Sexual Memory [Dark Colony 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
Page 14
“No. I’ll do it.” If there were any more snippets of Angelica on film, Jeremy wanted to watch it alone the first time. Seeing her on the engineer monitor with Bergeron standing like a sentry nearby had nearly debilitated him. No need to look stricken if he saw her in danger again, even to Drew.
But he added, “Still, I’ll keep your generous offer in mind.”
Ensconced in his quarters, Jeremy watched every video that had William Battle in the title. Glimpses of Angelia’s face were few and far between. Often he only saw a part of her. An arm, a hand, or her braid partly showing on the screen as William fought. Halfway through, he started sending the footage to Drew on the command deck for a second viewing, fearful he’d miss something important.
That had been the turning point.
Drew had been the genius behind finding the unique video production code frequency embedded in the feed at the start of each film, enabling the Stargazer something finite to search for as they flew through forbidden space.
Together they used the Stargazer’s onboard frequency scanner to search for the unique signature, while still remaining invisible to any other hostile craft in the galaxy. They could scan an entire planet in less than a day.
They went back to the first and largest planet to scan for that unique signal. And subsequently, they scanned each of the Slaver planets in order of descending population once more.
He left the search in Drew’s capable hands as he ensconced himself in his quarters to think through what he’d do once they discovered the planet where Angelica was enslaved.
Jeremy needed to contemplate any and all possible plans to explore, infiltrate, and most importantly recover.
After four days spent meticulously searching each of the District Six planets, searching for the unique production code frequency, they’d found the identical code being transmitted from the third to the last planet in the star system. It was one of the smaller of the Forbidden Zone worlds.
During the four days before the planet’s discovery, Jeremy realized he hadn’t watched the complete list of William videos and loaded the first one without the word “battle” in the title.
He saw William in a different setting altogether. He also saw Angelica. Grateful he hadn’t forwarded the entire DMR list of films to Drew, Jeremy seated himself and quietly watched every single second of film attached to William’s name.
Trying not to be overwhelmed by what he saw, Jeremy’s resolve to find her only sharpened as the minutes ticked by and the films spun through to each obvious conclusion.
After watching every single video, Jeremy only knew one thing for certain. Angelica needed to be rescued as soon as fucking possible. In fact, right goddamned now!
* * * *
Parisa filled with rage as she watched the mechanical beasts across the ring. She glanced at Will. He also stared, unblinking, across the arena’s expanse at the new threat they faced. He then glanced down at the sword in his hand, pushing out a disgusted-sounding sigh, dropping his arm uselessly to one side.
The sword remained gripped in his fist, but it was clear by his expression that William didn’t believe today’s weapon of choice would matter much in the coming fight. They were mechanized foes, not hybrid or at all biological. Everyone knew that mechanical anything trumped mere swords every day of the week and twice on the Lord’s day.
The two gigantic, ferocious beasts advanced slowly. The metal bears didn’t need to run to be successful. While it was true they moved at a snail’s pace, she could still predict the outcome of this battle easily.
She and William could run faster and dodge the beasts, for a while. However, they both knew that the two mechanized creatures would lumber around the arena, biding their time waiting until the two humans were too tired to keep moving. Then they’d slowly approach and stomp on them once they were too weary to move any longer. The fight went right out of her. There was no hope at all to win this final battle round.
Perhaps Lord Harcourt just wanted them dead.
Will frowned and gripped his sword. Parisa did the same, but they both knew the primitive weapons would be useless in this coming battle. He moved, putting his back against hers. She moved, too. Back to back, each of them with heads turned to the side, eyeing the ferocious beast about to lumber forward to pounce them, stomp them, slash them, and kill them, unless they started running. Was that going to be the plan? To run until they couldn’t anymore?
Will suddenly said, “I love you, Parisa. I have from the first moment we kissed.”
Parisa pushed her shoulders more firmly into his solid back. “I love you, too, Will.”
He pushed out a weary sounding breath. “I’m truly sorry I can’t save us this time.” He promptly dropped his sword into the dirt at their feet and turned around.
She let her weapon fall into the dust as well, and twisted to face him. She wanted to look at him one last time. They pressed into each other, maybe for the last time. “I’m sorry I can’t save us either,” she said earnestly.
He put his arms around her waist and said, “That’s okay, the slave bitch isn’t supposed to save us. You’re the incentive.”
Parisa cracked a smile and a grunt of laughter escaped. “That’s right. I forgot. I’m not supposed to think that highly of myself.”
He grinned. “Well, I think very highly of you. Truthfully, I’ve loved every minute we’ve had together. You’ve been a fierce fighter, and it’s been my honor to battle alongside you in the arena.”
“Mine, too. Plus, the rewards after each fight were amazing.”
Will grinned. “Ah yes. The extraordinary rewards. You’ve been the best incentive a man could ever ask for. I’ll never be sorry for the privilege of getting to know you.” Will lifted his hand, brushing his fingertips gently down her face, and finally stroking her jaw line with his thumb. He cupped her face one handed, kissed her once gently, retreating to just stare at her.
