Page 12 of Adored By the Alien Warlord
Wortek grunted. “He pays, not me.”
“I don’t drink.” Not this slop, that is. Late summer and while living at the southern oasis, we made a drink out of fermented fruit that tasted amazing and made your head spin if you drank too much of it. But other than drinking that during celebrations, I preferred water.
Someone banged on the door.
“Want me to let them in?” I glanced that way.
“We’re not open yet,” Wortek bellowed, and the thumps came to an abrupt halt. “This is where it pays toown the only two bars in this city,” Wortek told me. “Customers are eager, and I control who has access.”
“Who dances at the other bar?” I asked.
The bartender dragged a wet cloth across the dingy wooden surface before plopping it into a bucket on the floor by his feet.
“No one. Music is enough for that crowd,” Wortek said. “If anyone captures another human, I’ll claim her and make her perform there.”
“They’re not dropping from the sky to dance at your command.”
His tail stopped swishing and spiked out, the sharp tip gouging a nearby chair, knocking it over. “I bought her. She belongs to me, as will any other female I purchase.”
“They were sent by our gods.” I had no idea why I was bothering to try to reason with him. But he must have a heart buried beneath his scaled exterior. If he knew why they were here, he might be willing to release Maggie.
Otherwise, I could buy her from him. The Veerenads craved the crystals they mined deep below the sandy wasteland beyond the city, but Wortek might be willing to part with Maggie if I offered him other wealth from the desert. If I could buy her, we could walk out of this nightmare without worrying about us having targets on our backs.
“Gods?” He sneered. “Do you believe that stupid legend?”
“My clan is protected by the sand god.” The very god who’d helped me with clothing for Maggie.
His arm swept out to the area in general. “There’s sand everywhere. Haven’t seen a god among it yet. We sweep it up and dump it back in the desert.”
I wasn’t going to try to prove to him that he was wrong. Our gods didn’t perform to please Veerenads; only us.
“She was sent here to be a mate to one of our males,” I said.
The bartender leaned against the counter behind him lined with bottles, watching with snide humor in his eyes.
“Don’t get any ideas.” Wortek slid off his stool and faced me. We stood at eye level, something unheard of in a Zuldruxian, but I was bigger than any other I’d met before.
“What sort of ideas?” I kept my voice casual. “I work here, throwing anyone who gets too wild out onto the street. I’m not looking for a mate.”
“Good.” Wortek smacked past me, purposefully hitting my shoulder with his own. “If you touch my female, I’ll kill you.”
The bartender’s gaze met mine, and he smirked before turning to make sure the bottles lined up behind him.
I walked over to the stairs that Wortek was currently taking to the top.
“Don’t go down there until the music starts,” Wortekcalled out from above me. “Stay away from her and stick to your duties and you’ll hold onto your job.”
“Will do,” I bit out. I’d wanted to go down to her early. I needed to make sure that she’d slept, that she didn’t need anything, that she was alright.
Had she seen my gifts? I hope she’d eaten the food I’d brought her, that she’d found it satisfying and tasty.
There was so much I wanted to do for her, but I was almost as restrained as her, though not with a chain. But if I gave Wortek even a hint of what she meant to me already, I’d not only lose this job and access to her, but I could also lose my life.
I’d be more than happy to battle him for the right to claim her, but I doubted he’d accept a challenge, let alone fight fairly. Like most Veerenads, he’d find a way to eliminate me without taking a scratch himself.
I’d bide my time and act as soon as I could.
The music erupted not long later, turned on by the bartender with a switch, and the tinny Veerenad melody pulsated across my bones. The only music I’d heard was that of my people singing when we sat around the fire in the evening. Old songs the elders taught us about the bravery of past Zuldruxians, plus lilting stories set to song about the world around us.