by A. G. Wilde
The Tasqal’s mouth twisted into a smile and its eyes flashed yellow again but it didn’t answer.
She knew what that meant.
Maybe it would.
But it probably wouldn’t.
Weighing the options in her mind, she decided it was still her best bet.
How badly would it treat something that was carrying its young? She doubted she could even carry the young of another species anyway, but that was for the Tasqal to find out later.
It would buy her some time.
Buy Crex some time to do whatever he allowed himself to get captured for.
It was their best bet.
“I’ll do it if you leave him alone. I will bear your young.”
The Tasqal’s laugh bubbled from its throat again. “Very well, human,” it said. “Bring her.”
As they began to exit the cell, Piper looked back at Crex. She thought after being tortured like that, he’d be unconscious but he was watching them leave, the rage in his eyes evident.
As they exited the cell, the Tasqal motioned to the guards. “Have some fun with him. He must know what it is like to not obey his master’s wishes.”
“What?” Piper whispered, her eyes widening. “No!”
She watched as the guards reentered the cell, their shock rods pointed at Crex, ignited and glowing white.
They weren’t going to stop.
It didn’t matter that she wasn’t in the cell with him anymore.
The evil wouldn’t end.
The torture was continuing.
“You piece of shit!” As she struggled against the guard that was pulling her along, it ignited its own shock rod and pressed it into her side causing a scream that had never left her throat before to come tumbling forth.
As she went limp, she was mildly aware that something wasn’t quite right inside the cell.
Suddenly, the bars of the cell came flying forward, narrowly missing her by a few inches, and standing in the space was Crex.
His skin was dark and his eyes were a white fire as if the current from the shock rods was burning there.
The guard that was holding her dropped her as if she was a piece of paper and raised its shock rod to defend itself, but that was of no use.
As the rod connected with his chest, Crex grasped the metal and bent it with his hands.
Piper’s eyes widened. Was she seeing what she was seeing?
He looked like a demon, moving swiftly to knock the guard into the wall across from them.
On his back were...what the...
There were fins.
There were fins along the length of his spine, protruding from his skin.
Black and triangular, just like that weapon he’d used to take out the surveillance system.
The chains, now broken, were still hanging from his wrists and ankles. Grabbing the ones around his wrists, he wrapped them around the guard’s neck and pulled hard.
Instantly, the guard’s neck went limp and its body fell flat to the floor.
Turning to glance at her, he then moved his attention to the two Tasqals.
There were now alarms sounding through the ship, but Crex didn’t seem to care.
He stalked toward the Tasqals, who were retreating, their black eyes large in surprise, or maybe fear.
The female was whimpering while the male was muttering useless nothings, promising Crex he’d spare him and set him free if he stopped his rampage.
Grabbing the cell bars, Piper watched wide-eyed as Crex pulled off one of the bars and broke it in two.
Without a word, and much too fast for them to escape, he lodged the metal into the Tasqals’ throats.
They guzzled, both holding onto the metal as they slid to the floor.
Without so much as another glance at them, he stalked over to her and lifted her from the floor.
She half expected to see the other six guards rushing from the cell, but when he stalked back in, she realized why they hadn’t come out earlier.
They were all dead, their bodies strewn all over the cell.
It looked as if he had snapped all of their necks.
As he rested her on the slab, he fell to his knees, his head falling into her lap.
Piper blinked once, twice, three times.
What the hell just happened?
“You’re safe,” Crex murmured. “I won’t let them take you. You’re safe.”
Chapter Ten
He’d fallen unconscious then, on his knees, his head in her lap and when reinforcements arrived and it surrounded them, Piper clung on to him, still in shock, unable to believe what she’d just seen with her own eyes. They’d shot her with something then, a sedative, she assumed, for when she regained consciousness later, she was in another cell and Crex was on a slab beside her.
This cell was different. Either that or they’d fixed the bars Crex had destroyed.
Crex.
Twisting her head too quickly to the side, it caused the muscle tendon in her neck to cramp.
He was lying on his back, his body motionless.
His color seemed to be returning. The charred skin that had gone dark didn’t seem as dark as before.
As she stared at him, her eyes widened as images of what happened before played like a movie in her mind.
He’d ripped the chains from the wall, ripped apart the cell bars, broken a shock rod as if it was straw, and killed everyone around them—all in a matter of seconds.
Fuck.
So, all that time he had been taking the pain, the punishment, he could have easily hurt the guards.
Fuck!
As his words came flooding back to her, it was clear why he hadn’t done that though.
“They will punish you further once I have recovered.” He knew if he did anything else, they would take out most of their evil on her instead.
He’d done it for her.
The well of gratitude within her swelled.
Who would have thought he’d be her savior? An unlikely hero.
Then the reality of their situation crashed down on her.
He’d killed a High Tasqal—no, he’d killed TWO High Tasqals.
