by Casey Wyatt
“Where are they going?” Trent demanded, voice thin and reedy. “Why did I accept this mission? My life is total shit.” Dark malice gleamed in his eyes. Fangs extended as he spat out, “This is your fault. You whore!”
Patience in shreds, I backhanded him. “Silence.”
“Another word, I’ll remove your tongue.” Philip ran his blade along Trent’s throat. Shivers racked Trent’s body, bravado drained away.
“Let’s go.” I led us through the opening. We appeared on the opposite side of the lake. The burning house a small beacon on the horizon. We took cover in the dark shadows.
Trent sniffled. Blood smudged his face. God, he made me sick.
I rounded on him. “Do not make a sound.”
Anger blazed in his eyes. His nostrils flared. I didn’t give a shit if he didn’t want to follow my orders. If we didn’t have Thalia’s ass to kick and a family to save, I’d be laying the smack down on him.
Philip dropped his pack on the ground and assembled a long range sniper rifle with enough power to blow Thalia’s head to bits. The concept of honor didn’t factor into the equation.
I cared more about my family than allowing Thalia the chance to see her death coming.
The ammo clip slid home with a soft click. Philip, prone on the ground, lined up the shot. He looked over his shoulder. “Ready, when you are.”
We’d have one chance to take her out. Otherwise, I’d be pulling the trigger instead of Phillip. I raised binoculars to my eyes.
I was so intent on the Thalia’s imminent death, the soft giggles behind me failed to register. I turned around in time to see Pearl wielding a shovel. The flat blade cracked across the top of my skull. White stars exploded. The ground rushed up to greet me before I blacked out.
~ * * * ~
A violent gush of cold water dumped on my head. “Wake up, bitch!”
I jerked. Ropes painfully pinned my arms behind my back. A haze of sand and blood obscured my sight. I blinked rapidly.
Pearl stood over me, blonde ringlets, frazzled and wild. Malicious glee darkened her blue eyes. “How’d you like the shovel to the head? Queen Thalia says I can give you another if you back talk me.”
Water dripped off my face, clearing my vision. I counted the number of boots in my line of sight. There were a lot. Philip wasn’t near me. I hoped to God he was still alive.
Trent sidled up to Pearl and planted a kiss on the side of her neck. She moaned and arched into his back.
“It was you.” Pain drummed in my head. The words loud to my own ears. “You tried to kill me on the ship.”
“Damn right I did,” Pearl said.
The events in the cargo hold hit me with blinding clarity. “Trent let you out of the containment box. And when I caught him ravaging you, it wasn’t really rape. And you let loose the spider bots.
“I found those in a cargo box,” Trent interjected proudly.
“Give yourself a gold star,” I said. How could I have been so blind? I should have questioned why Trent and Pearl’s minds were so blank. “You’ve both been working for Thalia this whole time?”
“Too bad you’re so dumb and slow, Cherry.” Pearl laughed. Trent spun her around, cupped her ass and they started making out like two horny teenagers.
Gross. I searched the crowd. Where the hell was Thalia? I expected her to be gloating over me. “Do you mind? You two are making me sick.”
Pearl lunged at me, one hand clawed at my throat. The other gripped the tufts of my short hair and twisted my head sideways. Fangs brushed my skin. Pearl growled against my neck, “Jonathan should have chosen me. I was a better lover. I didn’t turn him away from my bed like you did.” Her mouth widened, teeth pricking my skin.
“Now Pearl, it’s sacrilege to take the blood of a sire uninvited.” A chilling voice rose up behind us. The boots shifted around, clearing a path, for Thalia.
Dressed in a white leather cat suit, she strutted toward me. Super bitch. Two stiletto boot tips stopped short of my nose. “Raise her up.”
With a hard yank, I was on my feet. Sharp pokers stabbed my brain and nausea cramped my stomach. I forced my eyes open and bit back the pain.
“You look a fright.” Coldness marred her smile as she evaluated my bedraggled appearance. “Bring her along. Too bad you cut your hair, it makes dragging you to your execution a lot less fun.”
Thalia knocked my legs out from under me. I twisted, so my shoulder would take the brunt of the fall, instead of my abdomen. I grunted on impact. Blinding pain stabbed into my collar bone.
