by Maven, Ella
“A Plosich,” he murmured with disgust.
“Sure, well he chained me to a wall in a bedroom. I broke the bed, managed to wrench a metal pole from it, and when he approached me, I swung it. I hit him in the jaw, he went down, and never got up. I didn’t mean to kill him. I was just defending myself.” I glanced at the door of our cell. “Whatever he had planned would probably have been better than here, wouldn’t it?”
Mikko snorted. “No. He wanted you for his sons for mating practice. And Plosich’s are terrible at mating. They have barbed cocks that they don’t know how to use properly, and they practice on other species first, so they don’t kill off their female population.”
I couldn’t contain my horror. My heart pounded as my palms began to sweat. “Kill their… So, that means I would have died?”
“Do you know what a barbed cock could do to you?” he snapped.
My stomach lurched. “Well, I don’t really want to think about it!”
He sniffed as he scratched at a stain on his pants. “I wouldn’t have been there to save you, so trust me, you’re better off here.”
I pointed at him. “Yeah, about that. I don’t understand why you’re willing to help me.”
He cut me a sharp look. “What is there to understand?”
“Motivation, Mikko,” I said exasperatedly. “What is your motivation? My motivation is to live so I can eventually get back home, or at least somewhere safe in this freaking galaxy. What’s your motivation for putting your neck on the line for me?”
“Duty.” He tossed a small rock from one fist to the other, his purple eyes watching it closely.
“Duty,” I repeated.
His gaze shifted to me for a split second. “Yes.”
“I don’t understand. What’s your duty to me?”
“You ask a lot of questions,” he grumbled.
A curl fell down in front of my eye, and I blew it out of the way. “Well, you could answer with more than one word.”
“I’m a Drixonian warrior,” he said with a toss of the rock. It hit the opposite wall and broke on impact, scattering into many pieces that hit the ground like rain. “It’s who we are.”
I watched him take a deep breath. I could tell this next part was going to be important.
“Before everything fell apart, we were a society ruled by our females. The males were the defense of our race, but the females were the backbone and purpose. She is All is our motto, so when I saw you fighting for your life in the lowest level of the pit, everything that’s left of who I am called to me.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off of him as he explained his reason.
A society based around females. Wow.
“So that’s why you’re here now. That’s why I won’t hurt you, and why I will do everything I can to get you to safety. Because even though my body has been altered, my cora is the same.” He beat his fist against his chest. “It’s my duty, and I’ll die before I betray that.”
His words left me speechless for a moment. I hadn’t considered once he was doing this out of duty. Since arriving on this planet, I’d only encountered one terrible alien after another. So, it’d been hard to believe there was a being here who acted out with dignity and honor.
But I couldn’t deny Mikko spoke from the heart. There was zero deception in his body language, and his purple eyes glowed fiercely. He’d put a target on his back here, in a prison where no one would blame him for being selfish to survive.
“Okay,” I said softly. “Thank you for that answer.”
He lost some of the fire in his gaze and slumped back against the wall. “You’re welcome.”
He still looked tired and troubled, which made me feel guilty even though it wasn’t my fault I was on this damn planet. But then… it wasn’t his either. “I’m sorry for being so distrusting.”
“I understand.” He shot me a firm look. “And if anyone else in here tries to promise you something, just know they’re all liars and cheats.”
I let a small smile spread across my face at his command. “Everyone except you.”
He puffed out his chest. “Everyone except me.”
I nodded because he was so incredibly sincere I had no reason to doubt him. He was slowly earning my trust. “Are we…” I swallowed. “Is there getting out of here?”
“A sentence to the Pit is for life. There’s no way out, only in.”
My head spun and I swayed as I dropped my forehead into my palm. “Right,” I whispered. The guards had told me that, but I didn’t know if they were to be believed.
“Except…” his voice held an amused levity that drew my attention.
I lifted my head. “Except what?”
“You’re currently sitting in the cell of the only one who’s ever escaped this place. I got out once, and I’ll get out again.”
And that was the first time I saw Mikko smile a wide, cheeky grin that made my heart skip. He was shockingly handsome when he wasn’t glowering or snarking. I found myself returning the smile, and his gaze dipped to my lips as his purple eyes darkened. Surprised at the heat lurking there, I sucked in a breath just as a loud knock rattled the door.
Three
Mikko
I knew who stood outside my door the moment the knock ended. When his voice rumbled through the thick door with a gravelly growl, I cringed. “Been a long time since I’ve seen your face, Drix,” Lozoric hissed. I imagined him licking his lips with his three tongues.
He didn’t give a fleck I’d disappeared or returned. He only wanted to see what was in my cell with me.
I was sure the third level prisoners had sent him as the representative, since he was the only one, I didn’t spike in the throat on sight. As strongly as I disliked him, he was the most intelligent out of the rest of the monsters in here. He was also the deadliest and the most ruthless. I shuddered to think what he’d do to Rian if he got a hold of her.
