“Not sure. Ship fired on.” She nodded at Jakkar. “Left men and ship to protect me but pod taken. Bad luck.”
“So the Ithyians didn’t attack your ship?”
“No. Slavers not fighters.”
Anna thought about this for a while and then looked over at Jakkar. “Why did they leave him alive?”
“Much money. Sell to fight pit.” The other woman looked disgusted and Anna felt her stomach tighten at the thought. She hated the idea of more wounds tearing open that magnificent body. However, she understood what a prize he would be. Even wounded and chained, his strength was obvious.
“And why me?”
Melia flipped a wrist. “Not sure. You are new type. How taken?”
“There was a plane crash and I was on the beach trying to help someone. They must have come up behind me.”
Melia gave her a speculative look. “You doctor?”
“Doctor? Me? I was just trying to stop someone from bleeding to death.”
“Want save Jakkar but afraid.” She shrugged. “Pick you.”
Anna started to protest but stopped. It made a certain twisted sense. Still, if she had been here as a nurse, now that Jakkar was getting better….
“Will they take me back? Now that he’s better?” Even as she asked the question, she knew the answer before the other woman shook her head.
“No. Still sell.”
Acid was churning in the pit of Anna’s stomach but she asked anyway. “Who will they sell me to?”
“Perhaps work.” Melia’s eyes were gentle as she looked at Anna. She hesitated, then said, “Perhaps sex.”
“And you?” Her voice was barely above whisper as she asked the question.
“No ransom. Same.”
Anna lent her head against the clear metal wall, smooth and cold against her skin and felt Melia mirror her position. The two women stayed there in silence for a long time.
The hours passed. Anna and Melia talked occasionally but were both were caught up in their own thoughts. Anna had to face facts; she wasn’t going home. She was going to be sold into slavery and, despite Melia’s alternate suggestion, it sounded like the odds were she was going to become a sex slave. If the idea wasn’t so appalling she would laugh, remembering how she had always scoffed at stories of white slavery and sex trafficking. The concept of alien sex trafficking had never even crossed her mind.
The sound of footsteps disturbed her dark thoughts and her stomach clenched as she realized that the shorter guard was coming down the corridor. His gait was uneven and he was sucking on a long tube filled with a dark purple liquid. He stopped outside her cell, one hand holding the tube to his mouth and the other grabbing his erection, and she realized with horror that he was drunk.
“No damage prisoner,” he snarled. “Pay damage.”
He had obviously been warned but he was rubbing himself harder and for a sick moment, she was afraid he was drunk enough to ignore the warning. A crafty look came over his face and he giggled. The sound made her skin crawl.
The bars opened and he entered the cell. Anna tried to evade him but he was too fast and grabbed her wrist. She started hitting at him with her other hand as he hauled her out of the cell and across the corridor, throwing her into Jakkar’s cell. Too confused to speak, she stared at him and he giggled again.
“Want fuck animal? Maybe animal fuck you. He no pay damage.” He fingered his belt again and at the sound of chains withdrawing, she turned to find Jakkar standing up from the bunk. Instinctively, she moved toward him, her gaze immediately going to his wounded leg but it wasn’t bleeding, her ragged stitching was still intact. As he stepped forward to meet her, she was suddenly, overwhelmingly conscious of just how big he was. He was at least a foot taller than her, her head not even reaching his shoulders, and the corded strength of his muscles was only too apparent as he clasped her waist and pulled her against him. The memory of her foolish teasing combined with the guard’s words and her body started to shake.
“Now, little human,” Jakkar growled. Her eyes were wide and frightened and her body trembled as she looked up at him. Good. Now she would learn that she was not in control. His leg was stiff and painful but he dismissed it and concentrated on the woman. Her sweet scent filled his nostrils as she froze against him and his cock, still half-erect from her earlier display, hardened completely.