She lifted up on her toes and kissed his whiskered chin.
The sound of some sort of disturbance on the platform, where Lord Harcourt sat with his entourage, drifted down to where they waited to die.
Parisa glanced up at his lordship. He was leaning so far forward in his throne seat he looked like he was about to launch out of the dais and fly into the arena at any second. He didn’t seem to understand why they weren’t going to give their best effort to win his impossible game.
Fuck you, your lordship, we choose not to play. Parisa decided easily that staring into Will’s eyes before she was ripped to shreds was preferable to running around uselessly until she dropped from exhaustion, and was then ripped to shreds or stomped to death.
Will glanced at the beasts still moving toward them. Having crossed half the distance, they marched ever closer. This was it. They were going to die. It was only a matter of time. They both knew it. No need to exhaust themselves beforehand in a losing battle.
The squeaking momentum of the robot beasts advancing filled the air around them with the worst sort of coming defeat. The beasts got close enough that she could smell their foul oily breath as they panted.
Parisa’s eyes filled with angry unshed tears. The word “unjust” blazed through her brain.
Will moved closer, hugged her tighter, and smiled in that way he did right before they made mad, passionate love. He pressed his mouth over hers, kissing her like it would be their last time, because it would. This was it. The end. She hoped the first blow killed her.
She put her heart and soul into this last expression of love, waiting for her life in this horrible arena to be over. Her only regret, not saving Will, who deserved to be saved. She waited for the first razor-sharp swipe of a metal claw to find purchase. Head? Body? Legs? It didn’t matter. Lord Harcourt had finally sent something into the ring that would cause their immediate demise with little effort. Obviously, he did want them dead. They’d outlived their use.
Instead of pondering her imminent death, she pressed her lips harder to Will’s mouth. They kissed and
kissed and kissed, waiting for their lives to end in a blood bath of carnage courtesy of the razor-sharpened metal nails of mechanized beasts created for the sole purpose of human slaughter. They’d die just like every other slave’s life had been forfeited here, and in the bloodiest of ways.
The squeaking sound of the mechanical beast’s ominous approach slowed down. Were they ready to pounce now? She tensed up, and kissed Will like her life depended on it. She waited, expecting to feel the razor sharp claws tear her apart at any second. She counted to five. Still, nothing happened.
Parisa opened her eyes halfway to see Will staring at her, too. She saw puzzlement in his expression. They both turned, still cheek to cheek, looking up at the threats in time to see something unexpected. The menacing beasts had stopped moving altogether, like someone had pushed the pause button on a streaming video. The robot beasts had halted in mid movement.
Were they malfunctioning?
Could they be defeated?
“Will,” she whispered, pulling away, and turning her head more toward the beasts.
“I see it,” he responded. Will also looked at them, his eyes widening for a second.
They were promptly distracted by a new, shocking noise. Above the arena a large spacecraft appeared out of nowhere, huge and impressive, shadowing the entire structure, coming into view only a split second before twin beams of laser blue light drilled from the belly of the ship and into the gladiator ring, vaporizing the two stalled beasts. They’d looked very much like they were poised to eat them alive, until they vanished as if they’d never been there.
The acrid scent of burned metal—the only hint that anything had stood there before—suddenly filled the air around them, and a wave of energy pushed her away from Will a step or two a second after the beams struck.
“What the fuck?” Will whispered. He looked skyward again.
“Indeed,” she replied, the wonder in her own tone hard to miss.
She couldn’t even make up a scenario for what happened next. The huge space craft hovered over the arena for a few more minutes. The entire crowd in the stadium looked skyward, watching and waiting. She spared a glance at his lordship. The man was practically purple with rage. He also stared at the spacecraft, only he was probably willing it to fall from the sky, crash and burn to a cinder.
It was odd to see so many mechanized things after spending the past three months in such a primitive environment.
A tickle of memory tried to invade Parisa’s mind as she stared at the spacecraft. Why would a foreign spaceship look so familiar? Had she come from space?
The back end of the craft above opened like dropping a drawbridge down. A much smaller vehicle exited the large ship, and flew down toward the arena grounds. It circled halfway around and then glided to a halt twenty feet from where they stood.
A clear door on top popped open and a figure dressed in a blue flight suit—complete with a clear-faced white helmet—alighted from the craft, heading straight for her.
“Angelica!” the space stranger shouted in her direction. His voice sounded distorted from within the helmet.
Parisa looked over one shoulder as if he might be talking to one of the audience members in the stands above her head. She turned back, but he seemed to be talking to her.
“Angelica, let’s go!” the space man said. He waved to her, as if he wanted her to join him.
He promptly moved around and opened the other door on the small craft, gesturing with one arm over and over for her to approach, looking all around the arena as if expecting someone to stop him.
She took a step in his direction. Was this a chance at escape? Survival? The idea of leaving this horrid place right now so tempting, she took another step forward, hesitating in the next moment when she looked at the craft again. Parisa noticed that the small ship was only large enough for two people. Did that mean Will wasn’t invited to go? She glanced back at Will. She refused to leave him behind to face the consequences from the arena.
