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  “Well, I wish you luck.” Shekk was looking bored again. He nodded at me.

  “It was lovely to meet you, my dear. I’m certain you and your partner here will be very happy together.”

  “Um, thank you,” I said.

  It was clear he was being sarcastic about the somewhat nebulous relationship between myself and Grav, but I couldn’t find it in myself to be upset. In fact, I mostly just wanted to go. The scratches I’d gotten from Purrah’s kit were itching and stinging more all the time, and I really wanted to see if Grav had any kind of disinfectant or ointment on his ship that I could use to sooth the irritating pain.

  “Farewell, my child.” Magda drew me forward and gave me a kiss on the forehead. Drawing back, she squeezed my shoulders and smiled. “Remember,” she murmured. “Tell him.”

  “All right.” I nodded and tried to smile back. But the itching pain from the kit’s little claws was getting more and more distracting. My cleavage was in pain too—in several very delicate places since he’d gotten me with all six of his paws. “Thank you for the yarex and…and everything else,” I said.

  “Think nothing of it. May the Goddess watch over you both.” She smiled at me and Grav and made a sweeping bow.

  I bobbed an awkward little curtsy in return and Grav simply nodded his head. Then he took my hand and led me out of the bar.

  Chapter Ten

  “What do you mean, she is gone?”

  The last of the Assimilated, he who had been Count Doloroso, paced angrily back and forth in front of Char’noth, foremost of the Commercians’ Alien Mate Index project. The former Count was now wearing an Earthling body and as such, had acquired a new name, which continually slipped his mind. He had been Doloroso for many solar years—it was difficult to get used to having another identity.

  His new body was one of a wealthy and prominent male who held undue influence over millions on the small, blue planet. But it appeared he still had no influence over the Commercians, no matter how much credit he offered them.

  “Indeed, yes—gone. Gone these several solar days,” Char’noth said blandly.

  “You told me the girl was not for sale—neither she nor the other La-ti-zal,” Doloroso snarled, poking an accusing finger at Char’noth.

  “And so she is not.” Char’noth clicked the long talons of several of his hands together, a habit he had when irritated or distressed. “The one female is still protected and thus unavailable—the other left of her own volition.”

  “Left? How could she leave?” the former Count demanded. “Who did she leave with?”

  “A Braxian male.” Char’noth’s blue, wormy body shuddered in fear. “I trust you know how very aggressive they can be. He came from the one who bought her contract in order to be certain she was well protected and to see that our end of the deal was being honored. Naturally I have no wish to give him reason to doubt me. I value the health of my spine far too much for that.” He wriggled his long, snaky back as though in illustration of his point.

  “But I need a La-ti-zal from Earth!” Doloroso exploded. “I must have one!”

  “We have identified a few others we think may be La-ti-zals but we cannot be absolutely certain. At least, none of them shine so brightly as the ones you were originally interested in,” Char’noth said. “I am sorry they are unavailable but I have no wish to give the Braxian cause to come back and break my spine.”

  “Where did they go?” Dolorso demanded, exasperated. “Can you at least give me that much information? I will pay for it—pay well.”

  “Ah, well as to that, I made no deal involving their privacy.” Char’noth rubbed several of his hands together. “The Braxian was using our signal to boost his own so I may have the course coordinates that he put in his hopper. I can sell them to you for…shall we say, oh, twenty-thousand credits?”

  “Twenty thousand?” The former Count glared at him in disbelief. “Are you serious? I have already paid you twice that for this ridiculous body you sold me!”

  He gestured at himself and a floppy bunch of yellowish hair fell into his eyes with the motion. Irritated, he pushed it back into place. When he had first acquired this body, the hair had seemed frozen in place, adhering neatly in an elaborate swoop over the forehead. Now, however, it had come loose and refused to do anything but hang in his eyes.

  “You asked for a wealthy and influential male when you came,” Char’noth replied coolly. “That is what we sold you.”

  “Yes, but there are serious problems with this body,” the former Count snarled. “The skin is orange—and after considerable study, I have determined this is not a natural pigmentation color for Earthlings. Also, the face is sagging.”

  In fact, all of the skin was sagging. It was as though the body was already breaking down, even though he had only been downloaded into it for a matter of days. And the voice was raspy and strident. None of these were qualities the Count had wanted in his new vessel—especially one he had paid so much to own.

  “The sagging is merely the effect of human aging. I did not know you wished to inhabit the body or I might have recommended a slightly younger one,” Char’noth said. “You should have said as much when you bought the body—as you know, all contracts are final.”

  “Unless a serious flaw is found—and I have found one,” the Count said. He pointed at the crotch of the gray trousers he wore. They were part of the body’s original clothing and accoutrement which he had paid extra to acquire. “It is a failing which is most troubling—the phallus of this body is incapable of growing erect! Therefore it is defective.”

  It was a serious failing—one that that would impact his strategy once he finally got his hands on a La-ti-zal. How could he impregnate an Earthling La-ti-zal female with his genetically mutated seed and start a whole new race of organic Assimilated if his new body’s equipment was incapable of doing the job?

  “You misunderstand the usage of this body,” Char’noth said, his stalk-like eyes wiggling. “When males of the Earth species grow older, they require medicinal assistance to reach a state of engorgement sufficient for sexual intercourse.”

  “Medicinal assistance? What does that mean?” Doloroso demanded. “Truly, Char’noth, I grow weary of your constant excuses. Your blatant lying is an irritant.”

  “I am not making excuses, nor am I telling untruths,” The Commercian’s claws clacked angrily. “As you would know if you had taken the time to study the accoutrements that you paid for along with the body itself.”

  “What accoutrements? Do you mean these ridiculous clothes?” Doloroso nodded down at the gray silk suit and white blouse-like shirt he wore. There was also a strip of colorful fabric and a stiffer leather strap with a buckle which Char’noth had explained were supposed to go round his new body’s neck and waist respectively.

  Doloroso had threaded the colorful fabric, called a “tie” in Earth language, through the loops on the gray trousers but he disliked the feeling of the longer, leather strap, called a “belt,” around his neck. The buckle chafed his throat and yet he had been told this was the correct configuration and so he endured it.

  The outfit was not nearly so comfortable or dramatic as the clothing that had fit on his former body. He missed his long, black cape most of all. But he wanted to appear as the powerful and influential male this body had formerly belonged to when he finally got his hands on a La-ti-zal. In order to do that, he had to dress in the Earth male’s clothes and try to affect his mannerisms.

  Last time, when the Earth La-ti-zal, Zoe had slipped through his fingers, she had shown a marked lack of respect and fear of him. That, of course, had been in his former body. In this body, he was certain he could intimidate any Earth female—which was why he had paid so much to get a powerful and highly recognizable male to inhabit.

  But what good was any of it if the phallus didn’t work?

  “Char’noth—” he began but the small blue alien held up several hands to stop him.