Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Stop it—stop thinking about that! It’s in the past and the past is toxic—you have to let it go! she lectured herself sternly.
She took a sip of her coffee—no tea for her, thank you—and tried to turn her mind to other things.
“So I was wondering if you knew where the fuck I put my blaster,” Thrax rumbled, startling her.
Andi jumped and nearly spilled her coffee.
“Oh, uh, your blaster?” she asked weakly. Actually, she knew exactly where it was. Kat had given both her own weapon and Thrax’s back to her the next day after the ceremony and Andi had stored them in her own suite. Thrax seemed completely cured, but she wanted to be sure he was unarmed, just in case.
But now her partner was totally his old self again and she knew she couldn’t keep his blaster forever. After all, they might get a new mission from Commander Sylvan at any time—Thrax had to be able to protect himself.
“Yeah, my blaster. Do you know where it is?” Thrax asked, breaking her train of thought.
“I, uh, think you might have left it at my place. You know, after our last mission,” Andi lied.
He frowned.
“Speaking of our last mission, I know this is crazy, but I can’t seem to fucking remember much of it. I know we went to one of the planets in the Twisted System, but I can’t remember which one.”
“You can’t?” Andi felt a surge of panic.
“No, I can’t. And I can’t figure it out—every time I try to think about it, I just get these misty images that disappear the minute I try to sort them out.” Thrax put down his cup of chai and rubbed his temples. “It’s really fucking with my mind. What’s wrong with me?”
“I’m sure nothing’s wrong. Maybe…maybe it has to do with the swamp gas we breathed while we were on Salacious Delta,” Andi said quickly, improvising. “They called it ‘the Fume’ remember?”
“Kind of…did it smell like some kind of Chinese food?” Thrax frowned.
“Sweet and sour chicken,” Andi said, nodding.
She hoped she wasn’t disturbing his memories too much—she didn’t want to undo the healing that the Cleansing Ceremony had done.
“Anyway, we went to get Commander Kier, who had landed there by mistake,” she told him. “We found him and brought him back and now he’s safe and happy again.” She shrugged. “And that’s it. So it doesn’t really matter if you don’t remember.”
“Yes, it fucking does!” Thrax growled. “I don’t like feeling like I’m losing my memory!”
“You’re not—it was just the swamp gas,” Andi said, doubling down on the lie. “Look, don’t worry about it. I’ll bring your blaster to your suite later today if it’ll make you happy.”
Thrax grumbled something under his breath but he finally went back to sipping his chai. Andi went back to her coffee, feeling like she had narrowly averted disaster. Hopefully her partner would accept her explanation of what had happened during their last mission and be content.
If he didn’t, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do.
38
ANDI
“Here you go—good as new.” Andi handed Thrax his blaster and watched anxiously as he checked the weapon and nodded.
“Yeah, okay. I still don’t understand why I left it at your place.”
“Who knows? Maybe you had too much to drink when we were doing exotic cocktails the other night.” Andi shrugged. “Anyway, can I use your fresher?” she asked, hoping to forestall any other questions on the subject.
“Huh? Oh, sure—go ahead. Don’t mind the mess—I was looking fucking everywhere for this damn thing.” He nodded at the blaster and stepped aside so Andi could head to the end of the hall. She nodded back and walked quickly, pretending that she really had to go.
The fresher was an ensuite one and she had to go through his bedroom or “sleeping chamber” as the Kindred called it, to get to it. Andi headed for it and breathed a sigh of relief as soon as she got past her partner. God, she really had to be more careful around the big Hybrid! Thrax was a smart guy and he clearly knew that something was up—he just didn’t know what.
Andi wished she knew how much she could safely tell him without jeopardizing his mental health. She didn’t want him to remember all the awful things she’d helped the priestess erase. Then again, it wasn’t good for him to think he was losing his mind or his memory either. Maybe it was time for a trip back to the Sacred Grove to talk to the priestess who had done the Cleansing Ceremony. Maybe she could tell Andi exactly what she could and couldn’t say.
The bedroom had a rumpled look as though everything had been pulled out of place and then put back haphazardly. Andi was about to pass through it and into the fresher, when she saw something that caught her eye.