When she thought it that time, however, his tail coiled around her more tightly.
“I will not,” he told her bluntly, wrapping his fingers around her shoulder.
Exhaling a little in relief, Jet nodded a thanks to him, even as she caught Richter looking warily between them.
“Should I ask?” he said.
“No,” Laksri said warningly, tugging Jet tighter against him.
Jet didn’t mind.
Anyway, the concern in her mind had disappeared entirely, leaving no trace after the Nirreth’s reassurance. At that point, all she felt was a mild disappointment that they were leaving.
And hungry. She felt hungry.
She could feel Laksri’s hunger so clearly now, all she could think about was food. The more she thought about it, the worse his hunger seemed to grow, which of course made Jet’s hunger worse in equal measure.
Relief hit her when they finally began heading for the door.
Jet still didn’t want to leave, but they needed to deal with the food problem. She felt urgently they needed to deal with the Nirreth’s hunger right away.
They paused once, just long enough for Laksri to remind Jet to put on her shoes.
Again, she had no memory of having taken them off, but somehow Richter held them in his hand and was handing them cautiously to Laksri to put on her feet. Jet noticed Richter still approached the male Nirreth like one might approach a wild tiger.
Richter’s nervousness didn’t strike her as anything more than a curiosity, however.
Richter didn’t really interest her at that point.
The fact that Laksri knelt down and began putting the shoes on her feet, one by one, didn’t strike her as particularly odd, either. His long fingers remained gentle, and she found herself remembering the look of his densely muscled, nearly black-colored chest. Her fingers touched the side of his face as she thought about it, and briefly, Laksri closed his eyes, just before he pushed her hand gently away.
She started to wonder if he was unhappy with her in some way.
“No,” he said, glancing up. “I am not.”
He regained his feet in one, smooth motion, towering over her once more. Reaching out, he caught hold of her hair in one hand, stroking it carefully with his fingers. That time, it didn’t bother her at all.
“Not mad,” he said, adding a reassuring purr.
Leaning closer, he pressed his cheek briefly to hers. When he pulled away, Jet caught Richter staring at them again, and frowning. Jet saw what might even have been anger in Richter’s expression, but she had no idea what to make of it.
“I think you two better stick to a one-sting limit from now on,” he muttered, looking away when he caught Jet’s eyes on him.
Laksri didn’t answer. When Jet turned, she found the Nirreth’s eyes on hers, more intently than Richter’s had been.
He looked at her as if the two of them were once again alone in the room.
8
Dinner
Jet tried to focus on the room around her, and the people in it.
She felt eyes on her, which made her nervous.
They caused her to flinch into Laksri’s side a few times, even though he sat on the bench next to her, hovering protectively whenever another of the Nirreth came over to speak to either him or Richter, or merely to stare at her and Laksri together.
Jet felt the appraisals, and some of Laksri’s reactions to them, not all of which were pleasant.
Clearly, in Laksri’s mind at least, a number of those stares held a little too much interest.
Humans sat scattered among the Nirreth as well, dotting the tables with their smaller heights and lighter complexions. A few were male, which piqued Jet’s interest––as much as anything could interest her through the pleasant backdrop of venom where her mind rested.
That hyper-clarity didn’t confuse things so much as make it nearly impossible for any one thing to really bother her.
In addition to ordering food for her, and making sure she liked the beverage they gave her, ordering her a different kind when she found the first one too bitter, Laksri also answered her questions––some of them, anyway, between rounds of curious and roving Nirreth.
He often did so whether or not she voiced those questions aloud.
“Clothes mean attached,” he explained in a grunt, at one of her thoughts. “With friend.”
Jet had just noticed that all but two of the humans she’d seen wore the same patterned clothes she did, and that none of the Nirreth wore clothes with those same kind of patterns down the arms and legs.
She wondered if it was only a human thing, this being attached.
“No,” Laksri said, pursing his narrow lips.
