Dark Strength

by Cynthia Sax

  “Glimmer suits her.” She bent over, looking the puffker directly in her dark eyes. That position pushed his female’s ass into his groin.

  He stifled his groan. She felt so fraggin’ good against him. He could come in his ass coverings from that contact alone.

  “Doesn’t it?” She talked to the creature again. “Your eyes glimmer like the stars in a dark sky.”

  “Glimmer,” he mumbled.

  The blasted creature yelped.

  “See.” Elyce was triumphant. “She knows her name already.” She rubbed her nose against the puffker’s. “You’re such a smart little being, aren’t you?”

  A smart little being would choose a less silly name than Glimmer. He kept those thoughts to himself because calling the puffker Glimmer made his female happy and that was much more important than his pride.

  Although the creature was extremely dirty, cleaning it didn’t change its color drastically. Glimmer, the ridiculously named creature, was as black as Sparkles, its equally badly named counterpart, was white.

  Balvan scanned its little body with an internal imaging machine. He gazed at the display. His female did the same.

  “Those bastards broke all of Glimmer’s legs.” Her eyes flashed.

  “That appears to be the extent of the damage.” The knot in the base of his neck loosened. The little creature should survive. “I can’t see any internal bleeding.”

  “Glimmer likely didn’t do anything to those males.” Elyce continued to fume. “She was probably keeping to herself, living her life, when they chose her as their random victim.”

  As Marowit had chosen her as his random victim. Balvan drew his righteously angry female closer to his big form, trying to comfort her with the contact.

  “Why are beings like that, Balvan? Why do they do such horrible things?”

  “Not all beings are like that.” He carefully straightened one of Glimmer’s legs, wrapped gauze around it until it was thick and unbendable, able to hold the bones in place. “Some are. I don’t know why.”

  “You’re not like that.” She petted the puffker. “Only trust huge green males named Balvan, Glimmer.”

  Balvan’s lips twitched. His female had a very short list of males she trusted. He tended to another of the creature’s legs.

  “She could share Sparkles’ fabric square, until I can make one for her.” Elyce wrinkled her nose. “It isn’t ideal but—”

  “There are fabric squares in the compartment to the left of us.” He often cared for multiple small creatures at the same time.

  “I’ll get one for her.” His female ducked under his arm, hurried to the compartment, opened two of them before locating the space with the fabric squares. She then rummaged through the supply.

  “Any one of them will do.” Balvan bound Glimmer’s remaining legs.

  “I like this green one.” She tugged a square out of the compartment. “Glimmer will look at it, think of you, and feel safe.”

  His gaze dropped to his little female’s holster. It was green also. Did she think of him every time she looked at it?

  “But it’s her choice which one she uses. She’s free. She can decide for herself.” Elyce held the square she’d chosen close to the puffker. “What do you think, Glimmer?”

  The tiny creature sniffed at it.

  “She likes it.” His female concluded with a satisfied smile.

  Balvan’s lips twitched. “Place it on the floor. I’ll move her.”

  “I’m putting her next to Sparkles.” She set the square on the floor and then ran her hands over the surface, smoothing it. “She’ll know she isn’t alone anymore.”

  He was acutely aware he wasn’t alone anymore. His little human occupied a huge section of his soul, caring for it, protecting it.

  “It’s ready.” She straightened, looking at him with expectation.

  He didn’t disappoint her, carefully transporting the puffker to her fabric square. The tiny creature expelled its breath and closed its eyes.

  “She’s exhausted.” His little female gazed down at the puffker. “Healing takes a lot out of you.”

  She knew that from personal experience.

  Elyce curled her fingers inside one of his palms, her hand tiny, delicate, soft, and his heart squeezed. They watched the two puffkers. Sparkles peered at her new friend, her dark eyes bright with curiosity. Glimmer slept, purring loudly.

  A peacefulness filled Balvan.

  “We changed a lifespan this planet rotation.” His female beamed at him.

  “We did.” He smiled back at her, an expression that made other beings run in terror.

