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  Blood Proxy

  Rune Series - URUZ

  By

  Viola Grace

  The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Blood Proxy

  Rune Series - Uruz

  Copyright © 2007 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-55487-403-3

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by eXtasy Books

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  www.extasybooks.com

  Smashwords Edition

  Uruz Meaning:

  Danger and Force - I do face and win!

  Uruz denotes strength, the basic and primordial forces. That of a mother protecting a child, a lioness defending territory. Rage, defence, compassion, and patience are all epitomized by this symbol. The basic instincts and characteristics that make us human.

  URUZ UPRIGHT: Physical strength, potential, energy, health, freedom, action, courage, strength, tenacity, understanding, wisdom, sexual desire, masculine potency.

  URUZ MERKSTAVE: Weakness, obsession, abuse, subjugation, sickness, inconsistency, ignorance, lust, brutality, rashness, callousness, violence.

  To everyone seeking a happily ever after. Sometimes happily for now can count.

  Chapter One

  "We have to stop meeting like this." Eleanor Palmer was a Companion and this was her fourth visit to the Vimpyr home world in the last two years.

  "Well, if you would agree to move here, renewing your contract to get you here would not be necessary." Her employer walked at her side, graciously taking her baggage from her.

  "You know that I can't. My contract with the Alliance and the Companions' guild means at least one more year of service. But, I am here now and all yours." Her arm moved around his waist and her hip bumped into his. "What did you want to do first?"

  His Royal Highness Naccar Hala nudged her back. "I need to practice my hand to hand combat and knife work."

  "Then as soon as you get the courtyard clear, you are on." She skipped forward and nodded to the guards that hovered near the skimmer's entrance.

  "You know that as soon as I come of age I will no longer be allowed to be near you." It was only as his tutor that he was allowed exposure to an alien Companion. The stigma of being an intergalactic whore was hard on Eleanor, and Naccar appreciated her for her wit, her beauty, and her willingness to fight him.

  He was still not an adult by Vimpyr standards, at the age of nineteen and had quite a bit of growth left to engage in. Keeping his body in good shape was only prudent. By hiring Eleanor, no one knew that he was receiving combat training. Everyone just thought that he was hiring a whore. It was expected of his rank and gender.

  They buckled into the harnesses of the skimmer and took off, only one of his personal guards with them in the tiny space.

  "Are we heading to the summer palace?" It was already unseasonably cool. If they had been heading out for a secret tryst, it would have been most uncomfortable.

  "Yes. The rest of the court is dancing attendance on my father at the winter palace. We will be alone."

  "Fantastic!" She reached into one of her packs. "I found a Terran style checker board. I can finally teach you to play."

  He shook his head and steered around an outcropping of rocks. "I will never regain my dignity with you, will I?"

  "Nope. Lost forever. After that first game of tic-tac-toe." She reached over and ruffled his dark hair; he grimaced at her and showed her his teeth. The daggers in place of his canines didn't frighten her. He only used them to eat, and she wasn't on the menu.

  If he ingested human blood, his body would engage in its final growth spurt without hesitation. He would physically become a man in a matter of hours, but until he was ready to take the throne, he didn't want that type of responsibility.

  It was why Vimpyrs had been banned from Terra to begin with. The immature among them would not stop consuming, and came into their powers too quickly to control.

  He didn't want to court that madness, and Eleanor couldn't blame him. He reminded her of her brother Timothy back on earth. All elbows and knees, and a burning urge to learn about other places and peoples.

  They first met three years ago when she had been on a contract with a Tival ambassador. He was only a consulting contract and she had a lot of free time while he was waiting for an audience with the king.

  When she was exploring the corridors of the palace she ran into Naccar, the prince who had a thousand questions about the races that she had studied. They formed a fast friendship, and when her companion contract expired, he hired her as his tutor.

  They had had an on again, off again contract relationship ever since.

  He looked over at her slyly. "Commander Matias has been asking about you."

  She flushed slightly, "Has he? I haven't given him a second thought." Seventeen, or possibly twenty, but not merely two thoughts for the devastatingly handsome Commander.

  "Of course you haven't. And I also didn't catch you two on a balcony engaged in a heated debate, in silence and using only your tongues."

  "Never happened." She tried to be prim, but that moment with Matias had burned in her body ever since.

  He had backed her up against the balcony railing and started a conversation, while slowly seducing her with his midnight eyes and slow smiles. He had leaned in to kiss her, and she had moved to meet him halfway. His hands had only begun to explore her when Naccar came barrelling around the corner. His bark of laughter had made her face heat with blood, and a sharp move from Matias reminded her that his people were sensitive to blood and the rhythms of her body. Controlled predators.

