The Alien Uncovers (Uoria Mates IV Book 3)

by Ruth Anne Scott

  She shook her head.

  “No,” she said. “There’s no reason to help me. I’m finished. Please help them. Let me go.”

  There were tears in her eyes, but there was also still a flicker of life behind the exhaustion and pain. She was still there, and he wasn’t going to let her slip away. Rilex swept one arm under her legs and one around her back to scoop her up against his chest.

  “That’s not good enough for me,” he said. “You’re not finished. Not yet.”

  Holding her closely against him, Rilex carried the woman out of the torture chamber and back through the room’s false clean room toward the stairs that led up into the basement. He checked that there was no one in the hallway before ducking into the chamber they had emptied. Eden had gone in front of them and laid out pads and mats to create a row of beds along the walls, and Rilex brought the woman to the first one. He rested her down onto it and Eden rushed to her side, dropping down to her knees beside her and draping a blanket across her. It wasn’t until the blanket concealed her that Rilex processed that she had been unclothed, her bare body exposed to the cold and the disrespectful eyes of the Valdicians. The thought made Rilex even angrier and he had to stand and turn away from her to regain control of himself.

  “Take care of her,” he told Eden. “I’m going to go back to help more.”

  “What about them?” the woman asked weakly.

  “I told you that we found the women in the cages,” Rilex tried to reassure her. “We already got them out.”

  “No,” the woman said. “Them.”

  She shuddered when she said it, as if it was horrifying just to get the word out.

  “Who?” Eden asked.

  The woman’s eyes widened and Rilex realized what she was asking.

  “The Valdicians,” he said.

  The woman recoiled at the sound of the name and Eden inched closer to her protectively. Rilex took a step toward her again.

  “They’re dead,” he told her. “The two that came into the room when we found you are dead. I promise they won’t hurt you again.”

  “There are more,” the woman said tearfully.

  “We know,” Rilex said. “They still won’t hurt you again. I will make sure of that. You’re safe now.”

  “Safe,” the woman said experimentally as if tasting the word on her lips.

  He realized it might be the first time that she had ever said it, or felt that it could apply to her. Eden touched the woman’s hand compassionately. There was a connection between the two that was tangible. Though this woman’s experience was at a different extreme than Eden’s, both had been victims of Ryan and understood the vile, grotesque nature of this man. Rilex left the two, knowing that he would be back to her, but also that he was needed downstairs. They had more people to move out of the horrifying rooms down there into the new infirmary, and the woman’s confirmation that there were more Valdicians only reinforced that they needed to do it as quickly as possible.

  ****

  Ciyrs watched Pyra carry another woman into the room, quickly followed by Jacob.

  “Is that all?” he asked.

  Pyra nodded.

  “All of the survivors,” he said.

  “What did you do with the dead?” he asked.

  “We had to leave them where they were,” the Denynso leader replied. “There’s nowhere to bury them right now.”

  Ciyrs nodded and turned back to those lying on the beds along the walls. The women had only had minor injuries and others seemed physically uninjured, but were visibly pregnant and traumatized by what they had been through. The hybrids, however, were grievously injured, some so severely Ciyrs feared that even his healing and the help of the other men wouldn’t be able to save them. Rilex was sitting beside the first of the hybrids that they brought in, his back rested against the wall as he stared straight ahead rather than looking at her. Ciyrs crossed to them and knelt beside her.

  “What is it, Rilex?” he asked.

  “I don’t want to leave her,” the other man asked.

  “Why?” Ciyrs asked as he noticed her eyes were closed and she seemed to be sleeping fitfully. “Did something happen?”

  “Look at her,” Rilex said. “What did he do to her?”

  “I don’t know,” Ciyrs said. “All I can do is try to help her, and if I’m going to be able to do that, I need your help. I need you and Jacob to check on the others. Review their injuries and identify the ones who are in the worst condition so that I can start the healing on them first. There are healing ointments in my bag. If there are minor injuries, clean them, coat them with the ointment, and then cover the area.”

  Rilex hesitated, but Ciyrs looked at him intently and finally the man climbed to his feet and started to the next bed and the man who lay there, groaning in pain. Ciyrs checked each of the woman’s injuries, carefully cleaning the blood from them so that he could evaluate their severity. He was moving the blanket away from her breasts when the woman’s eyes snapped open and she gasped, starting to move as if she was trying to scramble away from him but didn’t have the energy to get away. Ciyrs made quieting, soothing sounds and pressed his hand to her thigh to try to hold her still.

  “It’s alright,” he said. “I’m trying to heal your injuries. Please lie still.”

  “Who are you?” the woman asked nervously.

  “My name is Ciyrs,” he said. “I’m a Denynso healer.”

  “Denynso?” she asked, sounding slightly in awe.

  “Yes,” he answered, using the distraction of the conversation to let him peel away the blanket so that he could look at her other injuries.

  “I came from a woman who was part Denynso,” she said. “I’m not as big as Ryan wanted me to be.”

