The Spawning (20 page)

It was a little intimidating, actually. She’d had a fair idea of the number, but since she hadn’t seen them all together before she hadn’t felt quite so outnumbered.

By the time she reached the area where everyone was settling to eat, she

discovered another change that was a little unnerving. The Hirachi hadn’t separated themselves off. Some of them had already gotten their food and found a place to sit but the biggest majority of them had sort of encircled the Earth enclave.

Miranda glanced at Deborah to see if she’d noticed and what she thought about it.

From her expression, Miranda saw she had noticed and that she looked as uneasy as she felt.

Khan moved up beside her as she stopped in the line to wait for her share of the food. She glanced up at him, a little surprised, but smiled when she met his gaze. “The trading went well?” she murmured questioningly, more because she couldn’t think of anything else to say than because she had any doubt.

He smiled back at her easily. “Yes. Very well. We reached the quota and a bit more.”

A flicker of discomfort went through her at the reminder of how hard they’d had to work to manage that after what they’d paid for her and the others’ freedom. “I’m so glad!” she said, meaning it, and then added, “I’m sorry we couldn’t help. Not that we would’ve been much help, I don’t suppose, but it might have taken a little of the load off so that you didn’t have to work so long and hard.”

They hadn’t actually offered, she thought uncomfortably. The first week they

hadn’t because they’d been half dead and half crazed with terror and too wrapped up in their own misery to consider that they should at least offer. After that, they’d been too focused on trying to build a shelter, but since she’d discovered by that time that the Hirachi were merfolk, for want of a better word, there hadn’t seemed much point in offering since it wouldn’t be more than lip service. The Hirachi were mining the ocean.

There was no way the Earth women could help them.

“It would be too hazardous for any of you to try when you aren’t as we are in that respect,” Teron said as he joined them.

Miranda glanced at him in surprise just in time to see him exchange an

indecipherable look above her head with Khan. She glanced at Khan, noted that she couldn’t tell any more about his expression on the receiving end of that look than she’d been able to tell about Teron’s thoughts, and finally dismissed it. “There are … things in the ocean like these things?” she asked a little uneasily, realizing the moment she said it how empty-headed it made her sound. She blushed. “Never mind, of course there are. I just … it’s hard to get used to this planet.”

She was almost relieved to discover they’d reached the front of the line. After THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 89

taking her plate and thanking the man serving, she turned to look for a place to sit. Khan, to her surprise, cupped a hand beneath her elbow and guided her to a spot somewhat to the rear of those already seated. She settled with a mixture of pleasure and uneasiness when she realized Khan meant to sit with her.

Teron settled on her other side.

Her belly tightened. After glancing from one to the other with a vague smile, she focused on the food until Gerek arrived, squeezing in between Khan and Teron.

Beginning to feel a little strange about being surrounded by Hirachi, she divided a look between the three men and finally focused on Gerek. “How’s your leg?” she asked sympathetically.

His face darkened. “Fine,” he said a little shortly. “It was nothing.”

Miranda bit her lip. It had looked like a good bit more than ‘nothing’ to her. Not that she’d seen the actual wound, but the bandage had been soaked with blood and, even though she’d only caught a brief glimpse, it looked as if the leg of his trousers had been pretty well shredded before the piece was torn off to make a bandage.

It seemed obvious from his response, though, that she’d been right and the

Hirachi were inclined to see any such injury as a mistake on their part that reflected badly on them and thus weren’t eager to discuss it.

“He will be more attentive when next we hunt, though, I’m fairly certain,” Khan murmured coolly.

Gerek glared at him.

It sent another wave of uneasiness through Miranda, particularly since Gerek

wasn’t inclined to be sullen. He’d always seemed a happy-go-lucky sort who tended to allow gibes to roll off his back like water. She didn’t doubt he’d been teased by the others about the water bottle ‘battle’ between them, but it hadn’t bothered him that she could tell.

