Chapter Six #2
Aphrodite felt loopy. Unconnected to her body, like hysteria had already sank in.
A tourist? Really? Maybe it was the pain?
Maybe she was hallucinating? But Xexis wasn’t saying anything she didn’t want to hear.
They’d just unfortunately also terrified her and chased her through a dead ship and killed all her crew mates that she honestly hated…
shit does that make me a bad person? I think this makes me a bad person.
No, well, he didn’t kill everyone. Technically he killed Carso.
Tedros got himself electrocute. Dan killed Max.
And then those other hunters killed Dan, but, if she was being completely honest, she wouldn’t have wept over that fool by that point if Xexis HAD killed him.
“I would very much like to lay with you, but you’re still healing.
” The blanket was pulled back down past her collar.
One of their hands brushed along her throat and collar, pressing their palm against her skin.
With a shiver, they whispered, “Your skin is so soft, and sweet…I would enjoy nothing more than to feel it against mine… But because your skin is delicate, the technicians say I must be gentle and resist my desires until your stitches have healed.”
Her stomach clenched. Oh no…no! No. Sexual attraction is a funny thing.
Aphrodite found herself at the end of a questionable predicament.
Because, on one side—there was a being so clearly infatuated with her, sweeping her up in sweet words and making her insides fill with traitorous butterflies, that had this been under any other circumstance she’d very on board of the ‘fuck-it’ train.
On the other—Xexis hunted her crew, terrified her for what seems to be no reason, and now she was expected to be their mate.
A knock at the door interrupted the silence that loomed over her. Xexis smiled again in the way their face pulled at the pinchers and their eyes crinkled. Standing, they walked to the door and opened it.
Another hunter stood in the doorway, both speaking in a deep sounding language.
It was as if Russian were drunk and deep in their chest, with harder n’s and sharper c’s.
She furrowed her brow as the newcomer handed over a blue goop-filled jar to Xexis.
Then, the most peculiar thing. The newcomer spun to face her.
They put a fist to their chest, bowed at the hips, then spoke like they’d just learned the language.
“Hello! Xexis’ mate, I am Kiefgr. I am Fzechn to Xexis.
I am honored to—er—” They turned to Xexis and whispered a few words shyly.
Xexis nodded and motioned at Aphrodite enthusiastically.
Kiefgr beamed brighter, clasping all four hands together in front of them. “I am honored to have stabbed.”
“No-no, Kiefgr, honored to have helped.”
“Oh! But I stabbed to help.”
“Yes, you did, but…context,” Xexis shook their head before motioning for Kiefgr to leave. The bubbly Kiefgr waved with all four hands before bounding through the door seconds before it hissed closed. Xexis sighed, glancing back at Aphrodite. “I apologize, Kiefgr is a youngling and still eager.”
She nodded her chin to the jar in their hands. “What’s that?”
“Ah! It’s blephisnocotizus—uh, healing…goop?
” They stepped up to the bed and clutched the item against their chest. Bare and exposed now.
Their legs were covered by suit pants, black fabric with a hefty belt that held many gadgets and gizmos.
Her eyes traveled across their body before stopping on their face.
They pulled back the blanket to her hips and sat down again. “This may be cold.”
“Most healing goop is,” she wheezed, trying not to laugh at the hysteria that had become her life.
“Aphrodite?” And suddenly she got it.
Why her mother chose that name. Why her father called it pretty.
Why she hated the way Tedros and Carso used it.
Why she hated Danny calling her A.P. more or Max’s intention to only call her by her last name.
Her name had never sounded like music before.
Her chest filled with fluttering butterflies as Xexis unlatched the top of the jar.
“May I? Or would you prefer—you are uncomfortable, but I cannot tell if it is me or the pain.”
And so, she lied, half lied, partially lied. “The pain.”
They brightened, eyes crinkling as they dunked two large, long fingers into the neon blue goop. “I had hoped as much. My mate, I never want you uncomfortable in my presence. Prepare your flesh, here comes the goop.”
She tensed. However, if she were being honest, the zap of frost to her nervous system was delightful.
The goose bumps that broke out across her stomach and chest were worth it.
For Xexis stared at them in awe, leaning in close to study them.
And she’d never felt so… Aphrodite tried not to think about how flattering it was that she was fascinating to Xexis.
She tried not to think about how nice it felt to have them rub the salve into her hot, angry flesh.