uncorked the bottle and lifted the neck to his lips. “You’re drinking at a time like this?”
After a healthy chug, he noted, “This seems like the perfect time to drink, rixella.”
Erin paused, cocking her head to the side. Well, he had a point there. He was in pain after the kekevir attack, they were rained in for the foreseeable future, and neither one of them seemed to know how to act around the other, despite a mutual attraction and a mutual dislike.
Maybe it was the perfect time to drink. Hell, she didn’t remember the last time she’d had a drink.
Erin sighed, sitting down in front of him, shivering.
And when Jaxor held the bottle out to her, those blue eyes knowing, Erin took it without hesitation.
“Cheers,” she murmured and then took a swig.
Chapter Thirteen
His human female was a happy drunk, Jaxor realized as he watched her without hesitation. Erin was flat on her back, smiling up at the ceiling of the cave, talking about something he didn’t understand. Something called a ‘show’ on ‘tv.’ Apparently, she liked this ‘show’ a lot and had been recounting an ‘episode’ in full detail for the better part of the last hour.
“And then he goes, ‘Through concentration, I can raise and lower my cholesterol at will.’ And Pam asks, ‘Why would you want to raise your cholesterol?’” Erin was laughing now, full body-shaking laughs that filled Jaxor with something warm and unfamiliar. “And he responds, ‘So I can lower it.’”
She peeled off in another bout of laughter. Meanwhile, Jaxor had no idea what ‘cholesterol’ even was but she obviously found it very amusing.
“God, I love Dwight so much,” she said, her words slightly slurred, her eyes bright when she turned her head towards him, as if to ensure she still had his attention. As if he could ever look away from her, though he had no idea who this ‘Dwight’ was or what she was even speaking of.
Jaxor wondered about the tolerance of humans when it came to Luxirian Brew. She’d had a couple sips, at most, but was the Luxirian equivalent of a couple bottles deep.
He shifted against the stone wall, bringing his knee up. A sharp twinge in his side made his jaw tick, but he’d had worse injuries. Much worse. Luxirians healed fast regardless. He would snip the stitches in the morning and, with the healing salve, the skin would be mended the day after that. Like the attack never happened. The only evidence of it would be a faint scar.
But damn that kekevir. He should have built a gate a long time ago. If Erin had been down there and been caught unaware, she would be…
He growled, which made the female stop talking. She frowned and then said, “No, no, don’t get all huffy on me again. You get all growly when you get angry.”
“I am not angry,” he rasped, making an effort to stop. At you, he added silently. He was angry at himself. At that reckless part of him that enjoyed living so close to such dangerous things. Maybe he was tempting the Fates. Maybe he hadn’t built a gate because secretly he wished the kekevir would finally end him. Once and for all.
She turned over on her stomach until she faced him, propping her head up in the palms of her hands. Her small feet waved in the air behind her and Jaxor’s gaze caught on one of them, seeing the cut he’d bandaged the day before. She’d taken the cloth off sometime that morning, probably since it got soaked in the storm.
“You’re always angry,” she murmured softly, a small, almost conspiratorial smile darting over her features. “Just like me. Maybe that’s why your Fates clumped us together. Because we can be angry together.”
Jaxor blinked. He’d had enough of the Otalian Brew to relax his limbs and dull the pain in his side, but not enough that he would let her strange comment float from his mind.
“You are always angry, female?” he asked quietly. “Because you were taken away from your planet? Because I stole you from the Golden City?”
She was shaking her head, waving her hand in the air flippantly before it settled back underneath her chin. “No. No. I was angry a long time before this.” A speculative look came next. “I don’t think I’ve ever admitted that though. Before here, at least.”
Jaxor wondered if ‘here’ meant Luxiria, or if ‘here’ meant in that cave, right at that moment, with him.
“Tell me why,” he commanded, his