Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
“Okay—got it,” Sonya said, with more confidence than she felt. She really wished they had time to practice—the idea of shooting lasers out of her mouth was really strange and kind of scary. But she understood that they were under a deadline here and they had to get going if they were going to save Davrik and Nate’s mate, Lan’ara.
Nate was given a sleeveless black T-shirt to wear which left his muscular arms bare while hiding the ESR strapped to his broad back.
“That way all you have to do is reach out and grab him and you don’t have to worry about pushing up a sleeve,” Karl explained to Sonya. He clapped Nate on the back. “Good luck, old friend. I’m afraid you’ll need it.”
“We’ll be fine,” Nate said shortly. He looked at Sonya. “You ready to go get our people?”
There was a flutter of nerves in her stomach—nevertheless, she held her head high. Davrik had come from a whole other universe to rescue her—the least she could do was return the favor.
“I’m ready,” she said nodding.
Sonya just prayed that the Goddess who had woken her from a sound sleep with the dire news that her man was in trouble would be with them. Because the thought of going alone into that big, dark ship and facing the evil AllFather with nothing but her voice as a weapon scared the life out of her.
SIXTY-THREE
NATE
“We’re here for the prisoner exchange,” Nate said, the minute the door to the shuttle slid open.
“You will come with us.” The Scourge guard was over nine feet tall and was surrounded by five other guards of the same size. He spoke in a flat monotone and his lifeless eyes let Nate know he must be one of the Vat-grown clones—the same kind he’d been fighting down on Earth for the past five years.
In the past, seeing a Scourge soldier in his face like this would have triggered him intensely. Thankfully, his Bonding with Lan’ara had cured his PTSD, just as the priest in the Sacred Grove had predicted it would. However, that didn’t mean Nate felt nothing at all when seeing the huge bastards looming over him.
A jolt of pure hatred ran down his spine at the sight of his enemy so near but he managed to keep his face blank. Beside him, he could feel Sonya shivering. She was keeping close to his side and Nate didn’t blame her. At any moment she might have to grab his arm and start singing.
The ESR device was an enormous weight between his shoulder blades—it was like he was carrying a full weight bench with all the weights still attached, Nate thought. But he could feel a steady stream of strength flowing into him from an outside source. Clearly the Kindred Goddess was with them, which gave him confidence.
“Where are Commander Davrik and Commander Lan’ara?” he demanded, as he stepped down from the shuttle, which his friend Oliver was flying. Apparently he’d picked up piloting while being married to Commander Bairdida.
“We are to take you to them,” the Vat-grown soldier told him. “First show us your hands—you are not to bring any weapons.”
“We’re unarmed,” Sonya said quickly, spreading her hands.
Nate did the same, hoping the soldiers would be too stupid to check him thoroughly. One of them did pat him down, making sure he didn’t have any blasters strapped to his legs or stuck into his boots, but none of them put a hand on his back, for which he was grateful.
“You are cleared. Come,” the soldier said.
Nate frowned.
“What about the prisoner exchange? Where are the Kindred we came for?”
“The ones you seek are this way. You must come if you wish to see them,” the clone soldier said in that same dull, lifeless voice.
It was just as Commander Sylvania had expected, Nate thought. The Scourge didn’t have any intention of honoring the agreement they had made.
He just hoped that wherever the soldiers took them, it would be close to the AllFather so he and Sonya could kill the son of a bitch!
SIXTY-FOUR
SONYA
Sonya shivered as they walked down the long, dark corridors of the Father Ship, surrounded by the enormous Scourge soldiers. It was cold here and the clothing they’d given her to wear—simple black trousers and a short-sleeved shirt—wasn’t thick enough to keep her warm. Though maybe she was just shivering from fear, because it was creepy as hell in the big, spooky ship and she did not want to be here!
Still, there was no other way to get to Davrik and she had to save him. Even if they weren’t really together and he had only come after her because she was a copy of his dead wife, she owed him that much. He had come from a whole other universe to rescue her from The House of a Thousand Flowers and from that horrible Trollox—the least she could do was save him from the Scourge.