Page 10 of Enticed By the Alien Chef
Then Drova showed he had a keen sense for survival when he muttered that he’d keep Rex distracted while I did my business. That felt wrong, like I was going to keep secrets from my friend—boyfriend? If I was actually going to do what Drova thought I was about to do, would that be cheating?
I rushed through the process of pouring one of Ov’Karod's customary green ales with a bad taste in my mouth. That taste eased when I saw the guy I was about to swindle leer at me from his seat. It was an Ovter, one of the locals. They were small little guys, no taller than mid-chest on me, with a long, lizard-like tail. They looked like salamanders on two legs when I thought about it, with dark gray or black skin spotted in a variety of colors. They also thought it was completely normal to lick their freaking eyeballs with their tongues because apparently, they couldn’t blink. Very yucky to watch.
I waved with a fake smile, then quickly ducked behind the bar to snatch up the leather purse that Drova thought was well hidden. I didn’t know the dosage, and I worried that overdosing him would kill him, so I shook out about a teaspoonful and stirred it into the green ale. Then I pulled off my apron and came around the bar with the drink in hand. I didn’t dare step into the bar’s proper and risk one of the other guests snatching the ale from my hand, so I jerked my chin to get the Ovter to follow me. Hedid so eagerly, box clutched to his robe-clad chest, his cheeks puffing with excitement.
My feet felt funny as I climbed the stairs to Drova’s apartment, half expecting to find the door locked. It would be typical of the old Asrai to expect me to conclude this nasty business in a hallway with no privacy. I would deserve it for the subterfuge I was about to commit. “What’s your name?” I asked over my shoulder at the small Ovt male. They tended to be rather dismissive of other species, except their own, so it had come as a surprise to find that this guy was supposed to be obsessed with humans.
“Laza,” he mumbled. The door opened smoothly, and I stepped onto lush carpets in a darkened, smoky room. Drova liked soft things, it seemed, and the heavy smoke of the strange purple cigar things that people liked on this planet. I offered Laza the doctored ale as soon as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
He looked nervous, which made me feel bad for what I was about to do. I had never drugged a person before, and now it seemed like a bad idea. Maybe I could talk him into just giving me the contacts. If he was so fascinated with humans, maybe all he wanted to do was talk.
That notion quickly fled my mind when he opened his wide mouth and chucked the entire glass into his mouth—drink, shards, everything. He crunched happily with a grin that turned into a lick to his left eyeball. “We are going to have such fun, female,” Laza said. “I want to know how your skin feels, how it burns when I spit on it! I want to taste your flesh with my tongue.” He continued spouting more vile things as Ibackpedaled across the rugs, my horror mounting. Okay, this guy fucking deserved what was coming to him, and Drova could stuff it for setting me up like this. Did he really think this was a fair trade? This monster was about to kill me if those drugs didn’t work.
“Business first!” I managed to squeak out when the male cornered me against the side of a couch, his tail swishing excitedly behind him. I dared to stick out a hand and snatch the metal box from his grip. “Explain how this works first!” I wouldn’t be able to read the instructions, so I needed someone to tell me. I needed this guy to tell me before he passed out. I began to fear that he never would if he had a stomach strong enough to eat glass.
He halted abruptly and scowled at the small box as if it had personally offended him. He was very solicitous when he gave me instructions. It was an odd experience to have the creepy guy switch into such a polite way of talking after the nasty things he’d said—things that weren’t about sharing sex, but about experimenting and testing my limits. Obsessed, yes, but not in the way I had expected.
I tried to ask as many questions as I could to stall, but he remained remarkably lucid and shockingly patient. Until suddenly, he was not. He slapped the box out of my hands, and it clattered to the floor. “Enough. Take off your clothes. I want to see what I paid for. You can figure out the rest later.” It was the first time he gave any indication that he knew there might notbea later for me, and he gave me a very wicked, evil smile. A strange glow started in his gold eyes and flared along the spots visible on his chest beneath his robes.
My hands shot to the buttons of my shirt near my throat. It was instinct to start to obey such a tone. It was survival instinct at this point to try not to anger the alien. As he was keen to remind me, he might have been smaller than I was, but that did not mean weaker. The Ovters could spit acid, and he was eager to see what effect that would have on me.
I had made a grave mistake, but this apartment was right over Rex’s kitchen. Could I make enough of a ruckus that he’d hear me and come to rescue me? No, this was my mess. I’d fucked this up; I had to find my own way out. My pride stung a bit too much to ask for help.
The first button slid free, then the next, when my eyes fell on a heavy stone statue. It could have been marble—it looked like it—but I couldn’t be sure, not on an alien planet. I sidled toward it, ready to pick it up and whack him on the head with it. One moment, he was grinning widely, long tongue dangling; the next, his eyes focused on the statue as if he’d caught my intent. I thought he was going to spit his acid on me for sure, but he toppled forward so suddenly that I didn’t even have time to leap out of the way.
