Alien Enslaved IV: Spoils of War

by Kaitlyn O’Connor

  She’d finally rolled over and looked up at him—to talk, but when she met his gaze a heated current blazed through her, completely obliterating brain function as he leaned closer and just barely grazed her lips with his own.

  She sucked in a breath of his scent and held it as it made its way through her blood stream like an intoxicant.

  And, just when she thought things were about to get really interesting, he jerked away from her as if he’d been scalded and whipped a sharp look in the direction of the door.

  “Stay!” he said sharply, barely glancing at her as he bounded from the sleeping platform.

  Shock was dominant as Lori followed him with her gaze, but indignation blossomed fairly quickly.

  And then he did the strangest thing.

  He stared at the door and began to make some sort of noise deep in his chest.

  Bizarre!

  That wasn’t nearly as strange, though, as the glow that bloomed on the panel almost immediately. It brightened abruptly, and then vanished as the door suddenly exploded outward.

  Stunned, Lori could only stare for an endless time, replaying the incident over and over in her mind, before it penetrated that Fayn had vanished from the cell. Almost like a sleepwalker, she rolled off the platform and moved cautiously toward the opening where the door had been.

  The hold, she discovered, was in utter chaos.

  She seemed to be the last to arrive.

  Bent and twisted doors lay everywhere. Everyone had poured out of now gaping doorways and they were all staring toward a point on the far wall of the hold.

  Drawn by their focus, Lori saw that the yellow skinned warriors were all standing on the wall that separated their exercise area from the women’s.

  All of them were making the same sound that Fayn had just before ….

  “Oh my god!” she gasped as it dawned on her what was happening.

  The metal wall they were focused on was glowing in a huge circle, beginning to change from red to blue.

  “Run! It’s going to blow! Run!”

  But, where? She didn’t wait to see if anyone had heard or heeded the warning. She turned and fled back toward the only place of any safety that she could see—the cell she’d just left.

  She’d barely cleared the door when she heard the explosion she’d expected and felt an invisible giant seize her.

  Chapter Eleven

  Lori supposed, much later, that it was shock that bent her perceptions and that she might not have actually seen all that she thought that she did, but when she had managed to grab a hold of the edge of the door to keep herself from flying away, she found herself staring at an unfolding nightmare.

  A hole that looked roughly the size of a car had appeared in the side of the ship. Beyond that hole—far too close for comfort—she saw a cone shaped mountain peak. Framed by the darkness of night, real or false, bright red, molten rock was spilling from it and stones ‘popping’ out and shooting skyward in every direction like water popping off of a heated griddle.

  She, in fact, wondered if that was exactly what had happened. If she ship had intentionally flown past to dispose of the bilge/waste water in the natural incinerator.

  Whatever the case, unluckily for them all, they were almost on top of it when the warriors blew out the wall using whatever force they had that they’d kept secret from everyone else—apparently even the aliens that had captured them.

  Perhaps the mountain range had given them the impression that they were either on the ground or very close, but the ship was still high enough that the unequal pressure inside and outside sucked a number of unfortunate souls to their death. And anything not nailed down or holding on for dear life was still flying toward the hole to be sucked out.

  Terror ripped away any ability for actual thought as Lori realized the insistent pull was slowly peeling her grip away and she was being tugged too hard to attempt to get a better hold.

  Squeezing her eyes closed, she clamped down her hands and fingers as hard as she could.

  Despair filled her.

  She couldn’t hold on.

  Using every ounce of strength and desperation, she felt the moisture of her hands and fingers loosening her hold until, abruptly, she found herself holding nothing at all. She screamed as she felt herself being sucked toward the hole.

  And then she slammed into something that had too much yield to be solid wall, however unyielding it felt.

  “I have you, dear heart,” Aidan said gruffly as he curled his arms tightly around her.

  He grunted as the two of them flew backwards and slammed, thankfully, into one of the dividing walls.

  Lori tightened her hold on the man gripping her when she felt the jarring impact. His arms tightened around her, as well. “I have you.”

  Lori twisted her head to squint at her rescuer.

  The winged demon man.

  She felt … comforted by his hold on her. His scent and warmth seemed to cocoon her from the terror and when he tugged at her hair to force her to look up at him, she didn’t resist at all.

  Or try to avoid his touch when he lowered his lips to hers.

  Instead, she lifted to meet him, recalling that dream-like kiss that now seemed to belong to another lifetime.

  She’d forgotten, she realized almost at once, what his kiss did to her.

  It went miles past simple arousal. Drunken euphoria followed in the wake of the light sweep of his tongue across hers—as if she’d just taken a shot of some potent drug.

  And then, as if that had been his objective, she found herself floating with none of the fear she’d felt moments before.

  A huge fist connected with his jaw when he lifted his head, slinging his head sideways, wrenching his hold from her as his body followed the trajectory of his head.

  Thankfully, she merely slid down the wall they’d been braced against when he lost his hold on her instead of flying out the hole she was so terrified of.

  Or had been.

  She couldn’t even summon a little fear, now, let alone the stark terror of before.

