Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 42969 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42969 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Eventually they were herded back into their tree trunk prison and her chance was gone. Sylvie wondered if she was going to regret not taking it.
The day passed slowly with nothing to do but talk to the other women, most of whom were too cowed to do more than whisper. Even Hersha seemed subdued. It wasn’t until it was nearly time for their evening mush that the door opened and two of the treetures pushed inside.
“You,” one of them said, pointing at Sylvie. “Come.”
Sylvie felt like someone had just dumped a bucket of ice cubes into her stomach.
“What, me? But…but I just got here yesterday!” she protested. “It…it can’t be my turn yet—can it?”
She hated how cowardly she sounded, but she couldn’t help the fear in her voice. She didn’t want to be raped by these evil bastards! Or used in any of Barbarous’s sick experiments, either.
But protest was useless. Two of the tree-men grabbed her by her arms and dragged her out of the hut, slamming the door behind them.
I’ll try to run, Sylvie told herself as they dragged her to the other side of the compound. Or if they try to rape me I’ll fight! I won’t let them take me without a struggle!
She was so grimly determined to defend herself in any way she could that at first she didn’t register what was going on when they took her into another hollowed-out tree trunk. Then she heard a voice calling her name.
“Sylvia? Are you all right?”
Her eyes, dazzled momentarily by the sunlight from outdoors, took a moment to adjust. But then she saw him—Kross was staring at her from behind a hazy, red energy shield. The shield enclosed a kind of room inside it with a large bed, a sink, and a toilet. Kross was standing on the other side of it, a look she couldn’t read on his face.
“The girl goes in. If you move, she dies,” one of the treetures said, clearly speaking to Kross.
He nodded.
“I understand. I’ll stay here—just don’t hurt her.”
The treeture didn’t answer. But a moment later the hazy field of red energy disappeared momentarily. Strong hands shoved Sylvie forward and she stumbled right into Kross, who caught her and wrapped his arms around her protectively.
The field of energy came back on and the treetures exited, leaving them alone together.
“Kross?” Sylvie asked, looking up at him uncertainly. “Are you all right?”
“I should be asking you the same thing. Did they hurt you?” he studied her face anxiously. “Did they…do anything to you?”
“No.” Sylvie shook her head. “Well, other than taking my blood and scraping the inside of my cheek.” It felt strange to be held in his arms like this, considering the animosity that had always been between them. But it felt good too—safe and warm and oh-so comforting.
“They did the same to me,” he murmured. “I think Barbarous is going to use our DNA to experiment on us.”
“I think you’re right,” Sylvie said grimly. “The question is, can we get away from him before he can do that?”
“And the answer to that is a resounding ‘no,’ my dear,” a familiar voice said.
Sylvie jerked and looked around. She wasn’t a bit surprised to see a screen on the far wall with Barbarous on it. The mad scientist was watching her and Kross with what she could only assume was a glint in his eyes—though it was indiscernible behind the strange black goggles he wore.
Kross let go of Sylvie and stepped in front of her instead, shielding her with his body, as though he could keep her safe from their captor that way though the other man wasn’t even in the room.
“Whatever you’re thinking of doing to us, you’d better think again,” he growled. “Sylvia and I work and live aboard the Kindred Mother Ship—they will come looking for us.”
“Oh, I’m not concerned about anyone finding you.” Kross made a shooing motion with one hand. “Our compound has excellent camouflage shields around it. You can’t spot it from the air, no matter how you try. The two of you stumbled in here by accident—one that I’m sure won’t be repeated.”
Sylvie’s heart sank. He might very well be right. Even if the Kindred sent a search party to come look for them, the tiny opening in the foliage was hard to see and if the compound wasn’t visible from the air…well, the Kindred could search for months and never find them!
“Why can’t you just leave us alone and let us go home?” she asked in a trembling voice. “We never did anything to you—just let us go!”
“I am afraid I can’t do that—I need the two of you for my experiments,” Dr. Barbarous remarked coolly. “Especially now that I’m working on my new formula which is sure to make me rich enough to fund my other, more important research—that of breeding a whole new species of plant people.”