Submitting to the Shadow (Kindred Tales)

Her stalker realized it too. Reaching forward, he grabbed Sammi’s shoulders and pushed her, hard.

With a frightened scream, she fell backwards onto the white lace coverlet, sprinkled with rose petals. The cloying scent of roses filled her nose and she nearly choked.

Then the stalker was on top of her. He raised his hand and Sammi saw something sharp and silver glitter between his massive fingers.

He was holding a pair of scissors and they were pointed right at her throat.

Forty-Five

“No, I’m sorry but Sammi isn’t here. And who did you say you were again?” The woman with short hair, the same strawberry blonde shade as Samantha’s, stood in her doorway frowning in confusion.

“I’m her employer, Commander Roark of the Kindred Mother Ship,” Roark said. “Or, er, I was until this morning.” He cleared his throat. “We’ve had a…misunderstanding. A very serious one. I just want to clear it up. So if you’re keeping Samantha from me because she’s upset—”

“No, I told you, she’s not here.” The woman who must be Samantha’s Aunt Vicky frowned. “In fact, last I heard, she was on the Mother Ship. Why would she come back down here?”

“Because, as I told you, we had a misunderstanding.” Roark resisted the urge to ask again if Samantha was there. He sensed that Aunt Vicky was telling the truth which would only make further inquiry awkward. But if Samantha wasn’t here, where was she?”

“Mommy? Mommy!” two young voices called out.

Looking down, Roark saw twin girls about the age of seven or eight crowding around the woman’s legs. They had identical long blonde hair and large blue eyes.

“Oh—you have twins,” he said in surprise.

“Do I ever—two sets of them! Twins run in our family.” She sighed in exasperation and ruffled both girls hair, using a hand for each. “You two run along now. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“But—” they began in unison.

“I said run along,” their mother directed firmly. “I’m talking to this nice man right now. I’ll be there in a minute.”

The little girls gave Roark one more big-eyed stare and then grabbed hands and raced off together back into the confines of their home.

“Sorry about that.” Aunt Vicky sighed and shook her head. “They’re a mess, those two. My other two, too,” she added and laughed. “Now what were you saying about Sammi again?”

“Only that I need to find her,” Roark said earnestly. “If she didn’t come to your house, where else would she have gone? Do you have any idea?”

“Sorry, no.” A look of concern spread over Aunt Vicky’s face. “Do you think she’s okay? I don’t know if you know this, but she had some man stalking her for a while there. The police didn’t seem able to do anything about it…”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Roark said grimly. “Especially since she’s not here and I don’t know where she could have gone.”

“Oh dear…” Aunt Vicky put a hand to her throat and a worried look came into her eyes. “Have you tried calling her?”

“No, I haven’t. I wanted to speak to her in person,” Roark answered. “I don’t even have a communications device on me.”

“Well, I do. Hang on.” She left for a minute and then came back with one of the small devices humans called ‘cell phones.’ She pressed the screen a couple of times and then put the phone to her ear. After a moment, she said, “Hello? Sammi?” She listened for a moment, her frown growing and then said, “Well what are you doing answering Sammi’s phone, Meg? She left it up there? Okay. No, he’s here right now.” She looked up at Roark. “Okay.” She held out the phone to him. “Meg wants to talk to you.”

Roark took the phone and pressed it gingerly against his ear. He didn’t think much of Earth technology—it was so clumsy and unsophisticated.

“Hello?” he said, frowning.

“Commander Roark?” It was Meg’s voice speaking to him. “Sammi’s phone and her purse and everything else is still up here on the Mother Ship,” she told him. “I got worried after you left and tried to call her on the think-me but I didn’t get any answer. So I tried her cell phone and it just rang and rang. I went to her suite and found that she’d left it here along with everything else. She must have been so upset she came down to Earth with nothing on her.”

Roark felt his throat constrict. He could just imagine Samantha wanting so badly to get away from him that she came straight down to Earth with none of her personal belongings—nothing to help her at all.

My fault, he thought, feeling guilty. This is all my fault! And meanwhile, the feeling that she was in danger was still growing.

“Where could she be?” he asked Meg, frowning.

“I don’t know.” Meg’s voice sounded like she might start crying in a moment. “But I tried her on the think-me too and she didn’t answer this time. Does that mean she…she’s dead?” Her voice cracked on the last word and Roark felt sick. But he tried to stay strong.