  She landed in a tangled heap and stared drunkenly at the two warrior males faced off before her.

  The red demon man angled his wings in a way that seemed strangely threatening when he’d done no more than arch them.

  Fayn flexed … everything. Muscles bulged all over his body and wicked looking, pointed fins stood out and fanned wide at the sides of his neck, along his back and arms and legs, making the giant seem almost twice as big. Then he let out a bellow that blew her hair back.

  Or maybe it was the collision when the two of them charged one another and collided like two mountains clapping together?

  It hit her abruptly—the yellow-skinned warriors were some sort of merfolk and the strange humming noise that had blasted a hole in the side of the ship must be some kind of sonar capabilities

  That would also explain what had led them to believe they had a chance to escape if they broke out—they’d ‘detected’ the proximity of the ship to the mountain and thought it was the ground.

  Jarek appeared, dropped to a crouch in front of her, and hefted her up and onto one broad shoulder. He turned briefly to glare at the combatants when he’d straightened with her. “Go now or die!” he bellowed and then shot upward and almost seemed to fly over the barriers himself as if he, too, had wings.

  It was unfortunate that the warm and fuzzy the demon man had bestowed upon her seemed to wear off just about the time Jarek got to the ‘door’ they’d made. Lori found herself staring down with bulging, terror filled eyes into darkness that included what appeared to be an ocean or a vast lake.

  Clearly the ship was going down—because it looked way too fucking close for her comfort.

  Just as clearly it was still way too high to attempt an escape.

  Unfortunately, Jarek seemed to think differently.

  “No!” she gasped as he leapt out. “I can’t swim!”

  Thankfully, Jarek shifted her from his shoulders to cradle
her against his chest before he jumped. She was able to lock both arms and both legs around him as they plummeted.

  Toward her death.

  Jarek hit the water like a torpedo.

  Lori felt the jolt that traveled through him a micro-second before it hit her.

  Fortunately for her, he had his arms locked beneath her ass, otherwise she was pretty sure she would have gotten a colon cleanse and a douche at the same time as the sinus cavity flush—which was when she ‘sensed’ it was a fresh water lake rather than ocean. It was pure instinct that prompted her to suck in a deep breath just before she went under, but the oxygen dropped pretty damned rapidly. She was already burning for air and trying to fight free of Jarek long before they stopped plunging and started to rise slowly toward the surface.

  Thankfully, he caught her just as she caved into the burning need of her lungs and opened her mouth to try to breathe water, covering her mouth with his and blowing air into her starved lungs.

  It was still nightmarish.

  Because she had no control over when she could breathe and when she couldn’t.

  And Lori couldn’t focus beyond the nightmare of desperation. Need overrode every awareness of anything beyond breathing.

  It barely crossed her mind to worry about what might be in the water with them.

  It seemed to take hours to claw their way to the surface and, although it prevented death, Jarek breathing for her was one of the most horrible experiences she’d ever had.

  When they broke the surface, she gasped until she choked and gagged. He gave her a few moments to collect herself and then shifted her onto his back, got his bearings, and began to swim. That seemed to take hours, as well. Lori didn’t know if it actually did take that long, or longer, or if it was just the nightmare quality of their ‘escape’ through the darkness across black, endless water.

  But it was such a traumatic event that it was a long time before it even crossed her mind that they had escaped.

  They were both weak enough by the time they reached land that it took an effort just to crawl out of the water and collapse.

  Lori hadn’t even actually done any of the work and it took her longer to gather a little strength than it took Jarek. He got to his feet, still breathing heavily, and offered her a hand to help her up. “Dey will come for us. Muss go.”

  Lori blinked at him, extending her hand more in instinctual response than with premeditation. Her legs felt like they belonged to somebody else when he’d pulled her to her feet—like wooden stilts.

  She turned and surveyed their surroundings.

  There was no sign of the ship. There was a distant dull, orange glow, but it could have been the volcano.

  Or the ship might have crashed close enough to the eruption that there was no distinguishing one fire from the other.

  Miles of water lay between them and the distant mountains, dense jungle in front of them.

  Scattered around them like limp, broken dolls were the remnants of the captives.

  She supposed.

  There didn’t seem to be nearly as many ‘people’ around them as she thought there should be.

  Maybe they’d gone a different way? Or they had come ashore a little further down the beach?

  “They didn’t crash?” she asked finally.

  He shook his head. “No know. No wanna find out eider.”

  Lori nodded instead of whining and telling him she was in no condition to walk let alone to run.

  She didn’t want to die and he seemed determined to save her. She wasn’t going to give him grief over it.

  There were other women not so reticent about voicing their displeasure.

  One in particular absolutely would not shut her mouth.

  She spent the trek along the beach in search of a path inland bitching about the bastards blowing a hole in the ship and then expecting everybody to jump out of the damn thing or die when it crashed—neither of which appealed to her, but nobody had frigging asked!

  Well! Lori supposed she could see her point.

  She’d been totally terrorized and traumatized by the escape herself and she was beginning to feel the effects of the battering she’d taken.

