Page 15 of Decadence

She was all messed up right now. She needed to get back to Earth, to her sanctuary—her kitchen—where she could get back to doing what she loved.

How she missed it; the work, the fresh ingredients, the aromas, the tastes, the satisfaction of bringing raw elements together to create something beautiful.

Something that gave great pleasure to her customers.

Right now, she needed all of that so badly.

To ground her.

To restore her sanity.

I have to get out of this place.

So Sienna made a quick decision. It wasn’t as if she really had a choice, anyway.

“I’ll tell you what you need to know,” she said quietly. “Let’s get this over and done with. I just want to go home.”

Abruptly, the alien stood, his movements swift and graceful; too fluid to possibly be human. “As I said, I will send one of our people to question you shortly.” He made a small but annoyingly imperious gesture with his hand, indicating that she should stand too. It was a cold, curt dismissal. After all that, it felt like an anticlimax. “You have nothing to worry about. You are our responsibility now, and we will take care of everything. Asherin will take you back to your quarters.”

She couldn’t help but feel slightly deflated… and strangely disappointed.

As if summoned by magic, Ikriss’s assistant appeared from behind silently unravelling black doors.

She would never get used to that sight; of thousands, if not millions of obsidian tendrils peeling apart as if they were alive.

It creeped her out.

For a moment there, she’d almost forgotten she was on a strange alien ship in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by beings she knew barely anything about.

Come to think of it, none of the Kordolians she’d encountered were female. That was weird. Were they a highly patriarchal society, then? Were their women not allowed to work?

Sienna swallowed her disquiet and glared at Ikriss. “What do you mean, responsibility? I’m in the habit of taking responsibility for my own fate,” she said quietly. “It looks like I don’t have any choice in the matter, but you should know that I just want to get back to my old life, without all this…” She waved her hand in the general direction of all the darkness. “Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely appreciate what you did for me back there. You saved my life, and if I was ever in a position to return the favor, I would gladly do so, although I don’t think that’ll ever happen.”

“That makes sense,” the alien said quietly. “But you don’t owe me anything. I was merely doing my duty. Goodbye, Sienna Adamo.”

“Bye to you, too,” Sienna said, taking one last look at the Kordolian before she tore her gaze away. If she stared at him for too long, she feared she might drown in his intensity.

And that would be dangerous.

So she turned away, toward the promise of home, resolving to forget about dark, alluring, silver-skinned aliens once and for all.

Chapter Five

Ikriss strode down the corridor, quickening his pace as the headache throbbed right through his fucking temples and into the bases of his ultra-sensitive severed horn-buds. At those very points, the pain turned into exquisite agony that sharpened with every step.

What is this?

He’d never experienced anything like it in his life.

But deep down, he knew what it was.

Oh, but he was screwed.

And after this cursed meeting with these so-called Federation humans, he was going to go find Kail and drag his ass to the training chamber for a pounding, because the big warrior’s words had proven to be more than little prophetic.

What was once perfectly calm suddenly becomes unpredictable. It can happen quickly; without warning. You might think you are perfectly in control, but even you are not immune, Commander.

As he’d sat there in his chambers across from the human, who had pale golden hair and piercing grey-green eyes that held haunting echoes of suffering and pain, the headache had come down upon him like a thunderclap.

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