“Now you’ve seen it, so you can leave,” I shouted through the door as Rian sat frozen with her green eyes impossibly wide.
The knock came again, and her whole body began to tremble as her face lost color. Even her pink lips paled.
The deep voice came again. “We need to talk.”
I tried to stall. “Not now.”
The door rattled on its hinges as Lozoric slammed a heavy fist into it. “Now. Or I multiply and return.”
Translation? He’d bring fleckers crazier than him and tear my door down. This was as peaceful a visit as I was going to get regarding Rian. I had to buy myself some time and get him to leave us alone.
I gritted my teeth and ripped one of my forearm spikes out. The pain of ejecting my spikes never lessened, but I was more used to it now. Blood flowed, and Rian shrieked. Swiping my hand over the wound, I rushed to her side and smeared my black blood on the side of her face and down her neck. Throwing the fur around her shoulders, I leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Act injured and scared.” She only stared at me, visibly shaking as she clutched the furs around her.
I opened the door to the sight of Lozoric with his giant fist raised as he made to knock again. It’d been a few cycles since I’d seen him, and he hadn’t changed much at all. He had a few new scars and I wondered who made them. He was a Haz’pitz, a warring race who often sent out legions of pirates to seize whatever spacecraft they could.
I didn’t know all of Lozoric’s story, but he had been a commander who betrayed his crew for a deal with the Plikens. Then he’d betrayed the Plikens too and they’d thrown him in the Pit. He was loyal to only himself, but he was also smart.
He stood taller than me, and his reddish skin was thick and nearly impossible to penetrate, even with my spikes. He kept his hair shaved to the scalp and wore a pair of patched pants I was sure he’d stolen from someone. Dark tattoos traced over his body, disappearing into his waistband.
His fists flexed at his sides as he peered over my shoulder. His lips pulled back into his form of a smile. “We didn’t hear noises. I was worried you’
d remained soft like the rest of your pathetic race.” He cracked his neck. “But I see you’ve been busy.” He licked his lips, that triple tongue flicking as if scenting the air. Rian made a noise of distress and he closed his eyes as if savoring the sound. “Can I see one of her wounds?”
I took a step forward, shoving his chest with mine, and he stumbled back one step. I took the opportunity to gain enough ground to slam the door shut behind me. He recovered quickly and narrowed his eyes. “I asked nicely.”
“What do you want?”
“When did you get back?”
“I didn’t bother to count the cycles.”
“Some said you escaped, and others said you died.”
I shrugged.
“Since you didn’t die, then you must have escaped.”
“Brilliant reasoning, Loz,” I muttered.
He snarled, a warning I ignored as my head spun with a way to use this conversation to my advantage. “Or maybe I’ve been working the mines and then was brought back here.”
“I don’t appreciate this evasion, Drix,” he hissed.
“Well, I don’t appreciate the interruption. I don’t owe you an explanation on where I’ve been. Since when are you my mother?”
His nostrils flared and he leaned in. “Some things have changed since you’ve been here last. New bodies. Strong minds. You can’t flex those spikes of yours and expect everyone to fall in line anymore.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Consider it advice. You won’t be able to keep your toy all to yourself.”
I bared my teeth. “Leave us alone and I’ll let you know where I’ve been for five cycles. Trust me, it’s information you want.”
“Is that so?”
“Absolutely.”
“Fine,” he backed up a step and pointed a finger at my door. “You have two nights with your prize. Make sure she’s still in good enough shape for me and a few others. Then we’ll have another talk. Understand?”
“Perfectly,” I spat.
He crossed his wrists in front of his neck in a mockery of the Drixonian battle stance with a sneer on his lips before sauntering off. A few voices shouted at him as he walked away. Over his shoulder, he hollered, “Two nights, Drix!”
His deep voice carried through the third and second level, enough so that a chant began to pick up. “Two nights. Two nights. Two nights.”
Dread settled low in my gut where it churned and bubbled before morphing into anger and then rage. Two nights? Flecking fine. That was more than enough time. They’d come for her only to find an empty cell. I was going to finish what I came here to do and then we were busting out. Again.
* * *
Rian
* * *
Mikko was no longer grinning. He had only spoken in short one-word sentences since that massive reddish alien had knocked on our door. Just the thought of him turned my blood cold. His eyes had been black, and he’d gazed at me with a hunger that twisted my insides.
When Mikko had returned, he’d helped clean his blood off my face with jerky movements and a clenched jaw. After that, there was nothing to do, so I’d taken to scribbling on the dark stone walls with a white pebble. While I was nowhere near an artist, it felt good to do something with my hands. Feeling melancholy, I drew things I missed. My goldfish. My job. My lumpy bed and fussy stovetop in my small apartment. Even my upstairs neighbor who liked to stomp around at two in the morning.
Any of that would be preferable to an alien planet prison. Eventually the pebble crumbled into dust and I stared at my drawings with my knees drawn up to my chest. When I glanced at Mikko, he was fashioning some sort of pack out of a large threadbare fur.
