Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
“You heard the boss—get the fuck out of here while you still can!” The Thorian snarled.
“You’ll be sorry for this!” Davrik growled. “You’re going to pay!”
Oozle made a slimy sound like someone blowing their nose which served as his version of laughter.
“I don’t think so, Sir Davrik. Goodbye and have a nice life. Oh, and next time you choose to fall in love, perhaps you ought to think about bestowing your affections on a female who is free to accept them—not one already sold to another male.”
Then the guard and the Sluggorn both turned and went back into The House of a Thousand Flowers, where Sonya had already been taken.
Davrik glared after them until the doors closed behind them. Then he rose and brushed himself off. He wasn’t hurt but he’d put on a convincing show of a male who was defeated and out of options—which he most certainly was not.
It was time for plan B.
FORTY-SIX
SONYA
Sonya felt despair fill her as she was dragged back up to her room by the hulking Thorian guard. There really was no getting out of here—that was, until that horrible Grox came to collect her. She was being sold to him—the Trollox was going to own her and then he would put his disgusting baby inside her!
Just the thought made her feel both nauseated and right on the edge of madness. Also, her ankle was itching terribly. Sonya supposed that was an after-effect of the pain chip that had apparently been implanted there.
She hadn’t known anything about it and finding out had been a nasty surprise—the moment she’d gotten a little way away from the perimeter of the building, she’d felt bolts of debilitating, fiery pain shooting up and down her leg. It had caused her right leg to buckle and she had been frozen in place, making her an easy target for the guards.
Speaking of guards, the Thorian who had her by the arm was taking her right back up to her room on the penthouse floor at the top of the building. She knew that Davrik had promised to come for her, but how could he possibly do that when she was stuck at the tip-top of the alien skyscraper?
As she was thinking this, the guard opened the door to her room and thrust her inside.
“Stay there,” he growled, his slitted eyes narrowing. “Sir Grox will be coming to get you—then you’ll know the meaning of pain!”
And with an ugly laugh, he slammed the door shut behind her.
Feeling completely dejected, Sonya lay down on the bed and gave in to misery. Sobs shook her as she curled into a ball. She’d rather be dead than owned by that horrible Trollox! She—
Suddenly a noise penetrated her consciousness. Looking up with wet eyes, she saw a sleek silver ship hovering just outside the floor-to-ceiling windows that made up two of the walls of her room.
“What in the world?” she whispered, sitting up and swiping at her eyes. “Who—?”
Just then, a burning beam of red light came from the front of the ship. It traced the frame of one of the windows with exact precision as Sonya followed it with her eyes. The next thing she knew, an enormous rectangular pane of glass had fallen inward to shatter on the floor of her room.
“Oh!” she gasped, putting up an arm to shield her eyes. What was going on? The wind from outside suddenly swirled in, whipping her hair around her face and sending a cold chill through her.
The silver ship turned so that it was presenting its side to her. Then a hatchway opened and Sonya saw a familiar figure standing there.
“Davrik!” she breathed. The big Kindred hadn’t been kidding—he really had come for her!
Even as she thought that, a metal rod shot from the side of the ship and buried itself in the building, right below where the window had been cut out. The rod began to expand and flatten out rapidly until it had formed a narrow silver bridge between The House of a Thousand Flowers and Davrik’s ship.
Davrik took a step onto the bridge and she saw that he had a kind of harness strapped around his waist that tethered him to the ship. He held out a hand to her and shouted, but the wind whipped his words away.
That didn’t matter though, Sonya was already at the sill of the broken window, the glass crunching under her shoes. She could see Davrik reaching for her—about fifteen feet away. She was about to run across to him…but then she made the mistake of looking down.
The drop was hundreds of feet to a busy street below. Even the hovercars that were on several different light tracks looked like ants and they were flying far above the pavement.
“Oh God!” Sonya muttered, feeling her stomach lurch. She’d always had a fear of heights—it was one reason she couldn’t be on the swim team in high school—she simply couldn’t make herself go off the high dive. And that was a short distance compared to being on the top of a skyscraper!