Hotbloods 6: Allies

“Oh.” I looked at her, surprised. “And you’re okay with that?”

A pained expression crossed her face. “No, but I get it. I shouldn’t be all up on my moral high horse when we don’t have many other options.” She sighed. “Normally, all this stuff wouldn’t faze me—tying up police officers and seducing dudes. But I just keep thinking, ‘What would Lauren say?’ You know?”

I nodded, my throat tight. “I know I’ve made some bad choices,” I said quietly. “I’ve been telling myself that the ends justify the means, but…”

“You always try to do the right thing, Riley,” Angie said, her eyes brimming with tears. “You’re a good person, and I’m sorry if I’ve made things harder—by blaming you, by throwing the compass…”

“No, I’m the one who should be sorry,” I said. “I’ve been a class-A bitch. You’re right that we should try to be kinder to people, just like Lauren would be.”

Angie closed the gap between us and threw her arms around me. I gripped her tight, listening to the sound of her sobbing in my ear. Tears were falling from my own eyes as we comforted one another.

“Do you think she’s okay?” Angie gasped, pulling away.

“She has to be,” I said, hiccupping. “She has to be, because the universe will never be right again if anything has happened to her.”





Chapter Ten





Picking up the plate of food that the printer had made, I stepped out of the kitchen and headed for the bathroom in which we’d locked Killick. The dish was pungent, smelling like rotting fish. It didn’t look much better, either. Still, it was supposed to be a delicacy of the merevins, so hopefully he’d like it.

All the rooms on the ship were extravagant, and the bathroom was no different. It had a huge tub about the size of a small swimming pool, and a jungle shower that gushed out water like an actual waterfall, complete with rocks, and a seat cut into the stone fa?ade. The whole thing looked like a tropical rainforest, with plants and ponds. Killick being a merevin was probably why most of the rooms incorporated water in some way.

Mort was back in the cozy armchair outside the bathroom, snoring softly. His floppy skin had practically molded to the shape of the chair, his fleshy pouches draped over every available space. I rolled my eyes at him, before removing the wedge that kept the door shut and slipping inside.

“Some sentry you make,” I mumbled, casting a look back.

To my surprise, the merevin was awake, sitting on the edge of a full tub of water, kicking his feet to splash the surface. He turned as I approached, his eyes surrounded by a strange shade of purple that hadn’t been there before. He snuffled softly, making me realize that he’d been crying; the purple around his eyes was the irritation from the tears. For the second time this morning, I felt a twist of guilt in my stomach.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, keeping my distance until I could gauge his reaction.

He turned away. “As if you care.”

“I do, Killick. I’m sorry about knocking you out. I didn’t know your kind had such sensitive nervous systems,” I said softly.

“Have you put out a ransom for my father to pay?” the merevin asked nervously, fresh tears tumbling from his eyes, dripping into the tub below. “He will do anything to have his son back. He will pay any amount.”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure that’s the kind of thing you should go around saying, but no, we haven’t asked for a ransom.”

“So, you’re just going to kill me, is that it? Is this where I meet my demise?” he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. I could see he was scared. Perhaps this kind of thing had happened to him before.

“We’re not going to kill you,” I assured him.

“You’re going to cut off little pieces of me and send them to my father, one by one? Is that how you’re going to make him pay up? Has he refused?” The poor merevin was sounding more desperate by the second.

“No, no, you’re misunderstanding me,” I insisted. “We haven’t asked for a ransom. We just needed your ship for a little while.”

He looked at me like I’d grown a new head. “I don’t understand. What do you want then? Did you just do this to rob me blind?”

I handed him the plate of food, but he only stared at it as though I were trying to poison him. “I made this for you, with your machine. I thought you might be hungry.”

“What did you do to it?”

“Nothing, I promise,” I told him. “We don’t want to hurt you, and we don’t want anything from you. Well, that’s not exactly true. We want your ship, but that’s all.”

“Just my ship?” He took the plate of food from me and sniffed it cautiously, before taking a big bite.

I nodded. “We’re going to let you go today. We just need your ship to complete our mission.”

He froze, starting to sob uncontrollably, the half-chewed fish tumbling out of his wailing mouth in stinky flakes. “My time has finally come! My mother warned me of this!” he cried. “I pray to the goddesses of the ocean, past and present, to carry my soul across the waves of paradise, and bring me safely to the waters of eternal happiness. May my hearts be light enough to swim and not sink.”

“Killick, we’re not here to kill you,” I repeated.

“You said you were going to ‘let me go.’ I know what that means—it is a euphemism for death. You are just trying to fool me, so I go quietly into the great unknown!”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh. “No, Killick, I really mean we’re going to let you go. We’ll put you in one of the escape pods and send you to the nearest planet. We’re going to throw in plenty of valuables, so you can easily buy passage back to your home planet.”

Killick slithered into the pool, a wave of relief washing over his face. “You are really going to let me live? Do you swear it?”

“I promise! We’re going to put you in a pod and let you go home,” I said firmly. “Sorry for scaring you like that… and sorry for stealing such an expensive ship. Honestly, we would’ve taken it even if it had been an old rust-bucket. It just so happened you had a really nice one.”

He relaxed even further, lying on his back in the pool and kicking his feet. “My father will simply buy me another. It wouldn’t be the first time. I crashed my last one; he’ll just be pleased it wasn’t my fault, on this occasion. My father is Orcino Loligo, you know,” he said proudly, as though it was supposed to mean something.

I moved over to the tub and sat down on the edge. “Oh, really?” I said, not sure what else to say.

“He is a merevin deserving of the wondrous reputation he has attained. There are not many as famous as him,” Killick gushed, flashing me a knowing glance, like the mere mention of his father was meant to impress me. At the very least, he appeared to assume everyone knew who his father was. Realizing what I’d put the poor guy through in the last twenty-four hours, I decided to play along.

“Of course, Orcino Loligo is legendary!” I said, pretending to be awestruck. “He’s your father? I can’t believe I didn’t see the resemblance. Now that you mention it, I can see the similarity!”

Killick nodded along. “That’s what everyone says. My father and I share the same wave pattern across our skin, which nobody else has. It’s subtle, but you can really tell if you take a closer look.” He swam smoothly up to where I sat and shoved his bare arm in my face. Truthfully, it looked the same as the pattern I’d seen on Xiphio and the other merevins, but I wasn’t about to burst his bubble.

“I see it!”

“I knew you would.” He grinned, admiring his skin.