Venomous: Erotic Science Fiction Romance (Alien Warrior Book 1) (41 page)

My head lifted, and I just stared.

With a self-righteous smile, he crossed his lower arms, upper ones opened wide. “How did you do it?”

My eyes crossed. “Ugh.” I decided there was no point in even trying to figure it out. “So you trained as warriors together?” Unrepentant, I snagged a juicy segment from the platter of citrus fruits and cheeses in the middle of the table. “How does that work, when you come from different provinces and belong to separate guilds?”

Fiercely looked disgruntled at my abandonment of his mind twister. “My life giver is a renowned musician. She came to perform here at a festival with her troupe and met my father. They stayed until I was grown then returned to her birth province.”

I nodded chewing food then displayed terrible, bad manners as I spoke with my mouth full. “You were friends?”

“Friendly rivals,” Fiercely replied with a smirk. His expression fell serious. “Lumen? Venomous One?” His fingers twitched then tightened on his drinking bowl. “May I ask some things that plague me?”

Hearing the weightiness of his tone, my eyes rounded as I picked up my pannikin.

Pale liquid and balls of rainbow ice swirled inside.

It was my second bowlful of the delicate, floral concoction that had a light fizz perfect for the dry heat.

“Of course,” I replied. “That’s the point of a date. It’s time for us to talk one on one.”

Venomous made no indication he knew what was troubling the other male.

Wolfing down his food, he grunted, which seemed encouragement enough.

Fiercely inhaled. “I have three things I wish to ask. First, what is dick?”

I choked on the refreshing drink and waved Venomous away when he thumped my back hard enough to bruise. “What?”

“On the Trekker you said I was a presumptuous dick. I do not know what ‘dick’ means. What is it, and why am I one?”

Clunking my drink down, I remained silent.

“Lumen?”

I expelled a burst of air, knowing it was my own fault for letting my mouth run away with me. “It’s a euphemism, sweetheart. A human word for your, ah, male part.”

He scowled. “Which part of my male part?”

“The part that, um, uh, gets stiff.”

Upper body shuddering, Venomous turned away.

“Dick is meaning when it is hard or when it is soft?” Fiercely drummed his claws on the table top, looking for all the world expectant of a serious answer.

My betraying lips twisted, so I sucked them into my mouth. “S-soft?”

Venomous made a nasal sound a cross between a snort, laughter and a grunt.

The drumming claws stopped.

Silent, staring, Fiercely’s expression voided.

Feeling awful, I placed my hand over his. “I didn’t mean it. I was angry.” I hesitated. “Would it make you feel better if I told you it wasn’t as bad as calling you a cock?”

A pause.

“What is cock?”

Twisting back around, Venomous lost it.

He slammed a fist to the table and hooted as he rocked into my side. “Now
that,
my Lumen
,
is funny.”

Fiercely chuckled at my woebegone expression. “It is fine, Rä’Na. I deserved it. Without doubt, I am too sophisticated to act the rutting barbarian. It did not sit well on me.” His black eyes twinkled mischief as he used flatbread to mop his stew. “Then again since a youngling, I displayed superior, more cultured traits than my peers.”

Venomous’ head snapped down, quills bouncing from the force of the movement.

He slapped the food from Fiercely’s hand.

It splattered his chin then dripped onto his hardsuit.

“Not so sophisticated now,” Venomous sneered.

Leaning over the table, in each other’s space, they bared fangs, hissing.

“
Barbarian
,” Fiercely snarled.

Venomous pounded his chest. “I am
strong
.”

“Males are males no matter where you go in the universe,” I muttered stealing food from their plates.

They were too busy having a pissing contest to feed me, and making a hatchling was hungry work.

Gaze sliding away, Fiercely snorted like a lathered bull then backed off.

Venomous grinned, thinking he’d won the confrontation, and shaking out his quills, turned to me.

Stew hit the side of his face.

It dripped to his jaw, slicked his still smiling lips then dribbled down a neck that now popped tendons.

His head, ever so slow, turned to face the front, and his eyes caught fire.

I treble blinked. “Uh oh.”

A smudge of time later, we trudged onto the pathway outside the restaurant with passersby staring at our dishevelled state in a mixture of curiosity and revulsion.

