Maggie
Driok’s words slowly sink into my still not quite functioning brain. He gets up and goes back to the dispenser, ordering more ale wine and drinking it like water. I stare out at the city and all the moving parts.
I wanted something more than Vorostor, but I didn’t want to leave it entirely. I didn’t want to leave my friends.
I didn’t want to start again.
And I’ve never liked cities. Give me the wide open spaces of rolling moorland any day. Driok stands with one hand splayed on the wall next to the dispenser, his head bowed and eyes closed. I have a thousand questions, but none of them seem important.
I’ve already been through this once, being plucked from my home, dropped somewhere I didn’t want to be.
From what I understand, the Sarkarnii are the same.
Their home planet lost, adrift in space, Driok and his fellow warlords fell through a worm hole into the galaxy where they made Vorostor their home.
Now he’s been ripped from it once again, by his own doing…again.
The silence of loss sits heavy on the both of us.
“My mate,” Driok rumbles from his still position. “I have failed you.”
Everything which has happened and he’s worried about me?
“I’m still alive, aren’t I?” I respond. “That’s hardly a failure.”
“They would have kept you alive regardless,” Driok says. “It is not my doing.”
“If you have one failing”—I get to my feet and find I’m unsteady but make my way over to him regardless—“it’s self-pity.”
“I am not pitying myself,” Driok growls, staring at the floor.
“Sounds like it to me.” I take hold of the small thin island which separates the food area from the rest of the room, or I’ll probably fall down. “I mean I could also blame myself for what happened.”
Driok looks up, his brow furrowed. “How?”
“I should have shot that fucking overseer when I got the chance, but I didn’t want to hit you.” I lean hard on the counter, wishing the room wouldn’t spin.
Driok’s eyes open wide, his pupils sliding to slits as he stares at me.
“You believe you were at fault?”
“I could have done more, yes.” I hold his gaze. “So, if anyone is at fault here, it is me.”
“No!” Driok thunders.
“It’s not a competition, Driok.” I inspect my nails, which are filthy. “You don’t get to win by being the biggest failure.”
He growls under his breath. “I know what you are doing, spitfire.”
“Do you?”
“You are trying to make me feel better,” he says with bitterness. “And I cannot feel better.”
“What if I wasn’t trying to make you feel better?” I feel my elbow slipping. “Rather make myself feel worse.”
“Maggie?”
My legs go from under me, and I find myself in Driok’s grip once again.
“We have to stop meeting like this.” I release a high-pitched laugh which sounds like it’s on the edge of reason.
“I am taking you to the healer,” he growls. “The one who told me you would be fine.”
“I’ve already seen a doctor?” I say, my voice weak as fog fills my head.
“A useless one,” Driok rasps. “But the only one who said they had experience with humans.”
He carries me to the far wall where a door opens up into a subtly lit corridor which I’m quite pleased about as the lights were starting to hurt my eyes. Then what he says sinks in.
“If they’ve had experience with humans…” My words are slurred and it’s hard to get them out. “Then they had contact with us when we were being taken from Earth.”
“Most likely,” Driok says. “Given we have to keep away from the authorities here.”
I want to ask him what he means, but I can’t stay awake. I see we enter an elevator which is all glass and then my eyes close.
When I open them again, a pale blue moon face with slits for nostrils and huge black, dead eyes is staring down at me.
“Ahh!” I flail my arms at the face.
It’s every archetype of an alien I’ve ever seen represented on Earth. Which, as all the other aliens I’ve met are nothing like the standard little grey man, I have to wonder where we got it from.
This one, presumably.
“There now,” it says in a metallic voice, presumably because it has no mouth. “Your mate is well once more.”
The alien is shoved to one side, and Driok appears instead. I feel my chest swelling with desire, with need, for him. Driok inhales deeply.
“Ah, yes,” Metallic Voice says. “What I have given her might make her a little more uninhibited for a few hours.”
“You’re telling me.” I grab at Driok and pull him in for a kiss.
He doesn’t resist.
“Let her have a little food and drink, and it will lessen,” the alien says, sticking his face directly into my eye line.
“You can get lost,” I growl at the alien once I release Driok. “We need some alone time.”
Driok puts his hand on my chest and holds me down slightly.
“Are you sure you have made a correct diagnosis this time, healer?” he snarls at the alien. “Because if you have not, I will be returning to deal with you.”
“I have worked on humans before,” it gibbers. “But I admit, I have only seen one.”
“Bastard.” I attempt to get up, but Driok still has a gentle, firm hand on me. “Bet you helped them, didn’t you?”
“My mate believes you may have been complicit in dealing in the flesh of humans,” Driok growls. “Given their species is incapable of space flight outside of their own galaxy and therefore none of them have made it to another voluntarily.”
“Yeah!” I respond before I find my brow creasing with the realization of what he just said…about humans.
“So, if you have been complicit, I may have to remove your head from your body,” Driok adds.
“Err, no?” I say.
“Wait, wait.” The alien holds up three hands, each one topped with three fingers. “There are humans in this galaxy, that is true, and they didn’t get here because they wanted to be here, but I had nothing to do with it. You have my bond as a healer,” he gibbers.
Driok looks at me. I narrow my eyes at the healer. I’m not sure I believe him, but also I want to jump Driok’s bones more. I put my hand over his.
“If I find out you are not telling the truth, Nzx, I will deal with you accordingly,” Driok says, lifting me into his arms and gazing down at me. “Or perhaps I will let my mate have at you.” He glares at the alien. “She’s far more vicious than I.”