Page 14 of Berserkr
"No. I don't know you. I'm too old to sleep with random strangers."
"I don't want to sleep," Rune clarified. "Once we start, there won't be any sleep for a long time."
Huh, he clearly thought highly of himself. The introductory video had only teased on how compatible the Vikingar were with humans, but Shona had mentioned that one woman had already fallen pregnant. Note to self, if I was ever going to sleep with an alien, I'd use contraception. What would the baby look like? Blue? Human? If male, would it be born with a beard?
A strange sound, a bit like a phone vibrating, cut through the silence. Rune growled with irritation, but didn't move. That reminded me, where was my phone? Last I remembered I'd sent a text to Nicole, but that had been in that muddy field on Earth. Then a blinding light had melted the world, or melted me, and the next time I'd opened my eyes, I'd been on this spaceship. Had my phone fallen from my hand? I patted my jeans pockets only to remember that I was wearing a skirt. Why didn't skirts come with pockets? It was such an obvious design flaw that someone should have done something about it by now.
That left my handbag, but that had also disappeared. Fuck. How was I going to take photographic evidence of everything without my phone? I'd thought about taking a digital camera, but it may have raised suspicions. In the age of smartphones, who still used cameras unless they were photographers or journalists?
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Maybe one of the other women still had their phone. I'd have to find a good explanation of why I needed them to take pictures and send them to me, but I'd figure something out. That meant I'd have to persuade Rune to bring me back to Shona or the women I'd shared a van with.
The vibrating sound returned. Rune didn't react. I grinned to myself. I sometimes did that when my boss called me, trying to harass me about a pending deadline.
The alien stayed silent, but when his gaze met mine, a smirk curved his lips. They had a slight purple tinge that set the colour apart from the deep navy of his face. His mouth was closed so I couldn't see his pink fangs. I'd have to get those on a picture. Anyone could paint themselves blue and grow a lot of body hair - although few human guys could ever achieve Rune's level of fitness - but the teeth were harder to fake.
"Do you bite?" I asked before I could stop myself.
"Bite?"
"You have fangs. Do you use them to bite? Do you drink blood?"
He scoffed. "Of course not. Vikingar only use bite once in their life, during the consummation of their brullaup. Wedding, Holly calls it. She had the first brullaup, with Errik. It was a lovely feast. Lots of ale."
"So during the wedding, you'll bite your bride?"
"No. I will biteyou."
Ah yes. He still thought I'd stay and be his soulmate. Sorry, sweetheart. My career came first.But maybe I could return, after the story had run its course. If Rune would still have me then. Unlikely. I doubted they wanted their existence exposed.
"How many humans on Earth know about you?" I asked him innocently. "Governments? Scientists?"
"Only the females at the Hot Tatties agency. And a few Peritans who've been abducted by other species in the past. But-"
"Wait, there are other aliens? How many? Have they taken a lot of humans? Does that mean some of those conspiracy theorists might be right?"
"There is no exact number that I know of. At the moment, just under a hundred species of sentient beings are part of the Intergalactic Authority. There are many more listed in the database of the Intergalactic University, but it's not always clear if they fulfil all criteria to be classed as sentient. Only spacefaring species are part of the IGA."
"Does that mean humans are members as well?"
He chuckled. "You've made it to your own moon. That doesn't count."
I felt like defending humanity, but he was right. When compared to the glimpse of alien technology I'd got here on the spaceship, my species was going to need a long time to catch up.
The vibrating returned. Rune sighed deeply before rummaging in his pocket, still keeping me in his grip with his other arm. A second later, a screen appeared on one of the walls, showing a human woman next to a huge Vikingr. I recognised her from my research. That was Steff, co-owner of the dating agency.
"Rune, what are you doing?" the Vikingr chided. "We talked about this. You have to be supervised. Where are you?"
"Not telling you." Rune sounded like a defiant child, but I silently cheered him on.
"I can easily track you. I just wanted to give you a chance. It's dangerous to be alone with your mate. Are your symptoms getting worse?"
Symptoms?
"I'm fine," he grumbled testily. "Just leave us alone."
"We can't do that, not as long as you pose a risk to this ship."
"Wait a minute," I interrupted. "What is going on here? Nobody's explained anything to me."
