Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Maybe I should go ahead and fuck him, Sky speculated to herself. It was something that female Serpentines did sometimes when they were attracted to a male who wasn’t suitable to fertilize one of their eggs. A single night of no-strings attached sex was the standard solution in such situations.
Sky had never wanted a male this badly before—and it was messing with her mind. It might be a good idea to have the big Kindred and get it over with.
Maybe taking him would finally get him out of my system, she thought.
She’d brought her overnight bag with her, which she kept packed in case of emergencies, and she had everything she needed for a casual sexual encounter in there. You never knew where you might end up on a case—it was better to be prepared for anything—even pleasure, if there was downtime. Maybe…
Suddenly, there was a knock on the bedroom door and then it opened just a bit. A girl with an oval face, light brown skin, and big green eyes looked in on them.
“I just wanted to check on my patient,” she said, opening the door wider. “Er…am I interrupting something?” she added, giving them a curious look.
“No, no—of course not.” Torin cleared his throat and crossed his long legs, though nothing could quite hide the enormous bulge at his crotch.
Sky withdrew her fangs hastily and licked the wounds in his flesh closed. A flush of embarrassment made her face hot—she felt a little bit as though the girl had walked in on them having sex. Which was silly, since she’d never felt that way about biting a Serpentine. With them, biting was purely practical but with the big Kindred it was…different. Intimate…sexual…hot.
She pushed the thoughts away. At least she was feeling stronger now, she told herself. She sat up straighter on the bed, no longer leaning helplessly against Torin’s side and he took his arm from around her shoulders. She kind of missed it…but told herself she didn’t.
“What do you mean by calling me your ‘patient’?” she asked the girl, who looked to be a bit younger than herself.
“Oh—she glued that gash in your thigh together,” Torin said, answering before the girl could. “She has a medical kit here and she really seems to know what she’s doing.”
“I would hope I know what I’m doing—I’m a Tier Three Healer,” the girl snapped, coming all the way into the room.
She had long, black hair that was a lot of tight, bouncy curls with blondish highlights and her eyes were moss-green—though at the moment they looked almost emerald, Sky thought. She also looked like she used to be curvy…though now she was verging on the thinner side.
Sky raised her eyebrows at the girl.
“A Tier Three Healer—that’s impressive. Are you also Mistress Mirabella—leader of the Sacred Seven?”
“Yes—well, I’m supposed to be, anyway.” The girl nodded and a stubborn look came over her face. “But if you’re here to get me to come back and rule the Sacred Seven, you can forget it! I never wanted to be on the council in the first place—I was on the other side of the planet, practicing medicine when my Aunt Raz called me to be her heir. I was just going to settle her affairs after she passed but then I got voted in and then the…the killing started.” She shivered convulsively. “So I’m not going anywhere in public where he might find me.”
Sky leaned forward and stared at the girl intently. Her stubborn look had melted into one of pure terror, as though a terrible memory had hold of her.
“You saw him, didn’t you?” she asked softly. “The killer—the one who got the rest of the Sacred Seven?”
“Yes…” Mistress Mirabella sank down at the foot of the bed, as though her legs couldn’t hold her. “Yes, I…I saw him. I watched him slaughter everyone in the room I was in. Everyone but me.”
“What does he look like? And how did you get away?” Torin asked, leaning forward eagerly.
“Why do you want to know?” Mirabella shuddered. “He’s horrible. You’ll be lucky if you never see him!”
“We’re trying to catch him,” Sky said. “I’m a Peace Keeper from Portex Three and Torin here works for the Kindred—it’s their ambassadors the killer is targeting before he moves on to other females in power.”
“He’s killed so many females and you’re the only one who managed to escape,” Torin added.
“I only got away because of Beelie,” Mirabella said softly.
“Beelie?” Sky frowned.
“It’s her personal automaton,” Torin rumbled, explaining.
“An automaton? They still make those?” Sky asked, surprised.
“See for yourself. Beelie!” Mirabella called and an enormous round, golden automaton came rolling into the room. Its sides were scratched from scraping against the doorway, Sky saw. There were also some long, jagged looking scratches on the front of the gold metal body that looked fresh, unlike the others.