Sentinel's Hunger Read Free

man’s vitals before glancing up at Xevera in shock. “He’s not breathing.
    What did you do to him?”
    She could not answer, just stripped out of the flimsy gown that the hospital had provided her and prepared to flash out of the room.
    Flashing would be less of a risk than teleporting, less stress on her body. Teleporting, though much more expedient, presented a minor hazard even when one had definite coordinates in mind beforehand.
    But in her weakened and disoriented condition, with barely an idea of her location, the act would be much more dangerous than flashing, and utter folly.
    “Where the hell do you think you’re going? Security!”
    Xevera did not wait another second, pushed past the nurse as the woman stood from her crouch to block the exit.
    To the nurse and the other ER staff and patients, she was a whirling blur of bright yellow energy as she exploded through the reception area and pneumatic doors out into the parking lot.
    Xevera was almost a mile away from the hospital before she came to a stop, leaning against a dumpster near the entrance of an alley as she panted and perspired with her efforts.
    This was unacceptable!
    She should have fed from the nurse, too, before escaping, but that option was almost as unpalatable as starving to death or killing a human. She knew many Inanna, her kind, who fed on humans of their Sentinel’s Hunger
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    same sex—usually for sport and out of preference rather than necessity. It was not an uncommon practice for Sisters to pleasure or feed on each other in between feeding from humans, but Xevera, as Genesis had once put it, did not ‘swing that way.’
    She smiled at the thought of her friend and Sister, hoped Genesis and her mate Alex had made it back to Emsharra safely, and wondered what Quna Nahemah was thinking of her absence.
    Xevera knew The Highest would not risk a rescue unless she felt Xevera was in danger or unable to defend herself and get back home on her own. Unless Alex and Genesis had relayed Xevera’s condition at the portal, Quna would have no reason to send in help before protocol dictated. Except that Nahemah knew of Xevera’s illness, which far outweighed her fitness as Sentinel-in-Command.
    Former Sentinel-in-Command .
    Xevera gritted her teeth in frustration. Her Quna had trusted her, had counted on her ability to stave off the hunger and complete one more mission. She did not want that trust to go in vain, did not want to be the reason for a premature extraction! Most importantly, she did not want her Quna to compromise her principals anymore than she had already for Xevera.
    She did not need rescuing—not from herself or from the humans.
    True, she had not been on her own in the Great Above in centuries, had not been left to her own devices for feeding her need of kundalini , but surely she could survive a pithy two days in the human world. She might not be as experienced in the ways of humans as Genesis, who had spent twenty-eight years in exile among them before finding her mate in Alex, but Xevera was not helpless.
    “Hey babe, ya lost your clothes or somethin’?”
    “Yeah, maybe we could help ya find ‘em.”
    Xevera glanced up from her bare feet, suddenly realizing that she was naked. Her eyes locked onto the two unkempt young men standing at the mouth of the alley.
    She did not fear them, even in her weakened state, nor was she 16
    Gracie C. McKeever
    ashamed to be naked in their presence. Inanna were as comfortable in only their skin as they were in clothes. Though she had fully intended to conjure up appropriate attire as soon as she recovered enough, it mattered not to her that these two men saw her in her natural state.
    What did concern her was their proximity to the entrance of the alley and their very real goal to block her from leaving.
    Xevera could smell their malevolence, their arousal and intent as they advanced.
    Cautiously, she backed up and prepared to defend herself.

    * * * *

    “You’re throwing in the towel