by Erin Raegan
I drank it all in with frightened determination.
The ship was as bland as they were. Grey and armored. Sharp edges and smooth sides. Four seats in the cockpit and nothing else.
No beds. No rooms. Just a huge room with a few crates on either side of me.
That and the cage they had thrown me in.
It was a big cage. Enormous really. Definitely meant for something much larger than me. I had room to stand and stretch and I did so, assessing my injuries.
I was bruised all over. But other than a few small cuts on my waist, nothing too serious. I just ached and I was freezing.
The cold didn’t seem to bother them.
Nothing bothered them. Cool and calm, the four of them converged on the cockpit and taking their time, they quietly prepared the ship for flight.
If they left. I was gone, likely forever.
But I could do nothing to stop them.
“Hey!” I shouted impulsively. I needed to create a distraction. Anything to stall them. “Hey! What do you want with me? Where are you taking me?”
The first grey alien—the asshole that kidnapped me—lazily looked over his shoulder. A sinister glare aimed my way. “What did I tell you beast? Quiet.”
My teeth ached from clenching them in fury. “Let me go.”
“No.”
He turned away from me, shooting his seat partner a baleful sneer.
“What does it say?” The other asked him.
I swallowed thick dread.
He shrugged. “Hells if I know what the thing is screeching about.”
They couldn’t understand me. They may know I was human but clearly they didn’t have the upper hand on my language like Killian did, like the Dahk and Xixin did.
That was very bad for me.
I went to smack my hand against the bars of the cage in frustration but the bastard spun quickly in his seat, freezing my hand in the air with just one malevolent warning. “Behave.”
I shivered, my hand ice cold and frozen in the air. I slowly lowered it, backing away from him and the rest of them. My back met the thick bars of the cage behind me. I lowered slowly into a crouch, hugging my ice-cold knees to my chest. I glared right back at him.
His lip twisted nastily and he turned back around.
Killian, I thought in desperation—blinking away more tears, now would be a good time to deliver on all those promises you made me.
Rage and Shame
Kil
She was gone.
Taken.
I left Oren to nurse his wounds in silence.
I couldn’t speak to him. Not a word. I knew he’d done all he could to prevent the Veel from taking her. Facing the Veel’s disgusting pets would have made the feat nearly impossible for just one Kilbus, but I was going to rip his head from him if he so much as apologized one more time.
Theo was taken, let down by me for the last time.
I should never have left her with Oren. Slithering away to stew in my own despicable emotions and leaving her unprotected shamed me beyond comprehension.
The Veel beasts were taken care of. The Marcovin whimpering on the floor at my feet.
“You let them inside,” I sighed heavily, disguising my rioting emotions.
“They would have attacked Litsipith! They would have killed me!”
I glared down at the cretin, sniveling and bleeding all over my boots. “And what did you think I would do to you?”
He whimpered in fear, his face flushing in terror.
I read his thoughts. Every weak snipe and insult directed my way and I shook my head in fury. Even now he felt no remorse.
But I couldn’t stand here a moment longer.
The Veel ship could not be stopped. Not in time for my ship to depart. She was inside, drifting farther and farther away from me.
I turned back to Oren reluctantly. “You will stay and take care of this,” I rumbled.
Oren lifted his chin, his gaze flaring in outrage. “No, I will go with you to retrieve her.”
I would not argue with him. “No.”
I left the hangar, the onlookers scattering to get out of my way. Shying away from my fury. Bodies littered the path to my ship. Veel, the Veel’s pets, and the Marcovin’s guard. All of them eliminated by me and my crew as we chased after my Theo.
We were too late.
She would never forgive me for this.
No one spoke as I embarked, firing up the ship. The repairs had been hastily patched as I tortured the Marcovin for information. They would hold for now, but I knew the trip to the human’s world would be tentative. I was going to have to ask the gods damned Dahk King for an emergency repair crew.
It galled me to ask for aid.
But we would need it. That is if I didn’t tear the ship apart battling the Veel.
In that case, there would nothing left to repair.
I needed to catch up to her before the small retrieval team they’d sent to capture her returned to their warship.
Already I was losing track of our bond. It was fading the farther she slipped from my grasp.
Time was running out.
I felt her, more and more the closer my ship drifted along the Veel trail left behind. It was a hazy mist. Almost imperceptible to the untrained eye. But I could see the shimmer the ship left. It was faint, but it was there.
Not before long I could see the ship in the distance.
“How do you want to handle this?” Leo asked, a glower aimed toward the Veel. My little Theo was on there, terrified and wanting me. Angry with me. This time, I did not welcome that anger. It infuriated me.
The Veel, long rivals of mine, would pay for this offense.
“Board the fighters,” I told him. “Send Jareth to infiltrate.”
Leo looked to me then. “And you?”
I sneered at the stars. “I’ll go alone. I believe it’s time the Veel enforcer and I met face to face.”
Leo shook his head, grinning. “Just don’t destroy their ship. I’d like to study it.”