Before anyone could comment, however, Adar joined them. Khan, Teron, and

Gerek all glared up at him a moment but finally shifted to make room.

A little taken aback to discover she seemed to be surrounded, wondering if she could manage to eat and still make polite conversation, Miranda smiled at the newcomer a little vaguely and looked around. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or more unnerved when she discovered all of the women had been surrounded by Hirachi just as she had.

There didn’t seem to be any particular order to it. Three Hirachi were seated facing Deborah, two with Stacy, a half dozen with Carol.

Frowning thoughtfully, she focused on her food for several moments, trying to

think of some topic of conversation since she wasn’t particularly comfortable with silence. “This reminds me a lot of beef,” she finally said. “It isn’t just the same, of course, but it’s really similar.”

“What sort beast is this beef?” Teron asked.

Miranda looked at him blankly for a moment. “Uh … actually, they’re called

cows when they’re alive. The meat’s called beef.” She thought it over. “They’re probably about as big as these beasts—some maybe even bigger, but they have hooves, not toes and claws. They’ve got two horns—on their head. They aren’t wild. They’re raised on farms or ranches.”

A look of surprise flickered across Gerek’s features. “I remember Grandfather THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 90

speaking of something like this that was done when he was a boy,” he said, looking pleased that he’d remembered it. “In the time before, when they had cities on the land as well as in the sea and many spent more time living in the land cities than in the sea.”

Relief flickered through Miranda when the others took up the discussion,

inputting their own memories and stories they’d heard. It seemed to relax the tension in them, too, besides relieving her of the responsibility of trying to find a subject for conversation that they could all participate in. Beyond that, it gave her the first real opportunity she’d had to learn something about them.

They were amazingly polite. Despite their interest in reminiscing, they made sure to pull her into the conversation with questions.

She was a little surprised, although she supposed she shouldn’t have been, to

discover they seemed to have had a very advanced civilization at one point. Then the Sheloni had arrived, offering ‘friendship’, technology more advanced than anything they had. It had brought about conflict and then war and the Sheloni had descended upon them as order broke down and begun to raid their world for slaves to mine the
jasumi,
which they traded with the
Vernamin.

This seemed to go on for several generations before something happened between the Vernamin and Sheloni. The Vernamin had championed the Hirachi, trounced the Sheloni, and begun to deal directly with the Hirachi. She would’ve liked to have known what, exactly, had happened, but the Hirachi didn’t seem to know themselves. The Sheloni had simply abandoned them and not returned. The Vernamin had come then and offered a peaceful trade agreement.

The Hirachi still vigilantly watched for their old enemies, however. That,

apparently, was part of the reason they’d built their city beneath the sea. They had been doing so for several generations anyway, though, having completely abandoned the land cities on their home world of Ach after the wars between themselves.

As interested as she was in hearing their history and understanding them better, she realized after a little bit that the subject was, not surprisingly, a depressing one for them. After listening for a while, she waited for an opportunity to reminisce about something a little lighter—an incident from her days as a rooky—and then found herself trying to explain a social structure that was beyond their grasp because it was so different from anything known to them.

It gave her an opening to ask about the device, though. Miranda hesitated to

bring it up, but decided it was as good a time as any. They’d finished eating. Soon, she knew, the Hirachi would leave for their own village and there was no telling when she might get another opportunity. Khan surprised her when she brought it up. He merely shrugged.

“I acquired it for you. It is yours. You do not need to ask to borrow it. Can you read Hirachi? Or only speak it?”

As surprised and pleased as she was about the discovery that she wasn’t going to have to wrangle with him for the use of it, the last question threw her for a loop. “I don’t know,” she replied slowly. “I don’t know what the trader did or how he did it. Would he have had access to the written word?”

Khan shrugged. “Obviously so. He set it up in the Hirachi language and the

device does not speak. There is the screen.”

Miranda squirmed inwardly. She’d seen him use the damned thing. She didn’t

THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 91

know what her problem was that she seemed so prone to dumb questions tonight. “Right.

