The Spawning (13 page)

Easing her hold on the other woman, she looked at her a little doubtfully.

Deborah stared back at her, flicked a glance at the puzzled, curious, and concerned faces of the other women and uttered another choked gasp. She was still heaving and snorting against Miranda’s shoulder when Miranda cast an anxious glance toward the Hirachi to see if they’d noticed.

Khan and Teron were headed their way.

“Oh fuck! They’re coming this way!”

Deborah uttered another snorting laugh, but the discovery that the Hirachi were approaching, thankfully, had a sobering effect. She’d managed to calm down by the time Teron and Khan stopped in front of them. There was concern in Teron’s gaze as he crouched down to their level, thankfully no suspicion. “Has she taken ill?”

Deborah shook her head without lifting it from Miranda’s shoulder or looking

around. “No! I’m just … It was just such a shock …!”

Miranda pinched her surreptitiously. “Those … uh … beasts. They’re … uh …

there’s a lot of them around?”

Khan crouched beside Teron. “Did you think I had no reason for not wanting any of you in the jungle?”

The comment killed the little urge Miranda had to feel any amusement at all about Deborah’s predicament. She felt her face reddening. “Do you think I’m so stupid I didn’t think there were any animals out there?” she snapped before she thought better of it.

Deborah pushed away from her abruptly and stared at her in horror for a moment, glanced uneasily at Khan and then extricated herself from Miranda and moved a away with the air of ‘I’m not with her. I don’t know her’.

Miranda had regretted the impulse the instant she’d spoken, though. She didn’t need that look from Deborah to tell her it would’ve been much better if she’d ignored the impulse to speak her mind. Biting her lip, she averted her gaze.

“Yet, you went out without a weapon.”

THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 57

Ok, so that
was
stupid, in retrospect. She risked a glance up at him after a moment and discovered he was still glaring at her. There was nothing she could think to say, however, that wouldn’t provoke him, mostly because she felt defensive about the entire thing and she knew any excuse she tried to make for her actions was either going to sound completely lame, or insulting.

Uncomfortable under Khan’s critical gaze, she glanced at Teron only to discover that he was watching both her and Khan. Impossible as it seemed, Khan’s expression was even stonier when she looked at him again. He met her gaze for a long moment and finally rose to his full height, surveying the women staring at him owl eyed.

“You are no longer slaves. Consider yourselves guests of the Hirachi until you are ready to find your own way in this world.” He glanced down at Miranda again. “For your own safety, I advise you against wandering far from the compound without weapons for defense—at any time, but most especially at night when the predators are out seeking prey.” He half turned, gesturing toward the beasts roasting on the spits. “Those are grazing animals.”

When he left again, Teron finally spoke—to Deborah. “I have a drought that will calm the spirit if you think you have need.”

Deborah shook her head. “I’m alright … really. I was just …. This place isn’t at all like home,” she finally said, her chin wobbling.

He nodded, lifting his head and scanning the tops of the trees above the walls of the compound. “It took us a great deal of time to grow accustomed to this world, as well.

In some ways, it is much like our own. In others ….” He stopped, obviously caught up in his thoughts, and finally looked at Miranda. “We understand the need to be free. We also understand that you have no reason to trust, but you
are
far safer here than out there

… at least for now.” He paused, frowning as if he was trying to decide whether to continue or not. “I am certain there are vast differences between your people and ours beyond what we can see. Khan feels responsible for your safety—we all do.”

Miranda stared at his back as he strode away, wondering why she felt a sudden

desire to cry.

“Do you think it’s true?” Deborah asked a little shakily.

Miranda swallowed against the uncomfortable tightness in her throat and turned to look at the other woman. “I think I want to believe it—probably all of us do—badly.”

“But you think it isn’t safe to trust them?”

Miranda frowned. “I think it’s ourselves we can’t trust. Them … I don’t know.”

She stared down at her feet for several moments, uttering a gusty sigh. “I think we have to, though, and the worst of it is that we’re going to have to try change their minds about keeping us … even if we don’t really trust them, or shouldn’t. I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of anything worse than being ‘free’ on this planet with things like that roaming around.”

