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“Sorry,” Avel says, restricting himself to a glower in my direction instead. I sidle back in the chair a little, and hope that this lecturing is not going to go on for a very long time. I already know how I fucked up. I already know that it was a mistake to wriggle out of the cell and talk to a random criminal saurian — who probably wasn’t all that random, now I think about it.
“You shouldn’t have left me there.”
“I know. Letting you out of my sight and leaving you to your own devices are two mistakes I will never make again,” he growls. “We are both the worse for it.”
“It would be for the best if the both of you stayed well clear of criminal elements — though I suppose that will be more difficult for you, Enforcer Avel, given it is your job to deal with them. That’s going to be more complicated now, I suppose.”
“You might like to confine your comments to medical matters, doctor,” Avel growls. I can see the concern on his features. He’s not scared of these outlaws and what they are capable of. He is irritated that they’ve gotten away with so much already, I think. It must be quite a stain on his professional record.
“I will do that,” the doctor says, albeit with a little smirk on his lips. There’s a slightly devilish element to this Doc Xotic. He’s an older saurian, with graying on his scales — but I would bet good money that his younger days were full of the kind of escapades that required a healer.
“Seems to me that they had a plan,” I say. “Seems like they’ve had all sorts of plans going on for ages and nobody has noticed.”
“Yes,” Avel agrees flatly.
“So maybe it’s not my fault.”
“You could have refrained from playing into their hands quite so easily,” he says. “You could have made them breach a jail to take you. That would at least have made their jobs more difficult.”
“They did breach a jail. And they could have taken me anyway,” I reply. “That jail is built out of candy and wishes. I’ve never been anywhere so flimsy in my life.”
“It’s not intended to hold hardened criminals, of any species,” Avel retorts. “It is meant as a holding area for those who are about to be brought to see me who have committed misdemeanors. I spared you the dungeons. Maybe I should not have. Perhaps you deserve to be kept in a properly confined space.”
“Not much point having a jail anyone can just break out of or into. Kind of like not much point having a vault with an impenetrable door but flimsy wall panels anyone can just tunnel into…”
“Most saurians who are jailed there have the sense to know that breaking out would only make things worse.” Avel ignores the dig about the vault. Maybe he agrees with me. He probably does. There’s a lot of complacency in the leadership of this city — or there was until I showed up.
“That’s literally not how jails work, Avel.”
“Not all jails serve the same purpose, Raine.”
We are openly bickering now, to the extent that it would be almost impossible for an onlooker like, say, the doctor, to gauge the fact that I am absolutely thrilled and entirely relieved to be in Avel’s possession again. It’d be equally hard to tell that Avel is just as pleased to have me with him again too. We have some trouble expressing softer feelings, that’s all. Thank god we know how to cuddle, or we’d be completely lost.
“It would be interesting if one thing in this place did serve its purpose. Jails that don’t hold people who don’t want to be there. Vaults that are cleared out by the local infamous criminal.”
“Hold your tongue, human,” Avel growls.
“At least the two of you feel well enough to bicker,” the doctor sighs. “No vigorous physical activity until your wounds are healed. I mean it. The human is frail, and you will split those cuts open and they will scar if you are not careful.”
“We’re just talking,” I say.
“Yes, just talking. And just talking leads to all sorts of things. I can see how much the enforcer wants to beat you,” the doc says. “And I can’t say I blame him, but all of that will have to wait for at least a month.”
“So I need a medical clearance to be punished now?” I grin as I ask the question.
“Physically, yes,” the doctor says.
“I understand, doctor,” Avel rumbles. “Believe me, I did not go to all the trouble to rescue her just to have her hurt again. I will be careful.”
Xotic leaves us alone in the bedroom we’ve been assigned. It is a comfortable room, naturally. I would expect nothing less from the alpha’s personal residence. There’s a brief moment of silence after the doctor leaves. We look at one another, bandaged and bruised, and now with the image of breeding in our minds.
“You deserve a thorough whipping, speaking to me that way in front of the doctor,” Avel growls at me.
“Oh well,” I smirk back at him. “What are you going to do about it?”
Avel smiles back at me, an unexpectedly bright smile that belies how happy and relieved he continues to be with having me back. “There’s more ways than one to keep you in line, Raine.”
“Oh yeah?”
