Barbarian Alien (3 page)

"Ready all the humans," Vektal says as he passes by, heading for Shorshie. "We leave very soon."

"What about the ones that cannot walk?" Zolaya asks. "Or the one that cannot be woken?"

"Then we carry them. We do not leave any behind."

Shorshie gives Vektal a loving smile and turns to hug him. "You're so good to us. I can't thank you enough."

He touches her cheek. "You are mine. That is all that matters."

I pretend not to see when she playfully nips at his thumb with her mouth. It is no sin to be affectionate in public, but knowing that my own sick mate sits in her corner and scowls at me makes it difficult to see. She is not happy at the thought of a mate.

She is not happy that it is me. She finds me hideous.

Raahosh is scarier than most.

I grab one of the furs, angry, and storm toward her. It doesn't matter if she likes me or not. The khui chooses the mate. She will simply have to accept it.

"Wake up," I say as I stride to her side and pull back the blankets. "You–"

Her head lolls and she slumps against the floor. She is not willfully neglecting my attention, then. She is unconscious. Fear strikes my heart and I cradle her against my chest, pulling her against my warmth. Her skin is so cold. Can she not retain heat? How will she possibly survive? For a moment, I panic. This must be how Vektal feels when he looks at Shorshie. Helpless in the face of her fragility. I cradle the woman against me and tap her cheek.

She rouses after a moment, and then recoils at the sight of me. "Captain Obvious. I should have guessed."

I ignore the sting to my pride. I don't understand who this ‘Captain Obvious' is. A lot of the human words don't make sense. At the ancestor's cave, we received the knowledge gift of their language, but it's clear that things don't match up properly. Sometimes when my human speaks, I don't understand her.

Though I understood her disdain for me well enough.

I prop her up against my chest and help her to her feet. She hisses with pain as she does, and falls back against me. Her small back hits my chest and my khui immediately stirs to life…as does my cock.

I close my eyes and concentrate, willing both to remain unaffected. Now is not the time.

The human struggles against me, shoving aside my hands. "Quit touching me! Let me go!"

Let her go? She cannot even stand. I won't let her go. I ignore her slapping palms as I run a hand down her bare legs, looking for wounds. She bats my touch away, but not before I see that three of her many toes are swollen and bruised. They are likely broken, and she does not have a khui to heal her.

And she thinks to ignore my help? More foolishness. I ignore her protests and sling her into my arms. I will carry her to the sa-kohtsk hunt if I must. She will get there. I cannot bear to think of she does not.

"Hey! Put me down, you big oaf," she yells in my ear. Her lungs are not suffering, at least. I ignore her bellowing and make sure she is wrapped in the blankets despite her flailing.

"Raahosh," a warning voice says.

I look over – even as the human's hand smacks me on the jaw in protest – and see my friend and chieftain stalking over to me.

"You cannot haul her around if she does not wish it," he says in our language. "Humans must be gently wooed. They are fragile."

My ‘fragile' human's fist slams into my cheekbone. "Put me down," she bellows again. "You fucking suck!"

I…suck? But I am eating nothing.

"Raahosh," Vektal warns. "You know my orders."

I do know his orders. Do not do anything the humans do not want to do. I gently set mine to the floor with infinite tenderness, resisting the urge to crush her against my chest and stroke her filthy hair. "She is wounded," I tell him gruffly. "I wanted to help."

"There will be time enough for that," he says and claps my arm good-naturedly. Of course he's in a good mood. He has his mate. Mine looks at me as if she'd like to bury my knife into my back. "Let her walk if she wishes to walk."

"Fine," I growl out. I make sure the furs are bundled tightly around her and offer her foot coverings. It's the least I can do, and I pretend not to see when she winces and says more vicious, incomprehensible words as she tries to ease one over her swollen foot. She's covered in wounds, this human creature. There's a fresh one on her arm where a ‘sensor' as they call it was removed from her flesh. This was from the ‘bad guys'. All I know is that I want to get a khui into her so she can heal and get well.

Mating is not even on my mind at the moment. I simply want her to thrive. My hands twitch, desperate to comfort and caress, but when she shoots me another hateful look, I go to join the hunters.

