by Poppy Rhys
“Is that-” Grams peered closer. “Is that a tail?” Her incredulous laughs were contagious as Dr. Trex nodded. “Guess since she doesn’t have four arms, she got the tail instead.” Soren huffed his amusement.
Dr. Trex went about checking over Lucia. He removed the gauze from her wrists, a nurse helped him clean the disgusting shredded skin and apply more nanomed cream. They put medicated drops in both her red eyes to speed along the recovery. The stitches inside her cheek were numbed and she was urged to swish a solution carefully through her mouth that stung and brought water to her eyes. After that was finished, Lucia was helped to sit up and lean over Soren’s arm so Dr. Trex and the nurse could check the welts from the beam lash. They didn’t hurt as much as everything else since the skin never broke, but they were sore.
Soon he’d left with promise that he’d send broth and more water. Her head felt good against the freshly fluffed pillow and for a few minutes she dozed after all that movement. When she came to again and Soren was grinning she questioned what he was smiling about.
“You snore.”
“I told you, I do not,” she hissed and her need to convince a room full of people that just witnessed her snoring only made them chuckle.
“I told you, I do not mind,” Soren’s grin didn’t go away and Lucia rolled her eyes.
When the nurse brought back her broth, Lucia insisted she try feeding herself, much to Soren’s annoyance. It was a slow process and it took her forever to steady the spoon so it didn’t slosh all over her but she eventually got it to her mouth. “I can’t feed myself if you keep staring at me like that,” she complained at Soren who rolled his eyes and glared at his brothers who hissed their own laughter between each other. They shut up and went stoic again.
“What happened to Ta’Ra’Enn?” Lucia felt a tremor at the name, causing the spoon to shiver loudly against the glass dish before she lifted it again. The silence that extended on was deafening. Lu looked around as she held her spoon up from the dish.
“Val’Ja ripped him limb from limb,” Val’Zun volunteered.
Gi’Ren grunted. “That is putting it pleasantly.” They both looked warily at Soren.
“Barbaric,” Val’Zun agreed.
“Enough,” Soren growled and then turned his gaze back to Lucia. The back of his knuckles brushed her good cheek. “You are safe now.”
“At least he’s clean now,” Grams chuckled, stroking Lucia’s hair. “He was wearing Ta’Ra’Enn until you were back to sleep and recovering.”
Lucia shivered as a vague, drug hazed image of Soren coated in black film and gore flitted through her mind. She looked at him. “Thank you,” she whispered and then glanced at his brothers. “Thank you both too.” Once again the brothers looked at each other, like they were confused before nodding in sync.
“What about Quinton?” Lucia took another spoonful of broth. It stung against her stitched cheek but it tasted wonderful.
“He was arrested,” her father grated. “He has admitted to his involvement and assault. The Assembly will dole out punishment in the coming weeks.” She’d never seen her father so angry before. Angus always had a jovial disposition.
“Maybe this will sway Mr. Rowal’s view on flesh peddlers.” Lucia’s shoulders shook and she wheezed a few bursts of chuckles but no one else laughed. “Too soon?” By the few groans, it must be. She took another taste of broth and shrugged. “So you have brothers, hmm? And your name is Val’Ja?”
Soren watched her, nodding. “Yes.”
Lucia scowled at his lack of detail. “Val’Ja,” she sounded on her tongue. “Is this what you want me to start calling you?”
“No.”
Soren’s brothers grunted, insulted. “Is our mothers name for you not good enough any longer?” Gi’Ren said this. Lucia was noticing he was the more combative one.
“I am Soren to Loo-Sha,” he threw a quick glance at his brothers. “I am Val’Ja to you and our people.”
“That will go over well,” Val’Zun sighed.
“What do you mean, ‘our people’?” Lucia asked and Soren hesitated.
“He is prince Val’Ja, son of our father, king Val’Qa, son of our mother, queen Gi’Moy,” Gi’Ren said proudly. Val’Zun scrubbed a hand over his face and Soren growled.
