The serving counter rotated with a selection of Drako’s favorite dishes, but it wasn’t the food that held his attention. It was the image of the blonde Earthling with the blue eyes in the hologram. The picture was so life-like it inspired both longing and wrath. Since the ship sent from Krina had rescued him, he couldn’t think about anything––or rather, anyone––else. He couldn’t eat or sleep. Like a cruel joke, her intoxicating attributes had stuck in his mind to haunt his senses. He could still smell her skin and taste her on his tongue. Every time he closed his eyes, he felt the way her soft body had molded around his. He could only obsess about the human female and how to get her back, which was why he’d called this meeting straight after he’d gone through a medical check-up and the debriefing of his crash.

“Hence,” Altair, the commander in charge of the Krinar’s displacement, continued, “you wouldn’t advocate cohabitation with humans.”

He spared another glance at the hologram, the picture making his chest ache. “I’d say peaceful coexistence is highly unlikely, but it requires further investigation.”

Kahvissar, one of the highest-ranking diplomats in the Krina galaxy, turned to him. “The Elders have a high regard of your opinion. It will weigh heavy in their decision.”

“He’s still very young,” Altair argued, “and the wisdom required in such a decision only comes with age.”

“The decision isn’t mine to make. Whether we allow the humans to exist or not is up to the Elders,” Drako argued.

“You will vote against allowing them to live?” Altair queried.

“Yes,” he said with hard determination. “My experience may have been brief, but from what I’ve seen, human nature is frivolous, deceitful, greedy, dishonest, and they possess no self-pride.”

“Yet, you plead for this female’s life,” Kahvissar said, studying the hologram with a finger pressed to his lips.

“Yes.” The word sounded harsh.

Kahvissar uttered a soft laugh. “Your female seems to be even more flawed than the crimes you’ve accounted to her.” He swiped through the hologram images to the broadcast declaring her a black market medicine dealer.

Drako swallowed hard. He couldn’t deny the accusation made sense. How else would she have gotten hold of medicine like antibiotics that weren’t available from over the counter? The statistics were shocking. Billions of rands’ worth of medicine was stolen each year. Only more proof of how unworthy these humans were of the Krinar’s aid. His human. No matter what she’d done, he’d claimed her the minute he’d sunk his teeth into her skin. Who was he kidding? He’d claimed her the moment he’d gotten a whiff of her smell, even before he’d laid eyes on her.

“I understand your need for revenge,” Altair said, “but it’s not an honorable or valid reason to abduct an Earthling. Let her own kind deal with her. They’ll catch up with her sooner or later.”

His hackles rose. No one was going to deal with her but him. “It’s not about revenge,” he said. “I bit her. I drank her blood. She’s in my veins.” Suddenly tired, he sank back on his plank. “Literally.”

“You have to be careful.” Kahvissar got up and folded his hands behind his back. “Taking blood can easily turn into an addiction for both of you.”

“I’m aware of the perils,” he snapped.

The medical overseer had explained it to him in detail. It was a pity he hadn’t explained it before Drako had been sent to Earth.

“I wouldn’t mind a taste,” Kahvissar said. “It sounds rather enticing.”

“Give me permission to go back to Earth and bring the female to Krina,” Drako said, “or at least to a Krina station.”

“We can’t allow such an exception,” Altair replied, “not unless you claim her as your charl.”

“No.” Drako jumped to his feet. “She’s not my charl.” Not after what she’d done to him.

Kahvissar raised a brow. “What then? A harlot?”

“Call it what you want. She’s mine, but I won’t take her as my charl.” Not the woman who’d betrayed him.

“Slavery has long since been abolished,” Altair said.

His patience was wearing thin. “I don’t want her as a slave.”

“As what then?” Altair asked.

“A sexual partner.”

“Ah.” He sighed. “We can’t give her indemnity under our law or save her from conviction by her kind unless she’s a charl. It pains me, but if you’re not interested in taking her as your charl, you’re going to have to give her up.”

Drako pushed to his feet. “I don’t want her as a human mate. I just don’t want her to die.”

Kahvissar flicked through more of the retrieved satellite archive images until he got to the one of Ilse on her knees in front of Drako’s naked body. He tilted his head. “Mind you, if you’re looking for a willing suitor, I’m prepared to save her. I’ll take her as my charl.”

Drako closed his fist, killing the hologram. “I don’t think so.”

Altair sighed again, more deeply this time. “I’ll tell you what. We have two Earth months until the Elders gather to discuss the course of action. I’ll grant you access to Earth for a month to make up your mind. You’ll either return with the female as your charl, let someone else take her as charl, or she suffers whatever fate the Elders decide for her race. If her own kind catches up with her before then, so be it. She’ll live by her laws and judgment.”

