by Marie Harte
Stupidly, she smiled, a huge grin she was unable to contain as she made her way back to Canunn’s side. Joining him, she saw his cautious hope and wanted to laugh out loud. That sense of freedom allowed her to resist the urge to choke him. Instead, to her surprise, she felt sorry for the male. The joy she’d experienced in her short life meant everything to her, and she knew instinctively that Canunn had never felt its like.
“Erin?”
“I’m just so glad to be back,” she said quietly, smiling still.
Canunn nodded, pleased with her response. Before he could speak, however, Synster arrived with Anin in tow. Erin could see nothing overly wrong with her sister, with the exception of Synster’s small hand gripping her arm tightly. Anin met her gaze and looked away, but not before she gave Erin a small wink.
Apparently, the time away from Blue Rim had benefited Anin as well, because that wink was the first show of open humor her sister had managed by herself, without being prodded by another.
Synster sneered as he joined her and Canunn. Shoving Anin away from him, he yelled at her. “Sit your ass down and don’t move.”
“Yes, Sir.” Anin sat and stared at the floor, and if Erin hadn’t known better, she’d swear Anin was grinning inside.
“Synster? What’s wrong?” Canunn looked worried.
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong. That bitch refused to have sex with me.”
Erin and Canunn stared at Synster, then at Anin, in perfect tandem.
“What?” Canunn asked before turning to Anin. “Anin, is this true?”
Anin looked up at Synster. “I should answer, Sir?”
“Yes, yes. Answer him, you stupid slut.”
Anin might not mind, but Erin’s annoyance grew the more he insulted her sister. She’d never liked Synster or his obnoxious comments. But now that she’d had a taste of freedom, she didn’t intend to suffer any more at Blue Rim’s hands.
“Yes, Sir,” Anin said to Canunn. “It is true. I did not want to have sex with my Handler, and when he asked what I wanted, I responded in kind.”
Canunn didn’t say anything. Synster, however, began cursing and pacing, completely put out.
“A few months out of the lab and they’re ruined. Ruined! This little drun refused me. My Creation to do with as I please, and she said no.”
“But did she disobey you, or did she answer you honestly?” Canunn asked, a distinction Erin sensed held a great deal of importance. Yet she could only marvel that her sister, once a spineless female, had not only winked at Erin, she’d been honest about her wants. Would wonders never cease?
“Actually, now that I think about it, she simply answered me. I hadn’t actually ordered her to obey.” Synster stared at her sister with a grim smile.
Anin, unfortunately, lost her pleased glow. And Erin knew that as far as Anin had come during her time away, disobeying Synster apparently wouldn’t be one of her triumphs.
“Sir?” Erin asked to take the focus from Anin. Canunn and Synster looked at her. “Where is Ryen?”
Synster shook his head. “Your brother is another problem, I’m afraid. I had to sedate him rather heavily. He’s in another of his rages and practically tore me apart when I came to get Anin. It took seven stuns to get him to ground, and another four to put him under.”
Canunn stared, open mouthed. “But Synster, that much at once could kill him.”
“I don’t think he will ever work out, Canunn. His death will most likely be for the best.”
Best my ass. Erin counted to ten, but thoughts of Ryen possibly dying without her or Anin, all alone, broke her ability to remain silent.
“Where is he?”
Synster narrowed his gaze. “I hear someone had a time with you. But you don’t look any different to me. She still subservient?” he asked Canunn as he walked around her, eyeing her like a piece of meat.
“Yes. But I don’t think—” Canunn tried before Synster cut him off.
“Erin, Anin, with me.” Synster stormed out of the room and Erin followed with pleasure, wanting more than anything to get Synster alone. Unfortunately, he had more brains than she gave him credit for.
They returned to lab four alpha, Synster’s favorite place to fuck her sister. Anin often complained to Erin about the cold temperature, but apparently Synster liked how it made her nipples stiff, since he obviously couldn’t arouse her.
Inside the room, he posted two guards on either side of the door. The men watched Anin and Erin with interest. Synster meant to put on a show.
“We’re appropriately guarded, Erin, so don’t even think about resisting.”