I glared at him, not making any promises. Leo, ever curious and studying the mechanics of space flight could capture his own Veel ship for his amusement. This one was mine.
Jump
Theo
Killian rammed the ship.
How did I know this?
The grey aliens started arguing about it in irked tones.
Also I felt it.
My ass was throbbing from slamming against the bars of my cage.
Smoke burned my eyes from where it filled the left side of the ship that now dented into itself.
Alarms blared, deafening me.
I was going to either lose my mind to pure terror or break down crying. Instead I chose to focus on anger. Anger at the grey aliens. Anger at Killian from freaking ramming the ship I was inside of—I mean how careless was that? He could have killed me!
But all of that was overshadowed by relief. He was here. He’d come for me.
Now all I had to do was wait. Because I knew now that he was here, he would kill all of these dick heads. I had nothing but faith in him in that moment.
Well, until sparks started coming from the top of the ship.
Déjà vu swept over me as I watched another alien try to come for me by boring holes into the ceiling. Only this time I was waiting in anticipation for that hole to open. As long as all the damn air wouldn’t get sucked right out into space.
Hopefully Killian was using caution at least in this area. Hopefully.
The grey aliens hissed at the ceiling. All of them turning to me with rage.
I held up my hands. “You brought this on yourselves.”
Beast guy stepped closer to me with a shocking amount of fury.
“It’s not worth this,” one of them said tiredly. “Just let it go.”
Beast guy looked back at him with frustration. “We can use it for leverage. The Kilbus Lord will hand over the rest of the humans to get his queen back.”
I looked up at the b
urning ceiling. The metal was melting. Any second now he would drop through.
At least he better fucking be dropping through. If he sent Oren or anyone else in his place, I was going to go complete bitch on him. If he thought the silent treatment was bad, he was in for a surprise. There were far worse things I could do to him.
The bastard rumbled something low to the others, all four of them reaching into the crates beside me and pulling out weapons. “Our comrades will pick up our distress beacon. Relax. Hold off the Kilbus.” Then he turned to my cage and unlocked it, waving his hand at me impatiently.
I shook my head defiantly and he sighed heavily, reaching in and wrenching me out.
“Where are you going?” One of them asked him as he dragged me back to that flying platform at the back of the ship.
He placed his palm on the wall and the wall hissed, sliding into the wall of the ship. I looked past the blue haze that allowed me to keep breathing, my body tense and waiting to be sucked into space. But like before, nothing happened.
“Keep him distracted. They won’t attack me if she is by my side.”
One of them shook his head in disbelief. “Just drop her out. They’ll be too distracted by her dead corpse to chase after us.”
Beast curled his lip. “Cowards. Do as I say.”
Then he pushed me onto the wide platform and we shoved off from the ship.
I could see Killian’s ship in the distance. A grey speck mingling with the stars.
As we drifted from the ship, three pairs of grey eyes watched us go, frowning. I looked up past them, to the top of the ship and saw a little grey mass of metal clamped onto the top.
The bastard hissed a curse when he saw the dozens of little ships hovering above it. Clear glass allowing us to the see the faces of the Kilbus in each cockpit.
They had been waiting for this. For us to leave.
How they snuck up on the grey aliens without alerting them, I would never know.
“They’re going to blow your ship up,” I pointed out dryly. Pointing as one of the ships did just that, firing directly into the side of the ship. Now that they knew I was outside of it, those other three hadn’t stood a chance.
Bastard glowered at me, dragging me to his side by my arm. In true villain fashion he aimed a weird alien gun at my head.
“Typical,” I muttered. So tired of assholes. This entire crapshoot was only going to give Killian more reason to back up his decision to leave his ship and his crew.
A few hundred feet from the ship I watched with tired fascination as the three grey aliens looked up, as if they could see what awaited them through the ceiling and then resignation filled their faces. Bastard snickered rudely as they glared at him.
Then they were gone. Just poof. A ball of fire enflamed the ship and three crispy aliens dropped out of their magical ship, floating dead as their ship burst apart into hundreds of blasted parts.
I looked at Beast guy. “That’s going to be you next.”
He sneered at me, stiffening as one of the ships crawled closer to us. I was still kind of amazed that the little platform was still working. I guess I’d thought it only worked as a moving part to its ship but it seemed to be functioning just fine on its own.
The ship lowered, hovering next to the platform. I felt the alien sigh deeply, holding me like a shield in front of him. “Be a good little beast,” he murmured. “Or I’ll toss you right over.”
I nodded, my jaw clenching. I wasn’t moving until Killian pulled me from the platform.
Then Killian was there, a black metal helmet covering his head and face. I could barely make out his features, but I knew that body intimately.
He stepped from the open door of the ship lazily, his boot touching down on the platform. The moment the blue haze encompassed him he tapped the helmet and it slid back and into the sleek silver suit he wore. Way cooler than any astronaut suit that I’d ever seen. It looked more like a wet suit, except it was metal.
“Sweets,” his beautiful lips murmured around a frown.
“Baby cakes,” I murmured back, thickening my greeting with all the anger and frustration I was feeling. It was far better than fear.
