Page 54 of To Quench Her Thirst

“What?” Addie looked at him sharply but he only shook his head.

“Nothing. Okay, I’ll eat.”

Addie watched carefully to be sure he did as he said while she ate her own bar. But first she took a long drink from the nutrition bulb.

The liquid was refreshing and lightly fruit-flavored which was nice—it washed away the taste of stale blood in her mouth. Her protein bar was studded with chocolate chips and crunchy nuts and Addie thought it was completely delicious. It reminded her of the granola bars she used to eat as an after-school snack as a kid.

Drago ate and drank too, slowly at first and then with more vigor. After the first sip and nibble, his appetite seemed to wake up and he finished the protein bar in two bites and drained the squeeze bulb in one long drink. When he finished, Addie decidedhe was most definitely looking better. There was color in his pale cheeks now and his golden eyes looked brighter.

“Gods, that was good. Didn’t realize how hungry I was,” he muttered.

“I know—half the time you’re grumpy, it’s because you’re hungry.” Addie smothered a grin, then she got serious. “You’re looking a lot more alert now but I still think we should wait a little while before we go. Are yousurethe Vargans can’t find us?”

He shook his head.

“Nah—their tech isn’t nearly as good as ours. We’re safe out here as long as we keep the cloak on—which we can do indefinitely since it doesn’t take much power as long as we’re not flying while we’re using it.”

“Good.” Addie gave a sigh of relief. “In that case, I’m going to go take a shower.” She looked down at herself and made a face at the bloody towel still wrapped around her. “I need to get myself cleaned up.”

A look of remorse and self-recrimination appeared on Drago’s dark face.

“I’m so fucking sorry about that, Addison. My Drake?—”

“Your Drake saved my life,” Addie said shortly. “True, he also killed some people and fried the Spider Goddess the Vargans have been worshiping for generations, but sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. And it’s not like Ls Prissa and Lx Sambla were very nice people. They lured us out to this awful place and poisoned me and then tried to kill us both.”

“Yeah, well…” Drago didn’t look convinced but that was too bad, she told herself. She didn’t have time to argue about whether his Drake’s actions had been justified or not. She was sticky with blood and the many cuts on her body really stung. Right now she just wanted a nice hot shower to wash away all the craziness she’d gone through in the Palace of Sheelash.

“We’ll talk about it later,” she promised. “AfterI get a shower.”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll plot the course to the wormhole,” he said, nodding.

“Good. The sooner we get off this crazy moon, the better,” Addie said.

She had no idea that they would be staying a little longer…

32

DRAGO

Drago felt more alert now that he’d had something to eat and drink. Addison had been right—he’d been nearly starving and hadn’t even known it because he felt so weak. But now that he had some nutrition in him, the blood replenishment pills were starting to work. He could feel himself getting stronger by the minute. Soon he would feel good enough to navigate their way home to the Mother Ship through the wormhole.

Too bad he wouldn’t be staying once they got there.

After Addison had told him everything his Drake had done, he’d been filled with shame. Not that he regretted the death of the giant, malevolent spider or Ls Prissa and Lx Sambla but Sheelash had been a goddess to the Vargans and Prissa and Sambla had been their ruler and ambassador respectively. The fact that his Drake had fried them all was probably going to cause a lot of trouble for the Mother Ship.

Also, Addison had been wounded all over, through his Drake’s carelessness. Drago wished that he could offer to heal all of her cuts the same way he had healed her spider bite the night before, but he didn’t feel he deserved to. He had failed in his mission to protect his charge and he had failed to keep his Drake in check. The only thing he deserved now was exile.

And that was his plan. After he dropped Addison off at the Mother Ship and made certain she was all right, he planned to fly the long-range shuttle to Primus Four. It was a planet in a nearby solar system that had a breathable atmosphere but was completely uninhabited because it was coveredjookli—a dense, extremely fast-growing vegetation that could swallow a domicile in a single night. Efforts to clear the aggressive weed had been unsuccessful and so the planet had been deemed uninhabitable.

Once he reached Primus Four, Drago intended to let his Drake out…and then never recall it. In essence, he would be committing mental suicide—giving his life over to his Drake and letting him live out the rest of his days in the jungle wilderness. There was plenty of game to be had on the small planet and thejookliwouldn’t cover a living organism—only an artificially constructed dwelling or structure. So his Drake should be fine living there.

As for Drago, he would never have to face his shame again or remember how badly he had failed Addison. He would never?—

Suddenly the bridge of the long-range shuttle filled with a presence. It bore down on Drago like a heavy weight and he heard a distinctly feminine voice speaking in his ear.

“I know of your plans, Warrior,”the voice said.“You would abandon the woman I set aside for you and go into self-imposed exile. This displeases me greatly!”

“Goddess?” Drago looked around, but there was nothing to see—just the heavy weight of the divine presence pressing down on him from all sides. He felt like he imagined he would if he was transported to the bottom of the sea where the pressure was crushingly intense.

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