“My name is Anna,” she said defiantly, but her voice quivered. Impatiently, he bent over her body, catching her neck in one large hand and holding her immobile as his mouth descended on hers. The kiss was hard, punishing, his tongue thrusting brutally into her soft mouth as she gasped, and he expected her to draw back. Instead, her hands clutched his shoulders and her small tongue darted out to wrap around his. Her instant response was exhilarating and he growled his approval. His other hand slipped lower, tightening on the supple curves of her ass and pressing her against his rigid erection as he delved even further into the warm sweetness of her mouth. One of his sharp canine teeth nicked her soft lower lip and again he expected her to pull back but she only shivered against him and pressed closer.
The fact that she had surrendered to him so completely finally penetrated his lust and he forced himself to pull back and look down at her. As he raised his head, her eyes opened slowly, heavy-lidded with passion, and he expected her to panic, to start fighting him. Instead, she just looked at him with dazed crystal eyes and slowly licked her lips, her mouth red and swollen from his kisses. His brain shut down. The feel of her lush curves and the heady scent of her arousal had him throbbing painfully and all thought of punishing her had fled. Nothing mattered to him except burying his aching cock in her warm body. Behind him, he could hear the guard shouting obscene suggestions. He dismissed the sounds but her eyes widened as they registered.
“Please, not in front of him,” she whispered.
His warrior nature roared in triumph. She wasn’t objecting to his obvious intentions but to the audience. The guard was of small significance to him but his jaw tightened at the idea of the man seeing his little human’s body as he took her. Sliding his arm under the silky skin of her ass, he picked her up easily, swinging her around until she was seated on the bunk. He moved between her legs, pulling her to his pulsing cock but also blocking her from the guard’s view. The man’s howl of anger went unheeded as he drew her even more tightly against him, feeling the wet heat of her arousal as she wrapped her legs around him in response.
An explosion echoed through the metal corridor and the ship shuddered, almost throwing him to the deck before he braced himself and his female against the bunk. The jolt shocked him into thinking and he cursed himself for a Goddess damned idiot, obsessing over the little human instead of concentrating on escape. He turned swiftly; ignoring the twinge as his leg protested, and saw the guard crouched against the bars where he had fallen as the ship lurched. Tearing a strip of the ragged leather from his pants as he crossed the cell, he grasped the man’s neck while he was still off balance from the fall. Moving rapidly, he slipped the strip through the bars and around the man’s neck, tying him against the end bar, not quite tight enough to kill him. Before the guard could react, he removed the control belt and pulled it back inside the cell.
As he was about to activate the controls, the ship tilted sharply to the right and he heard the constant hum of the engines start to oscillate. With another muttered curse, he grabbed his small human off the bunk and drew her with him to the deck, grabbing the bars for support. He shouted to Melia and Rantor to brace themselves as the ship slammed back to the other side and began a violent spiral dive.
Chapter Six
Anna was still dazed, shaking from her reaction to Jakkar, and from fear as the ship spun dizzyingly. She couldn’t believe the way she responded to him. The second his mouth closed over hers, she forgot the watching guard, forgot the cell, forgot everything except the desire burning through her veins like fire. Even now, her body throbbed and ached for him. His body curved protectively over and aroun
d her and she held onto him with all her strength, burying her face in his neck and breathing in his unique scent. The vibrations grew even more violent and now she could smell the acrid scent of burning metal. The floor was heating up beneath her, not yet burning but the temperature increasing rapidly. She whimpered, unable to help herself, and Jakkar drew her even closer, tucking her further away from the floor.
The burning smell grew stronger and now she could see smoke drifting down the corridor. The parts of her body that were still touching the floor were starting to hurt as the surface grew hotter. A violent crash tore Jakkar’s hands loose from the bars and sent both of them sliding across the cell floor, his arms still cradling her. They slammed into the cell wall as another collision shook the ship, and then there was silence.
