A harsh, insistent beep from the nightstand brought Rat back to the waking world. Groaning, she rolled over and rubbed her eyes before slamming the ‘receive call’ button. A small hologram of Jock’s face popped up in front of her, looking her up and down. She felt like a lump of pickled flesh with red eyes, cracked lips and a very bad migraine.      “Hi babe,...

     Gina returned to her body like an over-stretched elastic band snapping back to normal. She stumbled, dizzy and disoriented, and sank to her knees on the smooth vinyl floor. Blurred vision slowly began to clear, and to her surprise, the same room as before danced in front of her eyes. Jupiter knelt down next to her, helping her into a sitting position. It was as if no time at all had...

     “The arrangements have been made,” Hideo said, loosening the medieval-style velvet doublet that was his idea of formal attire. “The Fifteen are coming here. Banshee included.”      He stripped off the bits of plate armour on his shoulders and elbows and stretched. From the bags under his eyes, he hadn’t been well-acquainted with sleep lately. Rat offered...

     Gentle hands shook her awake, pulling her back to her body like a frayed string attached to the back of her mind. It creaked and threatened to snap at any moment, but she arrived intact behind her own eyes. Immediately she cringed away from the hands and curled up into a foetal ball. Her mind was still hovering on the painful edge of orgasm, still felt the fading glow of Jock grinding inside her, but her body...

     The hologram floating in front of Bomber was all but perfect. It had Gabriel’s face down to the smallest wrinkle, his exact voice, even his presence. The image was no larger than a man, but just like Gabriel himself it seemed to fill up all available space, demanding everyone and everything’s full attention. Hate boiled in Bomber’s stomach at the sight of it, but he kept a tight rein on his...

     Gina trod lightly on her way back to her body. The closer she got, the stronger was the throbbing sense of wrongness, like a wound that had stopped bleeding but was no less raw than before. Emily Vaughan wanted to run away and never come back, but Gina Hart gritted her teeth and continued onwards with iron discipline. She searched for the bit of Gabriel now squatting in a hollowed-out part of her soul. It was...