2016 Top Ten Gay Romance Read online

  * * * *

  “Jahstan.”

  Justin looked at the open doorway, unsurprised to see Sajah, the silver-eyed alien that had bound him at his ship’s wreckage, entering his tiny hovel.

  Two weeks ago, when they’d marched Justin through the circular cluster of the village, bound as a prisoner, he wouldn’t have anticipated befriending any of them, let alone one of their leaders. Captive as he was, however, Justin didn’t begrudge the natives their wariness.

  His hut was small, sparsely furnished, and the food left much to be desired, namely meat, but he hadn’t been mistreated. Besides, there was a window at least, and Justin found some amusement at watching the natives at his most bored points of the day. Watching the warriors train in the clearing, just visible between the two adjacent huts to his own, Justin had been able to glean a small amount of information about his keeper, Sajah. The alien had to be very high in the command chain, if the diffidence the warriors paid him was any indication.

  As the hulking native approached the small table on the far side of the hut, Justin rose to his feet to meet him. “Hey, Sajah,” he greeted with a light chuckle. “Talk?”

  They’d taken him down to the river yesterday to bathe and lie in the sun, something that had become a ritual since he arrived. He wondered, idly, if that it was custom among these people to be so fastidious with hygiene or if his human odor was just that offensive. At any rate, it wasn’t bath day, and his morning meal had already come and been devoured, so he was leaning toward ‘social call’ for this visit.

  “Slept?” Sajah began with his customary questions. The ‘L’ was just above too soft to hear and the ‘T’ was more a click of Sajah’s teeth than a solid consonant, but Justin understood it all the same. It became easier with each interaction to decipher the nuances of Sajah’s valiant efforts at a new language.

  “Yes, very well, thank you.” He wasn’t lying either. There was a soothing vibe to the whole area and even the quiet sounds of the wild animals in the distance seemed to add to the calmness. Almost too peaceful, truth be told.

  “How are the villagers?” Not that he had really met any of them but it was a good conversation starter and a question the being knew. Anuht, his primary guard, tended to keep him away from the others whenever Justin needed to leave the hut, which was usually only to go to the stream to bathe. But he saw them at a distance, busy with tasks around the place, guarding the perimeter, cooking. He and Anuht had been lucky enough to run into one or two of the inhabitants. The handful of encounters always went the same though. His guard would call out a greeting, at least that’s what Justin assumed, and the other being would answer back. Justin said his hello, hoping the sentiment was conveyed. The alien would answer in kind, but with a lowering of the head and none of them would meet his eyes.

  Well, Justin hoped that it was just because he was new to their world and the villagers were uncertain of him. For now, he had time to earn their trust, provided he avoided a lethal faux pas or broke some major taboo.

  Sajah fixed him with a knowing look, mouth upturned slightly at the corners. “Same as last time suns rose.” His words were heavily accented, struggling over the vowels.

  “Which is?” Justin huffed and motioned towards the door, irritated. “All I do is see you guys work. Gathering, fixing, patrolling. Something interesting has to happen around here.” He turned pleading eyes on Sajah, hoping he understood even half of what Justin was trying to tell him. “Tell me anything, anything at all. Hell, I’ll even take scuttlebutt at this point.”

  Sajah laughed, the sound a deep and pleasant rumble. “Hetanah give clan two new small ones as dark came.” The pride in his eyes was easy to see. “Ranteh is first to come. Nihja is second.”

  “Babies?” Justin grinned at the confused look Sajah gave him and tried to indicate standard human baby size with his hands. “That’s what humans call new small ones like,” and he stumbled over the names a little, the foreign sounds still not comfortable on his tongue, “Nihja and Ranteh.” Delighted, Justin waved at his companion. “What do they look like? Colors?”

  Sajah’s nose crinkled in a captivating way and Justin scrambled through his still woefully inadequate native vocabulary for the words he needed, but Sajah smiled. “Red is Nihja. Red as jatta.”

  “Jatta?” And then it clicked. “You mean the color of that fake pomegranate fruit you tell me I don’t have to peel to eat?” Justin chuckled. “That’s very red.”

