by Layla Stone
Sci didn’t want to feel bad for the male but he could empathize being mentally messed with, especially by a Numan. “You said he’s not dead, but Bens said he was no longer with them.”
Sands sneered, “Bens is a little sniveling bastard. He spends a lot of time with Tanktum. And he knows that your brother was given to Fynbar, the same psychotic Numan that did this to me.”
“Why?”
“Payment.”
Sci wasn’t sure he understood. “Payment?”
Sands touched the tip of his eyebrow. “A master elder is rare on your planet, imagine how rare it is in the Universe? Worth a lot of money, especially if he can implant an operating system in his head to control him.”
Sci’s had to touch the wall briefly with his fingertips to keep himself upright. “You knew they were going to do that to my brother?” A fresh wave of betrayal burned in his blood.
“Yes, but it was either get you to safety or let you suffer with him. Your brother demanded to keep you safe. So I did.”
“But my brother! He’s being …”
“Tortured. Experimented on. Yes to all of the above.”
“I need to find him.” Sci turned down the hall and jerked back. A pale skinned Night Demon was smiling at him with his large reptilian teeth. Sci hadn’t even heard another being get close.
His eyes twinkled as he pointed one of his thin fingers at himself. “First of all, this is the most exciting conversation I’ve ever eavesdropped on.”
Sands growled beside him. Sci remembered being introduced to the Night Demon the day before. He was the Logistics Officer, Clalls.
“Second of all, I can help. I know someone who’s especially skilled at tracking anyone in the multi-versus.”
“Night Demons do nothing for free.” Sands said, with his arms tightly crossed over his chest.
Clalls slowly shrugged his thin shoulder with a knowing smirk. “True. I’ll make a deal with you. Both of you will owe me a favor, and if he’s alive,” he pointed at Sci, “then I’ll make sure he’s brought on board. Set up a little heart-to-heart, brother reunion. How’s that sound?”
“Go screw yourself.” Sands said.
Clalls deep, dark chuckle made Sci’s skin curl. “Okay, but for real, either you take my deal, or I tell your Captain.”
Sands took a threatening step forward.
Clalls blurred from where he stood, and was in front of Sands the next moment, with his big, pearly teeth full and exposed. “Night Demon,” he whispered in a sing-song voice, “will eat a little metal man like you for breakfast.”
“No deal gator-mouth. And if you ever think about eating me again, I’m going wash your mouth out with liquid primet.”
A metal cleaner. Sci only knew that because it was in Sasha’s training packet.
Clalls snapped his teeth together twice and stepped back laughing. “That’s fair. I’m not really into eating metal. Gets stuck in my teeth, ya know.” The crazy male turned around pointed his finger at Sci and winked again, but this time added a click of the tongue. “We’re still on, right? One brotherly bonding moment, coming up.”
Sci didn’t get a chance to say anything before the male disappeared, just as quickly as he had shown up. Turning to Sands, he asked, “You worried?”
Sands chuffed, “No, Night Demons deal in secrets, they don’t share them. He’ll wait until something comes up, and offer another deal. It’s their way.”
Sands was the one to leave Sci standing in the lone hallway.
Time passed, and Sci stood to stare at nothing.
His brother is alive.
Epilogue 2
Jandy’s Fate
Jandy lifted her hand toward the Federation transporter. Her best friend was on that ship. It was a miracle that Sasha’s mom had negotiated the Federation internship for her daughter. A small lump inched its way up her throat. It was birthed from a mixture of emotions—too many to even name. But the main one was sorrow.
Her best friend was gone.
With a shuddering breath, Jandy turned around and silently made her way back to Sasha’s mom’s house.
Turning the corner, Jandy watched as Donil, the psychopathic executioner, raised his hand high and brought it down hard on Joan’s face. The sound echoed, ripping at her gut with the need to save her. Rushing forward, she grabbed the first thing she saw, a glass bottle with a broken top, and threw it with striking accuracy.
Two hands, hard as stone, wrapped around her arms, biting into her flesh. The one holding her whispered in her ear, “We’ve been waiting for you, sweetheart.”
“That’s not Sasha,” Donil said as he wiped blood from the fresh cut on his cheek. His eyes zeroed in on Jandy.
Hot, sticky breath wafted into her nose. “That’s good because I’d like to go a round with this little bottle-throwing sprite.”
“Check her right wrist,” Donil commanded.
The male holding Jandy moved his hand down her arm and pulled up her wrist. Suddenly, she was pushed to the ground, a hard boot on her back, holding her there. “Filthy Dowach scum. I’ll break your back and save the planet the spread of your disease.”
“No!” Donil bellowed. “We bring her and see what she knows. She attacked me, that means she knows something.”
The boot pressed harder on her delicate spine. From above her, Jandy heard, “If you so much as breathe on me, I’ll break your face.”
***
Jandy was standing naked in front of Madame Allure and her psychopathic sidekick Donil. Both commented on her lack of skin lesions. The disease her mother had was supposed to have passed to her, but it was all a lie fabricated by her mother who was desperately trying to protect Jandy from a life of prostitution.
“I think we should just use her. We’ll put her in the cheap lay-house.”
Donil’s lip curled. “She’s already marked, no one will touch her, and even if she’s not showing signs, she will. No one will want to risk it.”
Madame Allure tapped her neon blue lips. She looked like a sexbot, with large boobs, a small waist, flared hips, defined thighs, and little feet. Her blondish white hair was thick and perfectly quaffed.
“I could sell her. She’s not very pretty, but she does have those amazing eyes. I could get at least four hundred keleps.”
“You could,” Donil agreed. “But we’ll have to find a way to cover up the diseased mark.”