“Are we going somewhere?” I asked.
He paused his movements without looking up. “Yes.”
“Now?”
“After you sleep.”
I hadn’t been able to hear the conversation he had with the red alien, and when he’d re-entered the cell, a chanting of words I couldn’t make out seemed to hold an undercurrent of violence. “What were the prisoners chanting?”
“Two nights.”
I crept closer to him. “What does that mean?”
He finally looked up at me. “It means they are granting me two nights with you alone as a symbol of my status here. After that, I’ll have to give you up.”
I went still at his words. “What?”
“We won’t be here then,” he said, tightening a knot in the furs. “Don’t worry. They won’t get their hands on you.”
“Um, telling me not to worry doesn’t automatically make me not worry.”
“Well, try.”
I growled in exasperation. “Why do you have ‘status’ here?” I made finger quotes around status, honestly curious what it took to gain status here.
His gaze shifted to my fingers and his brows lowered in confusion. “What does this,” he mimicked my air quotes with crooked fingers, “mean?”
“It means I’m emphasizing that word.”
“Okay, well then I have status here because I’m—” he made very exaggerated air quotes, “‘Flecking deadly’.”
Yeah, I’d seen him in action with those spikes of his. He’d ripped one out just to coat me in blood to trick the other alien into thinking I was hurt. “Why do you eject your spikes if it’s clearly painful and makes you bleed?”
“Because the pain is only temporary, and they are excellent weapons.”
“Is that how all Drixonians fight?”
His hands stuttered as he fussed with the fur pack. “No.”
“No?”
He sat back. “Other Drixonians can retract their machets under their skin, but they cannot eject them like me. Mine eject and regenerate.”
“Why are you different?”
He snorted. “Because the Uldani are evil.”
“Who?”
He waved the question away with a flap of his hand. “Enough about me. What’s your story?”
“My story isn’t that interesting.”
His lips curved slightly. “I find that hard to believe.”
“I was a secretary who lived alone in a tiny apartment with a touchy radiator. I was getting my life back on track after some mistakes when I was taken and… Well, now I’m here.”
“Mistakes?” He cocked his head.
I shrugged. “I’ve been to prison before. For a year. But Earth prison is much, much different.”
“How different?”
“Well, there are actually guards, for one.”
“There are guards here, but they stay above ground.”
“Well, the guards in an Earth prison are more present. We are given three full meals a day with locking cells. We can shower. It’s not vacation by any means, but it seems like it compared to this place.”
“It’s not called the Pit for nothing.”
“Did you have prison on your home planet?”
He leaned his head back against the wall. “I was incredibly young when we left Corin, but the elders who were still alive made sure we knew everything about our society. Infractions were rare, but when they occurred, a council of females decided punishment, which was often physical labor or if the crime was bad enough—a public Drixonor.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s the ultimate punishment for a Drixonian. He is chained with his arms tied to his sides, so if he uses his machetes, he’ll gore himself to death.”
“Jesus,” I whispered in horror. “You mentioned you were a society ruled by females before everything fell apart. What did you mean?”
“A virus swept through our planet, killing our females and most of our elder males. We were directionless, mostly young warriors and most of us chits. The Uldani of our sister planet offered us a purpose to work as their defense. We agreed but didn’t realize the Uldani planned to betray us. We fought them for our independence and that was when…” his voice trailed off. “That was when I became who I am now and was sold to this planet.”
I found I was clutching my chest, heart aching. “I’m so sorry.”
His face softened a fraction before he jerked his chin toward my scribbles on the wall. “Explain to me what you drew.”
“Just things I miss from home.” I pointed out a few. “This is my pet fish.”
“What’s a fish?”
“An animal that breathes underwater.” I made a fish face by sucking in my cheeks and opening and closing my lips.
A deep rumble rose from his chest. “What is that?”
I smiled. “Fish make that face when they swim.”
“I like your faces. Tell me more of Earth animals.”
“You first.” I shifted closer to him and crossed my legs in front of me. “Tell me about an animal from Corin.”
He folded his hands in his lap, and it was the first time I’d seen him truly relaxed. “Let’s see. A salibri. On Corin we hunt them for their fur, which is soft and thick.” He poked at the bag. “This is not salibri fur. It’s thin and course.”
“What does a salibri look like?”
“They walk on all fours with big paws,” he held up his hand and curled his fingers with his claws out. He made a scratching motion along with a low growl.
I smiled at him as he peeled his lips back.
“Big fangs and ears up here.” He crooked his fingers on top of his head. His tail slapped the ground. “Rope-like tail.”
He looked kind of cute describing this animal. This conversation felt… almost normal. Like we were getting to know each other over dinner. “Are they nice?”
His eyes went wide. “No. Especially if you come between them and their young.”
“Well, that’s all of us, isn’t it?”
He smiled softly. “This is true. Are you a mother, Rian?”
I jerked. “Me? No way.”
“Do you want to be a mother?”
“This is a pretty personal question for a first date.”
