Page 20 of All or Nothing
After a moment, Djelani cleared her throat delicately and inspected her claws a little too innocently. “So…you and Xollen, eh?” she asked, Uraka going stiff under her.
I sighed, rolling my eyes but unable to stop the smile twisting up my lips. “Yeah, I know. But he’s sonice. And you gotta admit he’s hot as fuck; can you blame me?” Ghena giggled, hiding her face in her hands. “See, Ghena gets it.”
Uraka’s eyes hardened as she turned her burning gold eyes on me. “I do not trust him,” she growled.
I slapped my hands onto my cheeks and made my mouth into a big O. “No!” I said in exaggerated surprise. “You don’t like Xollen? Really?!”
Djelani snorted and kissed Uraka on the cheek. “Yes, I know I have made no secret of how I feel,” the large yvrenii woman said. “But I have seen the blood that can flow from trust placed poorly too many times in my life. I only want you to be safe, Joss. To be careful.”
“I know,” I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest. “And I don’t want to get hurt either. But he hasn’t done anything shady. Does he really seem dangerous to you?”
She twisted her mouth, her tusks jutting out. “I…suppose not,” she allowed, squirming before surging to her feet and gently depositing Djelani onto the couch. She crouched down in front of me, putting her heavy hands on my shoulders. “You are an adult, and no fool. But you and I will strike a bargain, here and now, that if anything happens, you will call on me.Anything.Do you understand, little one?”
“Yeah,” I said, my voice soft yet rough with emotion. This crazy she-orc was so kind, so protective of little old me. I felt better-taken care of in her presence than I ever had with my mom. “If anything goes wrong you’ll be the first to know,” I promised.
Uraka nodded, getting back to her feet and turning to leave, saying she needed to use the hygiene room.
“Does it feel real to any of you?” I found myself asking quietly, my hands tangling together in my lap.”
Djelani cocked her head. “Does what feel real, Joss?”
I shrugged, my eyes sweeping over the room. “This. Being here. The fact that we got abducted and almost wound up—” I couldn’t get the word “slaves” out. “We were almost in a really bad situation,” I said instead. “I mean, up until a couple of days ago I didn’t even know that there really were aliens, and now…”
Ghena nodded, hugging her knees tighter, but remained silent. Wren seemed to drift just a little bit closer to her, her tail curling around Ghena’s back.
“I suppose it doesn’t,” Djelani admitted. “It feels like one minute I was coming home from rehearsals, and the next I was waking up in a cell with four strangers.” Her eyes drifted to the doorway that Uraka had left through, and a small smile tugged at her lips.
“I’m sure it will catch up to us in time,” Wren said, “we are likely still in shock from our experiences.” Wren was always so logical and calm; I could see why Ghena gravitated toward her. For someone nervous that kind of confidence was appealing. “You are not bothered that Ghena has not chosen to remain with you, are you, Joss?” she asked unexpectedly, startling me out of my thoughts.
Ghena blushed, shooting Wren a look I couldn’t read from where I was sitting. “Uh, no. I mean I’ll miss her, I’ll miss all of you, but I don’t hold it against her or anything.” My brow furrowed in confusion. “Should I be?…”
“No! No, it’s all good,” Ghena blurted, giving me a tight smile. “Um, so does anyone want to watch a movie? I saw one that looked good when we were browsing last time…” Ghena sprang to her feet and dashed to the holoscreen, turning it on and flicking through the selection of holos available.Super fucking weird, but okay, I thought, settling back into the couch just as Uraka returned looking refreshed.
The holo finished loading, silence settling on our strange little group. But I wasn’t able to focus, my thoughts swirling around and around.
