Kraving Dravka by Zoey Draven

Chapter Five

Dravka frowned, pressing closer to the window when he spied Valerie climbing out of the driverless car. At least whom he thought was Valerie.

The car sped away, leaving the human woman standing in the middle of the street, clad in a long pink gown, her hair wild and curled, blowing with a slight breeze. It was too far away to see her face clearly but even from that distance, he could see the defeat in her shoulders, which were shaking slightly.

A rough growl tore from his throat, a restless panic climbing with it.

Something was wrong. Who had she been with? Where had she gone?

Evening was blanketing itself over Everton, a dark hush that slowly creeped over the colony like a fog. The three clients for the night would be arriving in a couple hours. Dravka hadn’t been able to sleep. He’d thought of Valerie, of what Tavak had told him—to cut her loose—and nothing else.

Tensing, he leaned forward, watching as Val began to slowly make her way towards the entrance of the brothel. His ears twitched, hearing the sharp click of heels on the cobblestones, shoes his clients often wore when they came to visit, though Dravka thought the fashions of the New Earth colonies were strange.

Valerie disappeared from view and Dravka stepped back from the window. They were tinted from the outside. She wouldn’t have been able to see him standing there. He wondered if she would come up to the Cluster now that she was back. Dravka wanted her to, if only so he could make sure she was all right.

He strode out to the sitting room. Tavak and Ravu were there, though they weren’t speaking. Ravu inclined his head in a brief nod when he saw him but frowned as he watched Dravka pace slightly. His eyes kept straying to the door, keeping his ears perked for the dull thud of heels on the carpeted hallway outside.

Only it never came and Dravka grew more and more impatient.

Tavak was watching him as well, setting aside the Nu device he’d been reading on. He kept up with the universe’s news. It was what he did most evenings before meeting with clients.

“What’s wrong with you?” Tavak asked quietly.

“Nothing,” Dravka bit out before going to the door himself and swinging it open.

His head craned out but the hallway was empty. The brothel beyond it was completely silent, though at that time, he usually heard Valerie speaking on the phone, ordering food from Restaurant Row just in case their clients preferred to eat when they arrived.

“I’m going to check on Valerie,” Dravka announced.

“Why?” Ravu asked, but his question faded as Dravka strode from the Cluster.

It was a risk. If Madame Allegria happened to be there and found him wandering the halls, punishment would surely follow. But Dravka didn’t care. Something was wrong. Valerie was upset about something and Dravka intended to find out what.

He navigated his way from the only hallway that led to the Cluster and jogged down four flights of winding stairs until he reached the lobby. A beautiful, glimmering chandelier revealed that Valerie wasn’t present in her usual place behind the mahogany desk. The lobby was empty and echoing.

Dravka frowned and his gaze turned to the single door to the right of the lobby. He strode over to it, his gut churning just looking at it. He tried the handle and it swung open, revealing a darkened stairwell that led to the basement.

He blew out a rough breath through his nostrils and descended quickly, anger and unease mingling within him. The fact that Madame Allegria made Valerie live down here…right next to the room where she—

Veki. No, he wouldn’t think of it now.

When he reached the bottom of the steps, he only kept his gaze on the door at the end of the short hallway. Underneath it, he saw a crack of light peeking through.

He knocked shortly, once, before opening the door.

“Val—”

Her rough, surprised inhale met him first as his eyes adjusted to the light. Then he swallowed, thick, a muscle in his jaw jumping when he saw she was dressing.

She was facing a small wardrobe, clad in nothing but the underwear human females wore to conceal their sex. His gaze caught on her breasts, unbound, and exposed.

Lust and desire and longing and guilt hit him hard, all at once, making his mind spin as his palm squeezed the handle of the door. Her breasts were small but full, her nipples taut and pebbled. Her belly was smooth, leading to slim hips. The band of her underwear was white, a mesh-like material covering her there.

Only a few candles were lit inside the small room and the warm glow bounced off her skin as she clamored for the pink dress pooled at her feet, lifting it to cover her nude front.

“What—” she gasped, “what are you doing down here?”

Dravka, for more than a brief moment, couldn’t seem to make his tongue work. Though he’d seen countless human women naked, through he’d been intimately acquainted with their bodies, never had he been rendered speechless.

And Valerie wasn’t even fully naked.

“Vauk,” he rasped, his eyes darting to her own. “I—”

She swung so that her back was to him, hurrying to slip into a bra that she’d been in the process of putting on.

And all the blood seemed to drain from his body. Without realizing it, Dravka stepped into the small room. It was small enough, smaller than his own bedroom, that he only had to take a few steps until he was standing behind her.

Valerie froze when his fingers reached forward to touch the scars across her back.

He hadn’t seen her back in almost four years. He’d last seen it when it had been bloodied and whipped. Khiva had found her after Madame Allegria left her, but it had been Dravka that had tended to most of her wounds.

Familiar fury and hatred and regret swarmed him. Valerie shivered under his touch, meeting his gaze over her shoulder briefly before she turned and hurriedly finished dressing.

Dravka’s hand fell away but there was a thick tension in the small room, the only sound being that of Valerie frantically dressing.

Only when she was wearing a black dress, one with capped sleeves and fitted to her slim form, did she turn to face him.

