Star Kissed Read Online Free PDF

again, and she dropped it to her chest.
    There was no beverage cart. She was stuck in the small room at the top of the auditorium. Some time had passed while she slept. The auditorium below had emptied out of all but two men in black. Someone had brought her a bowl of space Twinkies and another filled with water. She nibbled on the foamy confections, more out of anxiety than out of hunger. She stopped short of venturing to drink the cloudy liquid. Some sort of future space bug was swimming in it.
    Mandy leaned forward. It appeared to be a beetle with a triangular shell.
    “You saw Gonor, human?” The voice came from outside her room.
    Mandy leaned out to see the half-lizard, Pinal seated to the side of the doorway.
    “I did,” she confirmed. “He helped me escape.”
    Pinal’s scaled features appeared pleased by her words. At least, she interpreted the sudden display of toothless gums as a smile.
    “He has not forgotten our ways,” he said. “I’d lost hope in him. But no longer. You have restored it.”
    “He was very kind.”
    “He always has been, until the Ishta -gods took him. He is the best in the medical field of genetics on the planet. I feared they brainwashed him made him one of them.”
    “Ishta-gods and Naki-gods,” she said, recalling Urik’s history lesson from earlier. “Akkadi is a Naki.”
    “How do you know of Akkadi already?”
    “I met him. He was very …” hot. Sweet. Dangerous, in a sexy way.
    “Frightening?” Pinal supplied.
    “I suppose.”
    “I never saw him before,” Pinal lowered his voice. “They say he is twenty feet tall and has fangs larger than my legs.”
    “That’s not entirely accurate,” she said, puzzled.
    “How large are his fangs?”
     “Not much bigger than my teeth.”
    Pinal bared his gums, pensive. “Was he twenty feet tall?”
    “He was about your height.”
    “I’m not twenty feet tall,” Pinal mused. “You are the only I have known who has looked upon his face.”
    “Are we talking about the same person?” Mandy’s frown deepened. Akkadi had radiated danger but caused her no harm. At least, no harm she knew of. She touched the necklace he gave her. She hadn’t sensed his danger directed at her. He definitely didn’t look like a monster.
    “There is only one Akkadi,” Pinal replied wisely.
    “Has anyone else here seen him?” she asked.
    “Not that I know of. The Naki and Ishta don’t like coming here, not after that they’ve done to the planet. He stays in their cloud-ships or stations or negotiates treaties and battles.”
    “Of course. Why not,” she murmured then shook her head. “If I see him again, I’m definitely asking him if I can use his star gate to go home.”
    Pinal looked at her for the first time since they began talking. His mouth was slack in the only sign of his surprise. He didn’t object to her idea, and she glanced towards the auditorium, where the bear-like leader of this strange faction had appeared with a satchel.
    Satisfied she’d found the right man – even if by accident – she also couldn’t help wishing she’d known what she did now about Akkadi. If she had, she could’ve asked him to take her home.
    Home. The world around her was real again, from Pinal’s lopsided grin to her growling belly.
    She looked around. Was Urik serious about what happened to the rest of the cabin crew and passengers from the plane? The leader of what remained of humanity was leaping up the tall block stairs towards her.
    “How many star gates are there?” she asked curiously.
    “Um, an infinite amount,” Pinal replied.
    “What?”
    “This will regulate your temperature,” Urik said. He squatted and handed her a black uniform as soft as cashmere but made of tiny chain links.
    Mandy took it, fascinated by the texture. She’d tried on everything from yard sale clothes to some of the most exclusive haute couture threads in her line of work. None of them were anything like this.
    “This is water.” He held out