Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Link
(Earlier)
Iwheel Nikos’s pod toward the elevators and press the call button.
Although he perked up when Lila was around, he’s become listless and unresponsive again.
I’m worried that until Lila decides to give him a mating bite, he won’t fully recover.
In this kind of circumstance, the rejected mate has to want to survive, and that isn’t always the case—not that Nikos is rejected, she just has other priorities.
I’m sure once he gets to the Aquilian pool and can swim and bake in the sun, he will be better.
There are also things he can hunt in there.
I’m sure getting fresh food will go a long way in making him feel better.
The Aquilians wouldn’t often join us in the dining room, preferring to eat like they would on their home planet.
Occasionally, they cook their food, but they do it in their own little homes.
Nixie was really the only one who would socialize with the rest of the crew.
The elevator arrives, and I wheel the pod into it before pressing the button to take us to the right floor, but instead, it goes up to the floor with our living quarters.
When the doors open, I find Silac waiting to enter.
I move the pod and myself to the side so there is room for his large snake form, but his body shimmers and his tail fades away, leaving him with legs.
He steps in. “Thanks, but I don’t think I would have fit,” he says as the doors close, and he chooses a floor. I think it’s the one where his and Tirrian’s quarters are.
“Maybe not,” I agree. “What were you doing up there?” I ask, curious but not upset at finding him near our living quarters.
I know he is drawn to Lila, and that his Naga would like to mate with her, but there is also something holding him back—something that Xavier has been working on.
Maybe now that his parents are here, they can help too.
He chuckles. “The little ones wanted to see me in my snake form. Phew, they are handfuls. They wore me out, so we had a nap together, but now the warlock king and queen are spoiling them, so I will go and find something else to do.”
“Do you want to return to your home planet while we deal with all of these issues?” I ask him, unsure if he’s been given the choice since we left Rilu. “I’m sure you could take one of the shuttles. It doesn’t seem fair to have you hanging around when you could be spending time with your family.”
Silac rolls his eyes and scoffs. “I would like to avoid my family as much as possible at the moment.”
“Oh?” I ask, unable to help my natural curiosity.
“Yes. You may know that I am betrothed to someone else, which is why I can’t give in to my snake’s urge to mate with Lila,” he says plainly, and I blink with surprise.
This is the first time he’s said as much out loud to me, though Lila and Xavier both hinted at it.
“If I return now, they will move the date of the betrothal forward, and both myself and Kinga, my betrothed, will be forced into a marriage neither of us want. Her family are the Bravalana basilisks, and they are evil and manipulative and think that having her marry me is a way to control my family’s company.
If I do that, there will be no chance for the warlocks to take care of the problem, so to speak. ”
“What does your family do?” I ask, unsure that anyone ever told me and not wanting to think about what the warlocks consider as taking care of the problem.
Although I know there are bad people, I am a healer at heart, and maiming or death goes against my nature.
I’d rather leave that to the warriors in this relationship.
“My family company is Snakebite Logistics.”
My eyes widen with surprise. Holy crap, his family owns one of the biggest shipping companies in the galaxy.
No wonder the crime family wants in. They would be able to smuggle shit everywhere.
Yet again, another super powerful family is being dangled right in front of Lila.
His family is on par with wealth with both my and Cas’s families.
Silac’s eyes drift to Nikos in the pod, who has floated to face us, and his eyes widen. “Holy crap, is the merman pregnant?” he asks, pointing at his belly.
“Yup, turns out that mating dance with Lila had more consequences than we thought.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Silac steps closer to the pod, his eyes not leaving the listless merman.
“His father was an asshole, and he has not been cared for. I’m taking him down to the Aquilian pool so he can swim and eat properly and bathe in the sunshine on their platform.”
“Was an asshole?” Silac looks back at me, and I shrug.
“Apparently Cronus dealt with him, and Tirrian took care of the new crown prince. They have new leadership now.”
Silac grins savagely, and I can see he doesn’t share the same hesitation I do about killing and maiming.
