Chapter Two
“Answer me! Who are you, human? How do you know my name?”
Blake couldn’t seem to get his mouth open to speak. He’d been lost in a dream of home. More of a nightmare really, until he could find his sons. And now he found himself lying on his back and staring up at his husband—who must be wearing lenses to turn his eyes blue, for some unknown reason. Perhaps the same crazy reason Davos was shaking him and yelling at him and calling him “human,” in that cold, impersonal voice. After the long years of loving him and being his mate, how dare Davos treat him like this? And why was he talking with that strange accent? Like Earthan wasn’t something he had used every day for the past twenty odd years. The pain and confusion and indignity of it almost caused Blake to black out again. He fought his way to the surface, though, ablaze with his hurt and his outrage. It made him struggle to sit up and push the hair impatiently off his face.
“Davos, what the fuck is the matter with you? Look at this!” He cried, holding up his swollen and bruised wrist. “I think it may be broken and I’m in pain!” His own voice surprised him. It was rough and painful to even try to talk. He needed water badly.
The Tygerian standing beside Davos said something angry and harsh. He drew back his hand to strike Blake, who simply stared up at him, blinking, too surprised to even flinch. Davos grabbed the man’s hand before it could fall and told him something in a gruff tone. They were speaking a form of Tygerian, he thought; however, since he wasn’t even proficient in even regular Tygerian, Blake found it hard to say for sure.
Blake never really learned the language as well as he should have. It was an odd one, full of clicks and growls, and though he knew a few phrases, mostly curse words, that he used sometimes when the occasion called for it, he had been told his accent was really bad. He tried a phrase anyway on the man who’d tried to hit him, peppering in a little English on top of it.
“Are you fucking kidding me, you son of a bitch? How fucking dare you?” He turned on Davos. “And you’re just going to sit there and let him disrespect me like that?”
Davos and the man looked at each other and then Davos looked back down at Blake and spoke again in that accented Earthan. “What does this word mean? ‘Sonofabitch?’”
Blake just blinked at him, wondering if he’d understood him correctly. “Uh…what?”
Davos shook his head and tried again. “Never mind. Who are you?”
“You know who I am! Stop this right now!” He raised his hand to his head and groaned. “I think I hit my head way too hard when that big oaf knocked me out of the tree, and just look!” He pulled up his robe, exposing his leg and especially his ankle, which was not only swollen, but now black and dark blue and even purple in places.
“Just look at my ankle!”
All the Tygerians present obliged by crowding around to see. And they kept looking, their eyes roaming appreciatively over his legs and his whole body, which was way too exposed in the robe, which had fallen open during his adventures, though at the moment he was in too much pain to care.
“Don’t just sit there and gawk at me. Get me a doctor, damn it!”
Davos never moved or said another word, just kept staring at him in that creepy way with those strange blue eyes, making him feel hurt and angry. He was furious at Davos for this and for other transgressions, but suddenly, it all seemed too much for him. His face crumpled and he reached blindly for the only comfort he’d known for the past twenty-three years. No matter how upset he was with him or how angry he was, this man was his rock. Had always been his port in any storm. Without him, he was lost. He threw his arms around Davos’s neck and buried his face against it.
Davos recoiled as if he’d been struck and pushed Blake violently away. Blake gasped, thinking for a confused moment that Davos had raised his hand to actually strike him, but instead he was giving a quick, harsh order to stop his men, who were surging forward to attack Blake and protect their king. Davos stared back down at Blake with a strange look on his face and put a hand on Blake’s chest to hold him down on the ground.
Blake grabbed the hand and held it tightly as Davos gazed down at him with wide eyes. “Oh Davos, I know you’re angry with me. But please… pretend for just a minute that you love me again and stop all this. Larz is missing, sweetheart.” He choked on a sob, but continued. “His ship never made it to that camp you sent him to, and I’m half-crazy with worry over him. Mikos has gone to look for him, but I’d feel better if you were looking for him too. We have to find him—I don’t know what I’ll do if he’s lost.” He felt the tears leaking from his eyes and trickling down his face, but he was long past caring anymore what anyone thought of him. Not Davos, not even these strange men of his standing around probably judging him, finding him weak and pathetic for bursting into tears like this. He didn’t care at the moment, because his heart was breaking.
