by Alyssa Ezra
The trees that she’d grown accustomed to seeing grew thinner until there was nothing but a road, and further down the hill that they were on, was a city, tall buildings towering and stretching towards the skies. Juliet was struck with awe.
It was nothing like what she’d seen back home. It looked more like something that Earth would have had in the 18th century, all the buildings made of brick-like stones. “It’s beautiful,” she remarked.
Zalgar huffed, “On the surface, maybe.”
Holding hands, the two made their way through the city. There were no walls or guards, which Juliet was happy for, but there were patrolmen. “This is where it’s going to get hard,” Zalgar told her, the both of them hiding around a corner. “The hangar is on the southwest side of the capital. We’re in the northwest section.”
“So basically the opposite side of town,” Juliet summarized, cocking an eyebrow, “How am I going to get across town without getting noticed?”
“We’ll have to worry about them noticing me too,” Zalgar said, “I was once a hero here. When I abandoned the city, that didn’t go unnoticed by the guards and civilians, I’m sure.”
While she appreciated the honesty, it only made her more nervous at the fact that they had more obstacles thrown at them. “We’re just going to duck and hide the entire time?” she asked, looking at Zalgar.
He pulled out his two blades. “If it doesn’t work, we kill the ones that see us. You still have your blade from Jahan, don’t you?” Juliet nodded, reaching behind her and into the bag to grab it. “Then we just need to make it quick and quiet, alright?”
Juliet didn’t know if she could do what he was asking, killing a person. She hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that, staying close behind Zalgar as they moved their way around the city. Luckily, he knew his way around well, and with his role as commander of the city, he also knew how the shifts worked, when they traded off, what their rotations and patrol areas were. They had gotten to the hangar with only two incidents, guards that noticed them sneaking around. Zalgar had taken both out before they could even finish asking what the pair were up to.
She felt all the stress she’d been holding onto finally leave her as she looked at the hangar. Inside, there would be ships that could get her outside, away from a hostile planet full of people that wanted her dead.
There was only one problem, and she could see that Zalgar was thinking about it as well, his steps growing heavier. She reached out for his hand as they approached the warehouse. He turned and gave her small, half-hearted smile that didn’t last long before collapsing into a frown.
Juliet squeezed his hand. “Thank you. For everything.”
Zalgar nodded, opening the door and pulling her inside. Once they were safe in the darkness, he put both hands on her shoulders. “I meant it when I promised I would get you here safe. And I meant it when I promised I will find you again.”
Then a voice came from the dark, echoing off the walls of the hangar. “Funny, you told me something else, Zalgar.”
The pair turned to look in the direction that it came from. It was a low, sultry voice, definitely belonging to a woman. “Samara,” Zalgar growled, then called out, “You said you would give me time to get rid of her!”
Samara replied with a tinkling laugh, the lights all turning on. Juliet and Zalgar squinted at the sudden brightness. When their eyes adjusted, they found her in all her black leather glory, hands on her hips, surrounded by five other men in military uniforms. While she looked purely angry, hiding it behind a playful smirk, the others were straight-laced, expressionless. They were almost like robots. Was Zalgar like this before?
“I meant that you should kill her,” she said, taking a step forward. The other men followed her. “I didn’t expect you to actually bring an earthling into the city… You didn’t used to be this stupid, my love.”
“She is getting out of this one way or another,” Zalgar threatened, “His fists tightening around his blades, “Don’t make this hard on yourself.”
Samara replied by withdrawing her own blades, swirling them around her wrists with an artistry that Juliet didn’t dare hope that she could master. Ever. “I thought about it. Really, I did,” she replied, though her tone was so apathetic that Juliet had a hard time believing her claim, “Once I realized what this thing was to you… I thought it would be harder for you to forgive me, killing your true love and your father, but… You know me. I’ve always been so jealous.”
“Samara-”
“Finding Jahan dead was just the last straw, Zalgar,” Samara continued, now pacing back and forth between her row of soldiers, boots clicking against the hard floor of the hangar, “We could always cover it up, tell them that the hideous earthling creature managed to seduce him, killing him after she got the information she needed, but…” Now Samara paused, looking straight at Zalgar. There was no smirk anymore, just the raw anger left. “I can’t trust someone that would choose an outsider over his own people, his own friend. Not even you.”
“She’s going to leave, and that’ll be the end of it. You can do whatever you want to me.”
Samara shook her head. “And risk others finding out about us? Have them come back in droves to fight us and take over our planet all over again? The man I was going to marry wanted to protect his people. He was never this weak.” She nodded her head. “Men… Kill them.”
“Juliet, stay back,” Zalgar ordered.
Even if he told her to move, Juliet wouldn’t have been able to. She was frozen in fear, watching five men come at her, their own blades in hand. Five against two? Those weren’t favorable odds. And then she felt the hot glare of Samara burning into her. Their eyes met, blue to green, the alien woman twirling her blades around and around again the entire time.
