And she takes a sip. Smiles. Takes another.
I lean back in my chair, grinning at her, waiting for the effects to kick in. I remember when Zoey was a tiny little runt, no more than arms and legs, running around our ship. She tried sweetjuice for the first time after we brought back a carafe from a station cantina and then drunkenly wandered around the Little Sister for hours, talking to her shoe. It made her drunk beyond any alcohol, and after that hilarious incident, we kept sweetjuice off the ship.
But Lord Straik has it on his. The alcoholic properties only truly affect humans. To me, it's just juice.
I'm hoping it gets Jade to open up a little, though. And if she talks to her shoe for a few hours, okay, that will be fun, too. She'll probably be mad at me when she sobers up, but as I watch her drain the cup of juice, I figure it's just payback for drugging me, and I scratch at my chest again.
"That's delicious," she tells me, setting down her drained cup. "Can I have another?"
"Hell yeah." I nudge my fruit toward her. "You can eat that, too."
She does, tearing into my stone fruit before I even get up to snag her refill. There's truth in her actions, from what I can tell. She hasn't been around enough mesakkah to know sweetjuice will knock her on her ass. She doesn't know how to eat common fruits, which tells me that the food system on the Star is either cleaned out or supplied with cheap stuff.
And for all her initial skepticism, Jade is trusting. She's eaten and drunk what I've placed in front of her with a trusting eagerness that makes my chest ache. For all that they tried to rob us, these humans aren't hardened criminals.
I can't wait to get some answers. I put the refill of sweetjuice in front of Jade and wink at her. "Bottoms up."
17
JADE
It takes a few minutes for me to realize that this juice has a hell of a punch.
It takes a few more before I realize I'm completely drunk. Oh fuck.
I stare down at the empty tumbler in my hands. It's the second one I've sucked down, and I should have realized there was a catch. It's just…Adiron was so casual about the fruit, and it's been so long since I've had anything but protein bars or those goddamned noodles that I got excited. Juice sounded like manna from the heavens. Juice is so benign, too. It's just…juice.
Apparently not.
I blink up at my captor, and he's grinning at me. "Did you drug me?" I ask, and my words come out wobbly. Silly words.
"No. That particular juice just packs a real punch for humans. My sister's human, you know."
I just blink at him. He's really pretty. Real pretty. Those eyes are playful and kind, both. And he fed me. I like a man that knows to feed a woman, even if he is the enemy.
Oh, right. He's the enemy. I consider that for a moment and then lick the rim of my glass, because I really want more juice even though I know I shouldn't.
"Still thirsty?"
I push my glass toward him. It nearly skids off the table, but he catches it. "Fill ’er up, bartender."
Adiron chuckles. He gets up and heads to the food and drink dispenser, and as he does, I look around the room. Ooh, there's a door. I should find the others. Tell them not to drink the juice, no matter what. It's delicious but it makes your head wobbly. So wobbly. I stand up and stagger toward the door. My legs don't work quite right—it's like they're made of noodles—and I run into a table. And a chair. And then another table.
I giggle, because how do all these tables keep getting in front of the door? It's like there's an obstacle course in here and at the other end are my friends. Well, I've watched TV shows. I know how you handle an obstacle course.
So I start climbing on the table in front of me, crawling over the top.
"Hang on, now," Adiron says, and he sounds amused. Big arms haul me off the table and carry me back to my original seat. I try to get up again, and Adiron grabs me by the waist, this time dragging me toward him.
Fine, if he wants me to sit, I'll sit right on him. I drop down on his leg. "Boom."
Instead of grimacing at my weight, he just chuckles again, and his arms tighten around my waist. "If you want to sit on me, I'll allow that."
"Hmph." I wiggle, trying to get comfortable, but his thigh has plating on it underneath his clothes. After a few moments of shifting, I find a decent spot and lean against his chest. He's big and actually pretty comfortable to lean against, and I sigh. "I'm tired."