  She said it as though it was a failure on her part, an excuse for the way that he had treated them.

  “Do you have a name?” he asked.

  He hated the way that the question sounded coming out of his mouth, but he wanted to know more about her and didn’t know if Ryan would permit the creatures that he created to have something so personal as their own identity. Just as he suspected, the woman shook her head. She looked embarrassed and glanced away. He didn’t push her. He didn’t need to have something to call her. For now all that mattered was stabilizing her.

  After several minutes of treating her injuries, Ciyrs knew that all that was left was the actual healing. He wished that Elianna was there to handle this part for him. His mate was nearly as powerful as he was, capable of handling even some of the most serious of injuries and ailments. He had purposely kept her in the infirmary with the wounded from the battle so that she could continue managing their needs. He was more experienced with healing and knew that he would be able to move more quickly, which was what these people needed. The healing itself, though, was so personal, so intimate that it often made him uncomfortable to perform it on a woman.

  “Close your eyes,” he instructed. “Just relax.”

  When she complied, he rested his hands on her chest, allowing the healing power to flow through him and out of his hands into her. She gasped, her back arching slightly as the healing started to set in. He could see her skin start to flush and her breathing became deeper. Ciyrs moved his hands along her body as quickly as he could while still putting enough focus into the healing. Finally, her body fell limp and she went into the deep sleep that generally followed the intensity of being healed. He drew the blanket up over her body again and moved on to the next of the injured hybrids.

  The more he worked, the more intense the sick feeling in his stomach became. The fresh wounds from the battle and injuries from the cords that had been attached to their heads when they found them were only the beginning of what he was discovering on their bodies. Each showed signs of wounds and mistreatment that stemmed from many years before, as if each had been through a lifetime of systematic torture that began long before they swarmed the hallway in battle. He had finished the healing on the final of the hybrid survivors when h
e heard a whimpering sound coming from the first woman he had healed. Rilex rushed past him toward her and Ciyrs followed, intrigued by the man’s strong reaction toward her as much as he was drawn to check on her and how the healing had impacted her.

  The woman’s eyes were fluttering open and closed as Ciyrs got to his knees beside her and rested his hand over her heart to check its rhythm. Her eyes opened and the fear in them seemed to soften slightly when she saw Rilex beside her.

  “Is she alright?” he asked.

  “She is doing better,” Ciyrs confirmed. “I wouldn’t say that she is fully healed yet. Her injuries were extensive, but it wasn’t just her body that was wounded. Her mind and heart have been damaged. They will need to heal as much as her body before she will be truly recovered.”

  “Thank you, Ciyrs.” the woman said, looking at Ciyrs. Her eyes moved to Rilex and the healer saw their gazes lock. “And thank you. Thank you for coming for me.”

  Rilex nodded, looking as though he were unable to speak for a moment. He touched her hand briefly and Ciyrs saw his expression change.

  “What happened to you?” he asked. “Why were you in that room?”

  The woman hesitated for only a moment.

  “Reprogramming.”

  “What does that mean?” Ciyrs asked.

  “We have been trained since before we were able to walk to succeed in battle. Our lives have been defined by mock battles so that we were prepared for when Ryan would finally use us.”

  “Mock battles?” Rilex asked.

  “He would select us randomly and put us through drills and challenges to test the skills that we learned in our training.”

  “He pit you against each other?” Ciyrs asked.

  “Yes,” the woman said without hesitation, her voice sounding as though there was no other option. “If we did well, we returned to the living quarters. If we failed, we went through reprogramming. The screen showed us what we did wrong and what we should have done. The cords underscored it.”

  Ciyrs shuddered at the description. It was the straightforward, simplistic way that explained the systematic torture that truly emphasized the horrific nature of what Ryan put them through. Not giving more detail into the torture that they went through as a means of restructuring their behavior and further pushing them into methodic violence that defined them only highlighted the brutality of their existence.

  “Never again,” Rilex said. “That will never happen to you again. I will never let anyone hurt you again.”

  Ciyrs felt the meaning in the words, understanding that there was something in them that went far beyond just his commitment to protect all of those who had been so hurt by Ryan.

  “Thank you…” the woman said, her voice trailing off as she seemed to realize that she didn’t know what to call him.

  “Rilex,” he said. “What’s your name?”

  Ciyrs felt his heart squeeze slightly at the question. He didn’t want to hear it again. He didn’t want to have to think about her reality again, but he knew that he had to face it.

  “She doesn’t have a name,” he said, hoping to free her from the pain and embarrassment that she clearly felt at the admission. “Ryan didn’t allow them.”

  Ciyrs could see the fury and indignation on Rilex’s face, but the man controlled his reaction carefully. He slid closer to her head and moved a piece of hair away from her face as he had seen Eden do earlier.

  “Choose one,” he said.

  “What?” the woman asked.

  “Choose one,” Rilex said. “Choose a name.”