They didn’t break eye contact, even as Juliet heard Zalgar grunting and shouting, blades clanging together. She didn’t want to look, didn’t want to find that he was losing, even though a small part of her had complete faith that Zalgar wouldn’t lose, even with the numbers against him.
With him distracted, it left his ex-fiancée with a window of opportunity, stalking towards his new lover. Juliet knew by now how their race worked, how predatory they were. While she stood up to fight Jahan, there was something different, scarier about Samara. Jahan only hated the human for what she was, an outsider. Meanwhile, Samara had several reasons to kill and hate Juliet.
This time, Juliet ran. She ran away from Zalgar, sprinting towards the closest space shuttles, but her opponent caught up with her quickly, elbowing her in the chest and knocking Juliet on the flat of her back, hitting the ground hard. Juliet coughed, trying to stand up, but Samara took advantage of her being on the ground, pressing her boot down onto Juliet’s cheek, her face tilting to the side.
Digging the toe of her shoe in, Samara smiled. “That was easier than I thought,” she laughed, “Zalgar used to love fighters. Sad to see how he was destined to be with a runner…”
Juliet grit her teeth. She was tired of thinking she was going to die, and out of all the people who threatened her, she refused to be killed by Samara. “I’m not running anymore,” she replied, quickly withdrawing her knife from the belt loop on her shorts and stabbing deep into Samara’s leg. She tried to get as many stabs as she could, but once the boot was lifted off her face, Juliet focused more on getting out of the vulnerable position she was in.
Samara screamed from the surprise and pain, her foot shooting up. “I’ll kill you!” she yelled, reaching for Juliet. With her injury, she was forced to limp, moving slower than she normally would. Juliet smiled, proud of what she’d done so far.
I might actually win this. Looking at her enemy, she tried to think of the area that would be the next best place to hit. Get rid of her weapons. Juliet lunged, ducking low to avoid Samara’s attempts at slicing her.
Her blade hit flesh, and only when Juliet pulled away did she see she’d cut deep into her left forearm, causing Samara to lose her grip on one blade. The bl
onde moved forward now, tackling the alien to the ground and placing her knee firmly on Samara’s good arm. She knocked the other blade out of the way, the woman thrashing beneath her.
“You’re nothing!” Samara screamed, “You think you’re going to escape here? They’ll kill him, and then they’ll find you and kill you too.”
Juliet glared down, anger and fear pouring through her. “You fight like shit,” she spit, “And if the rest of the army is anything like you, they can come and get me!” She didn’t think anymore, forcing her blade down into Samara’s throat. Juliet heard a woman’s cry, realizing only too late that it was her own. Samara was drowning in her own blood, unable to say anything or do anything besides jerk. Realizing what was happening, what she’d done, Juliet scrambled away from the dying woman, dropping her blade. Her eyes stayed on Samara the entire time, until finally, her body grew still and silent.
That was when Juliet realized the entire room had gone silent. Her head darted to where she left Zalgar to fight the others. He was standing, looking right back at her, his opponents dead at his feet. She expected to see horror in his eyes, but as he rushed forward, grabbing her in his arms, Juliet realized it was the same look he gave to her when she caught her first fish. It was pride. She was a fighter, no longer just a victim or a runner.
They were both covered in blood, none of it their own, but Juliet didn’t care. She held onto him tightly as he pressed hurried kisses over her face. “You were amazing,” Zalgar told her, “Are you alright?”
Juliet nodded, feeling almost numb. “I… I had to, right?” she reasoned, coming to terms with the fact that she’d just taken her first life, “She… She would have killed me if I hadn’t.”
He didn’t even hesitate, nodding. “She would have. She would have killed you and let you bleed out without a second thought. Juliet, don’t give her the satisfaction.”
The blonde nodded, burying her face in his neck. “I can’t do this,” she whispered, “I can’t go home and pretend that none of this happened.” Juliet wasn’t the same girl that boarded the shuttle a month ago.
She didn’t care about her work-study, her finals, what her friends thought of her, or how to prove that she was completely over her college boyfriend. Would she even be able to look at her parents after everything she’d gone through?
“You have to,” Zalgar insisted, pulling away from her so that he could look straight into her eyes. Juliet wondered if she would always remember that exact shade of purple, that lilac color, or if it would fade over time. “There’s no place for you here. They will find you and kill you here. After what’s happened to Samara and Jahan, and the others… I can’t protect you anymore, Juliet.”
She gripped his vest tightly, her hands balling into fists. “Then come with me,” she begged, “Don’t make me leave you… They’ll kill you if you stay here too; you know they will.” And Juliet couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him to his death.
He shook his head. “And then what?” Zalgar asked, desperate for an answer that he could believe in, “They’ll hate me there.”
“They’ll accept you-”
“Juliet, no,” he insisted, “My kind is not welcome in your Alliance. We tried, my family did… My grandfather, he tried, just like my father did, to make Rolq’thos come out of hiding. He barely made it out alive, and the only reason he did was because one man, one man from Earth, saved him. He wouldn’t have lasted another second out there.”
