web marking was still on her back—wasthatwhat was giving her the problem?

Making sure she was thoroughly rinsed off, she shut off the water and dried herself with a clean towel. Then she stepped out and pulled her hair aside to examine her back in the 3-D viewer.

Sure enough, the web was still there. Even worse, it had gottenbigger.

Addie stared with wide eyes at the black markings that now wrapped around the sides of her rib cage and covered her ass. What was going on with her? When the fangs had disappeared, she’d assumed that she was completely free of the spider’s venom. But now she saw that it wasn’t true. Drago might have neutralized most of it the night before but it was clear there was still some of it in her system.

The question was, how in the world did she get rid of it?

34

ADDIE

“How are you feeling?” Drago asked when she came back to the front of the ship.

Addie shrugged unhappily.

“Oh, you know—better I guess.”

He frowned.

“You don’tlooklike you feel better. In fact, you look miserable.”

“It’s just all these cuts—theysting.”Addie nodded down at herself. She was wearing one of his spare uniform shirts which fell to her knees, since she hadn’t brought any spare clothing herself. The thick, satiny fabric was smooth and nonabrasive but it still felt like sandpaper against her skin.

She didn’t mention that the spider web on her back had grown. It was probably better to go to the Med Center when she got back to the Mother Ship rather than bother Drago with it, she told herself. But in the meantime, she was fairly miserable—between the itching on her back and the stinging cuts on her front, she felt raw all over.

Her Protector cleared his throat.

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