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

by Raven Dark

  And there was another concern. Would the weapon destroy all the Rith, even those on whatever world they came from? Did it matter how far away their world was?

  I spent a lot of time in my men’s beds, and most of the time, when I lost myself in their vicious passions, I forgot about those fears. For a while.

  My men. When the hell had I started thinking of them that way? I couldn’t remember, but at some point, that’s what they became. I would always be a slave, yes, and they would always be my masters. Their world’s rules, their laws, demanded that. But in my mind, they were just my men.

  Most of the time, when I was lost in them, I forgot about Earth. I forgot about the dreams of a career, of record deals and money, and maybe even a little fame. I forgot about those things, until I was left alone in moments of quiet to think or bathe or stare out the windows of the Tanticore at the space that passed us by. Then, just for a moment, the pain and loss would tug at my heart, threatening to crush it into tiny pieces.

  My song had saved a planet, and that made me happier than anyone could ever know, but in some ways, it also made my homesickness so much worse. Because it reminded me that, just for a moment, I’d had what I’d been working for my entire life.

  Weirdly, I felt an absurd gratitude toward Kudar Gavik for that moment. However unintentionally, he’d given me a glimpse of the future I’d always wanted.

  Maybe I could send him a Hallmark card.

  Jesus Christ.

  Three weeks after leaving Gandris Four, we had arrived. Z’pheer woke me in his bed on the morning of our arrival. He dressed me in silence, his expression somber, as if we were about to enter the Oval Office. It wasn’t until we landed on the surface that I realized, in effect, we were.

  Well, the Xandari equivalent.

  I’d expected us to have returned to the shelter at Vunadar. Instead, on the screen in front of Raul’s captain’s chair, a ruined city I could tell had once been great sprawled across acers of land. Between two buildings, a large patch of flat ground opened up to reveal a huge circular hatch. The ship dropped slowly through it, and the hatch closed with an echoing metallic clang above the ship. On the screen, a tunnel stretched ahead of us. Smoke from the ship’s engines vented out in huge clouds.

  “Lu’ari Hudan Base,” the computer’s bedroom voice intoned.

  Malek caught my eye-roll and winked at me from his chair. I couldn’t help a smile. Raul got up, kissed me hard on the lips and then went to wake Tarku from his drugged sleep.

  “And now the moment of truth, huh?” I looked at Z’pheer from my own seat.

  He nodded and stood, taking my hand. “It’ll work out, alia.”

  “How can you know that?”

  He shrugged. “Because it has to.”

  I let out a heavy breath. My stomach flip-flopped so violently, I thought I was going to be sick.

  We grabbed our belongings and disembarked.

  For several long minutes, we walked through the tunnel until we came to a large steel door where four Order guards stood watch. They bowed to Raul and keyed in a code on the console next to the door. It opened with a low, electronic hum.

  Raul glanced at the guards and then took my hand in a very deliberate, and un-master-like hold. I bit my lip around a smile and my cheeks heated. I ran my thumb over his hand.

  Inside, the base was all stone and steel, just like Vunadar, only there weren’t people packing the halls. The halls were all but empty, except for the two guards who stood at a second steel door in what must have been the middle of the base. The door hummed open and the men escorted me in.

  When I saw the room we’d entered, I almost swore out loud.

  The room was monstrous, the metal floor lined with thousands of chairs in semi-circle of rows that ran on a downward slope toward the back of the room. Along the back wall, a long tables spread out end to end. A large flag hung on the wall behind the tables, emblazoned with the Order’s symbol, red on black. About ten men sat at the tables in a row. Every one of the audience seats was filled with bare-chested warriors of the Order, along with the royal guard and a lot of those officials in the gold and blue robes.

  The whole room buzzed with hushed talk. When we made our way down the aisle between the seats, the murmurs turned to whispers of surprise, shock, and hope.

  The attention, even if it wasn’t on me, made my skin burn hot. I assumed they were staring at Raul, the leader of their people and his two aids, their heroes come home to save the world. Or perhaps they were looking at Tarku, walking proudly at Raul’s side, tail held high. Pets probably weren’t normally allowed in here.