  “Ranteh is night like me.”

  “Night? Oh! Black!” Impulsively, Justin reached out and caressed a tendril of Sajah’s crow black hair that had fallen over a large shoulder. Sajah growled softly, eyes flashing hot and Justin jerked his hand back as his face paled. “Sorry. That was really fucking rude of me.” He clenched his hands together in his lap to hide their trembling and to resist the unfathomable urge to bury his hands in the unexpectedly silky mane. Damn.

  The alien shook his head and grinned. Slowly, Sajah reached out in turn and gently laid his hand on the black shirt Justin was wearing, careful to keep his sharp talons sheathed. “Blahck.” One more caress and Sajah pulled away. “Nahnet is same.”

  “Huh.” Justin’s smile returned. “That’s an easy word.”

  “Nahnet is empty to be filled. Same as blahck, same as night and no stars.” Sajah’s eyes unfocused for a moment. “Same as rri. That change soon.” Suddenly, Sajah stood. “Patrol.”

  Justin rose with a nod, confused by the abruptness of his friend leaving, and walked Sajah to the door. “Of course. Be safe.”

  Sajah leaned down and softly rested his forehead against Justin’s with a rumbling breath before striding out. Baffled by the gesture, Justin turned away, deciding to read one of the few books he’d salvaged from the Nitti. Justin had a strange feeling that he missed something in that exchange, but the language barrier made it hard to suss out exactly what it was. As he lay back on his cot to read, he firmly decided not to dwell on it. Probably just quirks of the culture.

  * * * *

  Justin stood up from his cot and stretched with a sigh. Yet another morning doing the same thing. Wake up, breakfast, wander down to the stream for a bath, putter around his hut, and maybe receive a visitor. Then it would be lunch, after which he sometimes got out for a walk and that was a grateful addition to his routine. Dinner was always before the second sun set and then yet more puttering. It was driving him a little crazy. Sajah still came to see and talk to him every day, which was pleasant, and for longer periods of time.

  He was also allowed out of his little hovel more often. Granted, it was only when Anuht or Sajah was with him, but he was not going to complain. Mostly it was still to bathe, though they started taking the longer routes so that Justin could see more of the surrounding area, but sometimes he was able to walk the outer boundary of the village. The warriors on patrol would greet them often; eyes averted, but would still joyfully chatter with Justin and whoever was with him.

  It was an improvement. Maybe not much of one, but Justin was definitely not going to complain about this either. Baby steps.

  Communication was becoming easier too. When he had first arrived, the language that the aliens used didn’t make any sense. Damn few hard vowels and no long consonants made talking a frustrating puzzle. It wasn’t until Justin figured out that, while Sajah’s mouth looked human enough, it wasn’t really configured the same way. They muddled along though, and finally he got that the hard consonants were more clicks of teeth and rumbling growls stood in place of long sounds. Meanings became even more evident once Justin noticed how expressive body language was for Sajah’s species. The tail helped.

  Soon it wasn’t difficult to figure out that the beings had a lot of similar words in common with humans. There were a few words in their simple conversations Justin didn’t recognize from the standard Terran, but gesturing or actually producing the item, if it was an object, added new words to his already very wide vocabulary of alien languages. And the same was true for Sajah. E
ven though the creature didn’t have the experience with other cultures that Justin had, Sajah soaked up Terran Polyglot quickly, but had trouble with pronunciation. That was expected.

  It turned out to be a lot of fun. Sajah’s barking laugh and sparkling silver eyes every time Justin butchered a word had Justin chuckling, just as Sajah did when Justin attempted the local language. It took time, but eventually they were able to share stories of family and home. Justin also learned about Sajah’s wicked sense of humor. He couldn’t find it in himself to deny that Sajah was becoming a treasured fixture in this foreign place.

  As if Justin’s thoughts had summoned him, Sajah’s low tenor floated through the open doorway, getting a report from the guard no doubt. Sauntering over to lean against the entrance, Justin let himself soak up the odd cadence of Sajah’s voice, trying to piece together the entire exchange just to see if he could.

