Purity Read online

  Have to find a way out of here. K slid off the table and tried to stand on shaky legs. The long black braid of her hair uncoiled from the base of her neck with the motion and slid over one shoulder. Silky ends brushed against the bare skin of her wounded thigh, making her wince. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt anything but her suit’s protective webbing in that area.

  From her first fitting at the age of nine cycles the skinsuit had never left K’s body. It grew with her, hardening into armor that kept her safe in battle and molding itself to the contours of her body to cradle her at night. It fed her nutrients through its needles and kept her hydrated even in the driest conditions. K looked longingly down at her forearms. A row of tiny white scars ran up the inside of each one, reminding her of her loss. Already she missed the comforting sting of her suit’s injections.

  Where is it? I’d have a lot better chance of getting out of here if I had it on. Yes, and the skinsuit would hide the stitches that marked her as possibly contaminated. No one would ever have to know…

  Immediately K was ashamed of her thoughts. If she had been contaminated by the touch of another she would have to be cleansed—a rigorous and painful process performed in the temple of Purity on the Purist home world of Athena. The priests of Purity—the Sage-kind—would execute the necessary ritual. Unless, of course, there had been prolonged contact in which case no cleansing was possible.

  K shivered and pushed the thought away. She looked at her thigh again. How much time had it taken to place that long row of orderly black stitches? Whose hand had done the deed? On Athena a medical mechanoid would have done the work but K didn’t think that was the case here. The stitches were neat but not completely uniform—there were tiny variations in the length and spacing that indicated a human touch. And it wasn’t just the stitches. Who had removed her suit? How much had they touched her to get it off? Can’t worry about that now. Have to find it and get out of here.

  Leaving the sturdiness of the exam table took more effort than K liked. Why was she so weak? Her head throbbed and the room spun around her, threatening to throw her down on the scuffed metal floor. More through force of will than anything else she managed to stay upright—barely. She stumbled a few short steps across the room and reached for the nearest set of metal cabinets, grimly determined to conduct her search. Yanking them open she found plenty of medical supplies—gauze pads, hemolysers, insti-coagulents—all wrapped in plasti-seal, but no suit. Swearing under her breath, K moved methodically to the next set of cupboards and found more of the same.

  She was shivering continuously now and not only from cold. Something was wrong—she needed her suit. They must have put it somewhere…it has to be here somewhere…

  “If you’re looking for your suit it isn’t here.”

  The deep voice behind her made K’s heart jump. She whirled around unsteadily and had to grab the nearest counter to stop from falling. She looked up…and up and up. The man standing in the doorway had to be almost three meters in height with the heavy musculature to match his massive frame. Spiky brown hair framed the light-on-white eyes of the Impure—his irises were a strange bluish-green color K had never seen before. But it wasn’t his eyes that worried her as much as his size. His shoulders were more than twice as broad as her own and his huge hands were balled into fists at his sides. There was only one thing he could be.

  A giant.

  Chapter Two

  Boone frowned as he took her in. Her long black braid swayed past her thighs and her lean, pale frame was more asexual than female, despite her delicate facial features. Aside from the strange black-on-black eyes, he found himself surprised all over again that she looked so ordinary without the damned suit that had covered her body in fibers as sticky as a spider’s web.

  Growing up, he’d heard horror stories about the Paladins, the elite warrior class of the Purists who inhabited Athena. How they were ruthless, emotionless killing machines, perfectly trained and completely unstoppable. And yet, without the suit, they were just like any of the other littles that inhabited the other planets in the Prometheus system. Or this one was, anyway. She was so slight that without her protective covering she reminded Boone of a hairless cat, one of the few species from Earth-that-was to thrive on his home planet.

  Of course, not many animals from the original home world had been able to withstand life on Colossus. It was a heavy G planet with gravity that was twice Earth normal, forcing those that chose it to adapt or die. Over the centuries since the original migration, his people had changed in order to live there. The inhabitants of Colossus were about thirty percent bigger than what was considered Earth normal, with the huge bone structure and heavy musculature that was necessary to survive in their demanding new environment. Boone was no exception and his size was nothing special on his home world. But from the way the Paladin’s black-on-black eyes widened, he wondered if he was the first giant she had ever seen.

  “I said it’s not here.” He lowered his voice, trying to make it a little softer and less threatening. She probably thought he was here to kill her—and with good reason. Her fellow Paladins had done considerable damage and shot several of Boone’s crew before they’d been able to take them out. The murdering bastards were all dead now—all but the pilot who had gotten away and this one, standing naked and shaky before him.

  “Where did you put it? Give it to me—now.” Her demanding tone was at odds with the way she was shivering.

  Boone smirked. “I don’t think you’re in any position to be making demands, darlin’.”

  “What have you done with it? And what did you do to me?” She nodded down at her inner right thigh and the row of black stitches it had taken him almost half an hour to place.

  Boone frowned. “Had to cut it off you in order to stitch you up. And that’s all I did,” he added, seeing the look on her face. “I’m a physician, not a damn pervert.”

  “You cut it? You cut my suit?” The expression on her face was neutral but the tone of her voice was the same as though he’d announced he’d had to amputate one of her arms for her own good.

  Boone took a step toward her, hands outstretched in what he hoped was a nonthreatening gesture. The table was still between them and he wanted to get closer in case she fell. “Take it easy, I didn’t destroy it—it’s just going to be out of commission for a little bit while it regenerates.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Some place safe. You’ll get it back later if you cooperate. Look, I had to cut it. You’d nicked your femoral artery and I had to get to it fast or you would have bled out.”

  “So you did this?” She nodded down at the stitches again. “Not a mechanoid?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, not my neatest work, I’ll admit, but you littles are so damn tiny and like I said, I was in a hurry.” Then her words sank in. “Where the hell would I find a mechanoid that could do such a delicate procedure?”

  “We have them.” Her voice was faint. “On Athena. The mechanoids there do everything.”

  “Must be nice.” Boone took another step toward her. “Now look, darlin’, you need to sit down. You’ve lost a lot of blood and—”

  “Stay back, don’t touch me!” She seemed to be keeping herself on a tight leash but Boone could see a thin ring of white all around the edges of her black-on-black eyes, betraying her panic. Well, so much for Paladins being emotionless. You’re scaring the shit out of her, Boone—great going.

  “Look, I’m not gonna hurt you,” he tried to reassure her. “But you’re pretty damn shaky and you need to sit down.”

  “Just tell me how long it took to put them in. How long were we in…in physical c-contact?” She seemed to be having a hard time getting the words out and not just because her teeth had started chattering.

  “What does it matter?” Boone took another step toward her.

  “Stay back!” She tried to back away and fell.

  * * * * *

  “Shit!” K heard him say. He ran to where she l