Deborah shuddered. She was silent for several moments before she spoke again.

“I don’t know, Miranda …. Did you see those …
things
? I mean, honest to god, it isn’t enough that they’re frigging giants! I didn’t expect
that
!”

Miranda grimaced. “It’s going to be a hell of a mountain to climb, I’ll grant you, but they’re huge all over. How realistic was it to expect them not to be hung like horses?”

“Yes, but …. They’re talking about
breeding
. I don’t know about you, but I’m THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 58

pretty sure that fucking bastard had my IUD pulled. We’re not just talking screwing.

There’d be … consequences, at least according to lizard-man. Maybe I could get up my nerve to tackle Godzilla, but I don’t know if I could handle having baby Godzilla.”

It scared the hell out of Miranda if it came to that, but really small women had babies by big men all the time. Detective Williams wasn’t a hell of a lot shorter than the Hirachi, and was probably heavier, or at least almost as heavy, and his petite wife had managed to deliver a whopping ten pound boy. It wasn’t a prospect that thrilled her, but obviously it was doable. “We’d have Teron.”

Deborah gulped. “Miranda! These people have got to be primitive. They act

civilized—I’d even be willing to say they’re
more
civilized than a lot of people I’ve seen on the streets of the city, but … look at this place!”

Miranda sighed tiredly. “I don’t have the answers, Deborah. I’m just as scared as you are. I’m not keen on the discovery that we’ve suddenly become hearth tenders and breeders—or at least
have
to be to make ourselves the least bit useful to them—when we’re all used to being a hell of a lot more than that, but I just don’t see any alternatives.

If you do, I wish you’d share.”

Carol, Lynn, and Joy moved a little closer to join the conversation. “He said we weren’t slaves anymore,” Carol pointed out.

Miranda sent her a searching look, wondering if Carol was just immature or a

complete moron. It was hard to say. She was obviously over drinking age or she wouldn’t have been plucked, but maybe she’d just been too sheltered?

“Exactly what was it you were doing at the club?”

Carol raised her brows. “We just went out to have a little fun.”

“You weren’t shopping for Mr. Right?”

Carol shrugged. “Maybe Mr. Right Now—not that I saw anything interesting or I wouldn’t have been headed home by myself.”

Miranda nodded. “Ok. Well this is how it is here at club paradise. Those

handsome hunks over there are the only variety available—and they’re going to
always
be the only game in town from now on. What you’re going to have to do—what we’re all going to have to do—is to convince them that we’re worth having. Personally, I think they can’t be rid of us quick enough.

“Pretend they’re the guy you spent the night with last night and he’s in a dead heat to get to the door and get out before you can give him your phone number or ask him if you’re going to see him again—because I think that’s their attitude toward us.

“So … if you ran up against that, what would you do?”

Carol frowned. “Go out and meet somebody else.”

“What if you couldn’t?”

She gaped at Miranda indignantly. “Why couldn’t I? There’s lots more.”

Miranda stared back at her for a long moment and finally glanced at Deborah a

little hopelessly.

“What she’s trying to get at,” Deborah tried, “is what if you met this guy and you were just crazy about him and you wanted to keep him, how would you go about trying to do that?”

Carol glanced at Lynn and Joy for help.

“Buy something really sexy and flaunt myself in front of him and ignore him,”

Joy said helpfully. “It works every time. They never want you if you’re too available …

THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 59

especially if nobody else wants you.”

“Oh god!” Miranda muttered.

Carol looked at Deborah and Miranda indignantly. “Are either of you married?”

“No,” they responded almost in unison.

“Well then—you’re not really experts, are you?” she said with a triumphant

smirk.

Oh, the kid wanted to be smacked! “Has that little trick ever worked for you if the guy wasn’t interested to start with?” Miranda demanded testily. “Never mind! I don’t suppose it’s occurred to any of you that there not only isn’t any place to buy something sexy around here, but they found us all completely resistible when we were buck ass naked!”

Carol glanced at her friends and then smirked at Miranda and Deborah.

