by Erin Raegan
I wailed for Bets, for Noah. For Killian. For drugs to stop the pain.
Now that my adrenaline was crashing, I felt the broken bone biting into my every nerve. It was the worst pain I’d ever felt.
Oren finally left Marcy and came to my side. He looked at an alien and barked something at him, pointing at my arm. Then he ran to the wall and hit a button. “Kil.”
“Where is she?” Killian barked back through the speaker.
“You need to get down here right now,” Oren hissed.
“What’s wrong?”
I screamed as the alien picked up my arm.
“So help me, Oren, if one hair on her head is hurt,” Killian rumbled menacingly.
I screamed his name as the asshole alien straightened my arm.
Oren cursed. “Just get here.”
I was sobbing uncontrollably when Killian came into the room. The alien trying to strangle and slice up my arm as I kicked and punched at him saw Killian, and his eyes widened. He backed away, falling into the table behind him.
“What is it?” Killian rumbled, his eyes wide with rage.
“My arm!” I wailed. “He’s going to cut it off!”
“It’s just a break,” Oren said carefully. “Don’t lose it, Kil.”
“You were supposed to watch her!” He grabbed the asshole alien doctor by the back of his neck and dragged him back to me. “Fix her!”
“No!” I screamed.
“Theo,” Killian said, holding my head down from above me, “he’s only going to immobilize it so it can be splinted.”
“No,” I growled. “He’s got a knife!”
“Look at me,” Killian barked from above me. “Look at me. Don’t look away from me.”
I nodded, sniffling and slobbering all over myself. There was pressure and I screamed again, my eyes leaving Killian. “Don’t touch it!”
Oren sighed heavily. Killian glared at him and firmly held my face toward him. I felt a sharp prick of pain, then warm, soothing relief moved through my arm.
“What happened?” Oren asked as my eyelids drooped.
“Veel,” Killian said. “They attacked a Xixin ship first. They’re after the humans for the slave trade.”
“Did you kill them?” I asked around a yawn, sweet relief swooping through me like a warm current.
Killian grinned and rubbed his thumb across my jaw. “I did.”
“That’s good.” I sighed, my eyes fluttering closed.
“Damage?”
Killian mumbled something dark.
“Have you heard from the others?” Oren asked Killian.
“They’re fine.” He cursed. “Sal is never going to voluntarily fly on my ship again.”
An Unexpected Detour
Kil
I stood before them, wary and prepared. “We cannot continue our journey.”
“Why not?” Bets asked, soothing Sal.
Sal must be coming up on empty soon. One human just did not have much more to expel. Could not.
The group winced, watching Sal.
“We’ve taken on some damage,” I said. “Earth is too far to return. We need to make a detour.”
“A detour where?” Noah asked warily.
I looked at each of them. “Where we’re going is dangerous. You are human and cannot be seen.”
“Why not?” Noah asked.
I sighed. “Your kind would be enslaved.”
Worse than enslaved. But I would not allow that to happen.
Noah gaped, shaking his head.
“Slaves?” Bets asked fearfully.
I nodded, watching my Theo for her reaction. But she was leaning against me, a dazed look in her eyes. The medicines left her lethargic.
“How long will we be there?” Holden asked me. He still wore his grief like a cloak, but training with Leo seemed to be helping.
“We will repair the ship as fast as possible then be on our way.”
Theo snorted, snuggling adorably into my chest. “You’re kind of slow at fixing ships.”
Oren quietly chuckled..
“Love, at the time, I was limited to the resources available to me.” I looked at Sal. “No offense meant.”
“None taken,” he mumbled.
“On Litsipth, the proper equipment is available. We will only be docked for a short time.”
“Is it safe to keep going in this ship?”
I looked at my Theo’s brother, hating him but having no choice but to tolerate him. Until he died at least. “Stay away from the damaged sectors for now and you will be safe.”
“How far are we from our new planet?” Iris, the other human female, asked.
I looked at Oren. He had not yet told them? He winced, looking away.
So I told her, “I believe it to be four of your earthen weeks.”
“Four weeks!” A chorus of screeches burned my ears.
I grinned and lifted my snoring female into my arms. “Yes, humans. You will be with us for some time. Four long, glorious weeks of star travel, dangerous adventures, and sights your little human eyes could not comprehend.”
With that, I took her from the room to my bed. Where she belonged.
Four short weeks to convince my Theo not to step foot off my vessel.
Four weeks to convince her she belonged by my side.
Theo had wanted adventure when I first met her. She’d wanted to find meaning in life, to live and see the impossible.
Well, I would show it to her. I would give her everything her heart desired and pray to every higher being amongst the stars that it was enough.
Tumbling Walls
Theo
My arm was broken. That had been not so fun.
Lucky me though, alien medicine seemed to fix it up a lot quicker than a cast back home would have. Part of that was thanks to Killian’s dogged persistence with his medical staff. They had to do all sorts of things to my arm. Injections and splints and weird machines and creams.
I hadn’t taken any of it well.
I’d never used to be a bad patient. But after my year being held captive by my own government and experimented on, you could say I’d become an impossible to deal with.
