Saved by a Bear (Legends of Black Salmon Falls Book 2)

by Lauren Lively

  Carmen glanced out of the chamber, but she couldn’t see anything other than the pale blue light. “I don’t see how we have any choice but to cooperate. You heard what he said. If we don’t cooperate, they’ll hurt us and separate us. Whatever else happens, we have to stay together as long as we can. I don’t like it any more than you do, but I can’t stand by and let you hurt yourselves by trying to resist.”

  Penelope Ann yanked her back again. “You’re betraying all of us by cooperating with them. I’m telling you right now, if you go out there, none of us will have anything to do with you.”

  One glance over Penelope Ann’s shoulder at the others cowering in the back of the chamber confirmed Penelope Ann was telling the truth. Aria glared at her, and Marissa wouldn’t look at her at all. How could she let these women down?

  She cast one more quick peek towards the door and dropped her voice to a whisper. “Listen, Penelope Ann. I feel exactly the same way you do, and I promise you, we’re gonna do everything we can to get out of here and get back to Earth. But the only way we can do that is to bide our time and keep our eyes open. Maybe if we play along with these aliens, they’ll let their guard down. Then, when we see a chance to strike back, we take it. Okay?”

  Penelope Ann let go of her arm. She tightened her lips.

  Carmen pressed her advantage. “I hate these aliens for what they did to us, and I’ll never rest until I get back to Earth. I’m doing the only thing that will help us accomplish that. Now who’s with me?”

  Aria smacked her lips and looked away. Marissa raised her eyes to Carmen’s face and gave her a slow nod. Penelope Ann sighed. “All right. We’ll play it your way for now, but I don’t like it. We should fight back.”

  “If we fight back now,” Carmen replied, “we could wind up hurt or dead. We don’t know where we are or what these creatures are capable of. He said he’s kidnapped thousands of human women, so he must be brutal and heartless. We can’t just throw ourselves at them and hope for the best. We have to use our heads and plan to escape later.”

  “All right,” Penelope Ann told her. “We’ll cooperate for now, as long as you agree it’s only temporary. I’m not going to some market in the Regulus Galaxy without a fight.”

  Carmen smiled. “Me, neither. Believe me, this is the first stage in a much longer fight to earn our freedom. We’re conserving our strength and....”

  She didn’t finish her sentence. Some unseen power seized hold of her and dragged her toward the door. She struggled with all her might, but an invisible hand pulled her across the chamber and out into the blue light. Her heels screeched on the metal floor, but no amount of kicking and thrashing could stop her.

  The same power took hold of the others, and all four women found themselves moving against their will into the blue light. Carmen crossed the threshold first. Another enormous chamber surrounded the vehicle that took them from the bakery. Carmen got a good look at it from the outside. It was a plain white metal box. How could she mistake it for the paddy wagon?

  She didn’t have time to think about that, though. The four aliens stood in a row across the room. The tentacles on their faces stood out from their faces and lashed the air. Whatever force held the women captive and moved them around in spite of their best efforts came from those tentacles.

  Rotnim’s eyes blazed when Carmen skidded into view. His mouth twisted into a grotesque imitation of a smile. Carmen fought harder than ever to break the force holding her, and his expression registered even greater pleasure. When she relaxed and let him pull her along, he frowned in disappointment. He enjoyed her struggle and her fear.

  Black rage bubbled up from the depths of her being. He stole her and her companions from Earth, and now he got some sick thrill out of manipulating her with his power. He enjoyed jerking her around like a puppet on a string. She fixed her eyes on his face. She would defeat him. She would destroy him and his kind for what he did to her and the other human women. She dedicated her life to enforcing the law, and she would never rest until she broke their trade in women.

  He pulled her into the middle of the large chamber, and his friends did the same with the other three women. The aliens dumped them in a heap on the floor. Aria grunted in pain, and Marissa cried out. Penelope Ann rolled to one side and, in one fluid movement, rocketed to her feet. She charged across the room with her arms outstretched toward Rotnim.

