Barbarian Alien(5)

He wasn't doing that weird vibratey thing with his chest, though. Georgie had told me that Vektal had a khui – the cootie, as we liked to call it – and that when it recognized its mate, it would make him purr and make him want to sex me up. Vektal had vibrated for Georgie. Raahosh was silent, though.

Which made me thankful…and confused. If he wasn't vibrating for me, why keep coming after me? It made no sense. Stupid alien. I licked my lips and then made a face, because they still tasted like the tea.

"He's hideous looking," Claire says. "Do they all look like that?"

"No, Raahosh is scarier than most," I say cheerfully. I'm glad he doesn't understand English, because I don't know what he'd do if he hears me talking shit about him.

Vektal's kind of cute in an overgrown sort of way. He's blue, and Georgie says his skin is like suede. He's got big, arching horns that emerge from the edges of his hairline and curl around his head like a seven-foot tall ram. He's muscled all over, has a tail, and has these weird bumpy ridges on his arms and across the brow. Most of the other guys have a similar make-up, with only variations in height, coloring, and horns. Just your everyday blue alien people.

Raahosh stands out from the others in a few different ways. For one, he's the tallest. Which isn't much of a thing considering they all stand above seven feet, but it makes him seem to tower more than most. His shoulders aren't as broad as Vektal's, which means he's only enormous, instead of gargantuan. And while Vektal seems to be more of a pure blue, Raahosh is a darker shade, a grayish blue shade that just makes him seem like more of an Eeyore than the others.

The scars don't help that impression, either. One side of his broad, alien face is scarred up, deep gouges over his forehead and eye telling of a past encounter that he lost. They continue down his neck, and disappear into his clothing. The horn on that side of his head is a jagged stump, his other arching upward as a sleek reminder of what he's missing. Add in a firm mouth pursed with dislike and narrow eyes that glow with the weird blue provided by the symbiont?

I think it's a fair assessment to say that Raahosh is scarier than the others, yeah.

The fact that he's staked me out as his property is…irksome. I told Georgie and the others that for a cheeseburger, I'd do just about anything. But having an alien lay claim to me feels…weird. I don't even get a choice? This is like me saying "I want a cheeseburger" and someone slapping a pickle into my hand and saying "Fuck you, you get a pickle."

And then because I'm thinking of phallic objects, I eye Raahosh again. Not in an obvious way, of course. I'm lying down and my eyes are mostly closed, but I can see him and another alien guy moving at the edge of the ship, packing bags and double checking things. Georgie and Vektal are nowhere to be seen. I watch Raahosh as he bends over and then stands up.

He has a really long tail. I wonder if that's an indicator of anything going on in another, ahem, area.

Not that I care. Maybe if we have to get this parasite thing, it'll choose someone other than him. Wouldn't that just piss Mr. Pushy off?

I fall back asleep daydreaming of the look on his face when my cootie rejects him.



RAAHOSH



My khui is an idiot.

It must be. Why else would it ignore the women of my clan and the moment we enter the den of the dirty, ragged humans, it begins to bleat in my chest like a quill beast? Or that it chose the frailest of the sick humans to select as my mate?

A mate that glares at me with knowing, angry eyes and refuses to eat the medicinal broth that I bring her? That pushes aside my hands when I try to help her to her feet? Who scowls when I bring her water?

It's clear that my khui is full of foolishness.

"Did you resonate for anyone?" Aehako asks at my side. He stuffs a fur into a traveling bag. We are preparing the humans' cave for travel, since they are too weak to do so. Everything must come with us, Vektal says. It does not matter that it is stained and filthy, or useless. The humans have so little that he is sure they will treasure whatever they have, so it must come. Two of the hunters that resonated for females have been sent off to get furs from the nearest hunter caves, because the humans are poorly equipped to face the harsh snows, and they have no khui to keep them warm.

This will be remedied shortly, however.

A sa-kohtsk is near. The large creatures carry many khui, and we will hunt one for its meat and ensure that the humans will not die of khui-sickness.

I think of the hollow eyes of my new mate and how miserable she looks. Most of the human hides are a pale color, but my human is paler than most. That must mean she is sicker. I will insist she be one of the first to get a khui.

Aehako repeats his question. "Raahosh? Did you resonate?"