Page 24 of The Emerald Boa's Lover
“Yes, well, Rerasha is a little busy right now, but he is delighted that you and his cousin are getting along so well.” Alaric nodded over to the dance floor, and three Ucfeni along, Rerasha was gyrating and giving Alaric his best bedroom eyes. My eyes swept across to Dalahan and oh sweet stethoscope. He was undulating three sides of sinful. His shoulders shimmied, slow and seductive, and accentuated by the yellow feathers of his harness and headdress. Golden chains bounced with the roll and dip of his lean torso. The yellow and gold of his attire made the light green of his torso and tiger like stripes seem lighter. “Ah ah ah, don’t be easy now.” Alaric took hold of my chin and turned my head to look at him. “He has to work for your affection. Don’t be easy. Make him work for it.” I lifted my chin free and cleared my throat, not impressed at being manhandled. “Trust me? Tonight will be sweeter if you draw this out.” I don’t particularly want to take Alaric’s relationship advise, but hehasbeen dating an Ucfeni longer than I have. Still? I want to watch. So I smile, nod, and turn to watch the ‘display’ Dal is putting on for me. Hot damn. I want to go over to him, lift the golden chains hanging down from his harness and lick the grove between his six pack. Yum. The expression on my face must have given away where my mind was, as Dalahan giggled and moved a bit closer. “How are you finding life with an Ucfeni sponsor?”
“What, are you trying to get a satisfaction survey from me?” I snort, but don’t look away from Dalahan. He has his hands raised level with his chest and he is dipping and popping his hips. He dips his navel and shimmies his shoulders. Wow, he’s so flexible… I blush and cross one leg over the other to hide the semi I’m sporting.
“Passes the time.” Alaric chuckled, also lingering his eyes appreciatively on Rerasha for a moment, before trying to engage me again. “I would also like to dispel the first impression I made on you of being a privileged asshole.”
“Don’t worry on my account.” I raise a brow and chuckle at him. Man this place is heaving with dancing bodies. I think if I wasn’t in a relationship with Dal, I would totally try to catch someone’s eye for a hook up.
“Well I do, as I’m not a asshole. I care a great deal about the welfare of our people.” I shrug and let him rabbit on. I am way too entertained by Dal. How long do I have to sit here and watch? I want to get my hands on him. Sexy scaly minx. “I take the liberty of keeping tabs on my newly sponsored colonists. Hannah and her partner Tumva areclose.”
“I know. She’s a firecracker that one.” I chuckle. Hannahdoeskeep in touch, though it’s not as frequent as I’d like. Her patrol shifts as a Peacekeeper make her almost as difficult to track as my clinic hours. Still, she tells me without telling me how nuts she is about her Death Striker partner. Man those two need to fuck. Like, ASAP. “What about Billie?”
“She is utterly weighted on, hand and foot, erm,tail,by the Royalprickthat she’s chosen to nanny her.”
“Oh?” Okay, now I’m intrigued. Alaric seemed pro Ucfeni, to a fault, and yet he’s found one he doesn’t like? “He’s taking care of her though, right?” Because if he isn’t I’m going to shrug off my jacket, march up there, and carry that little chick back to my place until I find Hannah.
“Oh yes. She’s probably the most pampered member of the colony.” I relax at that. “The boy prince is as protective of her as a Rottweiler.” He sighed deeply. “My star asset was meant to be at the Delta 4 compound, surrounded by state of the art tech, and at the heart of Allico Inc. One screw up, and she ends up in the main pairing party. Before I can get to her, she is sponsored by one of the few Ucfeni my lovercan’thelp me politically ensnare.” He scoffed, and part of me wondered if one of the reasons Alaric and Rerasha worked so well together, was because they alsoworkedwell together. Alaric helped Rerasha with human leverage, and visa versa. “No matter. I’ve been promised that Billie will be here tonight. I’m going to try and reason with her that once her sponsorship is up, she will be better accommodated at the Delta 4 Compound.” I shrug, having no real opinion either way. If she was being cared for, then that’s all that mattered to me. Thewheredidn’t really come into it, as long as she was happy.