His dark eyes shifted to hers, and briefly, she was again caught in the shimmering lights punctuating those black irises and pupils. Seeming to think for a few seconds, he showed her a necklace he wore, a brushed metal loop with a dark blue stone set in a pendant.
“Is that the male version?” Jet asked aloud.
She wondered if the boy humans were playing some kind of role that put them in female clothing, even as she fingered the stone at the end of the pendant with careful hands.
Laksri shook his head.
“No. Not male.”
He hesitated, as if trying to think of the right word.
“More like owner and trinket, kitten,” Richter intervened, leaning over the table from the other side of Laksri.
The Nirreth gave him an annoyed look, but when Laksri turned back to Jet, his expression softened some.
“It is true. More or less,” he admitted. “But some of this is just… tradition,” he said, fumbling with the word. “Other colonies… there were fights. This system makes fights less.”
He gave Richter another hard look before glancing back at Jet.
“I do not see this as ownership,” he added. “Not like this. I am aroused by the same things, yes. But this is not what I think.”
Confused by his words, Jet nodded only because she realized he finished speaking.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered no one else knew who Laksri was, in relation to her or Richter or the Royals, and that she had to be careful what she voiced aloud. In the same handful of seconds, she realized how much of him she could feel whenever he touched her skin, and for a little while, that distracted her into forgetting everything else.
His fingers caressed the back of her neck, pushing her hair aside.
She could feel his fascination with her hair through his touch and smiled at him.
“Christ.” Richter rolled his eyes, giving Jet a look that bordered on anger. “Save me from horny lizard-skins.” He gave Laksri a cold look. “That better be all this is. If you’re trying to play me, Laks…. or make sure our little darling here is loyal only to you…”
The Nirreth gave him a dangerous look, growling quietly as he gripped the back of Jet’s neck tighter in his fingers.
“Fine, fine.” Richter held up his hands in mock defeat. His eyes remained hard when he glanced back at Jet. “Just remember this tomorrow, kid. I was on your side. All right? Don’t just selectively ‘forget’ I tried to keep him off you.”
The remark puzzled Jet, but she found her eyes pulled back to the wider room as she sensed some kind of commotion coming towards them.
Again, she wasn’t really alarmed.
It only occurred to her to worry slightly when Laksri’s tail once more tightened around her waist.
When she saw who approached their table, she felt nothing but surprise, and a pleased recognition. The young Nirreth’s eyes bored into hers above where his arms and fingers wrapped around his pet otter, Scamp.
Young Prince Ogli looked at Jet herself only long enough to stare into her eyes, then at her neck. He stared long enough at the skin there, Jet found herself covering it self-consciously with her fingers.
By then, Prince Ogli had turned his attention to Laksri.
His dark eyes filled with a
seemingly uncontrollable fury.
“You have taken this human?” he demanded, his teeth half-bared. “You are saying she is yours now? That you intend to keep her with you? Beyond just this night?”
Jet noticed a lag existed between where Ogli spoke and when she actually understood his words. It occurred to her a beat later, Ogli spoke Nargili. She shouldn’t have understood him at all. Glancing down at where Laksri’s tail coiled around her waist, and now his hand held onto her lower arm, clutching her bare skin, she had to assume she was feeling the words through Laksri, along with the flush of his anger as he stared the young prince down.
“Have I offended you, divine son of kings?”
“Answer the question!”
Laksri’s tail tightened around Jet’s waist.
“I have taken her,” he said. “I intend to keep her. She pleases me. More than words can tell, divine one––”
“I should have you killed!”
“Again, I must ask what law I have broken. Does my choice in companions somehow offend you, most divine one?”
“Yes!” Ogli stomped his foot, looking at Jet and then back at Laksri. “Relinquish her at once! I demand it! I demand you tell her that she is no longer to be yours!”
Laksri’s tail tightened still more, pulling Jet against his side.
