Barbarian Alien(65)

“How do you know?”

A wry smile curves her mouth. “Because I got it from Georgie? I’m surprised you didn’t meet her out here.”

“Ugh. Is it catching? I thought the cootie was supposed to take care of this shit.” I shove the flimsy leaf in my mouth and chew. It tastes bitter and unpleasant, but then again, so does all the stuff that just came flying up my throat.

“You have a case of the babies. I don’t think it’s catching.” Kira holds a waterskin out to me next and I rinse my mouth. “Unless you know something I don’t.”

I shake my head and spit the water out, then kick a bit of snow over my sick. “I thought it was too early for morning sickness.”

“Yeah, but we’re also human, and it’s hard to say how things are going to affect us cross-species, remember? We don’t even know when the babies will be due.”

I grimace and pick leaf out of my teeth. “Don’t remind me, okay?”

“If it makes you feel any better, Ariana and Marlene haven’t shown any symptoms of morning sickness.” She offers a hand to help me up.

“You know, actually that does not make me feel better. Not only did they get to sleep in the tubes but they get the easy pregnancies, too? I hate those bitches.” I let her help me to my feet and brush wet snow off of my leathers.

A horrified laugh escapes her. “Shhh, Liz.” She giggles then looks around to see if anyone heard us. “You’re terrible.”

“So I hear.” We head back toward the entrance of the cave and I’m surprised to see Aehako lurking nearby, his arms crossed. He walks away when he sees us come back in and I frown. “Man, that guy is everywhere lately.”

“Mmm.” Kira avoids making eye contact with me.

A suspicious thought crosses my mind and I look over at my companion. “Is he stalking you or is he following me?”

One corner of her mouth lifts up in a rueful expression. “Little from column A, little from column B?”

I give her another curious glance. “And you just happened to be at hand?”

Her cheeks pink and she looks away. A small sigh escapes her. “You know it doesn’t matter, right?”

“What do you mean?” She starts walking toward Georgie and Vektal’s cave and I follow her, because I want to hear more about this.

“I mean Maylak says there’s nothing wrong with our khuis. And all of the women eventually resonate.”

“So?”

“So…let’s say I fall for a guy and then I resonate for someone else?” The expression on her face is sad. “There’s no point in getting romantically involved with anyone if it’s not going to go anywhere or I have to discard them the moment my body decides otherwise.”

“Ah.” I guess it hasn’t occurred to Kira to fuck a guy for funsies. Maybe she’s not that kind of girl. Actually, looking back, she’s definitely not that kind of girl from what I can tell. Kira’s so serious. Maybe it’s a good thing Aehako’s flirting with her. He’s always smiling. She could use that in her life.

Someone deserves to be happy in this clusterfuck, at least.

Georgie meets us with a yawn and then sniffs her braid. “I smell. You guys wanna join me in the bath?”

I glance back at the bathing pool that’s in the center of the cavern. It’s a common gathering place for a lot of the people here, and for once, it’s empty. There is a pair of women scraping skins nearby and chatting but things are pretty quiet. A bath sounds nice.

Except for one thing. “I don’t have a swimsuit.”

Georgie gives me a wry look. “They have different standards of modesty here. No one cares if you’re naked.”

“Uh, I care.”

“Really? I heard you got frisky with Raahosh while Haeden and Aehako were a few feet away.”

“Well someone has a big mouth around here,” I tease her back. She’s not wrong, though. “Fine. Gimme some soap. I’ll go nakey-bathing with you.”

She grabs some soap-cakes and hands me one. It smells like berries and a memory shoots through me. Raahosh uses these same berries for his soaps. I clutch it tightly and wonder if he’s still lurking around this morning. I didn’t see him outside earlier.

Georgie and I strip down to our skin and get into the pool in the center of the cavern. In the water, I can smell sulfur and the water is warm like a bath. I moan with pleasure. It’s like having a hot tub in the middle of the house. Okay, maybe this cave isn’t so bad, then.

“Good stuff, huh?” Georgie says, dunking her head and then coming back up for air. She looks over at Kira, who sits on the lip of the pool, hikes up her leather skirt, and slides her legs in. “You should tell her to join us.”