Tagen leaned back in his seat, shrugging himself comfortable. “Wake me when he leaves this place,” he said. “And we shall follow.”
“As simple as that, huh?”
“Sometimes, Daria Cleavon, it is that simple.”
*
They made very good distance after the hunt, following the highway and quickly leaving the killing grounds behind. Raven would drive through the night if he told her to, but being in the cramped car after a good kill felt abrasive to him. Kane had come to recognize the word ‘hotel’ and when he saw it next, he told Raven to stop.
The rooms were arranged in two long arms along a single floor, and they all appeared unoccupied, or at least quiet, but for one. Naturally, it was the one to which Kane and his females were placed adjacent. The sounds of riotous male celebrations came right through the walls, but Kane was still in a good mood. He had filled twelve vials at the place Sue-Eye called a theater, which would themselves reduce down to six of concentrated Vahst, and that put him over the mid-mark. Kane felt a little like celebrating himself.
And so, it seemed, did Sue-Eye, who watched him arrange his equipment with a triumphant expression. No doubt she felt she’d won a battle and true enough, Kane was inclined to be more tolerant of her.
‘Ah, human,’ he thought now, good-naturedly enough. ‘Never confuse tolerance with affection.’ It was one of Urak’s many sayings, and a damned good one. One that every man in Kane’s trade knew the truth of, even if he’d never heard the phrase, and one that a hard little creature like Sue-Eye ought to know as well.
“Raven,” he said, inwardly relishing the sudden shock and anger that Sue-Eye was not too quick to smother.
Raven came to him, looking merely puzzled, and he gestured for her to sit at the hotel table. There was paper provided here and a writing stylus. Kane took them both and quickly jotted down the thirty letters of the alphabet, speaking each aloud as he drew their shapes—jan, eveh, orus, tan and on up to eb—and then again, making just the sounds they made.
She frowned, her eyes tracking the letters very closely, and looked down at the mark he’d put on her arm so many days before. He watched her sound the letters out, struggling at them like a child. “Eeee…vuh. Ver. Ever. What’s this?” she asked, pointing to the curt, curving mark that divided the first letter from the second.
“It’s called a hiats. A hard separation,” he said. “E’Var. Not ever.”
She repeated him.
“Look here.” Kane spelled his full name and then put the stylus into her hand.
He expected her to copy him. Instead, to his delight, she picked out the letters of her own name, gnawing at her lip with the strain of it.
“Ran, ayro, veve, een--“
“Eveh,” he corrected, grinning. “Raven, not Raveen.”
“Eveh, nan.” She peeked up at him, and the room beside theirs erupted with cheering, as though their neighbors saluted her success.
“Practice,” he told her, glancing at the wall.
“Sue-Eye,” Raven muttered, bending over her paper.
“Ai, chirak, uu, tan , ahm, hiats, ahm,” he recited distractedly. He could hear, he thought, three distinct male voices. “Ichuta’a.”
“What does that mean?” Raven asked, writing it.
Kane’s gaze dipped to the female in question, now sitting on the foot of the nearest bed and trying not to glare at him. He smiled. “It means pussy,” he said. “More or less.”
Sue-Eye’s jaw clenched. That was all.
“Are you my ichuta’a?” Kane asked, his voice silky and good-humored.
She nodded.
“My eager ichuta’a?”
She nodded again, but her eyes were burning. She knew she was being mocked.
Good.
“You did well for me tonight,” he said. “Very well.”
He heard Raven’s stylus stop writing at the same time as Sue-Eye drew back from him. Beatings either one could take. His praise made them nervous.
“What would you like?” he asked. “If I felt like rewarding you, what would you ask for, ichuta’a?”
Sue-Eye hesitated, unsure of him, and Kane waited. He gave her no encouragement, no clue as to what answer he sought. He watched her agonize and he saw the exact instant she settled on a reply.
“I want to fuck,” she said.
Once again, she delivered a damned good answer. A safe answer. One she probably couldn’t imagine going badly for her. He pretended to consider it.
“You’ve been very good tonight,” he said at last. “All right, let’s go. Raven.”
“Go?” Sue-Eye echoed.
Kane tucked his harvester into the waistband of his pants and stood up. He snapped his fingers and both his females leapt up without further hesitation and followed him out the door. He walked down the side of the building to his noisy neighbors and knocked.
“Fuck off!” someone shouted irritably, but someone else came to open the door.
Kane put his hands in the pockets of his human coat and smiled down at the male who opened to him. It was a young one, too young to grow a beard but old enough to try. Its eyes went first to Sue-Eye and Raven, lingering, before turning on Kane. Better and better.
“We’ll keep it down,” the human said, and started to close the door.
“I don’t care about the noise,” said Kane, putting his foot down on the threshold. He turned and fixed Sue-Eye with his cold smile.
She stared back at him without expression.
“Invite us in,” said Kane, returning his attention to the young male before him.
The human looked back over his shoulder, his eyes seeking those of a grizzled and hard-cut male, his leader, if humans could be said to have them. The leader was sitting on one of the two beds, a smoking herb-stick between his teeth and an open bottle of something inebriating in his hand. Kane could feel the assessment in that stare, but still, the females at his side had a way of drawing even those watchful eyes and he wasn’t surprised when the leader finally nodded.
The bathroom door opened and out came the third male Kane had heard through his wall, fat and unshaven and smelling strongly of toxic fermentations. He stared at Kane and his females as they came in and the door was closed, and then he, too, looked toward the leader.
“What’s on your mind, fella?” the leader grunted, tapping ash onto the carpet before drawing another lungful of smoke.
“I’ve had a very good day,” Kane replied. His gaze slid to the tee-vee, which was on and displaying mating programs. His smile broadened. Three males, bored, half-drunk, and restless for sex. He couldn’t have planned this any better. “I thought you might like to help me celebrate.”
“Want a beer?” the young male asked, shrugging a question at his companions.
“No. Ichuta’a, tell them why we’re here.”
All three males looked curiously at his blonde human when Kane nudged her forward. His ichuta’a colored under their collective stares. Beside her, Kane felt Raven step a little closer against his side and he put his arm around her. The gesture caught Sue-Eye’s attention and he saw her lean body tense before she faced the room again.