Pearl and Trent snickered. Pearl gave me a small finger wave. I vowed to rip Pearl’s finger off and make her eat it by way of her nose.
Thalia’s goons erupted in laughter. I must have spoken out loud. Rage colored Pearl’s cheek a hot red. She hocked and spat in my face.
“Enough now, Pearl. I’ll let you have her head as trophy.” Thalia pulled the rope. “Someone fetch me my sword.” Thalia waltzed ahead as if she were walking a dog.
I lurched forward, dragging behind her. Rock abraded my exposed skin. Panic pumped through my body. Death was imminent if I didn’t find a way out of the situation.
The rogues. There must be some of them out there.
“No one is coming to rescue you. I have Ian’s strays. Including the fine one with the scar. I might keep him as a pet.” Thalia picked up speed, hastening my arrival to the chopping block.
Think. Rock transitioned to sand. Kyrene, my mind screamed. The baby. Oh, God. Save the baby.
I writhed on the ground, shifting sides so I could see the water. Air aggravated my raw exposed muscles, the skin worn away like ground meat.
A gentle ripple of lake water followed alongside several yards from the shore.
Too quickly, we reached the others. I knew the family was close by the muffled gasps and sobs. Emotions shattered my inner mental shield and flooded my mind. Despair. Sadness. Fear.
Jay’s anger came through loud and clear. His cuts and bruises had healed. Blood matted down his hair and dirt crusted his bare skin.
“I’m okay,” I lied to them. I was in a pile of deep shit. If I didn’t save myself, and soon, my whole family and the colonists would be doomed. Thalia would either kill or enslave them.
I angled my face to the ground and whispered, “Cuff, wake up.” Warmth spread across my wrist. Relief choked me. This could work. It had too. “Burn through the restraint. Without anyone seeing it.”
Heat bit into my arm and hand, the pain intense. Skin burned off, leaving tender exposed flesh. I clamped my mouth shut and moaned as quietly as I could. The pressure pinning my arms eased. One hand was almost free. “I need your help when the time comes.”
Thalia straddled me from behind and pulled me onto my knees. “Shall I make you watch while I execute your family?” Her men selected Lemmy out of the crowd. “This one is old and weak. How about him?”
“No. Me first.” I gritted my teeth, hoping she would agree. “I’m responsible. Kill me as an example and take them into your fold.”
“And why should I?” Thalia walked in front of me, hands on hips, the sword tip scraping the ground. The same weapon that murdered Jonathan. I tore my gaze away and blinked back tears. A fine leader I turned out to be.
“I did it. I arranged to have your mother, the true queen, killed.” I spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, then lowered my voice to a bare whisper. “We both know the truth. You killed your mother.”
Thalia, snarled in warning. “Do not speak such things.”
“I’m willing to die for my family. Honor the old ways. My family has wealth and power. I will freely give it to you.” Jonathan had once told me he was extremely rich. Dirty, rotten filthy stinking rich – with both money and information stashed in accounts worldwide. Without my cooperation, Thalia would never locate the funds, let alone be able to access them. She could steal the family bond, but she couldn’t forcefully extract bank account information from my brain.
Greedy desire flashed across he
r face. “Very well. They live. You die. Right now.”
The sword arced in the air.
My left arm shot up, cuff intercepting the blade. Metal clanged against metal. An electrified blue force field bubbled over me. The shield molded over my body, coating me like amour. Only my head and hands were uncovered.
Thalia cried out, charged then swung again. The impact repelled Thalia’s follow-up strike.
I rolled out of the way, untangling the rest of the rope as I went. The sword crashed into the shield. The metal acted as a conduit. Blue lightning surged into Thalia’s body. She collapsed, twitching on the ground.
Within seconds, her limbs flailed. Damn.
Wasting no time, I crashed into the nearest group of goons, scattering them like bowling pins. I cut Phillip’s restraints with a shot of power from my fingertip. The captured rogues were next.
“Free the others.” I moved to down the line, zapping away. I reached Jay and freed him.
“Damn Cherry. Did you know the cuff could do that?”
