20. Vai

"One moment please," the secretary said.

After discovering the truth about my bond and the "phantom" pulses I felt were real and not fake I began to wonder how this could have happened.

In his commercials, the Surgeon always boasted of his one hundred percent efficiency rate.

It had to be with people's lives on the line.

Within twenty-four hours of the Procedure, the bond was always terminated.

I paced the medical bay, waiting for the Surgeon to answer my call.

If the bond was still active, did it mean Emma was still able to feel the bond too?

And if that was true, did it mean Iav could still lock onto her position?

Could he still locate her?

And if he could, how did I know she wasn't in terrible danger?

I grew frustrated at waiting for the call to be answered.

I barked at Computer:

"Call the Surgeon again. Use a second line."

Computer carried out my order without questioning it.

He must have sensed the edginess in my voice.

The same secretary answered as before.

"Hi, how may I help you—"

"This is Vai. I called you a moment ago. You said you would pass me through to the Surgeon's communicator."

"Yes. Hold, please. He's in the middle of a very important call—"

"Tell him if he doesn't return my call within the next thirty seconds, I'm calling my father and telling him about the failed Sever procedure. And tell him to expect a team of M'rora special forces to knock on his door within hours. Thank you."

"Sir, please—"

"Computer, hang up."

I continued pacing and massaged my temples.

I thought through a lesson my father had taught me many years ago about situations such as this.

"Always prepare for the worst," he said. "If things turn out better than you hoped, then you can alter your plans to cater to them. It's always much harder to cater to a more difficult situation than an easier one."

What was the worst thing that could happen?

The answer to that was simple.

Iav could have captured Emma.

Then what was the worst thing?

He would take her to the Shadow Realm and carry out the ceremony in all its horrific glory.

Was there anything worse than that?

Yes. He could claim her right away.

That was unlikely, I thought, as the Surgeon had said it took twenty-four hours before either of us could fully recover from the Procedure.

But we hadn't gone through with the Procedure, I thought.

So we had nothing to recover from.

The fact I could still feel her out there, that the bond was still active, meant he hadn't claimed her yet.

The initial worst option was the most likely.

There was greater honor for a Shadow to bring his fated mate back for their mating ceremony than to claim her in our galaxy.

The thought of that turned my stomach but at least there was one advantage to it.

It meant she would not be claimed until the ceremony took place.

And that gave me time.

My hopes hung by a single thread that relied predominantly on the Shadow's primary driver.

Their greed.

Greed for power and fame.

So long as that prevailed, there was still a chance I could rescue her.

"Computer, take us back to the Rift," I said.

"New coordinates initiated."

I felt the thrust of the engines as they eased us in a new direction.

I glanced at the clock.

It'd been a full minute since I made my threat.

And I wasn't a M'rora to make idle threats.

"Computer, call my father—"

"Call incoming," Computer said.

On the monitor, the Surgeon's profile image flashed on the screen.

It'd been taken from his advertisements.

His smile was broad and smirking.

At once, that polite and affable figure became sinister in light of my recent discoveries.

"Answer call," I said.

After a beep, the Surgeon's holograph appeared in the middle of the medical bay.

"Vai," the Surgeon said warmly. "A pleasure to see you again. How can I help?"

I turned the medical bay monitor around so he could see my readouts.

"Do you care to explain why my bond isn't Severed? Why I can still feel my fated mate out there?"

The Surgeon's smile didn't falter.

"It's a ghost of your bond, that's all. I told you there would be phantom sensations. This is just one of them."

"But the bond is still there. How do you explain that?"

"The bond exists on a plane beyond the reach of science. We understand more about it every day but much is still a mystery to us. What I can tell you is, with my long history of successful Procedures, the bond has been Severed. And within—" He checked his display. "The next twenty hours, you won't feel them either. I realize this is a difficult emotional process—"

"I can feel her bond tugging on me. I can still feel her out there."

I could hear the emotion in my voice.

Part of me wanted the Procedure to have failed, for us to still be bonded, I realized.

Maybe now I was just taking out my desires on the Surgeon.

He spread his hands.

"No matter how much we might want these things to be true, they aren't. When a fated pair comes to me, there's always one member who wants the Procedure more than the other. I could tell from the moment I met you that person was you. It often is the M'rora.

"We care very much for our fated mates, perhaps because we have a greater understanding of how it operates, that it's not something to be Severed and thrown away without good cause, but to be kept and maintained. If our situation with the Shadow were just a little different…"

He shook his head sadly.

"This is your new reality, Vai. You must accept it if you're to move on."

No doubt this was a speech he'd given many times over the years.

He would improve it with each iteration.

It probably had the effect he wanted too.

He played on my painful emotions and very real fears.

I could feel it affecting me now.

I ran a hand through my hair and touched my horns where Emma had felt them.

Was I holding onto her too tightly?

Was I trying to keep hold of the thing I'd always dreamed of but had now lost?

Was I grieving?

And could I let her go?

Despite all the doubts?

"You're right," I said. "I'm just having second thoughts. I never should have threatened you with my father."

"It's quite all right. Sometimes we think something is there when it's not. It's natural to be skeptical."

His hologram reached out and touched me on the arm.

I couldn't feel it but I appreciated the gesture anyway.

"You call me any time you need to speak with someone, okay?"

