by Ashley West
Of course, Calin didn’t want to pass this information over to Khaos, and he pretended to understand. For a moment.
“They want us to leave Earth,” Calin said later that night once he’d reviewed the reply message. “They don’t know that we know they’re responsible for the Sickness and everything involved in that, which worked in their favor, and of course it made sense that they wanted them out of there before they could figure it out.
Apparently they were more than willing to use Kayla as leverage to make sure their demands were met, and Calin told them that they needed time to think about it before they agreed to anything, which Khaos already knew meant that he had no intention of negotiating.
“Think of all of the Kaspersi who’ve died because of them, Khaos,” Calin said. “Your parents among them. If we give up now, then what is the point of all we’ve lost?”
More than anything, Khaos wanted to reply that there wasn’t a point. All of those deaths had been senseless, and leaving Kayla to be killed or tortured or worse by the Vekosh wasn’t going to make it any better. People were still dying while they sat around trying to figure out why the Vekosh were doing what they were doing, and Khaos was tired of it.
Sitting around and thinking about doing something wasn’t his style, and he was pretty sure it would never be. He wanted to leap into action. He wanted to find where they were keeping the woman he cared for and rip their heads off until she was safe and back in his arms.
Instead, he’d just nodded and told Calin that he would defer to his judgment, all the while plotting in his head. He had to find some way to get the information about where that signal was coming from.
“You need to calm down, Khaos,” said Bran, one of the Kaspersi who had already been on Earth when Khaos had arrived. “We can all see that you’re thinking about doing something stupid.”
“The only stupid thing here is not doing anything,” he replied sullenly, folding his arms. “I’m not leaving her there.”
“We all know that. I think on some level Calin knows that, too, even though he’s trying to pretend like you’re too loyal and dedicated to the cause to do something reckless. We know better, and that’s why we’re going to help you. Better the champion go in with a fighting chance than end up dead, right?”
Khaos blinked for a moment, caught off guard by the desire to help him. Bran was from Earth more than he was from Blessini, meaning he had probably never seen Khaos fight in the arena and knew nothing about him other than what he’d been told.
Already a couple of the others were nodding their heads and giving him conspiratorial looks, making it clear that they were going to help, too.
“Thank you,” Khaos replied, giving them all a nod.
“What do you need?”
“To know where they’re keeping her. I can probably handle the rest from there.”
“Warriors,” said one of the others, rolling his eyes. “We’ll see what gear we can sneak out for you, okay. In the meantime, if you’re as close to this woman as rumor has it, then you might be able to find her on your own.”
“What do you mean?” Khaos asked, frowning.
“Mates can always find each other.”
Bran snorted. “I thought that was just part of the story.”
“No one knows where story begins and truth ends until they try it. Try to focus on her while we try to trace the signal. It’s not like you have anything to lose, right?”
He had a point, and Khaos nodded, settling back into the comfortable chair he had parked in and closed his eyes. It was easier said than done to focus on Kayla while the rest of the room around him was a hubbub of activity, but little by little he worked on blocking it all out.
He concentrated on the way Kayla made him feel, how her soft voice and lovely smile brought warmth to him. He imagined her laugh, and the way her face lit up when he said something that she found interesting or amusing.
Khaos thought about the color of her hair and her eyes and the way her skin felt under his hands, and for a moment, he worried that he wasn’t doing anything but making him miss her more. But then he felt...something. It was cold and he was stiff, and there was something biting into the skin of his wrists that he wanted to shake off.
When he lifted his head, all he could see was darkness, and the scent of damp and mildew filled his nose. His breath sounded loud in his ears, and his heart was racing, fear making him shiver, even as he tried to keep himself from showing it.
If they knew he was afraid, then they’d be able to use that against him, and he had to keep calm and keep them from hurting him until help came. Help would come, he had no doubt of that.
And then just as soon as he’d felt all of that, he was back to himself and realizing that he’d been feeling what Kayla had been feeling.
“Wow,” he breathed, blinking and looking around. No one seemed to notice that he’d been spaced out for the last several minutes, consumed with their own tasks. Unless he was going insane, which he hadn’t quite ruled out yet, he had found the connection between him and Kayla, and it was going to come in handy.
Unfortunately she didn’t seem to know where she was, actually, which didn’t help him all that much. What did help was the fact that Bran managed to get a hold of the signal from the message without Calin knowing and getting suspicious.
"You're the best, Bran," Khaos said as he watched the screen resolve itself into a map.
"Wasn't that hard. Just had to lie to our leader a little bit, that's all. All in a day’s work, really.”
Khaos laughed at that, elation and adrenaline coursing through him. This was what he wanted. To know what he needed to do and know that he could do it. Nothing was going to stand between him and saving the woman he cared for, and now that he was armed with the knowledge of where she was, he was going to make any Vekosh there rue the day they had taken her.
She deserved so much better than that.
