A loud screeching sound suddenly cut through the room. A group of males hauled in something large and terrifying from a side door.
It was a live creature. About six or seven feet long and probably at least a foot in diameter, it had several long skinny legs on each side of its body and a cluster of round eyes on the top of its flat head. With ear-splitting squeals, it struggled against the hold of four aliens, two of them dragging it by its claw-like mandibles.
I sucked in a breath in horror, leaning back against the counter.
“What is that?”
“Vasai.” Vrateus stepped forward as two of the males dragging the creature yanked at one mandible each, cracking the centipede’s head in half. Its long body contracted with its last convulsions then dropped motionless to the floor, a milky substance gushing out of the wound.
“This is just...” I gripped my throat as my stomach churned with nausea.
Staring at the horrific scene in front of me, I hadn’t notice that something was slinking around my thigh, inching in between my legs.
Revulsion shot through me when I realized it was one of the tentacles of the greasy alien on the counter. He met my glare with a smirk. One of his other tentacles moved jerkily somewhere inside the cluster of the rest of them.
“Get away from me,” I hissed, ripping the slimy tentacle off my leg, but not fast enough. Glancing over his shoulder, Vrateus saw what was happening. Not saying a word, he threw his right arm up, a gun sliding smoothly out of his sleeve.
The gunshot echoed through the room, the bright flash blinding me for a moment. When I opened my eyes, my offender dropped to the floor with a squishing wet sound. A round hole gaped in his head, the smirk frozen on his face.
“Oh God...” I stepped back, away from the purple liquid from his wound pooling on the floor. “You didn’t need to do that...”
The group of males by the dead vasai centipede paused for a fraction of a moment at the sound of the shot. They then resumed butchering the dead creature by ripping its body to pieces with their teeth and claws. Krakhil threw the pieces they hurled his way into the pots.
“Can I toss Qen in the stew, too?” he pointed with his chin at his dead buddy, eyeing the tentacles sprawling on the floor.
“No.” Vrateus sent his gun back into his sleeve. “Incinerate the body and send the ashes to Malahki for the garden.”
Circling my arm with his long fingers, he then led me out of the room.
“SORRY ABOUT YOUR MAN,” I said, still shaken by the incident in the kitchen as we returned to my room.
“Qen disobeyed my direct order. He was aware of the consequences,” he replied grimly.
It was the second murder committed by Vrateus that I had witnessed. Both times, he acted swiftly and without reservations. Yet I could tell that killing his people was difficult for him.
“Why did Qen still do it then? If he knew you would kill him?”
Sliding the set of black claws out of the tips of his fingers, Vrateus raked them through his fur over the tattoos above his ears.
“Qen was hoping not to get caught,” he explained.
“That wasn’t very smart on his part.”
Did Qen really hope I wouldn’t notice him touching me? Or that I might let him fondle me between my legs while he rubbed himself inside the cluster of his tentacles?
A shudder of disgust ran through me at the memory of the slide of the tentacle, and I swiped at my thigh, trying to erase the phantom sensation.
“Obviously, he wasn’t very bright,” Vrateus agreed. “Most of them are all about the immediate gratification, not thinking past it.”
“Could...um,” I started, choosing my words carefully. “Do you think shooting him on the spot might have been a little too harsh?”
I sensed it hurt him to shoot his people and wondered if the murders could have been avoided. At the same time, I didn’t want to sound as if I was criticizing his actions.
“Would a warning, or something else do in such cases?”
“No.” He heaved a sigh. “I could give warnings until I lost my voice. They don’t listen. The only things these males understand are actions. Qen knew no one was supposed to touch you but me. He broke the order. He has been shot. Now, the rest of them got a visual demonstration of what will happen if they