Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149470 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149470 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
“Great…” The girl sighed and slumped down against the brick wall beside the tunnel the man had been trying to force her into. “I’ll be lucky if I can sell enough blood to eat once it gets around that I’m supposedly under the Baron’s protection!”
“I’m really sorry,” I said awkwardly, crouching down beside her. “What’s your name, anyway? You’re from Earth, like me—right?”
“Yes, I’m from Earth. Not that I’ll ever get back there.” The girl looked up at me and there were tears in her big, brown eyes that nearly broke my heart. “I’m Natalie,” she said. “Natalie Hale, from Tampa, Florida. Who are you and how did you get here?”
“I’m Ellie from Harrisonburg, Virginia. And the Commercians—those little blue wormy guys—sucked me up through a mirror. The next thing I knew I was being sold to a huge alien from another galaxy,” I said. “You?”
Natalie sighed.
“Same story. I was looking for my cousin, Rylee, who disappeared awhile ago. I was searching her apartment for some kind of clue when I heard some weird music like trumpets coming from the bathroom mirror. I went to see what it was and…” She snapped her fingers. “Just like that, I was sucked through. The blue worms sold me to an Eloin merchant. But he only bought me because they told him I was a ‘La-ti-zal’ and had some kind of ‘special powers.’” She shook her head in disgust. “What a load of bullshit.”
“Oh—they said the same thing about me!” I exclaimed.
Natalie looked at me.
“So do you have powers? Because I sure as hell don’t. The minute my new ‘owner’ figured out I was nothing special, he dumped me here on O’nagga Nine to fend for myself.” She shivered and a miserable look came over her pretty face. “Been freezing my ass off ever since and barely scraping by. I was a graduate student getting my Ph.D back home you know—now I’m nothing but a Blood Whore.” She hung her head dejectedly.
“Hey, you do what you have to in order to survive,” I told her fiercely. “Don’t be ashamed of that—ever.”
“What have you had to do?” she asked, looking up at me. “And you never answered my question about powers.”
“Well…I seem to be really good at alien languages—especially my Master’s language,” I said.
Her eyes opened wider.
“Your Master?”
“That’s what I’ve had to do to survive,” I said. “Sir bought me to be his ‘pet.’” I shrugged. “So that’s what I am now—though he’s promised to bring me back home again after he takes me to his home world.”
“Sure he will,” Natalie said bitterly. “I don’t believe a word these alien bastards say, anymore.”
“I believe Sir is on the level,” I said earnestly. “And as for being his pet, I really can’t help that. I mean, he’s ten feet tall and he can break things with his mind. So I guess I’ve just kind of…accepted the situation.”
Natalie shook her head.
“No, no—don’t get me wrong. I can’t talk about you being a ‘pet.’ Hell, I’m nothing but a Blood Whore. I have a pimp and everything,” she added darkly. “Though I never should have agreed to that.”
“Is he hurting you?” I asked, feeling anger bubbling up inside. “Hitting you?”
Natalie looked uneasy.
“No…not yet, anyway. R’xs is the kind who likes to ‘talk things out’ before he gets physical. When I first joined his ‘stable,’ he agreed that I would only have to sell my blood, not my body.” She lifted her chin. “I can stand being bitten twenty times a day but I don’t think I could live with myself if I had to be a ‘fuck and suck’ girl instead of just a ‘suck girl.’”
“Of course,” I said quietly. I had the feeling she needed to talk about this to someone—maybe had been needing to for a long time. “How long have you been here?” I asked.
“How long?” She passed a hand over her face and I saw a bracelet of bite marks around her slim wrist. “Oh sweet Jesus, months I think, but it feels like years. Every day here is the same—freezing my ass off and just praying I’ll get enough customers who want to taste ‘exotic blood’ to make enough money to eat and pay R’xs his cut.” She shivered miserably and I felt so bad for her I wanted to cry.
“Well, you don’t have to live like that anymore,” I said, frowning. “You’re going to come with me and Sir—we’ll take you away from all this.”
Natalie shook her head fearfully.
“I don’t dare go with you. R’xs had me implanted with a chip that will track my location. No matter how far I go, he’d come after me and bring me back. And then…” She shivered. “He’d do horrible things to me! I know, because one of the other girls, Ger’tha, tried to run away with a customer she liked. They got as far as O’nagga Nine’s fifth moon before R’xs caught up with them.”