“Oh, well, thank you,” Jillian began, holding out her hand automatically—you didn’t refuse to shake with a VIP, even if they looked like an extra out of an old Japanese Mothra movie. “But it was actually my new line cook, Kalis, here, who oversaw the soup.” She nodded at the big Kindred who was standing beside her, staring warily at the ambassador.
“Yezz, yezz,” Ha’choo Bless’u buzzed distractedly. She had uncurled her long proboscis again and was snuffling with great interest at Jillian’s hand.
Suddenly Kalis muttered in her ear,
“Pull your hand away!”
“What?” Jillian spoke from the corner of her mouth, trying to keep her eyes on the VIP.
“I said, pull your hand away now, Mistress,” he growled urgently. “She’s about to cycle—look at her eyes!”
Jillian stared at the Nebrian ambassador’s brilliant compound eyes. Hadn’t they been black only moments ago? But now they were red—blood red. It was unmistakable since each eye was roughly the size of a saucer.
“I said she’s cycling!” Kalis repeated. “You need to get out of here and get back to the k—”
But before he could finish his sentence, Ha’Choo Bless’u had risen from her seat and jumped directly over the table. Suddenly the long proboscis with its large, fleshy lips was snuffling all over Jillian’s face instead of her hand.
“I zzmell no male on you, lovely female,” she—or was it he now, Jillian wondered—hissed. “You have no male to enfold and implant you. How very zzad…”
“What—” Jillian started to say but at that moment the Nebrian ambassador unfolded a massive pair of brilliantly colored blue and crimson wings and wrapped them around her.
“Leave my Mistress alone,” she heard Kalis growl and a knot of anxiety formed in her stomach. Not just because of the weird insectile hug she was getting but because she feared the big Kindred would shift forms and turn into the terrifying alien bear-thing.
“I’m okay—I’m just fine,” she said loudly, though honestly, it wasn’t at all pleasant to be caught in the Nebrian’s embrace. Still, it wasn’t the first time she’d been grabbed by a drunk customer—she could handle herself.
Firmly, she put her hands against the ambassador’s narrow chest, which felt hard and cold and prickly against her palms.
“Okay now,” she said to Ha’choo Bless’u. “I’m very flattered that you like my food so much, but I really need you to let me go.”
“You zzhould be enfolded every night, lovely female,” the ambassador insisted, drawing her closer, despite her resistance.
Jillian could feel the short, sharp hairs that seemed to cover the insectile body poking her breasts and hands through her chef’s whites and scratching her thighs through the plain black trousers she was wearing for service. She tried again to push away, but the Nebrian was horribly strong.
“What’s going on? Is she all right?” she heard Commander Sylvan saying worriedly.
“The Nebrian is cycling,” Kalis said shortly. “Must have been something in the liquor that caused her to change into a him sooner than expected. What’s it made of?”
“Just fermented Woo berries,” Sylvan responded. “Should we try to pull Chef Marks away?”
“Impossible without breaking every bone in her body,” Kalis growled. “Once she was enfolded, the ambassador took a death grip on her. What we need is an antidote to the intoxication of the Woo. Some kind of oil usually works best on Nebrians.”
“I have a gallon of olive oil on the second shelf of the pantry,” Jillian called. She could hear the two males talking, but all she could see were the red compound eyes and the huge, brilliant wings which had formed a kind of cocoon around herself and the ambassador. “Hurry!” she added—she felt like she was being poked with a thousand short, sharp needles all at once!
There was the sound of running feet and then Kalis was back. She knew because one huge hand reached down between the wings and grabbed the long, curling proboscis, which was currently exploring her face with disgusting wet kisses.
The big Kindred yanked on the alien’s mouth parts and jammed them into the industrial-sized container of olive oil.
“Drink, damn you,” Jillian heard him growling. “Drink it!”
The long proboscis twitched and then Jillian heard sucking sounds. After a moment, the red compound eyes turned black again and the Nebrian ambassador slowly relaxed her—or his—tight grip on her.
Jillian breathed a sigh of relief as the large, sail-like wings unfurled and Ha’choo Bless’u curled them tightly once more against his/her back. The moment his/her prickly, branch-like arms released Jillian, Kalis grabbed her and pulled her into a tight embrace.
“Thank you, Kalis!” she exclaimed, feeling dazed as she looked up into his silver-green eyes. “But honestly, you can let me go now.”
“Not until the Nebrian sees us and understands you’re spoken for,” he growled fiercely. “Otherwise he might imprint on you for this mating cycle and come back for you,” he added.