Rexx: Alien Adoption Agency #6

by Tasha Black

  Abigail followed thoughtfully after Rexx.

  He had just done a very kind thing for the lady on the bench. She wasn’t sure why he seemed embarrassed by it.

  But it was clear the big blue warrior was feeling self-conscious. So she gave him a little space, enjoying the view of his retreating backside, just a little more than she should have.

  Dang it, Abigail, hold it together.

  But she obviously wasn’t going to. Hopefully, a separate compartment on the train would give her a second to take a breath and shake off this silly crush.

  Their friend, the bot, was waiting for them at the platform. Rexx handed over the tokens and the bot handed each of them a chipped bracelet to wear for the duration of the ride.

  “Your employer included unlimited food and drink,” the bot told them proudly. “You also have a private compartment with accommodations for the baby - number 719. And as a reminder, under no circumstances are passengers permitted entry into the final car. This is very important.”

  “Thank you,” Abigail said with some relief. She hadn’t exactly budgeted for several days of prepared meals on a train. It was miraculous that she wouldn’t have to economize. Not being allowed in the last car was a little ominous, but she figured they must be hauling something valuable in there. It wasn’t that unusual.

  “Don’t lose the bracelet,” the bot added. “That’s how you’ll get your complimentary meals and in addition, how the Iron Peregrine Lachesis Express tracks passengers, for your safety.”

  “We’ll guard them with our lives,” she said with a smile.

  “Please do not risk your life for the bracelet, madam,” the bot said in a concerned manner. “If you run into trouble with it, the conductor can provide you with a replacement as long as you have the old bracelet or two alternate forms of identification.”

  “Oh, er, thank you,” she replied, hiding a smile. As advanced as they were for most tasks, many bots had still a hard time with humor.

  “It is my greatest pleasure to serve, madam,” the bot said with a little bow.

  Rexx offered her his arm to ascend the platform.

  She took it, marveling at the warmth of his blue skin and the friction of the scales on his forearm under her fingers.

  A shiver of pleasure went through her, and she let out a little gasp without meaning to.

  Rexx turned to her, his expression intense and hard to read.

  She looked down at her feet, embarrassed.

  “Come,” he murmured, urging her forward.

  She scrambled after him, down the corridor inside the train.

  It was beautifully outfitted, just like the one she remembered from Terra-8. Small chandeliers adorned the ceilings, the walls wore handsome wood wainscoting, and soft carpet on the floor muted her footsteps.

  They passed through two cars before reaching their own, which seemed to be close to the back of the train.

  “Here we are,” Rex said, pointing to a golden number on the door that read 719.

  He waved his bracelet over the sensor and the door slid open to reveal a lovely compartment.

  A large bed was built into the wall with a wardrobe beside it. Soft lighting showed off the natural tiger stripes of the wood wainscoting and the cream carpet on the floor.

  “Wow,” Abigail said.

  “I wonder what he meant by accommodations for the baby,” Rexx said, looking around.

  “Oh, I think I know,” Abigail said, heading over to the wardrobe.

  She slid her hand along the front and found a button.

  When she pressed it, a hidden door opened, and a shelf slid out.

  “Look at this, Rio,” she told the baby, placing him on the shelf.

  “Nice,” Rexx said as soft sides rose instantly from the shelf, adjusting themselves to the baby’s size.

  She lifted Rio out and the bottom of the shelf stretched and bounced back into a contoured bed space, perfect for the little one.

  “On site 3D printing,” Rexx guessed.

  “If you think that’s cool,” she said, “then check this out.”

  Abigail flipped a switch and Rexx’s eyes went wide as the walls of the cabin disappeared, revealing the platform around them.

  “It’s called scenic mode,” she explained as she reached out and knocked on the seemingly empty space where the wall had been. “The walls are still there. They just use a complex camera array to relay footage from the outside.”

  She flipped the switch again and they were surrounded by the cabin once more.

