Chapter 108: Caught
"I didn’t think that humans drank the blood of other humans," said Jun Li slowly, and I looked up at the lens in the corner of the bridge.
"There is no specific rule against it. There are some cultures that consumed the blood and flesh of their enemies, thinking that it would give them their power and strength in return. There are religions where, during every service, they are drinking the body and blood of their savior. Mind you, that is bread and wine, but the words still imply the true meaning. Then there are foods made out of the blood of different mammals. We, as humans, can eat the flesh of pretty much anything but another human at this point in time and not flinch."
I could draw on numerous historical and modern situations in which humans consumed the blood or flesh of something. And I was pretty sure that Tyris was more a rat than a human. Not like it would matter to most.
"But humans don’t tend to eat or drink the flesh or blood from anything that we consider to be sentient," I admitted. Tyris would qualify as a sentient being, but the thought of drinking his blood was not an off-putting ideal.
"Maybe the longer I am here, the less human I am going to become," I mused. I didn’t know exactly what I thought about my statement to Midnight. At that moment, it had just come out, and I didn’t regret it for a single second. But what does that say about me?
I leaned back in my chair and sighed. "It was made more than obvious by everyone that I interacted with that I couldn’t fit into what it meant to be a human," I said slowly and softly. It hadn’t upset me in a way that someone not diagnosed with psychopathy would have been upset. I was simply annoyed with the constant comparison.
But out here, the shackles of what it meant to be human didn’t exist. Yes, there were ten other humans, but no one besides Jun Li and Sha Shou knew that I was of the same species. And that granted me a lot of freedom.
Maybe I should embrace that freedom instead of continuing to restrict myself within the boundaries of what it meant to be human.
Maybe I could be more.
----
Au’dtair let out a silent growl from where he stood in the corner of the command bridge. He was not impressed with Njeriuujk. Cracking his neck back and forth to try and relieve some of the tense muscles, he tried not to go through the screen and strangle the other male.
Be his pet’s friend? Not in this lifetime.
But he would have to give it to the other male. Not many admitted to drinking the blood of their enemies. It made most of the population squeamish, but not his pet. No, his pet offered to join him; especially when it was a common enemy.
He was more than a little happy she had said that he would not lie. The Saalistaja were known to drink the blood of their kills and do much worse to their enemies. Maybe his pet would fit in with his species better than he first thought.
That was; if he ever went back to his tribe. He was enjoying the freedom of living on the same ship as his pet. Now it was only a matter of introducing himself to her without her getting scared or upset.
----
"Mei Xing," came Jun Li’s voice, once again interrupting me in the middle of reading.
"Yes, Jun Li?" I asked, putting down my cell phone and looking at the lens. I had managed to make myself a comfortable little nest of fur on the captain’s chair, and I wasn’t in the mood to leave. Hell, I still had on the thigh-high boots and helmet, and I never even noticed it until this moment.
"Could you explain to me why there are so many voragyvis in my walls?" Jun Li really didn’t sound too impressed over finding out about my little stowaways.
"How do you expect me to know?" I asked with a shrug of my shoulders. I mean, I didn’t even know where they were, let alone why they were in his walls. Maybe they were looking for something to eat? Now that I thought about it, I probably didn’t have all that much for them to eat right now. "Should we go to another world to find something for them to eat?"
"We are keeping them?" shouted Jun Li, clearly not impressed with my question.
"They are Night’s family. It’s not like I could, in good conscience, separate them. I’m a psychopath, and even I know that," I answered with a shrug of my shoulders. Taking off the helmet and hood, I shook out my hair until it fell down to the center of my back.
"There might be something at the next station that you can get to feed them," said Jun Li, and I could practically picture him narrowing his eyes at me.
There was a chime of an incoming communication, and before I could tell Jun Li to give me a second to get ready, Midnight’s face appeared on the large display screens. Lord, that AI could be petty when it wanted to be.
"Very nice, Jun Li," I said as I turned my attention back to Midnight. So much for keeping my species to myself. "Hello, Midnight."
"Merciless?" asked Midnight with a stunned look on his face.
"Yeah?" I replied with a sigh. "My ship is apparently being petty," I continued, clearly unimpressed.
Midnight was silent for a second before he visibly shook himself in his chair. "I called to ask when you wanted to do the hand-off, but if now is not a good time..." His voice trailed off, and I could see him staring at my hair.
I ran my fingers through the somewhat curly locks in frustration. "Just say it," I said, more than a little frustrated. Fucking Jun Li.
"You have a mane," said Midnight as he continued to stare. "And it is as black as the darkest night on my planet."
