Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“So important you’d risk your life?” Dark growled incredulously.
“She risked her life for us, Brother,” Light said quietly. “She came to get us because she still cares. Don’t you, Lilibet?” he added, looking at her.
Lili nodded.
“I do still care—for both of you,” she said earnestly. “And, well, I was hoping that you two might still care about me, too.”
“We do!” Light said, putting an arm around her. “So much, sweetheart!”
“Oh, Light…” Lili turned to him and hugged him, breathing in his familiar fresh-cut cedar scent. Then she turned and looked uncertainly at his brother. “Dark?” she asked hopefully. “Can I have a hug?”
But the Dark Twin only stared straight ahead.
“I’m a fucking mess right now, little Lili,” he rumbled. “Maybe after I get cleaned up.”
Lili didn’t care—she would have hugged him, even covered in blood and oil as he was. But she realized that something was going on with him…something seemed to be missing from him that wasn’t missing from Light.
“All right,” she said softly. “Maybe we can go back to my suite in the Mother Ship and talk there.”
“You have your own suite now?” Light asked.
“Well, it’s a guest suite.” Lili shrugged. “I had to have someplace to stay while I was planning how to get you guys off Z4.”
“Whatever your plan was, it nearly got you fucking killed,” Dark pointed out flatly.
“Yes—how did you intend to find us?” Light asked her.
Lili explained about the trackers and showed them the GPS screen on the underside of her battered fake metal arm. She told how she’d been grabbed by LJ-91 who had forced her to go eat garn with him and then how she had escaped and had run all the way to the abandoned warehouse, only to find their empty enhancements.
“Yeah, we changed them out for more protective ones when we took a job in the mechanoid factory,” Dark growled. “Good thing we kept our battle grade weapons, though.”
“They certainly came in handy,” Light agreed. “So then what happened? That bastard LJ-91 dragged you before the Tribunal?” he asked Lili.
Lili nodded and swiped at her eyes.
“Yes, I was so…so sure they were going to kill me! They would have, if the two of you hadn’t gotten to me right when you did.” She sniffed. “Did you say the Kindred Goddess sent you?”
“She came to us in our domicile and ordered us to get to you immediately,” Light said soberly. “I don’t believe she was very happy with us for leaving the Mother Ship and returning to Z4 where it was so dangerous for you to come after us.”
“I would have tried to call or used a Think-me, but Yipper told me that Zeaga Four is shielded against outside communication—even thought waves,” Lili explained. “So the only way was to come in disguise.”
“Yeah, how’d that work out for you?” Dark asked, shooting a look at her chest.
Lili looked down and realized that her bare breasts were still on display. In the heat of the moment, she’d forgotten she was exposed.
“Oh!” she put her arms over her chest but Light was already taking off his long-sleeved black shirt and handing to her.
“Here, Lilibet—cover up,” he murmured.
“Thank you.” Lili pulled on his shirt, still warm from his big body and buttoned it over her exposed breasts.
“How did that happen, anyway?” Dark asked her. “How did your, uh, clothing get ripped?” His eyes flashed red for a moment. “Did someone hurt you?”
“It was the same guard I was telling you about—LJ-91,” Lili explained. “He was trying to prove to the Tribunal that I wasn’t a real Dark Kindred and he pulled off the chest plate I had on as part of my disguise. But it was hooked to this black body stocking I’m wearing and it ripped wide open when he pulled the plate off.”
“Which exposed your breasts and the fact that you’re a female at the same time,” Light guessed.
“Exactly.” Lili nodded.
Dark’s long fingers tightened on the steering yoke.
“The fucker! I hope I killed him back there.”
“Actually, he was the first one you punched,” Lili told him. “You, uh, caved his head in like a rotten pumpkin.” She shivered.
“Should have made it slower,” Dark growled. His flat expression was gone and for a moment, he seemed to have emotions again. But then Light reached around Lili and put a hand on his twin’s arm.
“Easy, Brother—no need for The Fury now. Those who tried to hurt our female are dead—you killed them.”
“But is she our female?” Dark shook his head. “I don’t know anymore.”
“Dark—how can you say that?” Lili exclaimed. “Why would I come for the two of you if I didn’t want to be yours? And want you both to be mine?”
Dark only shook his head again as he landed the shuttle inside the Mother Ship.
“I know you came a long way and risked a lot for us, little Lili,” he said. “But I don’t know if you should have.”