Page 30 of Alien's Challenge
Faris risked a glance in her direction. Submerged to her neck, she had her eyes closed and a smile on her face.
“Nothing should feel this good,” she said.
The silence was companionable. The heat eased sore muscles. His body ached not from the injuries sustained but from the rapid growth of new scales pushing out the older. His hormones were unbalanced. It would pass. By tomorrow or the next day, he would be himself again.
Alice’s sighs of pleasure went directly to his cock. He did not think that would pass so easily. Still, if he did not look at her luscious form, it was tolerable. Platonic. They were two strangers enjoying a hot soak, watching the snow. Nothing more.
The companionable silence did not last.
“Tell me about the man you murdered,” she said.
Alice
“It is not important,” he said, like it wasn’t important.
“Look, you said you weren’t a serial killer. Fair, but it is important because I’m trying to figure out if you’re going to murder me. A random act of violence, or did he have it coming?” Alice asked.
Faris probably wouldn’t murder her. Probably. If he wanted to kill her, he could have let her freeze in the snow or suffocated her while she slept. She could lower her guard, unless getting her to trust him and then making with the murdering was how he got off.
Ugh, this was impossible.
“Sorry. I trust you, for some reason, but not knowing is throwing me into a tailspin of anxiety.”
His quills, half plucked, went up and down. “Do humans have tails? Did you lose yours in an accident?”
“What? No. Humans don’t have tails,” she said, not even bothering to touch on vestigial tails. Not the time or the place. “I answered your question. You answer mine.”
“The male had it coming. I do not take a life without cause,” he said.
When he offered no further explanation, Alice went to the next question on her list. “What does ‘fourth child’ mean?”
He sighed dramatically, the drama lizard. “I have already said that three is a sacred number. A clutch is three hatchlings. Always.”
Pieces slide into place.
“Unless there’s a fourth,” she said, turning to watch his reaction.
He sank in the water, his head dipping under. His knees poked out of the top, and his tail lolled over the side like he was too large for the tub.
“A first child is the heir. The second, a scholar. The third is for the Empire and enters the military. The fourth is a sacrifice.” He paused, sitting up. Water sluiced off his arms, his red scales dark. “In the old days, the fourth child was given to ancestors or left to the kindness of the wilds.”
That sounded ominous. “Is that a pretty way of saying adopted out, or do you mean they killed the extra—” she attempted to ask.
“It was a cruel time and long ago,” he said, not letting her finish the question. Fair. It was a gross question. “Now the fourth child is raised to be a useful tool. An instrument deployed at the right moment. We are told that we have no destiny of our own and that we will likely die serving the family.”
“A sacrifice,” she whispered.
“Yes. So it was with my family. We are traditional and a...minor noble family. My sister had a political marriage, but it was a bad match. He was a violent male.” His quills went back. “He treated my sister poorly but there was nothing to be done. His influential family protected him. I did what was required of me and was sentenced to life here for my sacrifice.”
Nothing to be done, her foot. “Are you telling me that murder was better than the fallout from a divorce?”
“Politics,” he said, his voice gruff.
Alice dipped under the water, letting her hair fan out. She noticed a comb in the pile of clothes that Faris scrounged and didn’t look forward to working out the tangles.
She looked up at the sky. Snowflakes fell in lazy circles, obscuring the stars.
“I’m divorced,” she offered, filling the silence. “Did you leave anyone behind on…”