I cannot be around her and not want to touch her.

LIZ

I like to think that I'm not particularly squeamish. I'm really not. My dad was a hunter, and I grew up at his side, baiting fish hooks and skinning the day's catch so we could roast it over a fire. I'm an expert with a bow. I'm not half bad with tracking. I can butcher a carcass like a badass.

But the sa-kohtsk is a creepy mutant motherfucker.

It's been a few hours since we left the ship behind for the last time. I wish I could say I wasn't sorry to see that smelly pit disappear into the distance, but I'm a little freaked out. This planet is an ice planet. It's like Antarctica on steroids, and the sun is setting. There's so much snow that my newly-covered feet sink into it like quicksand, and I see no familiar trees or shelter. It's cold as fuck, my toes feel like red hot pain every time I take a step, and I'm feeling so weak I can barely lift my head. This is not exactly survival mode. At one point, I fall behind the others so far that someone swoops me up and carries me over his shoulder. I don't even have to see the guy's face in the driving snow to realize who it is.

Raahosh. Of course.

Now the girls and I are seated under a few flimsy, willowy trees that shiver with every step the sa-kohtsk takes. The sa-kohtsk is impossible to describe. It's like a wooly mammoth mated with the love child of a brontosaur and a long-legged AT-AT from one of the Star Wars movies. The resulting thing looks like a hairball propped up on spindly legs, and it screeches and moans as the hunters bring it down.

The men crowd around it. Vektal immediately trots over to the women and runs his hands over Georgie. "Are you well?"

She fusses over him, too. Oh, puke. I tune out and gaze at the downed creature. I miss hunting. I haven't done it since my father died, but seeing the dead thing and the scent of its blood on the air brings back memories of hunting together. I miss Dad. I miss hunting.

I look up and see a pair of glowing, intense eyes watching me from a distance. Raahosh again. I hug my furs closer and ignore him, hobbling closer to Georgie and Vektal so I can hear what's going on.

They're busy making out. I watch Vektal kiss Georgie's forehead. “Now, we get the khui. Gather the women.”

So sexist. Yes, gather up all the little women-folk so they can be taken care of. My lip curls at this, but I hate that I'm such a stereotype. Truth is, I'm too friggin’ exhausted to do anything other than stare.

Georgie steps forward with Tiffany at her side. Poor Tiff. She's from El Paso and really, really isn't doing well with this weather. Plus, I think she's diabetic, so she's not doing so hot. She's been practically comatose all week. Tiffany stands weakly, and Georgie continues to move forward. "Where are the khui?"

"Inside," Vektal says and points at the belly. "Are you ready, my Georgie?"

Like we have a choice? I let Georgie answer, though, and she says, "Let's do this."

The creature is then sliced open from belly to sternum, and blood rushes out. Weirdly enough, it makes me homesick again. "Just like skinning a deer. No big deal. No sweat."

I look over, and Raahosh is still watching me. My skin prickles with awareness and…something else? I might be about to pass out again. I hope not.

At my side, Georgie swallows hard.

There's a cracking sound, and I look over to see Vektal standing on the ribcage of the giant creature, prying it apart with big, straining arms. It gives the loudest snap I've ever heard, and then splits open.

"Really, really big deer," I comment.

Georgie swallows again. Tiffany moans and stumbles away a few feet.

I keep watching, because I need something to concentrate on. I'm afraid if I look away, I'm going to see Raahosh approaching to put his hands on me again. I'm not sure why the thought both annoys me and fills me with a liquid sort of heat.

Vektal takes the heart from one of his men, and it's swarming with wriggling, glowing spaghetti-noodle looking worms. Okay, yeah. This is not cool in my book.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Kira says somewhere off to my side, and Tiffany makes a hurking noise. But Georgie's watching Vektal like he's about to give her a diamond ring or some shit. They murmur quietly to each other, and then he pulls out his knife.

"What…what if it goes to my brain?" Georgie asks.

This is a worm. This is not cool. I am not down with this. "Like that's any better than your heart?" Seriously?

"The khui is the essence of life," Vektal says in a reverent voice.

And then dumb Georgie takes the worm from him and he cuts a nick in her throat. And I watch the thing wriggle into it like a heat seeking missile.