  "Of course not." They both began to giggle and she gave in on that topic, then quizzed him on his studies. He was doing well at histories, mathematics and composition. His weak points were etiquette and dance.

  "I can help you with that, since I am here anyway."

  "I was hoping that you would say that. I get on the dance floor with an attractive girl and I trip over my own feet."

  She gave him a wink and smiled as the Summer palace came into their view. "I have taught Oesh to dance. You will have no trouble."

  "You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that."

  "A particular young noblewoman has caught your eye?"

  "Yes. And she dances like a moonbeam brought to the surface and given human form." He sighed heavily.

  "And I can see that my poetry lessons were well learned." She gave a bark of laughter and let him bring the skimmer in for a smooth landing.

  So, he had been using what he had learned to engage in courtships. Excellent. Despite his father's intervention, she had every hope that Naccar would be a decent king who felt for his people. He was smart, clever, and had a good heart. All the traits that a good starting monarch wanted. Well, that his people wanted, what he wanted was immaterial.

  As they landed, the house servants set up a meal for them both in his private chambers, and took her baggage to her rooms down the hall. It was all completely normal.

 
; Their mornings were taken up with combat, feinting and striking for hours, slicing at each other with numbing blades, then discarding the blades and kicking and punching instead.

  She was exhausted, and he seemed to feed on her fatigue when she finally called it quits.

  "You know. If my father would let me train with his soldiers, I wouldn't need to wrestle a Companion." He doused his head in a pitcher of water to remove the sweat.

  This was their third morning together and she was regaining her stamina, but it was never fast enough for her energetic employer.

  She was still wearing her leathers when her data pad chirped in an insistent manner. She crossed to it, a frown on her face.

  Commander Matias was on the screen and as soon as he saw her he said, "Run, Eleanor. Take Naccar and run." Naccar was looking at the pad over her shoulder.

  "There has been an uprising and King Chars Hala is dead, as well as Naccar's other brother, Borna. Troops have been dispatched to kill Naccar." He paused, listening to some shouting in the background. "You have to run. Go, I will find you."

  She slowly turned to Naccar. "I am sorry. We need to get you somewhere safe. I'll grab ration packs and you meet me in my quarters in fifteen minute, ready to travel. Pack everything you think you will need. We may be gone a while."

  Silent as a ghost he slipped out of the courtyard and she immediately went to the guardsmen and filled them in as well as filled her arms with rations. She sprinted back to her rooms and prepared herself for a difficult but essential 'phone' call.

  Chapter Two

  Eleanor's heart was pounding. She knew what she had to do, but could she do it? Her body led her to the communications console and she was punching in a transmission code that might just save Naccar's life.

  Ten minutes ticked by and she finally heard the chirp of the connected call. She straightened her robes and spoke to the secretary that answered the COM. "Priority message to Amy Tyrell." She was under control and affected a look of unconcern.

  "I am sorry, the Empress is unavailable."

  "Wake her up. She can nap later." The secretary seemed startled but left the image of the console and soon a bleary eyed Tyrell was in front of the screen.

  "Eleanor? What do you need?"

  "A vacation. Someplace out of the sun, you know I hate to burn."

  "How soon do you need to leave?" All traces of fatigue vanished from her face and her hands were typing on an alternate com device.

  "Ah, you know how the stress of a Companion's life is. I just need a week or two to get a grip on my future. Plan for retirement, that sort of thing."

  "Well, there is no time like the present. In fact, you would be a fool not to take advantage of the timing." She typed frantically at her data pad and smiled brilliantly. "There, all done. I am sending you a data burst with the names of a few likely planets. Enjoy your time off."

  "Thanks. I knew you would have a few places in mind. Now get back to napping, your kid needs all the rest you can give it." Eleanor smiled in return and cut the transmission. It would be recorded and gone over by Murron's supporters and she could only hope that she hadn't given away too much.

  Naccar appeared at her door with a bag over his shoulder and his eyes red from weeping. She went over and hugged him, tucking his head under her chin and holding him as tightly as he held her.

  She felt less like a friend and more like a mother in that instant. Protective and grieving for the trauma that he was going through.

  "I am getting a data burst, but for now we need to get to one of the shuttles that your family kept here for emergency. Let's go."

  They ran through the Summer palace and got into a shuttle, "Can I drive, Eleanor?"

  She looked over at him and he was fighting a grin. "Nope, I have to drive. You don't know where we are going." She did a pre-flight check and when a proximity alert sounded, fired the engines and took the controls.

  As they left the surface she saw shuttles with the royal insignia closing on the palace. This was her one chance to get Naccar away safely, and she was confident that she had made the correct decision.

