Read Online Purity (Pure and Tainted) by Evangeline Anderson - Free Book Online

just
have to take it one day at a time. But right now it’s time to get back to
sleep, okay? You think you can keep your suicidal tendencies under wraps for a
few hours or do I need to put the plasti-seal back on your wrists?”
    “I will be still,” K said reluctantly. She didn’t want her hands
bound again—it made her feel helpless and afraid, even more helpless and afraid
than she already was. And though she tried to release the turbulent emotions to
Purity, somehow they wouldn’t leave her alone.
    “Your word of honor as a Paladin?” Boone prompted.
    “I swear to Purity that I will be still while we sleep,” K said
through tight lips.
    Boone yawned again. “All right. Loki
would say I was crazy for trusting you but I’m gonna take you at your word,
darlin’. Settle down and let’s get some sleep, we’ve got kitchen duty
tomorrow.”
    K didn’t know what kitchen duty was but it didn’t really matter,
did it? No matter what she did, she was still stuck. Trapped
here in an enemy vessel without her squad or her suit, being continuously
contaminated and unable to do anything about it.
    Briefly she thought of all the prisoners she and her squad had
captured over the years they’d been flying together. Was this how they had
felt, knowing they were slated for either termination or the pshalite mines? Hopeless, helpless, completely out of control? It was a
sobering thought and one she didn’t like to dwell on. This must be what Boone means by taking another point of view.
    Kfound she didn’t like
it—not a bit. She had never felt much of anything while doing her job and leading
her squad. Once in awhile there was a faint thrill of victory when the fighting
was especially arduous but she had worked to eradicate even that positive
emotion from her Purity seeking soul.
    Purity help me, K prayed
silently in the darkness . Fill me with
the cold, the dark, the nothingness. Fill me with yourself. Still the
disturbing emotions remained, refusing to be purged.
    But worse than the bad feelings
were the good ones.
    As she lay secure in Boone’s arms, his deep, slow breathing
lulling her to sleep, K couldn’t help thinking of what he’d said. “ Lying here with me, warm and
comfortable in the dark together. Is it really so bad?”
    No, Kthought before she could stop herself. It’s not so bad. It wasn’t horrible or painful or disgusting as she
had been led to believe it would be. Contamination was actually
quite…comfortable. Boone was warm and comforting behind her, cradling her in a
way her suit had never been able to. Her head was pillowed on one of his massive
arms and her body seemed to fit perfectly into the curve of his big frame. It
gave K a strange feeling—the feeling of being one person in two bodies. Of
being somehow joined even though they were still separate entities. Why was
that?
    She didn’t have any idea but she did know one thing—the feeling of
contentment and security she felt in Boone’s arms was not to be trusted. He was
still the enemy and the moment she got a chance she was going to kill first him
and then herself.
    Wasn’t she?
    Of course I am, K told herself firmly.But right now she needed to get some rest
if she was going to have any chance of escape tomorrow. Sighing she settled
herself more comfortably against her hated captor and surrendered herself to
sleep.

Chapter Five

 
    Boone woke up before his alarm went off with the idea that he was
in the middle of something important. At first he couldn’t remember what it was.
Then he looked down at K, her slender asexual body curled against his and her
sleek head pillowed on his bicep. She was a Paladin and he had gone to the
trouble of luring her aboard the ship and capturing her because… Because of Shayla.
    The moment he thought his little sister’s name the memory came
rushing back like a dog with sharp teeth just waiting to be called.
    The transport officer had come to Boone’s lab in downtown Titus,
his face grim.