“Deal,” he said.

It was better than nothing. Maybe, in an Earth month he’d have worked her out of his system, and his persistent hard-on would abate. These violent feelings would’ve calmed enough for him to take a distance, to let Kahvissar be the one to save her.

“When you come back,” Kahvissar said, “you will hand her over to me. I like her wild spirit, and her … other talents.”

He ground his teeth. The image of her with Kahvissar was somewhere he couldn’t go, not even in his mind, but he’d meant it when he’d said he didn’t want her dead.

“Fine,” he said. “If she’ll have you, you can take her as your charl.”

“Deal,” Kahvissar echoed, his smile broad.

* * *

The fuel tank showed the car was near empty. Ilse had been driving around without direction, nearly going out of her mind with every minute that passed, knowing she was taking a risk being on the road but not having anywhere to go. She was circling the city when a sign indicated the northern highway was approaching. At long last, a plan formed in her mind. She took the highway and went off at Alexandra. With a good sense of direction, she easily found her way back to Mosa’s home.

The old lady exited her shack when Ilse parked.

“I didn’t expect another visit so soon,” Mosa said with a toothless grin when Ilse got out of her car, “which is why I’m all the more happy for it.” She wrinkled her nose. “What’s up with the new hair?”

Guilt burned like acid in Ilse’s chest. “I shouldn’t be here, but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go.”

The lines around Mosa’s wise eyes crinkled. “You’re in trouble.”

“I need to lie low for a while.”

“You came to the right place. If you want to disappear, there’s nowhere better than Alexandra.”

With the vastness of the informal settlement and the quick rate at which it changed, shacks being dismantled and new ones going up almost hourly, it was a maze for the police to search. On top of that, not many officers risked it into the suburb, knowing how easily people got knifed down in the streets, especially law enforcers for nothing more than sporting a badge.

“I’m sorry for putting you in this situation. If you can put me up just until I’ve made another plan, I’d be eternally grateful. I’ll be out of your hair in a couple of days.”

“Stay as long as you like. Come.” Mosa pushed her toward the entrance of the shack. “You must be hungry. I’m making lunch.”

“Don’t put yourself out on my behalf.” Ilse trudged along with heavy feet. “Pretend I’m not here.”

Mosa threw back her head and laughed. “Are you joking? I’m not missing out on having company. No, we’re going to eat, and then we’re playing cards. I haven’t had a rummy partner in ages.”

Despite herself, Ilse smiled, following Mosa into the dark interior.

Stirring a pot on the gas stove, Mosa pointed at the box with crockery. “You can set the table. Make sure you use my best tableware.”

She winked as Ilse pulled out the only two bowls and cups, the bowls cracked and the cups chipped. Ilse grinned at the humor. A little bit of the darkness in her soul lifted.

“After lunch,” Mosa continued, “I’ll get Samuel to bring us another mattress.”

“I’m sorry to be so much trouble.”

“No trouble at all. After the way you helped me, I’m glad you’re giving me the chance to do something for you.” She switched off the gas and poured soup into the bowls, setting one in front of Ilse. “Eat up.” She gave another wink. “You’ll need your strength to fetch our bath water.”

Mosa was a kind and distracting hostess. Little by little, Ilse relaxed at her banter and anecdotes. After lunch, they set off to fetch water. The nearest tap with running water was a good five kilometer-walk. It took them more than an hour to make the round-trip with Mosa carrying a large container on her head without spilling a drop. Ilse had a harder time with the two five liter-containers. Ten kilos got heavy after five kilometers of walking, and not used to the chore, her fingers ached where she grasped the handles. While Ilse filled the water jug and heated the rest in a big pot for their bath, Mosa set off to find Samuel.

A long while later, Samuel and a man who introduced himself as Abel came walking up the dust road, carrying a mattress between them.

Walking up ahead, Mosa waved. She called from a distance, “I got you sheets and a blanket from the neighbor.”

Ilse rushed forward to take Mosa’s load. “I don’t know how to thank you.” She nodded her gratitude to the men.

Samuel left the mattress against the wall opposite Mosa’s and came outside with his hands on his hips. He eyed Ilse’s hair. “You’re the woman from yesterday, the one who brought the medicine.”

Damn. She’d hoped it would be a bit more challenging to recognize her.

Mosa waved Abel off with an impatient flick of her hand. When he was gone, she turned to Samuel. “She’s my guest for a few days, and it’ll be wise if you keep this to yourself and your mouth shut about the medicine.”

