Captured: The Xandari Chronicles (Book One) (Dark Sci-Fi Romance)

by Raven Dark

  “Rosht. She’s so damn perfect,” Raul said. “She is made for fucking.”

  Malek rumbled in agreement. Before he’d even spoke, his fingers were already stroking my dripping pussy.

  “Now,” he said with another grin at the others, “where were we before this little cock-teasing whore interrupted us?”

  Fucking asshole.

  I’d dropped to sleep in Malek’s arms, but at some point, he must have gotten up to sit closer to the fire. I could hear his snores a little away from me, pulling me from sleep.

  I shivered, sure I’d felt a slight breeze pass over my shoulder.

  Was Tarku growling? Sometimes he did that when he ate his bones. I rolled over and sat up …and startled. Tarku wasn’t eating rabbit bones. He was sitting right in front of me, his blue eyes shining in the darkness, that mouth full of teeth, bared.

  Oh, God, was he going to attack me? Had he suddenly decided he didn’t like me? I froze. He wasn’t looking at me, but at something behind me.

  I turned slowly, suddenly afraid to move.

  My heart gave a giant leap.

  A snake was hanging from one of the large stalactites on the cave ceiling. Its head was an inch from me, almost as large as mine.

  I tried to scream, but nothing came out. The viper didn’t make a sound except for the soft rustle of its scales as it uncoiled itself, lowering toward me.

  Its head lanced out, right for me.

  I screamed bloody fucking murder, but it was already too late. The snake wrapped its body around me and pulled me swiftly toward the ceiling.

  19

  Falling

  If I’d had the presence of mind to think past the terror ripping through every fiber of my being, I’d have been worried the men wouldn’t save me from the Reaper now banging on my door. I would have been pissed that I needed rescuing, that I couldn’t have gotten out of this myself. As it was, in this moment, while my life flashed before my eyes, I knew only one thing. Without a doubt, I was a dead woman walking.

  Er…rolling?

  With a viper the size of a Mack Truck rolling me up in its coils like a living pig in a blanket, screams filled my ears. My screams.

  Below me, I heard men’s voices shouting in surprise and horror. Malek’s sword buzzed.

  The viper’s length slid around my neck like a band of rubbery steel. My screams cut off, reduced to strangled gasps. Hissing filled my ears. My head felt like it was going to float away.

  There was a swishing noise, the sound of something cutting through there air, then a loud meaty thwunk.

  The snake’s coils loosened. Still wrapped up in the viper’s grip, my body plummeted downward.

  I landed in someone’s arms. Malek’s face was pale above me, his purple eyes wide with what I could have sworn was fear. Then I felt the ground beneath me and heard Raul growling with effort as his hands ripped the snake’s body from around me. Malek set me on the floor and then his sword was glowing, the blade slicing through the coil around my waist.

  I lay there, chest heaving, too afraid to move.

  Someone’s hand was on me, and I screamed, bucking and punching at a hard chest.

  “Alia! Alia, stop! It’s all right, it’s me!”

  Z’pheer. It was Z’pheer’s hands roaming over me, feeling along my ribs, pressing on my belly. Checking for injuries, I realized. I stared at him, chest heaving, trying to process what was happening.

  I was alive. How was I alive?

  His voice seemed to be drifting from down the long tunnel of my fear, something about my not appearing to having any injuries.

  I didn’t know if I’d grabbed hold of him, or if he’d yanked me close, but the next thing I knew, my arms were around his neck in a death grip, my chest was against his, and he had me sitting across his lap, his huge arms holding me close.

  “It’s all right. I’m here. I’m right here,” he cooed.

  The realization of what could have happened if these men hadn’t intervened sank like a blade to the heart.

  I sobbed, huge, wracking sobs, my whole body shaking like a leaf in a gale, clinging to him as if letting him go would mean my death. I wasn’t entirely sure it wouldn’t.

  “It’s okay, ra alia. I’ve got you.”

  “The snake… it had me… Don’t let it get me… don’t let it…”

  “It won’t. It’s dead. It’s over.” He stroked my hair.

