Page 18 of Keeping His Mate
“Nope,” she replies after a long pause, then suddenly drops to her knees. “Whoops!” she yells with a loud chuckle. Then she rolls onto her side, a long vakopurri stem still clutched in her left hand. Flopping onto her back and letting go of the torn stem, her mouth falls open as she stares at the sky.
This is odd. Though human behavior is famously difficult to predict. “Elle-noor, are you well?” I ask.
She rubs her eyes with her purple, berry-stained fingers, then blinks repeatedly before her gaze lands on me. “Know what, Bruvix? I’m really not.”
My heart speeds at her words. “What is wrong?” I ask, panic rising in my throat. “Tell me, and I will fix it.” Then another Elle-noor appears, not next to the first Elle-noor, but sort of on top of her, and I worry my Elle-noor is being crushed by this new one. Who is she? What does she want from us?
“Wellllp,” my Elle-noor mutters, patting my arm. “I’m definitely tripping, and pretty soon you will be too, if you aren’t already.”
“Trih-ping? What is this word?” I ask, the translation chip indicating it is another form of falling which does not make sense as Elle-noor and I are both perfectly still.
“Drugs, my fine friend,” she replies, her words now coming out at an alarmingly slow pace. “Weeeee arrrrre ooonnn druuuuugsssss.”
I rub a hand down my face, concern twisting my insides when my face feels as if it is covered in a thick layer of mud. But when I pull my hand away, there is nothing on it. “How many did you eat?” I ask, looking around at this part of the garden. I do not like the energy coming off the plants over here. It feels dark. Ominous. I must find another corner to huddle in while I wait for the drugs to leave my blood.
“Ummmmm thhhhhrrrreeeeeee, mmmmaaaaayyyyyybbbbbeeee?”
That is not good. I have eaten five.
CHAPTER 8
ELEANOR
Iam tripping my ovaries off right now.
Pretty sure Bruvix is too, though I’m not sure where he is at the moment. As soon as I told him we were high, he crawled away on his hands and knees to the other side of the garden. Meanwhile, I’m surrounded by a group of lanky flowers with yellow stems and black and pink petals that keep whispering to each other and giving me dirty looks. When I hear one of them whisper something about how I should invest in a skin-lightening cream, I fight the urge to rip these judgmental twits out of the ground.
“What?” I finally say to them. “I introduced myself, and you all just stood there. I even offered to get each of you a glass of water. But somehow I’m the rude one?” I don’t know what the fuck their problem is, honestly. I could not have been nicer.
“Elle-noor!” Bruvix shouts from where he lies on his back in the section of the garden where the hot pink flowers are the tallest. “Come see this!”
I crawl over to him, shooting the stink eye over my shoulder at the lanky flower in the middle that I suspect is the ringleader of the group, and find him staring up at the purple clouds that float overhead.
Flopping down on my back next to him, I watch as he tilts his head to the side, his pupils so blown out that his eyes are almost completely black. Then I follow his gaze to the sky and suck in a breath. “That one looks like The Rock!”
“What rock?” Bruvix asks as he stretches his legs out next to me.
“No, no.TheRock. There is only one, and he’s outstanding,” I explain.
He makes a clicking sound with his tongue that reminds me of a “tsk” and says, “I do not see this rock. I see two warriors in battle. But it is not a fair fight, because one holds a sword, and the other holds his cock.”
I let out an undignified cackle as I search for this warrior who took his dick out at a sword fight but come up empty. Bruvix points to what he says is the warrior’s hand wrapped around his dick and pointing it at the other guy, but I don’t see it.
“It is not an impressive cock, anyway,” he says with a low chuckle, waving a hand in front of him.
Then I turn onto my side, propping up on an elbow. “You should know that those flowers over there aren’t very welcoming.”
He gasps and then looks over at them. “What did they say to you?”
“Nothing!” I tell him. “They refuse to speak to me but have no problem talking shit right in front of me.”
“Uh, uh, that is unacceptable behavior,” he replies, his tone stern as he pulls himself up onto his knees. “Do not worry, Elle-noor. I shall remedy the situation.”
He starts to rise, but I grab his arm, pulling him back down. “Noooo, you have to crawl. So the trees don’t see how messed up we are,” I explain. We don’t need those gossipy trees telling the whole clan about our misguided consumption of hallucinogenics.
Bruvix nods. “Yes. That is wise.” Then he crawls around the shrubs, past the white vines, and over to the cliquey flowers. I lie on my back, waiting for him to scold them for how they treated me. But when I hear a rustling sound followed by a muffled grunt, I get curious.
I crawl back the way I came and come upon Bruvix lying on top of them, face down in the soil. “What happened?”