“Is everybody here?”
“No, several of them are late as well,” Varin shrugged. “Nice to have all the time in the universe, isn’t it?”
Archon detected a hint of worry in Varin’s tone. He would never have noticed that in the past. Interesting. Perhaps this empathy thing would have some uses. Perhaps he could use it to gain advantage over his enemies. By understanding them, he could destroy them.
“I have other places to be and other things to do,” he said. “This is a waste of my time, and yours, Varin.”
“Then let us try to make this pass as quickly as possible,” Archon suggested. “When the others are all here, we will agree with everything they say until they close proceedings.”
“We may end up agreeing to things we do not agree with,” Varin said. “It could cost us dearly.”
“It could,” Archon shrugged. “We can always call another meeting when we have more time, or when wasting theirs seems more appealing than it does now…”
“ARCHON! YOU ILLEGITIMATE BASTARD!”
Archon turned with a broad smile, for a greeting as honest as that could only come from the mouth of a friend. There was one king he could stand. One king he rather liked, perhaps even admired. Dominax the winged. Half devil, as shown by the proud horns which rose from his head. He was also half angel, as revealed by the big black wings which would unfold from his shoulders when he was flustered or decided to have a little fly about the place. Officially, he was a beast of indeterminate generic origin, but he ruled over his kingdom with what Archon could only describe as an outrageous yet utterly dominant style.
“Dominax! You twisted perversion of a beast!” Archon returned the greeting.
“Neither one of us deserve our crowns, do we,” Dominax laughed, wrapping Archon in a masculine embrace. “You’re still a scaly bastard, aren’t you.”
“And you still drop feathers wherever you go,” Archon replied. “You need someone to follow you around and sweep up after you.”
Dominax let out a hearty laugh. “Tell me, Archon, while we wait for the stragglers. What is new in your pitiful life?”
“Come to my ship and see,” Archon said with a smirk.
“Oh? You have something you're not supposed to, do you?”
“I have something I never thought I’d have. A mate.”
“A mate? This I have to see.”
“After the council!” Varin called out. “They’re finally all here!”
“Bugger that,” Dominax replied. “I want to see the human.”
“See the human on your own time. We have a universe to run.”
Chapter 22
“So that’s a human, is it?”
Dominax was staring at Iris with great interest. Iris was staring back with much less interest and far more annoyance.
“They’re more trouble than they’re worth. Get yourself a nice Grinklefink girl. They have obedience in their genes. These humans, they’re always getting into something. And they take to disobedience like ducks to water, so there’s nothing to do but beat them regularly.”
“Very intriguing physical structure,” Dominax said, ignoring him. “Sort of… curvy, aren’t they?”
“Yes. They are.”
“Full in the ass, too. A nice round rump, made perfectly for the punishment you say they deserve.”
“Dominax…”
“My last pet died,” he said bluntly. “I’ve been looking for something to replace her. A human might be interesting.”
“Humans are interesting, but be careful. They have a way of… well, capturing you back.”
Dominax grinned broadly. “Don’t tell me you have fallen in love. Don't tell me you intend to make this human thing your queen.”
Archon restrained the urge to bash his skull in for calling Iris a ‘thing’.
“The nobles want an heir. Perhaps it is time I gave them one,” Archon smiled. He had not thought about it before, but now he did, it occurred to him that the nobles of Archaeus would become apoplectic if he were to declare a half-human heir. It would ruin all their plans to eventually suck his seed into the womb of one of their dancing pawns.
“Are you done?”
Iris didn’t mean to sound quite so short with him, but sitting alone on a ship and waiting for him to return left her with nothing but time to think about her family, and all that she had lost. Now she was staring at two kings, the second hardly endearing himself to her with all the talk of pets and rumps.
If Archon was telling the truth, she might see her family again soon. She wondered what she would say to her father, or what her brothers would think of all that had happened. Iris was actually glad that the tribe had been zipped off the planet. It meant they wouldn’t know about the sexual spectacle she had become.
“We are done. We are also giving King Dominax a lift.”
“You’ll barely notice me here,” the king with the horns and the wings said nonchalantly, as if there was some chance he’d blend into the background.