It was and odd feeling, because I could handle the pricks of needles and invasive procedures with a measure of stoic calm back with Dr. Newman. But after he died in the escape—I assumed—and spending a year in Alaska, relatively free from that, I guess something in me just snapped. I hadn’t realized I was so averse to anything medical until an alien tried to help me and I nearly pummeled him to death in my hysteria.
It was kind of hard to hide my animosity for the alien healer after it was all out in the open. Even harder to hide it from Killian. He may have been aware of what I’d gone through that year already, perhaps just trying not to demand answers or anything to do with the subject from me because things were already so tense between us. But now it was just too hard for him to ignore.
For the last week I’d been healing, he had become nearly impossible to be around. He wanted every little grisly detail.
I didn’t want to talk about it.
He wouldn’t let up.
I’d refused.
Then he demanded to know Noah’s involvement down to every last twitch of my brother’s finger.
It was then things came to a head.
Temptation was too great for the mighty Kilbus Lord.
He tried to get into my head.
I warded him off with singing farm animals.
He grew enraged and tried for my brother.
Noah fought back.
Seeing my brother foolishly engage Killian in a fist fight for all the ship to see and Killian barely managing to keep reign on his clearly far superior fighting skills, I’d lost my already missing cool.
I couldn’t watch them fight. I just couldn’t. My brother meant something to me. Even after everything, I cared. And Killian—well, I cared about him too.
I refused to speak to either of them.
The silent
treatment seemed to work wonders on Killian. This infuriated him. But Noah just took it all in stride. He was used to my silence.
At least I thought he was.
“It’s been four days,” he said as he walked into my room. “You going to talk to me soon?”
I glared at him.
Noah sighed and raked his fingers through hair. It was starting to grey at the temples. “That asshole can’t hurt me.”
I scoffed. He so could. Killian had already given Noah a split lip, a bruised eye, and a nasty gash on his forearm.
Killian had claws. Noah had a bad attitude. They were outmatched.
Besides, that wasn’t what this was about. Noah deserved a little beating, Bets even agreed. But Killian wasn’t just going to beat Noah, he was going to kill him. I just knew it.
And I didn’t want to talk about what happened to me.
I wanted to move past it.
But Killian wouldn’t let it go.
“You know, I really thought that asshole was going to kill me,” Noah said absently, looking around my room at the little drawings Iris had pasted up on the walls. She was pretty amazing with a pencil.
I snorted. I thought so too.
Noah shook his head and sat beside me as I finished stitching another hole in my jeans. I’d had them too long. My favorite pair. “No, not on the ship. Back in Alaska.” He sighed and scrubbed at his face. “I always knew he’d be back. All that shit with Howard.”
I looked at him in confusion.
Noah chuckled darkly. “Killian didn’t just leave, Theo. He had eyes on you at first. Howard worked with me. He had been compromised though. Killian had somehow gotten into his head and had him reporting your every move. The day we took all of you we had to move fast. We’d suspected Howard’s informing Killian and though it intrigued us enough to watch him, we couldn’t let him relay where we were taking you. That much was clear. That’s why we kept moving you around. Whatever we had to do to keep Killian from finding you.”
So many words from my brother. So many words strung into sentences directed at me after a lifetime of him ignoring me. I didn’t know what to do with him when he was like this. Morose and brooding. I didn’t know what to do with Noah period.
“Nothing?” He asked me, his lips frowning. “I know you’re curious Theo. I didn’t want to talk about it either, but I know it’s going to have to be discussed sooner or later. We can’t escape each other now.”
“It’s a big ship,” I told him darkly, breaking my silence in favor of hurting him in any way I could.
He nodded, looking at the wall stoically. “Yeah, we could avoid each other for a while, but that asshole out there threatening to rip your door down is going to push the conversation out eventually.”
“Why do you hate him so much?” I asked him, perplexed. Noah had a deep seeded hate for Killian and it never made complete sense to me apart from he was an alien and Noah had a secret job that made Killian and all aliens out to be a threat.
Noah’s jaw flexed. “You know I hated you.”
I blinked away hurt and looked down. “I know. You always have.”
Noah nodded. Not denying it. “Our mother was never good. Always fucked up when I was a kid, but the moment you came into the picture it got worse.”
I didn’t want to hear this. How Noah blamed me for her absence and indifference. “I was a baby.”
Noah shrugged. “I was a kid. You were just another mouth to feed. Another person I had to coddle and take care of.” His shoulders sagged. “It was exhausting just looking after her, but then you made it somehow unbearable. You cried all the time. Screaming for her and she never looked your way. Endless sleepless nights and longer draining days. I wasn’t equipped to raise you Theo, but I had no choice. It was either that or leave you to her, and I knew you wouldn’t survive her.”
My breath shuddered out of me in painful wisps. That woman didn’t give a shit about either of us, but still I wondered about her. She was probably dead now. No one to take care of her when everyone in the world needed someone the most.
“So you left me.” I glared at my stilled hands, my finger tapping at the sharp edge of my needle.
