Steel Kisses by Laura Strickland

Author:Laura Strickland [Strickland, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: romance, fantasy, steampunk, NY
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2017-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

“What you going to do now, eh, with your pretty little dove gone?” Sasha prodded at Reynold the way a torturer might at his victim’s open wound. “I hear a whole bunch of those fancy automatons melted in the fire—nothing left but scorched steel.”

Reynold made no reply. The two men had walked down Niagara Street from the alley to view the aftermath of the fire. Half the Crystal Palace still stood. In fact from the front, other than signs of scorching, it looked little different from before. The rear and north side, however, where the fire had started, were gone.

“You mean they died?”

Sasha regarded him with insolent blue eyes. “They cannot ‘die,’ you fool-without-a-brain. They’re machines. Didn’t you ever get that through that thick head of yours?”

Reynold thought about punching Sasha in the face and dismissed the idea. It wouldn’t get him anywhere, and after last night’s excesses, he didn’t have the energy.

It had gone hard with him leaving Lily and Chastity alone in his room so he could report for work. He worried about what they might do there without him and had made them both—Chastity having roused from standby—promise they would not leave the room.

Would they get bored and restless? Could automatons get restless?

Chastity had told him she meant to try and analyze the formula of the enzyme wash that kept both her and Lily healthy. Lily has kissed him goodbye.

He promptly lost control of his thoughts and felt his eyes glaze over. What a night! He hurt from head to foot in the best possible way.

He wanted to do it all again.

But that didn’t answer the question of how he might continue to hide the two automatons. What could he ultimately do with them? He couldn’t begin to guess.

A policeman, catching sight of them, strolled down the street from his post in front of the Crystal Palace.

“Move along now, gents. Don’t need any gawkers here.” He had a rich, Irish accent and a set of shoulders like a bull.

Sasha, being Sasha, looked him up and down. “I don’t take orders from you.”

“Perhaps from the mayor, then? Or the warden down at the jail?”

Sasha—the ass—toed up to the officer. “You arresting me?”

“Sasha, come on. We need to get to work anyway.”

“Listen to your friend, sir,” the officer advised.

“He is no friend of mine. And I do not take orders from machines.” He shot a look at Reynold. “Can you tell that’s what this is?”

Reynold’s gaze flew back to the officer. He hadn’t been able to tell at once, but at second glance, the man looked familiar. Had Reynold seen him with Mrs. Gideon in the tavern that one night?

“He’s still in authority,” he told Sasha. “Let’s clear off.”

“Your companion has some sense, sir,” the officer told Sasha. “This area isn’t safe. We are to keep people out of the vicinity. I will arrest you if you do not comply.”

Sasha sneered, “So what happened to all the frilly bits, then?”

“Frilly bits, sir?”

“The mechanical whores that were in there.”

The police officer showed no reaction.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.