“What are you taking to defend yourself with?” Bran asked, and when Khaos just looked at him. he sighed. “Warriors, honestly. You need a weapon or something. I know it would be satisfying to just punch a Vekosh in the face, but that’s actually where they’re the most dangerous, so I really don’t recommend it.”
Khaos sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Then what do you recommend?”
Bran held up a finger and pulled out a drawer. It was probably supposed to store stationary or utensils or any of those other things that humans used, but this had been repurposed to hold weapons.
There was a selection of knives ranging from small enough to throw to big enough to be a good handful. The drawer below it held blasters of varying sizes and, Khaos could only imagine their intensities.
“I’d recommend one of the blasters,” Bran said. “Vekosh are sensitive to light, and a laser to the face will do wonders for putting them down, trust me.”
“I don’t suppose you have an axe in there anywhere,” Khaos said, not wanting to admit that he had no experience with the weapons in front of him.
“Not here, no,” Bran replied. “I know that’s probably what you’d prefer. I’ve seen video feeds of your fights, and I know how good you are with a war axe. We barely got cleared to bring these things here, and the blasters had to be disassembled, hidden, and then put back together in order to get them here. An axe wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
Khaos sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I get it. Give me one of the blasters and a couple of the knives then. The bigger knives.”
Bran just laughed and set to work, getting the things Khaos had asked for.
A quarter of an hour later, and he was ready. There was no way he was going to leave her with the Vekosh for much longer than she’d already been there.
He went to Kayla’s house and took care of Charlie, knowing that she’d want to make sure her dog was fed and safe even if she had been kidnapped. That was just the kind of person she was.
It was easy enough to find her spare key, and as he watched the dog play outside, Khaos wond
ered if there was a place for him in her life for the long term once this was all over.
Well. He supposed he had to find her first.
Chapter 11: In the Dark
When Kayla came to, she had no idea where she was. Her head was throbbing with pain, and nothing looked familiar. She was in a dark, dank room, and when she tried to move her hands to touch her face and figure out why it hurt so much, she found that her hands were tied behind her back.
She was sitting in a chair, apparently the only thing that wasn’t broken in the room, and everything felt damp. For the moment, it appeared she was the only one in the room, which was helpful because she wanted to know what in the world was going on.
Wracking her brain to try and remember hurt her head more, but it was doing a good job of staving off the fear that was threatening to choke her, so she’d take it.
She remembered being at work and it being late. She remembered that Khaos hadn’t been there because he’d been occupied with dealing with the revelation that the Vekosh were the ones still killing his people.
That last thought triggered the memories that hit her, reminding her that yes, someone had broken into her clinic and kidnapped her and yes it had been one of the Vekosh.
Of course, that did nothing to help with the fear, and the deep breath she dragged in through her lungs was enough to make her choke on the unpleasant quality of the air.
She tried to keep it down, but her hacking coughs made something in the corner rustle, and with a start she realized that it was a person (well, as close to being a person as a Vekosh could get, she supposed), standing up from being curled in the corner under its cloak.
“Ahhh,” the thing hissed. “You’re awake. Good, good. I had wondered if I hit you too hard.”
His voice was like ice, and she couldn’t help the involuntary shiver that went through her. For a moment, she debated whether or not talking back would be a good idea. She didn’t know much about the Vekosh, other than what Khaos had told her, and she knew that she was probably worth more to them as some kind of bargaining chip than she would be if she were dead, but somehow erring on the side of caution and not pissing off the venomous reptilian alien seemed like a better plan than mouthing off.
Instead she kept her eyes steely and hard, giving him her best glare, even while she kept her lips pressed together to make sure she didn’t accidentally mess up and snap at him.
“Not going to talk?” the Vekosh said. “Or are you broken? That’s okay. Our king didn’t say anything about keeping you in one piece. Just big enough pieces that your precious champion will have something to collect.”
The casual way he talked about it made her want to throw up, but she kept herself together. Nothing would come from falling to pieces before she figured a way out. There was no doubt in her mind that Khaos would try to rescue her, but who knew how long that would take. He had no idea where she was, and since she had no idea what time it was and how long she’d been gone, Kayla couldn’t even be sure if he knew that she was missing.
She assumed he’d go to the clinic if he couldn’t find her at her home, and the broken doors and windows would be a pretty big tip off that something had happened.
And if the Vekosh wanted to use her to get something out of Khaos or his people, then they would have to actually let them know that they had her.
So hope wasn’t completely lost, and the chances of her dying alone in this room and being left to rot with whatever other things were growing there were pretty slim. All she had to do was keep calm and try to get free or wait it out.
One of those two options was vastly preferable to the other, but at this point, Kayla wasn’t going to be picky about it.
