Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 110492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
“Oh, uh…” Liv looked down at her watch. “It’s nearly one.”
“Thank you.” Torri smiled at the three of them. “Listen, I heard the three of you talking about my husband,” she added.
All three of them blushed scarlet.
“Oh my goodness, we are so sorry!” the brunette called Sophie exclaimed.
“We didn’t mean anything by it, honestly,” Liv said.
“We’re just, um, curious,” Kat said frankly. “Were you called in the Bride Draft—is that how you met your Kindred?”
“Not exactly.” Torri smiled at them. “Vic was a scout, sent to check out the Earth and see if we humans would make good trade partners for the Kindred and then the two of us just fell in love. I guess you could say I’m the very first Kindred Bride.”
“Wow…the very first?” The three of them stared at her with wide eyes.
“I always wondered who was first,” Sophie murmured.
“Well don’t be shy, doll—tell us,” Kat urged. “What’s it like being married to a Kindred?”
Torri gave them a wink.
“It’s absolutely amazing. So don’t be scared when the three of you end up with Kindred husbands, too. I promise, you’re going to love it.”
Then, leaving the three of them gaping at her in shock and dismay, she went back to Vic and put a hand on his broad shoulder.
“Come on, baby,” she said, leaning down to kiss him. “Let’s get home and finish packing. Tomorrow we start our adventure!”
Epilogue #2
Deep beneath the Hell’s Gate Space Station, still locked in the slow-time vortex, the scion within the Eye of Ten’gu winced at the wrath of the Dark Father.
“What good are you?” his sire raged from the parallel universe he inhabited. “You have wasted both your chances and all of your power. You may have changed the Kindred’s timeline slightly—brought to pass a few things earlier rather than later— but you did not prevent them from coming to Earth!”
“Forgive me, Father!” the scion begged. “I can yet be of use to you—I swear that I will bring your enemies low.”
“How?” the Dark Father demanded. “It will take you years more to accrue enough energy to exit the time vortex you are trapped in so that you can serve me properly! I want nothing more to do with you—I will find someone else to bedevil the Kindred!”
“But, Father—” the scion began to protest.
“Do not call me that any longer!” the Dark Father roared. “Never speak to me again, you wretched failure!”
Then he withdrew his presence, slinking back to the parallel universe and leaving the scion all alone in the deep blackness of space.
The scion withdrew into himself, into the safety of his shell, the Eye of Ten’gu, where he brewed the emotions of self-pity and rage like a fine wine. He felt betrayed, but most of his rage was not for the Dark Father, who had abandoned him, but for the Kindred. He had failed twice to hurt them and because of them, his father had called him useless.
How he wanted to make them pay!
And then something happened that no one would have believed. The slow-time bubble—which had been lodged beneath the Hells’ Gate Station, staying in the same place for generations—began to move. Slowly at first, then more quickly, the time bubble drifted away into the blackness of space. And where it had been, the normal flow of time resumed.
The scion could hardly believe it. Free—at last he was free!
Reaching from within the Eye of Ten’gu, he stretched out a tendril and latched onto the corroded metal that made up the side of the Hell’s Gate Station. Carefully, he pulled himself forward and began looking for an entry hatch. Once inside the station, he could leave the Eye behind and at last emerge into his true form.
And once he took his true form, his harassment of the Kindred could begin in earnest.
“I will make you proud, Father,” the scion whispered, as he made his way inside the station. “I will prove to you that no one can hurt and humiliate the Kindred as well as I can!” He would make them all pay and the Dark Father would welcome him back into the fold, the scion promised himself. He would prove himself worthy by causing them pain and he would never stop until he was once more welcome in the Dark Father’s presence.
His true mission began now.
The End?