  “I don’t want to be here, Z’pheer…”

  His hold tightened and he rocked me slowly. “I know. Nothing’s gonna happen to you. We’re not gonna let anything happen to you, I promise.”

  I sniffled, Earth suddenly seeming too far away, hopelessly out of reach. This world was too dangerous. I didn’t belong here. “I want to go home. I just want to go home.”

  “Shh. I know.” His voice was tender and soft. His warm breath brushed my forehead, soothing. “I’m sorry. We’ll keep you safe. We’ll take care of you.” He cradled my nape in his palm and brushed the tears from my cheeks with his fingers. “Turn around, ra alia. Look.”

  I followed his eyes. On the floor of the cave, the snake’s massive body lay unmoving, sliced cleanly in half with the sort of smooth, clean cut that suggested a cauterizing weapon had been used.

  Malek’s sword. I looked at him. He squatted in front of us. His sword was in one hand, turned off. He was watching me, his eyes concerned, his expression hard to read. He set his other hand awkwardly on my back, slowly, as if he was trying to comfort me, but the concept was awkward and strange to him.

  “She’s in shock,” I heard Z’pheer say. “Malek, get me a blanket and one of those fruit packets out of my pack.”

  Only half noticing Malek getting up, my eyes went back to the snake. There was an arrow sticking out of its head.

  So that’s why it had dropped. My gaze shifted over to Raul. He was sitting on one of the benches a few feet away, leaning with his back against the cavern wall, his bow across his knees. His quiver of arrows lay on the floor near him. He’d shot the snake in the head. Raul’s massive bare chest rose and fell on huge breaths with the effort it had taken to get the snake off me. His face was pale and bloodless.

  Shock wended its way through me. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought he looked more than tired or in shock. I’d have thought he looked scared.

  My teeth were chattering. “Well, at least we have dinner for tonight.”

  Z’pheer gave a strained chuckle and rubbed my arms. Malek wrapped the blanket awkwardly around me without a word and handed Z’pheer the packet.

  Z’pheer ripped it open and pushed a piece of sweet fruit in my mouth. “She’s all right, Raul. She’s just in shock.”

  Raul nodded, his breathing normal now. He closed his eyes, head back against the wall. He set a hand on Malek’s shoulder, like a brother ensuring that someone he cared for was alive and well.

  “That said,” Z’pheer added, turning my face to his and putting another piece of that brown apricot-tasting fruit in my mouth, “I can’t give you a proper examination to check for broken ribs or internal bleeding here. If anything feels wrong, nayna, I want you to tell me. No matter how small.”

  I nodded distractedly, still processing.

  He tipped my chin up. “It’s important, ra alia. You have to speak up if something doesn’t feel right. Understood?”

  I forced myself to take in his words and nodded. “I understand.” I was starting to feel calmer now, warmer, and my teeth weren’t chattering as much.

  Raul pushed to his feet and ran his hands down his sweat-slicked face. He looked up at the ceiling to where the snake had taken me, then around the cave.

  “There could be more of those snakes around here.” He picked up his scabbard and slipped it onto his back. “We’ll head for my father’s now. Everyone be ready in half a span.”

  He finished with a squeeze of Z’pheer’s shoulder.

  Malek nodded in agreement and grabbed his weapons, tossing them on and sheathing his sword.


  Raul didn’t look at me as he readied his bed roll and tied it. In fact, it looked like he was pretending I wasn’t there at all. His back was stiff. He said nothing more as he gathered his things. Distance wrapped itself around him like a cloak. For some reason, it stung. I couldn’t help thinking he was pissed, and that I’d done something wrong.

  Z’pheer rubbed my arms. He kissed my forehead and stood, turning me and pushing me gently onto the rock. “Sit here while I get things ready to go. I’m not going far.”

  “I’ll help.” The faster we packed up, the sooner we’d be gone from this place. I started to stand, but Z’pheer set his hand on my shoulder, holding me in place.

  “No.” His voice was suddenly firm. “You’ll stay where you are, nayna.”

  I sighed, irritated with his treating me like a fragile female while a twinge of appreciation for his taking care of me pricked at me. I dropped my shoulders and remained where I was.

