“We have to get out of here. Now,” Desideria insisted.
“I know, Princess. I know.” But first, he had to get them out of the cross hairs. “We have to find whatever civilization they have.”
She scowled at him. “You said we couldn’t do that.”
He dropped his pack on the ground beside her. “I said we couldn’t do it as humans.”
Desideria was now completely confused. Had he inhaled too many fumes before she rescued him? “Apparently I’m missing something. How do we not look human when, last time I checked, we’re humans?” Grubby, bloody and beat up, but still undeniable in their species. “You have a secret you need to impart to me?”
Caillen dug through his pack and pulled out several items.
Bemused, she watched him open a bottle of water and a foil packet. The packet contained a small pink tablet.
I knew it!
He was on drugs.
“What’s that?” she asked suspiciously.
He popped the pill into his mouth and used the water to wash it down. “In about twenty hours, it’ll grow my hair to my shoulders and turn it black.”
They had such things? Her father had told her of many marvels, but this was a new one on her. “Is that safe?”
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before he secured the top on the bottle. “God, I hope so. I’ve never had to use it before, but unfortunately I don’t have a wig in my magic bag. Not that I’d use one even if I did. Learned the hard way a long time ago that those things have a nasty tendency to come off at the worst possible moment.” He opened a small vial that contained two contact lenses.
Intrigued and confused, she watched as he put them in. Oh yeah, they were odd. It made his pupils red and his irises white with a red rim. “Can you see with those?”
He blinked three times, then widened his eyes as if allowing them to settle into place. “Not as well as I can normally, but enough to get by. So long as no one gets too frisky from my pereral I’ll be fine.” Next, he pulled out a small round case and opened it to show what appeared to be two elongated teeth. He took them out and covered his canines with them to give him a fanged smile.
She hated to admit it, but he was actually attractive in a freakish sort of way. “What are you supposed to be?”
He unzipped an outside pocket to reveal a mirror he used to examine his handiwork. “An Andarion. Once my hair grows and darkens, I’ll be able to pass as a native. The shorter hair will be a bitch since their males wear theirs longer than yours, but I can make something up as to why I had to cut it. Hopefully they’ll buy it without bloodshed.” He gave her a thorough once-over. “You on the other hand…”
She held her hands up and backed away in fear of what that look on his face meant for her. “I’m not taking that pill and sprouting another arm.”
“I doubt you’d grow another arm… Might lose one though.” He flashed an evil grin at her that was even more sinister given his fangs. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to offer you one. You’re too short and your features are wrong. No one would ever believe you’re one of them. Not to mention I don’t have another pair of fangs or contacts.” He jerked a hooded cloak out of his pack and tossed it to her. “We’ll keep you covered and I’ll tell them you’re my daughter. Just make sure no one sees you uncovered.”
“If they do?”
“Then we should have just laid down and let the assassins on the ship have our throats. Believe me, that would have been a lot less painful.”
Desideria grimaced at the cloak. “Well, I’ll say one thing. Hanging around you isn’t boring.”
He laughed. “Don’t I know it. My first name should have been Catastrophe and I swear in some language, somewhere, that is what Caillen means. Now come over here and let me check out your head wound. Last thing we need is for you to have brain damage.”
“I already have brain damage. Why else would I be here?”
He snorted. “Yeah, I resemble that remark.”
Desideria sat down beside him while he rooted through his pack. She half expected him to pull a ship out of it. He hadn’t been joking when he called it a survival pack. He appeared to have some of everything in it.
Except for a black wig…
As he dug, his hair fell forward over his bruised forehead. His leg looked bloodied and painful through the torn fabric, but he ignored the pain as if he were one of her people. Right now, dressed in those worn-out boots and leather jacket, there was nothing about him that reminded her of royalty. He was more like one of the rogue pirates her mother hired to cause trouble for her enemies.
And a part of her that scared her was actually attracted to that darker side of his personality. More than that, it reminded her of how yummy his stomach had been while exposed and that led her to wonder at the rest of him…
What would he look like naked?