  But then I caught a few of the whispers from the audience.

  “The slave. Look at her…”

  “How dare they let her walk in front…”

  My head swiveled to look behind me. Raul and Z’pheer were beside me, but Malek… Oh, God, Malek was walking a pace behind me.

  I shot him a mortified look.

  He winked and made a kissing motion with his lips.

  Oh, Jesus help me, I nearly passed out.

  Raul squeezed my hand and smirked.

  We continued down the aisle toward the tables at the back. At the center of the seated procession sat the leader of the Order, Va’ka Shar’onne. His eyes fixated on me, intense, and that look made me nervous, especially with the shocked whispers still rippling from the audience.

  And with my three masters still letting me walk in front.

  Well, now that we were standing right in front of the table, right in front of the Order heads, I expected the bastards to come to their senses and turn into the chauvinistic jerks they were expected to be. For them to move in front of me and hide me from view, taking the glory for themselves.

  Come on guys, get a move on!

  None of them made any move to push me out of the fucking spotlight.

  Except for Raul, but only when the Vaka stood up, and only enough to step forward and hand him the tricorder-like like weapon. Then he stepped back beside me.

  “The Rith destroyer, Vaka,” he said, snapping his hand to his heart.

  Vaka Shar’onne’s eyes dropped to me, a little too wide. He flicked a look at the men, and confusion flashed in them. He looked completely baffled. Then his face slowly cleared and adapted a stony expression.

  Shit. Was he pissed? Or was he just not sure how to handle what he was seeing and trying to stay professional?

  The Vaka straightened and raised his chin formally, his eyes meeting each of the men in turn. “Hadu Raul. Thank you once again for your unending heroic service to this world. And Malek of House Tavion, and Kassak Z’pheer.”

  He seemed to be ignoring me entirely. Trying very hard not to see me standing with, instead of behind, his soldiers.

  Okay, I wasn’t a glory hound, but I was starting to feel a little miffed.

  “Thank you, Vaka,” the three of them said almost at once.

  For some reason, Raul’s voice sounded like he was smiling, but I didn’t dare look up at him now.

  “You’ve arrived just in time.” The Vaka gestured to the audience behind us. “We are all that’s left of this once proud Order. Half of the cities that were still standing when you left are now gone.”

  My face paled. Z’pheer inconspicuously brushed my back, as if comforting me as much as himself. Raul’s head bowed.

  The Vaka turned and handed the weapon to one of the men beside him. The man stood up and went to a wall where what looked like a large speaker was mounted. There was a console in front of it, and he fiddled with a few wires, setting the metallic weapon on top of it.

  “Switch it on,” Vaka Shar’onne said quietly.

  The man flicked something on the side of the weapon. Then he turned a dial on the speaker.

  “If this works,” the Vaka said, “the weapon should send out a high frequency pulse that will wipe out every Rith within this world’s atmosphere. The speaker will amplify the sound. We have set up speakers in every major part of the world so
that they will hear it everywhere.”

  Raul nodded beside me.

  The Vaka’s man turned the speaker on. Then he inhaled sharply and flicked another switch on the weapon.

  My breath froze in my throat. Anticipation and hope pounded off my men.

  Nothing happened. I didn’t hear a thing.

  Shit! Shit! Shit. I couldn’t help glancing at each of them in panic.

  Then Tarku gave a low whimper. I looked down at him, and so did the others. His ears were back on his head and he was shaking it.

  My mouth fell open. He could hear it. He could hear the weapon’s pulse.

  I gave Raul the smallest elbow in the ribs and nodded to Tarku.

  Raul bent, looking him over, then gave me a look that seemed to say he was fine. He was. He’d stopped shaking his head, his ears normal. As if he somehow realized I was talking about him, Tarku looked at me and stuck out his pink tongue, panting with his usual happiness.

  Had the frequency stopped?

  I looked around the room. Every man there had his head bowed, waiting.