“Do you know what happens now, pretty human?” the Vekosh asked, taking a step closer to her. She could smell his breath over the scent of mold and mildew (and she was becoming more and more convinced that they were in a basement by the second). “Now we wait. My king has contacted the leader of the Kaspersi, and what happens to you is entirely up to him. See, if the Kaspersi don’t leave here, they might find out something that we really don’t want them to know. And if they do leave, then our plan can proceed the way we want it to. Only way they’re going to get you back, pretty human, is if they agree to stop looking so hard for things they have no business knowing.”
It took a tremendous force of will to keep Kayla from rolling her eyes at that. All villains were the same when you got right down to it. They couldn’t help bragging about their plans, and they assumed that their hostages were too weak and frightened to do anything with the information they were being given.
Now, at least, Kayla knew that the Vekosh didn’t know that the Kaspersi already knew they were responsible for the so called ‘Sickness’ that was plaguing them, but she supposed that time would tell whether that was going to turn out to be in their favor or not.
For now there wasn’t much she could do but sit there.
Her wrists were sore from how tight the ropes were, and she was actually more concerned that they might go numb and cause some damage than she was about whatever the Vekosh was going to do to her. For the moment, his orders seemed to be limited to just watching her, which he was doing with almost hawk like precision, tracking her every movement with those eerie red eyes.
Kayla could see why the Kaspersi weren’t fans of the Vekosh. They were horrible looking creatures, and she was completely unsurprised that they had brought about the deaths of so many of Khaos’ people.
What she wanted to know was why.
But that would be a question for later if she decided to ask it. For now, she was keeping with her ‘being quiet as possible’ plan.
The problem with being quiet as possible, was that it was dull. Once it became apparent that she wasn’t going to say or do anything interesting, the Vekosh went back to his corner where he appeared to be gnawing on a block of rotten wood.
That was gross in its own right, and Kayla sighed softly, shifting a bit in the chair and wishing she’d been wearing her jacket when she’d been taken because it was cold in this room.
She was almost nodding off, despite the discomfort when she felt...something. It was a warm presence, and for a moment she considered that maybe the blow to the head had done more damage than she had originally thought.
The warmth settled over her body, seeming to take stock of everything from the ache in her wrists to the throbbing of her head and the chill in her bones. A sort of hot determination filled her body, and she blinked in surprise at the sudden fury she could feel coursing through her.
She had to find...someone. She had to get to them before anyone found out, or something bad might happen, but she wasn’t going to regret it if it did. If they thought she was leaving this person behind, then they were idiots.
Kayla didn’t understand what she was feeling, and it definitely didn’t seem to be coming from her.
It felt like… sort of like the energy she associated with Khaos, but that didn’t make any sense. Neither did the fact that she was more comforted by the presence of that feeling than concerned about it.
Ever since she’d met Khaos, things had been different. She’d been feeling different and now she’d been kidnapped by a creature that she wouldn’t even have believed in the existence of before she’d met Khaos and realized that aliens were very much real and very much dangerous sometimes.
The warmth receded all at once, but it took some of the chill and fear with it, making her even more sure that Khaos was out there somewhere looking for her. She didn’t know if whatever had just passed between them would help him locate her faster, but she could only hope.
Glancing at the Vekosh made it clear that he hadn’t even noticed that something had happened, and a fierce spring of hope welled up in her.
Chapter 12: Rescues and Repercussions
The first thing that was important to note was that Khaos was not very good at sneaking around. Maybe it was his warrior background that made him want to be straightforw
ard more than anything else, or maybe it was just a skill he hadn’t been born with, but being stealthy did not come naturally to him.
He made his way confidently down the street, a long coat covering the fact that he was heavily armed and heavily upset as he strode in the direction of the signal’s origin.
Bran had told him that the device he was following was practically idiot proof, and he’d said it with a look that clearly urged him not to be an idiot.
Khaos could do that. Probably.
“You aren’t going to have a lot of time,” Bran had said before he’d set out. “Calin’s only going to be distracted for so long, and he’ll probably notice when you’re not there, and I don’t think any lie about where you are is going to be believed in this case.”
It was solid advice, and Khaos was going to try very hard to follow it, but he also wasn’t going to leave that place until he had Kayla with him. If Calin found out and he got into trouble, well. He’d just have to deal with that when it happened.
For the moment, he kept moving.
It was late enough that the area of town he was going through was mostly deserted, and it made sense that it was a broken down, decrepit area. It was barely lit by dim streetlights every few hundred feet, and the sidewalks were studded with garbage piles and broken furniture, some of which were occupied by sleeping individuals. He could see more people watching him from doorways and windows as he walked, but they all seemed to have the good judgment to leave him alone. Maybe it was his confident stride or maybe they could just tell that he wouldn’t be in the mood to be messed with.
Someone’s eyes lingered for too long on his coat, and Khaos could picture the person wondering what was under it and how easy it would be to steal. He gave them a look right back that invited them to try for it if they wanted, and was gratified to see them slink back into the shadows.
