by Ella Maven
He didn’t answer me, and his eyes closed slowly as he cocked his head to the side. He gripped my hand. “That’s not a hunner horde.”
“Then what is—”
Dark objects burst from the trees around, kicking up green dirt as we were encircled by a bunch of Drixonians on bikes. At first, I was hopeful we’d get a speedy ride back to Ward’s home, but one look at his clenched jaw told me this wasn’t a good thing. That was when I noticed the armbands, or tags as Ward called them, of these Drixonians. They weren’t red, like Ward’s. They were a dark green.
“Trust me,” Ward said out of the corner of my mouth. He squeezed my hand and then let it drop.
I nodded. Of course, I trusted him. Didn’t I?
The bikes circled us for a while, and while seconds ago, I’d been hopeful they were allies, now I was terrified. It felt a bit like they were intimidating us. Several whooped and growled before one Drixonian settled his bike on the ground in front of us, the rest followed, caging us in so there was nowhere to flee without meeting a Drixonian on his bike.
The vibrations of the bikes rattled my teeth. The Drixonian in front of us seemed to be the leader. He was biggest, scarred, and his tag was rimmed in a golden thread. He turned his bike off and the rest followed suit. I shoved my hair out of my face and edged closer to Ward. He stood tall and proud, and I didn’t detect an ounce of nervousness in his expression.
The leader dismounted his bike, landing on the ground with a thump in his massive boots. He wore a pair of dark pants and no shirt. A large metal cap sat on his left shoulder, and scarred lines like burns ran toward his neck and down his muscle forearm. He wore his hair in a series of beaded braids that looked dirty and unkempt like Captain Jack Sparrow.
He had a row of dermal piercings down each side of the bridge of his nose and two rings in his lip; I thought they called those snakebite piercings on Earth. Altogether, as he strode toward us with a sneer on his curled lip, he struck an absolutely terrifying figure.
He came to a stop in front of us, and when his gaze shifted to me, I saw nothing but two black holes. There was no purple warmth, no affectionate violet. Just an absence of light. I shivered, and that seemed to make him happy. His lips turned up at the corners into an expression that was maybe a smile but instead felt like a dagger in my chest.
“Daz’s loyal pet and and…what is this creature? A human? Guess it’d be okay to take her off your hands, huh? Run back to Daz now, Ward. Tell him Gaul and the Red Hands were happy to take this pretty burden off your hands.”
Oh shit, oh no.
I looked around frantically, but there was nowhere to run. Bikes stood side by side with massive Drixonians at the helm. We were penned in from all sides, and there was only one of Ward. While I personally thought he could do anything, I didn’t think he could take on about fifteen of his own species. And this Gaul guy looked wicked, like he killed welfs for sport. I was glad she was safe and sleeping in the fur pack strapped to Ward’s back.
Suddenly, a hand clamped on my neck, and I shrieked. Ward’s hand tightened, his claws digging into my skin. What the fuck? I whipped my head around, readying to open my mouth and holler at him when he squeezed again. Harder. Prolonged. My voice died in my throat as his steady gaze remained on Gaul.
“No need,” Ward said. His lips split into a smile I’d never seen him make, one that sent a bolt of unease down my spine. His dark eyes glinted. “Because I stole her from Daz.”
He… he what?
Gaul’s brows lifted and he eyed Ward for a long moment before he crossed his arms across his chest and braced his feet apart. “Go on.”
“We got her off a Rahgul ship. Daz has preached ‘She is All’ since before the Uprising, so of course he wanted to protect her like an untouched precious stone.” Ward shrugged as I gaped at him. “I can’t follow him blindly anymore. He’s holding onto old ways and isn’t adapting with the times. It’s every man for himself now.” His chin tilted up, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I wanted to rage at him, pound my fists against his chest and ask if he had meant anything, he’d said to me. Was this just all to keep me docile.
Then his hand squeezed again, and his thumb moved, almost imperceptibly, but I felt the rub like a caress. Trust me.
Gaul’s eyes narrowed. “You expect me to believe that Ward Garundum has stolen from Daz Bakut and the Night Kings? Other clavases tell tales of your loyalty.” He sneered the last sentence.