  Elyce, in contrast, glowed. “When I escaped, I thought I had nothing to offer the universe.” Her gaze met his. “Or to offer you. But I helped you, didn’t I?” He nodded. She had helped him in numerous ways. “And I helped Glimmer.”

  “You helped save her lifespan.” The tiny creature would have died if they hadn’t rescued it.

  “Maybe that will make up for…” Her smile wavered. “Has the merchant returned with his female to the Refuge?”

  “No.” Balvan turned his female to face him.

  She knew the merchant and his female were dead. He saw that in her eyes.

  And she felt guilty.

  “It isn’t your fault.” He held her close, rubbing his hands over her back. “Kralj warned the merchant. He knowingly took the risk.”

  “The risk is there because of me, Balvan.” She mumbled against his chest. “Marowit won’t give up until he has punished me for escaping him and has taken Paloma to torment next.” Her body shook, her voice watery. “This won’t end until either he’s dead or I am.”

  Kralj’s strategy was to stay in the Refuge where their females had optimal protection and to outlast the Humanoid Alliance warriors laying siege to them.

  The other warriors might tire of their position, leave to pursue other prey. Elyce believed Marowit wouldn’t, that he wouldn’t deviate from his plan to take her.

  She knew her abductor better than anyone. Only a fool would dismiss her insights.

  “He won’t kill you.” Balvan could guarantee that. “If he comes for you, we’ll face him together. You’ll have your guns. I’ll have these.” He held out his huge fists. “We’re an unbeatable team, you and I.”

  “We’ll kill him together.” She tilted her head back, her eyes gleaming with unshed tears. “Then I’ll truly be free.”

  “Then you’ll truly be free.” He brushed his lips over hers, silently vowing to give her that gift.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Two planet rotations later, the Refuge had fallen even deeper into chaos. As they walked through the settlement, a boom sounded. The ground shook. A female screamed. The portal above Balvan’s head shattered.

  Elyce curled up in his arms, making herself as small of a target as possible. Her hands rested on her guns. She was ready to defend her big green male and herself if that was required.

  They entered the market and heads turned. Males gazed at them, their faces hard, their eyes wild, blades in their hands. A fire burned in a container, fueled by discarded packaging. Smoke hung heavily in the air.

  A couple fucked against a wall, the encounter frantic, brutal. Two males fought, their fists slamming into jaws and stomachs. Grunts punctuated each throw. Another male was pinned to a horizontal surface, held down by three males. A fourth male shredded his back with a whip.

  She jumped with each crack of the leather, remembering her own torture, her own pain. Blood pooled on the white sand. Not too long ago, that might have been hers.

  She huddled closer to Balvan.

  “What do we need?” He redirected her attention.

  They stood in front of one of the five stalls remaining. When she arrived at the Refuge, there had been hundreds of merchants, noisily making deals, selling products.

  With the siege, there weren’t many products to sell. She perused the selection. There was a container of mystery meat. She didn’t want to know
its origins. Beside it was a limp vegetation, plunked directly on the dirty surface, and a clear packet filled with live insects.

  Elyce shuddered.

  “Do you have any sweetener?” She asked the grim-looking warrior guarding the supplies. He was the mate of the always-smiling female who usually attended the stall.

  “What you see is all we have.” The male glanced at Balvan’s face. “Miss.”

  “You don’t have any sweetener.” And she had used the last of her supply at sunrise. She tilted her head. “There’s no dried fruit?” That could substitute for that ingredient.

  The warrior huffed, not hiding his irritation over her question. “There’s only what you see, miss.”

  There was no dried fruit either. “I can’t make nourishment bars without sweetener.”

  “We have packaged nourishment bars. They’re not as good as yours.” Balvan hastily added that qualifier. “But we won’t starve.”

  “No, we won’t starve.” She sighed. Fabricating his nourishment bars was one way she helped him, showed him she cared.

