3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Zuri

Unlike Ari, Zuri wasn’t a lightweight. Her mother and father had started the first distillery on Omanal, and she’d learned the craft from them.

Making alcohol was even more important now. When she and everyone else fled Omanal, she was forced to leave everything behind. She didn’t have a single item from her old life. No data crystal with images of her parents. None of their favorite reading materials or other Old Earth treasures.

Everything was gone, except the skills they’d lovingly taught her. That meant nothing but actually putting her into a cage would stop her from creating whatever alcohol she could make with available materials.

She should feel guilty for blatantly lying to Kasium, but the male was so damn arrogant, she felt nothing but satisfaction. They’d been living together for about a year now, and he still insisted on sleeping separately. He would hug and cuddle, but only for a limited time. If she complained or tried to push for more, he’d drag her to the infirmary and run every test he had access to on her.

She loved him, but she was only willing to spend so much time trying to make him see her as a full partner instead of a pet.

Pretending to be asleep while he and Baz talked made it clear he wasn’t any closer to seeing her as his partner. It was heartbreaking enough to make her almost give up the ruse of sleep. Then Baz left and Kasium did something new. He talked to her.

“What have you done to yourself, my little bootlegger?”

That question almost forced a laugh out of her. Biting the inside of her cheek to keep from revealing she was awake, she focused on keeping her body relaxed in his arms. The smell of coconut filled her nose. She loved the way he smelled. All the other Talins she interacted with smelled similar to soap. There were hints of lavender, vanilla, and hazelnut, but overlapping those was the pervasive smell of astringent cleanser.

Kasium was the only Talin whose scent was pure. A few times she managed to rub a hand over a scent gland in his cheek, covering her palm in bonding oil. Kasium always reacted with gentle firmness and instructed her not to do that. He claimed scent-bonding might be dangerous and needed further research.

It was an excuse. Maybe he was afraid. She couldn’t blame him, scent-bonding with a fellow Talin was a crime but doing it with a human pet was probably seen as far worse!

Still, there were human and Talin couples in their community who’d scent-bonded and successfully kept it a secret from the authorities. Why couldn’t he risk it for her?

There had to be more than the fear of discovery going on here, but did she have the patience to find out?

“You look peaceful now, but you will be highly uncomfortable tomorrow. I don’t know where you and Ari got the alcohol, but I will find out and stop them from giving you more. The substance is toxic to your fragile bodies.” He sighed out a rumble that reminded Zuri of a bass drum in the distance. It was the sound of concern or worry.

“You shouldn’t imbibe, Zuri,” he continued. “It’s dangerous. I know you humans enjoy the way it relaxes you, but I have harmless medications that could do the same thing without the fear of injury to your kidneys.”

Pretending to wake up, Zuri made a production of yawning and stretching. Then she looked around as if surprised to find herself in his lap. “Kasium? Where’s Ari?”

Kasium started up a soothing rumble that all the humans agreed sounded just like the purr of an Old Earth cat. “Bazium has carried your friend home. Did Ari bring you something to drink?”

Zuri smiled up at him. “We had tea.” Hoping to catch him unaware, she reached up to run her hand over his scent glands. He was quick to duck away from her touch, as if she was about to burn him.

All her earlier good humor vanished. Ignoring the sensation of being unbalanced, she sat up and moved off his lap. He let her go without protest.

“I should go to bed.”

“Let me assist you.” Kasium got to his feet and reached out to help her stand. She knocked away his hands and used a nearby puff to help steady herself.

He remained in the living room as she made her way to the bedroom. There were two beds in there, a giant fluffy nest on the floor for her and a standard extra-firm Talin bed for Kasium. The best she’d been able to do over the last year was get them to sleep in the same room, but no further. If she crawled into his bed, he’d leave and sleep in her nest. If she followed him to the nest, he moved to the living room floor.

Maybe it was time to give up.

Feeling tears burn the backs of her eyes, she made her way to the elimination and cleansing room.

“I’ll place a vial of medication for you to drink in your nest,” he said behind her. “And a canister of water. Please consume all the vial and water before you sleep.”

She didn’t answer as the door slid shut behind her. Now that she was alone and knew Kasium wouldn’t hear her, she let herself cry.