“Allegiances can change.”
“So, what was your plan with this little thing then?”
“The Uldani will pay handsomely for a human female.”
Gaul’s lips stretched into a grin. “Will they now? So why do I need you then? Looks like the Red Hands just came into some profits.”
Ward didn’t flinch. “I know the rendezvous point with the Uldani, who will only deal with me. You don’t keep me alive, and you don’t know where it is or be able to meet them.”
Was that true? Oh God, I was going to throw up. I’d given myself to him over and over. I was starting to… care for him. Maybe more. Had I been his willing victim this whole time? Bile rose in my throat.
Gaul snickered. “Smart, aren’t you?”
“Also, she’s comfortable with me. Thinks I’ll take care of her.”
“She can’t understand you, can she?”
“No translator implant, but she’s simple and follows basic commands.”
I wanted to seethe over the simple comment but then realized he’d lied to Gaul. He hadn’t let on that I understood what was going on. A bit of hope flared in my chest.
“She does? Then get her to kneel at your feet. That’s where a pitiful human belongs, huh?” He rose his voice as he spoke to his males. “That’s where every species belongs, right Red Hands? Kneeling at our feet!”
“Kneel to us!” The males chanted, and my legs shook so badly I swore I’d collapse right there.
Ward’s nostrils flared, but other than that, he made no reaction to the bone-chilling superiority complex.
He turned to me and a muscle flexed in his jaw. He met my gaze and there was nothing there, not the Ward I knew. His eyes were as black as Gaul’s, and I wanted to cry and plead with him to come back to me. My entire body shook so badly that my teeth rattled.
He pointed to the ground and said in a harsh bark. “Kneel, human.”
Oh God, I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to do it at all. I finally spoke in a rush of babbled words. “Please, can we—”
“Kneel!” he barked again, and his eyes flared in warning.
Suddenly a rush of air blew my hair off my shoulder and a blow slammed into the side of my head. I fell onto my hip and elbows with a cry as pain nearly blinded me. I dimly registered a scuffle and shouting but all I could do was blink and work my jaw while prodded my eye socket. Did I even have a face anymore? Whatever hit me felt like it crushed every bone in the left side of my face. When I looked at my fingers, they were red and sticky. Fuck, I was bleeding. Probably out of my ear. Was I deaf?
I glanced up to see Ward with his hand on Gaul’s chest. “We can’t damage her. The Uldani want her untouched, you flecking bastard.” Ward’s eyes were no longer black, they swirled a violent purple.
The big ugly asshole flicked his fingers toward me. “She’s fine.”
Ward spoke through gritted teeth. “She’s human and weighs a quarter of your weight. She’s bleeding. I don’t think that is considered fine.”
“She didn’t kneel quick enough.”
“We’re working on commands. Sometimes she’s a bit slow. Hitting her will solve nothing.” He glanced around the bikes surrounding us. “You want your payout? Then she’s in my care. My possession. I risked my life and reputation to steal her, and I won’t tolerate any of you flecking it up. Understand?”
He met Gaul’s eyes. He held them, and when Gaul nodded, Ward reached down and scooped me into his arms. I was too stunned, confused, and in pain to resist.
Ele
ven
Ward
In the list of bad situations I could find myself in with Reba, this was probably the worst. Maybe the only thing better would be instant death. It took every single ounce of my willpower not to slice of Gaul’s head. In fact, if I was alone, I might have done it. I wasn’t a part of the Red Hands, so I couldn’t rightfully challenge him as drexel. The consequences of killing him would have been death at the hands of the rest of his clavas. Sacrificing myself to rid this planet of Gaul would have been worth it. But I couldn’t leave Reba alone with these monsters.
I hated what the virus and the Uprising had done to so many of our once proud, honorable males. I remembered Gaul back when we’d worked for the Uldani. He’d been a skilled bodyguard for some of their Elite, but as time went on, he changed. His beliefs shifted. During the Uprising, he’d disagreed with most of the orders Daz—one of the main commanders of the war—had given. Gaul had gone behind his back to execute a mission, resulting in dozens of Drixonians deaths. Daz stripped Gaul of his leadership role, and Gaul never forgave him.
