03 Solar Flare - Spark Series Read Online Free Page A

feet as she went.
The boy was heavy. “Blue,” she said, glowering at the boy’s father.
Tall, with black hair and indigo eyes, he looked more like a
retired mercenary than a cop. Certainly his children were
hellions.
    They wasted no time running to him and
tattling on her. “She was going to put us in jail!” Baden shouted.
Every word out of his mouth was always at volume.
    “She was going to make Uncle Azor lock us up
with murderers!” Kaden yelled, not to be outdone.
    “That’s right. I’m pressing charges for
assault and battery,” she said unrepentantly. “I have teeth marks
on my leg.”
    Blue coughed, but bent a stern look on his
lads. “Both of you, go to your mother. I’ll be there in two
minutes, after I talk to your aunt.”
    The boys looked cowed. Their father was the
only one who had that affect on them.
    He waited until they’d rounded the corner
before he fell into step with her. “Theoretically, you’re supposed
to the be the adult. You kind of blended in just now,” he
teased.
    “Theoretically, your children are supposed to
be human,” she returned sourly. “Oddly enough, they always remind
me of carnivorous apes. Tell me you two have decided to stop
reproducing.”
    He looked a little too innocent…and
proud.
    She grit her teeth. “She’d pregnant again,
isn’t she?” She didn’t know what was wrong with Gem. After the
twins, she’d have had her reproductive works cauterized, but Gem
had gone on to produce a daughter who was now three and a son who
was a year and a half. She seemed determined to single handedly
populate her husband’s private island with a teeming nest of rabid
babies.
    Polaris was a gas planet. All landmasses were
made up of massive, orbiting chunks of rock. It was essentially a
series of floating islands formed from asteroids that had been
pulled into orbit, stabilized and colonized. Polaris had a
breathable atmosphere, and its special properties kept the land
floating in a belt of temperate air.
    While they had no sea, the colonists had
mined ice from the moons and formed lakes in many of the asteroids
craters. They’d filled the lakes with fish and sea life. The planet
formed mist but no rain, so water was plentiful if carefully
recycled. Hauling in more from the moon to form new reservoirs cost
money.
    Farmers had used the water to turn the barren
surface of the asteroids into islands of lush growth, gradually
adding small livestock as grass took root and flourished. Each
asteroid had an electric bio-dome over it to keep the precious
water vapor inside.
     
    Blue’s farm produced medicinal plants, and
business was booming. Between his income and The Spark’s, his
family would never lack for money.
    Apparently, he and his wife also had plenty
of leisure to pursue the art of baby making. It was a mercy for the
rest of them that they spent most of their time on the plantation.
The inn’s inhabitants would have deserted like rats fleeing a fire
if they’d had to cope with little imps swarming the building.
    “We’ll probably stop after this set of twins
is born,” he assured her calmly, as if he weren’t about to unleash
more chaos on the world.
    “More twins?” she asked, aghast. “Boys or
girls?”
    “Girls,” he said with a smile. “Gem wants
their middle names to be Brandy and Xera.”
    She shivered. Some day she could look forward
to seeing her name on a wanted poster. At least they were merciful
and didn’t make them first names. “I’m honored. Really.”
    He smirked as they reached the family suite
near the kitchens. He gestured for her to go first. “I can see
that. Go on up—Gem’s waiting.”
    Brandy braced herself for the sight of
children taking over her living room. At least the room was
kid-proof. Although Gem no longer lived there, the objects in the
room had gradually gotten higher as the twins had first learned to
crawl, then walk. Now the room had the stark look unique to those
with small children. The exception was with