  Justin edged closer to the open entry and strained to really hear what he thought Sajah and Anuht were talking about. Anuht’s voice was too soft of a bass to carry well, but his host’s was not.

  “Jahstahn sahe?” The question was apparent in Sajah’s tone, as was the concern. His guard’s answer wasn’t discernible.

  Sajah gave one of his happy barking laughs at whatever Anuht said, the noise flowing through Justin’s soul with a pleasant tingle. He really did love listening to that voice. “Rrih,” and that meant the same as ‘my,’ as far as he could tell. The rest of it was a shade too fast for him to catch all of it, except his name. One of the other words pinged his memory and for a second, Justin couldn’t put his finger on it.

  After a few moments, Justin cursed his curiosity and trembled with fear, blood going cold.

  He didn’t know enough of the words to guess at what Sajah said in its entirety, but one of them suspiciously sounded like ‘sacrifice.’ Justin had been from one end of the known galaxy to the other, had encountered thousands of cultures. If Sajah’s people were shamanistic, and sacrifice sure as fuck pointed Justin in that direction, it could range from the simple planet worshipping kind to the cannibal types. Which one were these people? And just what kind of sacrifice was Sajah talking about?

  Anuht’s deeper voice drew his attention back to the aliens outside, but nothing they were saying made any sense after that; almost like they were speaking a completely different language that Sajah wasn’t teaching him.

  He didn’t see Sajah leave, but after a few minutes Justin noticed the absence of conversation. Sajah had, no doubt, continued on his morning patrol of the village perimeter. The fact that Sajah refused to be exempted from the same duties as the others under his command was a source of pride.

  This once, Justin was glad that Sajah hadn’t taken the time to say hello. He had more than enough to think about, worry over. Just once, he had been hoping that his paranoia was wrong.

  Justin collapsed a chair at his little table and slumped in dejection. No matter which way he twisted all possible meanings of what Sajah told Anuht, it didn’t sound like a good thing.

  With a sigh, Justin buried his face in his hands. What to do?

  The damage to the Nitti was extensive and he knew that. In fact, chances were good that it was beyond repair. The hull had been punctured or torn somewhere, the air tanks needed to be recharged, and Justin had to get the main computer up and running. Hell, the engine was probably shot to shit. He just didn’t know. When he hit dirt side, the priority at the time was to set up a base camp, same thing he always did back when he served, then do an assessment of the sideways situation he found himself in. Looking back, he should have looked the ship over first.

  Maybe next time he would, if he ever got off this primitive paradise.

  Expecting rescue was ridiculous. When he checked the star maps before the crash, this little backwater world wasn’t there, despite the system being smack in the middle of frequently travelled areas of the galaxy. No one, not even his old unit, would be looking for him in a system that didn’t exist on paper, if anyone noticed he was gone at all. And that was not likely. Justin had no lover, family, or friends that would miss him.

  No help was going to come from the natives either. The language barrier was hard enough to overcome, and Justin doubted they would go against the leader of their warriors to help him. So far, his continued existence was due to the natives’ good graces, but now it seemed that has changed. Fighting was off the table too. He could not realistically expect to go up against so many and come out the victor. Sure, he might take some of the warriors out before he died, but that was not how he wanted to go out.

  Escape was the only choice.

  * * * *

  Hefting the bright patchwork bag a little higher on his shoulder, Justin eased his way around the last hut on his way out of the dark village. He was pretty sure he was going the right way, but the weak light of the jade half-moon made the shadows jump and gave the night a very unsettling feel.

  He swallowed down a massive ball of apprehension that tried to choke him and broke into a sprint, covering the handful of yards that separated the village and the tree line in less than a minute. Justin burst through the gap between pale blue trunks and paused for a second to glance back the way he came to look for Sajah or Anuht. With a sigh of relief that he couldn’t see either alien, Justin set a quiet but quick pace through the forest. He stayed as close to the tree line as he dared to lessen the chance of getting lost.

