by Erin Raegan
So even though it filled me with guilt, I was grateful they hadn’t let up on him yet. My guilt ate at me so badly, I tried to take care of him any way I could.
“Thank you,” he rasped when he finished gulping the water. His swollen and bloodied eyes locked on mine then grew hazy as he faded back into sleep.
“Sure thing,” I whispered, using the rest of the water to try and clean the gashes on his face.
Several more hours passed in the dark with no sound but my own ragged breathing and the shuddered breaths of my neighbor. There were dozens more cells down here—a long dark hallway of them—but I never heard a peep from any of them. We may be the only two prisoners, but it was hard to tell. Fear could have kept any other prisoners quiet.
Unlike me. The guards had thrown me in here but hadn’t laid a hand on me since. They didn’t even come into my cell. They just shoved me a bowl of sludge and a weird leather bag of water whenever they felt like it. So I hadn’t kept my mouth shut. Not at first. Those first days here, I had screamed and raged, but they completely ignored me. After losing my voice more than once, I gave up. They weren’t interested in anything I had to say.
My buddy coughed and hacked, and I crawled back over to him and warily patted his back as he rolled onto his side. The Dahk may be helping us back home, but that didn’t help their appearance for me any. They were scary looking. Literally bat-like. And not the comic book kind. Leathery wings, flat pointy ears, sharp fangs and claws, ridiculous feet. And purple with scales. Yeah, they didn’t exactly have a friendly or welcoming appearance. But I was alive and we hadn’t been wiped out of the universe because of them and the Kilbus, so the least I could do was help one of them if I could.
“I would not sit so close,” a voice drawled from behind me.
I spun around on my knees and fell on my bottom, my back slamming into the bars. The hooded guy—the leader—was leaning against the wall outside my cell. He was tall—a good foot and a half taller than me. He wore a long hooded black cloak that cast his face in shadow but was sleeveless and bared his red muscled arms and the silver veins bulging from them. His left hand looked mechanical with sharp divots but also weirdly smooth and fluid, like skin. He had five fingers on each hand and was humanoid-ish, but our differences were too obvious to avoid. I had a feeling when I got a look at his face, those differences would only be more pronounced.
The others like him looked so different from each other. Some of them had two arms and two legs. Some had four of each. Some had none. One guard that frequented my neighbor’s cell had snake-like limbs and spikes coming out of its eyeballs, but it was red-skinned like its buddies and had the same weird mechanical implants and appendages. This guy staring at me was the first I’d seen that wasn’t nearly covered in the metal implants.
“Why not?” I backed away into my cell, holding onto the back wall as I shakily stood.
He tilted his head toward the Dahk panting in his cell. “He is a traitor.”
I flinched as his eerie layered words rumbled through my cell, but lifted my chin in defiance. “He’s not one of you.”
He slowly shook his head. “He is a traitor to his crown.”
“The Dahk king?” I didn’t know much about that guy other than he was the one who kept sending us and the Kilbus Lord aid. He couldn’t be all that bad if he was willing to help out a planet of humans who meant nothing to him and had done nothing to earn that support.
The hooded alien nodded once.
I huffed. “What does any of that have to do with me?”
I wouldn’t let the guy rot just because this one said he was a traitor. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. Besides, if he really was a traitor, he had his reasons for it. I wouldn’t judge him without knowing him.
The hooded alien flashed sharp white teeth at me through a harsh grin. “He is not fond of your kind.”
I looked at the Dahk alien carefully. He didn’t like humans? He didn’t even know me.
The hooded asshole chuckled.
“Something funny?” I snapped.
He stepped up to my cell door and hit the mechanical lock. The cell door slid open on a whoosh, and I backed farther into the corner.
“What are you doing?”
“You don’t want your freedom?” He tilted his head as he stepped into the cell.
I watched him warily, my scalp tingling and my gaze shooting past him to the barren hall. “You’re letting me out?”
