Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

ALINA

A lina didn't know why she'd gone over Threxin's apertures again once she was done. He was fast asleep by that point, and that was the first time she permitted herself to look once more at his face. She had no idea what that thing he did before was, but she knew better than to meet his eyes again. When he'd stared at her like that, she had wanted to look away, but he may as well have grabbed her eyeballs and held them immobilized in his talons. It was as though he were peeling off her skin and exposing the flesh, the everything , beneath.

Alina swallowed, chin stinging. It wasn't a bad cut. Alina was ashamed to realize, once his hypnotizing gaze had let her go, that it was her own fault.

What was her plan going to be if he hadn't broken whatever trance he'd had her in? How far would she fall into the depths of those eyes before she remembered herself? What was she even doing ? And what was his goal with all that anyway? To embarrass her?

Well, it worked. Alina groaned as she took the bowl of lukewarm water to the bathroom, using the rest to brush her teeth.

She could already tell this was another scene that would burrow into her and play on repeat in her head. Exactly the kind of thing a dose of Harmonapam could have helped with. Alina settled for the next best thing: an episode of Guy Meets Girl on her tablet. She wrapped herself in the blankets on the floor, back propped against the side of the bed.

She'd just set the show to the lowest volume when Threxin's breathing behind her changed. He was awake. She pretended not to notice.

"What are you doing?"

So much for that.

"Sorry," she said. "I'll put it on mute."

"What is this?"

" Guy Meets Girl, " Alina said at the screen.

"The fake footage?"

"Yeah. Just a performance with actors. We have them now too, mostly produced on the Ithaca . But this one's from Old Earth."

He made a throaty sound that was the uhyre version of a grunt. Acknowledgment. When he began to rise on his elbow and dip his chin to the screen in her peripheral vision, Alina pursed her lips.

"You shouldn't move." She tapped a nervous finger against the back of the tablet.

"I will see."

She sighed. She should have known better than to put it on now. Alina had gotten used to Threxin being unconscious while she watched, but of course that wasn't going to last.

"All right, just wait," she shifted her pile of blankets to position herself closer to his head, still staring pointedly away from his face. Then she propped the tablet up on her left knee and angled it toward him so he wouldn't have to move, and chanced a glance in his direction to assess the angle—but not his eyes. Definitely not those.

His giant glowing face was closer than she'd expected when she turned around. "C-can you see? "

"Yes."

Huh. Uhyre have Adam's apples .

She hadn't noticed before, but then she had been busy trying to care for him. But now he was awake, and interacting . Sort of. Now she couldn't help but notice the way the tendons in his muscular neck protruded and it wasn't human, but it was just so male. The thick bones sweeping from his collar shifted as he positioned himself behind her, and her stupid eyes insisted on tracing the strong sweep of his jawline.

She felt his eyes on hers and refused to meet them, averting her gaze back to the screen.

"I will not do it again, Ah-linah Argood." Her name was almost a sigh with the foreign way in which he pronounced it: Ahhh -lin- ahh . She supposed it was still a better attempt than her Traeggsin had been.

It was as though her eyes were waiting for permission, flying up to his before she could even question the truth of his claim. The threat of falling into him again was like standing up in the external observation deck in your suit and feeling the sudden urge to just unclip the safety and float off into the abyss.

He'd kept his promise, and a moment later she cleared her throat and turned back around.

"All right," she upped the volume on the show and hit play. "Here we go."

Threxin

At first Threxin attempted to focus on the fake footage playing in Alina Argoud's hands. But soon he found it much more informative to direct his attention to the human female sitting on the floor beneath him instead .

The "show" appeared basic enough—following juvenile humans doing stupid human things. But it was clear they amused her in different ways. Some of their interactions made her snort to the cue of recorded laughter. Others, mostly between the young male protagonist and a female he had been forced to perform an educational task with, elicited a softer smile and an occasional sigh.

That stupid clump of fur had fallen back into her face, as it had done all evening. Alina Argoud cleared it away with a habitual turn of the head as her tablet went black and text began to fade in.

"What is this?" Threxin dipped a hand to pick the fur between his fingers, twisting it. "Is it defective?"

The female sucked in air, tensing. He had surprised her.

"They're called bangs," she said with a sidelong glance in his direction. "A hairstyle."

Threxin drew back. "It is on purpose?"

She shrugged. "Yeah…"

"But it is always in your eyes."

"I can see fine."

Why would she lie?

"You endlessly shove this away so that you can see," he said.

"I do? Haven't noticed."