  The dense and unknown forest made it a difficult path and it took a bit over an hour to get back to his ship. He had never been so happy to see the irritating hunk of bright metal through the trees, just where he left it. A strange noise behind him got Justin running the large distance between the edge of the trees to the shelter of his ship in a hurry. The main hatch was still open.

  Another quick glance around to make sure he was alone and then he went inside, dropping his stolen bag on his command chair. Justin simply stood where his chair should have been and stared at the damage of the area. It was a disaster. Wires and panels bent, broken, spilling out across every available surface. The view screen was cracked, as were half of the control panels. At least some animal hadn’t moved in and started nesting in the guts of his ship. He hoped not. It was kind of hard to be sure in the dark. If there was, as long as the critters didn’t get into his standard rations, he would live with it.

  Only one last thing to do. As silently as possible, Justin slipped back out of the hatch. He needed to make sure the hull didn’t have any holes big enough for the aliens to climb through. The top was impossible to see, so he hugged the starboard side as he started his rudimentary inspection, pleased that nothing showed so far except some heavy dents the starboard panels.

  The back end was the least damaged with a crumpled base; the port side was a mess of tears. It almost looked like a giant claw had gouged his ship. A shiver worked its way down Justin’s spine. Damn, he had come very close to being dead.

  Just as he was quietly slinking back to the ship’s hatch, a large, heavy hand settled on his shoulder. “Shit!”

  “Jahstahn.” Oh, and Justin was never going to get off this world alive now. Sajah gently turned him and Justin looked into the being’s quicksilver eyes, not willing to be seen as submissive or begging. The guttural question was a little surprising. “Run?”

  Sajah didn’t seem angry and the look on his face was almost like confusion, but Justin didn’t let his guard down. “Of course I’m going to run!” Wincing at his sudden loudness, he reined himself back in. “You guys were talking about sacrificing me earlier, whatever the hell that means. You think I’m going to stick around for that?” Shaking his dark head, Justin snorted. “For all I know you’re going to roast me over some monstrous fire pit for dinner.”

  The confused look only deepened and Sajah shook his great head slowly, then gently walked Justin away from his ship. For a moment, he looked back, mournful that he likely wouldn’t see the damaged ship again. So close, only to have safety snatched away at the last moment.
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  Sajah escorted him back towards the village, a deafening blanket of silence falling over them. It was so thick that even the normal animal sounds seemed to be missing. The hairs on the back of Justin’s neck started to stand on end a moment later. The absence of forest sounds was not simply a figment of his imagination. He was just about to mention it when Sajah’s ears suddenly went back and he shoved Justin to the ground. “Sah!”

  Taking the hissed command as the ‘stay’ he thought it might have meant, Justin lay still, eyes darting around the open area. Whatever got Sajah’s fur in a ruffle eluded his human senses. That disturbed him even more than the too quiet forest.

  Some monstrous feathered thing dropped soundlessly out of the sky and landed on Sajah’s broad back, forcing him to bow under the weight of the animal. Justin could only lie on the warm ground and breathe for an instant, paralyzed. Sajah spun around in a mad pirouette. Sharp talons flashed in the weak moonlight as Sajah grabbed at the feather beast that clung to his back. The creature sank its longer claws into Sajah’s shoulder blades with a vicious shriek.

  Sajah’s outraged howl, so loud in the quiet night that it made Justin’s ears ring, snapped him into action. He sprinted for the combatants and snatched at the stiff feathers of the creature attempting to snap Sajah’s neck with its gruesome fangs in an effort to pulling it off, but it didn’t even budge. A moment later Sajah howled again, trying to buck the beast off his back. Justin was knocked over as Sajah toppled over with the beast, his legs and hips trapped under the squirming alien bodies.

  Justin grunted in pain when Sajah lurched violently over. The creature snapped and shrieked between them until Sajah closed his massive hands around its throat to keep it from biting. The leather hilt of his alien’s knife caught Justin’s attention. He scrambled for the blade, desperately stretching to grab it from the sheath on Sajah’s straining thigh and missed.