JOSS
I GUESSI was expecting Escheva to look like a cool sci-fi city, all gleaming towers and scuzzy neon bars in a designated underbelly. I figured there’d be hover cars everywhere, in invisible traffic lanes stretching from the ground to the top of the tallest skyscrapers, with aliens snarling at newcomers. But it was just a city, not too different from Chicago, honestly. The biggest differences were the green sky and blue-tinged plants decorating the buildings and walkways. There were aliens, but they just ignored us, walking quickly with their heads down. The few who did notice us really only looked at me and Wren, who were the two rarer species, and even that was more of a curious once-over before going back to ignoring us. There were some hovercars, but most of the vehicles I saw were more like hoverbikes, and the rest of the time people were walking or taking one of the many buses or trains I saw everywhere. Skyscrapers were a thing, but they weren’t all soulless towers looming over a seedy underground; there were some really lovely ones, with interesting architecture and gorgeous decorative edifices covered in intricate carvings and sculptures. There were trees and flowers and grass. There were murals and ornate trashcans. There were public restroom booths with water and nutrition tabs scattered all over that were totally free.
I wanted to start crying, it was all so great. I’d never felt so safe in a big city. These people really believed in taking care of each other, and that was just so beautiful to me.
Landing and docking had been…interesting. Xollen’s ship was in no way designed for six passengers, and there were only two seats with harnesses for passengers to strap into for landing, so we had to get creative. Xollen tore up some of his linens and tied Ghena to his cot in his room and Wren and Djelani to the seats in the rec room. Uraka insisted I get the co-pilot’s chair because, in her words, I’d “pop like an overripe fruit” otherwise because of my soft skin and bones (like she knew anything about human bones!) and she said she’d brace herself in the shower stall—sorry, thesanitation booth. I’d have to get used to all the new terminology.
The solution was sloppy and risky, but by some miracle it worked: we landed without anyone getting injured or killed. Even Uraka was barely disheveled when she emerged from the hygiene room.
I was nervous when we disembarked, knowing the next step was going to be talking to cops and bureaucrats for the next eternity, but I was also kind of exciting. As much as it sucked to have to leave everything I’d ever known behind, this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to completely reinvent myself. I could be bold, I could be confident, I could pursue writing without worrying about winding up on the streets again—the possibilities were intoxicatingly endless. It was like starting up at a new school turned up to eleven.
I was expecting the worst from talking to cops, but I should have known that a society as advanced as Billieu’s would also have law enforcement figured out. They talked to me and the rest of the girls, getting our statements and whatever information we could on the three th'rak slavers who’d abducted us. I was worried they’d try to arrest Xollen if they found out that he’d bought us initially, but since all of us—even Uraka, to my surprise—corroborated that he’d freed us immediately they just slapped him with some fines and left it at that.
He looked sick when he was told he’d be responsible for 10,000 credits, but I threaded my arm through his and squeezed it against my side, since I’d noticed that when he got upset his tail tended to wrap around one of his legs and squeeze the shit out of it. “It’ll be okay, Xoll,” I promised, smiling up at him gently. “We’ll find the money.” I bet he could sell off just the jewelry he was currently wearing and get pretty damn close, if not more than enough to pay the fines.
He smiled weakly down at me, leaning into my touch, and my heart did little flips in my chest at the sight. He really was so damn handsome. I jumped a little when I felt something slither up my calf, but it was just his tail grabbing onto me and pinning me next to him. I had a feeling that I’d be doing a lot of comforting in the coming days as I helped this pampered rich boy figure out how to live like the rest of us.
Once we were done with the cops, ambassadors and counselors from the trafficking shelter swooped in to take care of us. I was completely blown away when a small older human woman in a smart pantsuit strode in among the other various aliens. She walked up to me, her hand out and a terse smile on her face.
“Welcome to Billieu, Miss Aceveda,” she said, her voice raspy as if she spent a lot of time screaming. “I’m Rita Benson, feel free to call me Rita. I wish you were here under happier circumstances, of course, but I’m sure you’ll find plenty to love here or wherever you choose to settle.”
I nodded, smiling politely. Now it was my turn to cling to Xollen, nervous now that I was around another human—which was weird, right? Being around someone of my own kind should have put me at ease, but as soon as Rita Benson had walked up to me I’d felt the old compulsion to pose carefully and suck in my gut, to suppress my little bit of an accent, hoping it wasn’t too obvious that I wasn’t wearing a bra and feeling embarrassed about my clothes and hair. I felt his tail tighten around my lower leg, the tufted tip flicking against the back of my knee soothingly, even if it also tickled.