  Carmen put out a hand to stop her and called, “Penelope Ann! No!”

  But Penelope Ann didn’t hear her. She flew toward him, but she only got halfway there before the invisible force caught her. She didn’t fly backwards the way Aria did. She hung a foot off the ground with her arms and legs pinned at her sides. She worked all her muscles to break his hold, but to no avail.

  Rotnim gurgled his hideous laugh and strolled around her. He surveyed her from head to foot. “A little too big for my taste, but I’m sure the buyers will pay extra for that. Good for breeding, and maybe for hard labor, too. A good prize.”

  Penelope Ann foamed at the mouth and spat at him. “How dare you treat me like a piece of meat? I’ll kill you for this. You and all your kind will pay for what you’ve done.”

  Rotnim shrugged. “That’s what you think.”

  His tentacles danced in the air and lowered her until her feet grazed the floor. Rotnim stepped closer. His tentacles twitched in her face, and she drew back in disgust, but he only laughed.

  He close the gap between them, and his tentacles surrounded her face. She struggled harder than ever, but she couldn’t fight against his invisible hold. Her arms rose from her sides, and he embraced her chest with his own handless arms. He bent his head into the crevice of her neck, and his tentacles extended until they completely obliterated her face.

  Aria choked back a hoarse sob, and Marissa covered her face with her hands. She couldn’t watch. Carmen covered her mouth with her hand. If only she could attack Rotnim to help Penelope Ann, but one look at the other aliens made her reconsider. They stared at their three prisoners, and their tentacles slithered in and out of their faces in delicate patterns. She wouldn’t make it off the floor, and she might injure herself or get killed if she tried.

  Muffled grunts and cries issued from Penelope Ann under the mask of tentacles surrounding her face. Rotnim growled into her neck, and his body undulated against her in waves of carnal ecstasy. He could do what he wanted with her, and she couldn’t fight back.

  All at once, a spine-chilling scream ripped through the chamber. Penelope Ann gave one terrific burst of power, her arms flew out from her sides, and she brought the hard blades of both hands down hard on either side of Rotnim’s neck.

  His tentacles withdrew into his face until they vanished completely into his skin. Penelope Ann’s golden tresses and flashing eyes emerged from the deadly mask, and she shook herself free from his grip. Rotnim staggered back, and two circles glowed black and throbbing on either side of his neck.

  Penelope Ann dropped the rest of the way down to the floor. She landed like a cat on her feet and instantly launched herself at him again. In a heartbeat, she grabbed him with her elbow around his neck and drove him down to the floor with all her strength. She dropped onto one knee on the side of his head and smashed his skull into the metal floor.

  She drew back and aimed a kick at his chest. Rotnim curled into a ball and covered his head with his arms. He howled in agony, but Penelope Ann wasn’t finished with him. She drew back her foot to deliver another kick, but before it landed, the other three aliens turned on her with their tentacles fully extended. Penelope Ann froze with her foot in mid-swing.

  The invisible force field caught hold of Carmen. It held all four women motionless. Rotnim lay on the floor and groaned. A lavender liquid oozed from the side of his head. Carmen stared at the three aliens, but they didn’t move. They regarded their prisoners across the chamber and made no attempt to approach them.

  Then their invisible power moved the women, across the room, away from the vehicle that brough
t them there. Carmen didn’t bother to struggle this time. Nothing could fight against this force. How could they ever escape from creatures with this ability to control and act from a distance? But at least she knew now what she was up against. Any plan she came up with would have to take the Romarie’s power into consideration.

  The aliens moved their captives to a corner of the big chamber, where a door opened in a side panel. Carmen and her companions floated through it into another plain white box with no windows, no toilet, no anything. The door slammed shut behind them.

  Chapter 4

  Carmen crawled across the cold steel floor to Penelope Ann. “Are you all right?”

  Penelope Ann coughed and wiped slime off her face. “I’m fine. I don’t think we can say the same thing for...what’s his name.”

  Aria cackled with glee. “You really showed him, girl. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

  Penelope Ann smiled at her, but said nothing.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Carmen asked.