“Good. Pregnancy is sacred to shifters. We cherish our partners and young, and those who don’t get dealt with swiftly and justly.”
“How do Nagas reproduce?” I ask now that we’re on the subject. If Xavier is going to help free Silac for Lila, then I’m going to have to know the details eventually. I may as well get ahead for a change.
The elevator comes to a halt in front of the Aquilian pool, and I wheel Nikos’s pod out onto the small platform in front of the pool. Silac follows behind.
“Oh, ah, all snake shifters give birth to live young. The female has to be in half form or full shifted form.” He rubs his hands against his pants, looking slightly awkward at the subject. It’s kind of endearing.
“And do they come out as snakes?” I ask, hoping like hell that Lila doesn’t have a snake phobia. She seems to be okay with Silac’s half form, but I’m not sure if she’s seen his full shifted form yet.
“Yes, they do, and like the kraken babies, it will take them a couple of weeks to shift. All they want to do during that time is eat and lie in the sun. Most snake shifter families have a crib-like containment system with a heat lamp above it where their babies will stay until they shift.”
“And how many babies?” I ask, bracing myself for the answer.
Silac shrugs. “Anywhere from one to five, but five is very unusual. Two or three is more likely.”
“Fucking multiples. Why do you have so many at a time?” I ask, and he chuckles.
“I’m assuming it’s a primal thing. Survival of the fittest or something. Warlocks and Vilaxians don’t give birth in multiples,” he points out. “What about cyborgs?”
“No. Only single children for us too, thank goodness, but who knows when Lila is ever going to want to have more children. Not that I’m too concerned, I would be happy to just love on the ones we do have.” I wouldn’t want to give my mother a chance to use a child against me.
I look from the pod to the water, not entirely sure how I’m going to get Nikos from one to the other. Silac must see my dilemma, because he joins me at the pod, and we both search for options, looking for a seam in the bottom of the pod or a latch that might open, but there’s nothing.
“How do you think they got him in there?” Silac asks, running his hand through his bright green hair.
“I’m assuming the guards probably tossed him in there. Aquilians can’t shift during pregnancy like shifters and lightning cats can,” I explain, and Silac looks livid.
They used a net. Scooped me up like the catch of the day and then dumped me in here. Nikos’s voice sounds in my head, and when I look up, his eyes are open and he’s staring longingly at the pool.
“Well, we don’t have one of those, so do you have any suggestions?” Silac must have heard the words in his mind as well.
Just tip it over, and I’ll flow out with the water, Nikos says, sounding desperate now, and I notice he’s more alert than he’s been since he returned to the ship. Even when he saw Lila, he wasn’t this alert.
I step back and look at the pod, assessing it for a way to tip it over, but then I notice there is a hinged section, and when I pull the lever, the pod starts to tip violently.
Silac jumps forward and supports it on one side while I do the same on the other, and we gently tip it, and Nikos slides into the water and disappears.
“Shit, should I get Cas down here to check on him?” I ask, worried about him just sinking to the bottom and not having the energy to swim, but Silac shakes his head, going over to the wall and pressing a few buttons, bringing a camera shot up on the screen.
“No, look, he’s fine.” He points at the image, which shows the depths of the pool and Nikos swimming slowly amongst the reef below.
“Broderick showed Tirrian, Brannock, and me everything about the security system when we were traveling to Aquilia in case they decided to board us or whatever, so I kind of figured there were cameras in the pool. They are everywhere but in people’s private living quarters. ”
“Doesn’t that count as their living quarters though?” I ask, looking back at the still surface of the pool and remembering that Lila and Cas have used the pool for extracurricular activities. She’s going to be horrified if she finds out they’ve recorded whatever the two of them were doing.
“No. The little houses are classed as their homes,” he tells me, pointing to one of the structures in the middle of the pool.
“Hmm, I think maybe we need to have the option to pause this camera. Cas and Lila often come in here to play.” Silac’s cheeks pinken as what I’m saying registers. “And with her deciding to claim Nikos as her mate, I’m sure they will be doing fun things in the pool as well.”
