Razar

by Starr Huntress

  “They are sea creatures with a rich, delicious meat. I’ve only had them a couple of times, as they are often reserved for special occasions.”

  “What is this, then?” I turned to find her eyes flashing just a few inches from me. Everything in her face seemed to be inviting my lips to find hers. There was a softness, almost a vulnerability about her that melted me to the core.

  “I’d say this is very special.”

  Alicia seemed to catch her breath at my words, and looked even deeper into my eyes. Her head tilted ever so slightly to one side, and her eyelids lowered. Everything was pointing towards a world-shaking kiss.

  Just as I was about to lean in, something held me back. All I wanted to do was drop the bag, bury my hands in her hair, and pull her to me. To abandon ourselves to each other. But, even if it suddenly felt inevitable, I knew we couldn’t do it in public—particularly on a trip arranged specifically for her mating initiation.

  “How many do you lovebirds want?” We looked up to see a sweaty Jorkan grinning down at us, his beefy arms folded across his apron.

  “Oh, um… we’re not…” We snapped up like a shot, each one stammering protestations that didn’t really amount to sentences, scratching at our arms and shuffling our feet, doing everything we could not to look at each other.

  “Uh-huh,” he said. “Sure. How many was that?”

  “Can we get two?” I held up two fingers, like an idiot, as if saying it wasn’t enough. The vendor whistled through his teeth.

  “Alright, big spender. Either it’s not nothing, or you’re spending someone else’s money.”

  Both, I wanted to say as I peeled off the bills and he handed over the wriggling bag.

  “Don’t make them wait too long,” he warned, “or they’ll figure their way out and come running back.”

  “Is that true?” Alicia asked me as we wandered away from the market.

  “Oh, yes. Tunisics are incredibly intelligent. Possibly the most sentient beings in the sea.”

  “No,” she recoiled. “If that’s true, is it really right to be eating them?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’ve never tasted them!”

  This whole event had been designed to drag Varon away from his luxury and force him to rough it a bit, but here we were, tripping forward into one of the most opulent meals I had enjoyed in ages. Even the feast was going to pale compared to the company.

  Almost by accident, Alicia’s hand bumped against mine, and our hands slid naturally together, our fingers entwining. I turned to look at her, but she was still gazing around at the tail end of the market, breezy and relaxed. More and more each minute, I felt like Varon was the biggest fool I had ever met.

  Thankfully, I had a fire built well before the sun went down. It could get cold out in the open, and while I might have held out wishes for other ways to keep warm, we had to cook our food somehow!

  “This is outstanding!” Alicia was plucking the last bits of her Tunisic out of its shell and savoring each bit. It was a pleasure to watch her experiencing all of this for the first time.

  “Do you want the rest of mine?” I held out the deep burgundy shell, still warm from its place by the fire. She let a devilish smile wash over her face, acting as though she was actually considering refusing. But we both knew she was going to take it.

  “Razar,” she sighed after indulging in the last bits of our meal, “this is ideal.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  An incredulous look furrowed her brow. “How could I not? Look at this.” She leaned back onto her elbows and cast her eyes up at the sky. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many stars.” I lay back to take it in, as well, and she turned that quizzical look on me again.

  “What are you doing way over there?” The words were ripe with invitation. She patted the ground next to her, and I scooted over. We lay so close, our body heat was radiating to each other, as if I could feel her reaching out to me across the inch of space.

  She was. After a moment, her fingers found mine in the same casual way they had when we were leaving the market. Everything in my body tingled at her touch.

  All through dinner, we had found small ways to brush against each other. Fingertips as we passed food back and forth. A few times, she laid a hand on my knee when we were laughing over some inconsequential remark or other, then let it linger there after the laughter had subsided. It was all so perfect.

  As her fingers twined themselves into mine, she spoke again. “So beautiful.”

  I turned, expecting to see her gazing up into the sky, but instead, found her studying the side of my face as if she meant to draw it. In the dim glow of the fire, her eyes kept changing color, but every shade beckoned me closer. Almost imperceptibly, we closed the distance between us.

  An awful blare sounded from my backpack. In the awkward stillness that followed, we stared at each other, wondering if the moment had broken. Another blare.

  Yup. It was broken.

  “Yeah?” I couldn’t help letting my irritation show as I answered my communicator.

  “Yeah?” Varon snapped back, mimicking my tone, “Yeah? Is that any way to answer my call?”

  “I’m sorry, sir.”

  “I should imagine so! Where the hell are you two?” Seeing my uneasiness, Alicia had sat up and was watching me intently.

  “We’re at the campsite, sir. As you requested, I brought her out on the excursion you were scheduled for…”

  “Whatever,” he cut me off. “Just get back to the casino. Like, right now. I need you.”

  “Is anything the matter?” He didn’t even let me finish my question.

  “Just get here, Razar.” The line went silent, and all I wanted to do was hurl my communicator out into the darkness.

  “Is everything okay?” Alicia was looking up at me, obviously unsettled by how angry the terse conversation had left me.

  “Everything is going according to the Protocols.” I started kicking dirt onto the fire to put it out. “Start gathering your things together. Varon wants us back as soon as possible.”

