Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
“Oh fuck… oh god…”
I am moaning more loudly than I should, being indiscreet and less than careful. There’s something about sex with Kail that makes me reckless.
We soon pay for that carelessness.
The side of the crate is suddenly opened, and we are subjected to the unimpressed stares of a Persinian captain and his heavily armed crew. They stand before us in coats of blue and gold, fins flattened against their heads, scaled hands firmly on an array of weapons.
The captain is clearly less than pleased to see us. He gurgles and puffs his fins and regards us with both sides of his beady-eyed head.
“Come out of there,” he commands.
I slide off Kail’s cock, glad for the cat skin skirt which means I do not have to fix myself up too much. Kail takes his time stowing his cock before emerging from the crate. His stature and general appearance causes great consternation among the crew.
“Who are you?”
“People who need passage,” I say. “People who need discreet passage, who can pay their way.” I reach into my bag slowly and show them my credit tokens. “We apologize for our unorthodox method of boarding, but as I said, discretion was important.”
A smart fellow would take some of the cards and welcome us aboard, but the captain is a stickler, and that means he has to make sure we know how bad we’ve been.
“The penalty for stowing away on a Persinian ship is…”
“Don’t say death. That’s going to trigger this guy,” I make a thumb jerky motion at Kail over my shoulder. “And when this guy gets triggered, it’s a whole thing.”
“Forced labor,” the captain says.
“Forced anything is not going to go down well.”
“Labor then,” the captain sighs.
“How about money? Say, a lot of money?”
“Money,” he agrees.
“See? Easy,” I smile broadly. “Do you have anywhere more comfortable to sleep? I’m absolutely exhausted.”
11
Tarni
I am exhausted. That was no lie. It feels so good to finally be away from danger, or at least the feeling of danger. The ship feels safe and warm, and the hammock we’ve been allocated fits me, if not Kail.
I am rocked to sleep by the gentle motion of the ship. Most ships don’t move constantly, but Persinian vessels contain great stores of water, and the movement of that water creates a Persinian wobble. It almost makes me feel as though I am at sea.
With fingers curled in the netting for what feels like safety, I drift off, anticipating our future.
…
“You slept a very long time.”
I wake up to see Kail’s face in front of me. I smile, glad he’s here. He is another element of safety in what seems to be a very unsafe universe.
“You changed your disguise,” I notice. He’s gone from blue to red. Dark maroon slashes cover parts of his face, some of his shoulders and torso, and all of his hands and forearms.
I am sleepy, and the fact that I am just waking up makes me slow. Realization creeps through me one little bit at a time, confusing me and horrifying me as I fight to reject what my eyes show me.
“Kail,” I whisper. “What have you done?”
“I’ve cleared our passage and kept us safe. The ship is yours to captain.”
“No!” I sit up and would have fallen out of the hammock but for bloody hands catching me.
I squirm out of Kail’s grip, cursing him.
“Why!?”
The word is raw in my throat. I could understand him killing humans. He has great hatred for my kind, understandably. But the Persinians never did anything to him or to me.
The mark of slaughter is upon him, and now on me.
“WHY!?” I make the demand, harsh and furious.
He looks at me with those golden eyes and does not seem to register my anger. He’s not in a rage. I don’t think he acted out of emotion. I think this was colder and much more practical.
“I had to kill them. They were going to radio our position in.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I heard the captain discussing it with his second-in-command. Once I had killed them, the others inevitably had to be destroyed, for they would have liked to make the same decision. I will not allow any threat, whether you like it or not.”
I do not like what I hear. “And even if they were going to call it in, we can’t murder our way across the universe.”
“We can, and we will if that is what it takes to save our lives. I don’t care who you are, or on what world you exist, you must act to preserve yourself. It is a basic law of nature.”
“I’m starting to feel like we’re the bad guys,” I sigh. “And I don’t want to be the bad guys.”
His expression suggests confusion for a moment. “I don’t understand what that means, except, maybe, that you need to feel as though you are a good person. The irony being that you have never, since I’ve known you, seemed to feel that way. Your guilt will get us killed. And my lack of it will preserve us.”