Davos simply stared at him, looking wary, but didn’t try to pull his hand away. Finally, when Blake got hold of himself again, Davos leaned over closer and looked down into his eyes. “Who is this Larz?” he asked. “Is he your lover?”
Blake blinked at him, unable to believe he’d heard him correctly. “What? My lover? Larz is my son! Our son. What’s the matter with you? Didn’t you hear what I said? He’s missing! Why are you acting like this?”
Another Tygerian suddenly arrived and bent down to say a few words to Davos, who grunted and moved aside. The newcomer knelt beside him and began to examine his ankle and his wrist. Blake was too surprised and felt too confused to protest or make a fuss. The man was carrying a small case and Blake recognized the Tygerian insignia on his clothing that declared him to be a physician. Odd that none of them were wearing robes, not even this doctor. On Tygeria, everyone wore robes with colors that correlated with their rank. Royalty, like Davos and Blake, wore sapphire blue. Nobility wore green and physicians were always in red. But Davos and the others were dressed now in dark blue trousers and shirts. A few wore jackets with military badges, like Davos was wearing.
The physician and Davos began speaking in that rapid, oddly accented Tygerian again and Blake caught a few words here and there, like “injured,” and “shipwreck” and Blake thought he caught the Tygerian word for “crazy.” The slang for said condition was tiri-bunk, or bunk for short, which was literally translated as “moon-dazzled.”
He certainly felt bunk with all that had happened to him. Not to mention heartsick and depressed and… hell, maybe he was crazy. Or brain damaged or traumatized or whatever, because none of this made any sense, and he was quite honestly beginning to wonder if he was trapped in some kind of dream or nightmare. Maybe he was still in his ship, in some kind of coma.
The doctor told him to lie still. He understood that much, but Davos repeated it to him in Earthan. “Be still and stop talking so much.”
Blake blinked again, telling himself it was no good to get angry. None of this was real anyway. He probably had died when the ship landed and that thing hit him in the head and this was hell. Davos had always told him he’d wind up someday in one of the four hells the Tygerians believed in. One of the lower ones, he’d said, where all the aliens went. But, as he’d arrogantly and magnanimously promised Blake he would find a way to come to him there to be with him and help him rise to the upper levels so they could spend eternity together. Could that be what this was then? Were they both dead and in hell?
The doctor suddenly pulled sharply at his wrist and the pain shot through him like a bolt of lightning. Nope, not even in hell could he hurt that much! He screamed and popped back up, thinking he might be able to get away, but Davos grabbed him and held him down. He tried to jerk his arm away, but Davos caught it and held it out, despite Blake’s struggles, so the doctor could finish. Blake sobbed and shot him a wounded look of betrayal that he returned with a blank, curious stare.
He said something harsh sounding to the doctor, though, who looked surprised, but then pulled out a small appliance from his bag and shot an injection of something into Blake’s arm. It must have been a pain killer, because the pain faded right away from the white-hot agony he’d been feeling into something a bit more bearable. Blake moaned and leaned his head against Davos’s shoulder.
Davos looked down at him, his face registering surprise, but he didn’t move away.
Blake began to drift off, his last conscious thought that the injection must have contained some kind of sedative too. Hoping this crazy dream would all be over when he woke up, he clung tightly to Davos’s arm and allowed sleep to overcome him.
****
Blake awoke lying on a bed, or rather one of the hard slabs covered by a thin padding that passed for a bed on Tygeria. Leaning up on his elbows, he noted two things—first, he was naked, covered only by a thin blanket. His entire body ached too, most especially his wrist and his ankle. No doubt from falling, or rather being thrown, from that tree. His wrist was bandaged, as was his ankle, encased in a tight wrapping that had been fused together in some way he couldn’t discern. He could see no seam at all where either of them had been joined. The casings had wires running through them though, and a dull pulsing was taking place inside the cast-like things and shooting down into his joints. It wasn’t painful exactly, but it was decidedly uncomfortable.
He was definitely indoors now, and not on any kind of ship. The room was stark and barren and definitely had no frills. The walls were a dull, unpainted, wood, and the only furniture in the tiny, barren space was this bed and a stool beside it. The room was filled with light, though, so it must be morning, and its source was a window on the side of the room.