Oh, hell no. I am not down with this shit. I have seen what worms do to an animal's heart. Hunters know you don't eat the diseased meat. You certainly don't sign up to
become
the diseased meat. I back away a few steps. Georgie's shuddering and gasping, and she collapses into Vektal's arms. A few other women make cries of distress, and then the men are everywhere, offering glowing cooties to them.

I am so getting out of dodge. Nope. Nope. Nope. I will figure something else out. There simply has to be another option. I stumble backward to the copse of trees that provide no protection. The other girls look at me curiously, then turn back to Georgie. She's our leader, so they're looking to her.

That's fine. If Georgie jumps off a cliff, it doesn't mean I have to, also. She may be blinded by big blue alien dick, but I am not. There's intense, throbbing pain in my foot but I ignore it. If it's not too late, I can go back to the ship, regroup, and figure something else out. I know I'm panicking. I know this isn't logical, but everything I've ever learned at my father's side is telling me that this is a terrible idea.

Parasites
kill
their hosts.

As I awkwardly shuffle past the others, I see the aliens gently leading the women forward, toward their doom. Gee, that's sweet of them. There's no proof this works on a human, and Georgie went down like a light. That is not normal. Hugging my furs tighter, I waddle away a few more steps.

And stop.

In front of me, slitted eyes glowing, is Raahosh. He eyes me.

"Don't you try to stop me, buddy," I retort at him, though I know it's no good. He doesn't understand English.

But he grabs my furs and tries to turn me around anyhow.

I jerk them out of his grip and continue forward. In the distance, I hear another woman cry out, only to fall silent. I shudder.

Raahosh grabs me by the hips and slings me over his shoulders again.

"No!" I say, pounding a fist on his shoulder. "I don't want it! You can't make me!"

He hesitates, and then to my surprise, he sets me down again. He gazes at me for a moment, and then reaches up to caress my jaw. I allow it, since he's not dragging me back there. His touch is oddly gentle, caressing up and down my cold cheek. Then he gestures at the ground, as if indicating that I should wait here.

"Fine. Whatever. I'm just not going back to that." I sit heavily in the snow, taking my weight off of my bad foot.

He turns and strides toward the dead sa-kohtsk and the group of hunters. I watch him disappear into the darkness and shiver. I'll wait for a few minutes, then move on. Maybe he's going to tell the others that I changed my mind, that he's going to guide me back to the ship.

Maybe this Raahosh guy isn't such a jerk after all.

I close my eyes and rub a hand over my face. It's freezing out here, and I'm so tired I could fall over and sleep, snow and all. My brain's getting foggy. There has to be another option, though. If I could think clearly, maybe I'd be able to come up with one.

My mind goes back to Georgie, and the way Vektal cut her neck. The gleeful wriggle of the thing as it burrowed into her. Her cry and then collapse. I shudder.

A figure appears at the edges of my vision. I just barely realize that it's Raahosh before a gigantic hand goes to my shoulder and forces me onto my back in the snow.

"What?" I sputter.

His knee goes over my shoulder a moment later, pinning me against the ground. His hand is cradled to his chest and I can barely see a glowing, snake-like filament wriggling there.

Then, he draws a knife from a sheath at his waist.

"Goddamn it, motherfucker! No!" I fight him, struggling against his weight pinning me down. But I'm weak and he's huge, and I'm barely able to bat at him as he lays the blade against my neck and carefully makes a cut at my collarbone.

"No!" I protest, but he's not listening. This asshole, this jerk, is forcing the parasite on me.

He's not my friend. Not at all. He's not letting me have a choice.

I fight against his hands as he leans in with the cootie.

"I will hate you forever if you do this," I hiss at him, trying to push him away.

He just gives me a hard look and then leans in. I hear a tiny
hissssss
as the cootie finds my skin, and then it's
wriggling into me
.

And I pass out from shock.

RAAHOSH

I tell myself that it doesn't matter that she'll hate me forever as I watch her unconscious body shiver and jerk, acclimating to the khui. At least she will be alive. My father and my mother never liked each other. Until the day my mother died, she cursed my father. Their mating was a supremely unhappy one, but they were still a family.