Read Online Eternity Row by S. L. Viehl - Free Book Online Page B

need to cleanse.”
    As Duncan spent an extended interval doing that, I sat and thought. Although I had no love for the Hsktskt, and several million reasons to despise them, watching that ship being reduced to space dust had sickened me. I could just imagine how much it shook our kid.
    As for Reever, he’d spent a number of years with the Hsktskt, first as a captive slave, then working for the Faction. He’d never gone into much detail about that time in his life, but I knew he had been friends with at least one of the big lizards. He had to feel as bad as I did. Probably worse.
    What if TssVar was on that ship?
    Jenner stayed curled up on my lap, but I noticed Juliet had gone back to pacing restlessly. They might have been frightened by the cannon blast, too, I thought, stroking my cat’s silvery head. Juliet disappeared into a narrow gap in the doors of a storage unit, the one where I had set up a kittening box for her. I thought she’d gotten stuck inside, but when I opened the door, I saw her squatting and straining with her tail up.
    Whenever there’s mass destruction, life still came barging in to remind us that all is never lost. Tears blurred my eyes for a moment as I knelt down and gently felt her abdominal muscles contracting.
    “Your timing is incredible.” I smiled as she nipped my fingers, then shook her head and yowled. “Settle down, Mom, I’m here to help.”
    The first kitten emerged shortly after that, headfirst, still partially encased by a sac of membranes. Juliet expelled the placenta a moment later, while I broke the sac over the kitten’s face and began rubbing it with a soft cloth as soon as it wriggled and mewled.
    She delivered four more in fifteen-minute intervals, which I separated from her into a small warming basket while she finished her delivery. The final kitten was presented breech, but I was able to turn it before it emerged. As soon as Juliet had finished, I sterilized the kittens’ umbilical cords and allowed their mother to consume one of the afterbirths before moving the rest aside for the Lok-Teel to absorb.
    “Very nice, Miss Juliet. Tell me something-why is it every time I deliver babies they come in fives?”
    I sat back on my heels as Juliet inspected and cleaned each of her kittens, and felt someone hovering behind me. I looked up to see Reever holding Jenner, and both had such expressions of masculine anxiety that I had to chuckle.
    “Mom and kitties are doing fine, guys.” I rose and stepped back to take my cat so Duncan could see the new additions to the family. “Time for Jenner to move in with Salo and Darea for a few days, though.”
    The proud father’s eyes met mine, and I could have sworn he was dazed. Hey, I did that .
    I laughed. “Wait ’til they keep you up all night, wanting to play.”
    When I returned from placing Jenner into temporary exile, I found Duncan sitting on the deck beside the storage container, watching a now-content Juliet nurse her new family. He glanced up at me as I put a hand on his shoulder.
    “How are you doing?”
    He ignored that. “They seem healthy.”
    I scanned them. “They are.”
    He lapsed back into a brooding silence, so I went over to the console to put on a disc of Nat Adderly, whose warm, clear jazz coronet solos always gave me a boost whenever I felt depressed. Maybe he’d do the same for my husband.
    As if on cue, Duncan came over as the music began and took me into his arms. “Dance with me.”
    We danced, or rather, we held each other and swayed to the music. After a few songs, Duncan pulled me over to our favorite chair and sat down with me on his lap. Forgive me .
    I pretended to be surprised. For what ?
    For not protecting our daughter better.
    I think that’s my line . I rested my cheek against his shoulder, and thought of the one Hsktskt who had tried to protect me.
    TssVar was not on the raider.
    How do you know?
    I once served on that vessel . A brief memory stream from his years in the Faction