Rerasha came closer and the tip of his orange tail snaked around Alaric’s ankle. He raise his arms up and rolled his wrists, whilst dipping and rolling his hips. “Oh, excuse me.” I chuckle as Alaric issummonedto the dance floor, and he has some moves for a silver fox. I look back toward Dal and see he has also moved closer. I see his tail lip coming and stand before it can reach me. I march over with a bounce in my step and in my mind I’m rubbing my hands together with anticipation. I reach for him but he moves in a blur of green scales and yellow feathers. He coils around me and towers down over me, swaying and hissing like he’s going to pounce on me and swallow me whole. Normally Dal keeps low to my height level, or near to it, but right now it’s evident just how tall and lean he is. How thick and muscular his tail is and how easy it would be for him to squeeze the life out of me.
“Just so you are aware, Ucfeni are fantastic hunters. Even those of us who have taken up different trades, still have our natural predatory instincts. Which is why I’m going to enjoy this.”
“Enjoy what?”
“The hunt.”
I am reminded as he begins to tighten the rings of his tail around me that he is a predator. Yet somehow? I’m not afraid. I am turned on. Even the way he’s ululating, deep and throaty, hungry and demanding.
“Do you like what you see?” Dal hisses a purr and leans down to flick his tongue at my lips. “Have I impressed you?”
“Hell yes.”
If only the shit didn’t hit the fan two seconds later. “Oh shit!”
Chapter 20
Gjenti
Trigger warning. Blood and gore.
Dalahan
I just start to tighten my coil around my lover and looking forward to surrounding him as I massage his body with mine to get some frisky touches in, when a flurry of screams cut through the air above us. Charlie and I both look up and see Ucfeni slithering down the side walls at speed.
“What’s going on? Dal?” Charlie is tense and I dart my head from side to side as more people pour out of the festival hall. “This isn’t part of Gcorket, is it?”
“No.” I reach down and lift Charlie up by his armpits. I bring him protectively to my chest to secure him there with my arms. He must know that something isn’t right, because he doesn’t complain at being manhandled like he usually does. His arms go around my harness and neck and we both look around. At the stampeding panic. We’re close to the wall leading up to the second tier and on either side we’re caged in by fleeing bodies.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but we’re getting out of here.” I see an opening and start to wind towards it, but Charlie swings his weight to the other side and I have to snap back on my tail to compensate.
“We need to get up there.” Charlie pushes down on my shoulders and I struggle to keep hold of him as he crawls up my body. Normally I’d be rather pleased at having Charlie’s crotch in my face, but there’s nothing sensual about the way he’s climbing me like a tree. I lift my chin and see he’s looking over the edge of the middle platform. “Son of a bitch.” Whatever Charlie saw lit a fire under him, because before I could stop him, he threw his upper body onto the middle platform and crawled off my shoulders to stand. Alarmed that Charlie was no longer safe in my arms, I too pulled my upper body up and rolled quickly over my own tail to get to him. My eyes widened as Charlie skidded over toward an Ucfeni sprawled on the ground with a dagger jutting out of her chest.I could taste the tang of her blood long before I joined Charlie beside her. It was thick in the air, and pooled dark around the wound and the floor beneath. That’s…too much blood.
“Help me!” She sobbed, her pale pink hands trembling at either side of the dagger’s handle. Her eyes are pearly with a pink sheen, her face and underbelly pale pink and the rest of her is magenta with wavy black lines from her neck to the tip of her tail. Typical for a Coral Sweeper. Two ridges on her head give a horn like appearance, but they don’t break her scales. I hurried to crowd around Charlie as he dropped to his knees beside her.
“Hi, hey, look at me. There you go.” Charlie got her attention, tears streaming down her face as she looked at Charlie. “I’m a doctor. I need you to stay still for me, and don’t touch that dagger. No matter how much you want to, don’t.” Charlie shrugs off his jacket and shoves his sleeves up to quickly take stock of her injuries. My head is on a swivel as I look for the source of danger. Where the abyss are the Elite guard? I hiss and ululate with aggression, guarding Charlie as he works.
“I-it hurts.” The female whimpers and something instinctive inside me knots at the sound. Where are her friends? Her partner? Her family? Why is she here alone? Why is no one with her? My horror rises with Charlie’s next words.
