Page 64 of Fractured Souls

People she couldn’t remember. People who’d loved her.

She looked just like her mother. Everyone said so.

When Alexis appeared on the secure comm, Mama Virginie hadn’t blinked an eyelid. “You have done enough, my brave, clever daughter. Look at where you’ve come from. Look how far you’ve come. I am so proud of you. Travel well, Lexi. Be safe. Don’t worry. We will meet again, either in this life or the next.”

“But I failed, Maman. I never found Tasha.”

During her time at the HPA, she’d never stopped searching for Tasha Sedova, her sister from another mother. She’d followed up leads and clues and potential facial recognition matches, and several times she thought she’d almost had her. There had been glimpses of a woman here and there; petite and delicate-featured, sharp platinum-blonde bob, dark glasses… it could have been her, but she’d slipped away like a mirage before the algorithms could properly identify her.

“I have a feeling, Alexis. It the same feeling I had before just before the two of you came into my life. You’re both living proof that miracles are possible. Ah, you were such a scrawny little thing. So many times you got sick, and sometimes I feared you wouldn’t make it, but you were a fighter. So was Tasha. She has survived, I feel it in my heart. I believe you will meet her again.”

Alexis didn’t share Mama’s conviction—she’d seen too many cases that ended badly—but she didn’t have the heart to tell her. Mama Virginie was old and tough and kind, and if she wanted to believe that Tasha was alive and well somewhere, then so be it.

I hope you’re well, Maman.

Virginie would be okay. The boys were all grown up now, and they were tough bastards in their own right. They would look after her.

Alexis hoped that one day, she’d be able to go back to La Réunion and see her again.

But right now, she was trapped on a dark space station with a bunch of silver alien uber-warriors.

What would Mama say if she could see her now?

“Don’t let any man intimidate you, ma pupuce. They all have some sort of weakness. You just have to figure it out and show him that you’re the boss.”

Something like that, probably. That sort of advice wouldn’t wash here, deep in Kordolian territory.

She was way in over her head.

Alexis sighed as she ran her hands over her smooth skin, working the soap—which smelled like cocoa and shea butter—into a thick lather, watching the wispy white suds as they disappeared down the drain.

On a ship like this, where did all the water go? Where did it come from?

As she stepped out, the water stopped, replaced with a rush of warm air that dried her body almost instantly. Goosebumps rose along her arms and belly and her nipples grew taut.

Nythian, where are you?

When would he return? She had no idea.

Trust me, he’ll come for you, Abbey had told her, a mischievous glint in her eyes, as if she were enjoying watching this strange phenomenon unfold.

Her silent guard with scary eyes—Enki—stood outside her quarters, listening for any sign of trouble, somehow monitoring her every move from behind curved black walls, but he wasn’t the guard she wanted.

She wanted her big, rough Kordolian. She wanted to hear his deep, gravelly voice as he whispered in her ear. She wanted his magic hands on her body.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Alexis went to the wardrobe-thing that was nestled in the narrow passage that led from the bathroom to her sleeping pod. She selected a loose sea-green tunic that hung down to mid-thigh.

No panties. Maybe it was wishful thinking. She would climb into bed and stew in her lust until a certain someone came and rescued her from this impossible fever-dream.

Inside her head, the Tharian was as silent as the cold vacuum of space.

Anuk’s words echoed in her mind.

I’m dying.

Maybe this existence was an aberration, and she was living on borrowed time.

She was in freefall, and the uncertainty was terrifying…

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