Page 13 of Alien's Luck
He stretched his wings. “Put that away before you blast a hole in your foot. We need to inform Miriam that I found you.”
CHAPTER 4
CARLA
“Who?”
“Miriam,” Ari said. Then, because she needed the clarification, he added, “Your friend.”
“I don’t know a Miriam.” She kept the pistol focused on the gargoyle. Her head might be foggy, but she didn’t have gaps in her memory.
“You do not have to pretend with me, Darla. I freed you from your captor.”
“What did you call me?”
“Darla.”
Yeah, this was starting to make sense. The gargoyle had the wrong person.
“My name is Carla,” she said, stressing the hard kay sound.
His wings fluttered as if embarrassed or flustered.
“Human names all sound like you are swallowing rocks. Caaarla. Daaarla,” he said, making a rumbling, gargling noise in the back of his throat.
Translator chips sometimes garbled proper names but come on. That was just rude. Then again, maybe this wasn’t a translator problem.
“Oh my God, do all humans look the same to you?”
“I have never seen Darla, so I cannot say if you share a resemblance,” he said in a too-smooth, too-arrogant tone.
Unbelievable. He just grabbed a random human with a similar-sounding name.
“Are you for real?” she asked.
His brow furrowed, as if confused. “As real as a person can be. Is now the best time for existential debates?”
Just for that, she shot him.
Ari hissed, patting a hand against the smoldering fabric of his evening jacket. “This is Sevengi wool. It is impossible to find here.”
“Now’s not the time for an existential crisis over your wardrobe.” Okay, it wasn’t the best quip, but Ari looked genuinely annoyed when she parroted his words back at him, so fuck yeah, she’d count that as a win.
“Where’s Poppy? Tell me, or I’ll put another hole in your expensive suit,” she threatened.
“I do not know.”
He earned himself a matching hole on the other side of the jacket. The old pistol didn’t have enough energy to do real damage, but Ari seemed more distraught about his ruined clothes than if she had put a hole in his hide.
“Will you cease?” He marched toward her and snatched the pistol from her. “I presume Poppy was taken to whatever foul pit Tavat calls home, but she is not here. We are on my ship.”
Okay, okay. Her head was still a little foggy, but she pieced it together. “You kidnapped me because you thought I was this Darla?”
“I purchased you, but yes.”
“You bought me.”
“Yes, that is why you are not in Tavat’s possession,” Ari said, and then, because he just could not read the room, added, “You are welcome.”
