Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
“I’ll go with you,” V said.
Walking around the kid, he went over to the food that was on offer. Tonight it was pizza, sandwiches, salad—
“Good evening, sires,” the doggen cook said as he came out from the kitchen. “How may I serve you? Any special requests?”
“I think we’re going to see what appeals,” V replied. “Thanks.”
As the cook waited patiently, Allhan wandered by the platters that were under the warmers. Official lunch break time for the B team was coming up in about eight minutes, so everything was fresh and fully stocked—but it was like the kid was looking at roadkill.
“Do you happen to have any white rice and gingerroot?” V said softly to the cook.
The doggen bowed low. “Yes, sire. Right away.”
“Yo, Al, let’s sit down over here.” V pointed to one of the tables that was away from the others. “They’re going to bring you something.”
“Yes, sir.”
The kid went right away and sat down, facing the wall. Putting his hands together, he placed them in his lap, and lowered his head like he was in some kind of church.
As V sat down across the way, he scrambled his brain for what the hell to say. Sixteen fucking languages, and he had no clue how to make small talk.
No interest, except when he was around Allhan.
As the silence between them stretched out, he pinched his hand-rolled out and reflected on how he’d always had some latent masochistic tendencies. Maybe that explained why he was putting himself in this position with the kid.
“Don’t stress if you can’t find that name,” he said.
Allhan’s eyes lifted. “I’ll find it.”
“Sure you will. But if you don’t, it’s not—”
“I’ll find it.”
As things got quiet again, V stroked his goatee and decided he might as well tackle the obstacle in the room. “Listen, Al. I think it’s time to choose.”
“Choose what?”
The doggen chef swooped in with a plate of sauced white rice, a fork, and a napkin. “For you, master.”
Allhan looked up, but kept his eyes on the cloth buttons down the front of the cook’s white uniform. “Thank you,” came a small voice.
The servant’s face grew gentle. “Anything you wish, I shall make for you.”
The doggen bowed and headed back to his station. As the kid started to eat, V imagined where Allhan would be without him and Jane taking him in. Fucking hell, V’d seen a lot of depravity in his life, but the idea that Allhan’s parents had abandoned him? Just fucked the kid off without any money or clothes, no place to live, a pretrans about to go through the change with no one to help him? He’d literally shown up at Safe Place six months ago because he’d heard about it online in one of the private groups for the species. He’d been dehydrated and starved, and his shoes had been worn through because he’d walked all the way across town.
After having waited like a dog for a week for his parents to come back for him, outside on the doorstep of the house they’d been renting.
They’d locked him out when they’d left, and he’d been too polite to break in because he hadn’t wanted them to be in trouble if he damaged the landlord’s doors and windows. Fortunately, as a pretrans, he could still handle daylight, and he’d literally just sat there by himself.
Thank fuck he’d had a phone that still worked—
“This is good.”
V refocused on that too-lean, too-pale face. “It’ll settle your stomach.”
“Did your father give it to you when you were nearing the change?”
V thought back to his youth in the war camp. His sire, the Bloodletter, had set up fights for him. And when he’d won, he’d had to fuck the loser in front of everybody.
Oh wait, that had been after his transition.
“Yeah,” he said roughly. “He did. Handy, huh.”
“You must have had really good parents.”
An image came to him of his mahmen in her black robe, a diminutive, disagreeable entity who didn’t allow anyone to question the great Scribe Virgin. Ever.
“The best,” he muttered.
Refusing to go down the rabbit hole of his past, he let Allhan get through half of what was on the plate before repeating, “So, yeah, it’s time to choose.”
“For what?”
V narrowed his eyes on the plate that was getting mercifully cleaner by the moment. “You’re too smart to play dumb.”
Allhan took a deep breath and sat back. “I don’t like to think about the change.”
“I know.” V rubbed the center of his own chest. “But we have to be practical. Is there anybody you want to be there with you—”
“You.”
The answer was shy, but the speed with which it came out of that mouth was a kicker. And fuck him very much, V was absolutely, positively not blinking faster all of a sudden.
“I’ll be there. Wherever, whenever it happens.”
I’m not going to drop you like trash on the curb and drive away like I stole something. Not like those fucks you won’t tell us anything about.