by Lucee Joie
“Take them away,” the man says and Lacey is dragged towards a door at the other end of the building.
Guards also start to lead me away. I want to fight against them, to try and kill them rather than be boarded onto the Union’s vessel but I know it will only get me killed. They are likely just waiting for me to mess up, to do something that will warrant my termination.
Lacey might be worth something to the Union but they probably don’t need any more workers on board. I was just a problem that needed disappearing and the Union took me on in order to get a free human in return. I expect my days will be numbered.
But I don’t want to die yet. I want don’t want Lacey to be alone in her new alien world. She will be scared enough even with knowing that there is at least someone else familiar suffering alongside her. I don’t want to think about her despair should I die and she is left totally alone.
As I am dragged away, I hear a scream. It is Lacey and my head pings upwards. I strain against the guards holding me, my whole body now on alert. I don’t want to die but if something is happening to Lacey, if she is being hurt, well, that makes my blood boil and I see red as I strain against those holding me back.
Along with the scream, which was scarily short, I can also hear gun fire. Pushing myself upwards, attempting to make myself as tall as possible, I try to see what is going on. The ping of a bullet zips dangerously close to my ear. I can feel the heat from it and I immediately shy away.
There is shouting now and I can sense an urgency, a panic rising between the guards. I wait patiently, trying not to think of Lacey, of why I haven’t heard her voice since that earlier scream. I need to focus. If Lacey is dead, then I want to die alongside her. But I need to know for certain that she has perished. I need to be smart about this.
“Ejaw!” a voice says and I recognize Cad’s voice.
It makes sense now, realizing that Tarkeer had meant to say that Cad had found weapons. I grin in excitement. We’re armed! I squint into the confusion, hoping to see him as well. Guards start to circle me, creating a shield, and my vision is blocked in that direction.
I focus my energy towards a different location. “Lacey?”
I pause, my ears straining for any sound and am rewarded with a faint “Over here.”
A grunt escapes me as I fight against the emotion of knowing that she is still alive. She is far away and it sounds like she might be injured, but she is alive.
Now I have something to fight for.
Knowing that I stand tall, cracking my elbows into the guard closest to me. My wrist is hot with agony but the hot rush of blood along with the satisfying crunch of bone and gristle from the guard’s face helps to sate the pain.
The guard is surprised but there are others around me and they hustle in, ready to fight back. I headbutt the closest one to me. He attempts to duck but isn’t quick enough and drops like a bag of bilvae on market day.
More guards move in and I wonder if I will ever escape or whether I will die here, among the humans, among the ones that I don’t like, never getting to see Lacey’s beautiful face again.
It fires me, the knowledge that what Lacey and I had might be the last chance for us, that all I have left of her are memories if I don’t resist against the guards, against the humans who want to see my downfall. I do not want Lacey to be in the past, I want to be able to look forward to a future between us, to other intimate moments.
I stand taller, the pain in my wrist enormous but I block it out even as a cold sweat of pain forms on my forehead. I ram myself forward, pushing another guard. Since they are so close to me now, I can’t get any momentum started so my action is not efficient and the guard merely pushes back at me.
As I gather myself, reading for another form shove, his head explodes in a spray of crimson red. I gape for a solitary moment until I realize that he is dead and push through the gap that he has made.
The other guards actually let me pass, blinded by surprise before they realize that I am escaping. They reach for me but it is too late. I am already sprinting away from them, ducking and weaving my way through the crowd, using my size and strength to my advantage as I knock people out of the way.
“I’m coming Lacey!”
More shots are being fired and guards are now starting to drop around me. As I pass one who is in the middle of falling to the ground, I grab at his weapon using my set of uninjured cuffed arms. The guard has managed to get the gun free from its holster but the weapon is now falling from his grasp as the life leaves his body.
Pulling my hands upwards, I try to use the weapon effectively. The metal restraints have some give between them, so even with an injury, I still have some movement. I start firing into the crowd but my aim is terrible. My injury is on my dominant pair of arms and I have never properly trained with my lower limbs, thinking I would never need to. I continue to fire though, figuring that I will have to hit someone eventually, hoping that it is not a friend but a foe.
Lacey is up ahead. She is crouched over, huddling away from the gunfire and all I want to do is protect her, to shelter her and take her up in my arms.
Instead, I fire my weapon into the crowd some more, my gaze drawing back and forward over the group, trying to work out the enemy. To be fair, it’s pretty easy. The humans all look the same and the rest of us stick out like the gonads of a Duuyak. Still, I am careful. I need to keep an eye on Lacey, to make sure that no one else is firing in her direction.
I charge through the crowd, which is quickly thinning. I push over a guard and smash the butt of my gun into the face of another. Lacey is so close that I can almost touch her.
She has noticed me heading in her direction and a smile erupts on her face. It is dazzling and I am blinded by it. Yet, still I course forward, knocking people down and running over the bodies of those already fallen.
It is getting slippery underfoot and I drop my gaze as I bump into a body. It only slows me for a moment, though and I look back up.