“No, Sir.”
“Good girl. Now watch how Anin makes me come. I want you to do what she does. Or do you have a frame of reference to go by already?” He sneered.
The prick. “Sir?”
“You were raped repeatedly on the outside, weren’t you?”
She could feel the prurient interest in the guards watching them. To her disgust, she saw erections growing through their uniforms.
“No, Sir.”
Anin glanced at her, but sympathy turned to confusion in her eyes as she stared.
“No? Then you’re saying you invited such attention?” Synster hurriedly stepped out of his lab coat and clothing and faced them. The other males ignored him and focused on hers and Anin’s responses. Anin glanced at Synster and looked away, as if bored. Erin, however, stared at Synster, amazed he’d been able to do anything at all to Anin with such a small penis.
She turned to Anin. “Is that as big as it ever gets?”
Anin sighed. “Yes.”
Synster sputtered but Erin couldn’t help it. She began laughing. “No wonder you complained. That’s awful.”
The guards grinned until Synster turned to threaten them with termination.
Not caring about repercussions, Erin grabbed him by the throat the minute he turned his back. “One move and I’ll break his neck.” She released her pheromones and Synster stopped moving. Anin joined her and before long, all three males writhed on the floor groaning as they cupped their painful arousals.
“Ryen needs us,” Anin said softly.
“Yes, he does.” Grabbing the phasers from the guards’ holsters, she shot each male with enough force to knock him out for a long time. Handing one weapon to Anin, who only looked at it with puzzlement, Erin sighed and held onto both weapons. “Let’s get Ryen and get the hell out of here.” She paused. “Unless you want to stay?”
The confusion Erin thought to see in her sister’s gaze flashed for a moment. Anin had trouble making her own decisions and always had. But to Erin’s surprise, Anin slowly shook her head. “I do not want to remain.”
Grinning, Erin nodded to the door. “Then let’s go.”
******
“We’ve got a problem.” Dreyk grimaced at the readout in his hand. Before them, behind bars, dirty prisoners lay haphazardly around an overcrowded cell. The stench of unwashed bodies, human waste and spoiled food permeated the hopelessness of the place. “The tracker still won’t work this close to the building.” He paused. “This is just like the other cells we found. It’s as if Blue Rim wanted to wash away any evidence of wrongdoing. None of these prisoners are alive either, and all have been...experimented on. That guy has an extra leg, that one three eyes. That one, what the hell? Is that fur?”
Rafe shook his head, thoroughly disgusted, not to mention worried out of his mind for Erin. Where was she?
“Rafe, you there?” Catam spoke into his earpiece, and Rafe answered back.
“What news?”
“We have a problem.”
“Fuck. Doesn’t anyone have any good news?”
“Major situation, here. We were talking to our buddy Canunn on the vid feed when we lost video. Audio, however, tells us they have a massive battle going on in the lab. Something is loose in there, and it doesn’t sound human.”
Dreyk and Rafe looked at each other before hauling ass back to the main building and aw
ay from the holding cells some distance away.
“Rafe, we’re landing to back you up,” Catam informed. Though Rafe didn’t want the help, he needed it. The peacemakers wouldn’t arrive for a few hours more. They were on standby orbiting the largest asteroid around Eyra. Rafe didn’t want to chance Erin getting found out or hurt when they took down the labs. But if he didn’t hurry, he feared he’d lose her to whatever had cut out transmission inside the main building.
Knocking out the security guards and overriding the system protecting the lab’s west entrance, Rafe and Dreyk entered into a long corridor. Following the sounds of a loud firefight, they cautiously entered another set of double doors into what looked like Blue Rim’s main lobby. What they saw, however, stopped them short. Security guards and a few scientists spattered the pristine floor. Broken bones and blood sprayed everywhere.
“Not good,” Dreyk muttered. “Fuck.”
Rafe centered himself and sought Erin’s scent. Though he hadn’t detected her outside with any of the other prisoners, he immediately knew she’d been in here, and recently at that. He followed her trail to a lift and entered. He and Dreyk stopped on each floor, and on the fourth floor, he picked up her scent again.
