“Take it!” I urged.
He shoved at the door behind him, sliding it open, then tossed the basket out into the corridor and closed the door quickly.
“Now, get out.” I heaved a long breath. “And take your pet monster with you. I need to get some sleep if I still can.”
Wyck glanced down at Lesh who stood at his side, keeping an eye on me. I was well inside the reach of his chain, I realized. He didn’t attack me, and I felt too tired to care if he still could.
“Lesh stays here.” From the hip pocket of his pants, Wyck produced a long meaty bone wrapped in a piece of plastic.
“No, he is not,” I protested.
Wyck calmly unwrapped the plastic and tossed the bone on the glass floor. Lesh lunged after it, his three mouths soon gnawing at the meat with gusto.
“I’m not cleaning after him again.” I glared at Wyck from under my brow.
“He’s trained to use the bathroom.”
“How much good does it do if he can’t reach the bathroom? He’s chained.”
“Lesh,” Wyck called, quiet enough. The animal heard him. Immediately letting go of the bone, he trotted back to his master. “Here you go.” Wyck unclipped the chain off the black leather collar around the middle head’s neck.
“What are you doing?” I gasped, instinctively stepping closer to him as Lesh ran back to his bone.
“Releasing him, so he can use the bathroom next time.”
“What next time?” I fought the panic rising inside me at the prospect of sharing the room with Lesh unleashed. “I don’t want him here. He’ll chew my head off in my sleep.”
“Do you want me to stay and watch him while you sleep?” Even with my eyes to the three-headed monster, I could tell by the smile in Wyck’s voice that he was teasing me.
“I want you here even less than I want him,” I snapped. “Both of you need to get out.”
“Someone else may come in, then.”
“Who?”
“Anyone.”
“You lock the doors, don’t you?”
“Yes. But the palm-reader panel was broken a few weeks back. It’s been replaced with a numeric code one. Who is to say it won’t be broken again by someone. Or hacked.” He gave me a suspicious glance. “How good are you with technology?”
“Me?” As far as technology went, I had the expertise of a user. Any kind of hacking or tampering was way out of my skill base. “Rest assured, I won’t be able to get out of here when the doors are locked. There is absolutely no need for you to leave your guard dog here.”
“Dog?” He gave me an incredulous look. “Lesh is a mahdi.”
“Whatever.” I waved him off, stumbling back to my pallet. “I’ve had a rough night. I need some sleep. And you need to get out and leave me alone.”
“Lesh will stay here,” Wyck reiterated in a firm tone. “For your protection.”
“No. Please.” Dread washed away my sleepiness. “Don’t leave me with him. He’s unchained.”
The creature appeared calm enough, occupied with his bone. However, the scraping sound of his teeth against it was unnerving enough to drive me mad with fear.
“He won’t touch you if I tell him not to,” Wyck assured me casually. “He’s had some time to get used to your presence by now and will be calm, unless you irritate him in some way.”
“Me irritate him?” I screeched.
“Yes.” He turned to leave. “That shrieking voice you just used, for example, may set him off.”
“What? Wait!” I rushed after him.
“I’ll be back at lunchtime,” he tossed over his shoulder as the doors closed, shutting me in the room alone with the three-headed beast gnawing on a bone.
Chapter 7
LYING ON MY PALLET, I could no longer sleep, despite being tired. I couldn’t relax enough to fall asleep while Lesh freely roamed the room.
He took his bone to the door. Lying across the entranceway, he kept chewing on it, even as there no longer seemed to be a shred of tissue left.
The smell of cooked meat had replaced the earlier stench of his excrement in the air. This one was at least pleasant and increasingly more appetizing to me.
My stomach growled. The sound rivaled that of the scraping of Lesh’s teeth.
He lifted his heads in alarm, staring at me.
“Yeah, well, if you wanted complete peace and quiet, you should’ve shared that bone with me, you know, back when it still had some meat on it.”
The sound of my voice, snarky as it was, oddly appeared to pacify the beast. He turned his attention back to the bone.
After what felt like an eternity, the doors finally slid open again.
Lesh leaped to his feet at the first sound of them moving and pivoted to face the entrance. The bone completely forgotten, he lowered his heads to the ground and made a loud hissing noise.
For what it was, I had to admit he did make a good guard.
The beast relaxed as Wyck entered. The tip of Lesh’s tail brushed by Wyck’s ankle, as if in greeting.
“Hungry?” Wyck murmured, lowering himself to the floor.
The large plate in his hands irresistibly attracted my attention. It was huge, the size of a tray, piled high with weird looking but probably delicious things.
Wyck sat by the door, his back propped against one side, his long legs stretched across the entire entranceway. Lesh made himself comfortable alongside him, resting his heads on his master’s knee.
“How has it been?” Wyck’s gaze remained on his pet, but I knew he was talking to me this time. The tone of his voice had changed, lacking the note of affection it held when he spoke to Lesh.
“Splendid.” I pursed my lips, trying and failing to tear my gaze away from the food.
He lifted a piece of what appeared to be a stew meat and tossed it to Lesh. The center head snatched it from the air, its teeth snapping loudly.
Swallowing the saliva that had gathered in my mouth at the appetizing smell of cooked meat, I schooled my features into what I hoped was a casual expression before meeting Wyck’s gaze. He’d been watching me, with a knowing look in his eyes.
I shifted on my pallet, annoyance muffling my hunger.
“It’s tonight,” he said calmly.
“All right.”
“‘All right’ means you’ll do it?”
“‘All right’ means ‘I know’ and ‘fuck off.’”
“All right, then,” he said pointedly, rising to his feet.
My eyes moved back to the food, completely against my will.
“Wait!” I yelled as he bent over to place the plate down for Lesh.
“Yes?” He straightened, the plate still in his hands.
“I’ll think about it, okay.” I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d eaten. It must’ve been a ration bar, back on the spaceship right before our failed landing.
“You had enough time to think.” He lifted another juicy chunk of meat off the plate and tossed it to Lesh’s left head. I couldn’t help but follow it with my eyes. “I need your promise, now.”
“Why do you think I won’t break the promise once I’ve eaten?”