  Penelope Ann cocked her head to one side. “What do you mean?”

  “I saw you out there,” Carmen replied. “I saw the way you chopped at his neck with your hands and the way you headlocked him. You’ve got hand-to-hand combat training.”

  Penelope Ann shrugged. “What if I have?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Carmen asked.

  “What good would it have done?” Penelope Ann returned. “You wanted to believe you were the big, strong police officer who would get us out of this situation and the rest of us were weak, helpless maidens in distress.”

  Carmen blushed. “I didn’t think that.”

  Penelope Ann shifted her weight to one side. “Call it what you want. You didn’t believe any of us could be any good in a fight, but you didn’t bother to find out if you were right or wrong. Well, now you know you were wrong.”

  “What training do you have?” Carmen asked.

  Penelope Ann looked the other way.

  “If you’d spent any time in our neighborhood at all,” Aria told her, “you would know Penelope Ann is a national champion jujitsu competitor. She brought home the grand title the last four years running.”

  Carmen stared at Penelope Ann with new eyes. Penelope Ann was right. Carmen never considered any of these women would offer anything that could help them escape. Now her whole concept of their situation rearranged itself. They still couldn’t fight back against the aliens’ psychic power, but Penelope Ann’s combat skill changed everything.

  A glimmer of hope entered in Carmen’s mind. She wasn’t alone in this the way she thought she was. She could count on at least one of these women when the hammer came down. Maybe the others had skills she could count on, too.

  “Did you see the black spots on his neck when you hit him?” Marissa asked. “And the way his tentacles withdrew into his face when he was hurt. Those spots must be the source of their telekinetic power.”

  Carmen rounded on her. “What are you talking about?”

  Marissa faced her. “You saw the same things I did. They manipulated and controlled us with their tentacles. They never touched us until Rotnim decided to help himself to Penelope Ann, but they held us still and moved us around with their power. That power is called telekinesis. It means they can act from a distance with their minds. In their case, their tentacles must direct that power, but it’s the glands in their necks that produce it.”

  “And did you notice how Rotnim’s tentacles are longer than the others’?” Penelope Ann asked. “He must be the strongest of the bunch.”

  “That explains why he’s their leader,” Aria added. “He must be some sort of captain on board their space ship.”

  Carmen threw up her hands. “This is nuts! You’re talking about aliens and space ships and telekinesis. This isn’t Star Trek, you know.”

  Aria rolled her eyes and turned her back on Carmen. “Shut your face, fool. If you can’t talk sense, then stick a sock in it. I’m not talking to you anymore.”

  Penelope Ann got to her feet. Slime stuck her golden tresses to her face and neck. “Aria’s right. You’ve done nothing but antagonize the rest of us since you first walked into my bakery this morning. If you can’t stop getting in our way, then move over and let us do our own thing. We’re trying to have a conversation here about the creatures who abducted us. This information will help us when it comes time to escape.”

  “No one is escaping with those....those things around,” Carmen replied. “You saw the way they controlled our every move. If we’re going to escape at all, we’ll have to do it when they aren’t around.”

  Penelope Ann whirled around. “You saw me put that piece of trash on the ground in two seconds. I would have smashed his head to smithereens if his friends hadn’t saved him. These creatures maybe have some kind of telekinetic power, but they aren’t invincible. We can defeat them if we fight back, so stop making excuses to sit on your backside and wring your hands. We’ve got a battle to plan here, and you aren’t helping at all.”

  Carmen started to say something, but Marissa stepped between them. “Everybody cool your jets. We have no reason to call Carmen a coward just because she thinks we should take a careful approach to planning our escape. She’s right that the aliens’ telekinetic power puts our escape in a whole new light. If we can plan to avoid them, we should do it. That only makes sense.”

  Carmen looked up at her face. “Thank you, Marissa.”

  Marissa nodded at her. “You have to admit, though, Carmen, Penelope Ann proved these aliens can be overpowered by strength. They held us with their telekinetic power, but only Rotnim dared to come anywhere near us. They must understand they’re fundamentally weaker than we are. Now we know they can be defeated, we might try fighting back a little harder when the time comes.”

