And with Madame Allegria, he thought with a tightening of his lips. But he didn’t voice the thought out loud.
Since he was holding her close, with his arms wrapped tightly around her body as if afraid she would depart early, like her first visit, Khiva felt the way her muscles tensed, particularly around her shoulders.
“Right,” she eventually murmured quietly. But Khiva feared that the easy comfort they’d shared just moments before had vanished. “I can see how that would be necessary.”
Another pause, but Khiva knew there wasn’t anything more to say. He was a Krave. He fucked human females for the meager amount of credits that Madame Allegria gave them per year. It was a means to an end.
It could be worse, he knew. He had a steady supply of food, he had shelter, and a small pile of savings. How many other Keriv’i could say the same, wherever they had landed out in the vast universe?
Besides…being with the female tucked close to the warmth of his body felt right. Unlike his other clients’ visits, where he felt restless and trapped.
“Can I ask you something, Khiva?” she murmured softly after the lengthy pause.
He took it as a promising sign that she wasn’t leaving, so he would’ve answered any question that she asked at that moment. “Pax.”
“How long have you worked for Madame Allegria?”
His gaze flickered, but he answered immediately, “Approximately nine years now. I trained for a year before that.”
Evelyn’s lips parted, her brows furrowing. Slowly, she pushed up on her elbow so that she could see his features better. His gaze dipped to the way her full breasts swayed with the movement.
Her next question was slow, “You’ve lived on Everton for ten years?”
Ten years, he thought. Hearing it leave her lips felt different than when he’d said it just moments before. “Pax.”
“And how did you come to be here?” she asked quietly. “Visas are hard to acquire.”
Khiva’s lips twisted. “No human would deny Madame Allegria.” He met her questioning, yet somber gaze. “No Keriv’i either apparently.”
“What do you mean?”
Khiva inhaled a long breath. None of his clients had ever asked how he’d come to be on Everton. None of his clients had ever asked how long he’d lived on Everton, or what his life had been before.
Humans, in his experience, tended to be singularly focused on their own species. On the human colonies, it was easy to forget the wars and fractures of other alien beings.
“Have you ever heard of my species before? Not associated with Madame Allegria, but what we were before?” he asked.
“I…I can’t say that I have honestly,” she replied. “I think most of Everton knowofyou through gossip and rumors, but only because of her.”
“We were a peaceful race,” he told her, “known for our production and export of special metals and firestones, for the building of vessels across the old and new Quadrants. We were neutral in the Great War. Mostly. You know of the Great War,pax?”
“Of course,” she whispered. “It cost the Second and Third Quadrants millions of lives. I was only eight when it began and thirteen when it ended, but I remember it.”
“You were young,” he commented, with a small lift of his lips.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “How old were you when it ended?”
He shook his head. “Keriv’i do not count ages like humans do. I was in my second phase of life. I suppose the equivalent was around your present age when the Great War ended.”
“25?” she asked.
He tilted his chin down. “Pax. I was a forger. I created firestones, as had my line before me.”
“Firestones,” she repeated softly, her brow knitting together. “That sounds familiar.”
“You have heard the stories of Luxirians?”
“Yes,” she said, blinking. “They’re a great warrior race, spanning back an unfathomable amount of time. They were among the first to breed with Earth humans, long ago, creating an entirely new race of powerful hybrids that some claim helped to end the Great War.”
