bay?”
“Yes, I will speak to her.” Krey clapped me on the back. “Come, it is close to dinner and I am starving. Let us join the others in the dining hall.”
* * *
Ellis
The click of my door unlocking had me whipping off the VR goggles and tucking them behind a couch pillow. I didn’t know for sure if I would get in trouble for having them, but I wasn’t risking getting them taken away. They’d been my major source of entertainment for the last forty-eight hours and I didn’t want to give them up. A girl could only surf the Draax’s version of internet for so long. And considering that everything was written in Draax… well, it wasn’t exactly entertaining.
The door opened and I grinned at the Draax who walked in. “Sigan!” I hurried over, ready to do something stupid like hug him.
“Hello, human,” Sigan said.
He almost looked happy to see me. Before I could hug him, the second Draax walked in. I immediately backed away, staring suspiciously at the blue-eyed alien, my eyes dropping to the sword that hung around his waist. I knew Krey was Galan’s best friend, but what if he’d said something to the king about what he’d seen? What if the king was pissed and had ordered my head to be chopped off for banging Galan?
Did you really bang him though? I mean… you didn’t even really get to feel what it was like to –
Shut up! Now is not the freaking time, brain!
I stared suspiciously at the device Sigan was holding in his right hand. It was silver and cylindrical in shape and the end narrowed into a … shit… that was definitely a needle. Lethal injection, maybe? I supposed that was better than getting my head cut off.
“Hello, human,” Krey said.
“Hey.” I continued to back up until my ass bumped into a kitchen chair.
“What is wrong?” Sigan said.
“Nothing. What, uh, what are you doing here, Sigan?”
He held up the needle. “To give you this.”
“So, lethal injection,” I said. “I can think of worse ways to die, I guess.”
Sigan stared at me. “I have not missed your madness, human.”
“Thanks, big guy.” I stared at Krey. “You just couldn’t resist telling the king what happened between Galan and me, huh?”
“What happened between the human and Galan?” Sigan turned to Krey.
“Nothing. The human’s brain is probably rattled from spending so much time alone. You know how humans are, Sigan,” Krey said. “They need to spend time with their own kind.”
“Well, then I guess this is a good idea.” Sigan held up the needle.
“After all we’ve been through,” I said. “Thanks a lot, Sigan. I thought you liked me.”
“I do not dislike you, but I do not know you well enough to say I like you either,” Sigan said. “Come here, human.”
“I don’t even get a last meal? One phone call to my family to say goodbye?”
“What is she babbling about?” Sigan said.
Krey shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“Prisoners on death row get a last meal before they’re killed,” I said.
“Killed?” Krey said.
I pointed at the needle. “Lethal injection. Poison straight into the old veins.”
Sigan rolled his eyes. “Oh, for Krono’s sake. You are so dramatic, human. You are not being killed. This is simply a tracking device that will go under your skin.”
“So, you’re not here to kill me with a poisonous injection?” I said.
“No. If I wanted to kill you, human, I would just break your neck. You are very small and fragile,” Sigan said.
“Sigan!” Krey elbowed him in the side, nearly making Sigan drop the needle.
“What?’ Sigan glanced at Krey and then at me. “I was too blunt again, was I not, human?”
“You really need to work on your inside voice,” I said.
“I am sorry,” Sigan said. “I would not kill you. I promise.” He paused. “Unless my king demanded it.”
“So close to acting like a normal human, Sigan,” I said. “So close.”
“I am not human,” Sigan said.
“Yeah.” I held out my arm when Sigan approached me.
He slid the needle into my upper arm, and I winced. “Christ, how big is that tracking chip?”
“Smallish.” Sigan wiped the spot of blood away. “You will not even know it’s there.”
I felt my arm where the needle had gone in. “I can feel it under my skin, Sigan.”
He just shrugged. “Human skin is thinner than Draax skin.”
“Why exactly am I being tracked anyway?” I said. “You wanna see how many times I go from the kitchen to the couch?”
Sigan glanced at Krey who stepped forward with his hand