“You cannot make such a demand on me. Even you, divine son. I am sorry, but I am unwilling to relinquish my right. Nor do I foresee this changing any time in the immediate future. I am quite smitten, my lord––”
“Did you ask her?” Ogli demanded. “Did you ask her before? Or force her?”
“I asked her,” Laksri said.
Laksri looked at Jet as he said it. She felt a pulse of concern on him, despite his sure-sounding words, enough that her fingers wrapped around his. At the same time, she couldn’t help but be touched that the prince was so worried about her being forced.
“I will ask her!” Ogli threatened, the meaning of his words again coming to Jet on a slight lag. “When your venom has left her, I will ask her myself! If she did not consent, I have the right to take her from you. It is the law!”
Laksri bowed in acknowledgment of his words, but again, Jet felt worry in his hands, along with another feeling, what might have been… shame? Guilt, perhaps?
Jet didn’t fully understand, but found herself stroking the skin of his tail in reassurance. The feelings coming from him changed when she didn’t stop, shifting from guilt to a harder, more urgent desire.
It worsened as Jet kept touching him, and for her, too, once the echo effect brought it back in her direction…
Until Richter smacked Laksri on the other side.
Only then did Jet notice that the prince had left.
“Are you two going to need a chaperone tonight?” Richter said in a low voice, leaning closer over the table. “One equipped with a cattle prod, perhaps?”
Jet was about to say no, but Laksri answered first.
“Yes,” he said, his voice hard.
Richter smiled a little. Jet couldn’t help noticing he looked genuinely relieved, but his coffee-brown eyes remained hawk-like.
“Fine,” Richter said. “I’ll send Anaze. He won’t like it much, but he can sleep with your girlfriend in your bed tonight, Laks…”
When the Nirreth stiffened, hissing in displeasure, Richter held up his hands in another peace gesture.
“Hey! Big guy. He won’t touch her, all right? I just think he’s better off with her than with you. I don’t trust you not to sting him out of jealousy… and then you’d have no chaperone at all. Kind of defeats the purpose. Right?”
Laksri grunted a kind of reluctant concession, but his tail didn’t loosen around Jet.
She felt his anger at Anaze, but didn’t understand it.
Laksri changed the subject when he looked at her next.
“The prince,” he said, blunt. “He will want me dead.”
Jet felt her body tense. “What?”
“He will want me dead. Out of the way. It is the only legal way.” He frowned, staring at the space where the young Nirreth had stood. “I had not realized he was so infatuated, that he’d be willing to risk a public scene. This will complicate things.”
She pressed deeper into his side. “Can he do that? Kill you?”
Laksri shrugged, laying his free hand on the table. “Technically, yes.”
“So why are we doing this, if he can do that?”
“Don’t worry your head, kitten,” Richter said, grinning more cheerfully that time as he leaned over the table to speak with her. “You’re not the only ears we have in his quarters. We’ll keep the big guy safe. Scout’s honor.”
Jet glanced at Laksri, and found her muscles hadn’t relaxed at Richter’s words.
“Is that true?” she demanded.
Laksri shrugged, but his eyes met hers.
“I think so,” he said. Pausing at her expression, he caressed her cheek with one finger. “Do not worry. The Royals do not wish a scandal of this kind, so he will be on his own. He is too young to play this game very well.” Still studying her face, he kissed her cheek. “I will be careful.”
Their food arrived, and Jet found herself eating with an enthusiasm that surprised her.
She’d almost forgotten she was hungry.
The food didn’t lessen the effects of the venom any, but what Laksri ordered for her was different than anything she’d eaten in the Green Zone before, and better, really. It also differed from what he’d ordered for himself, so likely had been made with a human palate in mind, not a Nirreth one. She was a little shocked at how good it was, even without knowing what to call any of the specific items on her plate.
As soon as she thought the last part, Laksri moved closer, putting an arm around her as he pointed at splotches of color and texture.
“Fes-re,” he said, pronouncing it slowly. “Fesre, or Fesrin-ge. It is grain. From Astet. Many humans like this. It is close to your barley, and the spices easy for humans to digest.”
