The Unkillables (29 page)

And she’d leave behind her an account of the zombie plague and how to avoid it. With luck it wouldn’t all get distorted into some weird religion.

She heard the Jaw come up behind her—she turned and smiled at him. She’d offered Quarry and the Jaw their own garments of therma-fix fabric, but the Jaw at least seemed not to understand why he wouldn’t want to just keep wearing his little strips of hide. That was all he wore now, wrapped around his waist like a loincloth and leaving his torso bare.

They looked out at the view. Veela realized he was actually looking at the perimeter wall, when he said, in her language, “Fly, other side of.”

“Think you we should go beyond the barrier?” she verified, in the People’s tongue.

He nodded. Sticking to her language, he said, “People, need. Quarry, mate needs.”

Veela was about to say that Quarry was still a bit young for that, but then reflected that, here, she probably wasn’t. Or soon wouldn’t be, at least. Looking out at the enclosed valley again, she said, in her own language, “It’s kind of nice, though, not having to worry about people. On the other hand, I’ve been hearing some mighty big animals roaring out there every once in a while.” She glanced over to see how much of that he’d caught. Not all of it, obviously, but she thought he’d gotten the gist. He had a knack for this stuff, just like she did.

“So,” she said, still in her own language, “Quarry needs a mate.” She turned to face him. “And you? Do you need a mate, too?”

The Jaw grinned and said, in his language, “Maybe I already have one.”

He stepped forward, took her in his arms, pressed his mouth to hers and ran his hands over her strange white garb. Kissing him was nicer than she’d feared—she was glad they’d waited, because she’d had time to get used to his breath. She responded, feeling his big strong hairy body under her palms and against her torso, his arms encompassing her, nothing but that little strip of tanned hide between them.

The Jaw put his tongue in her mouth—she didn’t mind that. But then her mouth was so full of it she could hardly breathe, and then he physically picked her up, spun her around, and set her down again, and seemed to want to push her onto her knees as he tried to pull her jumpsuit off so he could take her from behind. “Stop,” she said, and tried to break free from him. It was like he didn’t hear her. She thrashed more violently, and shouted, “Quit it!”

He took a step back. Veela stalked a few paces away and turned to glare at him. He looked stricken. “What?” he said, in her language.

“You have pretty high expectations of a first kiss, don’t you?”

He screwed his face up in confusion. “What?”

“Don’t be such a fucking caveman!”

He had figured out that “fucking” was basically a meaningless word that could be added anywhere, but “caveman” was new. “‘Caveman’?” he said. “What is ‘caveman’? What did you call me?”

“It means....” Veela paused, feeling silly and embarrassed. “It means, um, someone who lives in a cave.”

The Jaw recoiled. “I live outside,” he said. As far as he was concerned, he was never stepping foot in a cave again.

“It means, a person from old times.”

“But I’m young,” he said, and struck his chest with his fist for emphasis.

“Jesus,” she said. “Just forget I said it, okay!”

He stared at her, forlorn, at a loss. When she relented enough to return his gaze, she saw that he was teary-eyed.

“You have rules,” he said. “I don’t know them. Teach me your rules. Your rules for math. And your rules for all things.”

She softened, and reached out to him; she put one arm around his huge shoulders, and one hand on his chest. Even as his eyes grew unfocused with desire he watched her attentively, studying her, waiting for cues.

She drew his face down closer at the same time that she raised hers by standing on her tiptoes. “First rule,” she breathed, “is take your time. We have time—lots of time....”

T
hank you for reading
The Unkillables
. I hope you’ll consider signing up for my mailing list at
www.jboyett.net
, and maybe check out some of my other books on Amazon or my website.

There are other sci-fi/fantasy/horror books; for example,
The Little Mermaid
, in which Brenna defends her lifeguard boyfriend from a strange beautiful mute girl who seems to appear out of the sea; or
Ironheart
, a space opera in which far-future miners find an impossible menace out at the rim of the galaxy.

And then there are my books set in the present day and without any supernatural or speculative elements at all, but which I think might be even wilder; for example, my first book,
Brothel
, a dark comedy about aimless college students in Arkansas who start a DIY brothel in order to stave off the petty boredom of their lives.

And I have still more books, those already in print and those yet to come. I hope you’ll join me on my continuing publishing adventure by heading over to
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Did you love
The Unkillables
? Then you should read
Rogue Galaxy, Episode 1: The Captain and the Werewolf
by J. Boyett!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
meets
Star Trek
in the new serial,
Rogue Galaxy
.... It's a hundred years since the Thaumaturgic Revolution made interstellar travel feasible. The starship
Galaxy
is in rebellion against the illegitimate government back on Earth, the rest of the Fleet has gone into hiding within a Bubble of Fakkalohn (a mystical pocket of space), and Lieutenant Jennifer Summers, lover of Captain Terry Farraday, has been bitten by a werewolf and transformed into a member of that pan-galactic meta-species.

Each season will run for six installments--please sign up for the mailing list at www.jboyett.net to be informed about future installments!