Read Online Seeing (Return of the Nine) by Viola Grace - Free Book Online Page A

disappeared. He had killed himself.
    The officers rushed inside, and Detective Morser came out with Winara in his arms. She had puffy eyes and tears from the gas, but she was alive with only minor scrapes and bruises.
    Vida struggled to sit up, and she pressed her gauze blindfold to her shoulder. “Officer, if you could get me a med kit?”
    He stared at her and swayed as if he didn’t know what to do. Fortunately, Morser came back and ordered a second medical unit to attend the scene while he grabbed one of the kits from an official vehicle.
    “Well, Ms. Senior, the bolt went right through you. You are bleeding on both sides.”
    She snorted. “That is what it feels like. Why are your officers freaked out?”
    “You ran six blocks blindfolded and led us to a serial killer without so much as an interview.”
    “You know that it is what I do.”
    He sighed and applied pressure on her wound. “I know that and they know that, but even with the Nine in orbit, it seems a little spooky.”
    She straightened and winced. “That is it! Orbit. I need to get up there.”
    “You aren’t going anywhere. This wound needs work.” He paused. “Thank you, by the way.”
    “I am only sorry that I didn’t find him sooner. Now that I know what his darkness looked like, I could have tracked him anywhere.” She hissed as he shifted his hands.
    “Stay still, Ms. Senior. You are bleeding excessively.”
    The medics arrived and bustled her into the second vehicle. The victim in the first vehicle looked at her curiously, but her medics closed the door and drove off.
    “What happened, miss?” The older medic removed the gauze from her shoulder and looked at the wound.
    She sat and let them tend her while the vehicle swayed on the way to the hospital.
    With a small smile, she said, “I was finally in the wrong spot at the right time.”
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    With her bandages in place and a borrowed shirt covering the blood on hers, Vida headed for the embassy of the Nine.
    The guards on either side of the gate stared at her as she passed them. She guessed the not a lot of bloody Gaian women hiked through the gates. She heard them calling up to the main building as she trudged past.
    Daphne came out to greet her. “Vida, good lord. What happened?”
    “I figured it out. I finally figured it out. I have a chance at finding them, but I need to get up there.” She staggered and clung to Daphne when she was close enough.
    They walked slowly into the building where Daphne let out a shrill whistle.
    A woman with ice blue skin came forward. “Yes, madam?”
    “I need some grafting patches and a clean dress, please, Tynyan.”
    “Yes, madam. Right away.”
    The woman glided away, and Daphne coaxed Vida into the lift. Vida was impatient. She wanted to get up, to get on her way to finding those who were lost, but her vision blurred.
    “Relax, Vida. I have you.”
    With a woman she knew she could count as a friend, she relaxed. In a quiet room, her clothing was removed, her wounds were cleaned and whatever a grafting patch was, it kicked the ass of stitches. Pale, shining gel showed where the bolt had entered but the ugly threads were gone.
    The dress was loose, but it belted snugly at the waist, providing shape.
    “You know I am not a fan of dresses.”
    Daphne smiled, “I am afraid that it is all I wear most days. Now, let’s settle you and you can tell me what the hell happened.”
    With the help of the housekeeper, Daphne got Vida to her feet and into a comfortable chair in the sitting room.
    She was still drowsy from the drugs they had given her at the hospital, but Vida stared into Daphne’s eyes. “I figured out how to do it.”
    “Do what, Vida?”
    “To find those who were stolen and never retrieved. I have been trying to see the trail for the last six years, and I have failed. I have been looking at it from the wrong angle. I need to get onto the mother ship and get into one of the shuttle pathways. If I can see the