by Raven Dark
His tone was surprisingly warm, almost soothing. I knew better than to feel safer with him just because he seemed to be trying to keep me relaxed.
I couldn’t feel safe around any of these men. Especially when, this close, I smelled him just like the others. An exotic, spicy scent, different from the other two but just as hot, filled my nose, making my head swim.
He crossed the room to the metal wall on my left. There, the alien flipped down a small flap I hadn’t noticed before, revealing a keypad. He typed in a code. A long, thin section of the wall slid aside, and a flat metal platform extended out of it, the size and thickness of a small table. He keyed in another code. Another opening revealed a drawer. Another code and a panel above the table slid back, showing a screen about the size of a flat-screen television. He switched the screen on.
“What the hell are you doing?” My voice shook.
He glanced at me with a look that seemed meant to reassure. Then he took out a set of gloves that looked to be made of some kind of thin transparent rubber and snapped one on.
Medical gloves, the kind a doctor used. Oh, this wasn’t good.
“Okay, I don’t know what you’re gonna do, but just keep your distance, all right, Silverfox?”
Putting on the other glove, his mouth turned down with curiosity at the last word. Turning to the table, he bent over it, his wide, bare back making it impossible to see what he was doing.
When he crossed the room to me, he carried a small tray. My gaze followed it, catching sight of a syringe.
“Oh, hell, no.”
He came around to the opposite side of me and pressed a button above my head, causing the bar that held my cuffs to lower. The bar came down until my arms were at a forty-five-degree angle. With my arms lowered, the pins and needles that had filled the limbs began to abate. I would have sighed with relief, but I was still cuffed to that stupid bar.
The alien squeezed my shoulder and spoke a few words I knew were meant to soothe. They didn’t work, especially when metal arms snaked out and pushed my ankles into two metal cuffs near the floor.
With the cuffs holding me firmly in place and splayed out, he set the tray down on a small table near me and rubbed a small, moist pad on the side of my arm. It had a strong, medicinal smell that made my nose twitch.
“No fucking way, Silverfox.” I flinched, trying to get away from him, but it was useless.
His large palm rested on my forehead, meant to calm me. Then he picked up the needle. What was he going to inject me with? It could have been anything. Poison, drugs. Some sort of truth serum meant to make me spill my guts to him?
“Keep that thing away from me!” I thrashed in the cuffs.
He gripped my shoulder, holding it still with a medical professionalism and slid the needle into my arm just below the shoulder.
I bucked wildly and sobbed.
“Nayna.” He took my chin between his fingers until I met his eyes. He nodded toward the screen on the right wall, a silent command to look at it.
I turned my head.
At first, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. Lines criss-crossed the black screen in blue, creating seemingly random patterns that made no sense. Then I saw it—a small dot on one of the pathways. There was a second dot moving along the lines, blinking and getting closer to the first.
My eyes widened again. Those lines were a diagram of the inside of my arm. I glanced up at him.
“What is that?”
He pointed to his arm, saying what must have been the word for arm.
“Is the moving thing some sort of probe?”
“Daz.” He nodded.
I glanced at the screen again, watching the probe collide with the other dot. I turned my eyes back to him, blood pounding my ears. “What’s it going to do?”
He rested his palm on my forehead again, big and warm. For a moment he looked like he was trying to figure out how to explain, knowing I couldn’t understand him. Then he held up his finger and went to the monitor. He met my eyes and gestured between us, making a talking gesture with his hand. Then he pointed to the non-blinking dot on the screen.
I watched him, trying to understand.
He repeated the same gestures and then pointed at the dot.
I scrunched my brows, trying to interpret. “Talking…wait. No. Communication?”
He gave an emphatic nod and gestured between us, making the talking gesture again.
“Oh! It’s a translator.”
Another nod. He pointed to my shoulder, then to the dot on the screen.
My brows went up, my blood turning cold. “Waaait. It’s inside my shoulder?”
“Daz.” Another nod.
