Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“I should have fucking killed him,” he growled at Light, who was still kneeling at Lili’s side as she lay on the couch. “You should have let me fucking kill him!”
“I didn’t know he’d broken her arm!” Light protested. “I only knew he hadn’t succeeded in raping her!”
“Doesn’t matter if he succeeded or not—he tried. That’s enough—I should have ripped off his head and bathed in his fucking blood!” Dark could imagine the scene—it wouldn’t be the first time he had bathed in the blood of his enemies. It gave the savage Berserker part of him deep, visceral satisfaction to picture the attacker’s death.
“Get hold of yourself, Dark!” Light said sharply. “I don’t know if something is wrong with your emotion damper but you can’t go back there. We need to avoid trouble with the humans. And even more important, we need to get Lili to the Med Center!”
Dark took a deep breath and then another and another. He remembered what Yipper, the Tolleg surgeon, had told him about controlling The Fury that stemmed from his Berserker DNA if he wished to stop using his emotion damper.
“You should think calm thoughts—yes, you should, yes, you should!” he had told Dark. “Don’t feed The Fury—calm it.”
Closing his eyes, Dark took another deep breath and imagined the cold, calm, darkness of space. There were places out in the universe where the stars were so distant from each other that there was nothing but deep, velvety blackness. He imagined himself drifting in the silent dark as he breathed and tried to tamp down the dark and angry emotions that threatened to consume him.
For a wonder, it worked. Little by little the waves of boiling lava inside him retreated to a manageable level. When he opened his eyes, he saw Light was looking at him.
“Better?” he asked.
Dark nodded.
“I think so.”
“Good. Then get us back to the Mother Ship. I’ll stay here with Lilibet and treat her arm.”
Dark nodded again.
“Got it. I’ll plot a course and let them know we’re coming.”
He headed for the cockpit, determined to concentrate on piloting and not on going back to rip Lili’s attacker to bloody shreds.
Though he couldn’t absolutely promise he wouldn’t do it in the future.
8
LILI
When Lili opened her eyes, two anxious male faces were peering down at her. One face was bearded and the other was clean shaved, but both of them were extremely handsome—though the bearded one was much more rugged-looking.
The one without a beard had pale gray eyes and silver hair and the one with a beard had black hair and dark eyes that might have been either black or a really deep purple. And both of them had golden-purple skin.
Lili frowned. She didn’t know any purple people—did she? But if that was true, then why did these two faces look so familiar to her?
Suddenly everything came flooding back—the man from the hotel bar chasing her…running to the two big Kindred for help…talking for over an hour and then going to the bathroom, only to be attacked again…Dark and Light bursting in and then…
“Oh my God, you burned his junk off!” she gasped, looking up at Dark. “Like, with a laser beam that shot out of your eye!”
“Out of my scope, actually. He tapped the left side of his head, where the black scope had retracted, though she could still see it gleaming in his dark hair.
“Lilibet, are you feeling all right?” Light asked her, looking concerned. “I wrapped your arm—I think it’s broken.”
“Broken?” Lili looked down at her right wrist and saw that it was wrapped in some kind of compression bandage. It ached dully but as long as she didn’t move it, it didn’t give her any more sharp stabs of pain.
Looking at her wrapped wrist, she couldn’t help remembering the attacker’s fingers squeezing it as he dragged her towards him. She could still feel his hot breath panting in her face with the putrid smell of stale beer and raw onions…
“Lilibet?” Light’s voice was more anxious than ever.
“Brother, look—her eyes are leaking!” Dark sounded upset as well.
“That’s what the humans call “crying”. They only do it in extreme distress.” Light stroked Lili’s hair gently, his pale eyes worried. “Please, Lilibet—tell us what we can do. We hate to see you in distress!”
Lili put her unhurt hand to her face and sure enough, her fingertips came away wet. She was crying, she realized. The attack in the alley had been scary but she had gotten away pretty quickly. But the attack in the bathroom was so much worse. It had gone on longer and had nearly been successful.
“I thought…I thought he was going to…going it…” she began but her words turned into sobs. Big, ugly ones that wracked her whole body and hurt coming out.
“Gods—what can we do for her?” Dark looked worried—and blurry—through her streaming eyes.