  Not that she had given a lot of thought to whether or not everybody agreed with her that they needed to escape if and when possible.

  But she still felt that way and that the stupid woman just wasn’t seeing the danger of remaining a captive or she would’ve been more appreciative or at least accepting of the way it had gone down.

  In truth, there really hadn’t been a lot of palatable choices in the matter once those damned aliens had captured them.

  “Why don’t you give it a rest?” May muttered angrily as they paused on the beach while a couple of the men checked out a narrow path running inland through the brush.

  “Why don’t you kiss my ass?” the woman snapped back at her.

  It was a good thing for her that her counter attack caught May off guard. It took her a moment to recover and get really pissed off. “Why don’t I just kick it?” she growled.

  Lori grabbed her arm. “I think we need to be as quiet as we can. Otherwise, I’d say have at it.”

  May wrestled with her temper and subsided. “You think they’ll come after us?” she asked uneasily.

  “Jarek seems to think so,” Lori responded, “and I think he’s more savvy about these things than I am.”

  “Then again,” said the bitch, “wasn’t that his idea? To blow a hole in the freaking ship?”

  Lori glared at her, resisting the urge to knock her flat. “No,” she said tightly. “It was mine. Because I didn’t want to hang around to see what those bastards planned to do with us when they were done tormenting us.”

  The men returned on the heels of that comment and Lori glanced at Jarek guiltily. He lifted his dark brows toward his hairline, but he didn’t comment on her statement. “Need be quiet,” he said.

  Lori felt her face heat with a mixture of guilt and embarrassment, realizing the damn woman had led her and May into breaking the silence, as well.

  And both of them knew better. The woman was stupid.

  It did help her feelings, though, that he lifted his gaze and settled it solidly on the culprit that had started the discussion. “Dey no see in de woods, but dey hear.”

  Lori nodded.

  May looked contrite.

  The bitch glared at him and informed him she didn’t take orders from him.

  He looked like he wanted to punch her lights out.

  Or maybe she was just transferring her own desires? Because she definitely wanted to knock the bitch for a loop.

  Instead of commenting, though, Jarek led her to the water’s edge and told her he needed her gown.

  Lori gaped at him.

  He pinched the hem between two fingers. “Dis.”

  Yeah, that’s what she thought. She hesitated, mostly because she didn’t want to get naked in front of everybody, but really after everything that had happened that was downright silly.

  Plus it was dark.

  Plenty of light to see, but shadows to hide much of the ugly truth.

  Which was all her imperfections.

  She pulled it off and handed it to him.

  He bit a spot about halfway between the neck and the hem and then tore it in half and gave her the upper piece back. She took it, staring at it blankly.

  Like—wtf was she supposed to do with half?

  Fayn appeared in front of her. She’d been keenly aware he was keeping his distance from her after the fight he’d had with the demon guy and not particularly looking forward to whatever confrontation might follow the next encounter.

  Particularly since Jarek seemed to have reclaimed her.

  He didn’t say anything at all, though.

  He took the piece she was holding and tore off another strip. A jolt went through her when he reached around her, but then she discovered he was wrapping the strip around her waist. Then he drew the strip between her legs and formed a lo
incloth much like he was wearing.

  Lovely!

  It was almost like having panties, by god!

  And a crop top.

  She didn’t even want to think about how she looked, but she had her butt covered and her boobs, and she was happy.

  Especially when she discovered why Jarek had appropriated the bottom piece. He used it to make a water carrier.

  Thank god!

  He was so smart! So handy! She’d known it was waterproof and it hadn’t occurred to her at all that she could use it for anything other than to half-ass cover her nakedness.

  When she looked around to see if everyone else appreciated his cleverness she discovered the others had done the same.

  Well, except for the bitch.

  The question was, was she a bitch because the male that had saved her had promptly abandoned her to her own devices afterward?

  Or had he put some distance between them because she was a bitch?

  Lori was leaning toward the former.

  She dismissed it.

  She was feeling better about her chances already. They had water and that was the most critical to their survival.

  They’d escaped and they had some chance of remaining free.

  If the big mouth would just shut up.

  She was quiet all of five seconds. Almost as soon as they started up the path, which was cast into deep darkness by the vegetation that blocked out starlight and the light of the tiny moon, she began to complain about stepping on sharp objects.

  There was definitely debris and Lori was also barefoot—they all were—and she couldn’t see any better than the other women.

  She thought Jarek and his people must be able to see ok because they didn’t seem to be having as much trouble as she was, but she did her best to be quiet and suffer in silence and tune out the complaints.

  The big mouth snapped at everybody that shushed her.

  Lori began to wish they’d left her on the beach.

  Two hours in, she snapped.

  Turning abruptly, she stalked back to woman and slugged her on the side of the jaw as hard as she could hit her. The woman’s feet flew out from under her and she landed on the ground flat of her back. Lori instantly leapt at her. Straddling her and pinning her to the ground, she put both hands on her throat and squeezed until the woman’s eyes looked like they would pop out.