My eyes slid shut on a wave of horror. “How? Someone put one of those inside me? I’m implanted with some kind alien device?”
He came over to me and tipped my chin up until I met his eyes. “Tama mek.” He smoothed my hair back, again, meant to be soothing. I drew a few deep breaths, trying to relax.
“I’m guessing one of you put that thing in me while I was asleep.” I sighed and looked at him. “But why isn’t it working? You can understand me, but how come I can’t understand you?”
The warrior showed me his fists and made a breaking motion with his hands, then nodded to the screen.
I guessed the translator was supposed to be doing something, but it wasn’t. I looked at him. “Broken. It’s broken?”
“Daz.”
“Well, if I can’t understand you, that makes my being here useless, doesn’t it?” I felt a sudden surge of hope. “You have to let me go now. I can’t give you what you want, Silverfox.”
But he shook his head. “Hiet.” I noticed the amusement in his eyes.
“No? You can’t let me go?”
He nodded in confirmation.
“But what are you gonna do with me? I can’t understand a word you’re saying. How would I know what you want?”
For some reason, he grinned as if the answer was obvious, then patted my head as if to say, silly human.
Or was it silly female?
I steeled my rising anger. “Okay, look. Tell me what you want, Silverfox. I—”
He shook his head, making me look at his face. He pointed to his chest. “Z’pheer.”
“What?” I was getting frustrated with this communication barrier.
He pointed to himself again and said slowly, “Zah-feer.”
“Oh... That’s your name?”
“Daz.”
“Z’pheer.” I let the name roll off my tongue, liking the exotic, strong sound of it. Somehow, as terrified as I was, I felt better knowing his name, making the communication barrier between us feel less like some impossible hurdle.
Z’pheer nodded and went to the partition on my right. He tapped on the glass. Purple Eyes lifted his head as he walked by and gave me one of his irritatingly hot smirks.
Z’pheer grinned and looked at me, pointing at Purple Eyes. “Malek,” he said, pointing at him again. “Mal-lik.”
Much as I’d felt better knowing Z’pheer’s name, I hated the idea of getting to know all their names. It implied I’d be spending a lot of time with them that I didn’t intend to spend.
“Malek,” Z’pheer repeated, giving me a nod.
Obviously I was supposed to say it.
I sighed. “Malek.”
He nodded.
The giant chose that moment to come over to him, asking him something. Z’pheer replied, his tone indicating the giant should be patient. Z’pheer looked at me and patted the giant’s chest.
“Raul,” he said slowly. “Rahl.”
“Raul,” I grumbled, deciding with a furious petulance that I hated the name as much as him, if only because it belonged to him.
Z’pheer nodded, pleased.
For some reason, Raul scowled at him. He spoke quickly, sounding exasperated and gesturing to me.
Z’pheer just shrugged and patted him on the back. Raul dropped his shoulders and looked at the ceiling in resignat
ion, shot me an irritated look, and then stalked toward the rest of the bridge.
Without understanding either man, I still got the feeling that Raul didn’t like that Z’pheer was introducing them to me.
Why he didn’t like it, I didn’t know, but fuck I really, really hated him.
Z’pheer smiled and pointed at the dog creature, and then said loudly so that Raul could hear, “Tarku.”
Tar-koo. So that was the dog’s name.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Raul shake his head in disgust.
I snickered in spite of myself. “Tarku,” I repeated. Anything that pissed Raul off made me feel better.
Z’pheer patted my shoulder, proud surprise filling his eyes. “Damka, nayna. Damka.”
I would have felt better about his praise if he hadn’t sounded so much like he was congratulating someone whom he didn’t expect to have the intelligence to understand what he’d done.
“Gee, thanks,” I drawled. “I’m not a hundred percent sure, Z’pheer, but I think you’re an ass.”
Whether or not my words translated correctly, I couldn’t be certain, but by his reaction, he understood it was an insult. He threw back his head and laughed.
The pleasant, deep sound went all the way to my toes.