  For what?

  Then I heard soft static coming from a small intercom on the table. Garbled voices spoke over each other, then slowly became clearer. The voices sounded official, the kind I’d heard on TV during national disasters.

  “Can’t tell if it’s working, Vaka,” someone said, crackling over the speaker.

  “The Rith are still patrolling the streets,” another man said. “Still looting everything in sight.”

  “Nothing’s happening here, Vaka.” Another voice.

  I had the feeling the voices were from all over the world.

  Damn. It wasn’t working. I put my head back.

  “Wait…” The first voice. “One of them just dropped.”

  “Wait, Vaka, we can see them now. There are bodies falling out of the ships over Legarad.”

  “It’s working!” someone shouted excitedly. “They’re dropping like bird eaters in a gem mine.”

  “We see it, too, here in Chir! They’re going down everywhere, their ships as well. Rith are dropping all over the world, Vaka.”

  Vaka Shar’onne closed his eyes, lifting his face as if toward his god.

  Raul shook his fist in victory. Screams and shouts of elation echoed over the intercom, and in the room, men were whooping and hugging. Malek clapped Z’pheer on the back and Z’pheer’s fingers brushed mine. I saw his smile out of the corner of my eye. I heaved a sigh, my knees threatening to fold.

  It was over.

  The Vaka looked at each of the men and gave them a grin and a nod. “Congratulations, gentlemen. Your majesty. You’ve just saved the world. Each of you will receive metals at a gathering in your honor when things are a little more back to normal. We offer you our—”

  Raul coughed. He looked at Malek and Z’pheer, and I caught their meaningful nods.

  What were they up to now?

  “If you’ll pardon us, Vaka, but we did not save the world.” Raul nodded to me. “She did.”

  Oh. My. God. I was going to flay them one by one while they slept!

  The room erupted in a strange mix of whispers, shouts of surprise, and a few—no—a lot of shouts of outrage.

  The Vaka closed his eyes, looking like he was going to have an aneurism. When he opened them, he spoke very slowly as if his tongue was too thick.

  “Excuse me?”

  I almost laughed.

  “She did,” Malek said plainly.

  Z’pheer nodded.

  The Vaka blinked, looking flabbergasted. “Is this joke, Hadu?”

  My urge to laugh disappeared.

  “If it is, we are not amused. Hadu Raul, you have a strange and extremely inappropriate sense of—”

  “It’s not a joke, Vaka,” Raul said.

  His eyes slid closed again. He looked positively mortified. Then his face cleared, struggling to do so, before he opened his eyes. He met my gaze, really looking at me for the first time.

  I knew what his problem was. He’d never had to credit a slave for anything, and it rubbed every one of his misogynistic bones the wrong way.

  “Very well,” he said. “Step forward…nayna.”

  Knees shaking with something close to terror, I stepped toward the table awkwardly.

  “What is your name?”

  Oh, the little bastard. He knew my name. “Danika, sir.”

  He sighed, but nodded, almost managing the officiality he’d shown the men, though this time he looked like he was constipated.

  “Your masters say that you saved the world. Is this true?”

  “Er.” How the fuck was I supposed to answer this? First of all, I hadn’t. The men, my gorgeous lovable bastard men, were exaggerating. They’d gone through hell getting that thing. Malek had lost his brother. Raul had had to kill him. Z’pheer had spent days fighting to save Malek. Secondly, even if I had singlehandedly saved Xandar, how did I answer without sounding like I had a hero complex and a head the size of Jupiter?

  I settled for a shrug.

  “Modesty in a nayna,” Vaka Shar’onne mused. “Interesting. But your reaction alone tells me it is true.” He put his chin to his chest, thinking. When he met my eyes, he nodded. “We can give you no medals…Dana’kah. Nayna do not receive medals. Women can’t. But we will grant you a single wish.”

  Well, he almost said my name right. I stared, perplexed. “A…a wish, sir?”

  “Yes.” His smile was so false it made my skin crawl.

