Page 12 of Decadence

But looking at him, she could see that it made perfect sense.

“Shadow?” Ikriss’s lips curved upwards ever so slightly. “I have been called something similar in the past, but that was a long time ago. Are you perhaps psychic, human?”

“No way.” Psychic? Is that even a thing in their Universe? It took her a moment to realize that he might actually be teasing her a little. A flush of heat rose up her neck and into her cheeks. “When I first saw you, that’s what you looked like. A black shadow. I was drugged up to the eyeballs, so my memory’s a little hazy. I wasn’t in a good way. All I can say is thanks.”

To her surprise, the alien’s hard expression softened. “No need for thanks,” he said gruffly. “It is my duty.”

A sudden realization hit Sienna in the chest like a sledgehammer. If he was the Shadow, then…

He’d seen her naked.

He’d held her in his arms.

He’d seen her at the lowest, most vulnerable point in her entire life, and yet here he was, acting completely normal about it all.

Well, as normal as an alien could be, anyway.

Ikriss took a seat across from her, his movements eerily graceful. Kordolians just moved differently to humans. “You are my direct responsibility.” He leaned forward, capturing her with his golden gaze. Even his scrutiny felt alien; it was somehow more intense than what she could ever experience with any human. How scary. “I need to ask you some questions, Sienna.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “I thought interrogations weren’t your thing.”

“I would never interrogate you in that way,” he said softly, and even his reassurance sent a chill through her, because it gave a hint of what he could really do to her, if he wanted. “But I need to find out what happened to you before you were abducted.”

“Why does any of that matter now?”

His features hardened, like the surface of a lake freezing over. “I am trying to understand, Sienna, how and why these Ephrenians were able to reach you on Earth. We need to know so we can make sure it never happens again.”

“I think you’ve got the wrong idea. I-I’m not involved with anything like that.”

“You misunderstand me. I know you have nothing to do with the perpetrators. But there has to be a reason that out of four billion females on Earth, they decided to abduct you from one of the most densely populated metropolises on the planet. They could have gone for much easier targets.”

He knows I live in New York? Sienna glared. “If you’re capable of finding out where I live, then you probably don’t need to ask me all these questions.”

“I’m not going to waste time sifting through cold data when I have you right in front of me,” the Kordolian growled, baring a pair of sharp, gleaming fangs. Fangs! Sienna stared at the alien in fascination. She was vaguely aware that they all possessed fangs, but she hadn’t really paid much attention until now. “If you want to stop this from happening again, then you will tell me what I need to know.”

His commanding, arrogant tone rubbed her the wrong way. This guy had seen her at her lowest point; naked and incoherent. He appeared to have access to her personal information. She was on his warship, a million miles from home, at his complete mercy.

He’d saved her from a fate worse than death.

So now she owed him her life, too.

That was both mind-blowing and a little bit shitty.

“I’ll answer your questions,” she said quietly, summoning her courage against this all-powerful adversary—or ally; she didn’t know which. “But only if you answer my questions first. You haven’t told us anything.”

Ikriss inclined his head. “Fire away.”

“Uh…” The ease with which he agreed took her by surprise. She was expecting him to be a little more guarded. “Well, firstly, what’s going to happen to us?”

The alien leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers, his expression unreadable as he regarded her with a calculating golden stare. “You are under observation for the next twenty-four Earth hours. We need to make sure you are completely healed and that it is suitable for you to return to Earth.”

Return? Disbelief and excitement made her heart race. After all this time… after all the horrible shit she’d been through… they were actually talking about sending her back home?

It wasn’t so long ago that she’d resigned herself to the fact that she might never see her home planet ever again.

For the first time in so long, she allowed her thoughts to turn to Earthly problems. There was the matter of her small restaurant, where she was the head chef and the brains behind the entire operation. Her staff, who needed to get paid… and who were probably desperately wondering what the hell had happened to her. Her sister. Her mom. Debts that needed to be paid. Loan repayments, suppliers, bills…

Her loyal customers.

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