  She helped him tend to Glimmer and Sparkles also. The newest puffker was adjusting well, healing slowly. She was a smart little creature, already recognizing her name when it was called.

  And, of course, Elyce applied herself to satisfying Balvan’s other needs. She gazed up at his broad face, square chin. His nanohumanics bubbled inside her. His scent clung to her skin. She grazed her fingertips over his jaw.

  He looked down at her and his gaze heated. “We—”

  He twisted his torso, his body blurring, and he jabbed with one arm. His giant fist connected with a blue hairy face. Bones cracked.

  The Ungarian male flew across the square, slammed into a wall, fell to the ground, his body limp, his face bloody. All chatter stopped. Beings stared at the male and then at Balvan and Elyce.

  There was a loud pop and the Ungarian male exploded, blood and guts and flesh splattering everywhere.

  Fuck. Stunned, she looked at Balvan. “How did you do that?”

  “That wasn’t me.” He shook his head.

  All motion within the space slowed. “That was me.” Kralj’s voice came from the air around them.

  The Ruler entered the square, his long black jacket floating around his body, his scarred face concealed in shadow. Dita walked in perfect sync with him, looking as badass as he did, in all black, daggers in her hands.

  “You would have been the second being he killed this planet rotation.” Kralj met the gazes of each male.

  Their faces paled. They couldn’t move, all of them frozen in place, a daunting display of the Ruler’s powers.

  “This is what he felt before he died.”

  Wind swept over the males, the manufactured breeze originating from Kralj, radiating in all directions. Eyes bulged. Sweat beaded on the males’ foreheads. One of the males lost control of his bodily functions. Urine scented the air.

  Elyce felt nothing.

  “The punishment for killing within the Refuge is death.” Kralj boomed. He continued walking, Dita by his side. “I know everything, see everything. Break my rules and you will pay.”

  The couple left the market, striding along a pathway. There was silence for a moment and then the space burst into activity. Some of the males dropped to their knees, weeping. Others rushed out of sight.

  “Did you feel anything?” Elyce asked Balvan.

  “He wasn’t punishing us.” He squeezed her hips.

  They’d both been punished enough. She gazed at the male laying on the horizontal surface, his back torn to strips.

  “Kralj could stop the violence. Why doesn’t he?” She didn’t understand why the Ruler allowed it.

  “Freedom is precious. When we were captives of the Humanoid Alliance, our free will was taken away from us. That was the harshest punishment they could inflict upon us.” A tremor rocked his big body. “Kralj wouldn’t do that to anyone else, not without reason.”

  Freedom was precious. Having had it snatched from her, she recognized its value, had risked death to reacquire it. The residents of the Refuge were now engaged in the same struggle.

  The violence was their choice. She might not like it, but she had to respect it.

  Balvan carried her through the settlement, moving toward the beverage outlet that served as the modified humanoids’ headquarters. Many of the mates, including Rhea and Azalea, had relocated to that highly secure structure.

  Because the rest of the settlement wasn’t safe. A male ran past them, shrieking. Blood gushed from his severed right arm.

  Elyce snuggled into Balvan’s warm form, the brutality and desperation around them hurting her heart. They had thought Marowit couldn’t touch them in the Refuge, yet he had. Her abductor had changed her big male’s home.

  She could kill Marowit for that act alone.

  As they approached Kralj and Dita’s home, warriors greeted them. Some of them had moved into the structure and now took turns guarding it.

  The stink of burned hair assaulted her nostrils. Balvan carried her around a hunk of smoking flesh. It resembled a body.

  “Problems, Dare?” He asked the Dracheon warrior standing at the doors.

  “Nothing I couldn’t handle.” The male grinned. Blood was smeared over his left arm. He noticed her gaze. “That’s not mine.”

  “Good.” She summoned a smile.

  “The females are on the roof.” Dare stepped aside.

  There were more warriors positioned inside the structure. Balvan grunted at them as he navigated the corridors.

  Elyce said nothing, her fear manageable. They were friends of her big male, loyal to him, would never harm her. She had him to protect her.

