by C. R. Jane
Thane dusted his hands and climbed out of the ship. “Those bastards will imprison anyone who steps foot in their territory.”
“That’s what I’m counting on.”
He deserved so much worse but getting him off the planet didn’t make him or his disappearance our problem. I gave Corran a nod and the door to the cruiser slid shut as he returned to his monitor to get the cruiser into space.
Thane and I marched across the hanger, my thoughts darkening each time I remembered the Councilman’s words. The human is currently being escorted to a secure lab where we will begin the procedures.
With the information I’d dragged out of him, we’d found the location where they held Ella.
“Our ship’s ready,” Thane stated. “We won’t be detectable on entry, but once we land, we’ll have about ten minutes to get in and out of the place with Ella before they sense the vessel.”
“That’s tight, but we’ll make it work.” I shoved open the door to my small hideout I had built long ago once I realized that the Council pried into everyone’s business. I had never truly trusted their agenda. Of course, my instinct had been right, and this place had come in handy. It wouldn’t be safe for long though… not after we got Ella.
“We pack with no plans of returning,” I ordered.
“Corran and I already have the coordinates set for our escape with Ella.” Thane’s words were clipped and short, all business. It was how he dealt with the fear that we’d somehow be too late, somehow find her gone or worse… dead.
My gut knotted; I couldn’t think like that. “Perfect.” I turned away and prepared to leave.
I was going to spill blood and break spines.
Chapter 3
I hadn't expected to wake up, so when my eyes opened and the procedure room was visible around me, I immediately began to cry.
Looking around, there was no sign of Zeni or the doctor. There were just a few of the doctor’s team huddled around a tablet, discussing something with each other.
I tried to move quietly, taking inventory of how my body was feeling. They hadn't explained the procedure to me, so I wasn't sure how they put the Vepar fetus in, if it was like how humans did IVF, or if it was put in another way.
Besides my head hurting, I didn't feel too different. Maybe they experienced a change of heart?
Remembering the look on Zeni's face and the fervor in her voice when she had ordered them to start the procedure, I didn't think that they would have been able to get around it with her in the room.
Dr. Cryon suddenly walked into the room with her male companion that had been introduced to me.
She looked very focused on me, and I expected her to start asking questions about how I was feeling. Instead, she turned to the two Vepar that had been talking on the other side of the room.
"You’re needed in the east building," she said to them.
They immediately nodded and left the room, not even glancing over to where I was strapped in.
The doctor waited for a long minute. She seemed to be listening to their footsteps as they faded down the hall. I wondered what was going on.
Suddenly her companion was by the table, unbuckling the straps that had me trapped to the table.
I looked over at them confused. "What's going on?" I asked, wondering if I would now be allowed more freedom because the procedure had been done.
They didn't answer any of my questions, not even when all of the straps had been released, and I was sitting up. Dr. Cryon carefully helped me off the table since I was feeling weak after laying down for who knows how long.
"Can you walk?" she asked, a hint of urgency in her voice.
"I think so," I croaked, my voice groggy from my latest blackout session. Hopefully, there wouldn't be long term damage from being knocked out so many times. I wondered how much the effect of Vepar medicine on the human system had been studied. I was doubting very much based on their attitude towards the human race as a whole.
I wasn't sure why I was thinking of that at the moment. I really should just be excited that I seemed to be alive. Unless this was the afterlife and I had been doomed to hell, the hell where I was the Vepar puppet for eternity.
Now I was just being dramatic.
"We need to go," the doctor’s male companion said fiercely to her.
I was so confused.
Dr. Cryon began to quickly walk towards the door. Her companion nudged me to follow them. I began to walk, my gait unsteady as we went along.
The doctor looked back. "We’re going to need to go quicker than this," she ordered.
Nodding, the male Vepar picked me up in his arms and began trotting behind the doctor who had left the room.
“What’s going on? What’s the rush?” I asked, but he kept his focus dead ahead. “Please just tell me where you’re taking me.” Fear slid down my spine, and I began to jerk in his arms, trying to get away.
"Keep still," he muttered under his breath. “We’re helping you.”
I stopped struggling immediately. Helping me? “How?”
All of a sudden, one of the doctor’s team members came out into the hall. A younger woman with short cropped orange hair and matching irises. She stopped short, looking at us confused. "Isn't she supposed to remain laying down for at least a few hours after the procedure? What's going on?" she asked him.
Dr. Cryon stepped forward. “It’s okay, Teky, We’re transferring her to the lab. We received instructions for additional tests.”
Teky’s wide nostrils flared, her fierce gaze meeting mine, and I could have sworn somewhere behind that gaze, she held pity for me. My head spun with confusion and I wanted to scream, to run. But the man’s arms tightened against me like he sensed me panicking. I had to believe him and the doctor were helping me, had to trust these strangers who experimented on me at Zeni’s command. I had no plan B to escape aside from my three Vepar coming to rescue me.
Teky stepped aside, and I was rushed forward, bouncing in the man’s arms. I let myself cradle against him, my head resting on his shoulder as I prayed for once that something was going to go in my favor.