As soon as I spotted the Red Hands tag, I had to think fast. Gaul would think nothing of killing me and swiping Reba to use for the benefit of his clavas. I had to buy myself time, and I had to stay alive. Pretending to betray Daz and care nothing for Reba was the only recourse I could think of on short notice. If I had more time, I maybe could have come up with a better plan.
I held Reba in my arms as we trudged behind the slowly moving bikes on the way back to the Red Hands camp. She hadn’t spoken, and her eyes were closed. The left side of her face was swelling, and the sight made my blood run hot. I’d felt the blow as if Gaul had struck me himself, a crushing fist to the cheek. I had to check to make sure I wasn’t bleeding, that was how real it felt. Seeing Reba’s blood nearly had me coming out of my skin. It incensed me in a way I never felt before, even back when my sister died, and our civilization crumbled. The crimson of Reba’s blood streaking down her cheek called to me. Ordered me to kill, hurt, and crush.
But I’d held back, for both of our sakes. I wouldn’t let Gaul touch her again though. Not a fucking finger. I wished now I could explain, to tell her again to trust me, that everything I spoke to Gaul was a lie and speaking the words felt like flaying my own flesh. But I couldn’t. I was surrounded by listening ears. Gaul would jump at any mistake I made. He didn’t fully trust me yet. There would be tests, and my only hope was to buy us enough time to escape before this made-up handoff with the Uldani.
The next few rotations would test every bit of my cunning and willpower. And it would test every single bit of trust I’d gained with Reba. When I got a chance to reassure her this was all for her, would she believe me? I wished I could open my chest and give her my beating cora so she could poke and prod it until she was satisfied it beat for her.
I’d never been to the Red Hands camp. Daz felt that they should be left alone if they left us alone, but our scouts had noticed they were increasingly venturing into our territory. Before Sax was taken, our most common discussion was what to do with the Red Hands. We knew where they made camp—most of the clavases didn’t hide their whereabouts—but we also knew it was in a great defensive position, like our compound.
As my feet slid down a moist embankment and I splashed into a small stream of qua, Reba jerked her eyes open on a gasp before looking around wildly with her one non-swollen eye. As I walked ahead, I now understood why our scouts had reported the Red Hands clavas as nearly impossible to attack. The walls rose steeply from the banks of the stream, so that they seemed to nearly touch the sky. The stream moved swiftly, nearly taking me off my feet. There was no way to approach this with stealth. The entire area had been cleared of trees, and I spotted guard towers on top of the wall.
“Fleck,” I muttered to myself.
The bikes skimmed the water, and seemed to nearly crash into the wall, but then a section of the wall rose swiftly, and they zoomed under it. I followed on foot, still clutching Reba in my arms.
Luna shifted her weight around in the pack on my back, but she remained silent, like she knew we were in enemy territory. It was going to be fun to explain the presence of the welf pup to Gaul. Luckily Luna didn’t have a big enough pelt to be coveted for her fur. Yet. Fleck, we needed to find a way out of here.
I took in everything as the gate shut behind us. The clavas was set up similarly to ours, and I had to admit I was impressed with the organization of the camp. Drixonians ran out to take the bikes from the incoming warriors, surely to service them, and the scent of food wafted from a large building which I assumed housed the warriors. A few huts stood nearby, which I was sure belong to Gaul and a few other high-ranking warriors in the clavas.
The camp was clean. Orderly. Well-kept. I’d hoped to walk inside and see a mess I could exploit, but damn Gaul and his leadership skills.
As Gaul left his bike near the garage to be tended to and began to walk toward us, I set Reba on the ground, making sure she was steady on her feet before taking away my arm. I couldn’t afford to touch her too much, to give away the affection I felt for her. Gaul would exploit it, exploit her, and I couldn’t let that happen. I felt the loss of her warmth, and I would have given almost anything to take her aside and assuage her fears.
Gaul came to a stop in front of us and crossed his arms over his broad chest. Bone earrings dangled from his stretched lobes. “Here’s how this is going to go. We’ll set the female up in one of our spare huts. Alone. Her food will be brought to her.”
