Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“It seems cruel to mention it.”
“You can’t say something like that and expect me not to want to know.”
I gritted my teeth. This was one of those instances when I should have said less. Although, the last thing in the universe I would have wanted was to deceive Twink. And now that he was demanding the truth, I had to share…as much as I could. “Vorcons tend to tear off the heads of their rivals and use them as trophies. She had several she kept in the chamber with me—the other females who had attempted to mate with me.”
Twink’s face went whiter than I’d ever seen it, which given everything we’d experienced in the short time we’d known each other, was alarming. He stumbled, and I rushed to him, putting my arms around him. “Here, come, sit down. I’ll get you some water.” I guided Twink to the sofa.
“She’ll want to tear my head off?”
“No, that’s not what I said. She will want to tear your head off once she discovers you’re the one I want to mate with.”
This only intensified his emotions, so clearly, that didn’t help much.
I lifted him and laid him on the sofa before fetching some water. He was still unusually pale as he sat up, sipping.
“I won’t let her hurt you,” I assured him.
“I don’t feel like that’s something you can promise.”
I couldn’t refute it, which earned a furrowed brow, one of the many frustrated looks I’d learned from him.
“Okay, I know you’re new to humans, but one of the things you should know is that if you say an alien could kill me and then promise not to let it hurt me, if I say that you can’t promise me that, you need to tell me how you’re going to stop it.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe I just said all that with a straight face.”
I settled on the sofa beside him. “Sheila doesn’t know where I am yet, and if we locate her first, then I can stop her before she has a chance to harm anyone, especially you.”
“But if she’s looking for you, aren’t you just going right to her?”
“One of the perks of being with her, if you can call it that, is that I know her strengths and weaknesses. As I said, I can keep her from controlling me again. I just have to figure out where to start looking.”
Twink took another sip of water before setting it on the coffee table. “I think I can help in that department. Roger said there’s a Reddit where they discuss the sightings.” He pulled it up on his phone, scrolling through before reading through the entries. “Looks like she was first seen at that gas station on Ponny Boulevard. Then there was another sighting a few nights later, at two a.m., on Carson Avenue.”
“She’ll prefer a dark space. My last home with her was in a dark, damp cave. That’s what she’ll gravitate to. But I can’t imagine anything like that around here.”
Twink’s expression came to life. “Like a sewer?”
I angled my head, trying to remember any information I’d encountered about sewers.
“Under the city,” he said, “there’s a network of tunnels where water flows. Sewage water. It’s gross, but if she likes that kind of environment, she could find it underground.”
“That sounds right.”
“She definitely wouldn’t have to worry about anyone bothering her there. Maybe that’s how she’s kept from being discovered.”
“I should start searching the area where she was last seen. See if she found her way there. How big is this sewer system?”
“It’s massive, spanning the whole city. If she decided to go down there, she could be anywhere, really.”
This would be a problem. “I’ll take a look tomorrow during the day. She needs twelve hours of rest and can only do so in darkness. She’ll use that time to rest underground. By now, as I said, she likely already has a few drones at her disposal.”
A new sensation rose up within Twink, drawing my attention. It was all tension and shaking… It made me hate myself for burdening him with this.
“She’s not gonna hurt them, is she? Her drones?”
I wished I could have been more confident, but when I didn’t respond right away, he pressed.
“Daddy, you’re saying she could go around killing innocent people?”
“She will be reluctant to do this. From my own experience as a parasite, I can say that doing anything so dramatic captures the attention of the native species, especially a social one like yourselves. It’s more likely she would use them to procure food.” I stopped there, deciding against sharing that, if she discovered he was whom I wanted to bond and mate with, on top of losing his head, he would likely be on the menu. Didn’t seem like helpful information to divulge just then.