Chapter 26 #2
“Hale, why don’t you introduce us to your pretty friend?” Xenos releases my leg and moves to join the group, with Dante and Kavita going to.
“Great, now I’m chopped liver,” I grumble to myself, and Saxon pulls me through the air until we’re facing each other.
“The most delicious liver I’ve ever tasted.” He nudges my nose with his, and I giggle but then push him out of the way. I want to see how this all plays out.
Hale’s face sours, but he waves a hand. “Magenta, meet Saxon’s brother, Xenos, and his clan members, Kavita and Dante.”
“Hi, I saw you in the act the other night. Thanks for coming and helping out.” Magenta is polite and shakes the three newcomers’ hands.
“Anyway, I’m going to steal Lila away. We’ll be close to Iceen soon, and she needs to be briefed on protocol.
I might see you at the club tonight,” she tells Hale and Velorina.
“We’ll get Nixie to join us, it will be fun,” Hale replies, and the two girls blush again. Fucking hell, I need to grill my friend about what’s going on.
Magenta turns to me. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Ah…” I look at my husband, who just chuckles. He wraps his arms around me, and we start to lower.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, we will work on it later. At least we know you do have that ability.” His words make my chest puff up with pride. He’s right, I can fly—not well, but I can do it. Practice will only make me better.
“Lots of practice,” Magenta mutters next to us as she keeps pace with us on the way down. This time, I flip her off, and she and Saxon both laugh.
“Wow, with you two as friends, who needs enemies?”
“Seems like you’ve got plenty of those too,” Magenta muses, and this time I bare my fangs at her, feeling my bloodlust rise.
“Whoops, sorry.” Magenta holds her hands up in apology as our feet finally touch the ground and my body regains the feeling of weight. Huh, I hadn’t noticed before that I had been feeling weightless.
“Just give Lila half an hour to feed, and then she will meet you at the shopping precinct,” Saxon suggests, and Magenta salutes us.
“Sure thing, General. I’ll drop the information on your watch. Drink heaps so that you don’t feel like gnawing on my neck,” she says before walking away.
“Oh, I didn’t think you minded being gnawed on,” I retort sassily, and it’s her turn to flip me off. I laugh. Yeah, payback’s a bitch named Lila.
“Come on, my blood rose, let’s get you topped off so you don’t kill your friend.”
I’m happy, well fed, and well fucked when I finally find myself in the shopping district an hour later. Magenta is sitting in the same cafe I’d met her at not all that long ago. She’s sipping something that smokes furiously and has an empty plate next to her.
“About fucking time,” she grumbles when she sees me and stands up. She tosses back the rest of her drink in one go, her eyes watering slightly. Placing the glass back on the table, she grabs my hand and starts towing me toward one of the clothing stores.
“Sorry it took a little longer than I thought. I needed to eat after expending all that energy this morning.” I don’t elaborate and tell her what I needed was blood, but she’s not stupid.
She narrows her eyes and squints at me. “Yeah, sure, eat. Now spill the tea. I want to know everything about your blood rose bonding and what it’s like to drink blood, not to mention what sex with a Vilaxian is like.”
“But I thought you had a thing going with Velorina? Surely you know what sex with a Vilaxian is all about.”
“I do, but we haven’t gotten to the sex part yet.
Not really,” she mutters as the door to the store slides open and we enter.
I look around in amazement at all the different styles of clothing.
Sure, there’s everyday wear that you would see in any clothing store in cities on Earth, but there are other things that you would only find in specialty or costume stores.
“Hello. How may I help you today?” a polite voice calls out, and from behind a mannequin wrapped in a shimmery cloth, a being appears. I say being because I’m not sure if they are male or female, and I have no clue what race they are. I really need to do better with my alien research.
I can’t see their legs because they are wearing a long skirt-like garment, but they seem to be gliding over the ground.
Their skin is a mauve color, and they have long, spindly arms. Their head is round like a human’s, but they have a snout with two, black beady eyes, kind of like an insect.
They have no hair, but they do have ridges and bumps all over the back of their skull, all in the same mauve color as the rest of their skin.
I can’t see a nose, and the snout ends in two pouty lips that seem to be covered in red lipstick.
“Hi, Tynka. How are you today?” Magenta asks, bowing slightly at the creature.
Their pouty lips turn up in a smile. “Ah, Magenta.” She bows back. “I am very well indeed. What can I do for you and your friend?”
“This is Lila Adams. Lila, this is Tynka, the preeminent clothing designer on the ship.” As Magenta does the introductions, the creature’s eyes widen in surprise before she’s smiling even wider.
“Lila, it is a pleasure to finally meet you.” She bows, so I return it and smile back.
“You too, Tynka.” I look around the store. “It looks like you have an amazing selection here.”
“Well, the circus keeps me on my toes depending on where they are performing. I need to outfit everyone in suitable garments, but I do love my job, and I am forever grateful to your grandpas for giving me a chance.”
“No matter where we go, our clothes are always a hit, and Tynka ends up with orders from throughout the galaxy. She even has a factory on her home planet of Sotda XV where they make everything.”
Tynka’s mauve cheeks tinge red, and she lowers her head. “It is nothing special,” she says modestly.
“It certainly sounds like it is,” I praise her, and she lifts her head again.
“You are too kind. Now, what can I do for you today?”
“We are heading to Iceen to drop off that hell beast,” Magenta tells Tynka who shudders visibly.
“Thank goodness she will no longer be with us. Although they don’t venture out often, she was in here just before our Earth stop and wanted a new dress. She made me change it five times before she was happy, her lightning crackling threateningly the whole time.”
“Lila will be joining the away party to the surface, so she needs something suitable for the cold climate of Iceen. We don’t need our little circus heir turning into a Lilasicle.” Magenta and Tynka giggle, and I start to worry.
“Is it really that cold down there?” I ask, and Magenta shrugs.
“Colder probably. Iceen is fairly inhospitable. Only the lightning cats and the yalani, as well as some low-level life-forms, live on it. I think their lightning helps regulate their temperature, but they are so damn secretive.”
“Come, I have the perfect outfit for you. It will keep you warm, and you will look fabulous at the same time.” Tynka moves smoothly away from us, and Magenta whispers out of the corner of her mouth.
“Our conversation is not done, just postponed,” she threatens me, and I raise an eyebrow.
“Same. Don’t think I forgot that you didn’t answer my own question either.”
She sighs and rolls her eyes. “Fine. After Iceen, we’ll have a girls’ night. Your mates have been hogging you, and Nixie is dying to see you again. We can invite Susie too, if you want.”
A night with my best friend and my two new ones sounds like heaven to me. “Deal. I’m in, and I promise I’ll tell you what sex with a male Vilaxian is like, because don’t think I didn’t notice the tension between you and Hale too, and the interest the other three had as well.”
“They are only interested in me as a blood source. Vilaxians like Xenos wouldn’t lower themselves to having a fling with another race.
Not all of them are as open-minded as Hale and Velorina.
Look at how Estrella and Radella reacted to you being Saxon’s blood rose,” she mutters as Tynka stops in front of us, and the conversation ceases.
As Tynka starts to pull clothes out and pass them to me, I think about what I saw high in the rafters. The sexual tension was off the charts, and I think my friend doth protest too much.
But clothes now, sex talk later.