At my side, Reba began to tremble.
I swallowed. “She will be more complacent with me—”
“Do I give a fleck about complacency? No. The Uldanis need her alive; that’s it. I’m not concerned whether she’s happy or not.” He cocked his head. “You’ll stay in the barracks.” He flicked his fingers at one of his males, who came and grabbed Reba by the arm, hauling her away from me. She broke then, wetness streaming out of her eyes as she fought and punched and kicked. “Please!” she cried. “Don’t let them take me from you.”
I checked to make sure Gaul couldn’t understand. I didn’t think he’d have any reason to update his translator. He had already turned away from her, all but ignoring her pleas. “I can’t be a victim again, Ward. I can’t. I’d rather die!”
Her last words hit me like a gut punch and I almost blew the whole thing and reached for her. Would she end her life? But I couldn’t do a thing except stand there helplessly as they dragged her away. I felt like my limbs were being torn off one by one. “Remember,” I managed to park at the warriors holding her. “She must remain unharmed.”
She was still yelling, her words garbled and unintelligible, when they threw open the door of a hut and tossed her inside.
“Ward.” Gaul’s voice came from somewhere in the distance, as if through a tunnel, as my focus remained on the closed door with currently rattled on the hinges, no doubt from Reba’s fists on the inside. The warriors remained at the door on guard. My only consolation there was they wouldn’t let anyone inside to hurt her.
“Ward.” Gaul’s voice came again.
I turned sharply to face him. “Yes.”
He watched me closely. “Barto will show you where you’re staying. How many rotations until you have to meet with the Uldani?”
“Seven,” I said. If we weren’t able to escape in seven rotations, then we were never getting out.
“Rendezvous point?”
I narrowed my eyes. “A rotations’s ride. Two at most.”
“At Alazar?”
Alazar was the Uldani fortress. I shrugged. “You don’t need to know yet, now do you?”
“Clever bastard,” he muttered. He tilted his head toward the barrack building. “Follow me.”
I had enough time in my room to spend a quick moment in the cleanser getting clean and getting Luna settled before I was to report to the dining hall for the evening meal. Gaul assured me Reba had been delivered food, but I spent the whole meal anxious that they’d gi
ven her only meat. She wouldn’t eat it, and I feared she was alone in her hut, despairing and hungry.
I bounced my knee under the table and gazed out of the open windows to the pink streaked horizon caused by the setting sun. I willed the sunset to come quicker, wishing for dark so I could sneak out and see Reba.
“So, Ward,” Gaul said as he gnawed on a pivar leg. Barto, his second in command, sat beside him, a shrewd warrior with pitch black eyes and gray hair he wore in a high ponytail. “What are the remaining Bakut brothers up to these rotations?”
I bristled at the question. The pain of Rex’s death during the Uprising was still fresh for Daz and Sax. Rex had been their youngest brother, a dedicated, loyal warrior who wanted to make his big brothers proud. He had, but he’d died doing it.
I had to be careful what I said around Gaul, just like I was sure he was careful what he said around me.
“He’s not trying to expand territory,” I said. “So, he’s let some of the outskirts of the Night Kings land unguarded.”
“Is that so?” Gaul took a swig of spirits that smelled terribly compared to Xavy’s special blend. “Which direction?”
“Southeast.” This wasn’t exactly wrong, but it wasn’t right either. We didn’t scout the far reaches of our territory as well as we used to, but we had tech eyes hidden in the trees thanks to Nero. But Gaul’s scouts wouldn’t notice those for a long time. They’d only report back that they’d found the land empty. If they actually tried to encroach, the Night Kings would attack. With any luck, Reba and I would be long gone by then.
“We’ll look into it,” he said, nonchalantly. He wasn’t relaxed though. He watched me carefully out of the corner of his eye. His shoulders remained tight. I felt like he would unleash his machets any moment and slice into my neck.
He didn’t have the Uldani contacts though. A human female to him was only worth what he could get for her. And the Uldani would pay. Handsomely.
“You want more food?”
