by Sara Page
“Just tell me, Jack. If you ever cared one shit about me, you would just tell me and end this whole fucking charade.”
“Jack Weir of Earth! I find you contempt!” the Gold Cloak booms.
Yet Jack still ignores him. He looks at me then at Maul then at my hand shielding my baby.
Dawning realization flashes in his eyes. “You’re pregnant…” he says almost as if he can’t believe it.
“Be silent, human!” the Gold Cloak bellows.
The Red Masks begin to drag Jack away but he fights them. He lashes out with his elbows and kicks at their shins. “You fucked him! You fucking bred with him!” Jack screams, his face bright red and that angry vein throbbing visibly from the side of his neck.
His words shouldn’t hurt me but they do. They cheapen what is between Maul and I, and I hate them with every fiber of my being.
It takes all four Red Masks to drag a kicking and screaming Jack across the floor. They nearly reach the side exit when he pushes forward with a burst of strength.
“You let that freak between your thighs!” he screams maniacally. “You’re dead to me, you alien-fucking-whore! Without me, you’ll never find your sister!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Maul
The commotion caused by Jack has left the committee inquiry stunned silent. Dirty business has been aired to all, and I believe they are grasping at the meaning of his words. Many know exactly what they mean, but they are all now curious to know the dirty details that go with them.
My blood is boiling with the words he screamed at my beloved mate, but using my head is my first priority. “With all due respect, Supreme Leader, would you please use a transmission silencer on the human Jack’s implant? We would not want him to send any transmission bursts to those criminal enterprises he may be involved with.”
“It is already in place. During the period we had him in his holding cell, we noticed the low energy transmissions he was sending out. For the time being, we will continue to keep him silenced.”
Keeping my arm tightly around Lexi’s waist, I say to the Supreme Leader, “I believe that would be in the best interests of the investigation at hand. With the current level of corruption stemming from the humans, it is in my findings that we consider the Vicarion’s request for peace.”
The man looks at me for a long time. His expression, while mostly blank, doesn’t quite reach his eyes. There I see the calculating intelligence that has long been a part of his judgments.
“I will consider this matter and we will make further judgment at a later inquiry,” he says finally.
Lexi sighs quietly at my side and I can feel her frustration. I try to send reassurance through our bond but it’s not easy getting her to accept the results.
Muttering quietly, she says, “When my planet has been fully ravaged by the universe, they will get their findings.
“We now must move on to the facts of this inquiry. Though we were only able to do a fraction of medical research while Alexus Miller of House Lathuria was in recovery, the bond has shown promising results.”
The assembly murmurs and voices begin to rise again, but the Leader Supreme himself lifts his voice and declares, “There will be silence!”
The hush that falls over the area is as deafening as the clamor. “From the evidence gathered while you were separated from each other, and given Vice Admiral Leasion’s sworn statement, it is in my opinion that your bond is in place.”
The crowd surrounding us threatens to start anew, but the look of the Supreme Leader staring at them hard shuts them quickly down. “Without further arguments, I rule the matter closed. As a race, we hope you both will be of aid as we study the bonding between our two species. It is a request, not an order.”
Standing up from his high-backed throne, he stares long and hard at Lexi. The thoughts that must be flowing through his mind, I can’t fathom. He’s been unbonded longer than I by many decades. The Leader must ache with the knowledge that all hope may not be lost. But I can only hope he doesn’t see our bonding as a way of taking control of Earth… for the betterment of our species, of course.
“Fourth-Striped Maul, I request that you and your bondmate to visit my chambers. This hearing is now over.”
The escort from the inquiry is not nearly as excitable as we leave the clamor of shouting voices behind us with the slamming of the heavy wooden door.
Father smirks to me as he tilts his head to the side. “It appears My’Clar has disappeared completely, or at least thought he did. We have the trading transport he is currently on, and are following at a discreet distance. Hopefully, he will lead us to whoever is paying him.”
I shake my head. “It will not be settled for me until he is dead and sent to the oblivion of the deep dark.”
I can see that father is listening to his symbiote while we walk, no doubt he is monitoring the situation just as I believe Marketh is.
“Keep me up to date, Mar. I don’t trust anyone with our safety.”
“I will. So far your father is right about My’Clar, but I’m not sure it will be as easy as everyone hopes it is. The Tribunal really should try to think as a criminal commission and not a policing commission.”
Leaning my head down, I kiss Lexi on the top of her head. “We are almost done here, my dear bondmate.”
“Why does he want to see us in his chambers?” she asks, and I can’t tell if the tension in her body is from him or from what happened with Jack.
“I do not know; I suspect it is about our bond.”
“So he wants to have more science experiments done on us?”
“Perhaps, my love, but it could also be his only hope of finding a bondmate himself,” I say quietly.
It’s open knowledge that the Supreme Leader is without a bond, but to openly discuss someone’s painful life so publicly is considered bad form. Like many races, we are a patriarchal society, and with that we have our ruling family. Supreme Leader Creaven is the last of his bloodline. His parents birthed only one male and one female child. Women species the world over have come to the Citadel, hoping to be his match, but each one has been passed over.