Until he patted my ass, wiping away any pleasure his voice gave, and making me seriously wonder how much he did understand after all.
The computer voice spoke up, giving another one of its announcements. Z’pheer lifted his eyes, listening to it. He gave a nod, and patted my head, then crossed the room toward a door on the other side, stepping over Tarku’s sprawled form as he passed.
“Wait a minute, where are you going?” I called, feeling a sudden surge of worry at the thought of being left to hang here for hours more.
He didn’t reply.
I heard Raul call Tarku over and the dog trotted over to him, then followed him through the same door Z’pheer had used.
The older warrior returned a moment later. A long red cloth was draped over his arm, and he had a tanned leather necklace in his hand attached to a leash.
Scratch that, it wasn’t a necklace, it was a collar. I assumed he was going to put the collar on Tarku, who hadn’t appeared to be wearing one.
Z’pheer set the collar down and held up the cloth, showing me a hole for a head to slip through in the middle. He slipped the hole over my head, arranging the long fall of cloth so that it fell down my front and back.
Whatever the clothing was, it draped to my thighs, with three ties on each side that, when secured, formed holes for my arms. It was a deep, attention-grabbing scarlet, the length of it hardly covering my ass. He arranged it properly, then tied the sides closed.
“You’re giving me clothes?” I shut down my gratitude for the first real gesture of kindness I’d seen since waking up and looked over myself. “I don’t suppose you have something in a nice plain black?”
His lips curved up at my half-hearted joke. “Nayna res.”
I shook my head, letting him know I didn’t understand.
“Nayna res,” he repeated, then picked up the collar.
And started to put it around my neck.
I twisted in my restraints. “Whoa. I don’t think so, pal.”
He stilled my head with one hand and slipped the collar on. The inch-thick strip of leather felt supple and comfortable against my skin, but that didn’t detract from what it was. I felt Z’pheer’s fingers put a latch in place at my nape. There was a click. A lock on the collar, I thought.
I looked down at the long leash with mounting horror. It hung from a silvery loop at the front of the collar.
I twisted more furiously, and he took my face in his hands, pinning me with a cool, authoritative look. A string of alien words fell from his lips, but I had no way of telling what he was saying. I thought it sounded like a warning, not threatening, but matter of fact.
“Look, Z’pheer, you don’t have to collar me. I won’t escape. I promise. I won’t fight you.”
I was lying my ass off, but it wasn’t just that the collar would make escape impossible. The implications behind it sent humiliation through me so intense it made me feel weak in the knees.
His eyes danced, and he touched my chin again, as if to tell me he knew what I was up to. Then he clipped the other end of the leash to a loop on the side of the bracelet around his wrist.
“No. Z’pheer….” I caught his eyes and held his gaze. “No.”
He checked the back latch on the collar and stroked my hair. “Nayna.” Then he released my cuffed feet and helped me into a pair of black boots. The boots were made of soft leather, comfortable and close-fitting, and reaching to the middle of my calves. He paid no attention to my obvious distress.
Frustrated desperation swallowed me. Hoping he’d understand better if I appealed to him in his language, I said, “Heit, Z’pheer. Heit.”
Unmoved, he straightened and pressed the buttons on the cuffs on my wrists, releasing my hands. Before I could even consider escape—not that I would have at this minute under the circumstances—he took a pair of metal cuffs from the side of his belt and clapped them on my wrists, closing them. A metal bar no more than a few inches across connected the cuffs, and as soon as they were locked, a narrow red band turned blue and the cuffs gave off a quiet activating buzz.
“Oh, come on! This is what they do to animals, Z’pheer!” I gestured to the collar.
“Daz. Ba nayna.” He wound the leash, which was several feet long, around his fist, minimizing the distance I could get from him to only a few inches. That done, he started toward the chairs where Malek was typing on one of the consoles.
I dropped my shoulders, defeat crushing me. There was no way of getting out of this. I looked down at myself. “Wait a minute, Z’pheer, you forgot pants.”
