Thomar’s voice was gentle, as if afraid he would startle me. “You were in some kind of trance for nearly two hours, love.”
“What? No. I was gone for a few minutes. Just long enough for them to take—” The baby. A moan escaped me as the woman’s anguish crushed my chest with remembered grief.
“Them? Who? What did they take?”
“That blue and silver thing with black eyes. He was cutting a baby out of a woman’s stomach. He took it—” I looked up at Rachel, who was the only female in the room. “It was a girl. He cut her open and took the baby girl.”
Governor Maxim held the comm screen so I could see the face of the Prillon he was speaking to. He must have been listening as well because he cleared his throat. “Surnen, did she say blue and silver? Black eyes?”
“I can speak for myself. And yes. It was dark blue and had black eyes. Not shiny though.” I glanced up at Rachel, the only Earth girl here who would understand my reference. “Like a shark’s.”
Rachel paled and lifted her face to her mate, the governor. “Maxim, she saw a Nexus unit. Gwen said they had eyes like that. So did CJ.”
“What’s a Nexus unit?” I asked.
Thomar’s terror hit me through the collars and my body flooded with adrenaline. I flushed, suddenly overheated. It was hard to breathe. He wasn’t afraid for himself. He was terrified for me.
“Calm yourself, Thomar. You are causing your mate distress.” The calm reprimand from the doctor affected Thomar immediately and the chaos coming through my collar faded.
Varin had locked his emotions down under ice. Cold. Calm. I had nothing from him. It was like we weren’t even connected. “Varin?” I’d rather have rage or fear than nothing.
“I am here.” His hand rested on my shoulder and he pressed down a bit so the weight of him anchored me.
The Prillon on the screen spoke to Doctor Surnen again. “What is going on there, Surnen?”
The doctor lifted his scanners from me and stood to take the tablet from the governor. He started to walk away. Thomar grabbed him by the arm and silently shook his head. “No. No secrets.”
The voice coming from the screen disagreed. “I am in command here and this is official IC business.”
“No, Doctor Helion. It’s not. Danika is mine and Varin’s business. Anything said will be said to all three of us.”
“Fine. Doctor Surnen. Please?”
I was not fond of the arrogant sounding voice on the other side of the call, and I didn’t know what the IC was, but I had a feeling I didn’t want to know. This Helion jerk did not give me warm fuzzies.
Doctor Surnen cleared his throat and turned back around to face me. I sat slowly, Varin’s arm behind my back, and swung my feet over the edge so I didn’t feel so helpless and weak.
“Go ahead, doc,” I said.
“Your collar is the problem, my lady.”
“How is that possible?” Thomar asked.
“Somehow, Danika’s mating collar has begun to take on the same characteristics as yours and Varin’s. The material has formed a psychic bond with her mind, as it should, but it did not stop the linking process when it should have. There are now tendrils inside her neck and spine that have grown and integrated with her brain tissue. The collar cannot be safely removed.”
“What!” Thomar looked like he was going to strangle the doctor. “Why did you not tell me that placing a mating collar on her was dangerous?”
“I did not know. I have never seen anything like this.”
I did not care about taking off the stupid collar. I wanted my mating collar to stay exactly where it was, connecting me to my mates. These guys were totally missing the point and I wanted to strangle all of them. “Can we get back to the important thing here?”
The males all stopped and looked at me as if I had two heads. Even Helion, on the comm screen, looked annoyed that I had interrupted.
Thomar scowled. “Nothing is more important than you, female.”
“Wrong.” I knew he meant what he said. I could feel his absolute conviction through our link. “That thing has an entire prison full of women. He’s forcing them to have babies, cutting the infants out of their bodies and then doing it over and over and over again.”
“Oh, god.” Rachel looked like she was going to vomit, which was pretty much exactly how I was feeling. She looked at the governor. “Like CJ’s twins. That Nexus unit tried to take them. Remember?”