Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 110492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
The doors appeared before her and Torri felt the malevolent presence of the AllFather on the other side of them. But then a gentle hand fell on her shoulder. Spinning around, she saw Vic standing there, in his Kindred uniform of a blue dress shirt, tight black trousers, and tall black boots.
“I know who you’re dreaming about,” he said, and his blue eyes were troubled. “I know what these markings mean.” he indicated the glowing green etchings that covered the tall doors.
“You do?” Torri frowned. “Who am I dreaming of, then? And what do the markings mean?”
“This ship belongs to an ancient enemy of the Kindred. And the writings on the door are signs of destruction and evil—domination and subjugation.”
“Domination by who, though?” Torri asked, frowning. “Subjugation to who?”
Vic shook his head, looking troubled.
“I don’t know their name! The positronic part of my brain is beginning to heal itself but the process isn’t complete yet. I only know they are evil and the enemies of my people. If they really are coming to attack the Earth, we must warn the Mother Ship. Your planet doesn’t have the resources to fight them.”
“But how can we warn your, uh, Mother Ship if we’re stuck here? Stuck in St. Elizabeth’s?” Torri asked.
“We have to leave—tonight,” Vic said. “I cannot wait any longer for the humans to decide that I’m not a threat to them. If I don’t get to my people and tell them to send help, your whole planet will be overrun.”
“But I don’t even know how far away they are or if they’re coming at all,” Torri protested. “I mean maybe all these dreams are just caused by sleep deprivation and now that I’m getting more sleep, I’m feeling better.”
“Torri…” He cupped her face in his hands and looked down at her earnestly. “Don’t doubt yourself. Don’t doubt your visions. You told me that you inherited this gift from your mother’s mother—it is passed down through the female line of your family which means it is most probably a gift of the Goddess. If she is sending you a warning, you must listen to it.”
“But—” Torri began.
But suddenly the dream shredded into nothing and Vic disappeared. In the big Kindred’s place was Mike O’Toole’s bearded, grinning face.
“Told you, you’d be sorry, bitch!” he hissed, clapping a hand over her mouth so Torri couldn’t scream. “Now I’m gonna teach you a lesson but good!”
Eighteen
Things were happening too fast. Just a minute ago, she’d been in the middle of a dream, engaged in an earnest conversation with Vic and now she was flat on her back in bed with the big orderly bending over her and a clammy hand clapped over her mouth.
Let me go! Leave me alone! Torri tried to scream, but it just came out as a muffled Mmph mm mmph sound behind his hand. She began to fight and thrash but O’Toole grabbed both her wrists in his other hand, pinning them together over her head.
“You got her?” a voice asked from the other side of the dim room.
“Hell yes, I got her. Now do it—do what we talked about or no more nose candy for you!” O’ Toole snapped.
Torri’s body went rigid with fear. Who else was in the room and what were they going to do to her?
She got her answer soon enough when Tanya bent over her.
“Told you you’d be sorry, bitch!” she hissed, in an echo of O’Tool’s threat. Then she bit the inside of her own forearm savagely, until dark rivulets of blood ran down to her elbow. Wiping her mouth on her sleeve, Tanya looked across the bed at O’Toole. “Okay—I’m ready!”
“Make it quick,” he snarled and lifted his hand from Torri’s mouth.
Before she could scream, Tanya was rubbing her bloody forearm across Torri’s lips, making her spit and sputter with disgust.
“Hey, what—?” But she didn’t get to finish the question before Tanya started screaming.
“She bit me! She bit me! Oh my God, she bit me!”
“What’s all this? What’s going on?” The night-shift head nurse was suddenly in the doorway flipping on the light switch.
“She bit me! I just came in here to get something I left when we was roommates and she bit me—see?”
Tanya waved her bloody forearm in the head nurse’s face and pointed at Torri, whose mouth was smeared with incriminating scarlet.
“I’m afraid it’s true,” O’Toole, who was still holding her down, said before Torri could say anything herself. “I was walking past and saw it happen. Torri just attacked her for no reason!”
The head nurse gave him a narrow look. “You’re sure that’s what happened?”
“No!” Torri gasped, trying to explain. “I never—”
“She’s lying! She bit me!” Tanya blared, drowning her out. She began to wail loudly—so loudly that Torri could barely hear herself think over her squalling.
“I think we need to file an incident report,” the head nurse said, raising her voice to be heard over the racket Tanya was making.