Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
A finely collimated beam of bright blue light shot out of the other end of the silver pen and suddenly the bartender had a gaping hole in his thick midsection.
But it didn’t look like a shotgun blast or any other kind of wound made by a gun, Vicky saw with horror. The hole was perfectly neat and clean and the wound was sealed. It looked like someone had taken a volley-ball sized cookie cutter and neatly cut a round chunk out of the bartender’s body, right at the midsection. Vicky could look right through him and see the shocked face of another bar patron where the man’s belly button ought to have been.
“Hey, what…” The bartender looked down at himself unbelievingly. He stared at the neat hole where his guts should have been. “The fuck?” he muttered and then fell to his knees.
This was enough for Vicky. She’d had plenty of adventure for one night, thank you very much. Despite the claws still hooked in her dress, she yanked open the door of the Last Call Bar and ran out into the night.
The alien twin made a hissing exclamation and there was a loud ripping sound as the back of the sexy red wrap dress was shredded beyond repair.
Well, there was definitely no returning it now.
Vicky didn’t care—she just wanted to get the hell out of there. Stumbling in her heels, she ran down the street as a narrow beam of blue light passed right by her left ear. In front of her, a large hole appeared in the middle of a tall metal lamp post. The light went out as the top of the pole crashed down into the street, right onto the top of a passing car.
The car slammed to a halt and the one behind it crunched into it. A third car right behind the second joined the pile-up as well.
Vicky ran past the honking and swearing, only pausing for a moment to kick off her shoes—the heels were too high and it was a wonder she hadn’t twisted an ankle yet—before running on.
Have to get home! Have to get home! The words beat like a mantra behind her eyes. Her heart was hammering and she felt like a hunted thing looking for somewhere to hide.
She came to the end of the block and rounded it quickly to put more distance between herself and the aliens. The copy/paste twins were killers and she needed to get out of here if she didn’t want to be their next victim.
She hadn’t been consciously running for her car and when she came to it, she almost passed right by it in her panic. But her brain finally registered the lines of her beat-up brown Honda Civic and she skidded to a halt, breathing hard.
Thank God! Fumbling in her little purse, she found her keys and pressed the fob to unlock the car. As she slid behind the wheel, she saw another beam of brilliant light in the street she’d just left. This one hit a squat blue mailbox on the corner and also a fire hydrant.
Letters fell out in a flood just as a spout of water shot up into the air. Vicky had a moment to wonder why the alien weapon had so neatly sealed the wound it had made in the bartender but hadn’t sealed the holes it had made in the inanimate objects, but then she was driving—driving for her life.
She just had to get home, where they couldn’t find her, she told herself. She just had to get home and then everything would be all right.
She hoped.
Chapter Three
Chainor knew he had to get to the Varians and eliminate them quickly—before they got to the curvy Earth female whose name he had never even learned before he thrust the T’lix-Kruthe into her hands and placed her very life in danger.
In his defense, he’d never intended her to hold the stolen artifact for long. He had believed he would be able to get inside the Varians’ minds and convince them to go back to where they’d come from before anyone got hurt.
As an M-Switch Kindred, that was his specialty—allowing his consciousness to leave his own body and inhabit the body of another male. Using this natural ability, he was usually able to make his host do most anything he suggested to them.
But the Varians had been tough—maybe because they were a reptilian species and their brains were so different from his own. They were colder—more logical and linear than a warm, feeling mammalian brain. In fact, just being inside them had made Chain feel like he’d taken a bath in icy slime. Fucking disgusting.
He had no time for disgust now, however. He had to get to the little Earth female. Though she was not so little as most, Chain had to admit to himself as he stood outside the establishment where he’d first met her and raised his nose to the wind, trying to catch her scent. Many Earth females were so small and fragile-looking he was afraid he might break them if he got too close. But not her—she’d been substantial in a way he found immensely appealing.