Well whoopdefuckingdo.
I raised an eyebrow at her.
Her lip raised to show me a single long fang more reminiscent of a snake than a spider.
Rathal smiled at the spider woman as he pulled out a chair for me. “Thank you, Soreel. However, my prize’s name is Callie.Please refrain from looking at her with anything other than deference or you and I will have to revisit that old history. We wouldn’t want that, now would we?”
I sat on autopilot, blinking up at Rathal and the spider woman as they stared at each other, the spider with barely restrained anger and Rathal with lazy humor. His eyes were hard though, daring her over his amicable smile. She breathed deeply and inclined her head at me.
“Apologies, Callie. Forgive my ignorance.” She backed all the way to the door and through it, closing it as she did.
I shifted in my seat. “What the heck was that?”
Rathal tsked as he sat and shook out a gold cloth napkin to lay it over one thick thigh. “Soreel had designs on me when she first got here, about twenty years ago. I wasn’t interested. The hairs that cover her lower half, you understand, they itch terribly when they get stuck in my fur. I’ve had one of her kind before and it wasn’t an experience I wished to repeat. She took offense and challenged me. We fought and I broke two of her legs and crushed her jaw badly enough that she needed reconstruction as her nanos couldn’t adequately repair the damage. As punishment for her audacity she was tasked to servitude here in my palace until I feel like she’s earned back her freedom.”
He plucked a silver cover off of one of the plates, revealing little sausages cut to look like roses. “But enough about her. Tell me about yourself, Callie. What pleases you. What would it take to get you to agree to be my wife. I hate resorting to threats.”
He served me a few of the meat roses with a soft smile. Judging by the look on his face, this fool didn’t hate shit. He loved issuing threats. His smile was him laughing at his own jokes. Ugh.
“Fully stocked ships and a one way trip to Korsal pleases me.”
Rathal grinned at me and lifted another platter. This one had crackers with thinly sliced cuts of purple meat on them with a line of orange sauce on top. He placed a few on my plate.
“You delight me. How about this? You marry me, and I will do what you ask. I will give you a ship, and you may return to Korsal.”
I sighed and reached for a sausage. “You don’t even know me. I am a complete stranger, an entirely different species, and for all intents and purposes, you and I are enemies. What could you possibly hope to gain by marrying me?”
Rathal’s smile softened. “Gain? What is there to gain but you? I have no designs for ransom. Nor do I hope to broker an alliance with your attack Rijitera.” He leaned forward in his chair, his eyes intent on me. “I have been watching you, Callisto Ramirez. Since the moment the Vrax captured you. I watched you comfort your friend in the dark. I saw you scream and fight for her when she was taken. I watched as you despaired when you’d thought all hope was lost, but I did not see you break. You arestrong. When Jack presented her monster to you, you did not flinch. You shook off your sadness and went to work. And again, when things looked most dire after your arrival on the Solus and war loomed on the horizon that was not your own, you stood up next to your friends and did not fear.” He leaned back and crossed his legs, his tail tapping lazily on the ground. “What more could one hope to gain in a life partner? You are loyal, smart, and fierce.” He shrugged and smiled at me. “I really don’t understand your question. What do I gain? How silly. I gain everything.”
seven
Callie
Icouldonlystareat him in dumbfounded annoyance. My anger had been at a low simmer since I woke up this morning, but listening to him talk had turned up the heat to boil. “Dude. Kidnapping me was not the way to start this. Had you introduced yourself to me like a normal fucking person, this could have been so different. Instead, I’m abducted, left in a cell for a week, attacked, and then thrown into another type of cell with my movements restricted. You demand things from me, and then you don’t even give me clothes that would make me comfortable. The fuck? Marry you, my ass.”
His smile was a slow show of teeth while his tail started flicking back and forth on the ground like a cat readying to pounce. “But where would be the fun in that? What kind of pirate would I be if I’d have done things the normal way? No. This is more interesting. Besides, I enjoy the challenge. Now. Let's compromise for today. You tell me one thing that you enjoy, and I will give you one set of comfortable, boring clothes.”
He hadn’t provided any utensils this time so there wasn’t anything to stab him with.
“Fine.” I sat back and crossed my arms. “I like flowers.”
There, nice and vague. Eat that, you arrogant ass.
Rathal snapped his fingers and in skittered one of the little creepy crawly Jabba the Hutts with neatly folded clothes in its spindly little hands.
“As promised. I don’t know why you insist on being plain, darling. You have an exceptional body. It is a crime to cover it up with unnecessary fabric.”
I glared at him and snatched up the clothes from the critter without touching its hands. The little thing twittered at me and then scurried off back through the door.
“What are those things?”
Rathal tilted his ear at the retreating bug thing and then back at me. “The Grel? Oh, they are a very helpful industrious species. I saved the last colony some two thousand years ago and they’ve diligently served the station ever since.”
I shoved the last few bits of meat covered cracker into my mouth before grabbing a few more. This was the kind of conversation that required fortitude. Bugs. Ugh. Hated them. “Why were they the last?”
“Well, the Unity decided they were a nuisance and set out to eradicate them.”
One of the twins walked up to me from her position by the door where they’d stopped when we'd gone out to the terrace and leaned in close to whisper loudly in my ear. “And them eating anything they come into contact with had nothing to do with it.” The other twin snickered and bumped my other side. “And by anything we meananything. Metal, cloth, plastic… people. A swarm is a dangerous thing.”
