“Your sister’s an asshole, you know that?” A very scary, asshole.
“She has always been like this,” Vexar says.
“I bet that was fun to grow up with.” I slide down in my chair, straightening my legs out in front of me until I’m hunchedlike an old walking cane. “So what do you want to do?” At the end of the day, this has to be his decision.
He stares at his hands for a long while before looking up. “I think we must trust Steinarr and let him do what he does best.”
I slap my hands on my thighs. “Alright. Let’s write the message.”
The following morning,I learn the ship has a gym. It’s a decent-sized room, hidden beneath a hatch in the passageway, and it’s well equipped with a range of odd-looking resistance machines. Vexar walks through the space and stops next to a panel on the bulkhead. With a devious grin, he asks, “Are you ready?”
I stare at him blankly. “You do know my feet aren’t ready for a workout, right?”
His brows wiggle. “I have something better.” With a touch to the panel, the room fills with a strange, upbeat music.
My eyes go wide.
“What do you think?” he asks.
I haven’t heard music in so long that, despite the overall alien vibe of the tune, I’m enthralled and start dancing in place. “Music!” I shout, pumping my fists like it’s my first time at the club.
His eyes light up, and to my surprise, he joins my impromptu dance party. His hips sway, feet tap, and arms wiggle as he moves towards me with a huge, infectious grin. This massive, horned warrior is dancing his way across the room, and it’s both endearing and hilarious.
Aware of my sore feet, he scoops me up, wraps an arm under my ass, and starts dancing me around. Laughter fills the room, blending with the strange melody as we spin and bounce with abandon. Concerns about Steinarr’s newest mission and theperilous situation we’re in melt away until the only thing left is the overwhelming joy that we are together and alive.
By the time the song ends, we’re both out of breath and grinning ear to ear.
We spend the next hour discovering that none of the exercise equipment is rated for someone of my size or weight. The whole situation is endlessly entertaining. It’s clear Vexar’s laughing because I don’t weigh enough to use the machines, and I’m laughing because of how hard he’s laughing.
Hanging from a machine that looks like a fancy pull-down bar, I say, “Yeah, I’m gonna need a few more pounds to make this one work too.” My feet are dangling at least a foot off the ground, and this machine is meant to be used while sitting.
Vexar wipes his eyes as he fights back another laughing fit and helps me down. “You may be a Vhorathi at heart, but you are not a Vhorathi in body.”
“And that’s why I have an affinity for really big guns.” I give him a wink and settle down on an empty bench.
“We will have to find another way for you to exercise,” he says as he joins me.
I lean my back against Vexar’s good shoulder and look up at him. “I can do bodyweight exercises or something. We’ll figure it out.” After I mentioned how much muscle I’d lost on Calidus and how I’d like to gain it back, he instantly vowed to help me “get back up to strength.” It’s sweet, and I can’t help but feel all warm and fuzzy every time I remember how much he cares. With a squeeze to his massive thigh, I ask, “Are all Vhorathis as muscly as you?”
“Some, but not all,” he says, tilting his head down to see me. “How are your feet today? Any better?”
“They’re sore. How’s your shoulder?”
“It is fine,” he says as he kisses the top of my head.
A few minutes later, he’s grumbling at one of the machinesas I stretch while pretending I’m not eye-fucking him. “I do not understand. I think these machines may be broken,” he says as he ups the tension again. “I have never needed this much weight before.”
“Did you forget how easily you bent that fence?” I ask.
He grunts a sound of frustration and moves on to the next machine, and then the next. Each one, he maxes out the resistance and says it still feels like he’s doing nothing. It would be funny if he weren’t so freaked out about it.
“This new strength is strange,” he says as he walks away from one of the ‘broken’ machines. He tosses his towel over his shoulder and frowns. “I do not know why I got it and you did not.”
I don’t mention the fact that he’s also healing faster than me too.
The following morning,we land on one of the small moons orbiting the furthest planet from Calidus’s star. The planet is a smooth marble of reds and whites that fills the display and hasn’t moved since we landed. That’s what Vexar meant when he said the moon was tidally locked. It doesn’t rotate. The side we’re on will never face open space. Good for hiding.
That afternoon, Vexar changes the bandages on my feet with a solemn expression. “Your feet are healing too slowly,” he says, smoothing another strip of regen-tape over one of the deeper gouges on my left heel.
