CHAPTER 23
S’Samph
S’samph woke with Eleri curled around him.
It seemed a vulnerable choice to keep yourself so close to another while sleeping, but he wouldn’t want her anywhere else.
He smoothed the tangled scrub of hair away from her face.
A latil’e female wouldn’t allow him to be so forward with his physical affection, but human females seemed to encourage the behavior, at least based on his experience with Eleri.
She made a soft sound as she rolled over to face him, and her pale blue eyes were unfocused with slow awakening.
“What time is it?” She asked.
“It is early. Are you still worried about your clinic hours?” He returned her question with one of his own. Although he admired her diligence, S’samph wished she would learn to prioritize her own needs.
“People don’t stop getting sick or injured just because I’d rather stay in bed.” Eleri reached over to move her hair away from her face again, as it seemed insistent on flopping in all directions since she cut it short. S’samph placed a gentle hand on her head where some of her fur was missing.
“You are still injured from yesterday. The town will not collapse if you take a day to rest.”
“Well, we didn’t get much rest last night.” Eleri eyed him, and S’samph was certain there was subtext in her words, but he wasn’t about to comment.
“Will you close the clinic for the morning at least? I would like you to get more rest.” He put strength behind his words. Eleri might ignore him, but he wanted her to at least know his concern. She made a soft noise and then reached for his face.
“I can officially close the clinic for the morning. I’ll just be a bit behind on my practicum hours.” She pulled up an interface screen on the flat desk surface in her room. “Luckily, nothing urgent this morning. I’ll send out a notification to my patients asking them to reschedule.”
“Good. Your hours and patients will wait.” S’samph covered her hand with his own.
“Will you come home to our nest now, Eleri? We have mated. There is no reason for you to continue staying here.” He was being presumptuous, but humans expected more of a mating chase from their males, so he suspected his forwardness would not be unwelcome.
“Now?” Her voice pitched higher with surprise at his request. She worried at her lower lip with her teeth. “I think I should at least stay here until Aglao awakens. Also, you’re technically still my patient. I don’t think I should be living with my patient.”
S’samph suspected she might give such an answer. He had prepared for the contingency. “I’m your mate before I am your patient. If you don’t want to come back to the nest yet, then I will stay here with you until you are ready to leave.”
“You don’t…” Eleri stopped mid-sentence and then laughed quietly to herself. “Thank you. I would like that. This bed is a bit small for both of us.”
“It’s temporary. I have slept on worse. It is large enough for whatever we need it for.
” This statement elicited a pretty pink color on Eleri’s cheeks.
S’samph slid himself up, unused to lingering in bed for so long.
The idleness made him unsettled, something he and Eleri shared in common it seemed.
“I need to go speak with Pyo and learn what will be done with Minio. There are also a few things I need from our nest if I am going to stay here with you.” He adjusted the scratchy blanket back over Eleri. “Sleep more. I’ll be back soon.”
Although he suspected Eleri would sneak downstairs to start cleaning up the clinic from her encounter with Minio instead of going back to sleep, he was happy enough as long as she wasn’t actively treating patients. He ventured out of the clinic to find K’kaen seated on the entry ramp.
“I was wondering if you were ever going to emerge.”
“I’m glad you’re here.” S’samph had been fomenting a plan in the early hours of the morning while Eleri slept in his arms.
“That would be a first.” K’kaen’s tail twitched with amusement. “You look like a male with a plan, so you had better tell me what you’re going to get me involved with.”
“I am going to accept Pyo’s offer to be the head of security for Laurus.”
“Are you serious?” K’kaen hurried after him, trying to keep pace with S’samph’s longer strides. “You threatened to relocate to Abwele last time he asked you.”
“I’m serious.” He slowed to allow his friend to catch up.
“What changed your mind?”
“There is finally something in this town worth protecting.” He wasn’t about to go into too much detail with K’kaen.
Yes, it was for Eleri, but at the same time, he realized if he didn’t make himself someone who could be relied upon, she would never be able to come to that conclusion.
He had no skill for farming, and although he’d tried to distance himself from his responsibilities as a soldier, the desire to protect the community never really left him.
“And your clutch sister and I are meaningless?”
S’samph aimed a withering look in his direction.
He knew K’kaen was being inflammatory on purpose, but sometimes the other male prodded too much.
“You and S’kasia don’t require my protection.
I want Laurus to be a safe place for Eleri.
” And for any hatchlings they might have.
Things had been progressively more dangerous with the raviks growing bold around them.
S’samph wanted to ensure Laurus was a safe haven for his mate and future family.
He also wanted the authority to throw his weight around after raviks like Minio if the occasion called for it.
“Should I come with you to visit the kyrot?” K’kaen asked.
“No. I don’t know how long it will take. Wait here in case I’m not back in time to escort Eleri to her afternoon appointments. She will feel safer with someone at her side.”
“Fine, but it’s for her sake, not yours.” K’kaen resumed his seat on the clinic steps. “I’m waiting out here though. It’s always freezing inside.”
“As long as you don’t let Eleri leave unattended.”
“I think I can manage to keep track of my small human sister.”
S’samph grunted his assent. As much as he was reluctant to leave her behind, K’kaen was more than capable of keeping her out of trouble for a few hours.
After a short walk down the main road, he reached Pyo’s office, which also housed the only holding cell in Laurus.
S’samph entered first and found Pyo stooped over his desk, tapping furiously on his datapad interface.
The older male didn’t look up at first, as he was too engrossed in his work, but after S’samph stood there for a few moments, Pyo finally registered his presence.
“Ah, S’samph. I was wondering when you would be here,” Pyo said. He rose from the desk and flexed his wings to half-mast.
