Close Remembrance (The Krinar Chronicles 3)

“Come to gloat, have you?” Saret’s voice broke the silence. “I suppose you heard about my sentence.” His lips twisted bitterly, his fingers tugging reflexively at the crime-collar around his throat.

“No,” Korum said truthfully, “I didn’t

come to gloat.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I don’t know,” Korum admitted. “I guess I needed some closure.”

“Closure?” Saret laughed, a harsh sound that grated on Korum’s ears. “What kind of closure?”

Korum shrugged, unsure of the answer to that.

“Jalet and Huar came to see me yesterday,” Saret said, his eyes glued to Korum’s face. “They told me all about your little human bride and how your wedding is going to be the biggest event of the millennium. Congratulations. I guess you brainwashed her better than I ever could. Even after that bitch Laira undid my procedure, Mia still wants you. Did you tell her what you’re planning to do to her people?”

“Yes,” Korum said. “I explained everything. She understood. I never intended to harm her kind, only to make room for us on their planet.”

“Yeah, right.” Saret gave him a sarcastic look. “Do you think I don’t remember how you regarded humans once? How you said Earth should’ve been ours by right?”

Korum stared at his former friend in disbelief. “You truly thought I still held those views? Saret, that was over a thousand years ago! Everything has changed since then. I have changed since then –”

“Oh really? And what made you change? A tight little cunt and a pair of big blue eyes?”

Korum felt a strong urge to do something violent to Saret, but restrained himself at the last moment. “No,” he said, keeping his voice even. “I saw how quickly they were progressing and becoming more like us. I realized centuries ago that I had been wrong about them – that so many of us had been wrong. Surely you knew that.”

“No, I didn’t know,” Saret said. “Or maybe I knew and didn’t believe it. It doesn’t matter now, does it? After today, I will be no more. That’s why you came to see me now, isn’t it? To watch me die?”

“You won’t die,” Korum said calmly. “They sentenced you to a new version of complete rehabilitation, one that Laira herself came up with recently. Unlike the old one, it can’t be reversed.”

Saret laughed bitterly. “Right. Like I said, after this procedure I will be no more.”

“Goodbye, Saret.” Korum took one final look at his former friend and walked out, putting an end to that chapter of his life.

When he got home, Mia was waiting for him, an anxious look on her face. “How did it go?” she asked, getting up from the float where she had been reading her tablet. “Did you get a chance to talk to him?”

“Yes.” Korum drew her toward him for a hug. The familiar feel of her in his arms was soothing, taking away his stress and tension. As much as Korum hated to admit it to himself, seeing Saret today had been painful. Despite his betrayal, despite everything, Korum had thought of him as a friend his whole life, and he couldn’t help mourning the loss of that illusion.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him, her small hands rubbing up and down his back. Somehow she knew he needed comfort now; she always knew what he needed these days.

After a couple of minutes, she pulled back slightly and looked up at him, her blue eyes filled with sympathy. “When are they going to do it?” she asked quietly. “When is the procedure going to take place?”

“This afternoon,” Korum said, lifting his hand to brush a curl off her cheek. “In just a couple of hours.”

“And then what? What happens to those who are rehabilitated like that?”

“He’ll be taken to a special re-education facility, where the rehabilitated are taught how to become productive members of society again. He’ll know about his old identity, of course, but he’ll be given a chance to start over, to build a new life for himself.”

“And he’ll be completely changed? He won’t want to do those things again?”

“Most likely not,” Korum said. “And besides, he’ll be under close surveillance for centuries to come. At the least sign of renewed criminal tendencies, he will undergo the procedure again.”

She moistened her lips, and Korum found himself staring at her mouth, his thoughts suddenly taking a sexual turn. “Do you think we’ll run into him at some point?” she asked. “If he’s going to re-enter society after his rehabilitation, do you think we’ll see him again?”

Korum tried to tear his mind away from the image of her lips wrapped around his cock. “Probably,” he managed to say. “But don’t worry – he’ll be a very different man.” Despite the seriousness of the conversation, he could feel his body hardening, reacting to her nearness as it usually did.

Undoubtedly feeling the bulge against her stomach, Mia gave him a knowing smile and pressed closer, rubbing her breasts against his chest. Korum inhaled sharply, feeling her peaked nipples through the two layers of clothing that separated them. Her eyes darkened, her pupils expanding, and there was a hint of color stealing across the paleness of her cheeks. She was getting aroused; he could see it . . . and feel it and smell it. The warm, sensual scent of her was like an aphrodisiac to him, sending blood rushing through his veins and making his cock throb with need.

Still looking up at him with that seductive smile, she licked her lips again, slowly this time. The sound that escaped his throat was closer to a growl. She knew exactly what to do nowadays, how to drive him wild in the shortest possible span of time.