Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Whistling softly between her teeth, she made her way down the broad, sandy tunnel to the Peace Keeper Station. She was still feeling a burst of energy from the blood she’d consumed—her fangs were bright and white, and her body was strong. Her life, she thought, was practically perfect.
“Hello, Officer Sky’lar.” Bxx’thx, the undersecretary and door keeper, ushered her in. There were those that thought a male had no place in a Peace Keeper Station, but Captain Thal’nx had liberal views. And besides, it wasn’t as though the males were actually allowed to be officers—they simply did some of the skut work like brewing thresh and filing paperwork and answering the Com-U link calls when complaints or requests for help came in.
“Thanks, Bxx’thx.” Sky nodded at him absently. She stood head and shoulders above him, but that wasn’t an unusual height difference here on Portex Three.
Serpentine females were, on average, ten to twenty percent larger than Serpentine males. The weaker, smaller males were largely relegated to the living quarters, where they cooked, cleaned, and brooded over any eggs the female they were attached to might lay. They also functioned as the blood source that Serpentine females needed to survive.
Males didn’t drink blood themselves, having non-functional fangs which were barely more than small points in their upper teeth. They had no need for the extra nutrients the blood provided, which enabled females to create and incubate the leathery-skinned eggs inside their bodies until it was time to lay them in a warm, sandy nest.
“Oh, before I forget, Officer Sky’lar—Captain Thal’nx wants to see you in her office,” Bxx’thx said.
“Really? Is there a problem?” Sky frowned.
The door keeper shrugged his narrow shoulders.
“Don’t think so—some high-profile case. There’s an off-worlder here to discuss it. He’s one of your kind, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Is that so?” Sky had only mild curiosity. One of her kind could mean any kind of Mammalian and since Portex Three was located on one of the more prominent trade routes in the galaxy, she had seen plenty of them come and go.
Marmouths, who sported a heavy, shaggy fur coat all over their hulking bodies and resembled walking carpets were the most common. But there were also Fin’rexes with sleek, pale blue skin, bright, blood red eyes and white hair, and Charboths who were only about as tall as her knees and had bushy orange facial hair—both the males and the females.
They all looked different to Sky, but she was well aware that to a Serpentine, most Mammalians looked the same. She wondered which of the sentient humanoid Mammalian species was waiting in the Captain’s office and decided it didn’t matter. No matter who was waiting for her or what their case was, it was up to Sky to solve it.
Squaring her shoulders, she rapped smartly on the Captain’s door and heard a responding hiss which meant she should enter. Pushing into the office, she started to address her Direct Supervisor…but the words died in her throat.
Standing in front of Captain Thal’nx’s desk was the biggest male Sky had ever seen in her life.
TWO
SKY
The strange male was a head and shoulders taller than her, Sky thought indignantly. Which didn’t seem right since she was the tallest person she knew, standing a head taller than most Serpentine females, who were generally around two meters in height. And he had the bulk to go with it—rather than being slender and insubstantial like Serpentine males, the stranger was thick with muscle.
His shoulders were fully twice as broad as her own, Sky estimated, and he was wearing a black leather vest and a short-sleeved upper covering that showed off bulging biceps and brawny forearms.
His skin was marble gray unlike the varying scale patterns of the Serpentines or her own light tan. When he turned his head to look at her, Sky saw that his face was flat, like her own, rather than protruding like a Serpentine face, and his eyes were a strange, molten gold. They glowed like metal poured directly from a smelter and raked over her sharply, making her feel strangely judged.
His pupils were round like hers too, not slitted like a Serpentine’s, and he also had hair on his head—thick and black and cut short enough that it barely covered the back of his thick neck. His long legs were covered in black leather trousers and he had perfectly enormous black boots on his big feet.
All of him was too big, Sky thought, feeling oddly put on the defensive. Maybe it was the way the strange Mammalian male was looking at her, his golden eyes raking up and down her body as though he found her weak or deficient in some way. It was rude to stare for so long at a person you didn’t know and if he kept it up much longer, she was going to tell him so, she thought in irritation.