I didn’t believe him for a second. He was the one who had ordered me locked away down here.
He bent slightly at the waist and waved at the door. It felt like a trap. My feet stayed glued to the floor.
“You’ve done nothing but shout for your freedom since arriving, but now you will not take it?” He chuckled that dark laugh again and crossed his arms.
“You’re going to let me go? Just like that?” I fisted my hands. I didn’t like being played with.
He didn’t reply but stood there, watching me. My belt buckle was still in the back pocket of my jeans. Curling my left hand around it, I skirted the walls toward the cell door.
He didn’t move an inch as I came closer. He was standing just inside and to the right of the cell doorway, leaving me only a small opening.
I waited until I was standing opposite him, trembling.
He lifted his hard jaw to the door.
I lunged through the opening and tore down the hallway, my dirty, bare feet slapping against the cool sand. I slammed into the door at the end of the hall, fumbling with the flat handle. My shoulder screamed at me as I rammed the door, but it wouldn’t budge.
I stepped back panting and closed my eyes as a dark mocking laugh drifted to me.
“Come, little human, we have no more time to play.”
2
London
I wanted so badly to stab him in the eye, but self-preservation held me back. Instead, fire burned through my limbs as I trudged back down the hall toward him. He was standing outside my cell, leaning against the bars.
“Enjoy the show?” I asked snidely.
He flashed his sharp teeth at me and they gleamed in the dark. “Immensely.”
I swore viciously and stopped a few feet from him. He left me there and unlocked the Dahk’s cell. Curiosity and a niggle of worry drew me to the door. Asshole walked to the Dahk and crouched beside him, rolling him to his back.
“What are you doing?” I stepped inside, jumping as the asshole slapped the Dahk’s face. I rushed forward and pushed his bulky arm away from the Dahk. “Hey, stop!”
He froze and his head turned to me, his shadowed face still and ominous. All the little hairs on my arms rose on end and I slowly backed away. He turned back to the Dahk and slapped him again.
The Dahk groaned and blinked his eyes open. He looked around blearily and choked as the red guy leaned forward. “Time to face your king.”
The Dahk coughed and tried to roll over, but the red guy grinned and dragged the limp Dahk to his knees. The Dahk made a croaky sound of pain and I winced, unable to help myself as I rushed forward again. I got my shoulder under his purple arm before the red guy shoved him to the ground and dragged me clear across his injured body. His metal hand was tight around my bicep.
I cried out in pain as he took two steps away from the Dahk and dumped me on the ground.
“Stay,” he growled an inch from my face.
I stared in shocked awe as I got a look at his face under the hood for the first time. He had a wide mouth—much wider than I had thought—with two shiny rows of razor-sharp teeth and two sharp protruding incisors. His nose was flat and wide, much flatter than a human’s, and his eyes—they were black pools of nothing. So dark I could see my own pale, stunned face reflected in them. Still, of all the aliens I had come across, he was the most human-looking of all of them. If not for the red skin and sharp teeth, he could pass as one of us so easily. He’d be on the large size of human, but he could have walked down the street without getting too many str
ange looks. How was that possible? The Dahk and various mismatched Kilbus species looked so different from us.
He glared at me until I shrank away from him. I was tempted to make a run for it once his back was to me again, but the prison was a maze. The way barred by that door was how I’d gotten down here, and I didn’t know another exit. And something about that guy made me feel weak and hopeless. I just knew he would catch me. I didn’t know how, but something about him screamed at me that he was what I needed to watch out for. I was trapped in an alien prison with no way home, and this alien was the biggest danger.
I was malnourished and exhausted and in no shape to fight him off or run fast enough to escape him. Still, when he stood with the enormous Dahk draped over one of his bulky shoulders, I couldn’t help but take advantage of his distraction and make another run for it.
My toes and fingers grasped at the loose sand as I propelled my body through the cell door. I ran down the opposite hall, disappearing into the darkness and an endless hallway of cells. Then I heard his heavy sigh and knew he was coming for me.