“What?” Lucia’s eyes bugged and the broth in her spoon sloshed. Soren dabbed it up with a cloth. Lu’s mind did a little reel. “You’re royalty?” The thought just struck her as hilarious. She put her spoon back in her bowl before her peels of whispery, raspy laughter shook her entire frame. Wheezing sounded around the room as she couldn’t stop herself and held her middle while the tender muscles along her ribs ached. “I’m sorry,” she croaked, wiping the tears that leaked from her eyes. “For some reason that struck me funny.”
“Oh dear,” Nova breathed in her normal fashion whenever Lu was being impolite, rude or embarrassing.
Lucia lay back against her pillows, trying to rest her now aching muscles. She took some calming breaths and closed her eyes. Once again her hand strayed to her belly and she rubbed, the gesture oddly comforting for herself. She wondered what Soren’s –Val’Ja’s- adolescence had been like and what his family consisted of. “Tell me about your home,” Lu sighed and relaxed.
“I will show it to you instead,” Soren replied, followed by another growl when his brothers sounded their protest. Lu’s eyes did open after that.
“What’s wrong?” The brothers did not look pleased.
“Ignore them,” Soren waved his two left hands in dismissal. “When you have recovered and labored, we will visit my home.”
“We are stuck here? For how long?” Gi’Ren groaned and Val’Zun looked like he wanted to know too, but was apologetic that his brother was so boorish.
“You may leave when you wish.” Soren said evenly.
“You know we cannot. Mother would have our heads if we told her you were alive but did not bring you back.”
“Then stay. I do not care either way.” Soren looked at Lucia and shook his head as if to say ‘siblings’ and she giggled, knowing all too well.
Chapter 18
Another week passed and Lucia was getting better. Dr. Trex had begrudgingly let her go home after her sixth day in the hospital. Lucia had been up, walking and regaining some rasp to her voice. Her cheek was healing nicely, the knot completely gone and the bruising a purple collage now instead of nearly black. Her eyes still spooked her every time she looked in a mirror. Bloody and demonic, healing so slowly it didn’t make much difference after one week. She was still limited to soft foods, which was driving her insane with need to eat meat.
“But if I don’t have meat, I’m going to die,” she moaned dramatically to her family as they sat around the terrace, eating second meal. Her voice was still raspy, due to the damage to her vocal chords, but it was easier to understand her. The nanomeds were still working away, healing, repairing and doing their thing. Without them, Lucia’s voice may be forever damaged. It would’ve been a painful reminder for the rest of her life.
“When you whine like that, dear,” Nova began, sipping her water. “You sound like a Yungi.”
Lucia scowled and blew at a curl that dangled over her forehead. Her mother had just told her she sounded like a very annoying bird species. “Rude.” Val’Zun was on fan duty as he sat beside her, much to Soren’s amusement. The hot flashes, as Lucia referred to them, continued to plague her at the most inopportune times. Rafe had finally fixed the cooling system, but it seemed she would freeze everyone out of the house if she messed with the temperature outside of her wing. Thus, she still needed fanning if she ventured from her rooms. The rounder she got, the more she sweat. She almost needed two baths a day if she spent any time outside of her rooms, which was often.
To top it off, two days prior she’d begun emitting an odor that made her smell like rew’san; a tart fish that was often ground to a paste and served with herbed crackers. Very few people actually enjoyed it and even less liked the smel
l. Soren thought it smelled delicious and both his brothers agreed it was pleasant, to their annoyance. Dezzy loved it too. Everyone else kept a ten foot radius. Lucia couldn’t smell it on herself, so she had no idea what was going on.
She’d finally called Dr. Trex and he’d made a house visit. The wrinkle of his nose and the look on his face proved her family hadn’t been fibbing. He’d said it was a pheromone reaction, probably originating from the Melier part of the babe meant to keep the father close to the mother for protection and care during a ‘fragile’ time. I’m fragile alright, Lucia had thought, fragilely holding onto the last shred of my patience. And of course, there was nothing he could do. ‘Let nature take its course, my dear’, he’d said, all but clamping a hand on his nose and leaving in a hurry.
