i served fruit drinks-all of which were liberally laced with rum. snacks were placed by each lounge chair. "bring another round of these," jazal demanded after sipping his drink. i nodded, lifted the drink tray and went back to mix another batch. they had three drinks each before they were done. honestly, they were all better people when they were drunk.

"this ox-roast very good." arvil's guests appeared to be part reptile. that's what they looked like to me. their faces were humanoid, but they had slitted eyes, just as a snake did. their nostrils, too, were a bit on the narrow side and they sounded slightly short of breath when they spoke-as if they were hissing. the one who seemed to be in charge was complimenting my food.

"it is a pleasure to serve it to you," i gave a slight, respectful bow. i hadn't been introduced to any of the guests, so i couldn't give an honorific to his name. i'd served the ox-roast wrapped in mushrooms, sauce and pastry, in addition to baby vegetables, the soup arvil loved, crispy rolls, salad and dessert.

"master arvil, i like this served at my home," the same guest spoke again slowly, as if he were thinking carefully about each word before he spoke.

"perhaps something might be arranged," arvil smiled. jazal was still drinking and didn't speak. it was probably better that way. anith was talking animatedly with another guest, who was politely ignoring her. lita and kita sat on either side of delvin. well, he was making his bed. at least arvil didn't get homicidal when somebody slept with his cousins.

"we'll bring two more assistants from the san gerxon," arvil told me inside the kitchen later. his guests had gone to arvil's media room with jazal and the others. our current assistants were there pouring drinks. xiri and i were doing our best to clean everything up.

"thank you, lord arvil," i nodded to him. xiri was doing the same.

"next time, i'll try not to shoot the garbage inside your kitchen, reah." arvil walked out, heading toward the media room and his guests.

"he needs a new woman and fast," xiri muttered. i agreed. i didn't want arvil san gerxon to come anywhere near me. at times, he was polite and congenial. until he decided to kill you, that is.

"we have eight new houseguests, plus the brother and his crew," i sighed as i sat next to teeg on the sofa. he'd been watching news vids when i arrived-campiaa had pirated feeds from the alliance.

"who are they?" teeg casually stroked fingers against my temple.

"no idea-they look humanoid for the most part, but their eyes are slitted like a snake's and they have small nostrils and hiss a little when they talk," i closed my eyes; teeg's fingers were sending me to sleep.

"come to bed, baby." teeg's voice was soft as he lifted me and carried me down the hall. i wasn't awake when he got me into bed.

the pounding on teeg's door in the middle of the night had us both off the bed in less than a blink, only teeg was growling as he pulled on his pants. i didn't have time to wonder or worry over being in his bed to begin with. i was right behind him when he flung his door open after checking the security camera on the wall. delvin was outside, waiting for us to answer the door.

"arvil wants both of you to come and come quick, we're getting away from campiaa-tonight."

teeg and i were flinging clothing, shoes and toiletries into bags that teeg pulled out of his closet. delvin was tight-lipped when teeg asked him where we were going. a hover-limo waited for us outside; the driver helped teeg fling bags into the back and we were at arvil's palace in a fraction of a click. the other thing that surprised me, in addition to my being wakened like that, was that there were no less than six females i didn't recognize who were going with us.

"arvil employs them-they service his best guests," teeg whispered when nobody was listening to us. the amount of luggage for arvil, his brother, wife and cousins, the wizards, all eight of them and the houseguests was staggering. xiri's gear, with that of his two assistants, was much more modest.

"i wouldn't have taken you, teeg, but we have to keep reah happy," arvil tapped the top of my head. my hair was growing back some-i no longer looked like i'd been shaved.

"i'll do my best to keep her happy," teeg said. arvil's wizards folded us away, bags included.

chapter 7

"welcome to my home." the guest who'd spoken the night before was giving us a formal greeting now. his home was a large, single-story in a plantation style. tile and wood floors were everywhere, and it was spotless. he had a good housekeeping staff, looked like.

"we not properly introduced," our host took my hand and bowed over it slightly. he had skipped over some of his words. i noticed that the others did the same, whenever they spoke. "fine cook is rare. i am farzinalek, but please to call me farzi." that was easy to remember; it sounded a lot like marzi-another person i would never forget. "of course, master farzi." i nodded respectfully.

