Page 175 of Ka'Cit's Haven

Blatant invasion of privacy, but did she want to be the girl who didn’t look and regretted it later.

As she eased up enough on her toes to see inside the house, her eyebrows rose.

She’d expected it to look like the grounds did, for some reason, but inside the house was…spotless and full of modern decorations.

The furniture was arranged neatly, the floor was clean, everything was in order.

Dropping back on her feet, Nia moved away from the window.

She guessed she’d chosen a bad time to visit. He wasn’t home.

She was just about to turn away when something caught the corner of her eye.

Something that made her breath catch in her throat and a chill run down her spine.

A tail.

On the ground behind one of the huge piles of metal, a tail was visible.

And not just any tail—a reptilian tail.

A tail like…

Oh God no.

With shaky steps, Nia moved toward the tail and the closer she went, the more the body was revealed.

It was one of those gator-guards and Nia stopped walking as soon as she saw what it was.

Fuck.

She glanced behind her, gripping the pipe she held in her hand.

The gator-guard’s tail twitched and her soul almost left her body.

Not far from him was a fallen blaster and Nia swallowed, calculating what she should do in a matter of seconds.

It was clear.

Darting forward, she jumped over the creature’s tail and grabbed the blaster.

It was still fully charged and she pointed it at the guard.

For a few moments, there was no more movement and she was about to allow her shoulders to sag when yellow eyes suddenly opened and stared directly at her.

It took everything within her not to shriek and jump backward, but Nia stood her ground.

The guard opened his mouth and hissed.

“Jekinnn,” it said.

Nia gripped the blaster and pointed it at the guard’s head.

Something had obviously happened here.

Now that she was on this side of the pile, she could see there was another guard laying farther down the path motionless.

“Where is he?” She jerked the blaster at the guard and he opened his mouth and hissed once more.