“I smell like fish, I can’t eat meat, and I can barely rasp my displeasure at either dilemma,” Lucia continued to whine, signalling for Val’Zun to fan faster as she was wont to do. He rolled his eyes in response, but obliged. Lu sucked in her lips to keep her smile from showing, because they were totally picking up some of her families human gestures. Over the past week, Gi’Ren and Val’Zun had tried to not display their displeasure at everything human. Especially the stuff they found intriguing; like moco. Lucia had to roll her eyes at that. What was it with moco and Melier’s? Maybe it was the strategy of it all.
“I’d even accept a dish of Poshka tentacles at this point.” Lucia supressed her urge to ‘gag-mmm’. That sick mixture of revulsion and hunger clenched her gut.
“Well, I’ve lost my appetite.” Frellie pushed away her plate and Lucia eyed it hungrily as strips of some cooked beasty lay upon it, untouched. Soren followed her gaze and pushed Frellie’s plate in the other direction.
“No,” he simply said, lips twitching.
“I could end you right now, I hope you know that,” Lucia narrowed her eyes. Gi’Ren grunted. He grunted at everything and Lucia was still trying to decipher if there was a difference that may indicate if it’s an amused grunt or an angry grunt or a noncommittal grunt.
He really is boorish.
“I thought sitting with royalty would be more entertaining,” she hedged, poking a weak spot for Soren’s proud brothers. Lu scooped up a spoonful of some mushy cooked green plant and continued eating as Val’Zun and Gi’Ren glared at her. She wiggled her head side to side as if she was eating a delicious dish and completely unaware of their displeasure at her jab. They still hadn’t caught on to Lucia’s delight in teasing the both of them and Soren. They couldn’t understand how Soren had put up with such an insulting creature, which only goaded Lu to be more insulting.
Like yesterday, she’d been talking to her ever growing belly as they’d all been in the den enjoying the evening after third meal. She cooed at the unborn babe and told her how grumpy unca GiGi would love her to pieces and unca Zunny would teach her how to write her letters.
They’d nearly lost their heads.
Lucia laughed and laughed, rasping and whispering her glee. Soren had almost been as entertained as she was. GiGi and Zunny is exactly what Lucia had begun to call them when she felt particularly ornery. They always responded too, since they refused to be as rude as Lu. Sometimes she did feel a little childish about it, but they had to loosen up. Live a little, she tried to coax them. It was something akin to speaking to Dezzy; they sat there, blinked at her and then ignored her entirely. It was hopeless, but Lucia was a persistent person. She’d win them over eventually.
“I hope it’s nice and cold on your planet,” she pushed on through the green sludge. “Or at least some kind of cooling system in your residence- castle? Palace? What is it you live in, anyway?”
“The temperature is much higher on Melierun,” Zunny supplied. He was the nicer of the two, but still quite staunch. “Yes, a palace. It has proper cooling technology.”
“Thank goodness,” Lucia sighed. “So GiGi, Zunny,” she said with a serious face, trying her hardest not to rasp a laugh at their growls. “Are either of you partnered?” Her brows waggled.
“Lucia,” her mother warned. In that one tone, she said a lot. ‘That’s rude, Lucia’. ‘Don’t waggle your eyebrows like that, it isn’t proper’.
“I’m curious,” Lucia feigned innocence, taking another goopy mouthful.
“No, we have concubines.” GiGi grunted.
Lucia choked her mush down and then coughed, taking a drink of her water. “What?”
“Even if we had mates, we would still have concubines,” Val’Zun said this nonchalantly as if they were still talking about weather. “It is natural among our people. If Val’Ja mates you, you will be expected to have lovers and he will have concubines. It is a high honor to be the lover of royalty.”
“The hell I will!” Lucia dropped her spoon in her goop and some sloshed onto the table. “And don’t you even think about it Soren, if you ever plan to piss straight again.”
“She’s hopeless,” Nova mumbled into her glass, downed it and waved a servant over to refill it.
“That is unrealistic,” Val’Zun said as he stopped fanning. “Princes have always shared their mates and concubines.”
Lucia’s eyes nearly fell from her head as she stood up abruptly. Her chair toppled backward and a servant scrambled to pick it up. She would’ve apologized for being so rude, but she was still trying to gather her wits and stop gaping like a fish. “Excuse me?” she exclaimed but it was so high pitched, it simply came out as a strained whistle. Lucia cleared her throat. “Excuse me?” she repeated. Soren just continued to eat his meal, shaking his head.
