Page 39 of Etched in Stone
“Since I first knew I had to leave.”
“You big stone idiot. I’m definitely coming with you. Screw the Caribbean. I hear crime there is skyrocketing and there’s a hurricane every other year. And South America is full of Nazis.”
Ray didn’t let her continue. He wrapped her even tighter and brought her mouth to his for a searing kiss. She melted like butter in his arms. When he broke off the kiss, he knelt next to her.
“Then we shall have to mate.”
“So what have we been doing this whole time?”
“Having fun?”
She gave him a little punch on the arm.
“For a Khargal to mate, he must transfer his mating fluid into the bloodstream of his female. It allows for the match to be fertile, among other things.”
“Ah, so premarriage birth control.”
“The mating with another species can sometime have other side effects.”
“Like what?”
“It can extend your life quite a lot.”
“That’s sounds good.”
“But it can also change your skin tone and texture, allow you to see better in the dark, awaken some of your extrasensory perceptions.”
“So there’s no telling what voodoo I might end up with.”
“Precisely. It is not a commitment to take lightly. It is until death do us part.”
Jesse took a deep breath.
“Ray-” she began. A ringtone rang out in the distance. It was his phone. He only gave it out to a few people. “You should get that.”
He didn’t recognize the number, but he answered it anyway.
“Yo. Ray? Jesse there? She ain’t pickin’ up,” Luis said from the other end of the line.
“Pablo’s back. My boy Sam says he and some of his guys were messing with an SUV in the next building over.”
“Keep away from them. Jesse’s here and safe. Pablo’s pissed off and probably looking for someone to take it out on.”
“I tased him!” Jesse yelled out from behind Ray.
Ray could hear Luis laughing as he hung up the phone.
“The car might be compromised.”
“I gathered that. What kind of flight are we going to need to take? Surely we can just head to the airport and go from there. Clearly, money is no issue if we're abandoning the planet. Do you have another plan of how you are going to divide your wealth up?”
Ray stopped to think. He didn't need the money anymore. He needed time and breathing space to make plans. Were there any resources here on Earth that he needed to take with him? Even though they'd had a thousand years, Earth tech had not caught up with his world. Was he going to be any use at all when they returned, or will have all the technology outpaced him as well? He pushed that thought aside.
“I think we can leave some for Luis and his block. I could leave him the whole building. Also Giles, so they can keep the Rose Syndicate in check. I'll make an appointment with my lawyer.”
“You have a lawyer?”
“Of course I do.”