  The shuttle fought her control for long moments as she tried to get it out of the atmosphere, then behaved itself the instant that they cleared the first moon and began a hard burn into deep space.

  "Where are we going?" Naccar looked out at the stars in the distance and noted that she had not begun to input co-ordinates.

  "I don't know. I have a few ideas, and will aim for them if another option doesn't present itself." She turned to him. "I can't tell you that you will be safe, but I can tell you that I am making it my mission to deliver you to your throne as soon as I can."

  His hand squeezed hers, "I know you will. But I want you safe as well. Me, they have to kill outright; you, they can torture or sell."

  Eleanor shuddered at a reminder of what could happen to her. Not all of the planets who traded with the Alliance were members. Some wanted to keep their slave-trading ways, and rejected the full membership requirements that were part and parcel of the Alliance regulations.

  Humans were prized for their sensual reactions and their sensitivity to pain. Neither one appealed to Eleanor. She had chosen to only take contracts which did not involve intimate contact. It made her assignments less lucrative, but more satisfying as her studies had to make up for her lack of intimate enthusiasm.

  "We are both going to be fine." She turned her hand up and returned his grip.

  They sat quietly as the shuttle spun through space. Finally after hours of tension, Eleanor's data pad chirped and she almost dove for it.

  The data burst was clear, and highly encrypted. Eleanor entered the key and read the message. Tyrell had gotten details of her situation from Imperium moles in the capital. She knew what Eleanor must be up to and wished her luck.

  She also forwarded a set of co-ordinates and a time. They would be met and brought to a planet with suitable environmental requirements for a Vimpyr. There was also a set of instructions of information to be shared with those who would be meeting them. As well as her hiding her status as a registered companion.

  She heaved a sigh of relief and began to program the co-ordinates into the shuttle navigation system. "Naccar, we have somewhere to go."

  * * * *

  The pick-up went off without any trouble. Mind you, even Eleanor could not have missed the Alliance warship that was making its way through the emptiness of space. They picked her shuttle up with no communication and armed guards escorted her and Naccar to medical without a greeting.

  The physician was the one creature that they could trust. Eleanor was a bit taken aback as she saw the Nyal doctor, as the Nyal were known slave holders and not Alliance members.

  "Hello, Doctor. Why have we been brought here?"

  He flipped off the recorders and looked directly at her and Naccar, who stood slightly behind her.

  "You are a mother and son, are you not?" He raised one pale eyebrow over his ruby eyes.

  Naccar looked at her, "Yes, yes. This is my mother."

  "And this is my son." The words flowed from her without a thought.

  The doctor gestured for her to take a seat on an exam table, and Naccar the one across from her.

  "Then, I have been charged to make sure that your genetics match. If not when you entered this room, then when you leave." His eyes were kind and Eleanor's eyes widened as she interpreted what he had said.

  Her species was very susceptible to genetic tampering, and that is what he was about to do.

  "I am to be a Vimpyr as my son is?" Just for clarification.

  "Yes, one week in the tank, and you will match to any scan."

  "What will happen to Naccar while I am being altered?"

  "There are several physical training exercises going on. We are transporting a mixed group of colonists and he is welcome to train with the guardsmen that are being brought in with them."

  Naccar's eyes lit up at the thought of combat. He had loved to spar with her, but
she was only human and her reflexes couldn't match his. He had had to hold himself back. "What do you need from me for this process?"

  "Simply your blood. I will extract the genetic markers from there." Naccar rolled up his sleeve, exposing his pale arm, and the doctor withdrew his sample.

  The guards still outside the door led him off, all ease and friendliness now. She could hear them joking and laughing down the hall and she smiled. It was good for him to be around other men, just as a young boy and not a prince.

  This time on board would lead to changes them both. Internal for him, and external to her.

  "Ok. Let's get this started, Doctor."

  "Fine. Disrobe. I will prepare the initial stages." He moved over to a tray of supplies, and she began to peel off the battle gear she had been wearing. The buckles and ties fought her for a moment, and then the rigid breastplate fell away, followed by the tight leather trousers and boots.

  She sat quietly, nude, and waited for the physician to turn. When he did his eyes widened in surprise.

  "It is a shame that your species doesn't go into heat. You are quite lovely." He extended his hand to lead her to the top of the tank and help her in.

  She had had repairs to her body before, on occasion. This was no different. He inserted the IV wires while she adjusted the mask that would provide a portion of her air. The rest of the oxygen would be brought in through her lines and tubes. Waste tubes were also placed and that was one thing that did make her blush to the roots of her hair.

  She was not used to being handled in such a matter-of-fact manner. But, it was soon over and she was in the tank. She was completely helpless and it would be a week before she would be able to see if the physician was any good.