He turns back to the screen and presses a few buttons. “Okay, that stopped the recording. It can only be turned on and off through here, and I routed it to your screen as well so you can continue to monitor Nikos and not have to be in the room to do it.”
My eyebrows jump in surprise. “Wow, that’s pretty tech savvy of you. You learned how to do all that just from a conversation with the captain?” I ask, and he shakes his head.
“No, tech is kind of my thing. I probably could have hacked into the system, but William gave me full access when he found out. He wanted me to check all of their security protocols to make sure everything was still holding up.”
We both watch as Nikos flicks his tail and darts into a school of fish. The fish dash in all directions, but when the bubbles and chaos clear, it shows him with a fish in his mouth. I feel some of the tension and worry I was carrying seep out of my shoulders.
“And is it? I know they were concerned after the Modovian was found on the ship. They didn’t want anyone else to slip past their security protocols.”
“I’ve implemented a couple of new background checks and increased the security on certain levels that the Adams brothers wanted me to.
Once the circus returns to its tour, and the rest of the performers and staff return, then the only way to access the flight deck, Lila’s quarters, and the one below where the Adams brothers are currently staying will be through biometric recognition.
There’s also a safe in their room that they have asked me to look into more security measures for.
They tell me it contains a lot of important and confidential documents.
I’m doing some research to combine tech and magic and basically make it inaccessible, but the carevasta bears always pose a problem.
Thankfully they haven’t ever had their eye on the circus.
I think it’s too big of a ship for them to raid, but we need one to rescue their wife, so they are worried it will bring the bears’ attention to it.
” Silac rights the pod and clips the lever back into place.
“Do you want me to take this to the storage room? You probably want to stay and monitor him, right?”
I wonder if they are trying to increase the protective measures on the orb. Now that we’ve had a breach, and the Syndicate is looking at the ship as a possible place for it to be, it wouldn’t surprise me if that was what they were doing.
“Link?” Silac’s voice startles me from my thoughts.
“Oh, ah, yes, that would be great. I want to use their replicator in his shared home with Nixie and make sure he’s eating more than just fish. Could you activate the walkway for me?” I ask him, and he goes back to the panel and presses a few buttons again.
The walkway activates, skimming out over the pool until it joins up with all three little houses.
I know one of them wasn’t occupied, but the bigger one held the rest of the Aquilian performers because they were an established pod.
They won’t be returning to the show because one of them was pregnant and they wanted to give birth in their home waters. Poor Nikos won’t have that option.
“Alright, well, if you need me for anything else, just let me know. I can’t help make him better, but if he needs some company later, let me know.
I’ll come back and sit with him if he needs it.
The Aquilian sun isn’t as vicious as the sun from Rilu, and I’ll enjoy basking under the lights with him, especially if I change to full form. ”
A wave of appreciation for this man washes over me.
It’s nice that Nikos has some support from another person.
I’m sure all of Lila’s mates will be supportive too, but they are all super busy with bonding and children and everything that is going on at the moment.
I really hope Silac can sort out his problems and get out of his arranged marriage, because he really would be an asset to our family.
He’s kind, caring, and gentle, and I think our family needs a little more of that—or Lila does anyway.
“Thank you. I’m sure both Lila and Nikos will appreciate it.”
He waves goodbye and wheels the pod back onto the elevator, taking it away and storing it in case we ever need it again.
I use the walkway to cross over to Nixie and Nikos’s abode.
I am determined to make him a large, well-balanced, nutritious meal.
I just have to do a little research on what that will be for him.
Their house is open planned with large, open windows with shutters to pull closed if they decide to program the weather in here to be bad.
The colors are light and airy, and the furniture is minimalist. It reminds me of a beach holiday home I stayed at once as a child with my father, but I guess that’s not all that surprising.
I take a seat on one of the cushioned wicker couches and begin meal planning for a pregnant merman. I mean, how hard can it be?