He gave Ilse a look of contempt. “You mean she’s hiding. That’s the only reason why a woman with decent clothes and an expensive car would camp out in your shack.”

Mosa pointed a finger at him. “Don’t get cheeky. She’s been good to me.”

“Sure.” He snorted. “She’s got money.” He motioned at the gold ring on her finger. “She should pay if she’s going to lodge here.”

“Leave it, Samuel,” Mosa said angrily.

In an automatic reaction, Ilse placed a palm over her hand, hiding the ring. It had been her mom’s.

“Why must the rich bitch stay for free?” he asked.

“Samuel,” Mosa said in a chastising tone.

“He’s right,” Ilse said quickly. “Look, the ring has sentimental value, but if you help me sell my car I can pay for my board and give you commission.”

Mosa shook her pepper-gray head. “Ilse, no.”

“It’s better this way,” she said. “I need to get rid of it.”

“Fifty percent,” Samuel said.

“Fine.” She couldn’t sell it herself. Anything was better than nothing.

He held out a hand. “It’s a deal. How much do you want for it?”

She shook his hand. “Whatever you can get.”

“I’ll come back tomorrow if I can find a buyer.”

“Great. Thank you.”

He spared Mosa a glance before sauntering down the road, kicking at a rock.

“Let’s get dinner going,” Mosa said, “and then you can tell me all about this trouble you’re in.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, but the less you know the better.”

“I’m not going to talk to anyone, and no one is going to ask me questions. What does an old woman like me know, anyway? We’re going to talk, and you’re going to get this thing that’s eating you and giving you wrinkles from all that frowning off your chest.”

Ilse gave her a grateful smile. “I’m so glad I met you.”

“So am I.”

Inside, Mosa made coffee while Ilse explained what had happened at the risk of sounding crazy. She told her about buying the medicine from the black market dealer, the Krinar the SS had captured, helping him escape, and being framed by the SS. Mosa listened quietly until she’d finished, and then said, “You can’t run from the government. Not forever.”

“I know.”

“Do you think the alien, this man called Drako, will come after you?”

“Maybe. I’m hoping he made it back home.” She wiped her palms over her face. “I hope in a few weeks’ time all of this will seem like just a very bad dream.”

Mosa patted her hand. “I’m afraid that’s wishful thinking. You need to get out of the country, go over the border.”

“How? I’ll be stopped by border control.”

“I have some friends from Lesotho who work in the mines. They know how to get across the border undetected. I’ll ask them to take you.”

“They’re working here illegally, you mean.”

“Yes. I have family in Lesotho. They’ll take you in. It’ll give you time to work out something.”

“I don’t want to drag you into my mess.”

“No one will suspect a thing. I’ll get a message to my friends at the mine. One of them should be able to get leave for the weekend to take you to Lesotho.”

Ilse took a shaky breath. “If Samuel manages to sell my car, you must keep my half.”

“No,” Mosa said with much determination. “You will need it. Maybe you can buy a fake passport and bus fare to Namibia, and start a new life there. This thing the SS did is terrible. They won’t let it go. Imagine what trouble it’ll cause for our government if it ever comes out. The whole world will be against us. Best-case scenario, there’ll be sanctions against South Africa. Worst case, the SS will be accused of human rights violations. To ensure that doesn’t happen, they won’t stop hunting you until you’re dead. You mustn’t talk to anyone about this. Don’t tell anyone what you’ve told me. Money makes good people commit horrendous crimes, and that reward on your head is as good a temptation as one can get.”

“Don’t I know that.”

Mosa took their empty mugs and got to her feet. “Let’s not talk about this, anymore. Even in Alexandra, the walls have ears.” She carried the mugs to the dish that served as kitchen sink.

“I need to use a smartphone. Do you know anyone who’d let me use theirs?”

“What for?”

“To send an anonymous tip about the black market dealer to the media.”

“I’ll ask the man who’ll call my friends at the mine if we can borrow his phone. Go ahead and wash up first. I’ll go now to give you privacy.”

Mosa lifted the cloth that served as door and left the shack. When the makeshift curtain fell back, Ilse filled the plastic bath with the water she’d heated and stripped her blouse. The day was hot. The walk to fetch water had been long and the road dusty. She’d feel better after cleaning up. She was reaching for the button of her jeans when the flap lifted and light streamed into the shack. She turned with a start. Samuel walked through the entrance, his stride urgent.

She pressed the blouse to her chest. “You should knock.”

He laughed. “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s no door.”

“Mosa’s not here.”

“I know.”

“Did you come about the car? Have you found a buyer, already?”

“No.” His fingers locked around her wrist. “I came for five thousand rand.”