My eyes dropped from his face, down his sexy chest, to follow the sleek coils of his tail. He had them curled into circles beneath himself, sitting on his own tail, if you will. Was his cock in a place I didn’t expect, or folded into a pouch, perhaps? Damn it—why was my mind fixating on this? I had other problems that were much more important, like how long my ship had been under that ice and how I was going to get back home.
Thank God Levant couldn’t actually read my mind, just the scent my body was apparently giving off. “Here, eat first,” he said, and finally the bowl was placed in my lap. I didn’t realize how hungry for food I was until that fragrant stew was right under my nose. My belly rumbled embarrassingly loudly, but my strange alien companion said nothing about it. He just pushed the spoon into my hand. I was relieved he thought I was up to the task of eating by myself, because I had a feeling he’d just as happily feed me each spoonful if I’d let him.
The food was good, though; it went down easily, and so fast that I didn’t have a chance to consider how that was. Only after I’d swallowed the last bite and scraped out the bottom of the bowl with the smooth wooden spoon did it cross my mind. “Oh, I should have checked if it’s safe for me to eat this.” I had a kit for that somewhere in the survival kit that had been packed onto my ship. In the survival kit that was back on the ship, because it hadn’t crossed my mind either when we left earlier. Wow, my head really wasn’t in the game. Me, who always stuck tothe game plan and remembered her training down to the letter, completely out of it now. I’d lost my head over a pretty smile and kind eyes, and the very reality of a living, breathing alien.
“I did. Do not worry, Felicia,” Levant said, and that damned tail of his curled a little higher around my leg beneath the furs. The tip was almost at the sensitive skin at the back of my knee, and my belly clenched, wondering what it would feel like if he touched me there. He acted like he wasn’t seriously impinging on my personal space. Taking the empty bowl, he shifted casually away to wash it with a few handfuls of snow he retrieved from outside. His damn tail was long enough that he could do that without letting go of me.
When he was done with the simple task, he brought his hand-scanner device thing, the one he’d used to heal me. He also brought something that looked very much like a tablet, except it was thinner and sleeker than the ones I was used to. “Do you have a translator implant, beautiful mate? May I check for one?” he asked, catching me by surprise.
A translator implant? I instinctively reached up to touch my ear, but I was already shaking my head in denial. “No, such devices are still in the experimental phase. You have one?” I asked, my eyes dropping to the furs where his tail was still steadily advancing up my leg. He was hovering at my side, but something in his stance made me think he was a little restless, a hint of unease he was trying to hide. I didn’t really know how I knew that, because his expression was friendly and calm as always. Perhaps it was in the slight tilt of his head and the tension in his shoulders, the angle at which his strange dark horns jutted from his hair.
“I implanted translator devices once we learned of humans, yes,” he agreed readily. “This is why I can understand you even if we are not touching.” Touching, right, he had implied that touch was key to us understanding one another. Now it seemed this was only for me, a way to piggyback on his implants somehow. How curious…
“When did you learn about humans?” I asked. See, I knew he knew far more about me than I did about him. Was his kind spacefaring? Could he bring me home anyway if I couldn’t dig out my ship and repair it? I hoped so, because recalling the way I’d said goodbye to my father pulled at my chest. It made me ache to think I’d never see him again and learn whether he was proud of me or not.
“I will tell you all about this shortly,” Levant said, his hand slashing through the air. “If you do not have implants I can upload the Naga language to, you must promise to stay in my nest for now. There is a Revenant on the loose inside my tent; I must find it before it harms you.” I knew it! Hewasworried about something. A revenant? That sounded dangerous, like he was talking about a ghost, something undead. Considering his advanced technology and knowledge, I doubted that was what he meant, but I wasn’t going to take any chances anyway.
“Okay, I promise,” I agreed. I shifted in the furs to pull them more tightly around me and peered around. What did it look like? I was about to ask, but Levant had already darted away with a nod, his scanner held high over his head and his tablet held casually at his side. His tail released from around my leg and whipped away, which meant I now had no way to understand him. Welp, this was great… Something rustled next to me—I was sure of it—but I saw nothing but furs. Now he’d gotten in myhead with this ghostly name. I was a tough chick; this was no big deal.
Hey, did that piece of fur have eyes?
Chapter 5
Felica
Eyes blinked at me from within a shaggy purple pile. Something wriggled, and a pinkish nose lifted to sniff at the air. Oh… All that mounting fear over the terrifying name left me in a big hurry. A revenant wasn’t anything to fear, clearly. It looked like a tiny kitten or something. When it rose on its paws, it was a bit bigger than a kitten, perhaps the size of a small dog. Except it had six legs, and they had hooves. A calf—a baby calf of some kind of alien cow creature with six legs. It was freaking adorable!
“Hi,” I whispered, furtively glancing at where Levant had disappeared back into his nook, full of stacked crates. He looked a little too fierce and warrior-like for my liking, as if he planned to hunt the little guy for dinner once he found it. Sticking out my hand, palm open, toward the little guy, I wriggled my fingers. “You’re a sweetheart, aren’t you? There’s nothing to worry about, am I right?”
The tiny calf padded closer on its shiny hooves, perching with a slender pair of lavender-colored, downy forelegs on mine. Its nose was soft as velvet and delightfully warm as it nuzzled my fingers. It wasn’t heavy, and I was very tempted to gather the whole fuzzy ball into my lap. He looked a bit like one of those Scottish Highlanders, except he had six legs and an extra-long tail. No horns, but he did have long, soft ears like a bunny. Honestly, if anyone had tried, they couldn’t have come up with something cuter than this.