She was sure there’d be punishment for that so why were they seemingly safe?
Surely, the slug-looking slave dealers would have ordered their death.
As the thoughts circulated in her head, Piper swallowed hard, looking around the room.
It was bare, much like the other one. There weren’t even guards by the cell wall. Something wasn’t right.
The place was dead silent.
Everything was silent.
Too silent.
“Don’t be alarmed,” she heard someone say. Looking around, the cell was obviously empty. Her gaze fell on Crex, but the voice hadn’t sounded like his.
Apart from that, he was still lying beside her unconscious.
“My name is Yce,” the voice said and this time Piper bolted upright, her eyes wide.
“Where are you?”
“I am in the cell next to yours.”
Piper frowned. It was hard to explain.
The voice felt as if it was in her head. She wasn’t hearing it with her ears.
Creeping over to the cell wall, Piper pressed her ear against it.
She couldn’t hear anything on the other side. As far as she knew, the cell was soundproof. How then was she able to hear someone whispering from the other side?
“Who are you?”
“Crex is my brother.”
Piper’s eyes widened further at that. Crex had a brother. There was another person like him on the ship. Was that why he allowed himself to be captured? Was he here to rescue his brother?
“Please speak in your thoughts. Someone might overhear us.”
Speak in her thoughts. So she wasn’t imagining it. The voice was in her head.
“Just how are you doing that?”
“It is just something I can do.”
“How do I talk in my thoughts?”
�
��Just think your answer. I will hear it.”
Ok then.
“Can you hear this?”
“Yes.”
Piper’s eyes widened some more.
“This is seriously some next-level shit.”
“Is that human for ‘strange’?”
Piper’s eyes widened more. “So you can hear everything I think?”
“More or less...Where is Crex? I cannot connect with him.”
Turning her head to look back at the slab, Piper blinked a few times.
“He’s unresponsive...wait, can he read my thoughts too?”
“No.”
Oh.
Moving back to the slab, she sat beside Crex, staring down at him, still unable to believe he’d done what he had.
“He has done something he shouldn’t have.”
“What do you mean?”
There was no response for a few minutes and Piper wondered for a second if she’d imagined the voice in the first place.
Then the voice said, “The mission might be compromised.”
“Mission?” She cocked her head in the air. What mission?
“Crex killed two Tasqals. With Xul having already killed the High Tasqal Ulruq, that makes three deaths. The High Tasqals will be on high alert.”
“Xul?” Who the hell was Xul?
“No time to explain.”
There was another pause for a few minutes, leaving Piper to mull over the new information as she stared at Crex.
“Crex’s behavior is some next-level shit.”
Piper’s eyes rose at that and she resisted the urge to laugh. She didn’t dare correct him on the use of the phrase though, purely trying to understand how he was talking to her in her head was enough confusion for her mind.
“Your hjek-haired friend is concerned about your well-being. I have informed her that you are alive and well.”
Was he talking about Diana? The redhead?
“Your other friend is safe on the planet Muk with Xul.”
Which friend?
“Athena is her name.”
Athena was on a flippin’ planet? How the—Well, at least she was alive and with Xul, whoever that was. She just had to assume he was a friend of Crex...a good guy maybe.
“What about the other two women? Evren and Song?”
“I have had no connection with them.”
Piper gulped.
She didn’t know if that meant they were dead or alive.
“Crex is awakening.”
Eyes flying to the Ceqtaq’s face, she realized the voice was right. Crex’s eyes were fluttering open.
* * *
It felt as if someone had knocked him over the head with something hard. His head was pounding and his vision was blurry.
It wasn’t often that he felt that way—this feeling only ever occurred after a strenuous battle. Then everything came flooding back.
The torture, the Tasqals’ lies, her scream...
That scream.
He’d heard a scream like that before. His mother’s scream.
Something inside him had snapped then. Instinct had taken over.
Eyes fluttering open, his gaze focused on pale skin, then rainbow-colored hair.
The Piper.
The Piper was there beside him.
She was safe.
He’d kept her safe.
Something inside him swelled and for the first time in years, it felt as if his heart was pumping real blood.
She was staring at him, wide green eyes roving over his face.
Raising his hands slowly, he realized that he wasn’t chained. That woke him up somewhat, as he rose slowly to glance around the room.
The cell was different.
New bars.
No guards.
Crex narrowed his eyes.
Something was wrong.
“How do you feel?” Her soft voice took him momentarily away from his worry. “You look like death.”
How flattering. In his culture, death was hideous.
Were all humans so...blunt?
It wasn’t what he’d expected her to say and it caused him to look down at himself.
His skin was still charred from the electric current that had singed him, but he’d endured worse injuries before.
“It will heal,” he muttered.
“To hell it will.” The concern in her eyes was evident as she moved closer to him and began running her fingers over his skin.
