This gets a reaction, and she scrambles to her feet and steps up again, her finger lifting even though she’s still a little pale in the cheeks. I see her look between it and my chest, and she must decide she is going to have another go at poking me regardless of what the consequences may be.
“Now listen here, mister. I don’t see how that is any of your business.” Her little finger tickles as she stabs it against my chest. I’ve got to give it to her, she is brave. No one else would treat me like this. It’s like she lacks the basic instinct of self-preservation. I grab her finger and cradle it in my palm, knowing that if I squeeze too hard, I could crush it with my strength.
“It is if I am going to train you. Being with child may affect how you react to things. For example, you may have had such a bad reaction to my speed because being pregnant is messing with your equilibrium.” She steps back, looking thoughtful, and I drop her finger. “As well as your fragile human body not being able to cope.”
The thoughtful look disappears, and she growls at me. Lila makes it too easy to tease her, so her reaction is kind of cute, and this time I can’t stop the small smile that crosses my lips, exposing my fangs to her. I expect her to recoil like she had with Hale, but she doesn’t, and I find that strangely intriguing. Yes, she has zero self-preservation.
In fact, her eyes seem to lock onto my mouth, and I hear her heart rate pick up again. Combined with the heady scent she’s suddenly putting out, I’d say she’s definitely not scared but interested, and dare I say turned on. Though I can’t say I’m surprised. Earth’s fascination with vampires makes me not all that unusual to her, and with the way they sexualize blood drinking, they are not far off the mark.
Her physical response has me thinking. I’ve never tried human blood before. I’m curious, but not enough to proposition the boss men’s granddaughter. I’m not that hard up. I’ve got Xavier, and the clan if I get desperate, but apart from Hale, I’ve started to get tired of them.
Our clan formed when we were doing our required military service. Hale and I quickly worked our way up the ranks to captains, and both of us had our own squadrons. Velorina was in my squad, and Hale had the other two. When our service came to an end, the three girls got out, but Hale and I stayed.
Eventually, we attracted the attention of people higher up in the formal structure of Vilax. The Queen of Vilax selected our clan to perform with the circus, telling us that Vilaxians are always in the circus as protection for the Adams family. Their diplomatic missions are sometimes fraught with danger, and we were to act as their bodyguards and hired muscle during negotiations. The trapeze act is just a good cover. It took some convincing, but eventually Hale and I agreed. Although we saw it as a step down, a demotion of sorts, they assured us it wasn’t and that we should consider it a holiday during non-wartime. We still go back once every couple of months and train with our units just to keep our skills fresh.
The girls were delighted to join the circus, since they get all the travel and fun they could want, but now things seem to have shifted between us all. I no longer enjoy Estrella and Radella’s company, finding them annoying and frivolous. Velorina prefers girls to men, which is fine, so she spends more time with the other two than Hale or me, and Hale really isn’t picky. He will take blood from the clan, or he is happy to find blood from one of the other performers. I think Estrella and Radella have realized the dynamic has changed, so they have started pushing for more. They want us to exchange commitment vows, but I’m not sure if it’s about romantic interest or if they like their status in our clan and will use any excuse not to lose that status.
Some clans are so happy they decide to form permanent bonds, much like a human wedding. They get commitment tattoos and go through a whole ceremony, unless they are lucky enough to find their blood rose, which is magically fated and sealed, but I just don’t see the point of committing. We have an extended lifetime, and I get bored easily. I don’t see myself staying with the same clan forever. Most people don’t, and clan dissolution is common, much like the divorce rate on Earth.
“Well, you’re just going to have to figure out how to work with this fragile human body.” She puts her hands on her hips, and I get a good look at her body for the first time. She’s wearing the Galaxy Circus jumpsuit, and it hugs every dip and curve of her figure. My eyes linger on the swell of her breasts, and a number of dirty thoughts fly into my mind about how I could work over her body.
She clears her throat, but I’m not going to feel guilty about checking her out. She’d done the same to me when she first walked in.
