Captured: The Xandari Chronicles (Book One) (Dark Sci-Fi Romance) by Raven Dark & Petra J. Knox

Author:Raven Dark & Petra J. Knox [Dark, Raven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-27T05:00:00+00:00

18

The Viper’s Kiss

We rode for what must have been hours before we stopped so the men could relieve themselves. Most of the trip to the next camp was thankfully monotonous, but it wasn’t without incident.

Malek halted the cart but left the lights on to flood the tunnel. He sat in the driver’s seat, eating from a dried fruit packet, while Raul went with Tarku to hunt up dinner. Z’pheer escorted me off the track to do my business and take care of his own. It unsettled me to realize that I wasn’t even questioning the idea of privacy anymore with these men. It was what it was.

I supposed a girl could get used to anything.

“So, I gotta ask,” I said, straightening my clothes and following Z’pheer back toward the cart. “Do you guys have indoor plumbing on this planet?”

He raised a brow.

“You know, toilets? Everywhere we’ve been, we’ve had to do it right there in the open.”

“We have—”

Something fluttered past my shoulder, and I jumped. I looked around frantically and almost screamed. There was a large bat flying around my head. It was a bat, but it was twice as big as the bird eater.

Z’pheer laughed and swatted it away, apparently not afraid of bats the way he was of bird eaters.

“Don’t laugh at me! Did you see that thing? Its wings were as big as a bus!”

“It’s harmless.”

“But you’re afraid of bird eaters, and they’re harmless too.”

He conveniently didn’t reply.

A horrendous squeezing filled a passage off to my left, and I heard Raul curse, and Tarku giving a strange, growled bark.

“Tarku, get back here! No, don’t…. fost.”

Several bats just as large as the one I’d seen came zooming out of the tunnel with Tarku chasing them. He leaped at them, his jaws snapping at them, then chased them across the track to another tunnel. Raul shouted and tore after the dog.

“Tarku, get back here! You want me to leash you?”

Bat squeaks and Tarku’s odd barks faded down the tunnel.

Malek shook his head in his usual annoyance with the dog and went back to his food while Z’pheer laughed and led me over to the cart.

“Don’t tell me those bats are dinner, Z’pheer,” I said glancing up at him.

“If Raul and Tarku don’t find anything better, they are.”

“Lovely.” I’d just gotten used to the idea of eating snake. I doubted I was ready for bat stew. “I guess if you cover it up with enough spices and—”

Tarku gave a sudden loud whine from deep in the tunnel.

I snapped my eyes up to Z’pheer. “That didn’t sound good.”

Scowling, Z’pheer started across the track with me toward the tunnel Raul had gone down.

“Oh, fost, Tarku… come here.” Raul’s voice sounded half annoyed, half soothing, further down the tunnel.

“Raul?” Z’pheer called, walking further in with me.

“In here, Z’pheer. Rosht. Stupid tarki. This is what you get for running down strange tunnels ahead of me.”

We found Raul walking down the passage, Tarku limping at his side, a leash now connecting him to Raul. Worry pricked at me for Tarku.

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