I nodded and felt the need to be alone.

"I will."

"All right," the Surgeon said. "I'd better get to work. These mates aren't going to part themselves."

"Yes. Right. Sure."

"End call—" the Surgeon said.

"Perhaps you can show him Emma," Computer interjected.

The Surgeon blinked and lowered himself back into his chair from having already risen.

"Excuse me?"

I glanced at the speaker system in the corner of the room.

Computer had broken protocols many times in the past but he had never inserted himself into a private communication before.

"Emma," Computer pressed on. "Vai's fated mate. Perhaps if you were to show her in her sleeping quarters on the ship you sent her back to Earth in, Vai could feel more comfortable about the whole situation."

The Surgeon smiled amiably.

"I'm afraid we don't keep cameras inside the sleeping quarters of our exclusive shuttlecraft. It would hardly fill our customers with confidence. Now, if you don't mind, I really must be getting on—"

"Then how about video footage of when you transferred her onto the shuttlecraft?" Computer said.

The Surgeon peered into the monitor.

"Who is that with you?"

"Computer," I said. "He has a few… teething malfunctions."

"I see," the Surgeon said, narrowing his eyes. "I suggest you get them ironed out before any serious issues happen."

His tone shifted from friendly to brittle in a matter of seconds.

Letters appeared on a monitor on the wall behind the Surgeon's hologram:

HE'S LYING.

Computer was communicating with me.

I kept my focus on the hologram.

"I'll get right on that. In the meantime, I'd like to see the footage he mentioned. It could lay my concerns to rest."

The Surgeon rolled his eyes.

"I have over a million satisfied customers. They all report similar phantom sensations. I suggest you move on with your life without dwelling on this. The sooner you can move on, the better. End call—"

I took a step forward.

"You should have the information right there on your computer. It will only take a moment for you to show it to me."

The Surgeon's eyes flicked to the corner of his office and back again.

"If not, I'm sure a quick call to my father will sort everything out."

The Surgeon smiled but it had the same warmth as a shark.

Computer was right.

Something was up.

The Surgeon dabbed his brow with a folded handkerchief.

"That won't be necessary. I'll prepare the video and send it to you."

"When?"

"The moment I have it prepared."

"Send it now. It will only take a second."

"I'm afraid my files are a little disorganized. I'll have to get my secretary to find the right one—"

"You walk following a white line in the middle of the halls. I don't think your filing system will be very chaotic. But let me tell you this. I need to get to the bottom of this quickly, so I'm going to call my father and ask him to send a military ship to your business within the next twenty minutes or so. They'll lock down your business until you cooperate. Thanks for your time today. Computer." And I said the following with deliberate slowness. "Please end the call—"

"Wait!"

For the first time since I had met him, there was a very real sense of fear in his expression.

"Please, don't do this."

He was afraid.

And now, so was I.

I maintained an air of calm and clutched that throbbing bulb in my chest and took great relief from it.

"You were never supposed to learn the truth," the Surgeon mumbled.

"What? Speak up. I can't hear you."

He spoke a little louder but not much.

"You were never supposed to learn the truth."

My heart was in my throat.

"What truth?"

The Surgeon paused before glancing at the camera.

At me.

"I need your word that you won't take action against me or my business."

I searched the hologram's eyes.

Even with the holo's fuzzy shimmering light, I saw how haunted they were.

"What have you done?" I said.

All pretense of confidence broke.

The Surgeon broke down, his face falling into his hands.

"Please forgive me," he said. "The Shadow… They broke through the Rift some time ago. They came to my business with a deal offer. Either follow through with their plan or they would destroy me and everything I had built."

"What deal?"

"The Procedure. It doesn't exist. It makes lots of noise, lots of bright lights, but it does virtually nothing. It dulls the bond for a short time and knocks the participants unconscious. That's all. We can't Sever the bond. You're a fool if you believe we can."

Okay, so that was the last thing I thought I'd hear him say.

"But… all your advertisements. Your commercials. You've carried out the Procedure on millions of M'rora and their mates…"

"Yes. And they were all a sham. We Severed none of their bonds."

It took a moment for the full truth of the situation to coalesce and take form in my mind.

And when it did, it hit me so hard I could hardly breathe.

I bent over double and threw up over the floor.

"You pretended you completed the Procedure. You warned the participants they would feel a phantom bond with their fated mate for up to twenty-four hours later. Just enough time for the Shadow to take them back to the Shadow Realm and claim them in the mating ceremony."

I felt lightheaded, sick, and wished the Surgeon was in the same room as me now so I could wrap my hands around his throat.

Because of him, Emma had been put in jeopardy.

And so had millions of other innocent creatures.

"How could you do this?" I said.

"It was the Aror'm. They threatened to destroy everything I'd built if I didn't comply with their demands."

My anger was overshadowed my fear of what would happen to Emma if I didn't reach her soon.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?" the Surgeon said. "It'll be our little secret."

Unable to even look upon this creature I had once thought of as one of the greatest M'rora in the empire, I turned away.

"Computer, end call."

"Wait. You said you wouldn't tell. You gave your word."

"No, I didn't."

I manually ended the call, feeling as cold as ice.

"Block all calls from the Surgeon and his business. And send a copy of this communication to my father. And speed up the engines. We need to reach the Rift as quickly as possible. I only hope I won't be too late."