Madame Allure smiled. “Leave that to me. You find a buyer and make it quick.”
Madame Allure’s smile fell as Donil left. “I doubt you have a disease. I’ve seen that illness a thousand times, and you should have at least the rotting smell. But my dungeon is full. Don’t think that I’m just letting you walk out of here. I will find the lowest person I know to buy you, and I will make sure to share with him or her how much you love pain in bed.”
Jandy stood with her head tall. Seeing her best friend fly to her freedom had been worth it and more.
***
It took two days for Madame Allure to find a buyer for Jandy. His name was Jaccy, and he angrily pulled the heavy, rusted chain attached to her wrists, demanding she move faster. The two were walking on the blacktop towards a small spaceship. The ground was burning the soles of Jandy’s naked feet. Allure had stripped Jandy bare to present her to the male.
Thankfully, Jaccy had demanded a covering for her before he left. Though he’d said it had to be sheer because females were easier to sell when you could almost see their intimate curves rather than when they were blatant. Apparently, it was more like trying to peddle flesh instead of an exotic form of nightly entertainment.
Jandy hissed as she stepped onto the metal plank of the ship. Jaccy turned around, scanning the area. When he realized it was her feet as she stepped from side to side, he rolled his eyes.
Once inside the ship, Jaccy walked her into a room and commanded the screens to turn on by voice command. The screens winked from black to blue and then a p
rompt appeared: Quantum Connection Loading…
Jaccy moved Jandy onto a plasma platform. “Move or speak, and I’ll bleed you dry and sell your blood by the ounce to make back the money you cost me.”
Five Minky screens winked on, and each one revealed a different male face.
“Luxurymen, I wanted you to be the first to see my latest acquisition. She’s been trained by the best, Madame Allure.”
Two of the males grinned and leaned closer to their sides of the screen.
“Her back has trained for limitless hours of voracious sexual conquest.” Jaccy delicately touched Jandy’s chin and moved it from side to side to give the Luxurymen her profile. “Shall we start the bidding at two thousand keleps?”
Jandy had not been trained for limitless hours of sex. The crazed male was a liar. She wanted to say something to let the males know it wasn’t true, but she wasn’t sure who was worse: the savage selling her, or the ones looking to buy her.
To her delight, the male on the first screen scowled. “I wouldn’t give two keleps for her. Lotus Nexis does not sell their females unless they’re diseased.” Then his Minky winked out. With some hesitation, so did the third, fourth, and fifth screens.
The male on the second screen spoke to Jaccy haughtily. “I’ll take her for twenty keleps.”
“She’s worth at least fifty dead. The Donnies could feast off her flesh for an entire day. Not to mention her blood. Pure Terran.”
The male pursed his lips. “True. Twenty-five now and then twenty-five when she arrives healthy and alive.”
Jaccy’s jaw tightened as he frowned. “Sold.” Jaccy accepted the payment by touching an icon that blinked on screen in bright green letters.
“You know where my lab is. Have her washed and cleaned before stuffing her into a lifepod. And I swear to the Creators, if I receive her broken, bruised, or diseased, I will tell everyone what you are.”
Jaccy touched a finger to his head and flicked it forward. “Roger that.”
The screen winked out, and Jaccy looked at Jandy bitterly. He pulled out a knife. Jandy gasped, falling back on her butt. Using her hands, she tried to crab walk away from him.
He cut his palm, stomped to her side, grabbed her neck, and forced her to drink. “I don’t like being taken advantage of. First by Madame Allure, who sold me diseased stock, and then by that Numan, Fynbar, for thinking he could get out of his payment.”
Jaccy let go, watching Jandy drop to her knees. The blood sizzled in her mouth, and her stomach burned. She felt her insides squeeze as she tried to vomit it back up.
Sneering, Jaccy wrapped his hand and said, “My blood is poison, and most die from ingesting it within days.” Leaning down, he pulled her hair back to make her look at him in his dark green eyes with their vertical pupils. “However, if you survive, you’ll wish you hadn’t. Welcome to hell.”
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank all the readers and followers, you are awesome and I love you. I can’t tell you how much your support means to me. I hope you enjoyed Sci and Sasha’s story, and I hope you’ll also look forward to reading all the rest of the stories in this Unexpected Series following this is Pax’s story.
Thank you Matthew, Christopher and Annalise who remind me that family is the most important part of my life. I love you all so much.
Thank you to my wonderful editors, C.J. Anaya and Chelle - Literally Addicted to Detail. Thank you Melissa, Nicole, Randi and Jennifer for beta reading and fleshing out all the holes in my plot. Thank you to my critique partner Wendy who read my story when it was still raw. A warm thanks to my constant support system: Aubrie, Gail, and Melissa.
Another BIG thank you to Michael Johnston for helping me sort out the Federation’s ranks, the specialized equipment and court marshals proceedings.
And last but not least I need to thank Matthew Rees for being my Science Fiction Expert and the final pair of eyes to my story.
I hope you enjoyed Sci and Sasha’s story!
The Unexpected series continues with Pax and Vivra – the logistics officer.
I want to thank you again for taking a chance on a new author. I hope you take a few minutes and write a review, I’d love to read what you loved or hated.
If you haven’t had a chance to read the prelude to this story, you can get Unexpected Prize below for FREE.
About the Author
Layla Stone is an unapologetic romance junkie. She especially loves romance books that mix sweet and sassy, sprinkled with intensity.
Layla enjoyed writing stories that mix futuristic worlds and species with the familiar abilities found in Fantasy. As a self-proclaimed Modern-Day Casanova, she spins stories to create unique lovers with the plethora of races she's dreamed up.
She lives in Southern California with her geeky husband and two rambunctious children.
Authorlaylastone.com
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