Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 110492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Terex frowned.
“Mistress is…an unfamiliar term for me, at least in this context. You don’t mean it in a Yonnie Six way, I take it?”
“I don’t know what Yonnie Six is,” Torri said, frowning. “’Mistress’ means another woman that a man has an affair with outside of his marriage. At least here on Earth,” she added.
Terex shook his head.
“VIC Unit told me something about the human ability to leave one mate and take another at will, but it still seems strange and wrong to me. How could a male leave a female he was already mated to—bonded to—and seek out another mate?”
“It happens all the time here on Earth,” Torri said dryly. “Maybe because we humans don’t ‘bond’ like you Kindred apparently do—although I still don’t quite understand what that means, though Vic has talked about it some.”
“When a Kindred takes a bride, they form a soul-bond—a mental and emotional connection that allows them to hear each other’s thoughts and feel each other’s emotions,” Terex explained. “It is a sacred thing—a union not to be desecrated or disrespected in any way and it cannot be broken except by death. But it sounds to me like your mate—your husband—abandoned your union and betrayed you in a way no Kindred ever would or could.”
“He did—and I found out he had been for a while,” Torri said grimly. “From what Vic and I overheard, he’d been cheating on me for years.”
“Who is this male, anyway?” Terex sounded indignant. “I hope he was publicly exposed for what he tried to do to you. No male should disrespect and hurt a female in such a terrible way!”
“Well, I’m afraid Chuck is still on the loose,” Torri said dryly. “He’s probably not far from us right now—he works in the DOJ, you know—the Department of Justice,” she added, when he frowned in confusion. “And his mistress, Amanda, is also his secretary, so they’re probably both there.”
“You should confront him.” Terex still sounded upset on her behalf.
Torri gave a jagged little laugh.
“Are you kidding? I don’t dare go back down to Earth at all—I’m still a wanted fugitive, since Vic and I ran away from St. Elizabeth’s and Vic killed an orderly who was…” She swallowed hard. “Was trying to attack me on our way out.”
Terex frowned.
“Please leave that to me. You have been an invaluable source of information and also, your visions helped save your people. Without them, we never would have come here in time to stop the Scourge from overrunning and enslaving the Earth.”
“It wasn’t just my visions,” Torri pointed out. “It was Vic. I only started making sense of the night terrors I was having when I started Dream Sharing with him.”
His frown deepened.
“It’s a most unusual case—a woman who is already mated, Dream Sharing with another male. But clearly your mate was not honoring you properly in the way a warrior should honor and cherish his bride. Also, if VIC Unit hadn’t seen your visions, he never would have known that it was the Scourge who were coming to overrun the Earth. Perhaps that is why the Goddess allowed VIC Unit to enter your dreams.”
“Perhaps,” Torri murmured. Then she burst out, “But don’t you think the fact that Vic is capable of Dream Sharing means he’s a real person—someone who ought to have the same rights as the rest of your warriors? The right to ‘call a bride’ and love her and spend the rest of his life with her?”
Terex sighed deeply, a pained look coming into his deep blue eyes.
“Forgive me, Torri—I know that VIC Unit looks like a real, organic male, but that is only because he was made with the intent of being able to mimic life seamlessly and realistically. Inside, he is over half positronic. He is simply a machine—a piece of very important and irreplaceable hardware—that the Kindred cannot do without. So I’m sorry if you’ve developed feelings for him, but you have to understand that you’ve basically given your heart to a machine.”
“That’s not true!” Torri exclaimed. “Vic is so much more than just a machine! You don’t understand.”
“Again, I am sorry.” Terex bowed his head solemnly. “But I’m afraid that now that our negotiations with Earth have begun, VIC Unit’s mission on this planet has come to an end. He will be re-entering stasis tonight, after our meeting with the World Council has concluded.”
“What? Tonight? So soon?”
Torri’s heart felt like a cold hand had closed around it. She had been fearing and dreading this moment from the second she stepped foot aboard the Mother Ship but now that it was actually here, she felt completely unprepared.
“I’m sorry,” Terex repeated. “But his mission was actually over some time ago. I have allowed him to remain active to spare your feelings but it seems to me that your attachment to him is only growing, which is really not healthy since VIC Unit cannot actually love you back. You have, essentially, fallen in love with a part of our ship and I cannot in good conscious allow such a one-sided relationship to continue. Of course, you can say goodbye to him before he goes into stasis,” he added.