“It is yours.” I place it into her hand, and her arm drops briefly before she cups the jewel with both of them. “All I have is yours, mate. My warriors, my ships, my hoard, and me.”
“What if…” She stares at the jewel for a long time. “What if I don’t want any of it? What if I only want one thing?”
“Then tell me and it will be yours. I am a Sarkarnii warlord. There is nothing I cannot do,” I say, rising to my feet.
“Can you take this thing? It weighs a ton.” She hands me back the jewel.
“I can.” I take it from her, caressing the sparkling jewel before lowering it reverentially into my hoard.
“And can you take me and Lydia back to Earth?”
I stare at her. “To Earth?”
“To my home planet. I want to go home, Dalox. That’s the only thing I want from you.”
GILLIAN
I’ve never kicked a puppy. I wouldn’t ever kick a puppy. Kicking puppies is not in my lexicon.
But Dalox looks as close to how I would imagine a puppy might look, had I theoretically kicked one. Oh, and the puppy was a seven-foot-tall alien who can turn into a dragon.
“Lydia explained how it wasn’t possible for you to leave this galaxy until now, but you have found a way to be able to leave, and we’d like to go home.”
“You wish to leave Vorostor?”
“Yes.”
“You wish to traverse to your own galaxy?”
“Yes.”
“And this is what you truly want of me?”
“It is.”
“Then I will take you, and I will make your home my home.”
Oh, shit. I didn’t factor in this particular possibility. My brain still isn’t firing on all cylinders.
“That’s…not going to be possible, Dalox.”
“Why not? Any inferior species would be grateful for the presence of a Sarkarnii warlord and his warriors for protection.”
Admittedly, I bristle a little at the wordinferior, given I’ve put him on the ground twice.
“Humans…they wouldn’t accept you. Chances are they’d capture you and experiment on you.”
“No one could capture me or my warriors.”
I admit, the whole turning into a dragon thing would make capture difficult.
“If they couldn’t capture you, I can guarantee they’d kill you.”
“I’d like to see them try. Sarkarnii are indestructible,” Dalox growls.
“Believe me, humans are creative. They’d find a way,” I say quietly.
“I will still come with you,” Dalox says. “I do not care what the other humans think or not. They cannot beat a Sarkarnii warlord.”
