Chapter 8
EIGHT
Madison awoke to the feel of a Virilian tail draped over her leg and the deep, restful breathing of the male beside her. She didn’t move, except to open her eyes. Light had just begun to warm the sky.
Drex slept. The kohl-like marks on his upper and lower lids, which looked like smudged liner, looked darker with long black lashes fanning over them. His face, which often looked harsh or serious, softened in slumber, making him appear younger and more at peace.
She had very much enjoyed their time together during the night.
It had been easy to let herself go and enjoy.
He had not made her feel pressured, or lacking, or disappointing.
He had given her as much pleasure as he had received.
Perhaps it was the fact that she was out here on another planet—like a fresh start—that allowed her to set aside bad past experiences and feel desire as if it were for the first time.
Drex had been a considerate, generous lover. Beyond that, she could only guess.
He may wake up and pretend last night never happened. He may wake up and want to have sex with her again. That was unlikely. Despite the quiet from the lower level, the guards were bound to wake up soon and begin preparations to go to Tagja City.
Madison carefully crawled out from underneath Drex.
She had to go to the bathroom—something that would prove a challenge in a small outpost full of men.
Where did they go to the bathroom? And she was hungry, but one need was more urgent than the other, so she pulled on the heavy shiny suit and crept down the stairs.
The guards down there were still sprawled on the floor.
She stepped over the first one to try to find if one of the compartments off this room held a bathroom of some sort.
It had to. Virilians relieved themselves the same as humans.
She had edged between two guards when she realized something was wrong.
The chamber was too silent. The males were too unmoving. Their skin pallor had dimmed to waxy gray. A cold, shaky feeling slid over her.
She crouched beside the closest guard. He was perfectly motionless.
Placing two fingers on the side of his throat, she felt for a pulse.
Without knowing anything about Virilian physiology, she had no way of knowing if the cool stillness she felt meant death or if their pulses were detected somewhere else on their bodies.
A rising desperation clawed through her.
A strangled noise came from the stairs. She whipped her head around to see Drex standing there.
His face was a mask of horror and rage. He let out a string of words Madison’s translation device told her couldn’t be translated and dropped to his knees before the closest guard.
He touched the male’s neck, just as she had, then gently opened the still male’s mouth and peered inside.
When he drew away, his hand shook and his face had lost as much color as the still figures sprawled around them.
“Are they dead?” she asked in a tremulous voice.
His gaze snapped to hers. “How long have you been down here?”
“I arrived just before you.” She cringed at the fury in his voice. It sounded directed at her. “I was looking for the bath—”
He strode to her, cutting off her words and seizing her by the shoulders. “They have been poisoned.”
Her knees shook. Surely he didn’t think she had anything to do with it. “H-how?”
“I would like that answer.” He hauled her to the wall and pressed her against it. “Only you and I remain,” he ground out. “And the outer doors have not been breached. I did not murder these guards. That leaves you.”
Panic spiked hard and fresh. She struggled to pull in a breath as fear put her in a stranglehold. “I didn’t!” she gasped out. “W-why would I?”
“Are you an assassin?” His grip tightened.
“What?” she shrieked. “I spent the night with you! I didn’t come down here until just now.”
“Who sent you?”
Madison’s arms hurt and she would not stand for being pinned to a wall. Not by a male she just had hot sex with. Not by a king who was mistaking her for an assassin.
Not by anyone.
She brought her knee up smartly between his thighs and wondered if alien balls reacted to blunt force the same way human ones did.
He went down like a stone, doubled over. Okay, so they did work the same. “I’m telling you, I didn’t kill these men and I’m not an assassin.”
He muttered something and the translation came through her device as, “Fuck.” How interesting that the sentiment was universal.
“My thoughts exactly,” she said. “Now, are you through being an ass?”