Not that Trazen would do that.
Well… Chloe hoped he wouldn’t.
Realizing that the venom really had worn off when doubt crept over her mind in relation to that point, as well as the reminder that she hadn’t known Trazen for twenty-four hours yet, Chloe fought to reestablish a healthy skepticism around the Ringmaster and his motives.
She knew the venom would make her want to trust him.
She was still thinking about that, watching Trazen where he sat casually on a curved bench, his muscular arm draped lightly over her shoulders as he listened to something another Nirreth said, when a commotion by the door got her to turn.
She hadn’t swiveled all the way around when a familiar voice rang overhead.
“Ringmaster Trazen!” it said in Nargili. “I would like a word with you… friend.”
She froze.
Around her, the dozen or so Nirreth at their table fell silent, too.
One cut himself off abruptly, mid-laugh at some joke a Nirreth bureaucrat had been telling them. That same Nirreth had been flirting openly with Chloe for the past half-hour, but seemed to fear Trazen enough, he wasn’t very aggressive about it, so she’d barely noticed.
That voice, however, smashed her calm into a million jagged pieces.
Her whole body stiffened, jerking immediately into fight or flight.
As if he felt it, Trazen wrapped his arm and tail strongly around her, pulling her against his muscular side. His presence enveloped her at once, dimmer from the diminished venom, but still strong enough to force her muscles to unclench.
Relax, he murmured in her mind. He won’t touch you, Chloe. I promise.
She nodded, but no longer believed him.
I promise, he repeated, softer. I promise, Chloe. Everything is all right. I would not have brought you here if I could not handle this.
She nodded again, but didn’t meet his gaze.
She could feel him contemplating stinging her again, fearing she might say something, expose him in some way. Even if she simply came across as too attached to him, too quick to jump to his defense––
I won’t, she told him, forcing her fear back, shutting herself down. I won’t. You don’t have to worry about me. I won’t do anything stupid.
Trazen’s arm coiled around her tighter.
She felt a flush of affection from him, worry.
Only then did she turn her head.
Barely giving Trazen a glance, she looked past him instead, focusing on the Nirreth with the crooked tail who stood there, his eyes glassed with drink and venom.
Agnon flicked his kinked tail in a whip-like arc when she turned, gripping the arms of two mostly-naked human females, one in each hand.
“I see you brought my property with you,” Agnon hissed. “Very considerate of you. I’d like it back. I have even brought these two in trade, to soften any sentiment you might harbor.”
Agnon thrust the two humans forward, one of whom almost fell, teetering on high heels.
Agnon didn’t spare her a glance, but stared at Chloe, his deep black eyes cold.
“I believe we only agreed on a loan, venerable Ringmaster? I am calling that loan in. If you don’t mind.”
Chloe heard the threat there.
She heard it, even as her eyes took in the crowd of armed Nirreth Agnon had brought with him. More walked through the front door of the building as he spoke, muscled and moving like fighters, wearing dark clothes.
It struck her suddenly, why Agnon would want to do this publicly.
Nirreth prided themselves on their ability to hold their own, whether via their own fighting prowess or their wealth and hired muscle. Agnon hoped to force Trazen into an unequal fight. He intended to beat him down publicly, thus diminishing Trazen’s status, in addition to taking Chloe from him by force.
Even if Trazen tried to use political connections to get her back later, he would lose face.
Moreover, Chloe suspected she wouldn’t survive long enough for Trazen to stage anything similar in response. Trazen may have the last laugh with Agnon eventually, but she wouldn’t be alive to see it.
All of that flickered through her mind even as Trazen rose from the bench.
Chloe had to fight not to clutch at him as he left her, watching him face down the half-circle of Nirreth guards who now boxed them in around the table.
A rustle of movement caused her to look behind her.
She frowned, watching as the Nirreth who had just been laughing and joking with her and Trazen stood up and began to back off, to remove themselves from the ring of armed guards. Some part of her wanted to call them cowards, but she knew there would be no point.
They weren’t fighters, any of them.
They were like Agnon. They hired other Nirreth to do their dirty work.
Trazen didn’t give those retreating Nirreth so much as a glance.
Chloe watched the dark-clothed guards rearrange their formation around the low table. They fanned around behind Agnon in a deceptively casual arc, watching the proceedings with dark, wary eyes, their tails flicking aggressively.
She saw one of them motion the human females out of the way.
Chloe saw both women’s eyes widen, right before one grabbed the other’s arm and tugged her out of the space in front of Trazen’s table. That same woman continued to pull her friend in the direction of the retreating Nirreth.
Even with their eyes glassed and confused by venom, both women stole glances back at Trazen and Chloe, fear in their expressions.
When Trazen didn’t speak, Agnon prompted him again.
“We can agree on this?” he said. “That this loan will now be returned?”
“No,” Trazen said, his voice equally cold. “We cannot.”
“She is not yours.”
“And yet she is. I acquired her in full. For a fair price.”
“A price that was not paid!”
“…A very fair price,” Trazen continued, his eyes locked on Agnon’s. “Particularly given how badly you treat your toys, friend Agnon. Moreover, you are incorrect. That price was paid by me in full earlier this morning. A gift to the Royals in your name… gratefully received.”
