Alien Freak - Calista Skye Page 0,27

that.”

It’s weird. It doesn’t feel like a stupid thing at all.

“Your grandmother told me about the hunting. I’m sorry you’ve had a life like that.”

Zaroc looks out at the hyperspace patterns. “Not much a life, I agree. But all us must find meaning and joy where we are. What else she tell you?”

“Not much. She said to ask you.”

He chuckles. “That sound just like her. Grandmother?”

“Grandson?” the metal casing answers.

“How human females react to brandy?”

“My records don’t contain that information.”

“Will it kill her?”

“I doubt it.”

“But it might?”

“Probably not. Why, do you want to kill her?”

“Thank you, Grandmother. Wait here, Averie.” He walks to the elevator and is gone.

I like the way he pronounces my name, as smooth as silk and then with a hard rrr, like a growl.

Zaroc returns with a small oval container and two transparent orbs that must be glasses. He puts them on a console by the elevator and waves me over.

Pouring orange liquid from the container into a glass, he hands it to me and takes one for himself. “This is brandy. It actually is not, but has a name that for you hard to say. So we will say brandy. Please smell and tell me if will cause great damage to your inside.”

I bring the glass to my nose and give it a cautious sniff. “It will cause some damage, I think. On Earth, we call this rum. Something like it, anyway. Should I drink?”

“Wait. Host drinks first, to show is not poison. Like so.” Zaroc takes a sip. “Now guest.”

I take a sip. The straight alcohol stings my tongue, but no worse than Bacardi. “All right.”

“We use brandy for celebration,” Zaroc says. “I often have little to celebrate. Today we celebrate escaping the planet Brems and the Fentrat who owns it.”

“And the Gurandu,” I add.

He looks away. “Unfortunately, impossible to escape the Gurandu for long. They always get their target.”

I gulp down a little more of the brandy-slash-rum. “Seems to me that just because nobody has done it, it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. Can’t you decide to be the first?”

12

- Averie -

Zaroc fixes me with a very green stare. “Interesting idea.”

“Oh, I have lots of those.” Yeah, the booze is getting to me already.

He looks out at the swirls. “Are very many Gurandu. Not all hunters, but still thousands of them. Right now, maybe one thousand hunting me. IruBex is closest. Closer than ever.”

“Even so,” I persist, encouraged by his interest. “There must be a way. You’ll be legendary. What would it take for them to stop hunting you?”

He doesn’t think long about it. “That all the Gurandu were dead.”

“You just said that not all of them are hunters. Am I right in thinking that only the upper class do the hunting thing? The others would be too busy making a living. It’s just like on Earth. Lots of worthless things are only done by rich people.”

“It is right what you say,” Zaroc says. “Only some hunt, those who have no duties. They have much time. How do vibroblade feel in your hand?”

I’m not confused by the sudden change of topic. “The knife with the strange blade? It felt weird.”

“I notice you not carrying it now.”

I shrug. “I don’t think I need it.”

“Person with no weapon is slave or prisoner. Which one are you?”

I look him straight in the blue daggers. “You tell me.”

A smirk plays on his otherworldly face, but he doesn’t reply, just takes a sip of not-rum.

He’s not what you would call model handsome. He’s not human enough for that. The eyes are too big, the chin too square, the hair too thick, the proportions not the way you’d expect. He’s almost too masculine, if there is such a thing. Apart from his scales and his fangs and quick reactions, there’s nothing else about him that’s reptilian. He’s extraordinarily alien, but not so exotic that he’s unrelatable. Plainly dangerous, obviously unpredictable, a loose cannon in every way. And still I think he has a warm heart. That contrast is pretty dazzling.

“You came to get me,” I observe. “Going into the deadly plants. Even if you had to know it was incredibly dangerous.”

He leans back on the console and shrugs. “I’m not always smartest person.”

I don’t know if it’s the near-capture experience or the injuries or the booze or what, but he’s a lot more mellow now than before. He’s even speaking to me, and that is real progress.

He came to get me. He didn’t have to. His ship was ready