Nightshine: A Novel of the Kyndred by Lynn Viehl Page A

dear.”
    “No, it’s not.” She staggered to her feet, breathing in deeply. “There’s a biotech company that hunts people like us for our DNA. Sam, they’ll kill us for it.”
    “I know very well what GenHance has been doing,” he told her. “But if they had abducted us, I believe we’d already be dead and dissected.”
    Another shock wave went through her. “How do you know that?”
    “I belong to a very private online group. People like us who have been sharing information about our unusual talents.” His eyes narrowed. “As, I suspect, you do.”
    “Your hands.” She glanced at them and then his face. “Jesus. You’re Paracelsus.”
     
    Colotl watched as the two newcomers rose from the sand and walked back to their villa. When they passed by his position, he did not breathe or move. The woman, as dark as the man was fair, appeared bigger and stronger than their women. She resembled one of the master’s concubines, but she didn’t move or speak like one. He found the moments when she had shown her anger to the man and then vomited into the sea particularly intriguing.
    So was their body art. Phoenix and turtle . Colotl had never seen such markings, but he sensed the power radiating from both of them.
    Once he heard them enter the house, he drew back into the green shadows and made his way to the cave, where the other men waited. Gathering like this was dangerous at any time, but the master’s unknown sentinel seemed to be less vigilant during the day.
    “Why did you not bring him?” Ihiyo, always impatient, asked as soon as he joined them.
    “He is an American.” He knelt down to drink from the spring, but the reflection rippling on the surface of the water made him sit back on his haunches. He could hide from everything but his own face. “So is the woman. They speak like the steward.”
    “Their scents are strong in the air. The woman has been bled.” Tzinacan dropped a pebble into the spring. “And the man smells of the master’s blood.”
    Ihiyo and the other four men all began to talk at once. When their voices grew too loud, Colotl stood and lifted his hands for silence.
    “They have only just arrived. For now, we will watch them.” He glanced at Liniz. “What did you see last night?”
    “She was afraid at first, but she composed herself quickly. She gave the man her blood by tube, and then sewed up a wound in his side.” When Ihiyo made a rude remark, Liniz scowled at him. “She saved his life.”
    “That is what they want us to think,” Ihiyo snapped. “Pici’s time is coming. What will this woman do to her when it begins? What if she comes after your Xochi?”
    “If she tries to do anything,” Liniz said flatly, “I will slit her throat.”
    “Brothers.” Colotl rose and touched Liniz’s shoulder briefly before he addressed the others. “For now, we will watch. Each of us, in three-hour shifts. The next boat will come tomorrow. Ihiyo, you are the closest; you will go first. Report to Tlemi before sunset. I need to know everything they do.”
    Ihiyo’s expression darkened. “What if no boat arrives?”
    “Then we will know a little more about them.” Colotl gestured toward the narrow entrance to the cave.
    “Go now.”
    Each of the men picked up his bundles, shouldering them before he filed out. Only Liniz lingered, and when they were alone he took a small black stone blade from his pocket and offered it to Colotl. The stone’s beveled edge reflected the light with tiny prisms.
    “I know what you are going to say,” Liniz told him. “But as soon as I saw him stand, I had to make it. He is almost as big as the master.”
    Colotl tested the edge of the stone weapon, which sliced into his fingertip the moment he touched it. “You take too many chances, my friend.”
    “Ihiyo forgets that I would do whatever I must to protect what is mine.” He held out his left hand and splayed the stumps of two missing fingers. “Do not make the same mistake, brother.”