AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Second?"
"Aye, I already groomed her for over an IG hour this morning before we continued our search for you."
He stopped, an uncomfortable expression replacing his easy smile. He'd said something he'd not intended to voice.
"Search for me? Me specifically?" The anger that had only just abated returned with full force. "You didn't just abduct me, you also stalked me?!"
"It's not like that," he started, but I cut him off.
"I don't know what I'm even doing here. Grooming a unicorn while I should be trying to get home. Are you going to bring me back to Earth?"
An'tia nudged the small of my back, but I ignored her. I didn't want to lose my fury again. Her peaceful presence had made me forget for just a moment that I was a captive here. That I'd been taken against my will. I wouldn't let her distract me from my righteous anger.
“No,” he said softly. Was that regret swinging in his melodic voice, or did I imagine that? “I’m sorry. I can’t.”
The bastard actually looked apologetic, which only made me angrier.
“Why not?" I snarled. Anger was burning in my veins and I felt like hitting something. Or someone, if a certain alien got in my way.
“Because I can’t. You are… I need you.”
“Need me? For some experiment? Are you going to probe me?!” I sounded hysterical, but I didn’t care. I had a right to be furious.
“Nothing like that,” he said, still calm as a purple cucumber. “I have to study how you react to An’tia and if you start believing in her existence.”
I turned to look at the unicorn, then back at Bruin. Confusion warred with anger. “Are you saying An’tia isn’t real? Am I hallucinating? Oh fuck, are we not in space at all? Is this some kind of drug-induced trip?”
“No, you got it all wrong.” Bruin sounded just as confused as I felt. “She’s real, as real as you and I. If I promise to explain everything, will you calm down?”
“I will calm down if you promise to take me home,” I snapped.
“I can’t make that promise. But you might change your mind once you know the truth. Calm down, please?”
His soulful dark eyes were begging me to listen to him. Fuck that man. I couldn’t just give in. Although would it really hurt to postpone my next angry outburst and find out what was really going on?
“You have five minutes,” I said coldly.
“Do you mind if I join you in grooming An’tia? Her horn needs polishing.”
I was very tempted to say no, but I also didn’t want to go anywhere near the unicorn’s sharp horn.
“Go ahead, but don’t you dare touch me.”
He smiled and took a cloth from the table. I kept some safe distance between us and started brushing An’tia’s hind quarters. Grooming her gave me something to focus on that wasn’t related to Bruin.
He stayed silent for a minute while he gently ran the cloth over her horn. An’tia seemed to enjoy it. Could a unicorn like someone who was evil? All the legends said that they were attracted to innocent virgins, but it was possible the myths got it wrong. Maybe space unicorns liked rogues and rebels instead of virgins.
“My sire is a professor at the Intergalactic University,” Bruin began slowly. He didn’t look at me, instead preferring to focus on An’tia. “He researches Peritans - humans, that is. I am a stabhorn tamer. A rather successful one, actually. Not long ago-”
“Stabhorn?” I interrupted. “Is that what you call An’tia?”
“Yes, she’s a venom-tipped stabhorn, very rare. And she almost killed me. Stabbed me in the belly. The wound on its own wouldn’t have been fatal, but in combination with the poison… let’s just say I’m lucky to be alive.”
I was tempted to step away from An’tia, now that she’d been revealed as a deadly animal, but that would have been admitting fear. I didn’t want Bruin to think me weak.
“My medical treatment was expensive,” he continued. “It got me into debt. Big debt. I would have lost everything, but then my sire offered me a way out. He read about the animals you call unicorns in your Peritan literature and was intrigued. Since I know all about stabhorns, he sent An’tia and me to Peritus. Our mission is to study Peritans’ reaction to her and whether they believe that she’s a unicorn or not. My sire thinks that will lead to other critical conclusions about Peritan behaviour and thought processes. While we travelled your world, I took notes and did some recordings that my sire can analyse. But he also asked me to abduct one or more Peritans to do a more in-depth study with.”
“Me,” I gasped. “You said you weren’t going to probe me.”