“Is Levant looking for you?” I whispered. The calf licked my fingers with a soft, slightly wet tongue, made a soft mewling noise, and clambered into my lap like he belonged. I had my arms around him, hugging all that soft, fuzzy fur before I had thought it through. When he nuzzled the underside of my chin and gave me another lick, I melted, though. Holy Hannah, this thing was cute.
“What are you, little one? And where did you come from?” I asked in a hushed tone. Levant was still rooting around in the back of the tent, and I didn’t want to draw his attention to the cute fellow in my arms just yet. There was no way I could stomach having him for dinner somewhere down the line. He’d been hauling around a very sharp-looking knife the last time I caught a glimpse of him, so I definitely figured he had skewering my poor little friend on his mind. Well, not on my watch.
The calf had finished its slightly wet greeting and now sat back in my lap. Its hind legs curled beneath it while it kept itself propped up against my thigh with the front pair. I couldn’t see what the fellow had done with the bizarre middle pair, but they were tucked in there somewhere too. A velvet snout was aimed at my face, a pair of big, soulful lavender eyes locked on mine, and then it said, “I am a companion bot, Vakarsa Calf model 3 dash Z dash 54.”
I blinked, my mouth dropping open, and the calf kept talking: “I am pleased to meet you, human. My recently updated files indicate you are a sentient, two-legged species not native to Serant. Is this correct?” Holy Hannah, a talking cow? No, correction, it called itself a Vakarsa, and not just that, but it had a make and model. This was a bot, a very, very realistic robotsimulation, but a robot nonetheless. Well, at least that meant I wasn’t supposed to be dinner.
“Uh,” I stuttered. “Yeah, I’m human. My name is Felicia. What’s yours?” I asked. The bot was sitting very prettily in my lap, and it had to weigh quite a bit, but it wasn’t crushing my legs. The creature cocked its head to the side, and I swore it looked at me as if it were seriously contemplating the answer to that question. Was it sentient? A true AI lifeform? Levant was such a strange mixture of technology and, ah, barbaric leather.
I only had to look at him to consider him more a primitive hunter than a scientist. His sled had been made of bone and leather and rope, nothing high-tech. The leather and furs had been hand-stitched crudely, and dressed now in leather straps and ivory jewelry, he lacked any appearance of coming from an advanced civilization. Then there was all the technology scattered through this huge tent base, and the healing device he’d casually wielded. The way he spoke also did not indicate a lack of understanding; he knew—a lot.
“My name?” the small calf-like robot asked from my lap, drawing my eyes back to its huge lavender eyes and pinkish snout. “My previous companion called me Ssrktw. It means calf. You may call me that too if you wish, or you can call me something else.” The calf swung its small head to look where Levant darted past, going from that nook with all the crates into another. Under my hand, its fur seemed to rise a little along its spine, the way a cat’s fur might if it was scared.
“Sssrk?” I tried, and shook my head. “Sorry, buddy, I can’t pronounce that, and just calling you calf seems… a bit too descriptive. What about Auby, short for aubergine? That’s thecolor of the fur on your flanks.” It was a very pretty shade of eggplant purple, and it tempted me to reach out and touch it to see if it was as soft as it looked.
“Auby?” it said. “Yes, that sounds good. Felicia, I believe I have disobeyed the Naga male by rebooting. Do you think he is going to deactivate me again?” It was the truly frightened tremble in his voice that made me quickly shake my head. I mean, even if hehaddisobeyed Levant, what could possibly be the harm? It was so cute, and soft, and extremely impressive. I mean, Earth was light-years away from creating something as advanced as Auby.
“Felicia,” Levant said in a low, warning tone, cutting through the tent so sharply that Auby and I both froze guiltily. Then he said more, but I could not understand a word of it; they were all hisses and growls, rough syllables that sounded much like the word for “calf” that Auby had given me. I looked at the little bot, then at Levant, who came sliding very quietly from between his stacked supplies with a knife in his hand. It was the barely masked horror on his face that told me Levant truly thought I was in terrible danger.
“Auby?” I asked, my voice going slightly higher in pitch because that fearwasa little contagious. I mean, I’d assumed the little bot was harmless because it looked so damn cute, but what if I was wrong? Did Levant have good reason to hunt it with that knife and stare at me with worry as he stalked closer?
“I would never harm my companion, Felicia,” Auby said, full of certainty. Its robotic voice was eerily real, and it sounded very sweet—like that of a four-year-old boy, perhaps. It also spoke in my native language, so I could easily understand it. “And asmy previous companion died a thousand and sixty-three of your cycles ago, I will now be your companion, if you accept.”
Levant growled something, eyes huge, as he continued to approach, but his blade was lowered at his side. “Ah, your Naga mate says you should accept, right away.” So I did, muttering the words in a rush even though I couldn’t actually be sure Levant had said that or not. It kind of sounded like a good idea, and I mean, who could say no to those big, lavender eyes anyway?
“Thank you, Felicia,” Auby singsonged, and then his eyes flashed a pale blue. It beamed out and strobed over my face—there and gone again in the blink of an eye—but I was certain he’d just locked my face into his database or something. Auby made a very happy, sighing noise, and then he twirled in my lap, dancing around on his six little legs across the furs in what could only be described as a happy dance. Who could be scared of that?