"I have."

"That's a very detailed thing to notice in someone of a species you despise." She faced him now, with an eyebrow raised and arms crossed on her chest.

His spikes lifted as he considered her. Of course he had been noticing. She had to be monitored if he was to decide what to do with her after this. He had to learn whether she would remain useful, and for how long.

A bubbling of irritation was subdued by his limiter. Threxin put a finger to her mouth, where Alina Argoud was again working at her lip as if he wanted to bite chunks from it.

"Stop that," he commanded, tugging at the pink flesh until it lay soft under his talon.

His eyes honing on the effect, Threxin monitored her with added vigilance. He noted for the first time the microscopic asymmetry of her mouth. Her top lip was smaller than the bottom and a little dimpled on the left side. He monitored her mouth's texture, swiping the sensitive points of his fingers across the flesh. It gave under the pressure. When she parted her lips slightly for a sharp intake of breath, he analyzed the wet line that led to the inner portions of her mouth. He studied the subtle flash of blunt white teeth beyond. Threxin leaned forward and observed the scent of her hitching breath. It was light and artificially crisp on his mouth and nose. Some kind of oral scent chemical.

He leaned in and her arms remained rigid across her even as with a small, stuttered gasp, she drew in his breath. It chilled the space between them as he closed the distance to monitor her texture.

Soft.

"Wha-re-you-doin?" she mumbled against his mouth, squeezed against hers in motionless study.

"Monitoring."

The act was simply an observation. It was permitted. If Threxin was to stop contact between the uhyre and these aliens, he should know what it was they were all chasing.

"Th… rexin." His name stammered on her breath made his apertures widen receptively. He licked at her mouth, studying the words.

"Threxin," she tried again. And yet she did not withdraw. "I… The exorin."

"There is no exorin now," he rasped against her.

And why should she trust him? For all she knew, the addictive toxin inside him could be on his tongue even now. It could be on his breath. Yet her shoulders slumped and her arms unfolded as if his words could not possibly be a lie. Something inside him coiled with craving to take more of that blind faith—to take it all.

The exorin did come then. Spikes puckered on his tongue, and soon the taste of it was at the roof of his mouth. Reluctant, Threxin pulled away before it could taint his lips, swallowing the traces.

Alina looked confused at the sudden cessation of his studies. Her eyes were half-closed, pupils almost as wide as when he'd taken them by force. For several ticks Threxin simply looked, evaluating his specimen.

He watched her sheepish uncertainty ferment.

"I don't know what's happening here," she said finally, voice shaky. "It's the isolation. This isn't… We're just not thinking straight."

Threxin's apertures narrowed. What did she think this was?

He was only studying . It had only been a test.

"You have mistaken me, human," Threxin said coolly.

"I have?"

"I do this with complete clarity. If you mistook it for misguided intimacy, banish the delusion. I am studying one of the thousands of pests I've been forced to keep."

Alina Argoud shrank backward and Threxin averted his eyes from the wet glinting in her eyeballs. He moved to rise. Yet even insulted as she was, she jumped into action.

"Wait, you can't move yet. You—" Alina Argoud placed her hands on his bare thighs, and his attention snapped there. He had long since realized he wore nothing but his briefs beneath his sheet. His knees were massive under her tiny, spindly palms as they splayed, blunt fingers digging into his skin.

Where the shoq were his pants? He smacked her paws away and tilted his head to the ceiling .

Shoqing humans.

"Your kind just begs to be used, does it not?" Threxin snarled, limiter diffusing the anger aimed her way. He had dismissed her completely and still the stupid creature remained fixated on caring for his wound.

Threxin rose from the bed and searched the floor of the cabin for his pants. How did she even get them off while he was unconscious?

Stupid Renza.

"Threxin, please," Alina whispered, now sitting back on her haunches. "You're not supposed to?—"

Threxin rounded back on her with a hiss. She had grown too comfortable, and he needed to instill the fear he deserved in her again.

"…move," she finished with a whisper.

"I am not supposed to do anything, human." Threxin spotted his pants on the floor and dragged them on.

"But you're still hurt…"

"I am not blind," he barked over his shoulder. "And clearly being here is preventing me from healing. You are bad for healing."

She curled back as though struck at his words. Threxin was satisfied to see something like anger finally spark in her wet eyes. This was much preferable to the pathetic, confused hurt on her face before. That other look had been braiding a knot under his ribs and he needed it gone. This was at least a tolerable sentiment under which to leave this stupid human's shoqing cabin and go back to his own space.