Prince Ece has Lacey and he is grinning wickedly at me as he drags her away.
Chapter Nine: Lacey
I feel the furry hand of an alien reach around my neck. It closes over my mouth and I bite down hard in an effort to escape. I see Ejaw, see the exact moment when he realizes that I have been captured once more and I feel tears threatening in response to the bleak look on his face.
I only got a brief look at Prince Ece but, judging by the fur on this alien’s arm, I am guessing that is who has me now. Kicking out against him, I buck wildly in an attempt to escape, or to hit him in the one place that I hope is universally painful to a male.
The gun fire is easing as I am dragged away towards the cavernous door at the end of the room. I have no idea what is beyond this room but I know in my heart that I won’t like it.
I try to scream, to get a better purchase so that I can bite down on the man’s hand once more but he is strong and I am weak compared to his physique and size.
Still, I try.
Being able to resist is all that I have. My hands are still cuffed and I have no weapon so I try to make my kidnapping as difficult as possible.
There is nothing else but this struggle. All that I can hear is the pumping of blood in my ears as I fight against Ece. It drowns out everything else. Even though my eyes are open, all I can concentrate on is the hand at my mouth, as I kick out against the man’s body.
The door is closer now and it is starting to slide open. A draft of frigid air rushes towards us, covering us and it gives me renewed strength.
Reaching up, I try to punch at Ece’s face with my clasped hands. I have no purchase, though, no momentum to my action. Still, it is something else for him to contend with.
I hear a grunt as I somehow manage to whack the alien in the face. This is followed by a metallic click and Ece freezes.
“Let her go.”
It is Ejaw and his voice is cold, controlled. I suspect that he is at his most dangerous now and his tone makes me fearful even though I tr
ust him implicitly.
“She belongs to the Galactic Union now,” Ece relies calmly. “They do not like their property stolen.”
“She is not property.”
“Yes, she is, and I won’t give her up. You’ll have to kill me.”
I wish that Ejaw would fire, that he would kill this alien. I don’t even care that it would mean his brains would likely splatter all over me. I wasn’t a sook like that.
There is a thud and then Ece crumples to the ground. I gasp in cool air as his hand falls from my mouth.
Ejaw rushes forward and I loop my hands over his head, leaning into kiss him, to devour him. He flinches in pain as I brush against one of his wrists but smiles at me as our lips meet.
Since the guards arrested us, I was convinced that I would never get to see him again, that we would be separated or, worse, die. To be able to feel the crush of his sweet lips now is soothing to my soul. Amid all of the chaos and the tang of blood in the air, I am settled, I am calm merely because Ejaw has me.
“We need to get out of here before Ece wakes up,” Ejaw murmurs through our kiss.
I ignore him for a moment longer as I sigh into the embrace before opening my eyes and surveying the room. A mass of bodies carpets the floor. Among them are a couple of alien forms and I close my eyes as tears threaten. Drawing in a deep breath, I have to hold onto the fact that the loss is minimal on our side. I have to be thankful for that at least.
“Quick! This way!” Tarkeer shouts and I hold on tight as Ejaw runs through the huge door after the others.
It is dark on the other side but the aliens seem to know where they are going. As they run, I notice the soft blur of light as it is shot out of an instrument that Cad is holding. For the briefest of moments his face is illuminated before the glow disappears, shooting off into the distance. We all head towards it.
The small ball of light grows quickly, morphing from a glow and into a shining golden orb. Ejaw slows as we approach and puts me down as the rest of the group stops in front of it.
“What is it?” he asks.
“It’s where we were hiding,” Cad says with a grin. “It takes us to another world.”
I feel a tingle of excitement at his words. Another world. Just yesterday I thought I was an idiot for hoping that aliens were real. Now, I was getting ready to step into a whole other foreign world along with those aliens that I didn’t originally believe in.
“Stop!” A blinding shot sounds along with the voice and Cad drops.
His body crumples at my feet, his smile still plastered on his face. However, there is confusion in his eyes, as though he realized at the last second that something was wrong. I give a short squeal as I watch blood seep from a wound in his forehead, running into his eyes until I can no longer see his confusion any more.
Turning, I see Prince Ece approaching. His gun is raised and he looks ready to shoot us all.
“Oh, fuck no!” Ejaw shouts and pushes me through the portal.
The others quickly follow and Ece disappears from sight as Tarkeer, who was last in, raises the blood-spattered implement that Cad had been holding and fires it at the golden orb, closing it instantly.
“Where are we?” I ask the question as I look around. We are in the middle of a strange forest. Blue seems to be the new green for plant foliage in this place.
“I have no idea,” Ejaw says, one set of arms firmly around my shoulders.
My hands are free now thanks to a zap from the device that Tarkeer closed the portal with. It seems to be some sort of strange multipurpose implement that has done a pile of handy things so far.
I wrap one hand around Ejaw’s waist, being careful to avoid his bandaged wrist and snuggle into the warmth of his body. It is cold here and I am thankful that one of the things Tarkeer’s device can do is light a fire.