Behind her, Lord Harcourt had started screaming something unintelligible.
The strange man moved closer and motioned at her again as if to say, “Come on, hurry up. We need to get out of here.”
Will moved further away from her. He looked down, searching the ground. What was he looking for?
“Angelica, please. We don’t have much time. Let’s go!” the man said once more, the desperation in his tone was understandable, but she wasn’t going anywhere with some stranger.
Parisa shook her head and retreated away from him. She didn’t know who Angelica was. She was absolutely not going anywhere with a stranger, especially not without Will. Her gladiator had retrieved his sword. He turned back to aim the tip at the bold space man who’d come down to, what? Whisk her away? Why?
The chain between them clinked in the dirt at her feet.
The stranger stared at the tether attaching her to Will as if he’d just now realized it was there. He quickly pulled a small device from his waistband and shot a blue beam—much like the one that had destroyed the mechanical beasts earlier—at a space between her and Will.
The chain burst apart, another burnt metallic smell rose in the air between them, but they were also not tethered together any longer. The man motioned for her once more to join him.
“No,” she said loudly. “I’m not going with you.” She edged closer to Will even though they were no longer chained together. They didn’t have anywhere to escape. Will stepped in front of her, his sword raised and aiming at the stranger.
All of a sudden the doors to the arena opened up behind them. Before the spaceman could depart, what looked like the entire squadron of guards assigned to the battle arena streamed out, weapons drawn, surrounding the three of them along with the small craft.
Will wrapped his free arm behind his back, his hand landing on her thigh possessively. This did not escape notice of the stranger, as his gaze drilled directly to Will’s fingers squeezing her leg.
In the next moment, the man’s shoulders slumped a bit. He stared at her through his clear helmet with something akin to puzzled bewilderment. The curvature of the helmet didn’t allow her to see his features very well, with the exception of his eyes. The man’s gaze drilled into her with powerful distress as if he couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t leap at the chance to escape into the unknown with him.
While his beseeching eyes were compelling and equally nice to look at, Parisa didn’t recognize him. And besides, she wasn’t leaving here without Will.
Not ever.
Chapter Thirteen
Jeremy was fucked. His plan to spirit Angelica away quickly evaporated like water left out in the blazing heat of a treacherous summer sun.
Large-muscled men with unfamiliar electronic weapons soon surrounded them, including the two-person shuttle he’d brought down to collect her. Now it was probably about to be either confiscated or destroyed or both. Either way he’d failed in this brash attempt at a quick rescue.
Jeremy looked skyward in time to see the Stargazer disappear from the space above the arena. Which was exactly what he’d instructed Drew to do in case he was captured.
Cloak the ship and go. He’d just expected to be aboard, clutching Angelica to his side when it happened. A gasp from the crowd resonated around the stadium. Had they been shocked when the ship appeared? Likely.
Cloaking spaceships was of course illegal in this renegade district. Jeremy felt this rule was completely hypocritical since this whole place was filled with a plethora of people breaking every moral law known to humanity. But they couldn’t do anything to the Stargazer if they couldn’t catch the invisible ship.
He’d known what he was getting into the moment he stepped into the shuttle. Or he thought he had.
Jeremy’s last vision of watching Angelica kiss the gladiator man she’d spent the last several months with in carnal reverie tugged at his previously unrecognized jealous bone. But still, he had to try and save her. Even if she didn’t want him anymore.
He replayed her unexpected words in his head over and over. “No, I’m not going with you.”
Why the fuck not? But then she’d looked at him with something akin to fear. Like he was a wicked stranger set to take her to a worse place than she already existed in. But it was also something he hadn’t expected. Not really.
The tapes he’d watched of her in the battle arena had sound, but she wasn’t featured in many of them. He knew she called herself Parisa, but figured it was a made-up name for the battle arena and the strange place she’d found herself in. Like perhaps she hadn’t wanted anyone to know who she really was. The other video tapes he’d watched—that included her with the gladiator named William—hadn’t had any sound.
But then they hadn’t needed any noise to be understood, had they?
A loud squeal sounded, ending his heartbreaking reverie, and a familiar haughty voice soon came through the loudspeakers of the arena. Jeremy looked around the stadium until he found the dais, where the “king” he’d seen in the gladiator battle porn tapes sat in his gilded throne.
“You there. Stranger. You’ve ruined today’s arena fight, destroying my battle robots before my gladiator could eliminate them. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Jeremy pulled his helmet off, and tossed it into the open hatch of the shuttle. He then started walking toward the platform where the king waited. Surprisingly, the muscled guards broke ranks to let him go through. Honestly, where else could he go now?
Once he got close enough, the king didn’t need his amplifier any more.
“I ruined today’s arena fight because you were about to kill the person I’ve come here for.”
“That’s not true.” The king leaned forward. “This is a gladiator combat arena. Those inside it earn their lives by fighting and winning.”