S’samph prepared himself to ask the necessary question. Pyo was a reasonable male by all accounts, but he wasn’t entirely sure how he would respond to his prying into issues involving his family. “What is to be done with Minio?”
“Well, we still have him in the cell. He’s mostly come to his senses at this point, but he doesn’t remember anything.
Not surprising given the massive amount of Iridescence he took.
” Pyo shook his head in disgust. “I’m not even sure where he got it from.
Myla probably knows, but she’s refusing to say anything about it. ”
“What will be done with him next then?”
Pyo’s shoulders heaved with a deep exhalation.
“I’ve contacted the IA to alert them to the situation.
You finally going to make me stop being the big bad around here?
Been waiting for you to take the job you actually came here for.
It’s only luck we haven’t really needed a proper head of security until now. ”
“I came here to assume the position.”
“Good. Leave me in peace with my work.” He gestured to the stacks of datafiles around his desk.
“Bout time.” He lifted his eyes back to S’samph’s.
“Keep your fists clean though. You understand me? I don’t want to have to explain to Myla why her brother’s missing a few wing flaps. Even if he deserves it.”
“I understand how these protocols work. He will be punished another way?”
“That’s not really up to me. The IA has protocols for situations like this.
Most likely, he’ll be sent to a facility and then released.
They’ll also fine his family.” Pyo made a series of exasperated whistling noises.
“Which of course means we’ll have to go hassle Myla’s sires and hope they throw some credits our way. ”
“And in the meantime?”
“Well, as acting head of security, I suppose that would be up to you.” Pyo made a nonchalant gesture with one dark wingtip. “You’ll do what you think is appropriate.”
“I will.” S’samph’s tail curled upward toward his shoulders as he acknowledged both the words and the subtext.
It was time to put his original training to use, no more hiding behind acres of vela beans.
No one even liked vela beans. Even most livestock rejected them.
They were one of the most useless crops anyone could grow.
If things went as he hoped, he and Eleri would be far too busy to think about farming at all.
“He’s in the cell?”
“Last I checked.” Pyo pointed to a door around the corner, and S’samph took this as his cue to leave.
He tamped down his anger before stepping over the threshold.
Kyrot weren’t usually a violent species, but iridescence stole all good sense.
S’samph stood on the other side of the bars.
Minio’s wings drooped behind him as he refused to look up.
Much like latil’e used their tails and frills to communicate, kyrot could be best understood through their wing posture.
Although, much like humans, their faces were expressive as well.
He realized that in order to do his job, he’d have to learn how to read other species, something he’d been neglecting up to this point.
“What are you doing here?” Minio finally asked.
“I want to understand why you attacked Eleri at the clinic.”
“She’s been the talk of the town lately, hasn’t she?” The kyrot male made a strange scoffing noise and began to pace the minimal length of his cell. “You don’t deserve her, you know.”
“I don’t,” S’samph was quick to respond. “But she has chosen me, and I take that responsibility seriously.” He leaned his weight against the wall adjacent to the cell. “We’re not here to talk about my mate. We’re here to discuss your actions so I can give a proper accounting to the IA agent.”
“Get me some iridescence and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.
” Minio’s wings twitched at odd intervals, and S’samph was certain if he could catch sight of the male’s eyes, they would be silver-ringed.
It was a small mercy Latilla had been destroyed before the drug had spread its roots.
No doubt it would have wreaked similar havoc there as it had on every other planet plagued by its presence.
“I don’t have access to iridescence, and even if I did, I wouldn’t get it for you.”
“My sister can get it. Let her come visit me.”
S’samph folded his arms. Interrogation hadn’t been a part of his job description when he was part of the military. S’kasia had spent much more time working with the intelligence branch of the forces, but he wouldn’t want her anywhere near this unstable male.
“No.”
“Then we’re at an impasse, latil’e.”
S’samph shrugged. He wouldn’t get angry or threaten violence as it would only justify any retaliatory behavior on Minio’s part. “If you do not want to talk to me, I cannot make you. But it will complicate things when the IA agent arrives.”
“You think I’ve any interest in making your life easier? Look, my sister promised me I could marry that human bitch and restore my place in our family hierarchy. She’s not anything special, but she was unattached until you decided to pull your tail out of your cloaca.”
S’samph’s resolve to stay calm was crumbling by the moment. “Tell me why you think Eleri would have restored your place in your family hierarchy?”
“Do you bury your head in the dirt?” Minio made a humorless shrilling noise. “I thought everyone knew I’d been exiled here for being unable to kick my unfortunate drug habit.”
“That part of the story is known,” S’samph confirmed.
“My kin said if I could keep myself clean and find a respectable mate, they’d restore my place in the karst hierarchy. Eleri was barely passable for even that purpose.”
S’samph knew the other male was trying to incite his anger, and he was a scale’s width away from succeeding.
But he knew the sooner he could finish this encounter and get the information he needed for his statement to the IA, the sooner he could get away from this pathetic excuse for a lifeform and back to Eleri.
“Is there anything else?”
“Anything else I’d like to say to you? No.
Enjoy your piece of human ass.” The words were crass and meant to rile his baser instincts.
It took all of S’samph’s self control to prevent himself from smacking a fist into the bars of the cell.
He took a step back, steadying himself with the knowledge that Eleri would be waiting for him at the clinic whenever he left here.
He’d learned what he needed to know. It would be enough to incriminate Minio under IA jurisdiction.
The weight of his new role was heavier than he’d anticipated, but it was something he felt much more confidence with than he ever had tilling the stubborn dirt of his field.
At least he could do more to keep Eleri and everyone else safe.
If he had any say in things, keeping iridescence out of Laurus would be a top priority.
He didn’t want his mate in a similar situation ever again.