Page 25

25

NORA

Aside from his stilted apology, Xarex was strangely quiet on the flight back home. Luckily , it didn’t take long. Once the Mother Ship folded space for them, they left the orbit of Primus Nine and appeared not far from Earth’s moon, where the Mother Ship was orbiting, almost instantaneously.

The long-range shuttle had barely landed before Nora was scrambling out of it, still holding the precious Flower of Healing carefully to be sure it wasn’t hurt. It was still glowing and its gorgeous, indescribable fragrance was strong. She only hoped that it really could cure Anna . She didn’t even care that she was wearing nothing but Xarex’s oversized uniform shirt—literally nothing else mattered but getting the cure to her little girl.

The minute her bare feet met the cold metal floor of the Docking Bay , she saw Dr . Liv standing there, waiting. She must have heard from someone that Xarex had called and asked the Mother Ship to fold space so she had known to come and meet them. There was an anxious look on the doctor’s face that made Nora’s heart almost stop with sheer anxiety.

“What is it? What’s wrong? Is Anna okay?” she asked, running to where Liv was standing.

“She had an especially bad attack, but she’s stable now.” Liv squeezed her arm. “ But if that’s the Flower of Healing , we need to use it as soon as possible. I think her PC has advanced significantly in the past day or so.”

Nora felt a rush of panic.

“Oh my God —come on—we have to go to her. Is she in the Med Center ?” she asked all in one breath.

Dr. Liv nodded.

“Yes, come on.”

She hurried away and Nora rushed to keep up with her. She didn’t even notice Xarex standing there beside the shuttle. In her defense, all her attention was rightfully on Anna . However , if she had spared even a single glance behind her and seen the look on the Dark Kindred’s face, she would have known that something was very, very wrong.