“Actually, I happened to notice that I’ve gotten plenty of interested glances. Teron flirted with me, and so did Gerek and Adar.”

Lynn and Joy both glared at her. “They flirted with us, too,” Lynn said

indignantly.

Miranda and Deborah shared a speaking glance. Miranda gave Carol a brittle

smile. “Well … there you go! You three just keep smiling and flirting until you land one and he’ll take care of you. That’s the game we’re going to have to play here.”

Suspicion flickered in Carol’s eyes, but she apparently decided to dismiss it.

“Actually, once you get past the strange color, they’re kind of cute … all of the ones I’ve seen close enough to tell, anyway.”

“And did you see the cock on Teron!” Lynn seconded with a giggle.

Actually, she hadn’t. She’d been too busy studying Khan, Miranda thought with a mixture of wry amusement and irritation.

After a few moments, the trio decided to get up and wander down to the water’s edge.

Miranda watched them go with a mixture of uneasiness, relief, and irritation. “I hope the three stooges don’t get us all in trouble,” she said finally.

Deborah was watching them, too. “Hmmm. You think they had fake IDs? I

don’t think I was that dumb when I was their age.”

Shrugging, Miranda transferred her attention from the females stalking the

Hirachi to the Hirachi themselves. They were too far away to tell anything about their expressions, but the girls definitely had their attention as they splashed and giggled and chased each other along the edges of the water. “I guess it’s just a male thing,” she said finally.

“What?”

“Nubile girls always get all the attention.”

“Maybe. You don’t think these Hirachi warriors would be more interested in a

woman that could kill one of those things, skin it out, and have it hanging over the cook fire when they come back from a hard day’s labor in the ocean?”

“I sort of got the impression that was what they were used to,” she said wryly.

“Unfortunately, men on Earth dump competent, intelligent wives all the time for pretty, useless females.”

“There is that. I don’t think I could get the hang of what they’re doing, though.

I’m pretty sure I never was any good at it.”

THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 60

“No. I think I’m going to have to try the ‘pack horse’ rout. We’ve only got three bimbos with us. Some of the men are going to have to settle for useful … wup! Spoke too soon!” Miranda added when she saw a half dozen more of their group trailing down toward the beach.

Deborah dragged her attention from the ‘hunt’ on the beach. “At least, now that they’ve gotten over their terror, they’re adapting.”

“It’s easier the younger you are,” Miranda said musingly. “I hope to hell the bimbos among us don’t have the Hirachi trying to kill each other inside of a week, but I wouldn’t place any bets on it.”

She discovered when she glanced toward the Hirachi enclave again that Khan was staring in her direction. “Oh hell!” she muttered. “What would you want to bet he blames this on me, too!”

* * * *

Despite the fact that the huge fire and the roasting beast seemed to have all the earmarks of a celebration of sorts—a party at least—the Hirachi left the beach after a short while. Disappointed when they lost their audience, the women at the beach trudged back, but they hadn’t rejoined the group long before more Hirachi emerged from the sea. After heading to the bins to empty the loads of
jasumi
they’d brought up from the ocean, some detoured toward the fire to tend it or turn the meat, settled to rest briefly, and then went back out. The procession continued until the sun set. In fact, the last of the Hirachi only emerged after full dark had settled over the compound and the only light came from the bonfire.

It made Miranda tired just watching them. She found it hard to believe the men weren’t completely exhausted. One swim would’ve been enough to knock her out, particularly since she noticed they were usually gone several hours when they left.

How could they possibly swim for that long, she wondered?

Or was there some sort of platform on the other side of the wall beyond their

view?

Obviously, the wall wasn’t completely solid. Not only did the water at least seem to wash in and out, but Khan had gone into the sea when he’d left before the hunt and returned through the gates with his catch.

She supposed that accounted for the muscles. If they did the same thing day in and day out they probably didn’t have an ounce of fat anywhere on their bodies. It seemed to her that swimmers tended to be leaner looking than the Hirachi, muscular but not so bulked up, but she couldn’t think of anything that would account for that. She supposed, maybe, they were just genetically predisposed to carry around a lot of muscle.