Page 72 of Decadence

She selected a couple of suitable knives and got to work scaling and gutting the fish, working quickly, her hands settling into a comfortable rhythm as she carried out a simple task she’d done a thousand times before.

She’d spied some lemons and olive oil and dill earlier; all the ingredients she needed to make a fresh salmon crudo.

Simple. Easy.

It would be just perfect.

No matter how advanced technology on Earth became, nothing could gut and fillet a fish as well as trained human hands.

And no machine or AI could season and marinate and flavor food quite like a human.

Sienna filleted the fish and put the scraps aside—she would use the bones for stock and fry the skin until it was golden and crispy. Then she placed the beautiful red fillets in a cryo-bot and set the machine to a freeze-thaw cycle to kill potential pathogens. As soon as the machine beeped, she took them out and sliced them thinly, ensuring each morsel was equal in width and size. She squeezed the lemons and mixed the juice with peppery extra virgin olive oil. She arranged the fish slices on two pristine white plates, drizzling the lemony olive-oil over the top and garnishing with flakes of sea salt and fresh dill.

As she cleaned her hands, she beckoned Jaxis. “Try some.”

The warrior shook his head. “I do not eat while on duty,” he said stiffly.

But his nostrils betrayed him, flaring ever so slightly.

“I’m sending one of these plates to your boss. He needs to eat. It’ll help with his recovery. This is just a wild guess, but I get the feeling he’s the type that will work himself to the bone and not take rest and proper food until someone that gives a shit literally forces him to eat and sleep. You need to test it to make sure it’s suitable. You wouldn’t want Ikriss to find out that I’d prepared all this only to have it blocked by you, would you? And you wouldn’t take your commander substandard food, would you?”

Jaxis stared at her as if she’d grown a second head. He muttered something in his native tongue and shook his head. “Very well,” he agreed as he peeled himself off the wall. As he moved forward, Sienna couldn’t help but notice the many blades adorning his armored body.

She was feeding crudo to lethal warriors. Who would have thought?

Undeterred, she slid a perfect, juicy sliver of salmon onto a fork and held it out. “Go on. I promise it won’t kill you, unless Kordolians are allergic to lemons.”

Jaxis eyed the fish with suspicion and took an experimental sniff. Frowning, he took the fork and popped the morsel in his mouth.

Sienna watched him closely.

For a moment, he went very still.

Then his eyes widened ever-so-slightly.

“It is acceptable,” he growled. “It is…”

Again, there was that slight widening of the eyes.

Sienna had seen that expression a thousand times before, on humans.

She knew what it meant.

Inwardly, she smirked. Got you.

“So take some to the boss. Quickly, before it sits too long. You have to eat it while it’s super fresh.”

“I will have it sent to the Commander. In the meantime, if I happen to drop dead, you will end up like that fish.”

Was that a Kordolian attempt at a… joke? “How sweet,” she said.

“And… that other serving… it is for yourself, then?”

“All yours.” Sienna gestured magnanimously at the second plate of crudo. “I don’t want any. I’m in a hot chips and gravy kind of mood. That’s just a starter, by the way. There’s more where that came from if you behave yourself.”

“It is slightly better than a protein bar,” Jaxis admitted grudgingly as he stole another mouthful of raw fish. “And your knife skills are almost decent.” When he looked at her next, his red gaze was cold and clear and more than a little menacing. “He was, and is, and always will be our Commander, human. I owe him my life three times over, and I would lay it down for him a thousand times again. I can see that you have all the makings of a worthy mate, but humans can be fickle. Do not make that mistake with our Enkaladu, Sienna of Earth. Do not disappoint him.” His protectiveness hit her like a sudden storm, and Sienna realized that she still had a lot to learn about these strange, fierce creatures.

Where the hell did that come from?

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