by Averi Hope
He looked back at Erin’s wide, panicked eyes. And for the first time in longer than he could remember, he was afraid.
Chapter Sixteen
Erin beat her fist against the door one more time, even though her hand ached. “Let me out! Caleb! Caleb, can you hear me?”
An hour in a cell was annoying, but not a big deal. It was what they could be doing to Caleb that had her gut twisting in fear.
I’ve always hated using my father’s name, but this time, I don’t care. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep him safe.
Finally, she heard a key in the lock. Dean Sufters opened the door and calmly walked in, her high heels clicking on the tile.
“He didn’t do it.” Erin forced herself to keep her voice level. Even though she wanted nothing more than to scream in Dean Sufters’s face.
The older woman stared at her with concern Erin knew was feigned. And gestured for her to sit at the tiny interrogation table. Erin took a seat, and Dean Sufters sat across from her, folding her hands on the table gracefully.
“Miss Stowe. There’s no need to worry about any of this. The Keltair is being questioned, that’s all.”
Erin moved her chair back. The dean flinched at the horrible squealing sound as the metal chair scraped the white tile. Erin stood and placed her hands on the table in front of her, leaning in. “He’s the reason I’m alive right now, so if I don’t get some answers, I’ll be calling my father. Fleet Admiral Stowe, remember? And I guarantee you don’t want me to do that.”
Dean Sufters looked nervous. She smoothed the sides of her short, perfectly sculpted hair in an anxious gesture. “Please, sit down. The whole academy is still in lockdown. Even if I wasn’t suspicious of the Keltair, he’d need to stay exactly where he is until it’s deemed safe.”
The older woman’s answer just wasn’t good enough.
“I want to remind you,” Erin’s lip curled as she spoke. “The Keltairs aren’t our enemies anymore. And Caleb’s presence here only helps to strengthen our alliance. So if—”
The dean stood up to match her height. “Little girl—” she started, her tone condescending.
Like hell Erin was going to let her finish. “You’ve got two minutes to free Caleb, then I contact my father.”
The older woman’s mouth snapped shut, even as she raised her chin.
They glared at each other for a long minute.
The dean’s assistant, Stevril, opened the door to their tiny questioning room and closed it behind him before speaking. “The Keltair ship has left the atmosphere and is being pursued in space. The whole of the Turonga’s fleet has taken to the skies, but there are no signs of other enemy ships. The emperor has degraded the threat level from a code red to a code orange.”
And that’s when it hit Erin. Both the dean and the people of this planet thought they were facing an all-out war with the Keltairs again. Their extreme reaction suddenly made sense to her. If the warlike aliens had decided to break the treaty, and Turonga was simply the first planet in their path of destruction, the loss of life here would likely be immense. Earth had located its most prestigious Starfire Academy here because it was considered so secure, but no one could guarantee they’d be safe indefinitely from the wrath of such violent people.
“How much of the school was destroyed?” Erin asked.
Stevril wrinkled his piglike nose and made an obvious effort to ignore the cadet, turning his gaze from Erin back to the dean. “Shall I take the school out of lockdown?”
“Yes,” she answered, and then after a moment of hesitation, “What did they destroy?”
He looked at Erin again with his arrogant stare, his dusty orange skin darkening with his changing mood.
Erin felt her temper flare. Stupid Purtos. The creatures were organized and fiercely loyal, which is why they often assisted powerful people, but their lack of flexibility was a downfall. Hadn’t he picked up on the dean’s reaction to the young cadet? Did he have any idea that Erin’s father could destroy his career and his life with one interplanetary call?
“This is Fleet Admiral Stowe’s daughter,” the dean explained slowly. “You may speak openly in front of her…because I’m sure she’ll know everything we do by the end of this.”
Erin was far too satisfied by the raw panic that came over his wide face.
“Nothing was destroyed. I mean, the roof took a lot of damage, but they didn’t fire at anything else.”
The dean frowned, and Erin’s own mind started to turn over what that might mean. “Then what was the point of all that? Was someone just trying to cause problems between our races again?”
Dean Sufters shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. They could’ve attacked the outside of the academy and risked much less.”
Erin sat back down, rubbing her chin. They just attacked the roof? How pointless…
“How many people knew you were on the roof tonight?” the dean asked, and their gazes met.
Erin didn’t want to tell her that only Caleb knew. The dean hardly needed more fuel to add to the fire of her racism. Especially when Erin knew in her heart the sexy alien had nothing to do with any of this. He’d been on the roof, too. And he didn’t even know her real name.
“There’s security monitoring on nearly every inch of this place.” Erin raised her brow. “Any person on your staff would’ve seen us going to the roof. And, if you weren’t careful with my identity, one of your untrustworthy staff members could’ve passed off the information.”
Her blue eyes widened, and Stevril’s orange face went a shade paler.
“We kept your real name off every document and file,” she asserted.
Erin crossed her arms in front of her chest. “My father will want to investigate, just to be sure. I hope you understand. If this academy can’t keep such a small thing private, he’ll have to ask himself if he and the president might need to make some changes.”