“Yeah,” he sighed. “I left. We got to Sal and Bets and I knew I wouldn’t have to watch over you anymore and I left.” He took my hand from the sharp needle and held it in his. His hand was cold, too cold. “I felt trapped Theo. Stuck in a life I didn’t want. My head always filled with wanting and a desperate drive to be more than her. Better than her.”
I nodded. I could understand that. But, “Why not visit? You called, sometimes, but I could always tell you didn’t really want to. Why bother at all?”
“I might be a bastard, Theo, but you were still my sister. I was trying.”
I looked up at him, suddenly feeling torn. On the one hand, I couldn’t fathom abandoning a baby, a sister. But on the other, I got it. Him. Noah didn’t sign up to raise me. That hadn’t been his choice or his responsibility. Not really. “You’re pretty awful at trying.”
He snorted. “No shit.” He stood. “I might not be a good brother. I know most of what happened to you in the last year is all my fault.” He turned to glower down at me. “But that asshole put you in a position that I had no control over. It could have been worse, Theo.”
I looked away from him.
“I kept them from doing some real damage to you, in that way I know you all got lucky. It might sound arrogant to you, but me leaving you and getting the job that I did, saved you from a lot of pain. What are the fucking odds that they would come to your town and specifically your door? What is the fucking chance that I would be your brother, in the position I was in to curb some of that horror from you?”
I shrugged helplessly. It was unbelievable. “But Noah, you never would have found them if you weren’t who you were. They would have come and gone, and no one would have ever known. They never would have taken us to begin with.”
Noah’s lips pressed into a firm line. “Maybe, you’re right. But then again, what if you’re wrong? What if they would have found that truck and came straight to your door and I wasn’t in the middle of it? What would have happened to you then?”
I sighed, tired. “I don’t know, Noah.”
“He fucked up,” Noah rumbled. “He could have gotten you all killed or turned into some fucked up facility that wouldn’t blink at cutting open your insides to see how he messed with your heads. He fucked up and then he left. I don’t give two shits who he is or what he is, that asshole doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as you. I was a screwed-up kid when I left you, but you’re all I’ve got and I know you won’t believe me, Theo, but I do love you.”
Thick droplets fell from my eyes onto the floor as he left me in my room alone.
That conversation needed to happen. But I still felt like we got nowhere now that it had happened. I believed Noah cared about me in his own way, but he wasn’t going to accept our situation without a fight. And I didn’t know how to be around either him or Killian knowing that they would always want to rip each other apart.
But the truth of it was I didn’t think I had any sway with Noah.
That wasn’t the same for Killian.
Deep down, I knew Killian would listen to me in this.
I just needed to talk to him first.
My arm may be healed but it still ached, and I rubbed it as I walked the alien halls of the ship. Oren was my silent companion. He was apparently my guard when Killian was doing lord things. Or recently, when I didn’t want to see him.
But now I needed to. We were due to arrive at this Litsipith place very soon and I didn’t think I would have a chance to talk to him anytime soon if I didn’t try now. Us humans were going to be locked away in our rooms so the aliens living there couldn’t catch even a whiff of us being here. Like a giant warship wasn’t mask enough.
I walked the vaguely familiar route to Killian’s office. The aliens in the big navigation room murmured quietly as I walked by th
em. Killian’s office door was ajar this time, and my eyes snagged onto the big table as I walked inside. Killian sat at the end, facing away from me as he leaned back against the table with his arms folded across his chest.
The same Dahk alien was on the screen that had been there the first time I was here. The Dahk King.
“We haven’t heard from the Veel in some time,” the Dahk King was saying.
“The Order was enough to deter them before, but those of us not cowing to the order have seen plenty of them.” Killian stiffened as I moved closer but didn’t turn to me.
The Dahk King scowled. “I grow weary of defending our alliance to my commander, Kil. You’re unpleasant nature only drives his resentment of you.”
Killian grinned at the huge screen. “Tahk is not my concern, he is your subordinate Uthyf, deal with him and stop whining.”
Uthyf looked up, shaking his head. “Between you and the Juldo I am hard pressed to believe we can rebuild an Order to replace the crumbling chaos Viytenus has left behind.”
“I’ve told you more than enough young king, I want nothing to do with this new Order.”
Uthyf sat forward, his clawed hand at his chin. “Yet, you have a vested interest in the humans.”
“They have nothing to do with your gains in universal domination.”
Uthyf snorted. “I have enough to deal with in my own kingdom than to seek domination outside of it. But the human leaders have requested our aid and inclusion in the Order, a deserved consideration. Besides, you have far too many enemies to turn me and both the Xixin and the Guhuvin leaders away.”
Killian grinned sharply. “You assume I need this alliance, King. I am not the Dahk, nor the soft hearted Guhuvin. Me and mine have survived drifting the stars far longer than your little planet can comprehend. You need me far more than I need you.”
Uthyf scowled. “You are nearly as irritating to converse with as Chyn.”
Killian chuckled. “Now, Uthyf, the flattery is unnecessary. I told you I would help protect your little kingdom, and I will keep my word, that is more than you can claim of the Juldo. At least I have not threatened on more than one occasion to steal into your bedchamber at night and cut the life from you.”