  Alicia looked every bit as miserable as I felt.

  Alicia

  “Don’t put it all out at once!” Razar had been dousing the fire, clearly frustrated given the ferocity of the kicks he’d been leveling at it. I felt every bit as wound up, but I had to keep a level head. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere. If Varon wants us back at the casino so badly, how does he expect us to get there?”

  Razar stopped moving and just stared down into what was left of the fire. In an instant, he snapped his communicator up, thumbed over the screen, and pressed it to his ear.

  “Yilap? Yeah, we need a ride back. Okay, I’ll send you the coordinates.”

  My heart sank. Part of me had been wishing that he would just call his boss back and say we were stuck out here, that we were stranded until they came to pick us up in the morning. It wouldn’t be the perfect situation, and there’d be hell to pay when we got back, but at least I could spend another night in his arms.

  “He should be here shortly.” Razar’s voice was flat. That same kind of professional, matter-of-fact tone he used nearly every time Varon snapped at him. The sound settled in the pit of my stomach when he used it on me.

  “Maybe we should snack on what’s left of our dinner,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. He didn’t move. Everything about me was going cold, but not from the night air.

  The night had been so perfect. So many things about it had set me at ease in ways that I couldn’t have imagined even a day ago. It was impossible to explain, but everything about the way Razar and I clicked together felt right. And I knew it wasn’t just a residual feeling from the ecstatic tangle we had shared.

  “Razar?” At last he looked at me. “At least come lie with me and look at the stars some more until they get here.”

  “We should really get our things together.”

  “They can wait.” He didn’t move. “Please?”

&nb
sp; His whole frame softened, and our eyes found each other again. He approached and I laid back so he could settle down next to me. This time, I didn’t even make the pretense of finding his hand by accident. If anything, I wanted him to know that I was reaching out for him.

  The electricity of our moments before had evaporated entirely, and I knew that the inevitable kiss—and all that would have followed—were out of the question now. As Razar squeezed my fingers back, a fire lit up inside my chest. I felt robbed. And I knew exactly who to blame.

  Even as we lay looking up at the stars together, rage surged under my skin, making my skin crawl all over. I wondered if Razar felt it—if I was hot to the touch. For his part, he kept still, his eyes locked on the swirling cosmos above us.

  I couldn’t see the stars. I couldn’t even hear the crackling of the fire, or the soft nighttime sounds. All my senses were focused on the hateful purple face of the creature I was supposed to marry, the thing I was supposed to spend my life with. The only hope I had was that after my thirty days were up, it would be relatively easy and painless to collect my cash and get out of here, after making it clear that I wasn’t going to sign.

  As much as I knew Varon and Razar were of the same race, they couldn’t possibly have been more different. Everything about Varon repulsed me, down to the swishing of his greasy, nasty little tail. Just when I thought I was going to scream, or squeeze Razar’s fingers until they cracked, a transport vehicle came rolling up.

  As it ground to a halt, Razar leaped to his feet and dusted off his clothes, as if he wanted to pretend we hadn’t just been lying side by side. It made me profoundly angry. Not at him, necessarily, but at the whole stinking business.

  “Alright, you two, hop in.” Something in Yilap’s voice told me he was just as frustrated as we were. Razar started to stride toward the vehicle, but I wasn’t budging.

  “Why the hell should we?” Razar stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder at me. Yilap froze in place.

  “What… what was that?” Yilap stuttered.

  “I said, why the hell should we go back to that fucking casino?” The two Jorkan exchanged a look.

  “Well,” Yilap started, licking his lips as if his mouth had gone completely dry. “The Earth/Jorkan Protocols…”

  “I don’t give a good goddamn about whatever those ‘Protocols’ say. It’s all anybody has been talking about, and I’m here to tell you that I didn’t sign anything, so I don’t have to do squat.”

  “Alicia,” Razar was turning to face me now. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, I can’t stand that drunken, vindictive, ugly jerk I’m supposed to be ‘paired up’ with. In point of fact, I can’t think of a single thing about him that doesn’t make my skin crawl.”

  “Now, now, now, now,” Yilap was stammering as if he thought he might be able to get on top of the situation. “I’m sure you don’t feel as strongly as that…”

  “Like hell I don’t!”

  “Look, just come back with me, and we can forget about all of this.” He was sweating so hard, his shirt was getting damper by the moment.

  “I’m not going back.”

  “You have to!” Yilap shouted so loudly, and with such force, that even he looked surprised.

  “Alright,” Razar cut in. “What exactly is going on?”

  Yilap’s eyes darted back and forth between us, then his whole body slumped.

  “I don’t know what’s going on, okay?” Words started to tumble from him. “I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something off about the whole situation. We’ve never had a Jorkan act the way Varon is behaving, and he keeps flouting everything we try to do. I know it’s terrible, and I don’t like it either. From the very beginning, something has seemed off.”

  “Shhh.” I settled Razar with a small wave of my hand and turned back to Yilap like I was coaxing a kitten out into the open. “Go on.”

  “I’m not sure what else to say. The whole thing is fucked, I know, but we’re going to need you to keep playing along with it for a little while, okay?”