Killian narrowed his eyes on me. A warning. I sighed, stiffening my limbs to try and hide their trembling.
“Release her and I just might grant you a swift death.”
I looked up at the stars, searching for calm. Threatening my abductor was not the best way to go about saving me.
Killian’s hands fisted in reaction to my thoughts.
He shouldn’t be stalking them if he didn’t like what he heard.
“I may not have lived as long as you, Kilbus, but I’ve witnessed enough to know that your words hold no reliability. I think I’ll keep the beast right where it is.”
“She,” Killian hissed through clenched teeth, “belongs to me.”
“Yes,” my kidnapper said calmly. “Precisely why I was sent to retrieve her.”
“What is it you want for her?”
“A shipment.”
I looked back at the grey alien, my mouth tight. “A shipment of humans?”
“Quiet,” both of them hissed at me in unison.
I glared at my feet, my arms folded across my stomach.
“It is not I transferring them,” Killian told him heatedly. “Take it up with the Xixin King.”
I felt the grey alien shrug. “It matters not who gets me what I want, so long as I get it.”
“Then release her,” Killian snarled.
“No, I think I’ll keep the little beast until you make the call.”
Killian shook his head. “I have no patience for this.”
“Nor I,” rumbled from behind me.
I felt both of them as they seemed to swell in size with tension.
This was not going well.
Bastard tossed me to the floor of the platform. My elbows smacked against the cool steel and I felt the rush of air as Killian dove above me, knocking into him.
Bastard hissed a curse. Then Killian. I turned, watching them roll on the way, way too small platform.
I took a foot to the knee and scuttled away, my fingers touching dangerously close to the edge.
Killian hit him in the mouth, both of them cursing. Bastard as the blood flooded his busted lip, Killian as his knuckles smashed against the edge of his helmet.
Bastard and Killian grappled, spinning in a circle. A moment before Killian’s eyes flared wide, he glared, hissing, “Don’t.”
Bastard grinned maliciously. Then we were flying.
I slid the other way on the platform as it shot forward, my body rolling into their legs. Thankfully stopping me from tumbling right off the edge.
Killian’s hand twisted into the back of my torn dress, holding me to his legs as he fought off blow after blow with his free hand.
The platform dipped and my legs slid around, curling against the back of Killian’s boots then I slid again, swinging wide and holding on with everything I had.
There was no rush of air. No gale winds to indicate how fast we were going. Just this powerful force of nothing pushing and pulling my body every which way. Killian wavered on his feet and I knew I was hindering him but I wouldn’t let go of him and he wouldn’t let go of me. We couldn’t.
A boot hit me in the arm and I yelped trying to shift away from the bastard but we were moving too fast. I had no control over my own body.
I looked up in fear, feeling completely useless as Killian fought him one handed. A gun was pulled, by who I couldn’t tell, but it was quickly knocked away, flying over the edge of the platform and down into the black abyss. I watched where it fell, gulping. One wrong move and that would be me. Or Killian. Likely all three of us for how tight we were holding onto each other.
“Stop it!” I screamed when the platform tipped dangerously.
“Listen to your beast,” the bastard sneered. “Surrender.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Killian spat back.
The grey
alien chuckled darkly. “You speak her strange words.”
“That’s because she’s mine,” Killian roared again, bringing his elbow forward and up, knocking the grey alien’s head back. He stumbled, his arms pinwheeling to hold his balance at the edge. Killian dragged me along with him as he tried to shove the alien again.
Both of them had a hold of each other though and for one terrifying moment, my entire body lifted in the air, balancing them both as they almost both fell over.
The grey alien wrapped his arms around Killian’s shoulders as Killian ducked to ram him. I watched them both as they nearly tripped over me.
Someone’s boots crushed my fingers and I cried out.
Fuck this. Laying here was not going to save me.
As they both dragged me with them to the center of the platform as they fought, I reluctantly let go of Killian’s leg with one hand. It caused him to have a minor freak out.
I winced as he caught a blow to his chin reaching for me to pull my arm back. But I already had that hand wrapping around the grey alien’s leg.
Now I was holding onto both of them with my arms. My face was smashed between their shins, both of their suits smooth metal felt icy cold against my smooth skin and one wrong move would likely crack my cheekbone. But it did what I had intended, bringing them both off balance. They both went down in a tangle of limbs beside me.
Twin curses were aimed my way but I scrambled up, climbing on top of the grey alien and hindering him from returning to his feet. We both slid, Killian’s grip on my dress stopping our momentum.
Steel armored hands wrapped around my waist and tried to lift me. But I clung to that bastard like a monkey, smothering him with my chest.
A muffled curse came from below me as Killian tried to grab him from above me.
For all the power that was in the large alien below me. He did not hurt me. He could have squeezed the life from me with his grip but other than an uncomfortable hug, he didn’t do it. He just laid there, wiggling and bucking.
Killian was crushing me to him from above. I was sandwiched between them. Our combined weight somehow keeping us at least a little stable on the fast flying platform.
