Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Again I wasn’t certain what was the proper thing to do here. This kind of situation didn’t come up in the Court of L’Crist. Everyone there was polite and proper to a fault. A gentleman would never have insisted that a lady accept a drink from him even if she had tried to refuse it.
Well, maybe taking a sip would make him go away. I didn’t like to think of Slade’s reaction if the Brute was still sitting at the table when he got back from wherever he had gone. The way his eyes had gone pitch-black when the parking attendant got too close to me made me think it was better not to risk it.
“Very well—I’ll try it. Thank you,” I said. I lifted the fluted glass to my lips, noticing as I did that the liquid inside had a sharp, citrusy scent. I took a small sip and it was like drinking acid. I gasped as it burned my tongue and reached hurriedly for my water glass.
“Too strong for you, huh?” the Brute asked, grinning a little as he watched me gulping water.
“You could have warned me that it burned!” I exclaimed, too irritated to be polite anymore. “I don’t want this drink and I don’t want you at my table—please leave before my hush…my hushband…”
I trailed off. Why were my words suddenly slurring? And why was I seeing two of the Brute who had sent me the drink?
I tried to sit up straighter and focus but my sudden movement made me fall out of my chair.
“Oh!” I gasped breathlessly as I fell with a thump to the floor. Other diners around me gave me surreptitious looks—some amused and some disgusted.
“Drunk,” I heard one woman mutter to her date.
The Brute was suddenly out of his seat and kneeling over me.
“Hey there, you look a little unsteady,” he said, loudly enough for the people around us to hear. “Maybe we ought to get you home.”
“But I don’t live with you!” I tried to protest. But my words came out garbled. “I don’ liv w’ you…”
“Come on now—you know how you get when you’ve had too many.” The Brute’s red, slitted eyes were all I could see as he pulled me to my feet and put his arm around my waist. Spreading his large, leathery wings, he wrapped them around both of us to form a kind of shield. I couldn’t see out and nobody else around us could see in. Then he started dragging me away from my table and presumably toward the restaurant exit—though again, I couldn’t see to be sure.
“Hey!” I cried weakly. “Hey, stop!” But it came out as a garbled whisper—“Hey-shtop.”
Before I knew it, I was out of Chez L’ronge and going back down the vertical lift. A few blurred minutes after that we were back in the parking area and I could hear the echoing sounds of ships landing and taking off and parking attendants talking.
By now whatever he had given me was beginning to wear off a tiny bit. Whatever was in the drink must have been fast-acting but not very long lasting.
“Hey, le’ me go!” I demanded and my voice came out sounding stronger and less slurred. I began to struggle against my kidnapper, twisting in his grip, but he only tightened his hold on me.
“Shut the fuck up, he growled, gripping my wrist. “And settle the fuck down—you’re coming with me.”
“Where are you taking me?” I demanded, still trying to get away. “Leave me alone!”
“I don’t think so. Lots of demand for Untainted DNA—you’re gonna make me a lot of money, sweetheart,” he snarled. His grip tightened again until I could feel the tiny bones in my wrist grinding together.
By now the drug he’d put in the drink had almost completely worn off. I might be caught in his grip, but I could still be loud, I told myself.
“Help!” I screamed as loudly as I could. “Somebody help me! Help me!”
“Shut the fuck up, bitch!” my attacker snapped. “Shut up or I’ll shut you up! I don’t need you alive to cut you up into little pieces to make clones, you know.”
His words chilled me to the bone but I wasn’t about to give up. Raising my voice I shouted again.
“Help—HELP!”
Surely someone must hear me—what about the parking attendants? What about…?
Suddenly the bat-like wings that were covering my face were ripped open and Slade was standing there.
“Slade!” I gasped. “Help me!”
And then I saw something that nearly stopped my heart.
Slade changed again—this time completely. His eyes went pure black and he got bigger again but then something else happened. He opened his mouth and breathed out what looked like a black mist. The mist swirled around him, enveloping his body in darkness, making him even huger as he doubled and then tripled in size.