Freeker Read Online Free PDF Page B

moment weren’t so serious, Warrant would take the time to pounce on him and beat him until he mewled like a kitten. “The boarding party made headway on us. The boot has us in a quandary. It may not matter what you’d prefer happen because we can’t stop them from overtaking us and attaching.”
    Echtei growled. “We can stop them from boarding, though. That ship couldn’t hold more than, what? Six men?”
    “If we kill them,” Warrant shifted the knife in his hand. When had he palmed it? “Will they send something else after us?”
    “Let’s kill them,” Chara urged. Her eyes gleamed as she watched his fingers twirling the blade.
    “Bloodthirsty, isn’t she?” Echtei eyed Chara again and his appreciation of her brought another growl from Warrant. Echtei raised his hands, palms out. “Down, brother.”
    He understood Echtei then and Echtei understood Warrant. His brother would stand by him no matter what came next. With a grunt, he nodded and carefully sheathed his knife. The others hadn’t said anything. They all seemed to be waiting. On edge.
    Ursula came back and her frown didn’t ease Warrant’s tension. Grendel slid inside the door and with his arms across his chest, leaned against the wall.
    “The credentials are bona fide but the search I’d started on the fugitive came back. We’re in a bind, here.” Ursula glanced at Chara. “She was sentenced to a special program that would put her in a coma for a medical re-programming rehabilitation trial. She’d agreed to it, herself, instead of being sent to the Pit.”
    “That seems correct.” Chara canted her head and kept her attention on Ursula. She appeared curious about her own past.
    “For murder,” Ursula added and raised a brow. His heart-sister wasn’t afraid of anyone, not even someone found guilty of murder. Neither was he. He smiled.
    “Again, that seems correct.” Chara nodded.
    “A year into her sentence, the family of another of the prisoners won an appeal that exposed the program as a farce. The prisoner was brought home but it was too late, he remains in a vegetative state. The rest of the sentences were commuted. The ones with families to claim them have returned home. All of them were permanently damaged. One is so calm that he forgets to eat. The violence had been bled away but everything about it was illegal. Chara was the last to enter the program and had stayed there the least amount of time. Probably why she doesn’t seem permanently harmed. Probably.”
    Chara added tonelessly, “They harness the memories to create a drug that gives its users an adrenaline rush, a high. The users feel the build, the rage, the release.”
    “That’s not possible,” Chaz said. He pushed away from the wall to the side of the room where he’d watched. His blond-tipped hair was still a shock to Warrant sometimes. But right now, his carefree nature wasn’t apparent. “Even if it were possible, why did they keep you there after the others were returned home?”
    “It’s possible. But for your last question, I don’t know why they kept me.” Chara frowned and Warrant shifted toward her before he halted in place.
    “It appears that the clinic was able to win an appeal to continue the program if a prisoner were unclaimed.” Ursula reached to Grendel and her mate gripped her hand. He was careful with his claws and didn’t hurt her. Otherwise he’d have six Scoriah piled on him and pounding him to dust.
    Warrant glanced at Chara’s hand. His fingers tingled. Frowning, he glanced down at his own. It looked the same. His black claws were trimmed. Except for the abrasions he’d gotten when he’d punched the wall, his gray skin was remarkably unmarred at the moment. Gray, the same gray as the metal in the ship when they bought it. All that unrelenting gray had driven Ursula and Chaz to paint the mess hall and the nest area. Ursula’s room was painted too. If Chara stayed, would she want to paint Warrant’s room?
    A strange husky