[Lord Stanley]

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Abe rubbed the manacle chain against his wrist for the seven-hundred-and-eighth time since the Vamps had clamped it around him. Stupid thing…He felt naked without a gun, without a way to possess his enemies with his spirit, and the handcuffs reminded him too much of RuptureFarms.

Remined him too much of his weak days.

Back then, he was a retarded, fart-happy, underwear-sporting piece of blue-skinned scum who couldn’t even talk out of his stitched lips, who managed to get out of RuptureFarms due to pure dumb luck. He should have been shot, crushed, and blown up a thousand, a million times due to his stupidity, but somehow the Odd had kept him alive.

That was twenty-seven years ago. He had learned much since then.

He looked down at the manacle. Or not.

He, Crak, Cloud, and Oner sat in the waiting room before the emperor’s office. One Mudokon and three Sligs, united in justice and the fight for freedom, and by the chain that stretched between their wrists. Cloud scuffed his feet on the paisley carpet, while Crak was catching a nap. Oner looked as if he was scratching his wrist with a clawed finger.

Abe rolled his eyes and grunted. Leave it to Oner to be a total idiot during the most tense of moments.

He glanced up at the tall, broad-chested Vamp warriors that flanked them. They stood coldly at attention, staring silently at the wall, holding their Inrik blasters close to their chests.

The door to the emperor’s room swung open, and a sleek-faced female Vamp secretary stuck her head out the door. “The emperor will see you now.”

Oner looked up from where he was closely examining his wrist, and grinned at the secretary. “You doin’ anything tonight, babe?”

She snorted. “Am I supposed to relate to that?”

Oner waved his cuffed hands, jerking Abe and the others with the pull on their chain. “You’re hot enough.”

The Vamp rolled her eyes and stepped back into the emperor’s office.

Cloud looked at Oner with the eyes of an inexperienced novice. “Um, Oner, are you serious?”

Oner grinned and flexed one arm. “Lesson One of the SKRUT, Cloudy boy: Never Be Serious, even in the face of extremely likely death. Especially in the face of extremely likely death.”

One of the guards shoved Oner hard in the shoulder, and all four prisoners staggered. “Time to see the emperor, outsiders.”

Abe took one short breath, bared his teeth at fate, and entered Essir’s office.

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