  “So the walls are basically like some sort of integrated display screen,” Rexx mused. “Impressive.”

  “Only the most modern tech for the passengers of an Iron Peregrine,” Abigail said, quoting her grandfather.

  Gramps had always come home with the most marvelous stories about the train. Sometimes she had been permitted to ride with him, though only in the conductor’s cabin, of course, never in the upscale passengers’ area.

  Gramps would have been amazed to see her now - a humble conductor’s granddaughter, riding in her own private compartment.

  “Well, I’m going to get my low-tech gear set up,” Rexx said. “It’s not fancy, but it will help us keep Rio safe.”

  Abigail sat on the edge of the bed with Rio in her arms to watch him.

  The train rumbled, then lurched forward and began to move while Rexx worked. But he hardly seemed aware.

  The big blue warrior had pulled a case out of his bag and touched the sensor to open it. He then pulled out a smaller case, which held a velvet bag.

  He concentrated on the tiny bag, his whole big body focused on the minuscule item he pulled out.

  She watched as he lifted his hand and brushed the ceiling over the bassinet.

  “There we are,” he said with satisfaction.

  “What is it?” she asked. Honestly, she couldn’t even see anything on the ceiling.

  “It’s a baby monitor,” he told her. “It follows his pulse and breathing patterns for distress. And there’s a receiver to listen to him. That will be more important when we get home.”

  “Amazing,” she said.

  “It’s the gold standard in childcare,” he told her. “Nothing new.”

  “I’ve never seen it before,” she said.

  “Well, this is a tiny version, developed by the Invicta,” he explained. “We have limited accommodations in our pod unit, so space is at a premium. We also have a micro-compactor for diapers.”

  “Very cool,” she said. “We would have loved that back home. I had a lot of brothers and sisters.”

  “Interesting,” he said, giving her an odd look.

  “Six brothers and sisters, actually,” she added, wondering if he doubted that she could have had a big family for some reason. “I was the oldest, so I helped out a lot. It’s why I knew I wanted children.”

  “So, your family was very hands-on,” he said, nodding.

  “Yes,” she said.

  It was an odd thing for him to say. She was uncertain how a family could fail to be hands-on. Maybe his background had been different than hers. Or maybe Invicta just had customs in child rearing that she wasn’t aware of.

  She thought back to the feast on the picnic table and his impeccable manners.

  Maybe he had been born wealthy, with plenty of everything, and servants to care for the children. It would make sense.

  It put his relationship with Rio in another light for her, and she was surprised to find she liked him better than before, though she wasn’t normally the kind of person who felt comfortable with wealth or the wealthy.

  Whatever his upbringing, Rexx had chosen to be a soldier, and that was a very democratic career choice. Maybe he wasn’t entirely comfortable with wealth either. Or maybe it just didn’t matter to him all that much.

  “Everything okay?” he asked her.

  “Oh, sure, I’m fine,” she said. “Long day.”

  “I’ll bet,” he said. “I saw that dreadful ship you came i
n on.”

  “And we were late,” she moaned. “What kind of way is that to start off parenthood?”

  His eyes widened.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I said that exact thing to my brother, Zane,” he told her.

  “Those other guys are your brothers?” she asked, fascinated.

  “Not through shared blood,” he amended. “But we have served together for a long time. The battlefield forges a familial bond.”

  “That’s understandable,” she said softly.

  Abigail couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live in that situation- kill or be killed, day after day.

  “I wasn’t in the trenches for long,” he explained. “My record was strong, so they took me out of action to serve our debt to Imber.”

  If he was wealthy, his parents had probably made those arrangements. But she couldn’t blame them. She wouldn’t want Rio serving indefinitely on active duty.

  “The Invicta wiped out all life on their planet many years ago,” Rexx said, his eyes far away. “It’s unimaginable. An entire civilization, lost to a mistake.”

  “Before you were born,” Abigail offered in comfort.

