The Druid Gene Read Online Free PDF Page A

it would be difficult to find a place to hide again. It was open to the sky as far as the eye could see. The clumps of grassy stalks reached just above his waist. Unless it managed to double back and return to the woods, he had it well in hand.
    The gildrut’s energy flagged. It slipped in the slime and went down, flailing. It turned over, defiance in its eyes.
    “You have performed well. Go with honor into the next realm.” The Lovek spoke the traditional words and sank to a knee to deliver the final thrust.
    He was flush. Every nerve ending screamed with impending joy. As he reached out a hand, his throat ached to release the roar of completion.
    But something held his hand fast in midair. He snarled, pushing and pulling, but it was frozen in place. It, as well as his entire body, was immobile. He realized his vision had gone drab, nearly devoid of color, and the transparent yellow dot that he’d ignored when it was dancing in his peripheral vision had taken up most of his field of view.
    Someone wanted his attention badly enough to risk his rage. There was no pausing this kind of simulation. If he left it now, it meant starting over. The gildrut would rest and find new resources. It would learn and be even more challenging to capture, next time.
    Frustration seethed in him.
    The gildrut stared at him, its terrorized gaze transmuting into a confused stare. Then it scrambled away. He watched it race, slide, and splash over the terrain toward the trees, glancing back at him from time to time in consternation.
    “Exit!” he bellowed. Instantly, he was free, grappling at the port embedded deep in his neck and ripping the dark helmet from his face. A quick glance around the low-lit room showed him his target. He hurtled the helmet at the lithe figure, standing ready for that very action. The woody bitch caught it easily and looked unperturbed.
    He eyed her malevolently, contemplating putting his claws through her throat instead, but quickly discarded that notion. She was the best captain he’d ever employed. It was remarkable to find a scientist with innate leadership skills and few scruples. She was tough and long-lived as long as he provided the right environment for her, which was easy enough to do.
    So he curbed his darker urges at some personal cost. He couldn’t replace her. Also, he had to admit, it pleased him that they were both equally rare and unknown species in the galaxy. Plant-animal hybrids were completely unknown and she claimed to be the only individual to leave her homeworld for centuries. It put people off-balance when they arrived as a pair, made them unsure where to start with custom or nicety.
    He sank onto the sleeping platform behind him, a show of weakness he wouldn’t allow anyone but her to witness. His skin was already greening with jaundice as his body broke down hemoglobin and recycled the precious iron, returning it to storage for another hunt on another day. His head was pounding from the incomplete kill. He started to bark, “Bring me a—”
    She was already placing a beverage in his hand. A single sniff told him it was palyo tonic. It would ease the hormonal hangover. She knew him too well for one who was not a mate. He almost liked her.
    He threw the drink down his gullet and closed his eyes. He cleared his throat and turned it into a growl. “It couldn’t wait another moment, Hain?”
    She settled herself on a recreational platform, just outside his reach. “By your order.”
    It was like her to throw his own mandates in his face at a time like this, without apology, without a measure of respect to soften the interruption. He detested insolence. He lunged at her, closing his fist around her narrow, lichen-encrusted throat. She had no lungs. He wasn’t blocking her air. But it was still a vulnerable part of her anatomy. Severing her head would be easy enough and quite final. “You would do well to remember your place, weed.”
    She blinked slowly, unfazed, and stared back at him