T’zaren felt his gut tightening. Shedidn’ttrust him—not really. And she’d probably been extremely shocked and possibly disgusted when he’d admitted that he wanted to worship her and serve her with his tongue. Why couldn’t he have kept that to himself instead of blurting it out?
Because her touch makes me crazy…because my body thinks she’s my S’rentha even though she’s not.
Well, he wasn’t going to touch her anymore—or let her touch him, if possible, T’zaren swore to himself yet again. He had to be careful—every time he felt her soft fingers on his skin, his Sen Stripe flared and he got closer and closer to the edge of losing all reason…
Vowing to himself that the rest of their mission together would be strictly non-physical, he began the landing sequence.
EIGHTEEN
LUCY
Lucy waited until the big Monstrum was deep in the guts of the ship, working on the repairs, before she swiped the little holo map and casually strolled down the short gangplank that led down to the ground below.
T’zaren had a golden panel on the underside of the ship open and a quick glance over her shoulder showed that he was half buried inside it. He had taken off his crimson uniform shirt and his muscular torso, gleaming a deep, peacock blue in the dim, purplish light, was clearly visible. But his arms and head were up inside the underbelly of the ship, ensuring that he couldn’t see what she was doing.
If she’d wanted to, Lucy could have stood there admiring his amazing abs all day. He even had those little ridges of muscle that ran down the insides of his hip bones into the waistband of his low-slung trousers. The “V” she and her friends had called it back in college. But as tempting as that was, she knew she had business to attend to.
Her plan was to get to Twa’linda’s stronghold, make the deal for thedimriel,and get back just as T’zaren was finishing the repairs. Then they could go straight back to the Monstrum Mother Ship and never see each other again, which was apparently what the big Monstrum wanted.
It’s really too bad he’s so grumpy,she thought to herself as she walked quickly and quietly away from the little golden ship.He would make an amazing rebound date.She was sure she could forget all about Mike and their disappointing sex life if she could just have a no-strings-attached boink-fest with the big Monstrum.
Unfortunately, that clearly wasn’t what a Stri’vor Monstrum like T’zaren was looking for. They didn’t just want a one-night stand—they wanted a lifetime commitment and Lucy had just gotten out of one of those. She wasn’t ready to jump back into another one—not that it mattered since T’zaren was so adamant about them not being right for each other…
Her head was occupied with the big Monstrum as she strolled through the countryside, glancing occasionally at the holo map. B’ron Three was a little chilly, which made her glad she’d worn her sweater. She was walking through a vast meadow studded with trees and the light had a pale purple quality, like twilight on Earth. Lucy wasn’t sure if night was falling or if it always looked like this, but she liked it—it gave the whole planet a soft, dreamy quality, she thought.
Most of the vegetation seemed to be dark blue and various shades of purple with just a little green thrown in for contrast. There were tall trees with leaves at the very top that looked like enormous celery stalks to Lucy and the ground was covered in a thick carpet of light purple flowers no bigger than her pinky fingernail. The contrast was striking and still somehow dreamlike as the celery trees waved in the soft breeze that blew around them.
But she couldn’t dawdle to enjoy the landscape, Lucy reminded herself. She needed to get to the stronghold and back again before T’zaren missed her! Glancing at the map again, she saw that there was a kind of village she had to go through before she reached the edge of the chasm. Hmm…she hoped that wouldn’t be a problem. But surely the villagers were used to seeing other visitors going to Lady Twa’linda’s stronghold, right?
At any rate, Lucy certainly hoped so.
She continued on her way through the meadow until she saw—up ahead—a cluster of cottages. That must be the village.
“Looks pretty rustic,” Lucy murmured to herself. And indeed, it did. The cottages were thatched with faded blue hay and most of them were quite small, as though maybe they were single room dwellings.
This was impossible to verify since all the doors and windows she could see were shut tight. She didn’t see any people out and about either, which made her wonder if the whole village was deserted.
As she reached the cluster of cottages, the feeling of desertion grew even stronger. Wherewaseveryone? Had they all packed it in for the night? Maybe this was one of those places that rolls up their sidewalks early so everyone can get a good night’s sleep and get up at the crack of dawn to plow the fields and milk the cows. If the residents of B’ron Threehadanything like cows, she thought. Because no animals were visible either. In fact, the entire town seemed to be completely empty.
But just as she was thinking this, a woman came into sight. At least, Lucy assumed she was a woman. She had pale green skin and big, dark, frightened eyes that were visible under the brim of her old-fashioned looking bonnet. She was wearing a long, homespun dress that was a dull gray-blue color and there was a terrified look on her face as she raced towards one of the cottages.
“Excuse me?” Lucy called to her, glad all over again that she’d taken the Translation Bacteria so she could speak and understand alien languages. “Pardon me, can you tell me the way to the chasm?”
The woman spared a glance at Lucy and her eyes widened.
“What you doin’ out here?” she demanded in a hoarse whisper. “Don’t you know ‘taint safe?”
“Uh, why not?” Lucy frowned at her uncertainly. “I’m here to visit Twa’linda of the Two Faces,” she said, hoping the Twainer’s name would get a response.
“The Shadows is out!” the woman exclaimed. “Get back to where you come from—quick!”
“But what are the ‘Shadows’?” Lucy asked.
“Slavers, they are. And if you don’t want to be caught and slaved-out, you’ll get under cover!” the woman advised in that same, hoarse whisper, looking over her shoulder all the time as she talked.
She had finally reached the door of her cottage and she gave a quickrap-tap-tapon the wooden door with her knuckles. Immediately the door opened and the woman was whisked inside. Before Lucy could ask any more questions about who the “Shadows” were and what they looked like, the door shut behind the woman and she could hear the metallic, grating sound of a bolt being thrown as it was locked from the inside.
“Well,thatwas weird,” Lucy muttered to herself uneasily. The brief encounter was making her question the wisdom of her plan to go to Twa’linda’s stronghold by herself. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, after all.