This window had bars.
He rubbed his good hand over his face and sighed. He’d been hoping this was all some kind of crazy dream, but apparently, he had stumbled into...what? A secret training exercise that Davos was conducting? Some scenario that required everyone to act as if this were real and he actually was a prisoner? Far-fetched, but it made about as much sense as any other idea he could come up with. Davos seemed to have a complete base of operations here on this unknown planet and had been playing a kind of cruel interrogation game where he had pretended not to know who Blake was.
A part of his mind clamored at him that the idea of a training exercise was ridiculously far-fetched too. Leaving aside the fact that he’d never heard of any such thing and couldn’t imagine Davos being so cruel to him, no soldier would have dared to manhandle the king’s consort the way those had the night before or risk injuring him the way they had.
But as nothing else occurred to him and he had a sense of something so badly wrong about everything that had happened to him that he chose to shove it all to the back of his mind and think about it later. He’d always had an amazing capacity for doing that, and it had stood him in good stead over the long years he’d been in Tygeria. For now, he just needed to find Davos.
His back ached too much to lie on the bed, so he swung his legs to the side and sat up, pulling the blanket with him. His stirring around must have activated some alert, because the door opened almost immediately to admit the tall Tygerian doctor from the night before, followed by two other men wearing the blue uniform he’d seen Davos wearing.
The doctor came over to him without a word of greeting and pulled up the cast—for want of a better word—on Blake’s wrist to examine it, while the other two stood, silent but watchful, at the foot of Blake’s bed.
“What is this thing?” Blake asked in Earthan, but though the doctor glanced up at him, he shook his head and then ignored him, pretending not to understand. He reached into his pocket and took out a small tool of some sort and began to tinker with the edges of the cast.
“Cat got your tongue?” Blake asked, trying to catch his eye. “Get it? Cat. Because, you know, tiger shifters?” Either the man didn’t understand a word of what he was saying, or he was choosing to ignore him. Blake thought it might be the latter, because his eyes flickered up at him a couple of times and once his lips twitched a bit. All the doctors on Tygeria spoke Earthan fluently, so Blake figured this man was simply choosing not to answer. It was confusing and rude and added to the general feeling that something just wasn’t right about any of this.
The doctor turned on his tool and it made a whirring sound. The cast opened up and fell away on either side. Blake looked down at his wrist to find it completely healed. “How did you do that?” he asked, his mouth dropping open a little. When Nicarr had fallen off a balcony at the palace when he was roughhousing with Larz a few months ago, the physicians had healed him, but it had taken several days. Not overnight, certainly. And he’d never seen casts like the ones on his wrist and ankle.
The man pulled up Blake’s foot then, twisting him around on the bed and putting a hand on his chest to push him down on his back. The doctor was cold and impersonal, not cruel at all, but his entire demeanor told Blake this man didn’t like him. Not one bit. He was treating him more like an enemy than the consort of his king.
“Are we still playing games then?” Blake asked. “Tell my husband I want to see him immediately. Do you hear me? Hey!” he said, leaning up on his elbow and peering up at the doctor’s face. “I said get King Davos in here right now!”
The doctor glanced up at him as he shouted but kept doggedly working on the cast around his ankle. One of the men, who were acting like guards standing at the foot of his bed, answered Blake, however. His words were heavily accented, but Blake understood him.
“Shut your mouth, human scum, before I shut it for you. You don’t make any demands here.”
Blake felt his mouth drop open. Human scum? Davos would kill him. No, Blake would do the job himself.
“Listen up, you overgrown asshole,” he said, pushing up on his elbows. “How dare you speak to me in such a manner? You go find King Davos and tell him I want to see him right the hell now! Tell him he better get his ass in here, or I’ll make him regret it till the day he dies!”
The Tygerian’s eyebrows rose dramatically at the threat, and he took a belligerent step toward him. His hand shot out, and he slapped Blake’s face so hard, Blake was pretty sure he loosened one of his jaw teeth. He reeled backward, grabbing the side of his face. That would definitely leave a mark.
