But I kind of wish I had company.
I miss Tox.
Damn.
13
Tox
When I wake up, the bed is warm, but Sophia is nowhere to be found. I slowly sit up and look all around, check over the entire house. When I open her closet and see the wigs and the strange clothes, I notice that there’s a slight impression on the carpet. A bag.
She’s gone.
Sure enough, when I peek out front, her car is gone.
Where would she have gone?
I try to see if there's some kind of clue as to where she might've hidden, but there's nothing here, and I run a hand through my hair in frustration.
Which makes me think of her pulling on my hair.
Which makes my cock want to stir.
No. Down, boy. I don’t have time for that nonsense.
My chip enables me to call any Novan or Kurian I want, but Earthlings don’t have chips. There’s been talk on and off for years about the Earthlings doing something similar, but there’s been a decent number who are adamantly opposed to it. I’m not sure why, but I wish Sophia would’ve been one of the ones to have the chip implanted. Almost all of the Earthling women who have become moms to Kurians have a chip. Maybe they all do. I’m not sure.
Instead, Earthlings use phones, and I do happen to have Sophia's number because I'm a spy like that. I managed to get my hands on her phone last night. She was sleeping, and I had to go to the bathroom, and I saw her phone there.
Yes, I’m nosy.
What if she just went to get us breakfast?
I head to the kitchen and look in the cabinets and the fridge and freezer. Nope. It’s stockpiled with food. Besides, that bag is missing. She’s all packed up for a long stay away somewhere.
Without leaving me a note.
After we had such a good time writing to each other last night too.
I gnash my teeth and grimace, trying to think frantically. What exactly can I do to find her? If she wants to lay low, she’s not going to use that phone. She’ll abandon it.
She wants to hide away from the one who wants her dead.
What the hell? I would’ve thought she’s a fighter, not a fleer. Isn’t that the expression? Fight or flight?
Flight. Hmm. Would she opt for a plane? She did take her car.
I look around the house again. There aren’t a whole lot of pictures of Sophia, but there is one of her in a bikini on the beach.
Hmm. If I can recall the geography of the Earth correctly, the largest bodies of waters are oceans, and the nearest one is to the east. Would she have gone to the ocean, though? There are rivers, lakes, ponds…
I carefully take down the phone, open up the frame, and look at the backside of the picture. Jersey shore, Wildwood is written on the back.
What the hell? Why not? I’ll go there. If she’s not there, I don’t know what I’ll do.
First, though, I call the number from her phone hanging on the wall of her kitchen. It goes right to voicemail. Either the phone is dead, or it's turned off. I'm pretty sure my mom said something about a phone being able to be tracked, so it makes sense for her to have it off. Then again, she only needs it off if she still has the phone on her, which means she might have the phone on her after all.
I leave her place. Well, I have my hand on the doorknob for me to leave when I realize that I’m naked. I never did get dressed after we had sex.
The best sex of my life.
I’m not going to let her just walk away from that.
Fuck. That she was able to just up and leave… Does that mean it hadn’t been as good for her as I thought? I know she orgasmed, but maybe they weren’t strong ones. Maybe she had other, better lovers. Maybe…
I’ll find out after I find her. Right now, that’s my main priority.
It doesn’t take me long to purchase a centuricar. Yes, the money I had been saving for that house I spend. I don’t care about the house. The silver-haired man can buy it to spite me for all I care. The only thing that matters isn’t a thing but a person.
Sophia.
I drove her away. She didn’t think I could keep her safe.
Or maybe she doesn’t trust me.
That thought has me curling my nose with disgust. She has to trust me. No matter what, I'll be there for her, always.
The person I buy the centuricar from won’t stop talking. He’s never seen a Kurian before, and he’s asking all kinds of inappropriate questions.
I clear my throat. “Do you have a map to the shore? I need to get to Wildwood.”
“There’s a GPS in the car. All you have to do is input the address. Here. Let me show you.”
The guy gets into the car, touches a bunch of buttons, and a strange voice tells me to make a U-turn.
I thank him with a nod, climb in, make that U-turn, and I settle in for a drive. The screen says it’ll be about six-hours until I get there. Great. I have no idea when exactly Sophia left, if she had anything to do before she headed to the coast, if she even is heading that way.
I drive and drive and drive. Oh, in addition to the centuricar, I also bought the guy’s phone off him. I know for a fact that I didn’t overspend for the centuricar because I had been looking around at options before I found that house. As for the phone, I’m sure I overspent, but every time I’m at a red light or a stop sign, I try calling her again.
It always goes to voicemail. Every time.
Finally, I’m unable to ignore the hunger pains. My stomach feels like it’s eating itself, and I park at a gas station
