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“N-no, Caligher.” She felt the corners of her mouth climbing up. “Double the liquor.”
He hunched across the counter and started talking. No one acknowledged his order. Everyone spoke over the top of everyone and Lucca found it extremely frustrating. Somehow two bright cocktails were shoved their way, topped with elaborate floral arrays. They squeezed away from the horrible crowd. She would never be able to take this place alone.
“You’re still upset with me?” she asked, clinging to her glass. There was no straw. Just flowers. Caligher already had most of the bouquet in his mouth and she watched it disappear. She could hear the satisfying crunch of it between his teeth. His dark tongue came out to lap up more blossoms and she stared, transfixed. It didn’t seem right for his tongue to be black like that. It made her feel things that were altogether not so right at all.
Could she go ten seconds without sexually harassing him and actually focus?
“I’m still sorry about everything, I am… but it’s not like we can go back in time and change it… so I don’t know what you want from me.” She blew out a long breath, feeling her frustration. “What do I need to do to get back on your good side? I’ll do it.”
Whatever it was.
He didn’t answer, but she knew he’d heard her.
“It’s okay,” she muttered, more to herself than to him. “I’ve forgiven myself.”
He came to an abrupt stop, looking down at her with a bemused expression. “I… don’t think that’s how that works.”
“It’s not? What do you want, then? You want another blowjob?”
“Lucca.” He tossed his head back and released a strangled sound. She would take that as a yes.
“You want something else? You can’t bethatmad at me if you just bought me personalized bondage.” She’d seen anger, and Caligher had certainly been short and harsh with her for a while, but she didn’t think she’d seen him truly furious.
She studied his mixed expression closely as she tried her chances. “I bet you don’t do this for your other bounties. I bet you drop them off at your earliest convenience.” Her eyebrows furrowed. “I think you’renotall that upset. You just want a reason to do bad things. You know how you can get what you want like a normal person?”
She planted herself in his path, forcing him to pay attention to her.
“Youtalkabout it. You say, ‘Hey, wow, this might be an awkward conversation but I’m into kinky things.’ It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s actually a lot more normal than you’d think! If the person gives you the green light, then you go wild!”
She thrust a fist up fast enough for the silver manacle to show. He gently tilted her other hand upright to keep her from flinging her drink on another patron.
“But you can’t literally force me to be with you because that’s wrong! If I want to leave, I will.”
He blinked at her. “Doyou want to leave?”
“Caligher!” a female voice yelled from a table against the massive window. Morwong sat next to the woman, hunched over his drink like a man bearing heavy woes. Lucca only had eyes for the fathomless nothingness that was merely being kept out byglass. A huge, thin window took up the entire long wall. Patrons crowded against it without a trace of fear. Lucca remained alone in the universe.
They joined them and slid onto stools, perching above the rest of the bar. The Ternetzi woman sized Lucca up with a curious expression. She had the same dark purple carapace and grey-violet eyes as Caligher, but her fins were smoky looking—like ink blooming underwater. And her armor wasn’t bursting at the seams. It fit her elegant figure.
She was tall, strong, beautiful, and completely naked. But Lucca saw what Caligher had warned her of—this lady was intimidating.
“Are you Zoramia?” she asked, earning a sharklike grin. She tried with all her might not to stare at her set of armored, purple breasts, but her eyes were pulled down like magnets. Soft flesh existed under purple lobster shell, resembling the boob armor of her wildest dreams. She wanted to look so badly.
Zoramia quirked her lips and stared at Lucca’s chest with undisguised curiosity before glancing at Caligher. “I wonder. Does this make your ‘kill all humans’ stance a little bit awkward?”
“No,” Caligher answered at the very same moment that Lucca gave her a candid, “Oh, god, yes.”
Caligher launched straight into battle plans with them while Lucca was stuck there observing. A certain gleam filled his eyes as he spoke. He had been waiting a long time for this.
The plan was simple. The human mothership had yet to be sighted, but everyone was certain it was on its way.
They needed to shut the gate down before it could break through.
And if the Aerinus successfully breached the star system, well…
Everyone was ready for war. Every ship in Morwong’s bay was covered in guns. The humans wouldn’t get their chance this time. The agreement was unanimous. Humans wereshitat space travel and the Ternetzis would wipe them out at once.
It sent chills down her spine.