  “It is an honor to offer my life to help this child regain his birthright,” Rexx said softly. “But regrowing a population by pod using preserved DNA is not the same as bringing back his lost ancestors. We will have so much still to do, even after we have raised this new generation.”

  She nodded.

  It was a blessing to be able to be a mother, but knowing her joy came at the expense of the loss of an entire planet… well, it didn’t exactly feel great.

  Rexx’s words were a comfort though. She was glad to help restore a lost race. They were doing something good for the universe. She would help Rio reclaim his culture if she could.

  “The great library of Imber was not fully lost,” she said softly. “Maybe one day we’ll go there with him and help him learn about his heritage.”

  Rexx smiled warmly and she felt it in her chest, as if he had switched on a light to illuminate her soul.

  The pull between them magnified until she thought her heart might wrench itself out of her body if she didn’t go to him.

  She had taken a single step toward him when there was a knock at the door.

  Rexx tore his gaze from her and opened it, revealing a young girl in a cap, standing almost at attention in the threshold.

  “Hello, madam, your honor,” the girl said in a bright, chipper voice, tipping her cap to reveal a head of short, wavy tentacles, in a way that made her think of the bot back at the station. “I’m Lanny, your porter, and I’m here to invite you to the dining car for a complimentary meal and drinks for our honored guests.”

  “Thank you,” Rexx said kindly.

  “Make sure you leave right away,” the girl added. “The best appetizers always go fast.”

  “We’ll come along now,” Abigail said, grateful for a chance to leave the compartment before she threw herself at Rexx.

  He turned to fix her with his dark gaze, and for a moment she wanted nothing more than to melt into the bed.

  But she wrenched her eyes from his and headed for the threshold, holding Rio close and smoothing out her skirt with her free hand, then following the girl out the door without looking back.

  6

  Rexx

  Rexx followed Abigail out the door, his senses reeling.

  He had been poised to claim her, the dragon roaring in his chest.

  If not for the porter and the blasted free dinner, he would probably be staking his claim right now.

  He closed his eyes against the thought, but his imagination treated him to a barrage of images - Abigail naked and moaning beneath him, his dragon screaming as Rexx took her, the pleasure blinding.

  “Is it this way?” Abigail asked.

  Her innocent tone set his body on fire, and he had to concentrate to make himself understand what she had said.

  “Yes, it should be closer to the front,” he told her through a clenched jaw.

  Her eyes were suddenly wounded, and he realized belatedly that his tone probably sounded furious.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I’m just hungry.”

  She nodded, accepting the polite lie, even though she knew he had just eaten at the park before boarding the train.

  He cursed himself inwardly. He hadn’t even made it a whole day without coming within a hair’s breadth of claiming her, and then hurting her feelings.

  Easy, Rexx, easy…

  But this was going to be anything but easy. That much was abundantly clear.

  The train shifted to the right as they took a curve.

  Though he couldn’t help worrying about Abigail carrying the baby on a moving train, he suppressed that emotion too. She was actually doing quite well with the little one, which certainly backed up her story that she had been a caretaker in her family of smaller siblings.

  It pleased him to know that she had practice in caring for children. Mate bond aside, he wanted Rio’s mother to be exceptional, and he could already see that she was. And though it might not be in the ways he had expected, perhaps it was true in more important ways.

  They passed through two cars of private compartments before reaching the dining car at last.

  Although they had come immediately when the porter summoned them, they were not the first to reach the car.

  A well-dressed young man was already leaning against the bar, a leather messenger bag resting on his hip. His hair was styled, half long and blue, the other half shaved to his temple. A tiny jade dagger appeared to be hovering in the air beneath the ear on the exposed side of his head. Rexx figured it was designed magnetically. Though the man’s style was on the rebellious side, he wore a bespoke onyx suit complete with kilt and boots that indicated his wealth.

  The young man gave Abigail an appreciative up and down glance and then winked at her as she passed.

  Rexx felt the dragon rousing in his gut and restrained it. But a wave of unhinged jealousy still washed over him.