  He had to be related to the Xandar Home’s benefactor. Too creepy.

  “Name one thing you want most, and if we can grant it to you without violating our laws, we will do so.”

  I was half tempted to ask him to free the slaves. Even if he didn’t, couldn’t, because it violated laws, it would have been worth it to see his face. Except I knew he wouldn’t.

  The obvious wish came to me. If it pleases the Great Oz…

  The agony of what I’d lose if I chose that, though… I shivered and my eyes watered.

  I was about to speak, but Raul put his hand heavily on my shoulder. “Vaka, may we speak? In private?”

  The Vaka gave a sharp nod.

  Raul and the other two disappeared into a room off to the side with Tarku. I was about to wonder why the heck they’d left me alone standing there awkwardly, when the men and the Vaka stepped out again. My men returned to my side with Tarku, and Vaka Shar’onne took his place at the table.

  “You four may go. You have one hour to decide.”

  “Thank you, Vaka,” Raul said.

  Wait, decide what?

  Raul took my hand and led me up the aisle toward the doors. Malek strode in front of me and opened them while Z’pheer rubbed my shoulder.

  What the hell? They almost looked sad. What had they talked about in that room?

  Once we were outside, the men escorted me to a small room off to the side and shut the door. They brought me over to a set of chairs around a conference table. When I sat across from Raul, the other two standing at my shoulders, he leaned over and closed his hand slowly around mine.

  I looked at all of them. “Guys? What the hell is going on?”

  Raul squeezed my hand, dropping kisses on my fingers.

  Z’pheer laid his hand on one of my shoulders, bracing, and Malek stroked my hair.

  Raul’s chest rose heavily.

  My throat tightened. “Raul?”

  He put his head back, obviously trying to figure out how to say something that was hard for him to say.

  He met my eyes. “Vahashatai, we talked with the Vaka. We all agreed there is something we could give you. We are giving you a choice, Danika.” His eyes closed.

  My heart gave a huge leap. Raul had just called me Danika.

  “You have to understand.” Z’pheer said kneeling in front of me. “We want you to be happy here. With us. Ordinarily, we could never do this. It’s against the Order’s code. But Vaka Shar’onne agreed. So…” He bowed his head.

  “Gu
ys, come on, spit it out.”

  Malek stroked my hair slower. “Listen, Danika.”

  “Vahashatai, we know you miss Earth. We can’t give you the life you deserve here. If you wish to…”

  My throat closed. Oh…oh God…

  “If you wish to,” Raul said, “we will release you. We will set you free. You can go home.”

  36

  Danika’s Choice

  Home. I could go home. To Earth.

  I closed my eyes, the words spearing through me.

  I bowed my head, for a long moment unsure what to say. My throat tightened painfully.

  Ever since I’d come here, all I’d ever wanted was to go back to Earth. To return to my freedom and at least try to capture the dream of singing on stage for a living. Trying to make a living for myself on my own. And yet, now that the choice was before me to actually go, the thought tore me in two, and for one simple reason that made the choice agonizing.

  If I left, I’d lose Raul and Malek and Z’pheer.

  If I went home, it wasn’t like I could come back for Christmas holidays and on weekends. Somehow, these men had gotten under my skin, made themselves a part of me. If I left, I’d never see them again.

  But if I stayed, I would always be a slave. Even if Vaka Shar’onne acknowledged that I’d saved the world, in time, people would find a way to forget about that and pretend it had never happened. That’s what always happened on Earth when a woman overstepped her bounds and gained notoriety she wasn’t supposed to have.

  If I stayed, I would never have my freedom, never be my own person. I would never have a job of any kind or my own money. And whatever these men felt for me, there would be times when I would suddenly be slapped back down to slave status. Every time I stepped too far out of line, they’d have to do that, or else they’d look like sympathizers.

  God, what the hell was I supposed to do?

  “Raul.” I kissed his hand as he had done with mine. “I…” I sighed and looked at him, Malek and Z’pheer. “You three will never know how much this means to me. Thank you. I… Can I think about it?”