Agnon looked past him at Chloe.
Looking her over briefly, including the dress, he glanced back at Trazen, his dark lips lifting in a smile.
“You like her so much, Trazen?” he said.
“She is paid for. This discussion is over.”
“It is not over,” Agnon snapped, his tail coiling in another hard arc. “And she is not paid for.” When Trazen began to speak, Agnon cut him off, once more lashing the kinked tail. “I was able to intercept the gift you attempted on my behalf. I paid the Royals their tithe from my own treasury, and they accepted. Moreover, I returned the credits you had put up in my name to your accounts. I simply cannot part with her, I’m afraid––”
“The transaction occurred,” Trazen said, immovable. “That you returned the money to me is a detail. Seller’s remorse. I will give that money back to you, if you require it, Agnon––”
“I do not require it,” Agnon said, growling openly. “I require my property returned.”
“––Then I will view it as a gift to me,” Trazen continued smoothly. “But this transaction is finished.”
“I disagree,” Agnon said. “Further, I have witnesses to our exchange who disagree that this transaction occurred in good faith.”
“Meaning what?” Trazen said, his voice growing dangerously soft. “Are you accusing me of dishonesty, friend Agnon?”
Chloe felt something in the tenor of the exchange shift.
Whatever it was, it raised the hair on her arms and the back of her neck.
She also saw the muscles on Trazen’s arms and legs flex. He seemed to grow bigger, even as his lean, muscular body went utterly still, even his tail.
“I am saying that,” Agnon said, his voice unmistakably cold.
The row of Nirreth behind him tensed, their eyes now uniformly
locked on Trazen.
Agnon added, “I don’t know why you would deny that you had stolen her from me blatantly, Trazen. I had surveillance in that room. I lodged a complaint. I will have her back. Or I will have your blood in compensation!”
“Are you quite sure you want to do that?” Trazen said.
The silence grew even more loaded.
Chloe had to fight again not to grasp at Trazen’s arms, to pull him back.
She had a sudden vision of Agnon’s goons pulling out sandblasters and killing him right there. Or maybe hitting him with a pulre blast to the chest, one that would likely kill her too, given how he stood directly in front of her.
Somehow, the thought of dying with him, after everything, was almost a relief.
Trazen let the silence tick by a few beats more.
Then he let out his breath in a low hiss.
“You might want to think on this, friend Agnon,” he said, his voice silky quiet. “Give yourself pause here, try to hear your own instincts in your mind, even through the copious amounts of wine and venom clearly seething through your blood and skin.”
He lowered his head, his stare more predatory.
“Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to do this dance with me. Not with me, Agnon.”
Agnon let out a harsh laugh. “You are delusional, Ringmaster.”
Trazen didn’t flinch. His voice notched lower.
“I say this in generosity to you, friend,” he said softly, his eyes as black as coal. “…As a favor. Go find yourself another human.”
A low growl came from his chest, even as his tail gave a hard, flick through the air, curling around and back behind him.
“…I do not care how many of your lackeys you threaten me with. If you cross that line with me, you will regret it, Agnon. Some of our brothers here might wish they hadn’t listened to you, as well. Whatever you are paying them.”
Chloe felt her heart stutter in her chest.
Trazen’s words had come out different that time, stripped of politeness, any pretense at civility. The threat was palpable, transparent.
Even to her, and she wasn’t Nirreth.
Moreover, for the first time, it occurred to her that Trazen was right. Whatever happened here today, Agnon would replace her. Some other poor girl would end up exactly where Chloe had been, perhaps even with another Kiji in the pens as collateral.
The thought sickened her.
Moreover, it almost made her want to tell Trazen not to bother.
It struck her suddenly how quiet the room had gotten.
Glancing around the high-ceilinged restaurant, she realized that the other Nirreth and humans hadn’t left after they retreated from her and Trazen’s side. In fact, many new Nirreth and humans had crept closer to watch from other parts of the room.
That had to be the point of this, though––maybe for Agnon and Trazen both.
After all, Trazen had waited for this.
The thought should have reassured her, but it didn’t.
Chloe caught a few curious looks aimed in her direction. Most of those watching seemed to have caught that this fight was essentially about her.
Glancing up at Trazen, she saw every visible muscle once more coiling and flexing under his silky skin. He looked like how he’d described that female Rings fighter, like some kind of magnificent, predatory cat, ready to leap. It hit her again why he might feel so close to that dark-haired ex-skag, even if she was human.
They were the same.
The sameness there was tangible.
Chloe was still thinking about that when she felt the shift.
That time, it happened so fast, her eyes barely tracked any of it.
One of Agnon’s people reached for a sidearm––likely a pulre from how and where he wore it, but Chloe never got a chance to see that, either.
Before she could take a breath, Trazen leapt.
He moved so quickly Chloe could only gasp, banging her back when she flinched sharply backwards into the table. Watching him tackle the Nirreth to the ground, she barely had time to comprehend the danger he was in, before he was on his feet again, holding a long, blood-covered knife he’d yanked out of a sheath the same Nirreth guard wore.
