Alien’s Bride Book One
by
Yamila Abraham
Cover by Archie the Redcat, Edited by Michelle Henson
Copyright © 2013 Yamila Abraham. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
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***
When I woke up this morning I thought I was still in Botswana. I blinked some of the sleep out of my eyes and thought for sure I was still on that cruddy cot in the room the clinic gave me to live in. Then I wondered why it was so nice and cool. Why was my cot so super soft and cozy?
I still had a bit of morning amnesia going when I sat up. The fact that I almost whacked my head on the ceiling reminded me I was on the bunk atop my desk area in my itty bitty apartment in New York. At least this time my heart didn’t start to race with panic.
It’s cool, girl. You’re back in the US.
I climbed down from my bunk, pondering yet again how I ended up in Manhattan. I was supposed to be living with a friend from the Peace Corps, Lydia, who sold me on how awesome NYC was. But then she decided to settle down with some dude in Minneapolis.
It’s all good, I reminded myself. It’s not like you had roots anywhere else. You found an apartment. You start work in three days. You’re kicking ass as usual.
I was excited to check on the little garden I had growing in my window box. Had my seeds sprouted? I grabbed my watering can with a sound of glee and went to check.
Yeah. I made happy little squeals some times. Being alone gave me the license to act as goofy as I wanted.
While I surveyed my tiny little sprouts I heard a noise behind me. It was just a creak of the floorboards, but my whole body tensed up. When I looked back my heart felt like it dropped into my stomach. There was some freaking guy in my house!
What? How? Where…where was he hiding two seconds ago? Holy shit! What was wrong with his face?
It’s hard to take it all in while I was screaming and backing up frantically against the window. I had a huge hulking guy in front of me who was wearing some kind of weird Pan’s Labyrinth makeup complete with twisted black horns. Maybe not Pan’s Labyrinth. I had no idea. The point was that not only did I have a home invader, the freak had on Hollywood caliber fantasy make-up. Who does this?
My apartment was the size of most people’s bedrooms. There was nowhere for me to run. I was on the 14th floor and the fire escape was on the other side of the building.
By this time I’d stopped screaming and I was staring at him while hyperventilating. Was it a prank? One of my Peace Corps buddies tracked me down? No…I couldn’t conceive of anyone I knew going this far.
I screamed again when he moved toward me. That’s when I realized he had something in his hand. A gun? No. Like a laser pointer or something. It had a sharp tip. What the Hell is that—
He grabbed my shoulder and jabbed the thing into my neck. I felt one second of pain and I heard my own scream peter out. The floor just started heading for my face, but I felt the guy catch me before I connected.
That was it. I blacked out.
***
I woke up with a crick in my spine. I must have fallen asleep in front of my computer. I was bent over a table with my head resting in my arms. I lifted my head up slowly and rolled my neck so the painful kinks could work themselves out.
Then it was like someone turned up the volume in my heart.
Where the Hell was I?
I was bent over a desk all right, but it sure as Hell wasn’t mine. I leapt up from a chair that seemed to be floating. (Actually, a clear bar extended down to it from the ceiling).
The horror of my abduction seized my mind. I rubbed where the freak had stabbed my neck. There didn’t seem to be a welt or anything.
The room was white. Narrow. No windows, and nothing in it except the chair and the smooth molded terminal I’d been sleeping on. I saw a door that was slightly darker than the walls (egg shell maybe?) but there was no door handle. Everything had smooth rounded edges. The walls curved into the floors and ceilings. The door was shaped like an arch.
What the Hell was this? A minimalist sex dungeon? The urge to cry shuddered up my chest and put tears behind my eyes. I held it in, though. The freak was probably watching me.
I looked down at myself and got my next dose of horror. That self-same freak had removed the tee-shirt and panties I’d slept in and put me in a dress. It was kind of like one of those super-modest prairie dresses, except black and made out of rayon or something. It was probably tighter than a prairie dress, too, but was stretchy and felt pretty comfortable. A quick feel told me I did have some kind of bra and underwear below it.
Since there was nothing really to focus on in the white room, I looked back at the terminal. It was just a rounded white desk with a black screen embedded in it. There didn’t seem to be a keyboard or anything. I pressed my nails under the monitor to feel for any buttons.
It clicked on. The bust of the guy who’d abducted me appeared with full make-up. It was such a clear image I felt like I could put my hand in the screen and touch his face. The quality of his make-up struck me again. His skin was light blue with some Zulu warrior lines and dots painted in violet on his forehead and cheeks. He had auburn eyes that were just a touch too red to be a genuine eye color. It seemed stupid to put on contacts for such a subtle difference.
“Maritza Santos,” he said with a weird deep voice.
No, no, no. Why do you know my name?
“Cedquinthoma halethke cranda…”
I had to sit down at this point. The spit went cold in my mouth. My abductor was speaking some bizarre language I’d never heard before, and yet, I understood every word.