Disoriented, she raised her head from his shoulder and realized that they had landed on the side wall of the cell. Everything was canted sideways and it took her a minute to identify the floor and the ceiling and the familiar outline of the bars. She could see Melia crumpled inside her cell but she was distracted by the stillness of the body beneath her. As she tried to pull away to see if he was injured, his hands tightened, and relief filled her as she realized that he was awake. He looked at her for a long moment and she licked her lips, sure that he was going to kiss her, but he only loosened his hold enough to pull them both to their feet. Another pause and he released her. She wondered if he was reluctant to let her go or just emphasizing how completely he could control her.
No longer looking at her, he turned his attention to the control belt. The cell bars groaned, hesitated, and then disappeared. Jakkar moved to Rantor’s cell and opened those bars. The animal emerged, shaking his head but apparently unhurt, and Jakkar turned to Melia’s cell. Her slender body wasn’t moving and Anna hurried over, slipping a little on the slant of the corridor.
“Alive.” Jakkar’s voice was brusque as he stood up and pulled Melia into his arms. Anna ignored the sudden pang of jealousy at the sight and waited at the cell door, swaying a little from reaction. He had protected her from most of the turmoil but not all and, combined with the last tumble across the cell, her previous bruises were awake and screaming.
“Rantor. Scout path,” Jakkar ordered and the linae slipped ahead up the corridor. He turned to look at her and swore as he saw her clutching the wall. He threw Melia over one shoulder and pulled Anna tight against his side, supporting her on the uneven surface as they followed Rantor’s trail. Two turns of the corridor and the ship ended in a gaping hole half-buried in the surface of the planet. As they approached the gap she saw the tall guard sprawled unconscious on the floor. Jakkar ignored him, pausing in the opening to scan the surroundings before pulling both women through and across to the base of one of the large rock pillars that surrounded the crash site. He lowered Melia to the ground and eased Anna down beside her as her knees finally gave way, then turned back to the wreck.
The air was hot, and Anna pulled Melia back into the shade provided by the spire of rock at their back. The rock and the sand beneath them was the same shade of deep red, the sky above a greenish tint that she had never seen. All around them, stone spires thrust into the sky and it was easy to see the cause of the last violent crash – the nose of the spaceship was flattened against one of the enormous rock pillars, flames licking back along the longer section from which they had emerged. Horrified, she realized that Jakkar had disappeared into the still burning ship. The remains ended abruptly at the hole where they had emerged and nothing was left from the tail section except large chunks of burning wreckage.
The heat, the sand, the ship burning around her—it was all too familiar and Anna felt like she was back at the last plane crash. It was like one of those stupid horror movies where you cheated death and death kept looking for you. The thought struck her as funny and she started to laugh, but the laughter quickly dissolved into tears and she couldn’t stop crying. A firm hand grasped her chin and lifted her head and his mouth came down on hers, hot and hard. She gasped and the sobs finally stopped, fading into soft hiccups.
Jakkar was already walking away, back into the ship, and Anna realized that he had brought out a load of equipment that was now piled to one side. She forced herself to her feet and followed after him. As he reached the opening, he turned and frowned at her.
“Can I help?”
“No. Dangerous.” He stepped into the opening and as her gaze followed him, she spotted the unconscious guard.
“Aren’t you going to bring him out?”
He didn’t even stop. “No.”
“He let me help you.” At that he paused and she hurried on. “And he might be useful.”
He shrugged a shoulder and turned back into the ship. “Help if want.”
Anna glared after him and then crawled back into the ship. The smoke was thickening but the guard wasn’t too far from the entrance. She slid her hands under his shoulders and began to pull him along the corridor. His weight dragged at her and she was panting and breathless by the time she had hauled him through the opening, wincing as his jumpsuit caught on the ragged edge. As she bent back down to pull him across the sand, another pair of hands appeared. Melia gave her a quick shaky smile and together they hauled the unconscious man across to the shade of the stone spire.
