Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Vicky didn’t even feel the pain. She knelt by Chain, who was lying on his face. It was a struggle to turn him over—he was so big and heavy. But fear gave her strength and with a mighty heave, she finally managed.
His pale, still face was all the answer she needed to her question.
“No!” She felt her face crumple as tears took her. “No, Chain, no—please. Don’t be dead! Don’t be gone!” she wept.
But Chain’s lifeless body made no answer.
She was so wrapped up in her own grief that Vicky almost didn’t notice that something strange was going on with her captor. What alerted her to the fact was when one of the Varian’s booted feet nudged her.
Looking up, she saw that he was doing a kind of shuffling dance, moving back and forth uneasily on the carpeted hallway.
“No,” he was hissing to himself, his weapon clutched tightly in one seven-fingered fist. “No, no, no!”
But then he seemed to change his mind.
“Oh yes,” he said and his voice sounded different—somehow familiar, Vicky thought as she watched the strange act play out through a prism of tears. “Yes, do it—do it!”
The Varian started to bring his blaster up, then slammed it down again by his side.
“No!” he howled. “I will not do this! NO!”
“Yes you will, you fucker!” the second, deeper voice answered. “You hurt my female and now you’re going to pay!”
For the briefest moment imaginable, the Varian’s eyes went from lizard yellow to pure Rage red. Then he lifted his weapon, pointed it at his own face, and pulled the trigger.
Chapter Forty-two
Vicky screamed as the Varian’s head exploded. Green goo that was probably alien blood and brains rained down around her and it was going to be a miracle if none of that landed in her hair, she thought distractedly.
At first her dazed mind couldn’t tell her what had happened. Why had the Varian blown his own head off?
Then she felt something stirring under her hand.
Looking down, she saw that the hand she had placed on Chain’s chest was moving—was rising and falling with regular, deep breaths.
“Chain?” she whispered, almost afraid to hope. “Chain, are you…are you okay?”
At last his eyes opened and this time they were midnight-blue instead of Rage red.
“Barely,” he said and coughed. Sitting up, he seemed to shake himself, like a man waking up from a nightmare.
“So you only pretended to be shot,” she said, putting it all together. “And instead you used your superpower to jump into the alien’s body and make him shoot himself.”
“My superpower?” He laughed. “Is that what you call it?”
“Well…” Vicky shrugged. “I mean, it does sound like something a superhero could do—jump into somebody else’s body. But how did you get him to kill himself?”
She shivered as she looked at the headless body which had fallen to the ground and was leaking green goo all over her carpet.
“Well, it’s not easy to overcome another sentient species’ survival instinct.” Chain grew suddenly serious. “And I had to time it just right. Had to jump out of the damned Varian and back into my own body a split second after the trigger was pulled and a split second before the blast reached his brain.”
“You did? Why?” Vicky asked, still staring at him in wonder.
“Because. If was still in him when he died, I would have gone too. My soul wouldn’t have been able to get back to my body,” he explained. Then he grinned at her. “Luckily I’m working at the speed of thought when I’m in my incorporeal form so I was able to squeak back into my own body just in time.”
“Oh, Chain—that was so risky!” she protested. “You shouldn’t have done it!”
His eyes grew dark.
“I couldn’t think of any other way to keep him from hurting you—from…from killing you.” He reached for her hands and held them tight. “Victoria, I’ve been such a coward.”
“What?” She stared at him blankly. “What are you talking about? You just came up here and killed six scaly alien lizards single-handed—and you risked your own life to do it! That’s not cowardly, that’s brave, Chain. Incredibly brave!”
He shook his head.
“That’s not what I’m talking about. It’s easy to be brave in combat, especially when the Rage takes over. I’m talking about what happened on Priima Belle. The way I only told you that if we made love, we’d be bonded. But I didn’t tell you that I wanted to be bonded to you, beautiful Victoria. I—”
But just then the tromping of heavy boots could be heard on the stairs and someone said,
“Put me down, you big lug!”
Looking over the shattered and ruined railing, Vicky saw her oldest daughter, Jodi, being carried up the stairs in the arms of a Kindred warrior she didn’t recognize. He must be a Beast Kindred, though, she thought—he had thick, unruly black hair, dark caramel skin tones, and golden eyes.