All my bile was rising up in my throat. I wanted to shut it off. Things had made sense up until this point. Horrible, nightmarish sense, but at least I hadn’t gone insane.
I’d looked away from the screen without thinking about it. A panic attack was building inside me. The tears I held back sprang free. Things had become so surreal I didn’t even know why I was crying. I had no idea what to feel.
“Maritza!”
I looked back at the screen.
“Pay attention,” he said in the weird language I magically understood. “You need this information, and quite frankly I have other things I need to do today.”
My jaw dropped. Actually, I was glad he was rude. I understood rudeness. It was a familiar life preserver in a sea of nonsense. If I just grabbed onto his rudeness I had a few seconds where I didn’t have to focus on the rest.
“Look, you,” I said in my normal everyday English. “All I want to know is why you kidnapped me.”
The guy scowled. It was a really good scowl. Probably better than the makeup should have allowed. (FYI, I kind of already knew it wasn’t make-up).
“I’m trying to tell you that,” he said in his language. “Shut up and listen to me.”
I hugged myself in the chair.
“Today is 2,080 years later than the day I abducted you. Our druids gave me the ability to travel into the past and get you. There is no way for you to go back. Make your peace with that fact.”
I didn’t look at
the screen while I spoke to him. “It—it’s fine. I don’t believe you, anyway.”
“Your planet, Earth, was being decimated by a parasitic race called the Instajants who infected human brains to use them as host bodies. My people, the Dak-Hiliah, had a vaccine that would prevent Instajant infection. We provided this to Earth in exchange for your unconditional surrender to the Dak-Hiliah Empire. Do you know why we did this, Maritza?”
At some point during his spiel my glazed eyes had wandered back to the screen. What manner of sci-fi bullshit is this? I couldn’t even absorb it all. I already blanked on what he was saying. All I could think was, what the Hell was really going on here? I didn’t have any answers.
“Answer me!”
I sealed my gaping mouth shut. God, this guy was good. Every time I drifted away in the sea of nonsense he threw that rudeness life-preserver to pull me back.
“What? I don’t know.”
“We did it because, due to religious and political issues, our population is severely lacking females. With minor physical modifications, which you’ve already undergone, human females are capable of breeding with Dak-Hiliah males.”
I closed my eyes. It felt like my head was spinning now. I was either going to faint or vomit. Probably vomit: that cold spit in my mouth was starting to turn into a dangerous prickly feeling in the back of my throat.
In a way the revelation was another life-preserver. The situation was exactly what I thought it had been from the start. I was in some freak’s sex dungeon.
“As I told you, the Instajants have decimated Earth’s population. There are a meager few hundred thousand humans left. We agreed to harvest females from earlier time periods as part of our surrender agreement. You, Maritza Santos, were never to have any children, nor were you going to produce any permanent legacy. Taking you was in no way disruptive to the current time period.”
This made me shake my head. “Geez.”
“Further, since you are especially adaptive to new situations, have a positive attitude, and are young and attractive, you have been selected to be the replacement wife of Lord Elentinus. He holds the 3rd seat on the Dak-Hiliah Ruling Council, and is the overseer of Earth.”
He stopped talking at this point and stared at me. I don’t know what he expected me to say. I didn’t believe any of it. I would have loved to scoff and laugh at the incredible yarn he was spinning. The only problem was the fact that he was talking with gibberish sounds and I understood all of it. If I could just figure out what the language trick was then I could try to rationalize the rest my situation.
“I am Hor-Denay, the assistant of Lord Elentinus. I’ll explain more to you as it’s needed, but for now I’d like to introduce you to your husband. Are you quite ready?”
I shook my head slightly from side to side with my mouth hanging open. “Of course not.”
Hor-Denay gave me a look of annoyance. “Well kindly get ready. He’s waiting for you, and I have other things I need to attend to.”
Ah, rudeness. You’ve come to save me once again.
“What makes you think I’m going to cooperate?”
Hor-Denay stuck his nose in the air. “I think your natural aversion to pain will compel you to cooperate.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“I also think that you’re not stupid and you’re not about to force this situation to get…uncomfortable. Sadly, Lord Elentinus’ first human wife chose to be continually defiant. That’s why she’s no longer with us.”
I started to feel sick again. I had to turn away from his snide face.
“For better or worse your species is beholden to mine. Nothing you can do will change that. You’ll either make the best of it, or suffer needlessly and still serve Lord Elentinus however he desires.” Hor-Denay righted himself on the chair he was apparently sitting in. “Now then, shall we proceed in person?”
I shook my head without looking at the screen. It was the only thing I felt capable of.
He made an exasperated sound. “Fine. I’ll check back with you later.” He turned away from me and I heard clicking noises as though he were typing something. “I’m revealing the window so you can get better acquainted with your situation.”
There was a loud piston kind of sound that made me jolt so bad I had to hunch over with my hand on my thundering heart. The far wall behind me separated from the floor and started lifting up.