The doctor shouted at the guard, and he backed off, muttering under his breath. There was a fierce discussion between them for a moment, spoken way too rapidly for Blake to follow, and then the soldier left, giving Blake a dark look. The physician took Blake’s chin in his hand and examined his cheek, which felt puffy and bruised. He made a tsking sound, rummaged through his bag and came out with a spray that he aimed at Blake’s face.
The spray helped take away some of the ache, but Blake had no real expectations his demands would work. It was quite a surprise then, when the door opened a few tense and silent minutes later, and Davos walked in. He said something to the remaining guard or soldier or whatever he was, and the guard went to stand by the door. The doctor gave Davos a brief bow and then quickly left the room.
Blake was far too angry to speak. He just glared at Davos, fuming.
Davos raised one eyebrow and came closer to the bed. His face was still cold and forbidding and he was still wearing those lenses over his eyes to make them so blue. The man Blake had exchanged words with came back in and Blake saw he was wearing them too, though his eyes looked more gray than blue. He gave Blake a dirty look as he moved over to stand next to the other one. Blake returned the look he gave him in spades, adding a little curl of the lip and a sneer, because he hoped the guard would understand what he meant by it and realize Blake wasn’t afraid of him. Not in the least.
Davos stood silently beside the bed during the exchange, staring at Blake in seeming fascination. “Who are you?” Davos asked. Finally, someone was speaking to him in Earthan. “I understand that you’ve made outrageous ‘demands’ to see me, despite your status as a prisoner of war and a suspected spy.”
Blake shot him an irritated glance. “I’m warning you. I’m so not in the mood for this, Davos.”
Davos frowned and picked up his injured wrist, which, come to think of it, didn’t feel so injured anymore. Whatever that casing or cast had been, it had done wonders. Davos encircled it with his fingers and tightened them around Blake’s wrist, not hurting him, exactly, but letting him feel the pressure. His voice became even firmer.
“Answer my question. Who are you?”
Blake glanced down at Davos’s fingers and then back up at his husband with his mouth falling open a little. “Oh, are you seriously implying you’ll break my wrist again if I don’t answer you? I don’t respond to threats, Davos, even implied ones. I never have, as you should well know, and I’m not about to start now. Stop all this foolishness.”
Davos held his stare for a full thirty seconds or so longer than Blake would have thought he would and then he sighed in exasperation and dropped Blake’s wrist. “If you don’t answer my questions, then I’ll have to allow my men to interrogate you and bring me your answers. I don’t believe you’d enjoy their methods.”
Blake glanced over at the soldier by the door. “You mean that asshole? Ha! He’d have to kill me before I talked to him or gave him any information!”
Davos blinked at him, looking confused. “But…if he killed you, then you wouldn’t be able to …” he huffed in irritation and shook his head. “Enough of this foolishness. Tell me your damn name!”
“You already know it! I’m your consort!”
Davos blew out a furious breath and raised his hand as if to strike Blake. Blake never flinched at all, just stared at him, though inside he felt shocked and even frightened. If Davos struck him, he would know for sure that this was some kind of nightmare or hallucination, because in all their time together, Davos had never hit him—even when they were enemies and even though the provocation had sometimes been strong.
Davos stared down at him for a long, tense moment and then turned abruptly to stalk over to the window and stare out. Blake trembled as the guard by the door said something about letting him try to get Blake to talk. The more he was exposed to this language, the more he was able to and follow it a little. He was a long way from being proficient, but he was beginning to pick up a few words here and there.
Davos told the guard sharply to be quiet. Davos turned back around and came over to stand beside him again, surprising Blake by glancing down at his foot.
“How is your ankle?”
Glad of any excuse to dispel the tension between them, Blake stuck his leg out of the covers and flexed it, twisting his foot this way and that. He glanced up to see Davos watching his foot in fascination. A few days before he’d left on his journey, Blake had allowed Mikol to apply polish to his toenails. Mikol had seen his Leerian nanny doing it with her nails and had been mesmerized. Mikol had begged her to give him a bottle of the polish and he had decorated his own nails and most of his fingers and toes. Then he went looking for other victims.