His bondmate, it seems, would not be of Rathturian blood, if at all.
“What?” she stammers as she looks up at me.
“Yes, he is like I was so please set aside some of your anger for him. He more than likely now has hope that he will find his bonded on your home planet too.”
We walk for close to fifteen minutes before we reach the heavily guarded elevator that will reach the top floor of the Citadel. Watching the numbers race by as we rise, I look down at Lexi. She looks as confused as she feels through our bond.
“What is it, my love?”
“There are more like you?” she asks and then blushes deeply. “I’m sorry, Maul, I didn’t mean it like…”
Shaking my head, I say, “Do not be. The answer is yes, but we are rare. It’s why we have never really pushed beyond our own race in our searches. That our Supreme Leader is one of the unbonded might be the driving force we need though.”
She nods her head slowly. “Do you think Rathturia will help us with our missing people?”
“I believe we would be fools not to. Though, the Vicarions will certainly pick up the slack if need be.”
“How can they be so certain we are a good match for breeding?”
I shrug my shoulders. I don’t have an answer beyond saying, “They have far more sophisticated technology than most of the races the Tribunal oversees. They need you to be a match far more than you need them to be.”
Coming before the Supreme Leader’s chamber, we all stop. I look to my father and the guards. They stand aside as I knock on the heavy wooden doors.
Lifting my hand to the wood, I knock twice.
The doors open quickly and a guard inside ushers us into the brightly lit office. Inside we find the spartan bareness of the Red Mask discipline. Before Creaven took his position he was in the Red Stripes.
“Enter Fourth-Striped Maul,�
�� I hear his deep voice come from the side of the office.
Taking my lead, Lexi slowly walks into the office and we turn to see the back of Creaven as he stares out the large window of his office.
Outside the window, I see thousands of ships flying in the sky. It’s all very hurried but reminds me of a carefully orchestrated dance.
He stares out for a long time and I doubt it’s the ships and jetties that keep his attention.
Finally turning to look at us, he gives us both a small, and if I’m not mistaken, sad smile. “I see that congratulations are in order on three fronts. Your soon to be child and your bond the foremost of them.”
“Yes, the medical team that did the inspections have assured us that Lexi is safely carrying our unborn child.”
He grins now as he says, “Is it really true, dear, that you will be carrying the child in your… womb?”
Lexi nods her head as she says, “Yes, it’s the way we humans grow our children.”
“How fascinating.”
Pointing to the chairs before his desk, he asks, “I must ask you, Maul, even with the inquiry closed, if I may speak of the matters that happened on the orbital? It is completely off the books.”
“Which orbital issue... tread carefully,” Marketh says.
“Of course, Supreme Leader,” I answer and squeeze Lexi’s hand gently. I hope she gets the message. It would not do to bring up Creaven’s sister, Ja’Raesh, right now.
“In your filings, I saw and heard your voice somewhat during the videos… but what I don’t understand is what happened to you when you saw your bonded for the first time.”
“That… That is a difficult thing to discuss, Supreme Leader…”
He motions for me to go on, but I don’t know how. What happened on that orbital should be impossible, but it wasn’t.
“It began when I left the dock and then started walking through the bazaar of slaves. I couldn’t feel comfortable. It was as if someone had dumped me into a pit of vicious warbogs. No matter what I did, my skinned crawled and my heart couldn’t keep a steady rhythm.”
“All monitorings of Fourth-Striped Maul were recording abnormal spikes in hormones. From my measurements, it was like he had been in battle for hours without rest. Even I had issues with controlling his chemical reactions,” Marketh says when I stop.
“At first, I thought it may have been simple gravity lag, or even in my deepest thoughts a poison, but it didn’t feel like that. The worst part was that it would come in erratic waves. I had no clue when it would happen. When I first laid eyes on Lexi, I don’t know what snapped inside me. Even now, I cannot recall the rage of anger that swept through me.”
“Anger?” he asks curiously.
“Anger that my soul was caged by the Prigs. Anger for whoever thought to dare trap my life in such a position.”
“He was ferocity incarnate when I first saw him,” Lexi says. “I was afraid for my life. Afraid that the wild monster that he was would kill me and the poor girls who were with me…
Looking to her, I can feel the fear she must have felt to see a berserking silver monster trying to get to her.
“When he finally got to me, he slowed down. Just enough to touch me…” Her eyes close and for once I feel the fear in her through the bond, the terror she must have felt. But it’s soon replaced by something so much more tender. “He touched me and held me as if I was the most treasured gift. In that moment, I think I knew his ferocity was for my protection, not to harm me but to keep me.”
My eyes stay on Lexi for a long time. I watch her turn from him to look at me. Those eyes that allow me to fall deep into our souls join mine in warm happiness.
Not taking my eyes from her, I say, “I don’t have poetic words for what I felt when I finally broke through the red haze that filtered my vision, only that I knew one thing for certain. I was connected to this delicate creature and I would follow the stars to keep her by my side.”
“I think I see,” the Supreme Leader says.