“That is not to say any of us would want to take pleasure with a human, even if your pheromones are enjoyable,” GiGi grunted.
Lucia’s fingers were faster than her good manners as she picked up her drink and doused Gi’Ren’s face with it. He growled, eyes going black as he stood. Soren stood too, growling at Gi’Ren. “I wouldn’t fuck either of you if it saved the destruction of Dor Nye!”
“That is hardly a loss,” Val’Zun scoffed. Lucia’s hands reacted again and she dumped her green goop over his head. Val’Zun stood and really growled.
There stood a seething Lucia and three angry blue beasts growling, tails whipping and ready to rumble.
“Boys!” Grams stood too. “Sit down!”
All three of them continued to growl, but after a few seconds, they all slowly began to sit back down.
Go Grams!
“You too, Lucia! You have got to control your hands.” Grams was pursing her lips after she said this and Lucia knew she was trying to look serious and not smile. Lucia slowly obeyed and couldn’t ignore the extreme pleasure she received when she saw Val’Zun flinging the goop from his hands as he continued to wipe it from his bald head.
“Now,” Grams arranged herself comfortably in her chair once more. “Tell me more about these royal concubines.”
Gramps shook his head.
****
Later on, once her family had gone to bed and she and the three beasts were relaxing in the den, Lucia was on a couch. Since Soren and Val’Zun took up half the cushions, she was squished between them. They were roasting her and she wasn’t even having a hot flash. Out of frustration, she turned, draping her legs over Val’Zun’s lap and resting her head in Soren’s.
“That feels better.” Lucia stretched and popped her toes, completely invading the bubble. Gi’Ren was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, eyes glued to the projector as an evening show played. Her hand slowly reached out and she scratched lightly behind his ear. To her amazement, he began to purr before he realized it was the human touching him. He grunted and moved further away, making Lucia rasp with mirth.
“Soren?”
“Loo-Sha?”
Lu’s lips curved as she rubbed her hands over her belly. “What are your parents like?” She couldn’t even picture them in her mind’s eye. What did non-hive female Melier’s look like? Surely they didn’t all look like the bloated ‘breeding’ female Wade had shown her. Her eyes
lifted to look up at him from where her head rested. He shared a gaze with Val’Zun and looked back down at her.
“They are… very traditional,” he hedged.
“You mean they don’t like humans.” She was expecting that much, if Val’Zun and Gi’Ren were any indication of what traditional meant.
“They will like you.”
Val’Zun scoffed at the same time Gi’Ren grunted. “Do not lie, Val’Ja.”
“I do not,” Soren scowled. “They will like her, because I love her.”
Lucia’s intake of breath caused them to look down. It was the first time she had heard Soren say it aloud. She’d felt it in everything he’d done lately, but he still hadn’t said it aloud. Neither had she, except indirectly in the theater lobby, so she couldn’t really blame him. In her attempt to scramble up, the heel of her foot slipped and landed on Val’Zun’s genitals. His bark of surprise and pain made her jump and she tumbled against Soren’s chest.
“I’m so sorry,” Lu rasped, her hand flying to her mouth. Val’Zun cupped a pair of hands between his thighs and slightly bent forward, focusing on breathing. Gi’Ren’s low laughter had Val’Zun saying something to him in their language that didn’t translate.
Lu turned her face to Soren’s and splayed her fingers along his cheeks. “You love me?” She looked into his golden eyes and her heart once again did a flip-flop. When he nodded, his lips tipped up in a half smile and with his big teeth showing through, Lucia couldn’t help but beam, the pain in her cheek be damned. Her lips pressed against his, hard; again and again as she told him she loved him too.
Lucia could feel his hands running over her back and over her thighs. It felt like it had been so long since they’d last been together and the contact mixed with the swell of emotion from his confession had her breath hitching in her throat as her kisses turned slower and more heated. Her hands drifted along his chest, feeling him. She felt safe with Soren and his touch made her burn.