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He gestured for me to turn. Then his hand draped my ponytail over my shoulder, his fingers brushing the back of my neck and making goose bumps pop up all over my body. He gave my shoulder a little squeeze, and then his hand fell away. Something hard pressed against the base of my skull. A needle pricked me, followed by cool numbness. Then came a thunk of pressure.
“Oh!” I jolted forward, my body instinctively trying to get away from the uncomfortable feeling.
“Are you okay?” Raxnor’s deep voice growled.
I spun around, delight coursing through me. “I can understand you!”
The furrow in his brow deepened. “Of course. It’s a translator chip.”
“Right. Right. It’s just—” I waved a hand, trying to encompass the alien jungle around us, the alien lizards who’d kept me, the alien in front of me who’d saved me. “It’s all a lot.”And the understatement of the year award goes to Sofie Perez!A pretend crowd cheered in my head. Being treated like a thing had really gotten to me, but I hadn’t let myself feel it until now.
“No one else will be able to understand you, though.” He rummaged in the pack with his good hand. “There are only a few Zaarn who’ve had contact with Hyoo-mons. Most people won’t know your language.”
“Zaarn?”
“That’s what my people are called.” He passed me a silver can and showed me how to open the top.
After a tiny sip to make sure it was water, I took several greedy gulps, then pressed the can back into his hands. He’d been the one running with me on his back.
Raxnor’s head tilted back as he finished off the water, the line of his throat fascinating as he swallowed.
I was about to ask how he knew humans when I remembered something. “The lizards have shuttles back at the house. They’ll be able to catch us.” No matter how fast Raxnor could run, he couldn’t beat a shuttle.
He frowned at the trees overhead. “The canopy will impede visual detection, and this will hide us from their scanners.” He lifted the sheets of material that had been strapped to the pack.
I pinched it, rubbing it between my fingers. It felt kind of slick. I opened my mouth to ask what it was, but a rustle came from behind me.
Raxnor’s hand snapped up, gun held steady, a deadly scowl hardening the lines of his face.
I spun around, catching a glimpse of purple in between two of the orange ferns. “Don’t shoot! It’s a friend.”
The gun sank out of sight.
“Hey, there.” I reached around to the back of my pants, kind of amazed that the packet of meat had remained jammed into my waistband after everything I’d been through.
At the crinkle of plastic, the cat came out of hiding. I opened the wrapping and stretched as far forward as possible before putting it in on the ground.
Big purple eyes studied Raxnor, then turned to me. Something whispered across my mind, a sense of gratitude overlaying a more feral feeling of hunger.
I moved back to my original position. “It’s all yours.”
The cat darted forward, gobbling up the meat.
“It’s been raining for several days, so I couldn’t feed it,” I whispered. “I don’t think it belongs here. It doesn’t seem to be able to hunt.”
“You’re right. It’s not from this planet,” Raxnor said, his voice low and quiet, but too deep to really be a whisper. “It’s a kreecat. They’re kept as pets by the wealthy.”
I snorted. “Yeah, that’s what I figured. I think it was the lizard kids’ pet before me.”
The alien cat finished off the meat and began licking the plastic, clearly still hungry. An unusual anger burned in my chest. Here was a creature willing to starve instead of being caged. That it had ever been forced into such a situation made my blood boil. I didn’t feel as angry for myself, even though I’d been treated exactly the same.
Or maybe I couldn’t yet admit how angry I felt about how I’d been treated because I’d needed to survive in the lizards’ house, and being angry would have eaten away at me instead of doing anything good.
So I’d let myself feel that anger for my furry friend instead.
Those purple eyes looked up at me, and a little voice said,“Yes, friend!”
I jolted. “What the hell?”
