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clear.
    “Kill him!” The command shattered her resolve.
    “He is innocent!”
    “That is irrelevant. You must be able to kill regardless of what you sense.”
    Shock quivered in ice-cold threads through her veins. This was wrong. To kill under orders, to kill in war, in defense, even at the behest of higher powers—that she could accept. She’d never been told she would have to kill an innocent for a mere test.
    “I won’t.”
    “You don’t have a choice. Kill, or die.”
    Her inner voice keened. “There must be another way! Give me another target, someone guilty. Anyone, please...”
    “This is your target. One of you will not leave this room alive. Your choice.”
    Mothers and Fathers!
    What kind of choice was that? He didn’t deserve to die.
    But she wasn’t prepared to die for someone else, either.
    Mothers, forgive me...
    She took solid form at last and sat astride the youth. His response to her soft presence, to the pheromones she had exuded from the moment of her arrival, was hard and instant. She mounted him a little hesitantly and, as she had feared, there was a fleeting instant of pain. She quashed the sensation as she lowered herself onto him fully, and he moaned, his head lolling back and his hands reaching to grasp her thighs. His lust and pleasure rolled into her body, and it washed any uncertainty and discomfort away. She lost herself in the heat of it, the pulsing ecstasy. Oh, that was good!
    She moved experimentally and more pleasure rippled through her body. A moan came from her own mouth and, as he moved his hand up her body, softly caressing, she shivered. He cupped her breasts, sliding his thumbs across her nipples, and she gasped as fire sparked in her. She leaned down to him, claimed his mouth, and the warmth and softness of his lips fuelled her need for more.
    Oh, Mothers...
    She could lose herself in this completely.
    Focus!
    Her training, the instructions ingrained in her memory, clamped down on her enjoyment, souring it. She pulled back slightly but maintained her rhythm, slow and sure, pushing them both toward climax. She wasn’t here to enjoy herself, although that would be permitted once she had passed this test, but it seemed such a shame to waste the experience. Her first sexual partner was attractive and willing, his young, lithe body arching beneath hers as he thrust up to meet her with each stroke, head thrown back in his euphoria. Every pulse of pleasure in his body mirrored and augmented in hers. The time was coming.
    He gasped and quickened his pace, and she had to gather her control not to run wild in his mind. She would need all her concentration. But it was difficult as he surged deeper into her body, already losing himself. She rode the wave of ecstasy with him, bathing in the rapturous light that flowed around and between them, pure life energy spiraling out of check. That was the key, the force she needed to harness and take—taking his life with it.
    She bit her lip as they reached climax together. The blaze of furious pleasure ripping through their bodies made her want to scream, to let go and fall into it. But she couldn’t. Another need swamped her, took the edge from it. As he hit orgasm, the energy flared and she drew it in, pulled every last thread into herself until she felt her skin would tear from her flesh and her heart would explode. It took her beyond the euphoria of release, lifted her higher. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see.
    Then she collapsed forward, all her strength gone, her body weak and shaking. For a moment she dragged in air as if she had been starved for hours, before finally levering herself upward. The youth’s eyes, already glassy, stared up at her in blank accusation.
    She’d done it. She’d made her first kill.
    ***
    Splinter-fine jabs of pain ran through her body and she jerked awake. Instinctively, she reached for the familiar cloak of kindred auras...and found nothing. She was alone, in the dark, the sweat from her