It wasn’t long before we stepped outside, bright sunlight beaming down on us. I lifted my head, squinting my eyes to find that we stood behind a building made of a kind of plexiglass… or maybe it was glass, minus the transparency. Wide open land spread out before us... all green grass and trees of varied colors in the distance.
A small gray space cruiser sat a few feet away.
The man set me on my feet. I wobbled at first before I caught my balance. “You’re free,” his rushed words whispered as he pointed to the ship. “That ship will take you from here and back to Corran.”
“You’re letting me go?” I faced him and the doctor. I knew the looks on their faces. Something terrible was going to happen to me and they wanted no part of it.
“Is Corran on that ship?” I asked as I stared at the vessel.
“It’s a friend. He’ll help take you to Corran. Now go, stop wasting time.” Dr. Cryon gave a shove to my back, and I stumbled forward.
My heart sank to my feet as I stared at them over my shoulder, tears pooling in my eyes. “Thank you.” Both of them met my gaze for a sliver of time, worry pulling their expressions taut, then they turned and rushed back into the building.
They risked too much to release me, to not follow Zeni’s orders, and I didn’t blame them. She was a massive bitch and I was sure there would be repercussions.
Wasting no time, I burst across the field, moving as fast as my exhaustion allowed, my sights set on the ship. Each step shot pain through my body, but I wouldn’t stop. Not when it meant seeing my guys again and stopping the experiments. Corran would help me, he’d fix whatever they did in that lab.
Vibrations suddenly traveled up my legs from the ground, and I glanced down and around me, seeing nothing. I turned to stare at the building, expecting to find guards chasing me down.
Except, a long ship with upward bent wings hovered in the air
between me and the lab. My breaths were barreling out of me as panic lashed over my chest.
They’d found me!
I spun and ran, my feet punching the ground.
My teeth chattered, and I sprinted madly. Adrenaline pushed me, numbing all pain. But the closer I got to the gray cruiser, the more something looked wrong.
The side of the vessel came into view and it had a gaping hole across the back half, its edges charred black. Someone had shot the vessel. My brain wasn’t catching up with the sight fast enough or I might have burst out crying.
Ice-cold fingers gripped my arm, and I jumped at the touch, but they swung me around with such force, I tripped over my own feet.
Stumbling, I fell to my knees and looked up to an alien wearing a black body-hugging suit that glinted in the sun. Dark oily hair was slicked off his face, and his cheeks were hauntingly gaunt. Black eyes blinked down at me.
“Khonsu!” I whimpered, punching his grip with my free hand, trying to scramble backward. “Leave me alone!”
“So, this one can talk. She’ll be popular.” He wrenched me to my feet and tossed me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing, and in two flashes, the darkness stole the sunlight.
I glanced up to find myself inside a ship… the enemy’s ship. He tossed me onto the floor, and I landed so hard, all the air was knocked out of my lungs. I gasped for air, when the forcefield shot up in front of me, trapping me inside a confined corner of the ship.
Jolting to my feet, I cried out, “Release me now.”
But the two Khonsu settled into the seats at the front of the vessel and the shuttle trembled before we lurched forward. Unlike Corran’s ship, this thing shook like a rust bucket.
“Let me go!” I continued to scream while searching the area for any weapons, but the place was barren. Just black walls closing me in.
Chapter 4
I was in a corral, that was the only way to describe it. Inside were what seemed like hundreds of beautiful women around me, in various states of dress or undress as it may be. A girl next to me was wearing what looked like an outfit from Xena, Warrior Princess, that TV show that had been popular when I was young.
The ground was covered in a thick lush green grass, and there was a metal fence around the outside of us. A faint buzzing filled the air, and I suspected that the fence was electric. The women were trying to stay as far from it as possible.
I let out a small shriek when a creature passed outside the fence in front of me. It looked similar to the monster that we’d encountered and killed during the trials. Like that one, it was standing on two feet, the color of its skin a muddy green. It looked over at me, and its piercing yellow eyes had my heart beating faster. It opened its mouth and smiled at me, if you could call it a smile with its sharp teeth that looked to be leaking a fluorescent green saliva. Where in the world had I found myself now?
The leather bikini girl, as I'd been calling her in my head, put her hand gently on my shoulder.
"Are you all right?" she asked. I could tell she was a Vepar because of her vibrant, almost glowing, blue eyes. That and the horn that was extending out of the middle of her forehead. It didn't take away from the fact that she was beyond attractive though.
"What is this place?" I asked, choking in the delirious screams that were threatening to erupt out of me as another creature walked by outside the enclosure.
It seemed like they were acting as guards of some sort. Looking beyond them, I could make out brown domes dotting the landscape around the corral. They were similar to the Vepar structures, just a little rougher looking as if there hadn't been as much time or technology put into creating them.
"You don't recognize this place?" she said with a broken laugh.
I shook my head. "Those are Khonsu though, I recognize them at least,” I said, taking a deep breath to try and relax. I obviously wasn't going anywhere at the moment.
