Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 51862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
“It may interest you to know, Emily, that I have captured Zain Voros and his brothers, and their ship, and their pet, and the wounded, insensate human.”
“How nice for you.”
“You do not have much in the way of bargaining power.”
“I disagree. If you didn’t want us alive, you would already have killed us.”
“Do not mistake my patience for kindness. I can kill you all in any moment I choose. But if I can get my ship back intact, that would be preferable. Understand, humans. You are trapped like proverbial rats, and I am the cat outside the hole, waiting for your inevitable emergence.”
I turn to Rex. “I think we should fire on them. I think we should light this dark little corner of the universe up.”
“I think you should turn the communicator off before you make your little plans,” Phenix laughs.
“Crap,” Rex says, shutting it off with a pounding motion of his fist. “Dammit, Emily!”
Zain
Hearing Emily’s voice makes me feel as though everything in the universe is well. She’s alive. She’s safe enough for now. And she sounds strong. I do not want her within a thousand light-years of Phenix Wrathelder, but fate seems intent on putting her in danger.
Phenix looks over his shoulder at me. “I see you chose a mate as unbalanced as you are.”
“She wasn’t when I met her. Maybe it’s just the effect you have on women.”
“It’s not the effect I had upon your mother. She is very compliant for me.”
I snarl and yank at the chains that hold me to the wall of the bridge. I am a prisoner of war, and he wants me to see all of these terrible things happening. He could have killed me already. Should have killed me already. But he is toying with me. He wants to make this painful, just as the injuries I once inflicted on him were painful.
“Show them some mercy,” I suggest. Put a tractor beam on them and drag them back home. As long as I get Emily back, I’ll do anything you want.”
“You will do whatever I want anyway, child. By the time I am done with your arguably sweet pet, there will be very little left to have back, Voros. You may have served time in prison, but you will do penance for your crime against me now.”
I have nothing to say to that. What can I say? He is threatening to defile and destroy Emily, and she seems intent on allowing herself to be traded. I draw in a deep breath. I need to stay calm. I cannot lose my mind now. He wants me to rage. He wants me to be stupid.
When he doesn’t get the reaction he wants, he continues to needle me.
“I am quite looking forward to this. Humans are amusing in their own way, I suppose. I’ve never seen the point in a human pet, but perhaps I will make yours mine. I’ve made so much of yours mine already, haven’t I?”
I hate him so much I feel as though I could kill him just by being near him. The violence and vehemence of my thoughts are so intense it truly seems as though all I need do is wrap my hatred around his neck and throttle the life from him.
My brothers went too peacefully amid his invasion. They wanted to protect Jennifer. What about Emily? What about all the other humans at stake? Phenix is going to keep me close and torment me because I am the one who very nearly killed him. Next time I come for him, it will not be a near miss. I swear on my father’s grave, I will see the light fade from this creature’s eyes.
“You look petulant when you are angry,” he notes. “I will enjoy that expression for the moment, before it turns to true pain. I will enjoy that expression all the more when I have your pet in my grasp.”
Emily is going to be absolutely helpless. She has no tactical sense, no strength, no ability to wield weapons. I should have taught her something in the way of self-defense. I should have never assumed that I would be enough to keep her safe.
“Now I love that look on your stupid green face,” he laughs. “I have to ask you, Zain. Do you ever wonder why you are a completely different hue to your brothers? Or do you lack the intellect to ask those questions?”
“I know who my father was, if that’s what you’re implying.”
“But do you? Really? With the way she loves to spread for the dominant male? Your mother can be very easy sometimes. Do you not wonder?”
Phenix wants to torture me psychologically, and I am going to let him think he is succeeding. The more pain he believes he can inflict on me directly, the less he will have to take out on Emily.