The dean and Stevril exchanged a panicked glance. The deep lines in her face looked even deeper as she leaned forward. “There’s no need for that. I will personally conduct a full investigation into this. You and your father shouldn’t worry yourselves about it.”
Erin stood again, looking down at them. “Perhaps. But first, take me to Caleb Fallow. After such a traumatic event, and your failure to keep me safe here, I’ll need someone I trust to seek emotional comfort from.”
The dean hesitated.
“Or perhaps I’ll just seek that reassurance from my father. Although…the last time I was in danger from negligence, he fired an entire ship’s crew.”
Dean Sufters was on her feet in an instant. “I’ll take you there. Stevril, end the lockdown. Make an announcement that the threat is gone, but that all students should remain in their rooms until further notification.”
He gave Erin one last frightened look, then headed out of the room.
The dean visibly swallowed, and Erin saw the frustration burning not so subtly in her eyes. It must cut through her like a Keltair blade to have some wealthy, powerful brat ordering her about like a servant. Usually she was above using her father’s name to get what she wanted, but since witnessing their treatment of Caleb on the roof, she was afraid of what they were doing to the Keltair. Being a student of an ambassador should’ve offered him protection from being tortured. But the prejudice against his race still ran deep among most humans.
“We’ll go,” the older woman said, very slowly, “but keep in mind that we only did what we had to do in order to protect the students of this academy.”
The air rushed out of Erin’s lungs, and she grabbed the back of the chair. A Turongan constrictor snake seemed to squeeze her stomach. “What do you mean what you had to?”
Chapter Seventeen
Caleb coughed, spitting blood onto the stark white floor tiles next to his face. He strained against the bindings that held his arms twisted behind him and the ones lashed around his legs. The metal cut further into his flesh before he gave up, dropping his cheek onto the floor.
Starfire Academy head of security, Rick, crouched down beside him, his mouth drawn into a stiff line. “I’m going to ask you one more time, Keltair, and then I’m going to stop playing nice.”
The man probably expected that eventually there would be a level of pain Caleb would reach where he’d start babbling every secret in his heart. It was the height of ignorance. Caleb wasn’t just a half human half Keltair with abnormally large strength and size. He was a man who had endured levels of pain unimaginable to even his own species.
This man couldn’t break him. No matter how hard he tried. “Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Rick lowered his mirrored glasses revealing the silver in his eyes.
Caleb’s insides twisted. No wonder this man was so fast and so strong. The silver in his eyes revealed the nanobots running through his system, replacing muscles, bones, and whatever else they could, with metal. Rick wouldn’t break him. But from the sadistic gleam in the other man’s eyes, he would enjoy using every nanobot in his body to try.
“No more Mr. Gentle then.” Rick cracked his knuckles. “You Keltairs don’t want that, anyway.”
Caleb began to worry that Rick actually meant to kill him. And humans say Keltairs are brutal. I’m just a student. He glanced toward the door.
Rick turned and followed his gaze. “No one’s coming to help you, traitor.” A second later, he struck out with his foot
The blow smashed into his face with the speed and power of a bullet. Caleb’s head snapped back and his eyes saw stars.
Hot blood ran from the new wound on his cheek. He rolled to face the ceiling, gasping.
It’s just pain. Pain means nothing.
It’d already been an hour of this. He wondered how long it would be until the man tired. Until he realized that Caleb knew nothing about the Keltair ship.
Even though he’d only asked him a handful of questions…
What if the goal wasn’t ever to get information from me?
The thought chilled him. Who would question it if they killed the one “responsible” for the attack? His father? There wouldn’t be anyone left willing to tell the truth.
Except maybe Erin.
Erin. The beautiful dark-haired beauty that haunted his mind and his dreams. Were they hurting her the same way they were hurting him?
He shivered. Finally the chill of the tile slid under his skin and into his blood.
Yes, they’d untied Erin’s bindings and led her off like some kind of princess, but that didn’t mean they’d continue being so gentle with her when they realized she didn’t have any useful information. Or that she was up there having a picnic with me.
Rick stood and drew back his leg.
Caleb rolled, springing to his feet.
Rick laughed. “Going to make this interesting, huh? I knew you were only hiding that savage heart.”
The two men squared off. The head of security matched him in size, but Caleb wondered if the nanobots had also given the older man actual skills in fighting along with strength and speed.
“Do we really need to do this?” Caleb asked. “By now you have to know I wasn’t involved in any of this.”
“Oh, I never really cared whether you were in on it or not.” He gave a chilling smile as he reached into the pocket of his uniform. “I just think that the only good Keltair is a dead one.”
An electric shock device. Caleb growled and charged him, but it was too late.
Too fast for his eyes to follow, the man shot him.
Needles from metal grippers burrowed into the flesh of his chest and stomach in a dozen places, making it impossible to remove them. The pain was excruciating. Caleb looked at himself in the mirrored glasses of his opponent. The reflection was that of a blood-splattered man with eyes widened with terror. Caleb crumpled to his knees.
“Enjoy,” Rick muttered.
He turned a dial on the black device in his hands. Electricity raced through the cords in his chest.
