Starkissed (18 page)

J’Qhir said nothing, but moved to the two-meter arc. Leith knelt beside him.

“Now, you choossse whether to try to move your ssstone clossser or an opponent’sss farther away by propelling another ssstone and trying to hit whichever you choossse.”

He positioned his hand so that the bent knuckle of his index finger rested close to the line. The stone nestled in the crook of his finger, his thumb pressed hard against the underside of his finger ready to release and shoot the stone. Like playing marbles, Leith www.samhainpublishing.com

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Lanette

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realized, although she had only played a few times during childhood. At first she was amazed that his people and hers had developed the same shooting technique, but then she realized it wasn’t too remarkable. There were only so many ways to manipulate a humanoid hand.

J’Qhir let go and the stone shot toward his, pushing it closer to the center. He sat back on his heels.

“My turn?” Leith asked, picking up a stone, and J’Qhir nodded. Leith positioned herself, fixed the stone in her hand and shot. The stone arced up and over J’Qhir’s and landed past the other side of the third ring.

She could have sworn she heard a snort from J’Qhir. He made some barely audible sound, but whether it was suppressed amusement or disapproval, she didn’t know.

“This is very similar to a game called marbles. It’s been ages since I’ve played,” she defended herself. “More than fifteen years.”

“The lassst time I played thisss game was the ssseassson my mother died. That wasss…ninety-eight yearsss ago.”

“In Zi years,” Leith guessed. “Do we continue playing or do you get my stones now?”

“We clear the playing field now.” J’Qhir reached for his stones. “I alwaysss ussse Terran Ssstandard. Othersss ssseem to have trouble making the conversssion.”

As he spoke, Leith leaned over to pick up her widely distributed stones, but froze as his words sank in.
Ninety-eight
Terran Standard years—

“Leith, ssstop!” J’Qhir shouted.

She snatched her hand back and looked the floor over, expecting to see a snake or bug or something, but she didn’t see anything. “What’s wrong?”

“You lossst the ssstonesss, and they are not yoursss anymore.”

“I wasn’t going to keep them,” she snapped.

“A Zi doesss not touch what isss not hisss—or hersss.”

She was tired of playing games and tired of his rules. And she was stunned to find she was desperately attracted to and maybe falling in love with someone over a hundred years old. She dreamed of him when she slept and daydreamed of him when awake. If it was as simple as her body finally awakening to its sexual needs, why did she dream of J’Qhir? Wouldn’t her subconscious conjure an image from the men she’d dated or found attractive or the latest vid stars? Why J’Qhir, unless it was he she truly desired?

Leith asked as calmly as she could, “How old are you?”

“One hundred, eight.” The grammatical correctness of his response only served to emphasize the antiquity of the number.

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“I’m twenty-one.”

“A youngling,” he said softly, and she could almost hear the amusement in his voice.

“I’m not a youngling. I’m an adult!” The pronouncement only made her sound more childish. “What I mean is, it may seem very young to you, but I’ve reached maturity.”

That sounded worse! Leith’s face grew hot and she crawled toward the fire. She piled on more wood to keep her hands busy. With luck, he would think her rosy tint was a reflection of the flames.

J’Qhir walked around and carefully lowered himself onto his beast blanket. He tucked one leg underneath him, but kept the injured one at a more comfortable angle. He pulled out his weaving and squinted into the light

“The average lifessspan of a Zi isss over two hundred, fifty Terran Ssstandard yearsss. A dissstant relative in my clan isss nearly three hundred. Yesss, twenty-one isss very young.” He bent to his work.

”””

“Tonight we tell jokes,” Leith announced the next evening.

J’Qhir shook his head. “No, not tonight, Leith. We have much work to do.”

“We can make our baskets while we talk. Jokes are easy. Have you ever heard a knock-knock joke?”

He shook his head again, his mouth pressed into a grim line. She couldn’t imagine what he had against jokes.

“Don’t the Zi do jokes?” she asked.

He nodded reluctantly and shrugged. “But I have no way with telling them.”

“Then I will tell you jokes.”

“That would be unfair.” He would not meet her eyes. “Can we not have one peaceful evening?”

