Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Still, every day when Ravik came to the bunker door, Sev let him back in. He just couldn’t bear to leave his best friend out in the Dead Zone to slowly go mad. He knew it was dangerous—suicidal even—but he couldn’t bring himself to lock the big Beast Kindred out.
And now he’d brought back a captive. Not one of the Visskous, who were native to this benighted planet but a human woman—a Mature Elite—one the Goddess had blessed with the wisdom of maturity as well as full curves. Also, he was speaking again—just a few words, true—but it had been months since he’d uttered anything but grunts and growls.
Sev was cautiously elated—maybe the latest batch of anti-viral he’d injected his friend with had worked. But what about the woman he had brought home with him? She claimed not to be infected, but could he trust her word? Also, what was a human woman doing here on Visslick Prime, light years from Earth?
Severin didn’t know but he was determined to find out.
5
CASSIE
A cool rush of air swirled around Cassie as the thick steel door slid open. She shivered and her nipples went painfully hard behind the flimsy red silk nighty. She wasn’t sure who she was going to see when she stepped into the bunker—would it be another Beast Kindred? Or maybe a human man? And more importantly, would they let her stay?
Not if they find out you’ve been bitten, whispered a little voice in her head. Surreptitiously, she tugged at the sleeve of her robe again, wishing it was longer. There was some blood on the sleeve, which had dried by now, but luckily it didn’t show against the red silk except as a slightly darker patch, which was—she tried to convince herself—totally unnoticeable.
It’ll be fine, she told herself. Just stay cool and stick to your story—the Visskous put you out and you ran into the big guy before anything happened.
The big guy—who she’d heard the other man call “Ravik” was pushing her forward into a bare room that seemed to be made of entirely of stainless steel—floor, walls, and ceilings—with a few floor-to-ceiling plastic drapes.
A few instruments lay on a nearby stainless steel table—one of them being a syringe with a long, sharp needle and the other a piece of equipment that appeared to be some kind of microscope. The scope was bolted to the table, which was, in turn, bolted to the floor. She wondered why, but before she could say anything, the long plastic drapes parted and another Kindred warrior, this one wearing a white lab coat, entered the room.
He was a head shorter than the huge, burly Beast Kindred, but still so tall he towered over her. He had dark blonde hair and ice-blue eyes that seemed to flash like diamonds as he studied Cassie from behind his glasses.
She frowned—it wasn’t usual to see a Kindred with glasses. They almost always had perfect eyesight, along with extremely sharp senses. In fact, she’d heard it said that the average Kindred warrior had a better sense of smell than a bloodhound—maybe that was why the Beast Kindred had taken her with him. He seemed to like her scent.
“Hello,” the Blood Kindred said, nodding at her as he came forward. “I’m Severin and this is my best friend and partner, Ravik—since I doubt he told you his name,” he added, with a rueful look at the Beast Kindred.
“Uh, no—no he didn’t,” Cassie said. “I’m Cassandra Slisstik. Well, that was my name, anyway,” she added. “Back when I was married to a Visskous. Which I don’t consider myself to be anymore,” she added fiercely.
“Oh, is that how you came here to Visslick Prime?” The Blood Kindred raised one eyebrow inquiringly. “By Joining with one of the natives?”
“Yes,” Cassie said grimly. “I was working on the Kindred Mother Ship as an executive assistant to Commander Varn, the head of Communications, and my husband—ex husband, I mean—came to establish trade relations with the Kindred. He convinced me to Join with him and move here.”
“Oh, Commander Varn—I know him.” Severin nodded easily. “He’s a good male.”
“He was always a great boss,” Cassie offered, smiling.
She felt that the conversation was going extremely well so far. The Blood Kindred named Severin hadn’t asked her again if she was infected and they seemed to know some of the same people. Of course, the big Beast Kindred had actually seen her get bitten by an Infected, but he clearly wasn’t up to talking much, so hopefully she could keep her bite a secret.
“So how did you, er, come to leave your Visskous mate—if you don’t mind me asking?” Severin asked.
“Well, it was more like he left me—for a female Visskous who could lay him ‘a large clutch of eggs’ as he put it, when it comes time to ‘repopulate the world.’” Cassie rolled her eyes in exasperation. “And since he had no more use for me—seeing as how my hormones are making me have hot flashes and I can’t lay eggs—he had the guards put me out of the Crystal City.”