  “As long as we wait until the time comes,” Carmen replied, “I’m willing to go along with that. But I don’t want anybody throwing themselves at a brick wall, busting their heads and breaking bones.”

  “I understand,” Marissa replied.

  Aria spun around. “We’ll bust their heads and break their bones.”

  Marissa held up her hand. “Carmen has a point. We should save our strength for a time when we’ll have the best chance of success.”

  “Not necessarily,” Penelope Ann countered. “They plan to sell us, so they won’t want us bashed up or damaged. Rotnim said so himself. Maybe if we fought back harder now, they’ll back down.”

  “You can’t tell me Rotnim will back down on anything,” Carmen argued. “He’s ruthless and bloodthirsty. If he thinks we would rather damage ourselves than cooperate, he won’t waste his time on us. He’ll kill us.”

  Marissa placed herself between Carmen and Penelope Ann. “Okay, okay. Enough arguing. There are four of us and four of them, and we have a common enemy. If we’re going to get out of here, we have to work together, not fight amongst ourselves. Now I’m making a decision that we’re going to stop talking about this right now. We need rest before they come back for us again.”

  “If they have telekinetic power,” Carmen pointed out, “they can probably read our thoughts, too. They’ve probably been listening to every word we’ve said.”

  Marissa chopped the air with her hand. “Enough! I’m ordering all of you to rest before they come back. We can talk about this again when we know more about our situation.”

  Penelope Ann stiffened. “You’re ordering us?”

  “That’s right,” Marissa replied. “Somebody’s got to take control around here, and it just happens to be me. Now go sit down in that corner over there, Penelope Ann. You go over there, Aria, and Carmen, you sit down over there.”

  “We’re not children you can order around,” Aria grumbled.

  “If you act like children,” Marissa replied, “you can expect to be treated like children. I spent the last five years running the reading sessions for children at the library, and I learned a thing or two. Now go sit down and don’t make me have
to tell you again.”

  Aria glared at her. Then she wilted and slunk off to her corner, where she slid down the wall onto the floor. She bent her knees up to her chest, crossed her arms on her knees, and cradled her head on her arms.

  Penelope Ann stared at Marissa for a moment. Then she nodded and went to her own corner. She sat cross-legged on the floor and folded her hands in her lap.

  Carmen retreated to her corner, but she didn’t sit down. Nervous energy kept her pacing in circles for a few minutes. Then she leaned against the wall. What would happen when one of them needed to go to the bathroom? Their prison cell was a padded room without the padding. Bare white walls surrounded them on all sides. She couldn’t even tell where air got in. Maybe air didn’t get in and they would suffocate in here.

  In the end, she sat down with her back against the wall. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes. No more than a couple of hours could have passed since she walked into Penelope Ann’s bakery, but overpowering exhaustion threatened to swallow her and drag her down into sleep. Maybe this was the space equivalent of jet lag.

  Chapter 5

  She might have dozed off, but she couldn’t tell. When she opened her eyes, Aria lay curled up in the fetal position on the floor. Penelope Ann hadn’t moved a muscle. A woman with as much martial arts training as she had could probably sit there for days without moving. Carmen shook herself when she noticed Marissa sitting near her.

  Carmen inclined her head toward Marissa and murmured into her ear. “I really appreciate you supporting me the way you did. I won’t forget it.”

  Marissa smiled and nodded. “You were right, Carmen. Fighting back right now won’t get us anywhere. We’ll keep an eye open for a better opportunity.”

  Carmen glanced across the room. “I didn’t know Penelope Ann was a trained fighter. I’m glad I’m not the only one here with combat training.”

  Marissa peered into her face. “We’re lucky to have you with us, Carmen. We should all follow your lead on this. Penelope Ann might know a lot about jujitsu, but you’re the only one of us with specific training in these types of situations. I’m sure when Aria and Penelope Ann get over their shock and anxiety, they’ll realize the same thing.”