CHAPTER 11
Iopen my eyes to a new day, and for the first time in as long as I can remember—and I definitely can remember now—I’m happy. I’m with my mates, and we’ve escaped the evil that was manipulating me all these years. Life is good, and if I’m not mistaken, I smell…
“Pancakes, pet,” Boss announces. “Come and get them now.”
That’s an order I will not be refusing. I get out of bed, grab the little robe they put next to it, wrap it around me, and pad out to the galley. Which I remember. Because I’ve lived here before. Because this is home.
“I can’t believe you made these for me,” I say.
“You need to eat,” Boss rumbles.
“No, I mean you barely fit in the galley. You’re practically wearing the kitchen,” I point out.
It’s hardly an exaggeration. His bulky, thick, muscular frame really does take up pretty much all of the available space. Hischest is over the pan and halfway blocking the extraction fan. He has to back up to turn around, maneuvering in little inches.
Boss smirks and flips a pancake onto my plate. “You’re in a better mood this morning,” he notes.
“It’s my second day of finding out I’m the worst, so I’m getting used to it.”
“You’re not the worst. You couldn’t even begin to compete with the bad, let alone the worst. You’re such a baby.”
“A baby? Me?”
“Yes,” he grins. “Just a little baby.”
“I almost got you all captured!”
He snorts. “Those soldiers never had a chance. If you hadn’t arrived with the parachute, they would have been wiped out anyway.”
“They would have sent more people, though.”
“And we would have dealt with them too. You are only humans. You are small creatures, your technology is limited, and your modes of warfare are overly simplistic.”
“Wow. Roasted,” I grin, starting to eat. “They really thought they had you.”
“They always do,” he says.
“I thought all these years you weren’t actually trying to save humans? You stopped me more than once, and you told me to stop interfering.”
“We were trying to save some humans, from time to time. You were prepared to die for the cause at a moment’s notice. It’s a very different vibe.”
“It is a different vibe,” I agree. “So now what? Where are we going? What are we doing?”
“We are taking you to see the best human pet vet,” Sharp says
“Argh! Don’t tell her that!” Kronos calls out. “She’ll be insufferable!”
“I’m always insufferable,” I shout back. My head thumps as I yell, and I figure I’m going to have to speak at a reasonable volume for a while.
After a moment, I start to complain about the plan.
“I really don’t want to do any more medical things. I held it together to get the chip wrangled out of my head, but this is too much. I just need a nap and some ice cream. You haven’t even tried giving me ice cream yet.”
“The vet is nice,” Kronos says.
“I don’t trust your perception of nice, because you’re kind of a fucking monster.”
“We don’t want to have to sedate you,” Sharp says.