  “What?!” I snapped back at him, and Razar came over to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. He wasn’t restraining me—far from it. He just held me. The gesture spoke with more than just friendly affection, and I saw Yilap observe it. An odd look flitted across his face, but he didn’t comment.

  It felt strange, but in that moment, I felt sure he was in our corner. The way Razar cradled me, anyone could see that we were way beyond the professional relationship called for by the situation. If Yilap was going to take that in stride, then I found myself more willing to try to see things his way.

  “Look,” he went on, sounding much clearer and steadier than before. “I don’t like the situation any more than you do, either of you. But, if we’re going to find out what’s going on, you’re going to have to keep your heads down and play along.”

  “There’s only so much longer I can play. Varon has been making the most of the party life, but one of these nights, he’s not going to get so wasted. He’s eventually going to want to make good on all the bragging he’s been doing.”

  Even at the suggestion of it, I could feel Razar tense up. I put a hand on his arm in an effort to reassure him, but kept my eyes on the guide who’d come to bring us back.

  “That’s a legitimate concern.” Those weren’t the words I wanted to hear. “Still, I have a feeling it’s not going to come to that.”

  “It had better not,” I said, with just a hint of the steel I had evidenced when Yilap had arrived. “Because if he thinks he can put a hand on me like that, I’m going to kick the living shit out of him, Protocols or no Protocols.”

  “That makes two of us,” Razar said.

  “Well,” Yilap raised his eyebrows. “You’ve got my vote. Now, are you getting in?”

  It was some time after settling into the transport that I heard Razar ask Yilap,

  "What are you thinking?"

  I turned away from the window and studied them both, alerted by the odd tone of Razar's voice, and the even odder expression on Yilap's face.

  "I really shouldn’t say," Yilap said, shifting restlessly. His gaze cut to me, then back to Razar.

  After a moment of silence, Razar turned to me, "I can get you out."

  Yilap stiffened. "No! That would—oh, dear, that would not be good."

  I saw in Razar's eyes the same fear I harbored. "It's only a matter of time before that prick tries something," I said. "And I already told you what I would do when he does."

  "Give me some time," Yilap said. "There are . . . avenues I need to explore."

  Razar closed his eyes. "And if we're going to do this, it has to be done easily. I can come up with a way to keep you out of his clutches, but it will take time to set up—and if I screw it up, then I'm toast. Which means there'd be no one left to help you. Fuck."

  I watched his hand curl into a fist on his thigh and understood what he didn’t want to say. "You need me to bide my time and keep Varon happy while you figure out a plan."

  He grimaced. "Yeah. Can you do that?"

  Could I? Probably. My skin crawled at the thought of letting Varon touch me or even just be in my presence, but I'd do what I had to. My mind caught on the word 'toast'.

  "What will happen if he finds out you’re conspiring against him?" I asked.

  His grim silence said everything, then he smoothed his expression. "Don’t you worry about me."

  "How much time do you need?"

  "A few days. Hold on for a few days."

  Yilap sighed, rubbing his hand across his face. "This is all so wrong," he muttered. "How did this go so wrong?" He straightened. "I'll be working behind the scenes as well. The Protocols . . . they shouldn’t fail like this. Something is wrong."

  I wanted to say that's what happened when governments tried to force women into situations without their consent, but I held my tongue, firmly saying instead, “I’ll be fine. I can do this.”

  Raza
r hesitated, mouth firming, and took my hand. “You don’t have to.”

  “I do. You just said what the consequences could be. No, Razar.” I put my fingers over his mouth. “I don’t want you hurt any more than I want to be Varon’s toy. Trust me to handle myself so you can figure out a way to get us out of this.”

  He sighed, then nodded, and I spent the rest of the trip steeling myself.

  Razar

  I heard the yelling before I even turned the corner to Varon’s hallway. Taking a deep breath in through my nose, I braced myself for what was bound to be a really lousy night.

  “I don’t give a shit about any of your excuses, just make sure it happens!” There was a sound like he had hurled his glass across the room. Some lackey from the casino darted out through the open door and ran down the hall past me. Damn, this was going to be bad.

  As I came through the doorway, I could see the broken remains of a glass scattered near the fireplace. Varon’s back was to me and he was splashing liquor into a fresh glass. All I wanted to do was race across the room and slam his head against the countertop before he had a chance to see who it was.

  “Well, well, well,” he hissed, turning woozily around to face me. “Took you long enough.”

  “We had to wait for Yilap to come with a transport, sir.”

  “That lazy fucking bastard!” He gulped a healthy mouthful of booze. “No doubt he took his time about it. That son of a bitch is always trying to find ways to get me.” A flag went up in my brain.

  “To get you, sir?”

  “That’s right! Always skulking around. It’s like every time I open a door, he’s on the other side of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was spying on me.” Those beady eyes locked on me. “Of course, none of that would be a problem if you somehow managed to do your job.”

  “It’s difficult under the circumstances, sir.”

  “Yeah,” he laughed, “no shit! It’s impossible to get anything done around this place. You would think I didn’t even own it, the way that Yilap feels like he can boss me around. All these pissant little activities and dates? It’s disgusting!”