Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Thrax sighed but pulled the blaster out of his mouth.
“I’m through fucking thinking,” he growled, glaring at her. “And how the fuck did you get in here, anyway? I thought I locked the door.”
“The Goddess unlocked it for me,” Andi said promptly, which made his eyebrows raise in surprise.
“What?”
“You heard me. The Goddess herself spoke to me—she told me you were in trouble.” Andi nodded at the blaster still in his hands. “Please put that down—don’t do anything crazy.”
Thrax shook his head.
“I can’t live like this anymore. The dreams…the memories…they’re bad, Andi. So fucking bad. I just want to end it and never have to think of the past anymore.”
He lifted the blaster again and Andi started to cry.
“Please!” she begged, the tears running down her flushed cheeks. “Please, Thrax—there are people who love you. I love you! Please don’t do this to yourself—please stop for just a minute and talk to me. I have something to say that you need to listen to. You owe me that much at least!”
Thrax wanted to say he didn’t owe her anything…but then he thought of the way he’d taken her so roughly and the fact that she had never once complained or blamed him. Yes, he did owe her this one last favor.
“Fine,” he said at last, lowering the blaster. “So talk.”
“First put your blaster down on the table.” Andi motioned to the little table on one side of the couch. “I want to be sure you’re listening to me and not messing around with it,” she added.
Thrax didn’t want to put the blaster down—it was his way out—his ticket to another plane of existence where he would be free of the nightmares and memories that haunted him. But Andi was standing there, waiting, so he finally did as she asked.
“Okay, fine,” he said, putting the blaster down and lifting his hands to show they were empty. “Now talk. But don’t take too long—I have a date with the void.”
“No, you don’t.” Moving with surprising speed, Andi came around the couch and straddled him. Before he knew it, his partner was on his lap, facing him the same way she had been when she had demanded that he drink from her on Salacious Delta.
But this time, she wasn’t soft and open and sexual—this was a different Andi. Her brown eyes were filled with anger and determination as she glared down at him. The tears were still drying on her cheeks, but she wasn’t crying anymore. Instead she looked enraged.
“Now listen to me, you son of a bitch,” she snapped and suddenly her blaster was jabbing right under the shelf of his jaw. Her other hand tangled in the back of his hair and she yanked his head back, forcing him to look at her.
“Fuck!” Thrax shouted at the sharp pain—his partner was strong for her size and her hand in his hair hurt!
Andi ignored his yelp of pain and kept glaring.
“You do not get to kill yourself and leave me here to mourn for you—do you understand? If you try that again, I’ll make you sorry—I swear it!” she told him.
Thrax looked at her in shock, then an incredulous bark of laughter escaped his lips.
“So you’re threatening to kill me for trying to kill myself?” he demanded.
“No, I’m threatening to hurt you,” Andi said coolly. “There’s a big difference. For instance, I’m pretty sure you could live with a blaster hole in your arm or leg. In fact, I’m sure you could survive even if you were missing one of your nuts. But I don’t think you’d like it much.”
Thrax glared up at her, his humor gone.
“Okay, you have my attention. Now what are you going to do?”
“It’s what we’re going to do,” Andi told him. “We’re going to get up from this couch and go straight to the Sacred Grove for the Cleansing Ceremony.”
“I don’t want—” Thrax began.
“I don’t care what you want!” Andi barked. “You’re going to come with me to the Sacred Grove or I’m going to blow a large, non-lethal hole in a part of your anatomy you don’t want to lose. Do you understand?”
Thrax stared at his partner in silent surprise for a long moment. He had never seen Andi like this. She looked angry and frightened and determined and her blaster was still shoved under the shelf of his jaw. It was clear she wasn’t going to back down from her demands.
“All right,” he growled at last. “I guess I don’t have a fucking choice.”
“No, you don’t.” Keeping her blaster trained on him, Andi backed slowly off his lap. With her other hand, she grabbed Thrax’s blaster from the table and tucked it into the back of her jeans. “All right now—come on. Get up nice and slow.” She waved at him with the barrel of her own blaster menacingly.