They exited the lift and heard shouts and gunfire to their left. Hurrying after the sounds, Rafe paused when they entered an overlarge room, what looked like the laboratory’s control grid. The ceilings were at least two stories high, and the large space was divided into several smaller ones around a huge center, separated by clear partitions and equipment. In the middle of the main floor lay two metallic tables surrounded by monitors and machines. Large data storage vaults smoked and burned while a giant ripped into them with what looked like an arm-cannon. Easily seven feet tall, the dark haired male—who looked Ragga—turned the cannon on several guards entering onto the platform above the northern bank of wall-mounted monitors.
The guards returned fire while half a dozen men and women in white coats rushed for cover.
“Ryen, stop this nonsense at once.” A mousy looking man with short brown hair and wan features twitched with fear. “You’re causing Anin great distress.”
Rafe zeroed in on the female, Anin, being shoved toward an exit under protest, dragged by several guards.
An altercation to his right showed Erin fighting for freedom. She pushed past several men bent on restraining her and ran after Anin. Heedless of the danger, Rafe chased after her. With preternatural speed, he dodged several laser blasts and knocked two guards together, putting them out of commission before they could reach Erin. He gave the giant with the cannon a wide berth and tackled another guard aiming at Erin’s head.
“What the fuck?” He heard Catam shout through his headset, guns roaring in the background. Catam and the others now stood somewhere in this chaos.
More guards poured into the lab, the sight of so much firepower against the giant, Erin and Anin almost comical. The giant had to be Erin’s brother. And as Ryen continued to mow down his opponents, seemingly oblivious to his many wounds, Rafe thought Blue Rim’s precautions justified.
“Erin, look out,” he shouted as a guard tried to shove a knife between her ribs. What the hell happened to protecting their valuable commodity?
“Not her, you fool!” Canunn screeched, and everyone seemed to turn to watch Erin deflect her attacker. She twisted his wrist and shoved the blade back through the guard’s throat in a movement filled with surprising grace.
The dead guard slumped to the ground just as Erin reached Anin. She yanked her sister back, tumbling them both to the floor. While they wrestled with more guards, the Fas brothers raced down a set of stairs from the landing above and joined Erin and Anin just as Rafe reached them.
“Rafe.” Erin smiled, and despite the bruises and blood on her face, her hair all askew, Rafe thought she’d never looked more beautiful. “I missed you.”
“You’re trouble, you know that?” He dragged her from the tangle of arms and legs on the ground while the Fas brothers helped Anin. Unable to stop himself, Rafe hugged her tight, needing to feel her safe and healthy in his arms. Flor, but she felt good.
“Rafe, love her later. We need to go,” Dreyk shouted as he shot at several guards coming at them.
“About time you showed up.” Erin kissed Rafe on the cheek, grinned at Dreyk, and looked for her sister, only to see her gone. “Anin!”
“Don’t worry, Erin. The Fas brothers took her. Look.” Dreyk pointed to the Raggas racing for the eastern exit. Nu had Anin over his shoulder while Set cleared a path. “Let’s follow them—” A blast took the three of them off their feet.
A moment later, Dreyk groaned. “Shit. Stun grenade.”
Erin shook her head and wobbled on her feet with Dreyk while Rafe regained his feet and his focus. He turned to see Ryen rip the arm off a guard readying to throw another grenade. Like lightning, Erin’s brother took on a half dozen guards and shook them off of him as easily as a threll shaking off water. He ignored any hits he suffered, and as he took another step toward Erin, Rafe wondered if they’d have to put him down after they escaped this hell hole. Because as Flor was his witness, Rafe had never seen a man so ready and so capable of destroying the life around him. Ryen’s dark grin didn’t help matters. He seemed to be enjoying the carnage.
“Ryen, come on,” Erin yelled. “We have to go. Anin’s gone.”
The giant’s satisfied grin faded, and Rafe felt a press of menace push through him, if that were possible.
Dreyk yelled. “She’s safe, Ryen. If you want to see her, follow me.”
Ryen glared at Dreyk, but as he stared, an odd look passed between the two. Dreyk turned to Erin. “Which way is out?”
