Page 20 of Indentured Companion
“What the hell? You need to feed Vrajan.” He seems to sink into my mattress and his diamond pupils are thin and panicked.
“I-yes, but I want to talk to you about an amendment b-beforewe…please? It is important.” I glower down at him, sitting up on his lap and folding my arms again with frustration.
“I’m not signinganythingthat changes the duration of this contract, or the payment.”
“W-well I’m glad to hear that.” He blurts out from behind the two tablets and nods at me. “The amendment I would like to propose does not change the duration of the contract, or the financial compensation at its completion.” I narrow my eyes on him suspiciously.
“Does it change the number of times you feed off me?”
“No, alas, I cannot reduce my feeds without making myself ill.” He slowly parts the two tablets to look up at me. His long hair is splayed around his head, white from the roots to his pointed ears, where it fades to midnight black. His face does the same below his cheek bones, and his lips speak with as little a gap as possible to try and hide his fangs from me. “Miss Stone? I should like to discuss a ratherdelicatematter with you.”
“Sure.” I huff and wait for him to get on with it.
“Well?” He chuckles nervously and nods down his body to where I’m sitting on him. “Could you sit beside me while we talk?”
“No.” I answer defiantly.
“N-no?”
“Nope.” I smirk evilly at him and shrug. “I don’t trust you not to run off with how flighty you’ve been acting, so you’re staying right there. You want to talk? Fine. Talk.” But I’m not signing jack shit unless I’ve read all the fine print, and it’s to my benefit. The white of his cheeks flush darker and his eyes widen with panic.
“Oh, it’s just that, thenatureof the possible amendment is…intimate and…” He looks down at my thighs pinning him to the bed once more. “…I give you my word I will not flee, Miss St-”
“Valerie.” I grind out through my teeth. It feels like every time he says ‘Miss Stone’ like he’s increasing the distance between us. His people view knowing and using another’s first name as intimate. When he doesn’t use mine, it makes me feel like he doesn’twantto be close to me anymore. That upsets me more than I’m prepared to admit, even to myself.
“…” He stares at me for a moment, before a change comes over the Dynast. Instead of cowering nervously on my bed, Vrajan’s lilac eyes become filled to the brim with determination. He uses his core strength to move to sit up. I blush, my chest suddenly pressed to his, and very little space between his face and mine. “Valerie.” He says my name with intent and the deepest baritone I’ve ever heard. Oh sweet gold mines, he’sneversaid my name likethatbefore. I’m acutely aware that I’m sitting on his lap, and try to snap myself out of thinkingonce againof Vrajan as anything other than the doting Korvis I’m allowing to feed off me. He’s my friend, and we’ve hit a very painful snag in this arrangement of ours, but we’ll get through it.
The intensity of his stare and the way one of his hands came to hold my back changed the whole mood of the moment. I try to turn my head so he can bite me, but his other hand takes hold of my chin and guides me back to stare helplessly into his lilac eyes and black diamond pupils. “Beside me are two tablets.” He refers to the tablets he was previously cowering behind, but are now discarded on the bed to our right. “One is the amendment to our contract, and the other is a full anatomical and biochemical overview of the Korvian feeding process.” I raise a brow, but don’t interrupt. I thought this amendment was going to be about the duration or pay. What has the biology or anatomy of how he feeds suddenly worthy of an amendment to our contract? He’s already been feeding off me for well over a month now so…what’s the deal? “I want you to readbothafter our conversation. While you do, I will retire to my bedroom. I will ingest some Synth-Red instead, this morning, though it does not sustain me for very long, so it will only give you a few more hours before I will need to feed from you.”
“But-”
“Which will be long enough for you to decideifyou wish to continue feeding as we currently do…or if you would like to give consent to the amendment.” I rest my hands on my thighs and raise a brow at him.
“Does that mean that this amendment is to the feeding process?”
“Correct.” He releases my chin and lifts his so he can tap either side of his throat. I watch dutifully at the cue to do so, and see him stroke either side of his neck like he’s sore. “As you already know, the phyrodox grands of a Korvis secretes a kind of venom via ducts to the fangs during a feed.” I watch as his fingers move up his neck, and tense when he opens his mouth to show me his four fangs on his upper jaw. He taps the outer two with his fingers, the larger two, and then speaks as decisively as he does regarding his work. “The primary phyrodox ducts deliver a mixture of chemicals that prevent clotting, and encourage the body to replenish your blood in between feedings. We have made this process more efficient with the Regen pills that you take, which is based off the natural venom I just mentioned.”
“Yeah.” I confirm, as Idoalready know that. He explained that to me when we first met. Where is this going? He taps the inner two fangs, and then seems less sure of himself.
“Korvians, in fact, have a secondary phyrodox duct that deliversanothervenom during the bite, to the inner fangs.”
“Okay?” I still didn’t see why we were talking about thisnow. “So?”
“So, Valerie.” He gulped and I smell a rat. “Mine are…blocked.”
“What? Like, you have a medical condition or-”
“No, no.” He cuts me off and tentatively places his hands over mine on my thighs. “Mine are blocked by a device I had to consent to have injected into my secondary phyrodox ducts before I waspermittedto enter Theskian space, to procure a feeding companion.”
“Oh.” Well I don’t like the sound of that. “What? Like, are you naturally venomous?” He raises a white brow. “I mean, of course you are, but I mean like do you also make like a poisonous venom or something you have to have blocked or something?”
“…no.” Why did that one word make me think that rat I could smell earlier was about to smack me with the other shoe?
“Vrajan?” I slip my hands out from under his and fold my arms. I can already tell this isn’t going to be good. “Whydid you have to have your secondary ducts blocked before you were allowed to enter Theskian space and have a feeding companion?” The way he took a deep breath and braced himself didnothingto reassure me.
Chapter 18
Intoxication
