Winning Souls Read Online Free PDF

much did you end up winning?” Ulises asked her as she bought an expensive piece of jewelry for her dispatcher.
    “Just over a million credits. The games are not nearly as fun as people, but I do win a lot faster.”
    He blinked. “I thought you said I had won more than you had.”
    “Oh, you had, but I saw a machine ready to pay out, so I played it and won.”
    He stared at her. “You can see them?”
    She shrugged. “Energy patterns are energy patterns. I can see them in living beings and in the world around me. It is the blessing of my kind, if you can consider it a blessing. I think the strength came to defend those who tell people about what they see. Not everyone needs to know that you can see their spouse is cheating on them or that they are cheating on their spouse.”
    He cocked his head. “Does your species break bonds with its mates?”
    “My species does, my genetic grouping doesn’t. False information makes us sick to the stomach. It isn’t sexy to be puking on our mates because we know they have lied to us.”
    “So, when you said your kind only go into season rarely...”
    “It is when we feel completely secure with our mate. Until then, there is only manipulation and uncertainty.” She lifted a l’nal silk scarf and smiled. “This is pretty.”
    Ulises nodded in dawning understanding. “So, your chromatic display is to give your mate a chance at understanding what you are thinking.”
    Enher laughed. “I suppose that is accurate.”
    “Does your species ever find a mate in their own kind?”
    She was holding the scarf against her skin and trying to imagine how it would look on her cousin. She glanced at him. “No. Our Reedamani parent is the only one with any interest in us. We are wired too differently to maintain actual relationships. We are born, given to our gene parent and they raise us, explaining our mental makeup as it develops.”
    “Isn’t that a solitary way to live?”
    “I spent time with my cousins, my mother and my grandparents. I just knew that the only person who truly understood how my mind worked was back at home.” She didn’t add that she had skills far beyond the average person with her bloodline. If he knew where she had come from, he knew that she saw more than the average member of her kind.
    “It does seem unusual.”
    “It is the way things are done.” She smiled and nodded at the shop assistant who was waiting respectfully nearby.
    The woman came forward and folded the scarf into a soft rectangle, slipping it into packaging and waiting for Enher to finish her shopping.
    She did a final tour of the silks in the shop, and she could not imagine any of it for herself. She concluded her shopping and paid for the purchase. It would be sent to her hotel.
    Enher looked at her companion. “So, I suppose we have run all the options for today.”
    “Would you care to see a show this evening?” He offered his arm as they walked out of the shop.
    “I think I would like a quiet night in. I am here to relax after all.”
    Ulises nodded. “Understandable. Would you like company?”
    “Sure, we can order room service and watch a comedy vid. That is all I am really in the mood for.”
    He grinned. “It sounds wonderful.”
    “Well, then, let’s go. I have had an urge to get room service. It is a private vice of mine.” She smiled and her skin glowed hot orange in anticipation.
    Arm in arm, they headed back to her place, and it was to her surprise that she found a message on her com.
    A familiar voice said, “Whatever you are doing, keep it up. One hundred and ninety-three are free and two hundred more are stirring.”
    The call ended there.
    Enher nodded, and she had a slight smile as she turned toward Ulises. “So, that just begs the question, why are you letting them go?”
    He looked at her with astonishment that lasted three seconds. He grimaced and crossed his arms. “How long have you known?”
    “I suspected at the beginning of the tour, but it was the