“We’re not on our home world. Lord Elentinus resides on his celestial yacht, which orbits planet Earth.”
The screen went black, but I was more focused on the floor to ceiling window now behind me. Just as Hor-Denay said, I appeared to be in outer space. I could see planet Earth the same way astronauts once saw it from the moon. It was mostly blue with some green or brown land areas. Most of it was obscured by swaths of clouds.
I must have stared for a good fifteen minutes without thinking a single thought. My mind felt like it shut down. I was so overwhelmed I’d become numb. Eventually I went back to the chair. I sat up stiffly with my arms wrapped around myself. My whole body felt so tense I couldn’t even lean back.
It was a long time before I could even think again, but when I did my eyes widened in realization. If I was in outer space then why wasn’t I weightless?
This made me smile. You screwed up, you freak. I’d just seen through his elaborate rouse. It was all a lie, and now I had proof.
My triumph faded just as fast as it came. I closed my eyes and put my face in my hand. Obviously, if they had the power to make me learn a language I’d never heard before they’d probably figured out other things, like artificial gravity.
“Damn it.”
Why did he have to talk in freak-speak? Why did I understand it? Everything else could be explained away if it wasn’t for that one crazy issue.
I started crying. I couldn’t help myself. It was like a Mack truck had run over my spirit and then backed up to make sure I was crushed.
Why me? Why now? Everything had been going so good. I’d finally finished my Hellish tour with the Peace Corps. Yes, it was more Hell than Heaven, and I thought I’d never make it through a full tour, but I did. I did, damn it. I finally got to go home free and clear after doing some truly meaningful work. No more flies on my face, in my food, up my pants legs. No more sweat stink hanging in the air. No more hollowed out faces crying out in agony from AIDS.
I deserved better than this.
***
I figured I’d felt sorry for myself for about three hours. After that I moved on to the next stage of grief (or something). I was ready to get this freak show on the road. I still didn’t believe any of it, but Hor-Denay had laid out the scenario for me. I understood the rules that he’d agreed to follow. I could play along based on that until I understood what was really going on. Sobbing and moaning in this room was getting me nowhere.
“Hor-Denay,” I said to the monitor. “I…I’m tired of waiting here.”
There wasn’t any answer for a little while, but then the door slid open and I practically jumped out of my own skin. Hor-Denay stood in the arched doorway.
I huddled my arms around myself. The huge figure made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He had on weird clothes, like a black mesh body suit with metal-looking accoutrements molded to it, forming jagged designs. Either the suit accentuated his broad shoulders or he had horns growing out of them.
“You kept Lord Elentinus waiting a long time.” The weird language he spoke was as clear now as it had been when he’d spoken to me through the monitor. “This is not acceptable. You’re being granted leeway because you’ve yet to get acclimated. That leeway is going to quickly run out. Do not try my master’s patience.”
I had to try to hold back tears while I stared at him. Regardless of what was really going on here, I was more scared than I’d ever been in my life. I hated this fear. It all boiled down to one primal terror: the fear of being raped. The things I saw in Africa didn’t help matters. If I got backed into a corner I’d turn
into a screaming, scratching, kicking wild woman. I didn’t want to see that person come out of me.
Hor-Denay pursed his black lips and looked downward. His voice became softer. “Look. Lord Elentinus is not an especially cruel man.”
I realized something in my terrified face must have touched him.
“He’s not going to harm you if you don’t give him cause, and he will show a measure of patience.”
Patience? That word gave me hope.
Hor-Denay resumed his former stern glare at me. “Your first meeting will set the tone for what follows. Don’t you dare confront him. Confront me, if you’re so inclined. When you’re with Lord Elentinus, conduct yourself with modesty and grace. Don’t be snide or sarcastic. Don’t try to be clever either. It’s best that you try to say as little as possible. He knows you’re frightened. It’s acceptable for you to show that fear. Don’t try to hide it with false bravado or anger. Defiance is never acceptable. You’ll receive harsh and swift punishment.”
He took a little black rectangular thing out of a small satchel on his hip. When he pressed a button on it, there was a WOOM sound and a bright pink laser glowing rope thing appeared. It started on the top of the black rectangle, went down to the floor, and spread from his feet to mine. When I looked down I realized the laser rope went up my body towards my throat. When I reached up I felt a fuzz of static, but then touched a collar. It was solid and too tight for me to fit a finger under. A new panic attack started to build inside me.
“You’re always wearing this collar even when you can’t see or feel it. It’s composed of a force field that Lord Elentinus or I can activate at any time.”
He tugged it and I was jerked off balance. I had to grab on to the console to keep myself from falling flat on my face.
“You can’t hide and you can’t escape this vessel. Further, this collar will be our means of disciplining you. If you’re disobedient we can inflict a shockwave that will wrack your entire nervous system. No description of the pain would be adequate; therefore I’ll demonstrate the lowest possible setting now.”
Alien's Bride Book One Page 1