"This is their capital city," she explained, brushing off a piece of dirt on her arm.
Corran, Derrial, Thane. I suddenly thought, everything coming back to me.
Constantly being knocked out couldn’t be good for my brain, it was clear that I was beginning to forget things. If this kept happening there was going to be permanent damage.
Fear and regret darted through me. The doctor had said that Corran was in that grey ship. What had happened to him? Where were the others?
I began to look around for them frantically, just on the off chance they were here somehow. The female Vepar put another comforting hand on my shoulder. "You need to calm down. You’ll only attract their attention by acting like this. I'm pretty sure they can sense fear and they feed off of it,” she said.
I glanced over at her. She appeared perfectly calm. As if she wasn't in the camp of the Vepar’s worst enemy, or at least what I thought was the Vepar’s worst enemy. I still knew next to nothing about these people.
"How are you not freaking out right now?" I asked as my body began to tremble. "And what are we doing here? Why are we in a corral?" As I was talking, my gaze continued to scan the landscape for my men. I had been suspicious of them since the beginning. I thought we had finally gotten to a good place. I should be more trusting than this. There was no way they had been working with Dr. Cryon. Right?
"You're the human, aren't you?" she asked understandingly.
I nodded hesitantly.
"I thought that you were just hiding your Vepar features so as not to attract attention. But this is how you look, isn't it?" she asked, eyeing me head to toe.
"Yep, no horns for me," I said jokingly, not even sure how I was able to joke right now about anything.
"You would look good with horns," she said with a serious tone. That hysterical edge of laughter threatened to erupt again, and I had to use all my effort to tamp it down.
"So, you know what we're doing here?" I asked, redirecting her to the issue at hand.
Her face sobered. "I've only been told about it, but I believe that we’re here for the Tangazi, or Mating hunt in your language," she said softly.
The word "hunt" made my blood freeze. I knew all about being hunted by the Khonsu. First by the one who had come after me on earth, and second by the monster in the woods.
"Can the Khonsu take different forms?" I asked, realizing that no one had explained this to me.
"They have many different forms. What you see walking around this area is their real form. It's my understanding that they can look however they want, although I haven't seen that myself."
I nodded, that explained a lot. I had to admit that I much preferred their other forms to the monsters currently patrolling the area. I shivered, thinking of how that first Khonsu had tortured me, flaying off pieces of my skin while I shrieked in agony. Maybe I did prefer this form actually, at least it didn't look like they had whips on their person, if it were even capable of carrying whips in its clawed hands.
"What does this mating hunt consist of?"
She threw me a look of sympathy.
"Just what it implies. They let us loose, and then go hunt us. And whoever catches you is your new mate," she said in a haunted voice.
True terror surged through me. "It sounds so barbaric. Why wouldn't they just mate with their own kind?" I asked.
"Now what fun would that be?" she asked sarcastically. "They wouldn’t be the Khonsu if even their mating rituals didn't involve fear and destruction."
I saw a flash of blonde hair, or at least I thought I did. And I looked hopefully to see if it was Derrial. But whatever I'd seen had disappeared.
"Why are you here? Did you venture too far from the Vepar cities?" I asked.
A look of rage briefly passed over her face before she smoothed it out. "I'm here because many of the Vepars are just as bad as the Khonsu, if not worse."
A wave of pity passed over me. It was obvious that this poor woman had a dark story.
“I'm Ella," I offered with a small smile. I was grateful that this Vepar woman wasn't treating me as the rest had a
nd was taking the time to at least explain things to me. I knew if Zeni were here, she would probably be throwing me up against the electrical fence at my audacity to ask any questions.
"My name is Bruda," she answered with her own small smile.
"Bruda," I repeated, thinking that the tough sounding name perfectly fit this Vepar who resembled a warrior Princess.
"Do you know when the hunt is supposed to start?" I asked, still desperately looking around for help.
It was interesting to watch the women around us. Some of the others were Vepars, but most were definitely of different alien races. They all were distinctly feminine, but also distinctly alien looking.
A woman off to my right was a dark, inky blue color. She had tubes coming out of her head instead of hair. The tubes were held back in some kind of elaborate headband. Her eyes were completely black, no white showing, and I jumped when they briefly turned to me, before losing interest quickly.
I was guessing it would be helpful in this situation that I resembled a form that the Vepar could take.
There were three gorgeous women off to my left, who were all a bottle green color. I gasped in amazement when I realized that there was a tube connecting the three of them. Literally, they were all one entity. It was like our conjoined twins back on earth, except in this case they had three distinct bodies.
Bruda must've seen me staring, because she made a small coughing sound to get my attention. They’re from the Dacasi," she explained.
“Many of the women there are born into groups of threes like that.”
"What do they do about dating, having sex, or anything else?" I asked.
She laughed. "Women on that planet who are born to a pairing like that, which is almost all of them really, all marry the same man. That takes care of all of those issues."
For a second, I wondered if my guys felt like that, like they were connected for life, since they were all dating me. What a strange life I had ended up having.