He landed heavily on top of my feet, and I stumbled back, tripping over the edge of a rug. My hip hit the side table sharply before I went down in an ungainly sprawl. Instinct made me jerk my legs to my chest and scramble further back, panting heavily as my back collided with a wall. Then I froze and stared, trying to wrap my head around the abrupt turn of events.
Did I kill him? Or had the drugs knocked him out? This alien roofie thing—what if it was deadly to an Ovter? I struggled to even make myself care if he was dead, though I was loathe tohave to explain a dead body to Drova or Rex. He was so creepy that it took me a minute to gather the courage to check if he still breathed.
I snatched up the perma-contacts first; those were not leaving my sight until I could use them. I had earned them fair and square, even if this guy was probably not going to agree with that. Screw him. He was planning to swindle me right back, killing me after he was done with me rather than paying me. He deserved this.
Crawling closer on my knees, I leaned in and noted that the guy was definitely still breathing—and also drooling on Drova’s rug. It was leaving a smoldering hole, even the drool acidic enough to do damage. I scooted away, climbed to my feet, and raced for the door. Maybe I should stick around and better set the scene, but I didn’t have the energy for that. Besides, how did you set a scene that involved the torture of your own person? Leave bloodstains? I had planned to undo his pants and ruffle his clothes, but that seemed inadequate now, and I really didn’t want to come any closer.
Thudding heavily down the stairs, I ducked through the bar and into an unoccupied bathroom stall before Drova could see me. My hands trembled as I opened the metal box and placed it on the edge of the sink. The promised set of high-tech syringes was there, but I wouldn’t know if they worked unless I tried them. If I didn’t do it now, I’d lose my nerve, and Drova or that Ovter Laza would have a chance to take them from me. Not going to happen.
Point and shoot, that’s what the instructions were. But there had been a complex explanation of how to open the packaging and blink, or, in an Ovter’s case, lick the eyeball before proceeding.I blinked as I was told to, my eye growing wet and moist, and then I lifted the first one and set the round circle against my eye socket to help guide the tool. I feared I’d blink as I pressed the button, but that was not supposed to matter.
I counted to three, lost my nerve, and tried again. In the end, I just squeezed on an exhale and then feared that I had done it wrong, that it hadn’t worked. But the syringe was now empty. That was it? I didn’t feel a thing… That made doing the other eye much easier, but it also made me feel like I’d been tricked. I didn’t want to consider what it would mean if it hadn’t worked.
Tossing the case with the empty high-tech syringe things tucked inside in the trash, I washed my face with cold water and then left. There was nothing to it; I had to go on with my day until I could find out if it worked. Laza said it could take up to eight hours before it took effect, which meant the entire evening stretched out in front of me before I’d even know. A long evening of uncertainty while I worked the barroom and feared the Ovter would come down and accuse me of tricking him.
Chapter 14
Rex
Every time I saw Kara that evening, she looked paler. I was telling myself that it was just my worried imagination. Then, an hour before closing, she ducked into my kitchen with a panicked expression. “Rex, I think I saw one of the guys who kidnapped me!”
The words set off a chain reaction in my brain. Protective instincts rose, followed by a deep desire for vengeance against those who had harmed her. I was across the kitchen in a heartbeat, pulling my female into my arms where I knew she’d be safe. Growls only I could hear vibrated through my chest as my eyes locked onto the barroom door as if I expected her enemies—my enemies—to burst through at any moment.
I signed with one hand, but I knew she couldn’t understand. Her eyes were on my motions anyway, and for the first time, I noticed how blurry they looked—watery with tears, red around the edges. Had she been crying? Why? That set off an entirely different reaction in my head, something close to panic. Why had my female been crying until her eyes were red? What male had caused that?
“It’s okay. I don’t think he saw me,” Kara said eventually, a frown furrowing her small brow as she kept staring at my hands. I wasn’t signing anything now, but she still looked. I hated that she couldn’t understand me unless I brought out the datapad to write on. Getting a permanent solution for that would beextremely expensive. I had money saved, but not enough for perma-contacts, or I would have already bought them for her.
Tilting my head in what was my way of conveying a question mark to her, I tipped up her chin so she could see that. “It’s fine, really. Can I hide here until he’s left? I’m sure it won’t be a problem.” I nodded immediately, of course. I was not going to let her out of my sight if there was a threat. Taking her hands, I guided her to the table and urged her onto a chair. Then, I made her one of her favorite herbal teas and shoved a basket of stringish red beans into her hands with a knife. She laughed and got to work, but I was not about to forget the redness around her eyes or her shaky breathing.
As soon as I was certain she was okay, I headed for the bar and ducked my head around the corner to get a good look at the remaining patrons. There was a pair of Tarkan males in one corner, laughing rowdily as they played cards with two Ovter dockworkers with hostile expressions. Possibly a problem, but not mine. A handful of guests in the back booth were still talking and consuming drinks and a plate of spicy finger foods, while a few Rhico were at the bar throwing back ales.
I spotted another Ovter coming out of the backroom, near the stairs leading to Drova’s apartment. He was weaving and swaying as he plodded across the room, his yellow spots pale. That one had definitely had too much to drink.
