Purity (Pure and Tainted) Read Online Free Page B

darlin’,” he murmured, cradling her against his chest. “ That’s right, just relax .”
    “Well she’s not much to look at, that’s for certain,” Loki sniffed.
He was a full blooded Erian and very concerned with physical appearances.
    Boone made a noise in his throat. “Like you ever look at anything
female. What would you know?”
    “I’m speaking from a purely aesthetic point of view. Look at her.”
Loki gestured at the Paladin lying limp in Boone’s arms. “She’s completely
flat—she looks like a little girl that somehow grew to massive proportions.”
    “Massive?” Boone snorted. “She’s tiny. Just because she’s not
quite as itty-bitty as the rest of you littles doesn’t make her huge.”
    The girl struggled briefly, as though she might want to protest
his statement but then settled down again.
    You want to sit down?” Loki asked him. “She’s all muscle, she must
be heavy.”
    “Nah, I could hold her all day. She’s light as a feather.” Boone
shifted slightly and looked down at her. “Do you want a blanket? You getting cold?”
    She started to shake her head and then apparently changed her
mind. “Y-yes. I’d like a blanket.” She sounded as
listless as she looked. Boone couldn’t believe he’d ever seen her as a threat.
    “I’ll get one.” Loki turned to go.
    “Do that,” Boone said. “And tell Mom to sim her something hot to
drink. Some coffee or hot tea or something. She looks
like she needs it.”
    “She needs more than that.” Loki threw the girl an unfriendly
glance as the silver door whooshed shut behind him.
    It was obvious the Erian already hated her and Boone couldn’t say
that he blamed the man. Loki’s touch partner, Chall, had been one of the first
to die when the Paladins had come in with guns blazing. Loki and Chall hadn’t
been life bonded and had fought like cats and dogs most of the time but there
had been genuine affection between them. And without the other man Loki was
crippled. I’ll have to keep an eye on
him. Wouldn’t put it past Loki to try and get some kind of revenge. Nothing
fatal—he knew what Boone needed the Paladin for. But still, Erians could be
tricky.
    The girl stirred weakly against Boone’s chest and he looked down
at her. “You okay, darlin’?”
    “ My squad…where are they? Are you holding
them in other rooms?”
    “Your crew is dead.” Boone said, more harshly than he’d intended.
“Don’t worry though, they took a few of us with them.
That should make you feel better.”
    Her strange eyes flashed. “No, what would make me feel better is
to purge the whole lot of you.”
    “That’s what you were coming to do, wasn’t it?” He shook his head.
“You know, when we bought this Erian ship at the scrappers to use for bait, I
didn’t think it would work. I didn’t really believe you’d attack us just
because we were different.”
    “Erians are depraved.” Her voice was cold and impersonal, as though
she was reciting dogma she’d been taught from an early age. “They deserve to be
purged. Other races can be subjugated but the Erian ways—”
    “What do you know about our ways, Purist?” Loki had returned. In
one hand he held a white thermal blanket and in the other, a mug full of
steaming liquid.
    The girl glanced at him dispassionately. “I know that you touch
each other all the time—your whole planet is contaminated. And you…” She
swallowed hard as though fighting down revulsion. “You reproduce sexually. Disgusting.”
    Boone stared down at her in disbelief. “You think they should be
wiped out because they have sex ? How
the hell do your people reproduce?
The whole damn planet can’t be abstinent or you’d have died out cycles ago.”
    Loki answered for her. “Purists are genetically engineered and
grown in artificial wombs. These huge fucking grow-tanks that hold something
like a hundred and fifty babies at once.”
    “The upper limit of fetus distribution is fifty-five and that is
only for