He’d sliced open the Nirreth’s throat before she saw more than a glint.
He moved on Agnon next.
The scuffle was short that time.
Before Chloe could make sense of it, it was over.
Trazen stood there, his breath slightly quickened.
He gripped the shorter Nirreth in his hands, the knife’s blade pressed to Agnon’s thick throat. Trazen faced the circle of Nirreth guards, gripping Agnon by the back of the head, the blade balanced on top of his fingers as he gripped Agnon’s throat with the hand holding the knife.
The sharp edge already dented Agnon’s skin.
Agnon let out a frightened squealing sound.
Trazen’s long tail lashed behind him as he growled, deep down in his chest, staring down the other fighters.
“He can’t pay you if he’s dead,” Trazen said.
Chloe watched the guards look at one another.
More than one had their hands on holsters at their sides, but everything happened so quickly, none of them yet had time to draw. Some looked openly startled, as if unsure what just occurred. All of them watched Trazen warily, but Chloe saw a faint admiration in more than one of those stares, especially in the older Nirreth.
She also saw no real animosity there.
They had no personal stake in this fight.
Even as she thought it, one of them stepped forward.
He kept his long-fingered, midnight blue hand on the holster at his left hip, but held up the other hand in a kind of three-fingered peace gesture.
“Do not fire, friend and Ringmaster,” the older Nirreth said, his voice calming.
Chloe blinked at his words, confused, then glanced around behind her.
She realized only then that other Nirreth stood outside that main circle of bystanders, buried among the faces she’d assumed only hung around to see blood. Those newcomers held weapons in their hands, their faces stern.
Those weapons were all aimed at Agnon’s hired thugs.
Chloe swallowed, realizing she even recognized one of them, making out the face of the guard from Trazen’s doorstep that morning.
Noticing her stare, he gave her a reassuring wink, lashing his tail in a friendly way.
Agnon’s guard spoke again.
“We will go,” the older Nirreth said, his voice openly respectful.
“And your fee?” Trazen growled.
“We will forgo it,” the other replied, bowing.
“Traitors!” Agnon spat, head back, gasping where Trazen held him. “Cheating spineless traitors! I already paid you!”
Trazen responded the last way Chloe would have expected.
He chuckled.
Giving the lead guard a subtle Nirreth smile, he nodded to him, indicating with his head and chin towards the front door.
“Go,” he said. “And I would keep that bounty, if I were you,” he advised, motioning towards the guard on the floor. “Take him with you. I don’t want to be left in bad standing in this place. And he is yours to take.”
Now holding up both of his four fingered hands, the guard nodded, his posture even more submissive.
“We will take him, Ringmaster. Thank you… for your mercy.”
Trazen grunted at that.
Still holding Agnon by the neck, he watched the guards go.
Chloe thought that would be the end of it, that the display was over, but once the last of those black-clad guards disappeared through the door, Trazen raised his voice.
“I do this in front of witnesses, so there is no mistake,” he said, his voice ringing out, cultured-sounding, despite the thread of savagery Chloe still heard under his words. “You all saw him threaten my life. You know the law… that it is right for me to defend myself.”
There was a sil
ence.
Murmurs slowly rose around the room, thumps of feet and tails, signaling agreement.
Looking around him for dissent, the knife still pressed to Agnon’s throat, he added, “It is also my right to ensure it never happens again,” he added darkly.
“Now wait a minute, Ringmaster,” Agnon snarled, jerking against him.
But Trazen didn’t wait.
Without a wasted motion, he slid the curved blade across Agnon’s throat, slicing cleanly through the jugular. Blood sprayed out of the cut, as red as a human’s.
As red as Kiji’s had been.
Chloe stared, frozen in place, as Trazen then stepped back…
…and Agnon fell unceremoniously to the floor.
7
The Night
Chloe found herself lying awake, staring up at a ceiling that shone back at her with glimmering stars. She hadn’t noticed the virtual panel that morning; the sun had been up and the ceiling reflecting back natural light.
But now she found herself looking up at it, wondering how close the depiction was to the real sky beyond the Green Zone dome.
She couldn’t sleep.
Trazen hadn’t spoken a word to her on the trolley ride back from the restaurant.
As soon as the vehicle slid to a stop in his circular driveway, he’d clicked open the sliding door and disappeared through the opening, leaving it ajar for Chloe to follow.
By the time she had, he’d already vanished.
Presumably into the house, but she had no idea really, where he’d gone.
He didn’t seem angry at her. She also strongly got the impression he didn’t regret Agnon’s death. Something else was bothering him.
She suspected it might have something to do with the warning he’d hissed to the Royal Guard who showed up at the restaurant not long after he slit Agnon’s throat.
Chloe overheard Trazen ask them to keep the incident quiet.
He’d practically threatened them not to let it hit the media stations, or reach the palace of the Royals through any means apart from him.
He’s been pretty intense when he expressed those things.
Borderline frightening.
The Complete Alien Apocalypse Series (Parts I-IV Plus Bonus Novella): An Apocalyptic, Romantic, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion Adventure Page 101