Looking back to him, I peer into his eyes and see the pain there again. It’s probably always been there, just below the surface.
I wonder if others saw mine like I do his?
“Thank you. If you do not mind, I’m sure to have questions later… if I may impose on you both to ask.”
We nod our heads in unison and say, “Of course.”
“Excellent. Now we come to your third congratulations, First Tiered Maul of House Lathuria.”
Lexi must feel the universe crash upon me as Marketh makes a disgusted sound loudly behind us.
“Maul, what is it?” she asks as she clutches my arm.
Shaking my head, my anger mixes with my desire to reach out and wrap my hands around his throat. I control my emotions, just barely, as I watch his face turn from a smile to a smirk.
“You didn’t think through your investigation, Maul. It’s not a punishment, you know,” he chuckles.
“For you,” I mutter.
“What is it?” Lexi asks in a raised voice.
“I’ve promoted your bonded.”
“But…”
“I will no longer be an investigator. I will become part of the royal line,” I growl.
Even now my temper threatens to boil over.
“Oh, that’s not exactly true, Maul. Your promotion will begin tomorrow at dawn. Tonight you will still have the command to speak with the other human on this planet. Jack, I believe it is.”
“That no good son of a…” Marketh hisses after we are far enough away from the Supreme Leader’s chambers.
“Marketh, not here.”
“I still don’t understand,” Lexi says. “On Earth promotions are generally well received.”
“They are here too, except when you get neutered in the middle of an investigation. We have been effectively removed from the case. It will be turned over to another investigator and the disappearances of the humans will continue,” Marketh says.
“What?!” Lexi shrieks and I can now tell she shares the anger I feel.
“Oh yes,” Marketh says with a sneer. “We ruffled more feathers than the Supreme Leader can most likely keep in check. Unless, of course, he makes a show of doing something about it...”
“But I thought… he’s supposed to be in control—”
“Twenty-three other races, who count into the zillions of life,” Marketh explains.
“What about the Vicarions?” she asks quietly.
“They will be your safeguards, and I think he wants me to know that,” I say. “It’s also why I get to interrogate Jack. He’s letting me find your sister.”
We walk for almost an hour, taking the many elevators and hallways that lead to the interrogation room that Jack sits in. There are many layers of security we pass through to get to the room, and by the time we get there, I think Lexi has gone through every emotion she possesses.
It is tough on my love, but I feel so proud of how she has held up to it.
When we finally reach the section that Jack is being kept in, I nod to the guard as he processes us through the area.
We pass through one final guarded door, a secure door that leads us to a small hall with two more doors to it. The right leads to Jack and the left leads to the observation room.
Motioning Lexi to the left, I say, “Stay in there and lock the door until I come for you. You will be able to see everything that happens.”
“No!” she says as she tries to push past me.
I catch her and hold her tight to me as I say, “This is the way it is, my love. He is far too dangerous to be near. If he sees you, he will become further enraged and we need information from him.”
Arguing will do her no good so I push her gently to the left door. “Marketh, stay with Lexi and make sure everything is recorded.”
“Maul, he isn’t going to just give you the information,” she tries to argue.
“He will, my love, I promise you.”
“But how? Drugs aren’t a guarantee!”
“I won’t need them.”
Turning away from her, I walk to Jack’s door and push my way in. Shutting it firmly behind me, I turn to see Jack chained to a table. His hands are bound on top and two chains wrap around his legs. His feet are also cuffed to the floor.
“What the fuck do you want?” he snarls out at me.
“Do you know who I am, Jack?” I ask quietly.
“Another fucking monster, like the others. You all look the same to me.”
“Do we really?” I say with a laugh.
“Yeah, all big and stupid. More muscles than brains.”
Walking around the table, I don’t stop at my seat. Instead I come to stand behind him and place my hands on his shoulders as I say, “Try to guess.”
“You’re the bad cop. Next will be some asshole who’ll play good cop. Doesn’t matter, you can’t keep me here. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
I can feel the tension in the bond that’s separated by the window. It’s boiling with rage at the impudence that Jack is showing.
“How stupid of you, Jack. We don’t have what you call good cops and bad cops here.”
“What the fuck ever,” he growls as he tries to shake my hands from his shoulders.
Clamping down hard, I say, “I’m Lexi’s bonded. She carries my child.”
He tries to stand from the table, but the chains and my hands keep him firmly in the seat. I flex my claws and feel them pierce the skin as I squeeze his shoulder blades in my gripping hands.
I can feel his bones beginning to bend. If I apply even a fraction of more pressure they will snap like twigs.
His screams are music to my ears as I keep the pressure there for a few more minutes. I’m not even using a quarter of my strength as I squeeze. “Let’s get to the question my bonded wants answered most. Where is her sister?”
“Fuck you, monster!”
“Wrong answer, Jack.” My right hand squeezes down hard and I feel his shoulder bones shatter in place.
“Ooops! A little too hard… sorry about that,” I shout over his bellows and wails.
“You bastard!” he wails at me.
Whispering in his ear, I say, “You tried to kill my child and you will die for that. But if you give me the information I seek now, I’ll make it quick.”