Jet nodded, leaning against his side.
The Nirreth’s arm tightened around her more. Again, she felt a flush of desire on him, but he seemed to be trying to control it more. That puzzled Jet, but she felt no ill will behind it, instead, a kind of protectiveness, so she didn’t mind.
“Los-em-ra,” he said next, pointing to what looked like some kind of meat covered in red sauce and another, smaller, grain-type plant.
“It’s meat, right?” Jet said. “What kind?”
Laksri frowned slightly, and Jet could feel him trying to remember the word in English. As he did, Jet got an image in his head of what he’d been thinking about and laughed.
“Rabbit?” she said. “Nirreth eat rabbit?”
He smiled, using that faint curl of the lip that didn’t display any teeth. It used to seem like such a subtle expression to her, but now it was as if he’d grinned at her, coupled with a look in his eyes that bordered on affection.
“These are very good,” he affirmed. “Tastes very good, this rayb-it.”
Jet laughed again, pointing at the grain. “Is this from Earth, too?”
“Yes.” Laksri nodded, close to enthusiastic. “Yes. It is grain here. From here. That is one we find easier to digest than most. We cannot eat the whet so many humans like. That hard grain that is so difficult to chew.”
“You mean wheat?” Jet said.
“Yes,” Laksri affirmed, nodding again. “Do you like this? We can still get it made. It is cheap here. Easy to grow and none of my people can eat without getting sick. We feed to animals. Your animals. Understand?”
Jet smiled, nodding as she took another spoonful of the losemra.
“No, this is good,” she assured him. “Whatever it is, I like it.”
His black eyes stared at hers, long enough that she forgot the food briefly, feeling that flutter in her belly again. It got strong enough that he abruptly turned away.
He didn’t remove his arm from around her as he con
tinued to eat, spearing chunks of meat in a pale green sauce and bringing them to his mouth to chew vigorously. Jet pointed at his plate with her own spear-like utensil, after watching him eat for a few minutes more.
“What is that?” she said.
Again, Laksri seemed to be thinking.
Then he laughed in that low-snort way and took his arm from around her, long enough to hook his fingers into claws, drawing his arms close to his body and giving a mock growl.
Jet giggled.
When he did it again, baring his teeth at her, she laughed aloud.
“Dinosaur?” she said. “You’re eating dinosaur?”
Laksri gave that grunting laugh of his and inclined his head sharply to the right. It struck Jet suddenly that this was the same as a human nod.
“Yes,” he told her approvingly, jerking his head to the right a second time. He inclined his head just as sharply to the left. “…No,” he added, by way of explanation.
Jet nodded. “Got it. I guess you just get used to seeing it mirrored…?” At his blank look, she added, “When you face someone, I mean.”
It struck her then, looking around the room, that very few Nirreth actually faced one another, at least while sitting down. All sat at benches in concentric circles, pretty much all of them facing the middle of the room.
Even those sitting in the center rings didn’t face one another; a floor to ceiling fish tank stood in the center circle, blocking the view. The tank was the size of an old water tower and filled with multi-colored tropical fish, as well as sharks, a flat, two-finned creature Richter called a “sunfish,” and turtles that floated and swam at the higher levels.
The tank was so large, it provided most of the lighting for the room.
The only other light came from constellations moving slowly across the dome, along with clouds and a crescent moon. Fake stones embedded in the floor also let off a faint glow, in mostly browns, greens, and oranges, but with the occasional violet, scarlet, or pale blue, like flowers dotting a forest floor.
Jet, Laksri, and Richter sat on a padded bench against a low wall, in probably the third or fourth of the larger rings when counting down from the top. A table so white it nearly glowed curved in front of them, broken only by trays of food.
The Complete Alien Apocalypse Series (Parts I-IV Plus Bonus Novella): An Apocalyptic, Romantic, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion Adventure Page 26