Ryan hadn’t allowed it, but Blake had offered up his toenails, since he could cover them. The child had done a fairly good job and painted Blake’s toes a lovely, bright shade of turquoise blue. He was a little embarrassed by it now, realizing the polish had survived his misadventures mostly intact. He decided not to mention it and hope they ignored it too. He smiled up at Davos. “Almost good as new. Doesn’t even hurt.”
He saw Davos’s fascinated gaze roam from his toes all the way up to his thigh and on impulse, Blake patted the bed beside him. “Come over here and sit down, honey, and let’s stop all this foolishness. You’ve been scaring me a little, and I need a kiss.”
Davos’s eyebrows rose dramatically again, but though he didn’t sit down, he did put a hand on Blake’s foot and ran it slowly up to his knee. Davos and these others were acting strangely, but they were still Tygerians, after all.
He looked down at Blake and he cursed under his breath. “Why do you say things like that? Are you trying to make us think you’re…? What is the Earthan word …crazy?”
“You always say I’m crazy when we fight, so why stop now? I know you’re mad at me. I was mad at you too, but I don’t like this game you’re playing, Davos. This pretending not to know who I am. It’s cruel. Didn’t you hear what I said about Larz? I’m worried sick about him! I need your help and we don’t have time for all this!”
Davos sighed with exasperation and actually sat down beside him on the bed. He looked at Blake solemnly. “You have to answer my questions before I give you any help. I don’t want to hurt you if you’re…” He sighed again. “I need information, and if letting these guards hurt you gives me that information, then I’ll have to do it.”
Blake raised his chin defiantly. “Fuck you, Davos, and fuck your guards too. I didn’t realize I was such a threat that you’d need two of them to protect you from me.”
Davos jumped to his feet, his face like a thundercloud. “I understand your human curse words! Tell me your damn name!”
Blake rolled his eyes dramatically. “This again?”
“Yes!” he shouted, “Again and again until you tell me what I want to know!”
Blake folded his arms and glared up at him. “Okay, fine. I’ll play along. What is it you want to know?”
Davos rolled his eyes and seemed to be holding onto the rags of his temper only with a great deal of effort. “Your name.” Davos held up his hand with the palm toward Blake in exasperation as Blake opened his mouth to answer. “Pretend I don’t already know it.”
“All right. My name is Blake Cameron. Blake Mycantheum Cameron, actually. Royal Consort to the King.”
His eyebrows came together over on his forehead. “The…king?”
“Of Tygeria. You.”
Davos glared down at him. “I don’t have a ‘consort.’ I never have.”
“Stop saying things like that. Of course, you do. And we’ve been together for years.”
Davos stared at him and made a sound of exasperation. He seemed to come to some kind of decision and signaled the guard, who stepped outside. He returned a moment later with the doctor, who was carrying the injection appliance he’d used on Blake earlier.
Blake sat up straighter, feeling alarmed. “What is that? I don’t need any kind of injection!”
Davos took a step back, letting the doctor come closer.
Blake scooted farther back in the bed, looking incredulous. “Are you drugging me?”
Davos made a signal to the guards, who quickly advanced on Blake, wrestling him over in the bed and holding him down, half smothering him in the sheets. Blake felt a needle-like pain stab into his ass as the doctor used the appliance on him. When they released him, Blake twisted around in bed, gasping for breath and glaring up at Davos.
“Damn it, Davos, that hurt me!” He rubbed his ass, wincing in pain. The injection was burning under his skin.
Davos watched him almost warily, as if watching a wild animal in a zoo, coming too close to the bars of its cage.
“Was that really necessary? What the hell was in that thing?”
“Something to keep you honest.”
“To keep me…what? Are you talking about a truth serum? Was that what you put into me? What’s the matter with you Davos? I’m telling you the truth, damn it! You know I am!”
“We’ll soon see.”
“I’ll never forgive you for this. I want you to know that.”
“I suppose I’ll just have to take that chance.”
The two guards laughed, and Davos smiled over at them, making Blake beyond furious. “Oh, so you think this is funny?” He folded his arms and glared at Davos. “Go on then. Ask me your fucking questions. And after I answer them I may never speak to you again.”
He shook his head and sat down by Blake again. Blake tried to jerk away, but the bed was too narrow. He moved as close to the edge as he could.