Kasium

Instead of going to the infirmary the next morning, Kasium stayed home waiting for Zuri to wake up. He tried to stay busy, inspecting all the pre-packs in the food storage lockers for imperfection that would spoil the food inside and poison an unsuspecting human. Then he checked the small bot that looked after the plants surrounding the cottage. Once that task was done, he checked all the filters on the home to verify they didn’t need to be changed yet.

He refused to acknowledge that he’d checked all this yesterday. And the day before that, and every single day he and Zuri occupied the house.

This type of ritual action wasn’t healthy, but he was a healer, so he was allowed to ignore the implications.

A noise drew his attention. Looking up from where he was crouched next to the open grate to the air monitor and filtration system, he found Zuri walking out of their bedroom. Her short, brown mane was a messy mass framing her round face, and her eyes looked puffy and painful.

“Damn, I think I drank more than I realized last night,” she muttered, rubbing her red, irritated eyes.

Jumping to his feet, Kasium rushed to her side. He didn’t touch her, but he stood close so he could grab her if she needed assistance.

“If you’ll sit, I’ll fetch some medication to make you more comfortable and then bring you some soothing food and drink.”

Zuri didn’t move except to pivot in place, her gaze meeting his. “I’m fine,” she assured him. “I can get my own water and food.”

“Allow me,” he begged. Seeing to her needs was a poor replacement for holding or touching her, but it had to be enough.

Her human face went through several complicated shifts. He’d been studying human expressions, but hers changed too fast for him to name any of them. When she crossed her hands over her chest and raised her chin a little, he decided the expression she settled on had to be labeled as challenging.

“Last night I was in your lap,” she stated.

His heart raced. Of course she remembered that, she’d woken up enough to have a short conversation with him. “You’d fallen asleep in an odd position. I worried you might damage yourself, so I held you while Bazium and I spoke.”

“Convenient excuse,” she said.

“It’s not an excuse!” he protested. “You needed my assistance.”

She shook her head, a human gesture with a negative connotation. “It is an excuse when you won’t touch me except when you think it’s to protect me. You won’t let me hug you, or even hold hands. I don’t know what’s going on with you, Kasium, but I’m out of patience.”

Kasium didn’t know what to say. It would be easier if she sounded emotional. Then he could explain her words away as a baseless human overreaction. The problem was her tone; it was nothing but cold and clinical.

“I’m only trying to–”

She held up a hand, stopping his excuses before he could voice them. “No, Kasium. Just, no. I can’t do this anymore. Either you agree to move forward in our relationship, or we actively move apart.”

Fear shot through him as a surprise rattle sounded from his backplates. “What do you mean?”

“I love you, but you won’t love me back,” she answered. “And it’s killing me one little bit at a time. You think alcohol is toxic for humans? Let me tell you, repeatedly being rejected is way worse than my drinking habits.”

He focused on the one word he could argue with. “I’m Talin, not human. We do not love.”

Her expression relaxed into sadness. “Another excuse. For a smart species, you guys can be really dumb. I’m going to see who’s willing to share their enclosure with me. I’ll be out of here by the end of today.”

The scent glands in his cheeks swelled and ached. His body screamed to snatch her up and hold her tight, then rub his painful glands on her flesh until his bonding oil covered every inch of her.

It was a near thing, but he remained still.

“What of your equipment?” he asked, surprised he was able to talk considering the tightness in his chest. He hoped her dedication to making sweet syrup would keep her in the cottage. “You can’t take it into an enclosure. There would be too many questions if strangers or inspectors were to see it.”

Zuri looked at the closed door to her workroom. Her lower lip trembled, but then she stiffened and shook her head again. “I’ll figure something out.”

She was so desperate to leave him that she was willing to part with something this important? Pain made it almost impossible to breathe. He was forced to take several steps away from her or he would sound a demanding rattle and order her never to leave him.

No, not him, the cottage. She shouldn’t leave the cottage.

“I’ll move out.” It hurt to force the words out of his tight throat. “I can live in the infirmary. It has small living quarters that will be perfectly adequate for my needs.”

The moment the offer was out of his mouth, he felt better. Yes, this would work. He’d stay at the infirmary until Zuri relented and asked him to move back into the cottage. In the meantime, he’d research human love and see if there were any compounds he could create that would make Zuri feel emotionally fulfilled.

There had to be an answer because science never failed him.