As smoke and shadows enveloped me, I realized how impossible it would be for me to escape. He could move in a way that my brain couldn’t comprehend. He had been behind me, but in a split second, I was barreling though a cloud of smoke and right into his chest. I gasped and fell to the ground at his feet, gaping at him still holding the Dahk over his shoulder.
He scowled at me and gripped my arm with his free hand, tearing me off the ground. My mouth hung open in disbelief. The Dahk, nearly the same height and weight as him, was slung over his shoulder, but Firyt could have been a feather for all the strain the red asshole seemed to be under.
“Do not run from me again,” he rumbled in that layered guttural voice.
I shivered violently.
He bent to my ear, and I stiffened as his warm lips grazed me. “Hold your breath.”
That was all the warning he gave me.
My knees split the smoky shadows enveloping me and hit hard, shiny stone. My sharp cry was cut off as the little left in my stomach came shooting up my throat in one painful heave. Orange, slimy bile spewed on the stone, and I dropped to my hands, groaning in agony.
Several surprised alien curses met my ears, and I blinked away tears as I looked through my greasy chocolate-brown hair. I had to blink several times as I stared at the crowd of Dahk a few feet from my trembling prone form. They looked back at me with wide, silver eyes.
A large thud startled me. I looked to the side at the Dahk the asshole had callously dropped onto the floor beside me. Another slew of curses came from the crowd of Dahk.
“Firyt?” one Dahk snarled. “What have you done to him?”
“Calm yourself, King. The male was a traitor.” The voices overlaying his words were back in full force, echoing in the room.
I looked at the asshole as he shoved his booted foot into Firyt’s ribs.
“What are you doing with a human?” another Dahk male asked, still gaping at me.
“What is he doing here at all?” another asked.
“You’ve been searching for me, have you not?”
I winced when the asshole gripped my arm, pulling me to my feet. The Dahk males looked at a loss for words.
One with long black ridges hanging down his back stepped forward threateningly. “Your drop-ins have grown tiresome, assassin.”
The asshole chuckled and dragged me in front of him. “I go where I wish, young king.”
“Chyn,” a voice growled from a large door a few feet away in the enormous lavender stone room.
“Vyr,” the asshole greeted back.
I looked at his hooded face. “Your name’s Chyn?”
He looked at me with a smirk.
I glared at him. “Asshole suits you better.”
A Dahk choked off an incredulous laugh.
“And you are?” The braided male—apparently the Dahk king—asked.
I stiffened and straightened my shoulders, facing him. “I’m London.”
The asshole’s bottom lip quirked.
“I am King Uthyf, Lundun.” The king held his fist to his chest and slightly bowed.
Several Dahk slowly circled me and the asshole, their swords drawn.
“Thrilling,” I drawled. “You plan on helping a girl out, Uthyf?”
Chyn chuckled at my back and banded an arm around my waist. I pointedly looked from the king to Chyn’s arm.
“Chyn,” the voice snarled from the door again.
I looked his way. Vyr was red and huge, just like the asshole. I looked away, but as Vyr got closer, I couldn’t help but discreetly inspect his face closer. He was even more human looking than the asshole. Hell, his facial structure was a little too human to ignore. Without the red skin and black eyes, he would have passed as a bulky gym rat back home.
“Release the human,” Vyr said.
“She is not your concern,” Chyn drawled, tightening his arm around my waist.
“And I’m yours?” I muttered scathingly.
He snorted and looked back at the king. “I could have slain him myself, King. Instead I brought him here for judgment.”
Another Dahk with a row of ridges falling down his skull like a mohawk said, “He was a traitor?”
The door slammed open as a new crowd of Dahk rushed into the enormous room.
“He was sent by one of your council to meet with the master.” Chyn tilted his head and grinned again. “He was quite distressed when he found the master was no longer occupying his throne.”