He glanced back at me, his teeth flashing as if I’d told a joke.
“Oh, you’re fucking kidding me.”
His smile widened.
I looked behind me, checking the length of the odd garment, and then shot him a glare. “You can see my ass in this thing!”
He chuckled as if that was the idea. He tugged lightly on the leash. And then made a clucking sound.
The kind one made to a damn horse.
Jesus Christ.
Everything in me screamed to get away from him and hide myself somewhere where he and the others couldn’t find me. Except I couldn’t. Even if I could have gotten away from Z’pheer, these aliens would have expected me to try that.
So much for my thinking Z’pheer was the nice one.
Tamping down the extremely foolish urge to punch him, I followed him. Z’pheer stopped beside Malek’s chair as the purple-eyed alien stood up.
Malek and Z’pheer exchanged words. I didn’t understand any of it, but I caught Raul’s name and Tarku’s.
I looked around for Raul, but didn’t see him or his pet. Somehow, I didn’t feel any safer without him there.
Malek’s arm slipped around my waist, pinning me to him and startling me. His gaze roamed over my half-covered body, sending a new wave of warmth and awareness of his presence skittering across my skin. Hardly seeming to listen to Z’pheer, he inhaled deeply, running his nose along the side of my neck.
Smelling me again.
A pleased, hungry rumble left him. His hand explored my ass, sending unwanted ripples of pleasure right to my core.
I pushed at his chest, awkward with my wrists cuffed, but he ignored me, and nipped at my ear before he went back to typing on his console. Z’pheer chuckled.
Raul returned, but he wasn’t with Tarku. The computer gave another one of its announcements. Raul and Z’pheer talked for a moment, Raul explaining something to do with Tarku. He looked more relaxed, content, until he saw me. He scowled, looking me over. He said something to Z’pheer, too many words for me to hope discerning what he said by the tone, but his irritation was obvious.
I wasn’t sure he liked me very much, whatever his reaction to m
e earlier had been.
For some reason, whatever he’d said made Z’pheer laugh. He unclipped his end of the leash from his wrist and held it out for Raul.
Raul just shook his head at it and turned to the screen, growling something at Malek, who typed a few keys.
Z’pheer shrugged, stroked my hair, and clipped the leash back onto his bracelet.
Only now did I notice what had happened to the planet in the window. The sphere was gone, the screen filled with the image of clouds and gaseous white fog.
We were entering the planet’s atmosphere.
I swallowed, not sure I was prepared to see what kind of world lay hidden beneath those clouds.
Malek typed some more and spoke to the computer. The robotic voice replied, and Malek looked sharply up at Raul. I could feel the alarm in him, read it in his purple eyes.
Raul spoke to the computer, and it replied. He let out a string of now familiar words that still sounded like alien epithets. The urgency that permeated the room filled me with dread.
“Z’pheer? What the hell is wrong?”
Z’pheer touched the small of my back, a reassuring gesture, then took me over to another console. He pressed a few keys. The console gave a series of beeps that even I knew indicated it wasn’t able to do whatever it was supposed to do.
Words were exchanged between the three aliens, fast and brimming with urgency. Until Raul shook his head and said something in a harsh tone of finality.
Malek and Z’pheer looked resigned but nodded.
Having to rely only on tone and body language was starting to leave me feeling increasingly unbalanced.
Z’pheer took my shoulder, pushed me firmly into one of the chairs, and strapped me in with a belt about my waist and another over my chest. Then he seated himself in a chair beside me and buckled himself in while Malek and Raul did the same.
Fuck. Like it or not, probably within minutes, we’d be landing on an alien world ninety billion light years from Earth, my only companions three alien men who wanted who knew what from me. Three alien barbarians who might or might not ever take me back home.
With nothing to do but wait and hope a way to escape would present itself soon, I put my head back against the chair and closed my eyes, trying desperately to swallow the sickening fear that found a home in my chest.
