Page 34 of Cops in Space
With a grimace of distaste, I sucked down some of his warm, coppery blood. Ewww. Gross. Chocolate it wasn’t.
“More.”
Ick. Ick. Ick. Fighting back the urge to puke, I kept on sucking. All of a sudden I noticed his blood was starting to taste pretty darn good. What was up with that? Was it another facet of the mate bond?
Kaelen stroked my mind soothingly.“Blood exchanges are a necessary part of our mating, and you will come to crave them.”
“We’ll see.”Warmth seeped into my stomach and began to spread throughout my body, easing my aches and pains. I relaxed against Kaelen. I loved the way his body felt against mine.“Would Zarek get terribly upset if I vaporized Captain Zan?”
He kissed my battered cheek.“Yes. He wants that pleasure for himself.”
“Rats.”
Gita skittered to the top of my head.“Me bite angry one. Him die.”
“No biting Captain Zan,”Kaelen growled.
She hid behind my ear.“Him mean.”
“Him very mean,”I said, trying not to laugh at the expression on Kaelen’s face.
Kaelen licked the puncture wounds on his wrist.“Your color is coming back.”
“How can you tell with all the dried blood on her face?”Dad handed me a wet wipe.
I carefully ran the wipe over my face.
“You missed a spot.”Dad took the wipe and scrubbed my neck.
“Ouch! Ease up, Dad.”
“Don’t be such a baby.”
A blue butterfly fluttered around Gita.“What dat?”
“That’s a butterfly. Don’t eat it.”
“Kay.”She leaped off my shoulder and chased after a grasshopper.
“Your scans are coming up negative for rattlesnake venom, Ben,”Uncle Saul announced.
“Good.”Uncle Ben got to his feet, plucked Gita off the ground and gave her a big kiss.“This little girl saved my life.”He gave her another smooch.“So brave.”
Dad rolled his eyes.“And we had nothing to do with it?”
“You should have seen her fighting that snake. Amazing.”
Gita’s fur puffed out.“Me. Brave.”
My stomach rumbled. God, I was starving.“Please tell me you still have some elk or deer meat left. I mean, is there anything other than those nasty MREs to eat?”I interrupted.
“I actually have twenty pounds of buffalo steaks and another ten pounds of ground hamburger. I’ll get the grill going and barbecue us some steaks and burgers,”Uncle Ben replied.
“Do we have enough potatoes for fries?”
Uncle Ben nodded.“We do and we have plenty of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and carrots.”
My stomach rumbled hungrily.“Yum. I’ll go clean up.”
