Page 63 of Guardian's Soul

He, just like the others, had an excellent record. My curiosity about how he fit into this group was piqued. Without the Soulweb Glyphs, I wondered what possible reasons he had for joining the others.

This would be another thing I needed to discuss with Possedion. If Vraax was a spy for him, we needed to know. Frygg, especially after I just told him that Possedion was in my possession. Plus, he knew my course.

HANNAH

I woke refreshed and relaxed.As soon as I opened my eyes, I found Thrax sitting in one of the beanbag chairs, watching me, with a warm smile on his face.

"Good morning, beautiful."

"Good morning," I greeted back, stretching.

He came over to the bed and sat down next to me to lean in for a kiss.

"You sleep like the dead," he stated when we parted.

I laughed. "I've been accused of that before."

"Are you hungry?"

I shook my head, noticing he seemed antsy. "No, what's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong. I actually have good news," he stated, filling me in on his comm call during the night while I slept likethe dead. I couldn't believe four men had been in our quarters, and I had slept through that. Well, four holographs of men, but still…

"We're going to meet them in two days," Thrax filled me in.

Excitement filled me, but there was some dread as well. "This is going to be dangerous, isn't it?"

He turned serious. "Yes. If you're not up to it, we can?—"

I put my finger on his lips. "This is the most important thing I've ever done in my life, and I'm with you, one hundred percent. I couldn't walk away from this now if my life depended on it."

I meant it, too. I was just as committed to this cause as he was, not only because of my love for him and the Soulweb Glyphs but also because I was utterly disgusted by what the Ohrurs had done and wanted to find out the full scope of their atrocities and make them pay for it. I knew all the old saying,curiosity will kill the cat, go looking for danger and it will find you, play with fire and it will burn you, yadiyadiyadi. I was aware of the risks, but still, this was not something I could simply walk away from and not regret doing for the rest of my life. I had never felt this convinced of something before. I would never be able to pay the Cryons back for what they had done to us, but it was within my power to punish the Ohrurs. I might have been projecting my anger toward the Cryons to the Ohrurs, but I didn't think so. The hate I felt for them was much more even than for the Cryons.

First things first, though. "You promised you would run some tests," I reminded Thrax.

He looked lost for a moment. "About having kids together," I added.

"Oh, yes, absolutely." He moved to his comm and brought out the strange healing wand.

"It only needs a sample," he said, using a tool that looked very much like a cotton swab, except it didn't look like it was made from wood but metal, and I doubted the tip was cotton.

"It already has all my information. I just need to—oh, you know." He grinned as I opened my mouth, ready for him to do the deed.

"Watched it on TV a few times. Beats having your nose swabbed any time of the day."

"Nose?" He creased his brow.

"Yeah, they stick it way up there. You'd think they poked your brain with it." I shuddered at the memory of it.

"You humans are very mysterious indeed." He swabbed my mouth before he inserted the probe into the wand.

"Now what?" I wanted to know.

"Let's go talk to Possedion. Once we're done with him, the results should be ready." He appraised me, "Unless you're too tired or?—"

I jumped off the bed. "I'm good." I marched to the built-in cabinets where my spare clothes were stacked. The ones I had taken off last night had already been taken away by the cleaning bots, and later, I would find them cleaned and neatly stacked on the shelves. I had no problems getting used to this part of my new life.

Possedion was sleeping when we entered but woke the moment the doors closed behind us.

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