We stood covered head to toe in not only our food, but the meals of the diners surrounding us.

My corkscrew curls were sticky with fuck knows what, Fiercely’s supernova hardsuit was
torn
, and Venomous fingered a bloodied quill that had lost a gold ring, as Fiercely had ripped it out
with his teeth.

Breathing hard, I relived the humiliation of the proprietor’s verbal warning to never
, ever
return.

They had laid waste to the outside seating area.

Tables lay overturned or broken into rocky chunks, crystal was smashed, and drinking bowls crushed to shards.

Cushions bore claw marks, the fluffy stuffing floating above the decimation.

I wiped my forefinger through the lumpy blue paste streaking my nose and forehead then rubbed it and my thumb together.

“Now, have we worked out whatever,” my hands moved in flat circles, “this was?”

They resembled naughty boys, hanging their heads, scuffing their boots as they mumbled an apology, promising it wouldn’t happen again.

Holding back a smile, knowing to reinforce such behaviour would be a bad idea, I grabbed Fiercely’s hand. “There were three things you wanted to talk to us about. What are the last two?”

“They are connected.” He took a breath. “I wish to be your Rä’Vek. I have made arrangements to stay at the guild, but I wish to stay with you.” Looking at our joined hands, he seemed hopeful. “Will you welcome me to your lair, to your nest? This is what I want.” He looked displeased all of a sudden. “Our date did not show I will be a good life mate. Perhaps it is a trick, as I said, and you expected us to fight to show dominance?” His head cocked. “I would have told you Venomous is primary, if you had asked. Regardless, I vow to do better.”

“Just throwing it out there, aren’t you? Letting it all hang out.”

Fiercely shot Venomous a baffled look then gave me a faltering smile. “Is that yesss?”

“We’re going to take things slow, but yes. I want you with us.”

He grinned ear to ear, touched his cheek to mine, rubbed as his chest vibrated from a jubilant hiss that Venomous then echoed with his own cheek touch.

We visited a technology emporium where they procured me a personal communicator, the flat oval bendy, its surface pliable, like silicone, and it glowed when touched.

After Venomous traded for his, they tuned their frequencies to mine then showed me how to use it.

Soon enough, we were back in the glider and headed towards Venomous’ childhood lair.

“What if they don’t like me?” I asked wiping my sweaty palms on my thighs. I took in our scruffy appearance. “We should change first.”

“There is no time,” Fiercely said, apologetic. “We were supposed to be there at high heat.”

“You told them I’m an alien, right?” I tried to smooth my frizzing hair. “We’re not springing this on them? That would be bad.”

“My Lumen, all of Rök knows of your coming.” Venomous pulled me onto his lap. “I doubt my own kindred will not know you. I did, after all, comm call them and tell them of you from the Trekker.”

He told me their names and what they did for a living.

It settled me some, hearing about his relatives before meeting them.

We’d barely landed on a swathe of blue grass bordered by spiky, crimson blooms before a stream of people spilled from the majestic structure of quartz to converge on us.

The gleeful charge was led by a pair of older Rä with green-gold scales, white-quills and lined faces.

They were handsome, as Rä had become attractive to my human eyes, and possessed a refined, imposing dignity.

Dark, jewel-coloured robes shrouded their tall musculatures in stiff, sweeping folds and billowed as they moved.

They grappled Venomous into their eight arms and hugged him tight between them, laughing as he pretended to escape.

Chuckling, Fiercely held onto me as our group shambled inside the cool lair on a tide of yelled, “
Good greetings
,” and a swelling wave of shouted, “
Praise Zython.”

“It does my hearts good to see you,” Venomous admitted with a grin as we paused in the double-tall entryway.

As there were creepy Sylphs and curious kindred wandering about, I stayed close to Fiercely.

I took in as much of the bright, airy space as I could while keeping an eye on Venomous’ reunion.

Scenic paintings adorned the pellucid brick walls, and the polished floor reflected my own frazzled image back at me.

Past the foyer was an open space with comfy looking divans big enough to seat six Rä apiece, and upholstered in dark green fabric that matched a muted tapestry fixed to the main wall over a sputtering water feature.

Glister creep radiated light onto the vaulted ceiling, but as rosy sunrays shone through lancet windows its effects were muted.

