Page 71 of Decadence

Praying that Ikriss’s machine heart would hold up well enough to keep him alive.

It was out of her hands now. All of it.

Chapter Eighteen

To Sienna’s surprise, it wasn’t all that hard to convince Jaxis and Vyron to take her to the so-called food preparation room. In fact, their surly attitude had all but disappeared, replaced with quiet, military-like co-operativeness, which led her to wonder if a certain golden-eyed and slightly scary former Commander had influenced them in any way. They had a certain talent for making themselves silent and invisible to the point where she sometimes forgot they were in the room with her.

Vyron had disappeared shortly after they’d gotten there, and she hadn’t even noticed until Jaxis came to stand right beside her, annoying her by scrutinizing every little thing she did.

Eventually, he’d apparently grown bored and retreated to the shadows. Right now, he was leaning against the wall near the doorway, staring at her impassively as he did his best impression of an obsidian chameleon, his armored body blending in with the black door frame.

She ignored him. The more the Kordolians shadowed her, the easier it was to pretend they weren’t there.

Her hair still damp from her second shower, her body still thrumming from the memory of Ikriss’s mesmerizing stare, Sienna walked into a room that was surprisingly well lit, considering the Kordolian penchant for darkness. The slightly curved walls were painted a shade somewhere between white and pale blue that reminded her of cloudless skies on a blisteringly hot summer’s day.

An endless array of kitchen-bots was set into the far wall, but there was also a manual cooker and an old-fashioned combi-oven.

It was all so unexpected that she actually gasped, putting a hand against her chest in surprise as she took in the gleaming white simulated stone benchtops and the fully stocked pantry and the wall of glass doors across the other end of the room that protected at least five full-sized food preservation units—temperature and pressure-controlled chambers that kept food as fresh as the day it was harvested. Inside was an assortment of vegetables and leafy greens and fruit and fish and meat. Some of the fruit and veges were still growing; kept alive by hydroponics and artificial UV-light.

How the hell did the Kordolians have all this on their dark, austere ship?

It was essentially a very well designed, state-of-the-art Earth-style kitchen; the kind one might find in the homes of the insanely rich.

“Hey, Jaxis,” she called, drawing a sharp look from the warrior. “What do you people like to eat?”

“Meat,” the warrior said gruffly, after a slight pause.

“Just meat? That’s it? I mean, you don’t eat vegetables, or carbs, or… chocolate?”

“I do not know this chocolate that you speak of. We sustain ourselves with protein, fat, and minerals, in that order, and preferably raw, although cooked is acceptable. A small amount of plant material is digestible, but not necessary. Unlike you humans, we do not turn the task of obtaining sustenance into pointless indulgence.”

Sienna squared up the surly warrior and chuckled softly as the memory of Ikriss’s decadent stare invaded every fiber of her being. her terrible need was still there, simmering just beneath the surface, and yet she was also filled with a strange kind of euphoria, as if she were on the verge of some mind-blowing revelation. “There’s no such thing as pointless indulgence,” she said quietly.

“Huh.” Jaxis gave her a skeptical look. “Indisciplined nonsense.”

“You don’t know a thing about my world.” She gave him an acid-dipped smile. “Don’t talk to me about discipline.”

Before Sienna had opened the Whisk and Pin, she’d worked in the brutal, exacting world of haute cuisine.

She knew discipline.

Sienna raised an eyebrow at Jaxis and quickly orientated herself, finding a set of sharp knives. From the preservers, she selected a good sized fish—a vibrant red Alaskan sockeye salmon that was as fresh as the day it had been caught. Its iridescent skin shimmered under the bright lights.

She didn’t even question how and why the heck these aliens even had such a fish, which would have been impossibly expensive back on Earth; out of reach for mere mortals.

Secretly, she suspected they could get anything they wanted in the Universe—and probably get away with anything, too. They were more powerful than all the criminal syndicates and private militias and governments combined.

And here she was, pilfering their luxurious space-kitchen in a vain attempt to stop going insane.

Damn it, Ikriss.

The High Commander was going to ruin her.

He probably already had.

Why wouldn’t her heart stop racing?

Sienna orientated herself in the kitchen, obsessively checking all of the auto-drawers. The extensive array of equipment and utensils put even her chef’s kitchen in the Whisk and Pin to shame.

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