Ugly Blind Dates
"Now I could leave you down there," I teased, giving the Bad Blood a cheeky grin and a salacious wink that earned me a dark, ominous growl. "And watch the scavengers peck out your eyes assuming there's anything left once the plant's had its fill of you."
The Yautja lunged for me, only encouraging the loving embrace of the creeping vines to tighten. I cocked my head, wondering if the Yautja had any idea the trouble he would be in if he kept squirming. Oh well.
Standing, I studied the partial scan I'd managed to collect before my vessel got blown to shit... Nina was so gonna kill me.
No bio match detected.
No residual energy detected.
Halo sweep incomplete. 40% surface scan corrupted.
The useless information crawled across my HUD. "Fuck..." Somehow I resisted the urge to kick the Bad Blood's head in for putting the cherry on top of an already craptastic morning. Cha! Morning? In truth, I couldn't even remember the last time I had a good laugh. What's it been? Six months now? The day had started out bad enough having to pussyfoot around Kandari territory for what had to be the billionth time without learning a single damn thing, but now I was stuck until...
Huh, now there's an idea. I smirked, and the continuous low growl the Yautja had been emitting deepened. Not that I blamed him. Me big scary ooman after all. This is gonna be fun.
Amused, I walked a deliberately slow circle around the Yautja caught in the purple creeping Vinoske pit trap. Making sure my bio mask captured every hilarious detail because yeah, it was pretty fucking funny. Although to be fair, Vinoske Abrearia or as my sister liked to call 'em, the Handsy flytrap, were undetectable to the naked eye below the ground, and don't give off much heat unless they're in a particularly randy mood.
I crouched, "But the problem is you blew up my ride. So I'll make a deal with you. You give me a lift back to my clan, and I'll save your ass."
The hunter snarled, his thickly corded neck straining against the vines keeping him immobile. The purple spreading woody-stems drew my attention to the white of the Yautja's skin. Interesting. Curious, I leaned in for a closer examination. Not albino I realized as I noted possible darker tones hidden beneath the Handsy flytraps invasive embrace. Perhaps a recessive trait then.
My HUD flashed a warning.
Well, that was faster than expected.
Ignoring the prickle at the back of my neck, I blatantly stared into the opaque opti-shields of the Yautja's bio mask. After being raised by not one, but two dominate Yautja males who were both mated to my sister Nina, you'd think I would've learned a thing or two about the stupidity of looking a predator in the eye... you'd think. But there was something about this dudes behavior that was different from the typical dishonorable fucks I've dispatched in the past.
The Yautja stilled, belying the eager readiness I sensed. He thought I was challenging him. I was.
"Or," I double checked the proximity warning on my wrist unit, "I can let the Kandari slave traders deal with you. And lemme tell ya, they're none too happy we're here."
My eyes flicked over the hunter's bio mask, intrigued by its innovative design. Not that mine was standard either, my clan was a bit more progressive than most, a necessity because of the vulnerability of some of my hunt brothers human mates. Still, this kind of tech was rare. The Yaujta are a highly evolved species, yet you would never see a century old Yautja using technology this advanced. The older they get, the more primitive the weaponry and the gear. Keeps the hunt from getting dull. But this hunter wasn't young either if he were, then a slight such as meeting his eyes would've set him off, regardless of his current predicament.
The black fog of the opti-shields cleared away like thunderclouds moving over the horizon and left me staring into a pair of hostile blood orange orbs. Somehow I think I've made the wrong impression.
Why am I dicking around with this asshole?
I sighed, "have it your way, Rice Ball." Dammit, now I want onigiri mmmm with umeboshi. "I'll be takin' your ship as compensation for the loss of mine."
The Yautja snarled and lunged. Surprising the shit out of me when two of the vines curled around his biceps snapped, the sound like distressed rope busting. The big one circling his chest frayed, and pressed deep into the thick muscle. Impressive. Very impressive. But also stupid. Afraid of losing its meal, the yellow bulbs growing at the ends of each of the vines began to blossom.
