Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
He heard the sound of footsteps in the tall grasses just outside their small cave.
“Did you see where they went?” one of the NeverBreeder guards asked the other.
“No—I was following you, Foone!” the second guard exclaimed.
“They came this way, Doone—I know I saw them.” The first guard sounded frustrated. “How could they even get this far into the jungle without dying of the poisons? I saw them—they ran right through a patch of Breath-kill and the female brushed up against a Toxic-shock vine. They should be dead by now—both of them!”
“They probably are and we just missed their bodies,” the second guard, who was apparently named Doone, said. “We should go back to the Compound and report them dead.”
“But what if they aren’t?” Foone protested. “We’ll both be recycled!”
“We’ll also be recycled if we go back and report that they got away and we think they’re still alive somewhere,” Doone reasoned. “But if we say they’re dead, we’re in the clear. Nobody will even expect us to bring back the bodies—after being in the jungle their flesh will be too full of toxins to eat. No one will question us.”
“The Glorious Leader isn’t going to like it, Doone,” Foone warned. “We haven’t had a breeder escape from the Compound in over fifteen cycles.”
“That cannot be helped, Foone” Doone said. “Besides, they didn’t really escape if they died, right?”
“I guess so…” Foone still sounded reluctant but willing to be persuaded.
Good, V thought fiercely. Get the fuck out of here! He needed to tend to Penelope but the instant he stung her she would have an intense orgasm and he knew from experience that she was loud when she came. Which had never been a problem before, but it most certainly would be now.
The guards’ footsteps started to crunch off through the grass—it seemed the two NeverBreeders were finally leaving.
Just then, Penelope let out a weak moan.
“What was that?” The guards halted abruptly.
V cursed to himself and gathered her quickly into his arms. Her skin felt cool and clammy and in the dim light of their natural cave, he could see that she was paler than ever.
Penelope struggled weakly in his arms and seemed likely to moan again. Though he hated to do it, he put his hand over her mouth, careful to leave her nose free so she could still breathe.
“Hush, sweetheart,” he breathed in her ear. “I’ll heal you in just a minute but for now you have to be quiet.”
“I think I heard something,” Foone insisted again.
“It was nothing—a wild tassit in one of the trees,” Doone said. “Come on, Foone! I know we’re a lot tougher than the breeders when it comes to poisons, but this damn Tangle-berry vine we’re standing in still makes me itch!”
“All right, all right—I’m coming, Doone,” Foone growled. And then the footsteps started again. They got fainter and fainter until, at last, V couldn’t hear them anymore, even with his sensitive Kindred hearing.
Finally, he could heal his mate! And just in time—Penelope was barely breathing.
Bringing her close to his chest, he tilted her head to one side, exposing the pale column of her throat. Then he thrust out his tongue, allowing it to lengthen and sharpen until it formed his stinger…and struck.
Seventy-Seven
Penny was in a gray twilight world where everything was very still. At first she had been in pain and she’d been frightened because it was suddenly so hard to get air into her lungs. Then everything had gone numb and quiet and far away and it didn’t seem to matter if she could breathe or not. Slowly, she felt reality slipping away…
And then something sharp stung her, injecting her with fire!
Penny screamed hoarsely as her lungs suddenly came to life again, but there was something in the way of her mouth that wouldn’t let the scream come out.
She writhed against the restraining arms around her as the fire continued to spread through her veins. It was pain like nothing she had ever known. It made the agony of being poisoned seem like a stubbed toe or a paper cut in comparison.
“Stop!” she begged, though her words came out muffled. “Stop, it hurts! It hurts, oh God, it hurts!”
She was trying to say something—trying to tell him something, V thought, frowning. And she was writhing against him, which wasn’t unusual—the lust honey often caused such intense pleasure that the female he was injecting couldn’t hold still. But he felt instinctively that something was wrong. Though her emotions were muddled, they were definitely intense and he wasn’t completely sure what she was feeling was pleasure.
Carefully, he removed his hand from her mouth, since he was fairly certain that the NeverBreeder guards were long gone by now. As he did, he kept the flow of lust-honey going. Right now, he needed to overcome the poisons in her system. Later, after she was healed, he would sting her again to give her some immunity for when they had to venture into the jungle again. He—