“Where do we go now?”
The alien who asks this is a slim woman. Her skin is shiny and a pale purple in color. Where she should have arms, she has tentacles.
“Where ever we want to, Zilzah,” Tarkeer replies.
Ejaw leans into me, his arms wrapping around my body and the chill is suddenly gone. I smile up at him, excited about my future, excited that I get to share it with my wonderful new alien lover.
If you have discovered that you like alien romance or are already a fan, why not check out my Galactic Union series.
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SNEAK PEEK of Warrior of the Stars
Chapter One: Beth
“In closing, I think you will find that you will be very happy with your association with Beckett, Smith, and Sons,” I say, smiling at the businessman in front of me.
The man, Mr. Peter Jenkins, grins at me in a condescending way and I want to punch him in the mouth. If it weren’t for the company swooping in at the last minute, Mr. Jenkins would be looking at potential jail time for the insider trading he has been accused of. And, if I am correct in my assumption, also guilty of.
“I am sure the pleasure will be all mine, Beth” Mr. Jenkins said, his smile gaining a seductive edge as he uses my first name.
Grinning in return, I hope the glint in my eye will be mistaken for flirtation and not revealing all the ways in which I would like to kill the man right now.
“Well, I think we can call it a day then,” I reply, gathering my files and putting them into a large black leather satchel. “I will see you tomorrow morning.”
Striding from the room as soon as my bag is zipped, I don’t allow Mr. Jenkins to get another word in edgewise.
The train is always packed at this time of night and I try not to breathe in the fetid stench of sweaty armpits as I grab for one of the loops high up. I am short, just five feet tall, so it is only my heels that help me to reach my goal. My fingers tighten around the loop as the doors shut and the train takes off.
It would be a slow forty-minute ride home and I can already feel my arm aching as I am jostled from side to side. A man’s briefcase digs into my back and every time we take a corner, it jabs further in, hitting my ribs until I can feel a bruise forming.
On the other side, an older businessman, his belly pushing tightly against his white shirt, winks at me every chance he gets. I scowl at him and shift my body weight slightly, pivoting as I do so in order to avoid him. He jostles as well; his body pushes up against mine so that I am fairly certain that it isn’t his briefcase stabbing me in the back now.
Rubbing my weary eyes with my free hand, I sigh. Only thirty-five more minutes to go, is my new mantra as the train heads towards a tunnel and I wish to be anywhere but stuck in a train carriage.
Bali, I muse. I would like to be in Bali right now. It has been two years since my last decent vacation. The time has slipped by in a flurry of legal transactions and I feel like my life will be over before it has even truly begun. Was this the best it would ever get? Sure, I earn good money but in return, I never had the time to enjoy it–and, no one to enjoy it with.
The hot pressure of the man behind me is constant and reminds me that I have been for such a long time. If I close my eyes, I can imagine that it is a man that I want, someone who wants me back. Were there even any decent men left on this planet?
At the same time that the train enters the tunnel the windows blacken with darkness and the lights flicker out. It happens so suddenly that, at first, I think that I have forgotten to open my eyes after blinking. Opening my eyes wider, I realize that they were, in fact, already open and the darkness is from a lack of light.
Blindly I reach out, not even thinking, and feel the softness of the pudgy businessman. He grunts at me and I was almost thankful for the knowledge that he is there since I have the strange sensation of being the only one truly anchored to the train in the inky well surrounding me.
“We are now arriving at…” the robotic voice said over the loudspeaker before fading away
in the same manner that the light did a moment earlier. An uneasy feeling starts rising.
I have always been afraid of the dark. Sure, not so much as an adult but, as a child, I always insisted on having my bedroom light on until I fell asleep. And, should I need to wake in the middle of the night to use the bathroom? Well, there was no way I would ever reach out to turn on the bed light or to pad down the hallway in the dark. Oh, no. Instead, I would scream until my mother arrived, flicking the light on and bathing the room in comforting light.
Now, in the darkness of the train carriage, I can feel the terror of my youth rising up once more.
Chapter Two: Horgeer
“The new shipment will arrive shortly,” Ece says and I wonder if this time I will get assigned a woman.
It is a great honor, yet I am unsure of how I really feel about it. Sure, my race is dying and using human breeders might be our only option left, but I wish that it didn’t have to be under such arrangements.
Ece nudges me. “Bet you get yourself a breeder this time.”
I nod at him and continue to stand guard. We have been tasked with securing the docking station against protest ships that might have learned about today’s shipment. I look out over the huge expanse of space and down at the blue and green planet from which the shipment will be obtained.
Earth is really a pretty planet from this far away. My own planet is the color of straw from the same distance as most of the water on Ochekia is underground and only accessible via the vast cave system that wriggles through the planet like some sort of burrowing creature has attacked the soil.
“Is that a ship?” Ece asks.
He is dancing from foot to foot with nervous energy, his tail swishing with aggression. He loves this role and is likely hoping some ship swoops in and attacks. It has been a while since either of us have seen any action when it comes to fighting, so I can understand his anticipation.