  Abigail took no notice of the man with the bag, and continued to the far corner of the car, where she settled herself in a velvet easy chair with the baby, next to two elderly women.

  Rexx inwardly approved her choice. She had her back to the wall and at least one easy means of exit into the next car beside her. They were unlikely to be under attack on this train, but a soldier’s habits of observation died hard.

  Also, she was as far as possible from that winking bastard by the bar.

  “Gracious, what a darling,” one of two ladies said to Abigail.

  “Thank you,” Abigail replied. “His name is Rio.”

  “Isn’t that lovely,” the other lady said. “I’m Tilden and this is Verat.”

  “Do you know what’s in the last car?” Verat asked, eyes sparkling.

  “Nice to meet you,” Abigail replied. “I’m Abigail and that’s Rexx. And I’m afraid we have no idea about the last car. Sorry.”

  Rexx nodded to the ladies, not wanting to get involved in the women’s talk.

  “That’s okay,” Verat said, turning her attention to Rexx.

  “Hubba hubba,” Tilden quipped.

  Verat barked out a laugh and Abigail bit her lip, but failed to hide her smile.

  “Dyrk,” the man by the bar said, as if anyone had asked him.

  Rexx resisted the impulse to roll his eyes. The idiot was obviously angling for another hubba hubba. Well, it wasn’t going to happen. He hoped.

  “Nice to meet you, dear,” Tilden said to him kindly.

  Verat nodded and Abigail gave him a little wave.

  Dyrk gave a mock salute and a wry half-smile that might have made the girls back home giggle, but it had no apparent effect on Abigail and her two new friends, Rexx was glad to see.

  The door slid open, and a woman walked slowly in. She wore an exquisite business suit and pointy shoes that made Rexx’s feet hurt to look at them.

  “Hey there,” sh
e said to him in a molasses voice, blinking her big brown eyes at him. Her lashes were a synthetic peacock blue.

  He stepped aside to let her pass, uninterested in flirting.

  She leaned against the wall opposite the bar with a studied expression of indifference, like she was posing for a magazine spread.

  He glanced over to see how Abigail was making out.

  She looked away from him with a guilty expression and he wondered if she had watched his exchange with the woman in the shoes with the same unwanted jealousy he had felt when the young man winked at her.

  The dragon purred with satisfaction in his head, and he suppressed a smile.

  Abigail was a nice person. He didn’t want her to have any unpleasant feelings, even if those feelings meant his attraction to her was reciprocated.

  And he was sure that it was.

  She had been moving toward him back in their cabin. Another second and she would have been his.

  “So glad you could join us,” Lanny the porter chirped as she headed behind the bar. “More guests will be arriving shortly. Tonight’s complimentary beverage is bitter-apple-ale with a wedge of Lachesis moon cheese to commemorate Founders Day.”

  “Oh, how lovely,” Tilden remarked.

  “I do love cheese,” Verat said, nodding.

  Bitter-apple-ale and cheese sounded more like a picnic than a nightcap to Rexx, but he was grateful for the distraction. If he and Abigail managed to spend most of the evening here drinking and eating until their eyelids were drooping, maybe they would make it one night in that tiny compartment without sealing the bond.

  Or maybe it would only lower what was left of their meager inhibitions…

  Rexx pushed the thoughts aside as the door slid open and a man with wire-rimmed glasses and a tweed jacket entered.

  “Oh, hello,” the man said nervously when he realized all eyes were on him.

  “Dr. Twinnly,” Lanny called out to him. “How nice to have our resident writer here with us. Ale and cheese?”

  “Yes, please,” Dr. Twinnly said with relief.

  Lanny got to work on his drink and the doors slid open again.

  This time, a pair of rough looking men with receding hairlines and bright blue eyes stepped into the car. Unlike the others, their clothing spoke of hands-on labor rather than fashion. Rexx wondered how they could afford such accommodations.