“I suppose…”

Leith tried to concentrate on making her basket, but jokes kept running through her mind.

“Just a few jokes, please. Then I’ll be quiet. I promise.”

J’Qhir closed his eyes and said wearily, “Very well, if you mussst.”

It had occurred to her earlier that she had yet to see him smile. It was still on her agenda, one of the things she meant to accomplish before she died. She thought she might as well start now, and it looked like it was a good thing. She was going to have her work cut out for her.

“Knock-knock jokes are based on puns. I say, ‘Knock, knock’,” and you say, ‘Who’s there?’”

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Lanette

Curington

“Why would I asssk, ‘Who isss there?’ when I know you are the one sssaying

‘knock, knock’?”

He still would not meet her eyes, keeping his gaze on his work. She had the feeling he was being purposefully obtuse this evening. Something was wrong, but she couldn’t pinpoint the cause.

“Because I will answer with a name or word or phrase. Then you will repeat my answer and add ‘who’. For example, I say, ‘Knock, knock’ and you say, ‘Who’s there?’

Then I say, ‘Isabel’ and you’ll—”

“Who isss thisss Isssabel?”

Still, he had not raised his eyes.

“If you let me finish, you’ll find out. Then you say, ‘Isabel who?’ and I finish with the punch line, ‘Isabel ringing’?”

Leith smiled although the joke wasn’t particularly funny, especially since there was no bell ringing. It worked better in school when the bell sounded for a change of classes.

It actually worked best when one was about ten years old.

He didn’t laugh, didn’t smile, didn’t raise his head.

“Knock, knock.”

He waited a few moments, then said, “Who isss there?”

“Amos.”

“Amosss who?”

“A mosquito bit me. Knock, knock.”

She thought she heard him hiss under his breath, then, “Who isss there?”

“Andy.”

“Andy who?”

“And he bit me again.”

Leith smiled widely. Those two had been her favorite when she was very young.

He was silent a moment, then asked, “What isss a mosssquito?”

The smile dropped from her face. “A small flying insect, very annoying. They bite, suck blood, and leave an itchy bump behind.”

“Ssss.”

Leith slumped in dejection. She wracked her brain trying to remember at least one funny joke of the thousands she had heard in her life. As with games and songs, she couldn’t recall any but the most basic. Rules wouldn’t come, lyrics were only half-remembered… Then it came to her, a joke Steve had told her on the way to Arreis.

“Three starmen walk into a bar, a Danid, a Hykaisite, and a Peridot. Each orders a glass of Numerian brine. When the drinks are served, three flyworms buzz near and one www.samhainpublishing.com

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lands in each glass. The Danid wrinkles his nose, pushes his drink aside and orders another. The Hykaisite tosses the flyworm away, and gulps down his drink. The Peridot picks up the flyworm and starts shaking it over his glass shouting, ‘Spit it out, ya farking dorgian! Spit it out!’”

Leith held her breath. It was interstellar humor, something he should understand. If that one didn’t make him at least smile, nothing would, and she might as well give up.

She watched him closely. He blinked rapidly, more than once or twice, and his jaw muscles clenched tightly. Then…he smiled!

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106

Lanette

Curington

J’Qhir’s appreciation of the humor overcame his self-control. His mouth curved at the corners, edges parting to reveal the two rows of his sharp teeth. Leith’s eyes widened— By the rock, what had he done! He had been told the baring of his teeth would frighten humans. They would perceive it as a threat and react defensively. He had been so careful for so long and now—

Leith jumped toward him. She threw her arms at him and pressed her face to his, her soft pink lips closing in on his mouth. Instinctively, his body tensed and his jaws snapped shut to cover his teeth.

“
Ow!
” she yelped as he backed away from her and staggered to his feet. She clamped a hand to her mouth. When she withdrew it, a drop of blood stained her fingers. “You-You-You
bit
me!”

“Leith, b-beg forgivenesss,” he stammered. Then he shook his head. He straightened his rigid form and glowered down at her. “I did not
bite
you. Your flesssh ssscraped acrosss my teeth. What did you expect when you attack me in thisss ssstrange fassshion?”

