“It’s fascinating,” Bobbi murmured. “I’ve never seen living tattoos before.”
“They’re very common among the Saurians,” Dragon explained. “The one on my neck spells out the name of the Crimson Blades—my Clan—in ancient letters. The one on my back is sacred to me—a representation of my past and a reminder of who I want to be.”
“And the ones on your arms?” She gestured to his arms, which both had full tattoo sleeves down to his wrists. They also shifted and moved, but more subtly than the one on his back.
“The ones on my arms tell of my kills,” Dragon said shortly.
“Your…your kills?” She put a hand to her throat. “How…how many people have you killed?”
“How many colors do you see on my arms?” Dragon responded, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t worry, little one,” he added. “I only kill males from rival Clans—I have never killed a female.” Which was more than many of the Saurian males he knew could say. “Now scoot over, I’m coming down into the pit,”
he told her.
She moved hastily away from the side of the pit and he lowered himself down and stretched out on the comfortable mattress. The silky sheet that covered it felt cool against his bare skin. He felt almost totally relaxed—which was more than he could say for the little feela, who was still standing against the other side of the pit, eyeing him warily.
“Come lay down,” Dragon told her. “I promised not to breed you against your will and I keep my word.”
“I…I don’t know if I want to lay down,” Bobbi said, lifting her chin defiantly.
Dragon was tempted to just let her stand there all night if she wanted to, but she was starting to shiver again, despite the patchwork fur blanket wrapped around her shoulders.
“Come down here or do I have to pull you down?” he growled irritably. “It’s been a long damn day and I need to get some sleep!”
“Fine—but don’t touch me!” she flared.
“I won’t—not unless I have to,” Dragon told her. “Just lay down and try to get comfortable.”
Reluctantly, she eased down to first a sitting position, and then a laying one. Turning herself on her side with her back to him, she got as close to the red-tiled side of the sleeping pit and as far from Dragon as she possibly could. She wrapped the fur blanket around herself tightly and curled herself into a little ball.
He watched her with a frown as the overhead lights began to dim, waiting to see if she would stop shivering. If she didn’t, he fully intended to take matters into his own hands and warm her up.
Whether she wanted him to, or not.
16
Bobbi lay there, shivering in the dark, wondering what in the world she was going to do. She’d hoped that by appealing to Dragon’s Kindred nature, she could get him to be reasonable and agree to give her up—maybe even to take her back to Avria Pentaura. But she hadn’t counted on how strongly his Saurian upbringing would factor into the situation.
Well, looks like Nurture 1, Nature zero, she thought unhappily as she wrapped the patchwork fur blanket more tightly around her trembling shoulders. It was soft and warm but not much of a match for the chilly air that seemed to be blowing right down into the sleeping pit. God, how could anyone sleep like this? It was like trying to drift off in an Arctic gale!
Her mind drifted to all the Jack London stories she’d ever read—especially one called To Build a Fire. It was about a guy living in Alaska who was trying to get from one post to another but things kept going wrong for him. He fell in a pond and got wet and lost his sled dogs and couldn’t get a fire going to dry off…
In the end, didn’t he just sit down and wait to freeze to death?
Bobbi couldn’t remember but she wished she could get the morbid story out of her head. It had been interesting to read when she lived in sunny Florida, where the temperature rarely dropped low enough to even wear a long-sleeved shirt. Lying here in the sleeping pit on Saurous with an icy wind blowing down on her and her fingers and toes like ice, it was a little too close for comfort.
She shifted position, curling more tightly into herself and using the furry blanket to cover all of her head except for her nose, which she stuck out so she could breathe. The tip of it felt numb already and the rest of her wasn’t much better.
Another gust of icy air rushed over her and her teeth began to chatter while her whole body shivered. God, this was terrible! She was going to freeze to death on an alien planet and never see Earth or the Kindred Mother Ship again.