It made sense even more now, why his family was for showing their faces to the universe, and maybe why he had helped her, besides the soul mate aspect. Juliet smiled, thinking it really was Fate that they meet. And she believed that it was Fate to meet him in this life. They deserved more than just a month together.
“Don’t you see?” she asked, “He survived because of one person from Earth… You’ll have me. I can protect you now. No one will hurt you.”
“Juliet-”
“I’m not taking no for an answer this time, Zalgar.” She tried to give him the sternest, most serious look she could, but Juliet could feel that above all, she just looked and sounded scared.
“I can’t do this without you, can’t go on living knowing that you’re here with these people. If you don’t come with me, I’m not going back home. I’ll stay here with you, fight them with you… And if we die… We die together.”
Zalgar opened his mouth, but no reply came out. Juliet looked towards the door, knowing the lights were going to attract attention, especially if people started to miss Samara, Jahan, and the five soldiers that they’d killed just in the past 24 hours.
They were running out of time. She pressed a harsh kiss against his lips, hoping that it wouldn’t be the last. When they pulled away, Juliet tilted her head to lean against his. “Please…
He shook his head, giving a long, heavy sigh. And then, finally…
“Okay.”
Chapter Nine: Epilogue
“Just fifteen minutes,” Juliet said into the phone, “We’re running a little late, but I swear, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“I can’t believe you’re running late for your first book signing,” Amy sighed.
For a manager and editor, she was pretty fantastic. Juliet had met her while at a coffee shop in the midst of writing her book when Amy came along. The two got to talking, the older woman growing immediately interested in Juliet’s story, a perfect blend of romance, science fiction, and action.
“Are you bringing the husband along? You better be bringing him along. The crowd is expecting it, you know.”
Juliet sighed, looking over at the man in question. He was standing in the mirror, trying to decide which tie to wear. She smiled when his lilac eyes found hers in the reflection, and he gave her that smirk that she loved to see. God, he looks so good in formal wear, she thought to herself, though Juliet never got over the original huntsman look. They had a couple of those outfits tucked away in the back of the closet for roleplaying purposes, never getting tired of playing the hunter and the prey.
“He’s coming,” she agreed, just as Zalgar came over, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing kisses against her neck. Juliet bit her lip, trying to withhold a moan. “Oh, actually, he just messaged me… He’s stuck in traffic. Another ten minutes, so you’ll see us in half an hour.”
“Juliet…”
The blonde laughed. “I’ll be there in half an hour, Amy,” she insisted, “It’s like you said, though. They’re expecting him. What do you want me to do, move traffic?” She hung up immediately after, moving a hand under his chin to bring Zalgar’s lips to hers.
“You liar,” he chuckled, picking Juliet up and laying her on the bed. She was going to wrinkle her dress, but she didn’t care.
Juliet laughed again, shushing him. “Come on,” she said, “It takes us 10 minutes to get to the bookstore. That gives you twenty minutes.”
“What do you want me to do for those twenty minutes?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow, “You need to tell me what you want, Mrs. Torgu.”
Juliet still never tired of hearing him say her new last name. Everyone thought her to be dead, part of a shuttle crash never to be found again, lost in the depths of space. So when Juliet came home, it was shock enough.
But she came with stories of a planet that had yet to be found, proof in the ship and the man standing next to her, who she claimed to be her soul mate. When the two got married, it was covered on the news. The two were famous.
By the time Juliet finally got to publishing her book, a detailed account of everything that had happened to her, from Dwynlins to backstabbing ex-fiancées and two-headed fish, “Juliet Torgu” was a household name in the science world. It was hard to accept who Zalgar was at first, people distrusting of him when it came to light how many people his planet had killed and hidden, but that was why Juliet decided to write her book, to show who her husband really was.
He was the love of her life, the best man she had ever known. And it was her turn to pro
tect him. “I want your cock buried inside of me,” Juliet replied, “I don’t want to be able to sit down comfortably while I’m signing these books… And I want people to know it’s because of my husband.”
Zalgar grinned, untucking the crisp, white shirt that he had just fixed and unbuttoned his pants. Juliet widened her legs, revealing that she wasn’t wearing any panties, only causing him to grin wider.
Pulling her hips down to meet hers, Juliet knew her hair was going to be ruined too. Amy had told her to dress nice and would probably give her crap for it later, but Juliet didn’t care. She only had twenty minutes, and she was going to enjoy every bit of it.
She sighed when she felt the tip of his length pressing against her entrance, tilting her hips up. Zalgar was not considerate in her attire, nor his. His shirt wrinkled, and so did hers as his hands squeezed at her breasts through her dress. Juliet cried out at the harsh thrusts, Zalgar quickly finding her sweet spot. He never took long finding it, knowing her body better than she knew it herself. “Yes,” she panted, “Yes, please…”