“
Attack
you?” Leith stared at him incredulously. It hadn’t taken decades after all to make him smile. It had only taken the right kind of joke. She was so elated she had reacted before she could consider the implications or consequences. She had thrown her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth to his. Deep inside, she hoped he would respond as a
man.
She should have known it wouldn’t be so easy. He wasn’t a man, he was Zi…and he thought she had attacked him!

Leith tried to control the laughter but couldn’t. She clamped both hands over her mouth to suppress it, but giggles escaped in short bursts. He stared at her, his crest knotted in confusion, his eyes unblinking, his mouth a grim slash. His serious expression sent her over the edge. She nearly doubled over, laughter wracking her body.

She has finally gone mad!
J’Qhir thought in alarm as he watched liquid stream from her eyes and her arms wrap around her waist. She jerked spasmodically and strange deep-throated sounds emitted from her. He damned himself as she had explained he should do www.samhainpublishing.com

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when one caused a terrible calamity to befall another. He had provoked her attack then driven her insane. All because he had smiled.

J’Qhir didn’t know what to do to help her. He could only watch her collapse onto the beast blanket pallet, then fall to her back in a coughing fit. Between hacking coughs, her body shook and guttural noises continued to escape sporadically.

He eased down beside her, allowing his good knee and arm to support his weight.

She glanced at him occasionally, but each time her body convulsed and she closed her eyes against the sight of him.

Every time she looked at him she would be reminded of the frightful appearance of him baring his teeth. J’Qhir decided he would have to leave her.

“Leith,” he whispered so as not to scare her again. His fingers ran through the ends of her brown hair. How many times had he crept close to her in the middle of the night and touched the silken filaments as she lay sleeping? “I will go away, deeper into the cavesss. I will not frighten you again.”

Her wet round eyes popped open. A gurgle caught in her throat, and she coughed once to clear it. “
What?
”

J’Qhir turned away from her. If she didn’t look at him, she wouldn’t become hysterical again.

“I will move deeper into the cavesss. You won’t have to sssuffer my uglinesss any longer.” There. He said it. Among his own kind, he was considered neither homely nor comely. All Zi looked remarkably similar. To humans, especially a female, he had to appear brutish even without the baring of his teeth. How had she withstood his countenance this long?

He felt her stir behind him, no doubt preparing to pack up his share of their supplies and send him on his way. Suddenly, she was upon him. Her hands latched onto his shoulders, pressing him back until he lay supine beneath her. Brown hair brushed his cheeks and neck. His
vha’seh
tightened and his
jha’i
threatened to release. He lay as still as a stone so that he would not disgrace himself beyond redemption.

“Are you crazy?” she snapped, her full lips parted, showing square teeth so unlike his own. He did not know if her people considered her beauteous. To him, humans were so different from Zi, there was no way to compare. He only knew his heart beat faster whenever she looked at him, and his blood pounded wildly through his veins whenever she was close to him. His
jha’i
felt as if it might explode at the slightest pressure.

He shook his head and turned away from her. “Leith—”

Warm fingers cupped his chin and brought him around to face her. “I didn’t attack you, J’Qhir. I kissed you.”

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Lanette

Curington

“Kisss?” The touching of lips, a custom of many species, including humans.

“Yesss…” she murmured, subconsciously mimicking his sibilant speech pattern.

“I’m sorry I laughed. It’s been so long since I’ve had something to laugh about, I couldn’t stop once I started.”

“You—You were
laughing?
” Blood rushed to his face and burned hotly. Only two circumstances caused a Zi to give off any extra heat—acute embarrassment and
rhiìnaà,
the mating ritual. Blood vessels expanded and engorged. The dense accumulation of blood caused the extra warmth. Stimulation of certain nerve endings—sss’t! Recitation of his ancient studies did not lessen the expansion and engorgement of either set of blood vessels at this moment. “Leith, I have ssseen you laugh, but thisss…thisss wasss not laughing.”

“It was very funny that you thought I attacked you.” She rubbed the back of her hand over his cheek. “There are different kinds of laughter, just as there are different kinds of kisses. Don’t the Zi kiss?”