“No.” I yelled out to the family, “Fight! This is our home. No one is taking it away!”
With an angry roar, former strippers turned into warriors, clawing, punching and biting the opposing force, fighting alongside the rogues. If only Ian could be here to see it. I turned in time to see Pearl and Trent in the distance, running away. Those cowards would—
A large mass tackled me from behind, “Where do you think you’re going?” Joel pinned my arms behind my back.
Thalia screamed, her speech garbled, “No mercy. Kill them.”
The force shield flared, expelling Joel onto the hard ground. He rocketed forward, knife in hand. A red blur took him down. Punches were exchanged, limbs tangled. A nose broke. Blood spattered on the ground.
I rubbed my eyes. Prior fought mano y mano with Joel. And he was winning. My father always said, “It’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for.”
Prior yelled, “Cherry, take out Thalia.” I sped over to Thalia. Fully upright, she bore down on Jay. Engaged with an enemy soldier, he didn’t see her.
“Jay!” I shouted. I dove onto her back. The sword skidded across the cavern floor, stopping abruptly in the lake shore sand.
Thalia shook me off, crouched, then sprung up over my head, targeting the sword. I latched onto her ankles. She smacked to the ground face first. Before I could gain the upper hand, she twisted. Her fingernails dug deep furrows into my shorn scalp.
Two could play that game. I tore out hair, scalp and all. She broke free, reversed the hold and wrapped an arm around my throat, shrewdly avoiding the blue force field.
“You’ll die! Stupid whore,” she shrieked in my ear.
“I’m not a whore. I’m a stripper. There’s a difference!” I elbowed her gut and flung her off my back and shoulder dropped onto her chest.
With a loud oof, Thalia gripped my arms and clamped me into a bear hug. The force shield repelled Thalia’s arms off me. I rolled away, blocking access to the sword.
She eyed the bracelet. “That should be mine. I found Mother’s files. I knew what she had planned. What a fool. Starting a new colony.” Thalia spat blood onto the sand.
“Tough. You can’t have it.” I dodged a fist aimed at my head. Thalia feinted to the right, then dodged left toward the weapon. I blocked her path.
“Why waste the bracelet’s power here, when I could use it on Earth.” She lunged again.
With outstretched palms, I knocked her backward onto her ass.
Around us, Thalia’s men were losing. Bones cracked. Blood scented the air. Vamps cried in pain. And the strippers, flush with new found courage, attacked the enemy like a pack of she-wolves—with no mercy, no quarter given. Thalia may have had the numbers, but we had determination and nothing to lose.
“Believe what you want.” I punched Thalia hard in the gut. She dropped to her knees, in the soft sand, whining in pain. “I bet you’ve never been struck before have you?”
“Shut up, slut.” Thalia’s eyes widened. A mass of blond hair coated in blood landed in the sand next to her feet. Joel’s lifeless eyes stared out of his decapitated head.
Stunned, I took a step back.
Thalia unleashed a wail loud enough to shatter glass. Sand flew into my face, blinding me. I back-peddled, hands up to ward off the expected attack to follow. My eyes watered, blurring my vision.
The sand crunched behind me. I pivoted, forearm blocking my face. My left hand separated from my wrist. The force shield disrupted. Blood jetted from my severed limb.
Now I was a sitting duck.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Pain lanced up my arm seconds later. I jammed my arm under my armpit in an attempt to staunch the bleeding. Thalia knocked me over and slipped the cuff off the stump.
Coated in blood, the cuff remained closed. Inert to her touch.
“There’s nothing you have that I cannot take.” Her smug smile was all I could see. Blood loss dizzied my head. Oh God! The baby.
Thalia whispered to the cuff. Runes appeared in the surface. Betrayal stabbed me. The bracelet had no loyalty it seemed. Thalia turned it over in hands and admired it. She tilted it up and down ascertaining how to open it. Mesmerized by runes, she forgot about me.
“Cherry!” Jay screamed.
Far away.
Black spots bloomed. My head swam. Long ago, I had heard a story about re-connecting limbs. Time to find out if it was true. I concentrated. The stump tingled and itched, trying to heal. I couldn’t let that happen.
