Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 48783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
“So? How do you feel?” Amelia asked. “I mean, wow. That’s quite a new shell you’ve got.”
“I don’t know.” Sky sighed. “Part of me is disgusted by what those traffickers were doing—torturing all those supernatural creatures to harvest stem cells. On the other hand, they figured out how to grow new immortal bodies with all that stuff.” Sky was here in a new body because of them, sort of a lemonade situation.
Cimil had told Sky that the main lab for SBP (Supernatural Body Parts) was going to be burned to the ground. It wouldn’t stop their gruesome work, but it would slow them down for a while. Either way, their facilities had had two new bodies ready for new owners. Cimil had offered one to Sky.
“Don’t let those creatures die in vain,” Cimil had said and then assured Sky that the body would feel like a regular human, though at the cellular level, it was something entirely different. Shifter, fairy, goblin, and whatever else SBP used for stem cells. What did that make Sky? Hell if she knew.
“I’m glad to have you back,” Amelia said. “Even if you look like Malibu Barbie.”
Sky looked down at her chest. “A little flat for Barbie, but I’m glad to be back, too.”
“So, do you know what you’ll do next?” Amelia asked.
“That’s what I want to talk about. I have to work for Damien. It’s part of the deal.” Something Sky fully intended to get out of. No way would she work side by side with the man she loved and Willa. Sky had seen the way he looked at Willa after being brought back. He still loved her.
“Okay. And?” Amelia asked.
“I want to take down the governor and all his rich friends who backed SBP and trafficked those women.” They were being used as test subjects. Then there were the poor creatures who’d been carved up like tiny turkeys while still alive.
“You want to pick up where you left off with the story?” Amelia asked.
“Yes.” Sky didn’t want to let this second chance be wasted.
“But what about Miguel and me? They think you’re dead, but if you start publishing again, they’ll think I’m behind it, using your notes or something.”
Amelia was right. “What if I can come up with a way to remove you from the situation completely?”
“I’m listening.”
“Just promise that no matter what happens, you won’t tell Damien.”
“I don’t talk to the man, but why would you be worried?” Amelia asked.
“He’s not going to like what I’m planning.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“Could it be any hotter?” MF groaned, swatting at the hundreds of grape-sized mosquitoes following her through the jungle. They seemed to be intrigued by her scent, but not enough to go in for a taste.
It probably had something to do with the fact that after the Great Explosion, her body hadn’t returned to its former human self. She was no longer a vampire, but some of her immortal traits remained: eyesight and hearing, for example. Damien’s hypothesis was that the explosion didn’t kill the vampire side of her DNA, it merely made it dormant.
Truthfully, he found it all very interesting, especially the fact that there were pockets of supernatural creatures who were completely untouched by the blast. Pet for example. Bonbon and Gorgonzolina, too. He’d even met a pack of were-eagles recently. Why had they been spared?
Also a mystery? How does anyone survive in this sticky heat? Dear gods, it’s hot. He’d even had to change from his casual business wear to a white linen shirt and khaki linen shorts. He never wore them unless at the beach, but thankfully he’d come prepared.
Almost.
For three days, Damien and his unwelcome posse had followed a game trail through the dense jungle, going up one ravine and down another, through forests so dense that the sunlight could not penetrate. Not that there was any sunlight. The constant rain seemed to follow them everywhere. His balls felt like spent wads of chewing gum.
Now one day’s journey had turned into three because they’d been walking in circles. Never let a demon be in charge of the GPS, he thought. Their dark energy throws everything off.
“I love this weather,” said Bonbon, trotting behind Gorgonzolina, sniffing her brown tail. “Reminds me of home. Kind of like Gorgonzolina’s butthole.”
“Did they just say hell smells like a butthole?” MF asked, marching behind Damien with Pet on her shoulder.
“Pretty much,” Damien replied. “Pet, why don’t you fly ahead and see if there’s any sign of the village? If I go by my GPS, we cannot be far.”
They were less than a mile from the coordinates of where Brutus liked to have his clothing drop-shipped. Generally, Brutus ordered camo cargo pants with extra room in the front, back, thighs—pretty much everywhere. Brutus was a large man. And this said a lot coming from Damien, who was no small potato at six three with the body of a man who once killed for a living.