"where are we staying?" anith's voice was annoyingly whiny. teeg was pulling me away from farzi even as he thought to address the problem of his other guests. arvil, his family and his wizards all got rooms inside the main house. teeg and i were given a guest bungalow a few steps away. xiri and his assistants got the bungalow next to ours. farzi looked as if he'd prefer to send jazal and anith to a bungalow, but that would offend arvil so he didn't.

"reah, you and xiri will be helping with the cooking here, since we are imposing on farzi," delvin informed me. i nodded before we were led out the door and shown to our bungalow.

"baby, i wanted you in my bed before, but i wasn't going to do anything." i listened to teeg's words as we both stared at the wide bed inside the only bedroom in our bungalow. "i'll sleep on the sofa if that's what you want," he added.

"no. let's just go to bed-i'm tired and i don't know how much they'll expect me to do in the morning," i muttered.

"come on," teeg pulled me with him. our bags had been left on the floor, teeg and i stripped to our underwear and crawled into bed like that. when the aud-alarm went off in the morning, i found myself pulled tightly against teeg and his body was angled over mine. he didn't want to let me up, either, but let me go after a few kisses and protests.

"we got moved because our eight guests got wind that the alliance was tailing them on the last part of their trip to campiaa. arvil didn't want trouble, so he had his wizards move us here," xiri hissed as we went through cabinets to see what we had to work with.

they must have been important for arvil to come back with them, but i didn't tell xiri that. he loved to gossip and could get more information out of anybody than anyone else i'd ever known. i got confirmation on xiri's gossip a few ticks later when lendill spoke in my mind. reah, where are you? he asked.

no idea-we got moved in the middle of the night, i answered. lendill cursed in several languages.

are you with san gerxon and several reptanoids?

is that what they are?

yes.

i wanted to ask about reptanoids but didn't-i had no desire to get a mental slap on the head.

reah, do you have any idea where you are now?

no. it looks like a jungle outside-lots of tropical trees and plants, and it's really humid. i only saw that this morning, while i was walking to the main house. single level-looks like a plantation home. huge.

reah, we've been after those reptanoids for a while. if you can get any information on where you are, send it right away.

all right.

"reah, what we have for breakfast today?" farzi had come into the kitchen.

"what would you like, master farzi?"

"whatever you make we welcome." i wondered why lendill had been after these for so long. was there an entire planet of these beings or were there only a few? what had they done that the asd wanted them? "i dismiss cooking staff before we leave for campiaa; they not good anyway." his clipped common speech made me think that he had another language, although his words in the common tongue were precise.

xiri gave me a look as farzi settled himself onto a chair at the island and we cooked breakfast for him. others wandered in, including more reptanoids, wizards and finally, arvil. jazal and his crew were still in bed.

"you have carpenter with you?" farzi turned to arvil.

"he can do anything as far as building goes," arvil replied.

"perhaps he help me-we find a way to kill wood-chewing ants here. but much wood on south side of house needs replacing," farzi said. "ours here now not know much in way of building."

that told me that the reptanoids hadn't put up the house or anything around it. had they bought this place or gotten it some other way?

"reah, find teeg and bring him in-we'll see if he can help farzi out." wiping my hands on a towel, i nodded at xiri to keep up his inventory and went off toward our bungalow.

"teeg, we can feed you at the house-i think they need help repairing termite damage and none of them know what to do," i said. teeg was up, dressed and going through the tiny kitchenette we had, looking for something to eat. we didn't have anything there-i saw that right away.

teeg got his breakfast in the main kitchen later as he listened to farzi describe his insect troubles.

"not a surprise, they like moist, warm places," teeg agreed. i took his empty plate and he followed farzi toward the south end of the house.

"i am come to help with missing food." a reptanoid came silently through the wide door. xiri stared at our new arrival, so i had to piece out what he meant.

"you mean you'll help us get what we need?"

"yes-what is missing." he gestured toward the cabinets.

"very good-where can we find missing food?" i was getting on board with this. he grinned at me, which transformed his face. i couldn't help but smile back at him. he and the others all had brown hair and golden-brown, slitted eyes. in the dim interior of the plantation's kitchen, his eyes rounded until they appeared almost humanoid. so far, too, i hadn't seen anything violent from any of the eight reptanoids and wondered again why the asd hunted them.