Free The Cloud of Darkness (The Ingenairii Series Book 11) by Jeffrey Quyle

time?” he kept up his list of questions long enough and loudly enough to feel confident that Kecil heard them all.
    He shifted his load of food, then opened the door narrowly, and looked in.  Kecil was standing, staring at him, a stricken look on her face.  Alec twitched his head to the left, towards the portion of the room shielded by his bubble of invisibility, then twitched it again.
    Comprehension dawned on the lacerta’s face, and she scooted left and out of sight.
    “Are you going to let me look in there or not?” the guard asked.
    Alec swung the door open and stepped inside, making space for Gruy to look into the small space through the doorway.
    “Where is she?” the guard asked Alec, without seeming concerned.  “Where’s the woman you brought the food up here for?”
    “She may have gone to the temple to say her prayers,” Alec adlibbed.
    The guard looked without interest around the room.  “Just the one bed, and a small one.  You two are pretty close?” he leered.
    “She’s wild about me,” Alec said in a confidential tone, accompanied by a smirk.
    A grunt sounded from the corner of the room.
    “What was that?” the guard asked, starting to take a step forward.
    “Probably just the mice,” Alec frowned at the corner.
    “You and your lady friend have a good night,” the guard stepped backwards, and then out of the room.
    “Did you have to make that noise?” Alec asked after counting silently to five, waiting long enough to make sure the guard was really gone from the door.
    “Why’d you bring someone here? Was he a guard?” Kecil asked.
    “A squad of guards came into the dining room on a search; they’re searching for us.  They must be searching the whole city,” Alec speculated.  “I imagine the authorities are pretty embarrassed about that escape happening right in front of the entire stadium audience – all those witnesses.”
    He handed a bowl of the stew over to Kecil, as they both sat on the bed.  “If you haven’t eaten a lot lately, you ought to go slowly,” he advised, as Kecil picked a chunk of meat from the stew and began to greedily chew on it.
    There was an unexpected knock on the door.  “We have a few questions, for you, my lord,” Alec recognized the voice of the female officer he had seen in the dining room.
    Alec threw his bowl of stew aside and pushed himself onto the lacerta girl, knocking her stew out of her hands and to the floor as well, as he forced them into a prone position on the bed.
    “Trust me,” he said urgently as he cupped his hands around her face while lying on top of her.
    “Oh, what are you doing?  I feel something!” Kecil cried, while the door squeaked open, and Alec pressed his lips against those of his companion, feeling the lips plump out against his.
    “Oh, I see your companion is back,” the officer said.
    Alec lifted his face from Kecil’s, and raised his upper torso, while keeping the majority of his body covering the other body on the bed.
    “I thought we already had an inspection,” he protested, as he continued to keep his hands on Kecil, transmitting his healing power into her to transform her surface appearance from lacerta to human.  He continued to pour his power into her, making the transformation creep downward along her body, altering her torso and arms, then her hips and loins, and finally her legs.
    “Have some sense of decency and remove yourself from the girl while we’re here talking to you,” the officer snapped.
    Satisfied that his hasty work was sufficiently complete, Alec rolled to the side and sat up, while Kecil’s hands delicately touched the thick, wavy hair on her scalp that had previously been only sparsely covered.  Alec removed his hands, letting them delicately trail across the softened flesh of Kecil’s cheeks.
    “So what do you want?” Alec asked.
    “We are carrying out our inspection, and this happened to be the door we came to,” the officer said blandly.  “And you do