Caleb flew back, hitting the ground. It was like being struck by lightning. He smelled smoke. Tasted smoke. The world was a bright flash of light. His body twitched and shook uncontrollably. And it didn’t stop.
After everything I’ve been through, is this really how I’m going to die?
“What the hell is going on?”
Erin’s frantic voice came to him as if from far away.
“Give me that, you son of a Turongan swine!”
The electricity stopped.
“Get out! You’ll be lucky to be alive when my father finishes with you!”
A gentle hand cradled his cheek, even as he twitched and shook with residual contortions. “Shh. Caleb, I’ve got you now.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Is he going to be okay?” Erin asked the doctor fearfully. It had taken four security guards to carry his unconscious body back to his room, and she had locked the door behind him.
Dr. Wores dug out the last of the metal grippers from Caleb’s bare chest, letting it clink into the silver tray on his worktable, then quickly stitched up the wound left behind. “He’s going to live. No thanks to that barbarian.”
Her entire heart squeezed, and she rubbed at her eyes, willing her tears to stay in place.
Going to the other side of Caleb’s bed, she sat down and took his limp hand in her own. “Why is he still unconscious? What’s wrong with him?”
The doctor took off his gloves and threw them into a tiny trash compactor on his doctor’s cart. The machine made a soft whirling sound as it sucked them up.
He sighed. “Honestly, this boy’s lucky he’s a Keltair. He’s a mess of hairline fractures, bruises, and abrasions. I could bring him back to the medbay, but it won’t do much good. And frankly, I think he might be more comfortable here, what with the rumors floating around…”
Erin swallowed hard. “Do people really believe he’s in on this?”
The old man ran a hand through his shoulder-length white hair and gazed at her with his pale, cloudy eyes. “It’s less scary to point the finger at whoever they can find, rather than believe there’s some faceless enemy still out there.”
She squeezed Caleb’s hand a little harder. “What can I do for him?”
His gaze ran from their hands held together back to her face. “When he wakes up, he’s going to hurt. Badly.” Pressing his finger to a black box on the side of his cart, it slid open. Reaching inside, he pulled out a small bottle. “Make sure he takes these every six hours, or more if he needs them.”
She took the bottle of pills and stared down at them. For pain.
The doctor placed his hand on her shoulder. “It isn’t just the physical pain that he’ll need help mending from. The best thing you can do for him is to be his friend.”
A rush of anger came over her, and she stood, shaking. “How did this happen? Caleb’s a cadet here. An ambassador’s son. Every single administrator should fry for this! And that head of security… I’d like to tie him down and see how he likes being my punching bag!”
The old man shook his head. “Solving violence with violence is never the answer.”
She spoke without thinking, “And what if this was your son lying here instead of him?”
A strained silence filled the room.
He turned, pushing the cart toward the door. But when he reached it, he paused, looking back at her. “That’s why loved ones aren’t allowed to assign punishment. Our emotions blind us from what’s best—both for them and for us. Forgiveness. Love. Those things redeem us in the face of the worst brutality imaginable.”
The doors slid open, but he hovered there for another moment. “And just so you know, many years ago it was my son lying there. He was killed by Keltairs in the war.”
He stepped out and the doors slid closed behind him.
She sank back onto the bed, clutching the bottle of pills. Loved ones. Love. Do I…could I...love him?
For the first time, she truly looked at Caleb’s face. Her heart ached as she reached forward and brushed her fingers through h
is slightly overgrown hair. One of his eyes was black and swollen shut. His entire face was puffy and bruised. Stitches had been sewn and one cheek was bandaged. And that was just his face.
The doctor had dug the electrodes out of his broad chest as gently as possible, but they’d still left deep gorges that were stitched shut. Bruises decorated his golden flesh, making the old scars stand out even worse.
Anger at the others warred with feelings of tenderness for him.
Love redeems us.
She rubbed her cheek, surprised to find tears there. Reaching out, she almost touched his chest, but drew back.
Why did this really happen? Was he so badly hurt just because of his race? Or because he was unlucky enough to be on the roof with me during the attack? Or was it simply that he was interrogated by the head of security?
Putting her face in her hands, she cried. The sobs that shook her body surprised her, but she couldn’t stop them. She felt foolish.
How many years has it been since I cried?
She should be out demanding justice, calling her father and Caleb’s and unleashing the wrath of powerful men on the miscreants that’d dared to hurt an innocent man.
Instead, she was in here crying, wishing she could’ve protected Caleb. Knowing that she’d failed him.
Love might redeem us. But it’s making me pretty damn weak at the moment.
A deep voice rumbled from the bed beside her. “Did they hurt you?”
She looked up, shocked. Caleb’s voice was harsh, filled with pain. But his dark eyes were locked on her. He reached out, wincing, before touching her bare knee with his fingertips.
Rubbing away her tears, she curled her hand around his. “Are you crazy? I’m fine. You’re the one who’s…” The words died on her lips.
“I’m fine.” He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth. “I’ve been through worse.”
He’s been through worse? Why? And how?
“I don’t care,” she said, softly. “You’re not fine.”
Rising, she went to the small white kitchen, took out a glass, and filled it with water. When she returned to his side, she pulled one of the small green pills from the container.