“Blake Cameron, I need to know if you are a spy for the Alliance.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Answer my question!”
“Technically, it wasn’t a question. Simply a statement of what you need.”
“Blake Cameron…”
“Okay… No.”
“I’m warning you…”
“That’s my answer. No.”
Davos blinked, looking confused for a moment. “Are you saying you’re not a spy?”
“Uh…yeah,” He sighed. “That’s what I’m saying. Let me be clear. I am not a spy. No way. No how. Next question.”
He frowned at Blake, his back was rigid and stiff. “Why did you say just now that your name is Mycantheum? Why do you keep implying we are mates?”
“It’s not an implication. We are mates, and that’s my name. I’m your nobyo, in fact, and the father of your children. You gave your name to me when we married.”
One of the soldiers gave a short sound of amusement but quickly stifled it when Davos glared at him. “Are you mentally ill, Blake Cameron?”
Blake spluttered. “A-am I what? Am I crazy? Is that what you just asked me?”
“We are at war with the humans of the Alliance, and I won’t be swayed by you pretending to be ill. I have had the doctors examine your head and there were no serious injuries. Nothing physically wrong. Nothing to indicate a mental illness. However, if you are truly ill, as I begin to believe you may be, we won’t harm you and you’ll be confined to a hospital within the prison grounds. Perhaps we can trade you back to the Alliance for one of our own men. Do you understand? It would be to your benefit to cooperate and tell us what you know.”
“I-I’m not sure.”
“What is unclear?”
Blake laughed and he could hear how brittle it sounded. “Oh, pretty much everything.” He turned his head away and stared out the window, his eyes filling with tears again. “Maybe I am crazy.” Blake leaned forward and grabbed Davos’s hand, gripping it tightly. The men by the door made a move to come to Davos’s aid, but he waved them off, seemingly irritated with them. He gazed into Blake’s eyes as if trying to figure him out.
“Look at me,” Blake said suddenly, looking up at him. “Please. Look into my eyes and tell me you don’t know me.”
Davos gazed steadily back at him and then slowly shook his head. “I never saw you before last night.”
Blake closed his eyes as the pain swept through him. When Davos had gazed into his eyes, Blake had seen no recognition there. No hint that this was any kind of game. Which left only three possibilities—either Davos and everyone around him had been stricken with amnesia. They were all playing some elaborate and complicated joke on him. Or—the third possibility—he had completely lost his mind.
He slumped down and covered his face with his hands. The room was silent for a moment and then Davos squeezed his hand. His voice this time was softer, gentler.
“Can you go on? Do you feel well enough to continue answering questions?”
Blake sighed. Was he? He could only answer the things he knew about. His reality, however flawed it apparently appeared to be to these people. “Why not?” he whispered. “Though you won’t believe me.”
“Are you working with the Alliance?”
“No. We’re not at war with the Alliance anymore. All that ended after Mikos’s marriage, and we have a treaty with them now. The Axis won the war.”
“Who is the Axis?”
“You are. Tygeria. And its allies. Well, now I suppose it’s everybody, since as I said, the Axis won the war.”
Davos gazed at him steadily, his eyes wary. “And who is this Mikos?”
“Mikos is our eldest son. Mine and yours.” Blake buried his face in his hands. “God, I don’t know if you’re crazy or I am. Please, Davos, if this is all some game you’re playing, if you’re gaslighting me, or trying to make me think I’m batshit crazy, you have to stop! Something terrible may have happened to Larz. He didn’t show up at his school, and I’m just worried sick about him. Mikos has gone to look for him, but I’m really frightened.”
Davos continued to gaze at him for a long moment as if he were trying to figure him out and then stood up beside him.
“Blake Cameron, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t know some of these words you’re using or any of these people you’ve mentioned, though you speak as if I do.”
Blake put a hand to his forehead in despair and Davos touched his shoulder.
“Calm yourself. As I said, no harm will come to you if you’re truly ill. I think you answered me truthfully with the serum we gave you, and I’m mostly satisfied that you’re not a spy, though I still think you know more than you’re saying. Your mind is so disordered that it’s hard to tell. You don’t seem to be any kind of soldier. But I still have questions about how you came to be in our airspace, not to mention what happened to your crew. Perhaps I’ll come back to see you a bit later.”