The women collapsed into the shade as well, and Anna watched with increasing anxiety until Jakkar appeared at the opening once more. He had weapons belts crisscrossed across his still bare chest and two long knives belted at his waist. He looked like every fantasy she had ever had of a barbarian warrior and her breath caught in her chest as he emerged from the ship, striding towards them to drop another set of bundles. She didn’t know whether to be amused that he had taken her advice or terrified as another figure emerged and she realized that the shorter guard was carrying a load as well. Jakkar watched him as he dropped his burden, standing protectively between the guard and the women, then gestured him back into the ship, his other hand on one of his weapons. The guard’s glare would have cut steel but he turned back to the ship and Jakkar followed him.
Fire had almost reached the opening before Jakkar and the guard appeared a final time, heavily laden once more. Anna immediately noticed that Jakkar was limping and opened her mouth to offer to help, but Melia grabbed her arm and shook her head. The women watched in silence as the men lowered their burdens. Then Jakkar ordered the Ithyian to draw the still unconscious guard to one side of the rock. He pulled out a set of chains and fastened the guards to each other before wrapping the remainder of the chain around one of the rock outcroppings. With the pile of equipment between them, they were out of sight, if not out of earshot. Anna winced as the conscious guard snarled.
Ignoring the sound, Jakkar picked up a white box and moved over to the women, dropping to the ground beside them with a slight wince. They both looked at him expectantly but he merely began searching through the box, pulling out a long wand shaped device and a small jar.
“Can use?” he asked Melia. She shook her head and he looked at Anna.
“Don’t look at me,” she protested.
He hesitated, then shrugged and looked down at his leg. Anna was horrified to see that while the stitching was still basically intact, the wound was oozing blood in several places. No wonder he had been limping. She watched as he pressed a button on the wand, causing the end to glow with a soft blue light. Swiftly, he pressed the end to one of the places which was bleeding. There was a quick flash of white smoke and a burnt smell filled the air. As he drew the wand away, she could see that the bleeding had stopped, cauterized by the device.
Horrified, she scanned the length of the injury. There were four more places that were bleeding and the one on his inner thigh was going to be hard for him to reach. He had already moved the wand up his leg before she reached out and touched his arm.
“Do you want me to do that?” Her voice trembled but her hand was steady. Jakkar scanned her face, then looked back at the wound. With a soft noise that might hav
e been a sigh, he passed her the wand and leaned back on his elbows.
“Hold for three,” he said. “One…two…three.”
Anna curled against his side in a position that was becoming increasingly familiar, took a deep breath, and started on the next open cut. Three seconds seemed to last for an eternity and she could feel his muscles tighten even though he made no sound. The smoke and the smell were sickening but she clenched her teeth and kept going. By the time she finished with the last open place, she was pale and dizzy. Bile rose in her throat and she leaned against his uninjured leg, trying desperately not to be sick.
Jakkar sat up and put his arm around her. She clutched it and buried her face in his side, letting his spicy scent chase the smell of smoke away. Not releasing her, he used his other hand to spread a thick greenish gel from the jar down the length of his wound. She could see the redness diminish almost immediately and felt his muscles relax. Melia had moved away while Anna worked and now she handed Jakkar a mug of cafir. He sipped and passed it to Anna. The bitter taste was curiously refreshing and she started to take a longer drink, but he stopped her.
“Not waste.”
She stared at him uncomprehendingly for a minute and then took a look around at the sand and rocks that surrounded them. Sighing, she capped the mug and set it down. Right, they were in the middle of what looked suspiciously like a desert. She glanced at the supplies that he had hauled from the burning ship and wondered just how long they would last.
Jakkar said something to Melia that she didn’t catch and she looked up, still caught in the circle of his arm. He frowned at her and then pressed her head against his chest. Before she could move, she felt a cool tickle in her ear and then an unpleasant slimy warmth that faded almost immediately. She pulled back as soon as his arm relaxed.
“What was that?” she asked indignantly.
“I decided that you would be more useful if you could carry on an intelligent conversation.”
Anna and the Alien: A SciFi Alien Romance (Alien Abduction Book 1) Page 5
