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)
“Probably they won’t fall off until they…they drink their fill.” Sylvie started to look down again, but Kross caught her chin in one hand and kept her face level with his own.
“Don’t look,” he said, frowning. “The way those things are growing, I’m afraid they might drain you dry before they let go on their own. What else can we do?”
“Maybe…cold water?” Sylvie suggested faintly. “The water of the swamp is warm—the cold might be a deterrent.”
“Okay, one cold shower coming up, Princess. Come on.”
Kross lifted her by the arm and then crouched low to slip his own long arm around her waist. He practically carried her into the bathroom—or “fresher” as the Kindred called it. Then he sat her firmly on the closed toilet and turned on the shower.
“You ready?” he asked, turning to her.
“I…I think so.” Sylvie nodded, trying to be brave and sound like an experienced scientist instead of a scared little girl.
“Good—let’s get you in here. But first…”
Kross knelt at her feet and began tugging at the bottom of the coverall which was still tied by the arms around her waist. Sylvie started to watch him…then stopped herself. She did not want to see how big the leeches were now. Though her nipples were numb, she felt as though two heavy weights were hanging off her breasts which she was sure couldn’t be a good sign.
Her Kindred Protector got the coverall untied and tugged it down. He took off her protective boots as well until she was wearing nothing but the thin t-shirt and a pair of white lace panties.
It was embarrassing to be so bare in front of him—Sylvie was usually self-conscious about her curves and she made sure to hide them from her sarcastic Protector, fearing what he might say about her. But Kross didn’t say a word—he only helped her strip.
Then, to her surprise, he started undressing as well.
“Hey—what are you doing?” she asked faintly, as he stripped out of his long-sleeved maroon shirt, showing a bare chest that would have made an Instagram model weep.
“I’m getting in with you,” he said grimly, reaching down to take off his boots.
“But, you don’t have to do that,” Sylvie protested.
“Yes I do.” He stripped down his black flight leathers—the tight leather trousers he always wore when they were on a mission together—revealing a skin-tight pair of black boxer briefs that clung to his muscular buttocks like a lover. “You’re too unsteady—I can’t risk you falling and hitting your head, Princess.”
By the time they were both ready to get into the shower, Sylvie was feeling extremely faint. How much blood had she lost? By the way the “weights” on her nipples were dragging at her breasts, it must be a considerable amount. Even the float dots were having a hard time keeping her boobs perky.
The ice-cold water in the shower brought her back to full alertness when Kross helped her into it. True to his word, he came in with her, though she saw his jaw clench when the freezing needles of water hit his bare skin.
“All right,” he rumbled and knelt in front of her again. “Let’s see what we can do with these bastards.”
“L-let the wuh-water f-fall on them f-f-first,” Sylvie advised, her teeth chattering and her skin pebbled into gooseflesh from the cold.
“Fine.” Kross positioned her so that the spray was hitting directly on her chest.
Sylvie shivered helplessly. For a moment she felt as though someone was tugging—hard—on her breasts. Then, abruptly, the weight on the left breast was gone and she heard a splashing sound on the shower floor by her feet. Then the weight on the right breast dropped off as well.
“There they go, the little fuckers!” Kross sounded relieved as he reached behind him to turn off the freezing water.
“Am I…are m-my nuh-nipples okay? Are they…st-still th-there?” Sylvie asked, her teeth still chattering.
Without waiting for his answer, she looked down anxiously, wanting to be sure the alien leeches hadn’t bitten off those extremely sensitive parts of her anatomy.
To her overwhelming relief, both her nipples seemed intact—though each one had a ring of tiny tooth marks all around it which was oozing blood. But then she made the mistake of looking lower—down at her feet.
“Don’t look!” Kross said again quickly but it was too late—Sylvie had already seen the leeches.
Both of them had grown horribly. When she’d first noticed them, they were no bigger than her pinky finger. Now they writhed on the floor like two fat sausages, each almost a foot long and monstrously thick.
“Blood sausages,” she whispered. It was too much—too awful.
Her vision grayed out and the world began to spin around her as she started to fall…
3
SYLVIE
Kross must have caught her, but Sylvie didn’t remember it. When she woke up, she was lying on the bed in the shuttle’s single bedroom. Her bottom half was wrapped in towels but she was topless from the waist up.