Though…she wouldn’t quite meet his eyes.

Her face was caked in cosmetics, the kind that Madame Allegria wore on a daily basis. Her face looked blurry. Not real. The color across her cheeks was too bright, the red on her lips too distracting.

Valerie seemed to notice him staring because she grabbed a cloth, dipped it in the water basin next to her bed, and scrubbed at her face.

“What…” she started before clearing her throat. “Was there something that you needed?”

Dravka very rarely ventured down here, which was no doubt why she was bewildered with his presence. And pax, he avoided coming here not only because the bottom floor was where Madame Allegria delivered her ‘punishments’…but also because Dravka didn’t trust himself to be alone with Valerie down here.

In the dark. In the quiet. When it was all too easy to imagine that it was just them and no one else in the universe existed.

Even now, as she swiped at the reddened color of her lips, he physically had to keep himself still so that he wouldn’t be tempted to snag her towards him so he could taste them.

“Where were you?” Dravka asked. It was abnormal that Valerie had left the brothel. Madame Allegria didn’t like her to leave, liked to keep her here, with the rest of them.

She didn’t answer and she still hadn’t met his gaze. Instead, she cleared her throat, tossed away the cosmetics-covered cloth, and said, “She’ll be on Genesis for the next three days. She’s already on her way there.”

Relief threaded through Dravka. Unconsciously, he took a step closer towards her and he noticed her swallow.

She turned to the side, moving to a small table, which held a golden mirror and a small vial of perfume, though he was certain Valerie had never worn perfume in her entire life. She took a slim elastic from the table and he watched, rapt, as she gathered her curled hair, neatly wrapping it in a bun on top of her head.

“Valerie,” Dravka rumbled, stepping towards her, unease beginning to thread through him. Just earlier that morning, it had been her that had been trying to speak with him. He felt ashamed of that now. For months, there had been a distance between them that hadn’t been there before…and it had only made them both miserable. “Will you look at me?”

Dravka caught her wrist gently once she smoothed her hair back, once she looked more like herself. She paused at his touch and her eyes flashed up to meet his.

He frowned, seeing something that the cosmetics had hidden. The area around her eyes was reddened, as was the tip of her nose. Her face seemed leached of color.

“You’ve been crying,” Dravka rasped, stepping closer. “Why? Tell me what’s wrong.”

Immediately, her gaze flitted away. Unable to take that again, he cupped both sides of her cheeks in his palms, gently lifting her face so she couldn’t hide from him. Up until recently, they had never hidden from one another.

Valerie closed her eyes. Briefly. He watched her swallow. When she met his gaze again, her eyes were slightly glassy but then she quickly blinked the moisture away.

“You’re freezing,” he rasped, frowning. Though it was warm in the room, her skin felt like ice beneath his hands. Without hesitating, he pulled her into his body, his arms draping around her.

She was so much smaller than him. Her forehead pushed into the middle of his chest, though her arms remained at her sides.

He didn’t know how long they stood there before he finally felt her arms coming around him, hugging him to her, her grip tightening with every passing moment.

Dravka struggled with the control over his body, taking care not to breathe in her scent.

She relaxed, ever so slightly, in his arms, burrowing her face deeper into his chest. Some primal part of Dravka liked that she sought comfort with him…even when his treacherous mind knew that it was dangerous.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” he pleaded with her softly, his fingers trailing down her back, over the unseen and covered scars he’d once helped heal.

Valerie let out a shuddering sigh. But just when Dravka thought that she would confide in him, she pulled away.

Stepping out of his arms, she retreated, her gaze flitting away from him once more. Suddenly, he felt very, very cold without her, though his two hearts were pumping quickly.

“Valerie.”

“You were right, Dravka,” she whispered, shaking her head. Her arms wrapped around her middle, like she ached. “We can’t do this.”

“Valerie—”

“Who were we fooling?” she continued morosely, peering up at him, her eyes becoming glassy once more. “Only ourselves. And even then, I think we always knew.”

The sight—of her sad eyes and slumped form—damn near killed him.

“You should go,” she said, repeating the words he’d said to her just that morning after he returned from his client.

His brow furrowed. In his gut, he knew something had happened. Something was wrong.

“Please,” she begged, standing next to the pooled pink gown on the floor. “Dravka.”

He hesitated, his hand rising between them as if reaching for her.

When she saw it, she took another step back.

Then she took a deep breath and said quietly, “If you love me, Dravka, if you’ve loved me at all, you’ll leave right now.”

His jaw clenched, his expression no doubt thunderous and dumbstruck, as his hand dropped.

Of course, he loved her. But that word had never been spoken between them. Not once. Not in the five years they’d known each other.

“P-please.”

That was what broke him. That quiet, broken plea coming from her lips.

Dravka backed out of the room, keeping his eyes on hers. It killed him to leave her when she was obviously hurting, when she was in distress about something.

Before he could say anything, she rushed forward the moment he was over the threshold of the room and close the door behind him. Blocking her from his view.

Within, however, he could hear her shuddering gasps and sniffles. Next came her gentle sobs.

And as he listened, Dravka realized the last time he had felt that helpless, that useless, was the day his home planet had been destroyed.