Page 24 of Alien's Challenge
Damn it, she did. Memory was foggy, and those first moments were slippery, refusing to be pinned down, but there had been an injection. “Yes,” she answered.
“That is for the buyer’s benefit, to make you more alert and bright -eyed.”
“They gave me uppers?” She didn’t wait for the answer, because obviously, yes. “They gave me uppers. Is this why I feel, you know?”
She leaped off the bed, mortified at her behavior. Wearing nothing but an oversized shirt and kissing the hot red lizardman, all while drugged.
“It is not uncommon for a female to be given a drug to make her receptive to her owner’s attention,” he said.
“What a lovely way to say roofied and raped.” She sat on the bed, curling her legs under herself. “They drugged my food.” Not a question, because she already knew.
“Assuredly,” he said.
Gah, she felt unclean and needed another shower. A dozen showers to scour off her skin where they touched, grabbed, and squeezed her, all while she was too drugged up to fight back. Even better, she wanted to take a baseball bat and start smashing skulls.
That sounded so, so good.
Alice never thought she was a violent person. She loved reading on rainy days and listening to true-crime podcasts. Okay, maybe that was a clue. She spent a lot of mental energy following murders and art thieves, probably more than was healthy but she needed to listen to something while she did the dishes and folded laundry.
Tomorrow’s agenda: source a baseball bat.
She yawned, covering her mouth with her hand.
“The stimulants typically last for a few days before the effects diminish,” he said. “When that happens, you will pass out and sleep until your body burns off the remaining stasis chemicals.”
“Don’t think I didn’t notice how you saidpass outand not fall asleep.” Even as she grumbled, she crawled under the blankets.
“Sleep,” he ordered.
“Bossy,” she muttered, but snuggled in. The sheets were crisp and clean and blankets soft.
Faris arranged some blankets into a pile on the floor.
“The bed’s big enough for us both,” she said, drowsiness making her bold, or perhaps it was the last of whatever they injected into her at the warehouse.
“No.”
“You’re hurt. Sleeping on the floor can’t be good for your shoulder.”
Crouched on the floor, his tail lashed out behind him.
“Then let me sleep on the floor.” Leaving the cozy bed sounded like the worst idea, but Faris shouldn’t sleep on the floor. Opening her eyes felt impossible.
Whatever he said, she didn’t hear it as she fell asleep.
Faris
He could not sleep. He washed and oiled his scales. He tried to meditate, but all he could focus on was the steady rhythm of Alice’s breathing. She invaded his thoughts. She had been fearless that day, but she had, as she said, been drugged. He could not judge her based on one day alone. Who would she be when she woke?
He suspected that she would continue to be fearless, if perhaps more careful in her words and actions.
In the small hours of the night, the power went off. The building fell silent as the furnace died. All he could hear was Alice’s chattering teeth.
He crawled into the bed, but only to warm her; he still had some shred of self-control. He was not a mindless creature to the cravings of the fever. He could hold the shivering female to him and resist the temptation of her soft form.
When human females first arrived on Reazus Prime, he had not been interested. Universal breeding meant nothing when he did not wish for hatchlings. A male such as himself did not deserve a mate or children. Still, he imagined that life now. A nest. A home.
Such foolishness. What kind of life could they have on Reazus? What legacy did he have to give? A fourth child with a four-syllable name, made for sacrifice? He had nothing. Anything of meaning, he gave away.