Crex froze. He had the urge to move away, but something else was keeping him put.
She was close.
Too close.
He could smell her female essence and it was...intoxicating.
As she moved around him slowly, she reached his back and he heard her gasp.
He wasn’t sure he was able to speak.
He felt as if his voice was not going to come out the way it usually did, should he open his mouth to speak.
She was running her fingers over the ridges on his spine now and Crex swallowed hard.
“What is it, yooman?”
“Your back...” Piper whispered.
“What about it?”
“Your...the fins...they’re gone.” He could almost hear the frown on her face.
“Fins?”
“Yes. You know. Those shark fin things that were on your back when you were fighting.”
“My fyeors?” He turned so he could see her face and something inside him jumped and swelled when he realized how close their faces were.
What was happening to him?
“Fyeors?” Her eyes met his and that same thing swelled inside him again. Her eyes were the color of the jsueok gems found deep in the oceans of his planet. How hadn’t he noticed that before?
“My fyeors only protrude at certain times.”
Her frown deepened as her eyes went back to the ridges on his back.
For some reason, he felt the need to continue. “They only appear when I am incredibly excited...or enraged.”
“Oh,” she replied, moving her hand away from him slowly. “You really are an alien aren’t you,” she murmured, dropping her gaze.
Somehow, her admission made him feel...inadequate. “Yes.” A pause. “And so are you.”
She looked at him then, her green jsueok eyes meeting his, as if that thought hadn’t occurred to her before.
“I am,” she murmured, realization in her gaze. “I am an alien to you.”
Something within him made him move. Turning on her, he pinned both arms on either side of her.
Piper’s eyes widened slightly as she searched his face.
Leaning over her, he gave her no option but to recline on the slab.
Crex studied her face, waiting for some sliver of the emotion he seemed to invoke in everyone who didn’t know him.
Fear.
But there was none.
There was no fear in her eyes.
Why?
“Why are you not afraid of me?”
She lay motionless beneath him, staring up at him, her eyes searching his, her mouth slightly open.
It was...very...
Crex found himself briefly closing his eyes. He was too close to her.
Her scent was in his nostrils, beckoning him to come closer.
“Even after you saw what I did. Why are you not afraid?” He asked with his eyes still closed.
“I don’t know why,” she whispered. “My instincts tell me not to.”
“Instincts?”
“Don’t take it personally,” she said after a few moments. “I’m not scared of those disgusting slug things that abducted me either.”
“Slug things?”
“Yes, those ones that travel on those blue orbs. The little pieces of shit.”
“They are called Isclits.”
“Close enough.”
For the first time in a while, he felt slight amusement. He could even smile.
She dared to compare him to one of those useless, money-grabbing idiots?
&n
bsp; The Piper was a strange one.
Very strange.
And he couldn’t help it...her strangeness was pulling him in.
Chapter Eleven
Crex was pacing across the cell, glancing at her every now and then.
He still had those predatory eyes of his but she was getting used to his stare. It wasn’t pure predation in his gaze anymore. There was something else there. Something she hadn’t quite figured out yet, but she knew one thing for sure, whatever it was, it didn’t scare her.
When he’d asked her why she wasn’t afraid of him, she couldn’t give him an answer. Truth was, she didn’t know why.
He’d literally ripped apart other beings with his bare hands, killing them in front of her, yet, she didn’t feel the slightest bit afraid of him.
Maybe it was the shock of being abducted.
Maybe she had gone insane.
He’d been pacing for what felt like the last hour, mumbling every now and then to himself.
From what she’d gathered, he was talking to his brother, Yce.
Something wasn’t right.
He seemed somewhat worried and, she wasn’t going to pretend, it was making her anxious.
She could understand why though.
He’d killed seven guards and two High Tasqals. She didn’t understand much of alien society, but she was sure killing a High Tasqal was no small crime. The fact that nothing seemed to be happening in the form of punishment was concerning.
Not that she wanted punishment, but even a gator-guard snarling in her face would make her feel better right about now.
The day you wish a lizard was snarling in your face is the day you know life ain’t that good, Piper, she thought.
When Crex suddenly froze and his body stiffened, she immediately thought the worst. Maybe he’d picked up something with his inhuman alien senses that she couldn’t hear or see.
Glancing toward the bars at the front of the cell, she waited to see the gator-guards and Isclits approaching. But no one came.
“Xul...” Crex breathed. “Xul was injured.”
Xul. His name kept popping up. Hey, wasn’t he the one Athena was with?
“Who is this Xul?”
Crex’s emotionless eyes fell on hers. “My brother,” he said.
Another Ceqtaq? Just how many of them were there?
“Oh. But you guys are invincible,” she said, looking him up and down. In the little time he’d been awake, his skin had regained most of its usual color. She’d also noticed that the whip marks on his back all seemed to be healing.
