Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“I watched him kill them—kill all of them.” Mirabella’s body tensed as she rubbed her cheek against his chest, as though seeking comfort. “He…he cut their throats with his finger-knives—or knife-fingers. I don’t know which. But I watched him kill them. And then he cut out their eyes.” She shivered. “It was horrible!”
“Oh my Lady, I’m so sorry,” Lynx murmured, stroking her hair.
“I should have tried to help them—maybe I could have saved some. I…I have the training,” she whispered. “But I was just so scared. So instead of trying to help, I ran and hid inside Beelie.”
“Nobody could blame you for that,” Lynx told her. “It wasn’t safe to try and save anyone—not with a crazed killer on the loose!”
“I was crammed inside Beelie, looking out his viewscreen,” she went on. “The killer…he pressed himself against Beelie’s front and there was this horrible scraping and screeching notice and I realized…I realized he was trying to get in…” Her voice hitched and Lynx thought she was getting close to breaking down completely. “He was running those knives on his fingers down Beelie’s front,” she went on. “Trying to scratch his way in to get to me! And all the time he was telling me things he was going to do to me—terrible things!”
“That must have been so frightening,” Lynx murmured.
“I was so afraid he would get in and get me and do everything he said he was going to do!” she gasped and then she really began crying in earnest—hot tears rolling down her cheeks and wetting the soft velvety fur of his chest. It told Lynx how very upset she was that she even hadn’t noticed that he was partly-Shifted.
He wanted to hold her close and let her cry—to comfort her and make her feel safe again. But something was missing—no, someone.
It was Saxon. The Lykan Shifter was standing in the doorway clenching and unclenching his fists with tension as Beelie rolled back and forth still muttering hollowly about intruders. Lynx thought his Bond-Brother was showing remarkable restraint, considering the feelings of concern and the desperate desire to hold and comfort he felt coming through their link.
“Mirabella?” he murmured, stroking her back gently. “I know you’re scared and I want to comfort and protect you—but I need my Bond-Brother with me. I need Saxon.”
“You…you do?” She looked up at him, her eyes bright with tears.
“I do. Will you let him come sit on your other side if I promise you that nothing is going to happen?”
“Well…” She looked up at him with heartbreaking vulnerability. “All right…I guess.”
“Thank you. I promise you won’t regret it,” Lynx told her. He motioned to Saxon. “It’s all right—come on.”
The Lykan Shifter did his own quarter-Shift and also leaped over the golden robot.
Beelie didn’t even notice. He just kept rolling back and forth in front of the doorway, muttering to himself in his hollow, robotic voice.
“Little Mistress?” Saxon said hoarsely, approaching the enormous bed. “Can I sit by you?”
“Yes. All right.” Mirabella nodded again. She was still pressed tightly to Lynx’s side and he got the impression she would have agreed to almost anything as long as he would keep holding her.
Saxon sat on her other side and gingerly put his right arm around her waist, since Lynx had his left arm around her still-shaking shoulders. He felt his Bond-Brother’s arm touch both him and the female they both wished to comfort. And then, for the first time in years, he felt the familiar flow of energy between them.
It was an Aura of Comfort they were casting—not as strong as the Aura of Protection, but strong enough that Mirabella noticed it.
“Oh…” she whispered, swiping at her eyes and sitting up a little. “What…what’s going on?”
“We’re comforting you, little one,” Saxon rumbled. “Does it make you feel better?”
“It…does.” Mirabella looked up at Saxon uncertainly. “But…I’ve never felt anything like it. It’s like…my emotions are a wound or a burn and you two are pouring healing salve on the hurt places.”
“That’s the Aura of Comfort that we’re casting for you,” Lynx explained. “And it’s why I needed my Bond-Brother with me—I can’t cast it alone. Just as I can’t cast an Aura of Protection without him.”
“Is it…some kind of magic?” Mirabella asked, looking from Lynx to Saxon and back again. “Are the two of you magic?”
Lynx laughed and even Saxon, who was usually so dour, chuckled softly.
“Hardly, my Lady,” Lynx said. “It’s a power given to all Monstrum who join in a Brother-Bond but it’s not magic. It’s more like…we’re able to manipulate energy.”
“Energy we can only raise when we have a female between us,” Saxon clarified.
“Oh. I see.” And she looked at both of them again. She’d stopped crying and her face looked calm, if a little uncertain.
“Are you feeling better now, my Lady?” Lynx asked her courteously. “Would you rather Saxon and I left you alone to go back to sleep?”