Uthyf cursed, along with several other Dahk.
“Who sent him?” That came from Mohawk.
Chyn shrugged one shoulder against my shoulder blade.
Someone sighed.
“Why did you bring him here at all? What do you want?” Uthyf demanded.
Did no one feel like interfering with the human he was holding captive? These guys were supposed to be our allies. Hell, I knew a few human women had even mated them. At least that was what Dad had said. But they were barely paying me any attention.
“Hey! Can someone help me out?” I looked at their hesitant faces in bewilderment. “Kidnapped and held against my will here.”
“Hush,” Chyn muttered in my ear, driving a threatening shiver down my spine.
“Why do you have the human?” Mohawk asked, eyeing me worriedly.
“She was a gift,” he said, low and silky.
I snorted, glaring at him over my shoulder. “You throw all your gifts in a prison for days and forget to feed them?”
Several Dahk sucked in a sharp breath.
I looked back at them. “Yes, I’m starving.” I growled, imitating my loud stomach. “I can smell my pits and they are bad. I need a shower, with soap, and someone to remove this asshole’s arm from me right now.” I sighed and used my hand to push my dirty hair out of my face. “Then I would like someone to call my father, President Burin—you know, your ally—and tell him my dead carcass isn’t rotting on some random planet.”
“That all?” Chyn chuckled and tapped his thumb against my hungry belly.
“No.” I smiled sweetly. “Then I’d like a front row seat to them beating your arrogant ass.”
Another snort from our useless audience.
“Lundun?” someone growled in shock.
My head spun around to a familiar Dahk pushing through the crowd. I struggled against the stiff arm, growling when he wouldn’t release me. “Tohn?”
Tohn shoved a Dahk aside and reached for me. “We’ve been searching for you.”
Chyn made a low threatening sound in the back of his throat, and Tohn stopped, stiffening. Tears pricked my eyes as Tohn looked at me with despair. He was one of the Dahk that had frequently met with my father in the dark days, right after the Vitat ship had crash-landed on Earth and scattered the surviving Vitat throughout the globe.
The Dahk king, Uthyf, had left Tohn and a team of Dahk with the Kilbus Lord to help hunt down the Vitat. We had still been engag
ing them when Tohn was relieved by a new Dahk ship carrying more warriors and a slew of women some other alien overlord—his title I vaguely recalled as also Juldo—had kidnapped from Earth. The Dahk had saved those women, and it was that selfless act that had cemented them in my mind as our allies. Tohn was one of the best of them. I was sad the day he’d had to leave. He had become a good friend.
“Two of them ambushed us on the road to the compound,” I whispered sadly to Tohn. “There were only five of us. They grabbed me and knocked me out.”
“Juldo?”
I shrugged. “I guess?” Tohn had talked about the Juldo, but I had never actually seen one before. I’d heard my captors mention it to me and just assumed that was who had taken me based on the description Tohn had given.
Tohn snapped his lethal gaze to Chyn. “You took her?”
I shook my head. “He didn’t take me, but they brought me to him.”
“Chyn?” The other red male—Vyr—who had been slowly circling us stopped in front of us and looked him over.
Chyn released my waist but loosely wrapped his hand around my throat. He used just enough pressure to tip my head back until I could see up into the darkness of his hood. “You think to fight me for her?”
The other Juldo shook his head. “Let her go.”
Chyn flashed his sharp teeth in a twisted grin. “The master wanted her.” He tilted his chin down, and I could see straight into the black orbs of his eyes. “Why did he want you?”
I tried to shake my head in confusion, but he held it still. “Who’s the master?”
“The Juldo Master,” Tohn said tightly. “He’s dead.”
Chyn’s lip quirked. “I killed him.”
I swallowed heavily against his warm hand.
“Release her so we can return her home,” Tohn rumbled.
Chyn looked up. “No, she stays with me.”
“Why?” I heard Tohn step closer.
“Careful,” Chyn warned.