Animal hides with their heads attached were strewn about the floor.

I stared into the angry, beady eyes of a lupine predator, razor teeth bared in a grimace of death, and cringed at its fate.

A feasting table hewn from a solid slab of rock on spool-shaped pillars had been erected behind the seating area, its embossed surface laden with skewers of charred meat, overloaded platters of lustrous fruits and sweating rounds of rich cheese.

Standing separate from the food, a metal trough was filled with bottles of fizzy, purple liquid buried in piles of bluish sediment that gave off wisps of vapour.

It was called cold ore.

This was explained to me after I questioned Fiercely about the fixtures and objects I saw, but could not understand their function or purpose.

Seeing the generous spread and excited gathering, I felt a twinge remorseful for wheedling a lunch date out of Venomous.

His kindred were thrilled to see him.

A dozen of the Rä connected to me by mating browsed the offerings, murmuring amongst themselves.

Several couldn’t help but flick probing looks in my direction.

None of them sneered, or cut me when I smiled, so I relaxed.

All in all, the atmosphere of the reunion was of joy, not fraught with uncertainty and disgust, as I’d feared my presence would make it.

Breaking off from what he’d been saying, Venomous cocked his head with incomprehension then pulled free of his fathers’ embrace.

His frown was directed at the male his features resembled most. “Why are you limping?”

With a dismissive snort, Wind Dancer slapped the limb. “It is nothing but my age making itself known.”

“You have not had a healer see to it?”

“I am not so vain as to have every imperfection expunged. Leave my eccentricities alone. I am old.”

“And nursing an irrational phobia of the Healers Haven,” Dawning light revealed with an amused curving of the mouth.

“Old males go in then never come out,” Wind Dancer protested. “You cannot tell me this is not truth.”

“Yesss, but those old males are ready to sit at Grandmother’s side, nest mate. You will grace us with your charm and wit for aeons to come.”

“I am not going, and you cannot make me.” Wind Dancer’s piercing gaze settled on me. “On to important matters. Who have you brought to meet us?”

It felt as if he raked out my guts to pore over what made me up inside.

Venomous pulled me in front of him. “Fathers, this is my Rä’Na, my Lumen of the Stars.” He sighed. “Is she not as exquisite as I said in my comm calls?”

Face heating, knowing the Rä did not find my ‘petite’ stature and mass of curly hair appealing, I smiled warily. “Good greetings.”

Wind Dancer bowed. “Good greetings, daughter.”

“You are most welcome in our lair,” Dawning Light said as his gaze flicked over me, then to the floor, back to me, before twitching to the wall, then sliding over me again.

“Fiercely Comes the Night.” Wind Dancer stepped back to take him in. He moved forward for an embrace. “I have not seen you since you were a youngling with flaky quills.” They touched foreheads, a glancing movement I gathered was a traditional greeting between kindred, and those considered kindred because of long-term friendship.

“
Lumen is with egg
,” Fiercely blurted. He dropped me a sheepish glance. “I could not hold it in.”

Nose scrunching, I gave him a sceptical look.

Venomous splayed a palm over my stomach and grinned. “Truth. Our Rä’Na is in swell.”

Wind Dancer rocked back on his heels, and sucked in such a large breath, I thought he was about to keel over.

He exploded in a buzzing hiss, joined by his nest mate, and a few of the less chary Rä enjoying the reunion. “Great Serpent! We are blessed!”

I released a shaky breath and slouched into Venomous. I offered a tentative smile. “We think so too.”

“Thsst! Come here, daughter. Come.” He took my hand and fussed over me until I sat on the huge divan. “Sit. Be at ease.”

Venomous and Fiercely sat either side of me as the Rä’Veks sat opposite, a low and narrow table between us.

The family members clustered around.

“Now,” Wind Dancer began, “when was your
seeding
?”

I wasn’t touching that one.

“Lumen is human. Her cycle is different,” Venomous answered, evasive.

“Yesss, but we must establish when she will lay, so we can arrange the nesting calendar.” Wind Dancer whipped out his communicator in a grave ‘let’s get down to business’ fashion. “It is a good thing He, Cobra that Strikes is so talented a hunter. I will comm call him, and add you to the–”