I forgot. I suppose I’ll find out.”

Khan untied a sort of bag that hung from the waistband of his trousers and

loosened the top. Digging around inside the pouch, he pulled out something and held it out to her. Noticing the faint tremor in his hand first, Miranda frowned a little curiously, wondering at it, before she focused on what it was that lay in his palm. Realizing after a moment that he’d offered it to her to look at, she picked up the strange looking thing and examined it more closely. When she did, she discovered that it separated into two pieces.

It looked amazingly like hair combs—the sort used in arranging and pinning hair, not detangling it.

“I made it for you. It does not entirely match your eyes, but I could not find anything closer.”

Miranda’s head jerked upward automatically. She met his gaze as it slowly sank into her mind that he’d said he’d made the combs—for her—and she still had trouble accepting it. She looked down at the combs again, feeling a tide of warmth flow over her.

They were beautiful and so cunningly made, so fragile looking, it was hard to

grasp that he’d fashioned them himself. Emotion clogged her throat as she looked up at him again and surprised a look of uneasiness in his eyes. She smiled at him suddenly, feeling the smile all over. “They’re beautiful,” she managed to say a little breathlessly, discovering that she abruptly felt tearful for no reason she could fathom. “The most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Thank you! Thank you so much!”

She looked down at her treasure again, struggling with the urge to leap up and run before she embarrassed herself by bursting into tears. She felt an equal urge to throw her arms around him and hug him tightly, to kiss him. She wondered if she dared, wondered if she should or if it would transpire it was something the Hirachi would never do and therefore would be put off by it.

She could explain it, though, couldn’t she? If he seemed to be disturbed by it, she could explain that it was an Earth custom—and it was … sort of.

Setting the combs down carefully before she changed her mind, she got to her

knees and moved close enough to him to grasp his shoulders for balance and then leaned closer still and pressed her lips to his.

Even as she began to pull back, she felt his hand settle on the back of her head.

Holding her, he tilted his head at a slight angle to hers and opened his mouth over hers.

Instantly disoriented, she tightened her grip on his shoulders instinctively, but her entire focus was on the feel of his mouth on hers. His tongue glided along the seam where her lips met, applying pressure, demanding entrance. She parted her lips readily, eager to feel more.

Her senses rioted the instant he melded his mouth with hers entirely. His heat, taste, scent, the texture of his tongue as he explored her mouth in one sweep created an explosion of her senses. The unique essence that was Khan was like nothing she’d ever known and more delightful to her senses than anything she’d ever experienced. A pleasurable fire roared to life the instant awareness completely filled her. She wanted to drown in the sensations, felt as if she was. Her mind reeled with the intoxicating fumes of need. Her body seemed to melt from heat.

She was almost too weak to lift her head when he broke the kiss—abruptly—as

THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 92

the heated cocoon that enveloped them was pierced by a sudden, high pitched squeal.

Struggling to focus her eyes, Miranda looked around for the source of distraction.

Carol, she saw a little blankly, was bouncing all over one of the males who’d sat with her during the meal, kissing his face with excessive enthusiasm. The discovery sent a shaft of resentment through Miranda to cool her own ardor.

Did the damn bitch absolutely
have
to have everybody’s fucking attention for everything she did, Miranda thought angrily?

Moving away from Khan self-consciously, she looked around and gathered up her

gift carefully before she sat down. It wasn’t until she did that it dawned on her that, although she hadn’t been as noisily demanding of everyone’s attention as Carol, she’d still kissed Khan right in front of the other men gathered around her.

Actually, he’d kissed her. She didn’t regret it, but she’d only intended to give him a sort of brotherly kiss for the gift.

Alright! She’d hoped for a little more. She’d gotten a lot more than she’d

bargained for, though. Still feeling warm and weak, wavering between relief that Carol had interrupted and resentment for the same reason, Miranda flicked a vaguely apologetic look at the other men.