“Follow me.” Erin shoved the crumpled guards out of her way and turned to a barred door covered with steel rods. She looked hurriedly for the control on the wall panel by the door. Ryen, however, simply walked over to the metal bars and pulled. His muscles bunched and flexed, like steel cords covered with blood, as he ripped the bars apart and kicked the door open.
“Nice,” Erin said with a grin.
Ryen grunted and they moved out, but not before the giant took a hit to his back that nearly knocked Rafe and Dreyk down with him.
“Go,” he muttered. “Get Erin to safety. Find Anin.”
“Keep moving,” Dreyk ordered Rafe over the pressing gunfire. “I’ll take him out with me.”
“You can’t—”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
Rafe cursed but followed Erin, firing to his left and right as they tore down another corridor. “You do know where you’re going, right?” If only the lab wasn’t guarded against teleporters. They could have been out of here by now. He glanced behind him and saw no hint of Dreyk or Ryen. Shit.
“That door,” Erin called over her shoulder, pointing straight ahead. Before they reached it, a scrawny, naked male stepped out from a hidden passageway adjacent to them, pointing a handheld laser directly at Erin’s chest.
“Hold. You’re not going anywhere, you bitch.”
“Synster—”
Rafe saw red. Without pausing to consider his actions, he shoved the laser away a second before Synster fired, hitting the wall instead of Erin. The blast mark would have put a hole through her heart, and Rafe reacted predictably.
Breaking Synster’s neck wasn’t nearly as satisfying as it should have been, but they were pressed for time. Tossing the piece of filth away, Rafe hurried Erin toward the exit just within reach. He felt a sharp sting in his side as he shoved Erin out of the oppressive labs into the bright, crisp sunny day.
“Where to now?” she asked.
“That way.” He pointed at two ships sitting side by side. Mara’s Light and Dreyk’s weapons ship, The Found.
“The Found?” Erin asked as they ran unnaturally fast through the open clearing at the ships and the Fas brothers, though he didn’t see Anin.
“Don’t ask.” Pain burned as Rafe ran, and he found it more and more difficult to bre
athe. They reached the ships just as Dreyk and the giant suddenly appeared before Mara’s Light. Apparently, Blue Rim’s anti-teleporation protection only extended to artificial means of transport. Well, at least Erin had her brother back. Rafe glanced around. And her sister as well. Anin huddled on the ground between the Fas brothers. Rafe could hear them talking softly, telling her not to be afraid.
Ryen groaned and regained his feet with Dreyk’s help, but when he spotted Anin looking terrified, he let out a roar of rage and charged Nu and Set.
Nu turned as Set stepped in front of Anin to protect her from the oncoming threat. Erin, of course, had to join the fray, and she left Rafe’s side to try to intercept her brother.
“Ryen, they’re protecting her,” she shouted. “Look.”
Ryen reached Nu and tossed him aside. Stunned, Rafe stared, having never seen anyone defeat the Fas brothers so easily. They were Ragga and stood heads above most men. Yet Ryen topped them both , and despite his injuries, he looked mad enough, and mean enough, to kill.
“Don’t Ryen,” Anin said softly, surprising everyone. She stood shakily and wouldn’t let anyone touch her, but she lifted a hand, her palm out. “These men saved my life. We owe them our thanks.”
Ryen stopped, glaring at Set. Erin grabbed his arm as well, as if to hold him back. The anger seemed to leave him, however. Rafe wondered if he’d ceased his threats because he finally noticed how protectively Set stood in front of Anin, or because Erin really was as strong as she looked. The thought made him grin. And then he laughed, feeling a bit dopey about the entire situation. He’d raced to her rescue only to watch her decimate her opponents. Pride warred with anger that she’d had to defend herself, but humor won out. He chuckled, and when he saw Catam, Lurin and Mara racing out of the building to join them, he thought their expressions of irritation amusing as well.
“Listen up, everyone.” Dreyk said in a loud, calming voice. “We need to get out of here so I can blow Blue Rim to hell. Not to mention the peacekeepers are on their way. Blue Rim called them the minute Mara’s Light began hassling them.”