  And she had her guns. She stroked their handles.

  The doors to the roof opened.

  “Finally. We have contact with the outside world.” Rhea’s tone was sarcastic. “Can you tell Orol you left your domicile and survived?” The very pregnant female gripped a gun in each of her hands. Targets had been set up at the far edge of the roof. “He still won’t allow me to go home.”

  “I’m not allowed to leave this structure either.” Paloma’s bottom lip curled. “I’m sharing a chamber with another female. She snores.”

  “I don’t want to leave.” Azalea leaned against Hulagu. “It’s dangerous outside.”

  “I’ll protect you and our temporary domicile.” The kid straightened. “I’m taking the next shift, guarding one of the back entrances. There will be two other warriors but I’m the only one with claws.” He extended his.

  Balvan grunted and set Elyce down, placing his huge form between her and the kid. She preferred the protection of giant muscles to deadly claws.

  “I don’t need a male to protect me. I have guns.” Rhea balanced one of her weapons on her baby belly. “I can defend myself. You can tell Orol that also.”

  “Is he watching the Humanoid Alliance right now?” Elyce pressed against her big male’s side, needing that contact with him.

  Rhea nodded, her lips turning downward. “He leaves in the dark and returns in the dark, concerned he might miss some important activity.”

  “That’s prudent because Marowit will make a move.” Orol might give them some warning before that happens. “He’s coming for me and for Paloma.”

  “You sound certain about that.” The brunette narrowed her eyes at her. “How will he get into the Refuge without Kralj detecting his presence?”

  “I don’t know.” She wasn’t sure what Marowit’s plan was, only that he had one. “But he didn’t pursue Paloma halfway across the universe to give up now.”

  Paloma was the reason Marowit was on Carinae E. But she was the reason he was besieging the settlement. If she hadn’t escaped him, he would have had someone to abuse. He wouldn’t have been pushed to take that drastic action.

  “This is my fault.” Rhea muttered the words Elyce had been thinking.

  She stared at the female. Why would she feel guilty?

  �
�If I hadn’t been suckered in by his sweet-talking”—Rhea holstered her guns, her cheeks turning pink—“he wouldn’t have fixated on my sister.”

  “No, this is my fault.” Paloma took responsibility for the situation also, the girl having matured over the past planet rotations. “I flirted with him.” She blurted the confession out. “I was mad at you for wanting to spend time with him, rather than me.” She gazed down at her boots. “You were all I had. Father and Mother were always gone. I couldn’t lose you too.”

  “You will never lose me.” Rhea hugged Paloma, the embrace awkward. “We’re sisters.”

  Everyone, including Elyce, experienced guilt over Marowit’s deeds. Everyone except her damn abductor. She doubted he felt any remorse.

  “He doesn’t take rejection well.” She couldn’t fix their current situation, not right now, but she could ease her friends’ consciences. “If you had dismissed him, Rhea, he would have likely killed you and everyone you cared for. Paloma…” She turned toward the girl. “I believe he’s fixated on you because you and your sister escaped him, like I escaped him. He doesn’t like that.”

  She was tired of thinking about what her abductor liked or didn’t like, how he might react to any of her words or action.

  And she was tired of waiting for him to make a move. Being constantly afraid and on edge was wearing on her.

  “Marowit won’t be bothering us for much longer.” She decided it was time to end this. “Balvan and I plan to kill him.”

  The females stared at her.

  “Elyce.” Balvan expressed his unhappiness with her sharing.

  “We are killing him. You said we are.” Her friends should know that. “We should do that immediately. A delay will merely give Marowit more opportunity to prepare, increase the stress on the residents of the Refuge, and cause—”

  “If we wait to kill Marowit, he might be alone when we face him.” Her big male clasped her hands between his rough palms, that contact grounding her.

  He might be alone. Why—

  Ohhh… Understanding dawned on her. “We’re not waiting for him to give up. We’re waiting for his warriors to move onto the next battle, the next opportunity.”