  Z’pheer gave a satisfied nod and started packing up to leave and putting out the fire.

  The truth was, he was probably right. I was no condition to be of any good to anyone.

  While the men prepared to leave, I stared at the dead snake for a long time.

  Earth had never seemed so far away as it did right then.

  20

  A Truth Revealed

  The trip to wherever we were headed passed by in a blur. Raul drove without a word. Hours must have passed, but in the dark of the mine and with little conversation from the men, I had no way of telling how many.

  Malek sat on the back bench behind Raul, every once in a while petting Tarku who sat curled on the floor of the cart. Other times he’d reach over and stroke my hair or squeeze my shoulder as if to make sure I was still there. Z’pheer was sprawled out on the bench, with me laying across him, my back against his chest, one arm curled around my waist. He wasn’t asleep. Every now and then he nuzzled my hair and inhaled my scent, murmuring reassurance in my ear. I would never have admitted it, but his presence, his voice, his warmth were more of a comfort than I liked.

  My thoughts whirled with what should have been terror, but instead, I felt numb, as though someone had switched something off inside me. Yet it wasn’t just what had happened with the snake or my brush with death that left me feeling as if my brain was trying to catch up with something that remained out of reach.

  Fact was, most of the time, I’d lived a relatively uneventful life. Nothing traumatic had ever happened to me, and certainly nothing approaching what had occurred in the cave. Being taken to this world against my will seemed less traumatic than almost being devoured by a giant snake. Put together with everything else that had happened since I’d come to this planet, this world suddenly seemed too big, too alien, too scary to be real. I felt constantly on the verge of shattering like glass. Strangely, the presence of these men, my captors, felt like the only thing that kept me sane, a tether that somehow grounded me.

  Still, there was something that shocked me almost as much as the incident in the cavern—the men’s reactions.

  Part of me was surprised they’d saved me at such great risk to their own lives. Though I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised at all. They’d gone through a lot to capture me from Earth—too much just to lose me now. But the men’s reactions hadn’t been those of masters with their property.

  Z’pheer had always been the nice one, but he’d gone out of his way to comfort me. He hadn’t become impatient or angry with my blubbering on his shoulder and falling apart like I had. Rather, he’d brushed away my tears and held me like… like a man who loved me, cared for me.

  For Christ’s sake, that was ridiculous, but that’s what it had felt like. The thought scared me almost as much as the snake. He was my kidnapper and an alien barbarian who’d made it clear he’d discipline me if I went against the rules. He was hardly boyfriend material. I had no idea how to handle this compassion from him, and I didn’t want to trust it.

  Malek’s behavior… If the situation had been different, I’d have found his reaction hilarious. It seemed like he hadn’t known what to do with himself, even appeared to be trying to comfort me, but some part of me knew I couldn’t accept that. He was too wild, too self-absorbed to do such a thing. Besides, he saw me as a prize, something to be coveted.

  No. He had probably been comforting himself, not me.

  And then there was Raul. I glanced over at him, sitting in front of the console. His eyes were on the track in front of him. I studied his profile. His jaw was set, his expression… removed. Closed off.

  He looked fine now, but the snake’s attack had obviously shaken him up. I’d never forget the way he looked in that moment, his eyes wide, face bloodless.

  When I was nine, my father had let me go to a pool party with some local kids from the neighborhood. One of the other kids at the pool had nearly drowned, and a lifeguard had leaped in and saved her. Afterward, he’d sat on the wet cement as the paramedics checked over the girl. The lifeguard hadn’t said a word, just stared at nothing, looking shell-shocked. Raul wore the exact same look now.

  Studying him, Raul’s face was a mask of stoic reserve. Thinking back, I was tempted to believe his reaction had been out of fear or concern for me, only I knew that couldn’t be the case. Of these three hardened, battle-worn warriors, Raul was the last man to care about me. I was a slave to him, an object there for his use, nothing more. He’d constantly gone out of his way to make sure I knew that, more so than Malek or Z’pheer. His refusal to acknowledge me in any way now only confirmed that fact.

