Azul

AZUL

“ T hought I’d find you here.” The Geltaf slides in next to me at the bar.

I glare into the bottom of my glass. I can see the bottom, which is even more annoying. My tail flicks next to me in a slow tap-tap motion. Anyone can see I want to be alone.

“What do you want?” I growl at him.

“Oh, is that the way you greet all your best and only friend in the galaxy, and your employer?” He chortles, raising two of his eight fingers at the barkeeper. “Can anyone join your pity party?”

“Fak off, Tisel,” I growl at him, although I take the drink he’s ordered and down half of it in one. “I don’t need any pep talks right now.”

“You never need a pep talk. You’re my best bounty hunter, and you got your mark, didn’t you?” Tisel says, dipping his third hand into the snacks on the bar.

“You do know what goes into those?” I say with disinterest as he shoves a load into his deep blue face.

“Do I look like I care?” he says through a mouthful of crumbs.

I shrug. If he doesn’t care, I don’t care.

“Come on, you scaly bastard.” He elbows me in the side with his fourth arm. “I’ve got a new job for you because I know you’re never happy unless you’re working.”

Another job. It’s all I live for because it’s all I have. I stare into the bottom of the empty glass again before waggling it at the barkeeper. Tonight is the night for getting drunk. I’ll deal with everything else some other time.

“Here.” Tisel slides a vid-screen across the bar top. I give it a cursory glance, attempting to keep my tail under control and my hood from rising in interest.

I’m here to get wasted, not take another job.

Tisel spins the vid-screen towards me. I hiss under my breath. How can this Geltaf push all my buttons?

“Wait. This is on a pleasure planet?” I spot the co-ordinates. “Nope. Not happening.”

“Not only could you do with some pleasure in your life,” Tisel says as the barkeeper pushes my drink and a shot I didn’t order under my nose, both of which are gone in an instant, “but you’re the only hunter I trust to get this mark in this situation.”

The alcohol burns as it travels down past my fangs and into my stomach. An empty stomach. I will regret my choices…in the morning if I don’t use my venom to neutralize it.

“I don’t do pleasure planets. You know I don’t, not after…” I stare up at the dirty ceiling of the dive bar. “Not after what happened.”

Tisel makes a huffing sound. “Your family are hardly going to follow you around to find out if you’re mated yet, not if you’re any good at being an unseen bounty hunter, which you are,” he says. “So you jilted one mate at the ceremony. Haven’t we all?”

I grab his throat, the folds of blue flesh sinking around my claws. “Have you?”

“I’ve been married five times.” He chuckles. “Each wife was better than the last. It was a shame I didn’t change. You’re well rid,” he adds.

I let him go and hold up my hands to the barkeeper who puts the blaster back under the counter and goes back to polishing the grimy glasses. This is a bounty hunter bar after all, and he’s used to occasional altercation.

“I’m not doing a pleasure planet. Find someone else,” I growl, allowing one fang to drip some venom which I wipe away ostentatiously.

I needn’t have bothered. It doesn’t work on Tisel. My erstwhile employer simply orders another round. This is going to be a long night…

So, when I wake up in a strange bed, my head spinning and my scales tight, it’s only what I deserve.

“Morning!” Tisel trills, walking past me entirely naked, rolls of blue flesh wobbling as one hand scratches a buttock.

“What the fak happened last night?” I groan.

“We had a few drinks, you agreed to take the job, and we went for a Remek curry,” Tisel says as he taps on the nutrition console. “You fell asleep in yours, but I got them to let us have what was left to go.”

His apartment fills with the scent of reheated Remek food, and I do my level best not to lose what I apparently ate last night.

My wrist comm pings, and I stare at it blearily. I can’t remember when I last got this drunk, except Tisel was involved that time too, which means I really, really need to stop accepting drinks from him.

“What’s this?” I ask, offering up my wrist comm and regretting it instantly as Tisel moves away from the console and I’m face to face with his junk. “What the fak is ‘Starlight Brides’?”

“Oh, when you took the job, you said you’d need a mate to take with you in order not to draw attention to yourself,” Tisel says breezily, thankfully moving back to his previous position but less than thankfully removing the carton of leftovers and slurping at it. “I recommended Starlight Brides.”

“It says I have a match.” I narrow my eyes to stop my comm from dancing around. “I can attend their hub in the next nova-day to complete the transaction…wait? I paid for this?”

“Technically it’ll come out of your fee, but it’s a good fee, and you negotiated me up,” Tisel says, chomping happily. “Apparently, you said it’s your last job and you’re retiring.”

Out of everything which apparently happened last night, including signing up to Starlight Brides, whatever the fak they are, I can remember the fee. The eye-wateringly huge fee.

Enough to retire on, buy myself a top of the range ship, and tour the outer reaches of the galaxy, never having to encounter another living soul…or my family… ever again.

Which, when you’re expected to capture the galaxy’s biggest narcotics dealer and bring him before the Council, among others, is the sort of job you should retire on .

I lever myself upright.

“I’m taking a bath. My scales feel like I’ve been swimming in a ditch. Then I’m calling Starlight Brides and telling them it’s all off,” I announce. “The last thing I need is a female, and certainly not one who knows nothing of chasing criminals.”

“Suit yourself,” Tisel says. “But you were pretty adamant last night.”

“Last night I was not in my right mind,” I grumble. “Or I would never have taken the job.”

Tisel opens his mouth, but I fix him with my legendary glare, my tail tap tapping on the floor.

“I know the deal, Tisel. I’ve agreed to take the job, and I can’t go back on it. Consider the mark caught and delivered. I’ll be in touch once I have him in my coils. And afterwards, we’re done. I’m retiring.”

Behind me, before the door slides shut, I hear his protests.

I don’t care. My mind is made up. This life is over for me.