“I…I don’t…I don’t know what happened to my crew. Or my ship—do you have it? Did you find the crew?”
He looked at him oddly. “Not your crew. But we have your ship, yes. It has some technology we’re unfamiliar with. We want to question you about that.”
“I don’t know anything about the technology. I swear it.”
He nodded, looking unconvinced. “I’ll allow you to rest for now, and I’ll instruct the doctors to give you injections to calm you. You still seem agitated. You’re in the prison hospital at the moment, in the section for mental patients.”
Blake felt stunned at the news, though he supposed he should have guessed as much. This room, even as stark and barren as it was, was still far better than any cell in a Tygerian prison. “I’m not insane,” he said softly, mostly to convince himself.
Davos kept talking as if he hadn’t said anything. “You can leave this room if you like and go outside in the fenced areas. As long as you remain calm and don’t cause a problem, I’ll allow you some freedom of movement within the grounds. None of the other patients in this area are violent, and I am assuming you’ll be the same. There is no escape from here, and insults to my men will not be tolerated. Do you understand?”
“No,” Blake said, feeling exhausted. He was trembling a little. “I don’t understand a damn thing.”
He sighed and shook his head. “I can’t decide if this is all an act, or if you are truly ill. But you were on a ship in our airspace that had markings similar to Tygerian insignia. Obviously, you couldn’t have piloted that ship on your own. Yet you were all alone, and the ship landed on our planet, but there was no sign of any crew at the ship or in the forests nearby. We’ve searched for them extensively and found nothing. Not even remains. Until I know for sure what happened to your crew, you’ll be closely monitored. Do I make myself clear?”
Blake shook his head hopelessly, helplessly. “Not really.”
Davos held his gaze a few moments longer and then sighed. “You’re being difficult. I’ll come back later to speak to you, Blake Cameron. If you’re only pretending to be confused, you should know that you’re not doing yourself any favors. I can’t help you unless you’re honest with me. We may have to give you more injections to help that process along.”
“Are you—interested in helping me, that is?”
Davos put a hand on his bare shoulder. “I find you very confusing to talk to. But yes, I want to help. There’s something…odd here. I’m intrigued.” He glanced over his shoulder at the guards and abruptly dismissed them with a few harsh words. He looked back down at Blake after the door closed behind them and put a knuckle under Blake’s chin to tip up his face. “And I confess I find myself drawn to you, human, despite my better judgement. It is most confusing.”
Arrogantly, he pushed the blanket off Blake’s body to expose it to his gaze. His gaze flickered up to Blake’s, not to ask permission, because he clearly felt he didn’t have to, but maybe to gauge his reaction. Blake didn’t try to stop him, just stared steadily up at him, waiting to hear what he would say. His body wasn’t as good as it used to be—he’d had six children after all and had the scars to prove it. But he had worked hard over the past couple of cycles to tighten and tone his muscles. He had no false modesty and knew he’d always been considered attractive, yet he still waited a bit nervously to hear what Davos might say to him.
After a long moment during which Davos’s gaze roamed freely over his body, he looked into Blake’s eyes and smiled. “We’ve taken some humans as captives in the past, you know, and made a few of them into our love slaves.” His hand caressed the side of Blake’s face. “The pretty ones, at least, like you, even though you are a bit older than most. I think that you would still look good in my bed.” He let his warm hand trail across Blake’s stomach, perilously close to his cock, which gave a hopeful twitch and a throb because it was Davos, after all, and he was close to Blake and touching him. Davos noticed as he seemed to notice everything. He smiled down at him. “It seems you might like that idea too. I’ll send for you later, so we can continue our discussion.”
Blake simply shook his head and put his forearm across his eyes. Tears were sliding down his cheeks and he didn’t want Davos to see them. After a long moment, Blake felt him move away and heard the door close behind him. The room was silent, so he lifted his arm and saw he was finally alone. Slowly, he pulled the cover back over his body. There were simply no words to express how he was feeling. How alone and bewildered he felt. How abandoned. He closed his eyes and let the tears slide down his face unheeded.