  No, Raul had been reacting to the incident itself. His concern for his men was obvious. He’d been scared for them and was probably freaked out by the snake itself. It had been massive and had nearly eaten someone—could have killed him and his men.

  Come to think of it, he may have only saved me to kill the snake and keep it from attacking anyone else.

  Damn it. The thought that it might not have mattered to him if I’d died back there settled on me, heavy and depressing. I turned my face away, eyes on the stone ceiling that raced past above the cart. Z’pheer’s arm tightened around my waist, but instead of comforting me, the warmth of it felt empty and entrapping.

  I was about to sit up and move away from him when distant voices reached my ears. I sat up slowly and craned my head back, looking down the track. The mineshaft disappeared into the darkness, beyond where the cart’s front headlights reached. The voices sounded like they were coming from far down the tunnel, a muted buzzing.

  Anxiety coiled in my gut. Other than Gwen and these men, the only other people I’d seen on this trip had been the Rith. I wasn’t sure I was ready to encounter anyone else on this crazy, barbaric planet.

  “What’s the matter?” Z’pheer scrunched his brows, squeezing my elbow.

  “People.”

  He craned his neck, looking down the track. “We must be coming up on the gate to Vunadar.” He sat up with me and adjusted my poncho, straightening my no doubt mussed hair around my shoulders.

  I swallowed. Vunadar. Was this where Raul’s father was?

  “We’ll be there in a few minutes. Malek, take the wheel.” Raul switched the cart onto autopilot and stood carefully, letting Malek take his seat.

  While Malek drove and Z’pheer leashed Tarku, Raul unbuckled his belt and removed his weapon from his back. He drew a poncho from his pack and tossed it on, settling it over his clothes. Z’pheer did the same, and so did Malek.

  Looking at Raul, I noticed he took extra care to hide his clothes. The hood of his poncho was pulled as far over his face as it would go. I could make out only a hint of strong features and golden eyes inside the shadows of the hood. He replaced his weapon holders, slipping his whip back onto his belt and his axe onto his back. Lastly, he covered his hands with leather gloves, tugging the ends of them over the bracelet he wore on his wrist, but not before I noticed the fine engravings along the leather strap.

  I glanced at Tarku. The thought of asking R
aul anything right now made my stomach tighten inexplicably, so I leaned toward Z’pheer. “Wait a minute. I take it Raul doesn’t want anyone knowing who he is, but won’t Tarku give him away? He kind of stands out.”

  “Lots of people have tarkies, nayna. Some of them have the same coloring.”

  I glanced at the dog who waited patiently to be let out of the cart. Then I looked at Z’pheer. Tarkies, huh? I had to wonder, since his name was Tarku, if it was like calling a dog ‘Doggie.’ I couldn’t help a small snicker.

  “Why name him Tarku?” I asked, the curiosity getting the better of me.

  Raul pulled his hood further forward on his head, then took my wrist and lifted me to my feet. Leading me over to the back bench of the cart without answering my question. “Sit.”

  I frowned. Okay. Guess it was back to “Ignore Danika” time.

  He must have misinterpreted my frown as being willful, because he repeated his command. His voice was quiet, too much for me to read his tone. I forced myself to sit down.

  Z’pheer tossed something to Raul. It was the muzzle. What the fuck? How did they get that damn thing?

  I looked at Raul who was beaming with stupid delight at my reaction.

  “We always come prepared, nayna. Don’t look so disappointed.” He knelt in front of me and quickly put the stupid thing on over my head and into my mouth while Z’pheer laughed. I returned his look with a death glare.

  So getting rid of the fucking muzzle had been meaningless. They probably had a whole bag of them. Great.

  But as quickly as my anger surfaced, the memory of the snake flooded back on me. Even the annoyance of the muzzle couldn’t distract me from what had happened in the cave. Just as quickly, the amusement vanished from Raul’s eyes. His earlier brooding mood had returned in full force.

  I searched his face, hoping to find some indicator of what he was thinking or feeling, but his expression was closed off once more, as unreadable as stone. For some reason, it made my heart ache, leaving me feeling empty.