Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 74932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Then a voice spoke in my ear.
It wasn’t loud, but it was stern. There was an iron note in that voice that brooked no disobedience. Oh, and it was female—totally and undeniably female.
“You will take this job, Warrior,” the mysterious voice told me. “You will agree to the terms and take it at once. It is my will that you should do so.”
I didn’t know what to say—how to answer. I only knew that I felt as helpless as a bug pinned to a card. The voice—and the overwhelming presence that accompanied it—made all my strength and stamina seem like nothing. I had trained for years to make myself the strongest, the fastest, the toughest—but none of it mattered. I might be a badass, but there were bigger and stronger and scarier things than me in the universe and the voice let me know it.
I had no idea who it could be, but then I remembered stories my mother used to tell me—stories of the Goddess, the Mother of All Life—whom all Kindred worshipped. She always told me that the Goddess would watch over me—that she had a plan for my life. I believed as a child, wholeheartedly—but lost my faith as an adult when I realized I didn’t belong anywhere. Why would a loving Goddess even allow someone like me to be born? She must be a lie.
But the voice speaking to me and the invisible hands holding me down were no lie—I had never felt anything truer or realer in my life. And I knew I was going to do what the voice said, even if it didn’t make sense. I was going to take this assignment, even if it was one I would ordinarily have turned down cold.
“I’ll do it,” I heard myself saying. “When do I start?”
“Oh…well, excellent!” Le’rank looked surprised—though he certainly wasn’t as surprised as I was. Clearly he’d expected me to reject him at least once or thought we might haggle over the price. But here I was, saying “yes” without even a single protest—without even asking what he would pay.
I barely noticed what my new employer was saying though—I was too busy with the invisible presence around me. It had eased somewhat and then the voice spoke in my ear once more.
“I am pleased, Warrior,” it murmured. “That which slumbers shall soon awaken.”
And then it was gone and the invisible hands pressing me down into the chair disappeared, leaving me to wonder if I’d imagined the whole damn thing.
But I had already accepted the assignment and there was no going back.
“Excellent. Let’s go over the contract, then—shall we?” Le’rank said, clearly oblivious to my strange supernatural experience.
He produced a transparent legal script and began to scroll through the security surveillance contract, showing me where to sign and where to initial. I did as he asked, signing and initialing though I usually read through a contract twice before I make a single mark on it—that’s how much the voice shook me up.
Anyway, the contract was standard boilerplate until we got to the last clause—a strange one I had never seen before I thought, even as I initialed where Le’rank was pointing.
“In addition to providing security services for Lady Isla Le’rank, her bodyguard will also perform a nightly massage of her person,” the last clause said.
I pointed to it, frowning.
“What in the Seven Hells does this mean?” I demanded. “Are you hiring me as a Security Specialist or a Massage Therapist?”
“Both.” Le’rank grinned at me, an expression which made his upper teeth stick out like a fucking rodent’s. “Every night before she goes to bed, I’ll need for you to touch Isla all over—consider it a bonus.”
“A bonus?” I raised my eyebrows at him in disbelief. “Are you telling me you want me to feel up your wife? Is this some kind of twisted game the two of you play together? Because I have no interest in joining some kind of sexual threesome.”
If that was what he was into, I was leaving, I told myself. Voice or no voice, Goddess or no Goddess, I wasn’t fucking around like that. Kindred are strictly monogamous—we mate for life. Well, those of us who can mate. Being a Hybrid, my ability to bond a female to me was definitely questionable. It was one reason I was still single. But I still had no interest in getting into some kind of love triangle with Le’rank and his wife.
However, my new employer quickly shook his head.
“No, no, Mr. Sark—I think you’re misunderstanding me. I have no interest in being involved with you in that way—I am not trying to bring you into some sort of sordid sexual three-way situation. But my wife has a rare condition—she is a Moonstone goddess—have you ever heard of that?”
I shook my head.
“Never.”
“It’s a very special type of female—they’re growing more and more rare, as a matter of fact. In order for a Moonstone goddess to conceive, she must be touched and caressed nightly until her skin begins to glow with an inner light.”