"Uh, you might wanna stop struggling. Inside those flowers are pithing thorns strong enough to pierce even a Tanazian's armored skull." On that note, I turned, giving him my back and as a final fuck you I tacked on oh-so-helpfully, "And they never miss their mark."
"Pauk'n ooman! Mo'ke ellos'de pay'ya-te kch-'cha'ku m-di di's'ke'i!"
Fucking human! You are nothing but a trophy that is yet to be cleaned! I didn't need the translation, I've lived amongst the Yautja for nearly two hundred years. So I ignored the words crawling across the inside of my HUD and laughed.
"God, that felt good!" I stopped and shot him a smirk over my shoulder. "M-di. Ell se Danny. Thwei-pyode'e sa Osh'ikeille te Uzkielle. Te kainde-lou-dte'kalei k'cha'ku."
I reached inside the open face of my bio mask and swiped the sweat-soaked red hair adhered to my forehead away. The hunter fell silent. His gaze unreadable as he scrutinized the clan mark carved into the skin above my left brow. It proclaimed to all that I was blooded, and that I belonged to the Nracha Shur'ie clan or in human terms, the Relentless Storm.
Laughing, I flashed him some teeth as the blast shield of my helmet closed and frosted black; I cloaked, then slipped away in the sexiest boss ass exit ever.
No. I am Danny. Son of the Star Breaker and Heaven's Spite. And the slayer of queens...
...
"Goddammit! Get outta my head woman!" Not Yautja. I was born human. I am human. But after being raised by the rigid bastards, I had my own code of honor that I followed... most days. The real fucked up part was that honored Yautja are hardwired to obey their own code as well as the ones passed down to them by their clan. Once you figured out said code, they can be pretty easy to manipulate. And lucky me, my moral compass had the nagging voice of my sister.
"Nyyyyy."
The soft vocalization momentarily stalled my internal battle as my little companion popped out of the blood clot red ankle high shrubbery covering the planet.
"Jinx!"
"Ny, Ny, Ny," she sang happily. I bent down, and the alien feline that reminded me vaguely of a pygmy jackalope deftly leapt to my shoulder where she continued to sing and rub her head against the 3-day old stubble shadowing my neck. Her tiny brownish-red antlers scratching the exposed line of my jaw where the mask ended. "Where've you been?"
She sat up. Her wide seafoam green orbs crackling with intelligence and a hint of mischief.
"What did you do, neh?" I amended the question. A smile in my voice.
I checked the readouts from her personal evo-halo. The slim black band around her neck collected environmental data as well as kept tabs on my little friend. Jinx had a talent for finding things... usually trouble.
"Shit..." Like I said, trouble. Three klicks south of my position was a Kandari transport vessel. Though only nipple height to my studly 6'3", the Kandari were ruthless pack hunters with two different types of venom. One they could spit and blind you with, the other a deadly hemotoxin delivered by a zillion hypodermic needle teeth.
In the distance, the thunderous roar of one very pissed off Yautja had me taking an unconscious step back the way I came. I stopped. Confused as to why the hell I felt anything beyond annoyance. The asshole blew up my ship!
Bad Blood or not, he deserves a fighting chance, doesn't he?
Once again the mental image of my sister with that know-it-all smile on her face invaded my headspace. "I trust you, Danny. You've never allowed the bitterness from the biases against yourself or others to cloud your opinion. And you've always been able to see what others can't." She'd given me that speech back when I first brought Iziel'dor and his human mate Blake into our fold. Even when other members of our clan questioned my judgment, she didn't. For the most part, Bad Bloods were dishonorable scum, but there were a few exceptions. My hunt brother Iziel'dor was born with the stigma of a Bad Blood, yet time and again he proved that lineage meant diddly-damn-squat. The question was where did this guy stand?
At the very least, I should mercy kill him.
Was I seriously considering this?
"Fuck me..."
A/N: For those of you who haven't read Can I Keep Him? you might be a little lost at first since this is a spinoff, but I will fill you in along the way. Opening chapter's mostly a teaser ;D Please be sure to hit the pretty blue review button. Thanx for reading :)