I dropped down and retrieved my hand. I tore away the thin layer of new flesh forming on my wrist, then jammed the dirty hand against the stump. I willed my veins and arteries to connect. The veins knitted together first, followed by the nerves, muscles and remaining blood vessels. New skin gloved my wrist, extending to my arm. The grit and sand pushed through to my skin’s surface and fell away. I flexed the digits. Good as new.
I searched for Thalia. She stooped over the water’s edge, scrubbing blood stains off the cuff. I charged, knocking her into the lake. The momentum sunk us both underwater.
Thalia flailed, her free hand pushing me away. She stubbornly clung to the bracelet. With strong kicks, she swam deeper into the lake. Since drowning wasn’t an issue, we could stay there forever.
I swam after her.
The water was crystal clear. Even though Thalia and I were the only ones in the cool depths, we were not alone. Kyrene hovered nearby, watching, waiting.
Kyrene, I called. No answer. A horrific thought seized me. What if the bracelet was the reason I could speak to her? And if Thalia possessed it, would Kyrene be under her command? Not that I ever tried to boss the lake entity around. Maybe I should have.
Kyrene you have to help me! The ancient queen spoke to me. She chose me. I pursued Thalia deeper. The water grew darker, the light from the surface a distant pinpoint.
I opened my mind, tearing away the red curtain. My mental theatre was a full house. Every family member sat in attention. To my dismay, the upper balcony was empty.
Please, I begged the ancient queen, you have to come back. We need you.
A song drifted from the left side of the stage. Low at first, then louder as the singer approached. The melody rose and fell to a steady cadence. The queen stepped out of the shadowed wing and onto the stage. A spotlight targeted her, following her journey towards me. With outstretched arms, she reached for my hands. We clasped palms. Her touch was cool and soft.
Her lips parted. The song stopped. “Join with me, sister.” Her voice was magical, spinning golden words in my head. The runes danced in my mind. For the first time, I could read them.
“Don’t despair. The pretender will not go far.” The queen lifted her voice in song again, beckoning me to join. The beat was simple, the words easy to remember. Once I mastered the lyrics, she invited the family to join.
Joyous music filled the auditorium. Without stopping, the queen smiled and motioned over her shoulder. The king strode onto
the stage. Handsome and proud with love on his face, he wrapped his arms around her and joined the chorus.
Jealousy stabbed me. Their love was so pure. I had that once.
Ian. Misery filled my soul, threatening to choke me. He would never hear my singing voice.
The queen stepped forward and hugged me. Our bodies warmed. Power vibrated between us, pleasant and bracing. Her spiritual essence merged into me. I gasped as the queen’s life force settled inside me. In my mind she said, your king is not lost.
A pair of strong familiar arms encircled my belly. The voice nearly killed me.
“Miss me, luv?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and locked my neck muscles in place. I would not turn around. I couldn’t bear the thought that I’d find no one behind me. I wanted Ian back so badly I was hallucinating.
“Open your eyes, child.” The king’s gentle fingertips tilted my chin. “We would not deceive you thus.”
I cried out when the arms left my waist. My eyelids flapped open. I staggered as Ian stood in front of me. He winked, flashing me his trademark grin. The king held out his arms. Ian accepted the embrace. White light blazed, engulfing the two figures.
I stepped forward, expecting to see an empty stage.
Ian remained. A golden aura outlined him from head to toe. I hastily checked myself. The same glow enveloped me.
“Don’t you have something to say? Like, Ian I missed you?” He reached toward me.
I jerked backward, still refusing to believe. “How do I know you’re real?”
“Touch me and find out.”
“If you’re a figment, I’ll go insane.” Tears heated my cheeks, leaving wet trails down my neck. Silence filled the auditorium. The family waited, not making a sound. “I’m scared.”
“Since when has fear ever stopped you?” Ian moved closer. His heady male fragrance filled my nostrils.
The baby moved. Ian was right, I had to know. I reached forward, hand aimed at his chest. I hit a solid mass. With a choked sob, I leapt into his arms.
Fervent kisses rained down on my cheeks and lips. I pulled his mouth to mine. Joy filled my heart. After a while, we broke apart. My lips tingled. Ian’s were equally plump and red.