“Gun,” I say, and her brow wrinkles in confusion.
“Huh?”
“Do you know how to use a gun? That’s probably the best option we have, unless your Skarrian powers kick in.”
She looks a little unsure of herself but quickly recovers. “Ah, no. I’ve never needed to know how to use one before, and none of my foster families ever showed me.”
“Foster families?” I can’t stop the question that jumps out of my mouth, and I can’t take it back either. Lila seems taken aback by my question, clearly not expecting me to show any interest in her personal life.
“On Earth, if something happens to your parents when you are young, or your parents are not nice people, you are placed with families who are paid to look after you. When my parents died, and the Adams brothers weren’t found, that’s what happened to me. I got lucky, because most of my families were okay, but sometimes they are not.”
“You lived with strangers who were paid to look after you? You didn’t just become part of their family?” My brows furrow, not fully understanding what she means.
“No, that is adoption. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough families who want other people’s kids, so a lot of us miss out.” She doesn’t sound too upset, more matter of fact than anything, but I can’t help but feel sad for her. You don’t often hear of that happening throughout the galaxy. If a Vilaxian chooses to have a child, that child will be looked after by the clan if anything happens to the parent. Most clans are fairly large, unlike our small one. Children are always raised by the clan, it’s like having many loving parents. My mother and father’s clan was made up of about twenty people, so there was no shortage of people to love me and my brother and the other children when growing up.
I shake my head. I need to stop getting distracted. What is it about Lila that makes me think about clan structure and ask questions about her childhood? I need to get my head in the game.
“Physically, you are no match for most species, especially the ones who have fangs and claws and can shift or are strong and fast. We need to counter that. Come on, follow me.”
Lila quickly goes over to the sink and runs the water, cupping her hands and allowing them to fill with water before she drinks from them. She swirls the water in her mouth before spitting it in the sink. She catches me watching her in the mirror and grimaces. “Nobody likes that taste.”
Grabbing my shirt from where it was hung, I pull it over my head before leading her out the door and back into the gym. There are still a few people working out in here, but I don’t stop to talk to any of them, even though I can see one or two trying to catch my eye. Lila follows closely behind me as we leave the gym and move to another door on the right side of the corridor. This one requires me to swipe my thumbprint across the access panel. In the circus ship, we have access cards we need to use—I think they do it that way for the humans—but everywhere else on the big ship, the restricted areas have biometric scans. Thumbprints, eye scans, and blood sample. One of those will get you access if you are approved, and I am approved for this one. The door beeps as it scans my thumb, and the door slides open, allowing Lila and me access. The room is dark and cold, but sensors activate the lights as I step into the empty room. Lila is close behind me, almost bumping against my back, and as the door closes, I feel her shiver as she adjusts to the temperature of the room.
“Holy shit, it’s cold in here.” She wraps her arms around her midsection before moving around me and takes in the wide-open space. “This ship never ceases to amaze me. It’s like it defies all laws of building on Earth. How were we in a large, normal-sized room on the other side of this corridor, but this room is like a big warehouse?” Her voice echoes in the cavernous space. “What is this for?”
“We are not constrained by human notions, and this is the gun range.”
“Why so big?” she asks. “And where are the targets?” She sounds skeptical, and she looks around the space once more in case she missed it.
I go over to the desk that sits in the middle of the back of the room and place my thumb against the control panel once more. It lights up, and I program in a sequence of commands. The room’s hologram takes over and creates my icy terrain. Lila’s eyes widen in surprise.
“Holy fuck, this is so cool! It’s a holodeck,” she whispers reverently.
“I don’t know what a holodeck is, but this is our tactical hologram console, or THC. It is Vilaxian tech that we use to train our military forces to be adaptable to any environment. We can program it for any terrain, and we give it parameters to mimic different environments. Then we add tactical scenarios. This hologram is Iceen. They are not particularly confrontational, and they don’t involve themselves with other planetary squabbles, but it’s a good environment to train in because of the extreme temperatures.”
