Veral’s long, dark tongues emerged then from its mouth, the pair twining and flexing, the tapered tips oddly flexible. She wrinkled her nose as it leaned forward. The alien’s breath didn’t smell bad like she expected it would. Instead, it had a curious spicy scent. Its two tongues lashed forward, slipping over her skin, depositing a trail of something sticky where they touched her wound. She lifted a hand to explore the cut, but Veral grabbed her by the wrist and held her still while the substance dried. Only then did the alien release her. Glaring at him, she ran her fingers over a hard, raised trail.
“The cut is sealed. In two days, my hormonal saliva will crack and fall away, leaving only healed skin in its place,” Veral grunted before turning away from her once more to empty the contents of what she now saw were several lockboxes cracked open.
Terri cleared her throat awkwardly and wandered back to where she’d been working once more. She hated to admit that she spent the rest of the day tiptoeing around the big alien, but Veral really did prefer maintaining its own personal space and she had no problem giving that. She probably went overboard, venturing nowhere near touching distance, but that was her prerogative, even if on several occasions she felt his eyes watching her curiously. Despite the fact that those whips didn’t hurt more than a papercut, she was determined to not risk a repeat performance.
When they returned to their shelter that night, they huddled once again in a shared room. Veral never attempted to lay closer than a foot or two away from her. She almost wished the alien would. The temperature dropped at night in the desert, and the body heat would have been welcomed. She suspected that Veral didn’t suffer from it the way she did, the same way that the alien never seemed to be uncomfortable even in the midday sun that sent Terri looking for shelter to wait out the worse hours.
It was late into the fifth day salvaging that she heard the familiar roar of a Reaper engine, and Terri froze. It was some distance away, probably chasing after other “prey,” but she couldn’t ignore the gut instinct to run and hide. If it weren’t for the fact that she didn’t want to seem like a complete waste of space to the alien standing stoically nearby, she would have. If Veral was unconcerned, she had little reason to worry. They had a bargain, and she didn’t think the alien would just abandon her to be captured. She shrugged it off and continued searching through the rubble of an old cinema.
The alien didn’t seem to be fooled by her pretense of nonchalance. Veral turned and looked at her, bony brow raising with interest. “You are afraid of them.”
“Well, yes, of course I am. I’d be suicidal to not be at least a little afraid of them. They would capture me if they had the opportunity.”
“They hunted you that day.”
She had no need to ask what day Veral was speaking of. “They tried to,” she said.
“You survived and, even though you were afraid, you still entered their abode and freed me.”
“Yes.”
Veral considered her in silence for a few minutes, its blue eyes never shifting away from her. Suddenly, its lips tilted up in a closed-lipped smile and it nodded.
“You are fierce, Terri… for a human,” Veral amended with a loud chuff of laughter.
Terri smiled in return, flattered despite the indirect insult to her species. She stretched her back, her loose shirt pulling taut as she attempted to ease her muscles. Veral’s blue eyes shifted to her before again focusing on its work. She thought she’d seen something flicker in that gaze, but shrugged it off—she was likely mistaken. They continued to work in companionable silence for the rest of the evening.
It was very late at night when they heard another engine rev nearby, this time passing so close to the house they were sleeping in that it woke Terri up. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest and fear seeped out of every pore as she heard the laughter of Reapers. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a warm, dry hand on her shoulder. She skittered to the side and glanced behind her, meeting Veral’s luminous eyes.
The alien’s pointed ears shifted forward in their limited range of motion. Although Veral’s head turned slightly as a rat scurried by in the dark, the alien’s focus was entirely on the noises outside their hiding place. A loud crash near the door made Terri jump, but Veral’s arm banded around her, steadying her. A single hand stroked her hair soothingly as it whispered to her in a low voice.
“Males seek females. Breeding is a prerogative among most species in the universe. The impulse to hunt out one’s mate doesn’t cease to exist because one’s civilization falls. Perhaps the need becomes even greater then. I do not know. It is a natural desire, but they seek to terrorize females. I do not approve of this. The Argurma are not gentle mates, but even we are not so cruel. Do not worry. I will protect you.”
She shivered and leaned against the alien, allowing its warmth to flow into her body. She needed the distraction, so she asked the first question that came to mind.
“Have you ever had a mate?”
Silence descended between them, and Terri worried that she’d asked a taboo question. At length, she heard a raspy sigh. “I came close once, but my intended decided in the end to pair with another. Mating is competitive. No male is guaranteed that a female will choose them, and every male desires the best female. If you were Argurma, you would have been courted by hundreds of males. Your nature is strong like ours. Many would have desired to impress you, even if you have a kindness in you that my people would consider a debilitating weakness. Yet, I find even that I like.”
Terri grinned in the darkness, forgetting that Veral could see her. As always, her alien stiffened as she bared her teeth but was reacting less every time she smiled. She tensed as a small, nagging thought filtered through her brain.
Veral had informed her in not so many words that he was male, and that as a male, he was showing admiration for her by comparing her to the females of his world. She no longer felt threatened in his company beyond the dissipating unease she usually felt. Truth be told, she felt far safer with him than with any human male. She pulled back as she eyed the alien beside her.
“You’re male?” she whispered.
Veral bristled in offense, his arms tightening protectively around her. “Yes.”
She couldn’t think of anything to say to that. It didn’t bother her, so it seemed pointless to make a big deal out of it. Instead, she wanted to enjoy the offered comfort. She leaned forward and rested her head against his chest. His body tensed beneath her and his skin seemed to shudder where her breath brushed it. He didn’t object and, if she wasn’t mistaken, it felt like he settled more comfortably against her. The strange rhythm of his heart filled her ear, providing a soothing sound that drowned out whatever noise the Reapers were making on the streets.
She felt… safe.
“Oh, okay,” she mumbled against his chest. She could feel the tension easing out of him even as her own body relaxed. Terri yawned, and to her surprise he didn’t pull away to his customary place. This time, he continued to hold her long after the sounds of Reapers had faded and sleep had claimed her.
7
Veral followed the small human down the road. Like every other street, it was cracked in many places. Appropriate for a city of crumbling buildings. The species was dying as assuredly as the city was returning to the sands. Even the humans he had seen appeared to be barely clinging to life. Although the Reapers had spoken of pregnant females, he couldn’t imagine offspring thriving in such desolation.
Not that he had seen any since his arrival. All he’d seen were fragments of playthings. The sight had brought a hazy feeling to him that he couldn’t quite define. Like fragments of his past drifting on his conscious mind seeking to reclaim him.