  Chapter Eight

  Maxim slammed the door to the shuttle behind him and Elise rushed up to input the code to secure the locks in place. He stalked across the open room, wiping blood from his eyes as he let his thoughts circulate his body, mentally checking for any injuries beyond the small cuts and bruises he knew he would have. The drums were gone and he could no longer hear them in his head. They had been replaced by the sound of fighting and he tried to shake it out of his ears. He didn’t want to hear it anymore. He didn’t want to have to think about it. What Kyven had told him about the hybrid who had helped him in the quarry had stuck with him throughout the brief but fierce battle they had just endured outside of the shuttle and it was hanging heavily over him now. He crossed the shuttle toward the infirmary, leaving the crew behind him.

  “Tell me about Mhavyrch again,” he demanded as he entered the infirmary.

  “Maxim!” Kyven gasped when he came to the side of his bed “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine,” Maxim said “Nothing serious. Their army was small. We were able to get them back fairly quickly. I think they were scouting us more than anything. They want to intimidate us and to gauge how we were going to respond to them.”

  “Let me look at your hands,” Elon said as he approached.

  Maxim looked at the human medic, uncertain if he could trust him. He hadn’t forgotten the way that he had spoken to them when he started treating Nylek and Kyven.

  “I’ve spoken to him, Maxim,” Avery said from behind him, making Maxim turn. “I know that my apology doesn’t take away the way that he treated you, but I hope that in time you will learn to trust us.”

  Maxim nodded toward the pilot.

  “Thank you, Avery,” he said.

  He looked at Elon and gave a slight nod of permission. The medic turned Maxim’s hand over to examine his palm and wrist, and then checked the other.

  “Are you hurt anywhere else?” he asked. “Is the blood on your face yours?”

  “Some of it may be,” Maxim said. “Not all of it.”

  Elon took a small stack of cloths from a box on one of the shelves built into the wall of the infirmary and placed them on a rolling metal table that he drew up beside Maxim. He took one of the cloths and use it to wipe Maxim’s hand. Maxim gritted his teeth at the sting of the wet cloth in the cuts on his skin and turned back to Kyven to distract himself.

  “What do you remember about Mhavrych?” he asked.

  “I told you everything that I remember,” Kyven said.

  Maxim saw his brother glance to Emerie at his side. Kyven’s mate adjusted her hand in his as if to hold it even more tightly and shook her head.

  “I don’t know anything else,” she said. “I only got a glimpse of him and I was so scared that I don’t even know if I could tell you what he looked like. All I know is that he gave us the ball of light that saved us from the Meldor.”

  “He saved me, too.”

  The sound of Nylek’s voice from the bed across the infirmary was almost startling in its weakness and Maxim stepped up to the bed, Elon following him so that he could continue to clean off Maxim’s hands and arms. The Denynso warrior looked smaller, almost as though whatever he had encountered out in the desert had drawn some of his very being out of him. Some of the color had returned to his face, however, and even though he sounded strained, Maxim felt a sense of relief just to hear him talking.

  “What happened?” Maxim asked. “How did he save you?”

  “I’m not sure,” Nylek said. “It was dark and I had gotten myself off track. I meant to get to the rest of you in the quarry, but I must have deviated from the path because I ended up away from shuttle and never encountered you. The attack came out of nowhere. There was nothing around me for them to hide behind, so they must have just been stalking me in the darkness, staying enough out of the glow of my light that I wasn’t able to see them even though they were close enough to ambush me without me even realizing they were coming.”

  “How many of them were there?” Maxim asked.

  “I don’t even know,” Nylek said. “I’m so embarrassed to even admit it.”

  “There’s nothing for you to be embarrassed about,” Maxim said. “You did what you could. None of us are prepared to fight these creatures. We don’t know what they are or what they are capable of doing. The fact that you were out there alone in the dark and are still alive is…”

  “A miracle?�
�� Kyven added.

  Maxim nodded, the word even more meaningful now.

  “How did you find out his name?” Maxim asked.

  “I heard it when he was fighting off the hybrids that had attacked me. One of them screamed it. I assumed that that was his name.”

  Maxim couldn’t understand what was happening. This man had stepped in to save one of their group twice now, but hadn’t remained long enough to justify his actions or even explain who he was. Could he really be trying to help them without the other hybrids knowing what he was doing, or was this just another of Ryan’s ploys, setting them up for something more that he had planned for them?

  ****

  Rain ran her fingers along the control panel, hoping that something would look familiar to her. The door to the control room was closed behind her and each time that she got a glimpse of it out of the corner of her eye it was as if she was back in the StarCity that brought her to Penthos the first time. The last time that she had seen a door closed that way was seconds before she found Etan as the ship plummeted toward what she knew now was Uoria, but what they thought then was a desolate, unknown stretch of ground.

  Even after so many years she could still see Etan’s face clearly. She wished that she couldn’t. She wished that that image had faded away and that she could put it behind her so that she didn’t have to suffer the questions that moved through her mind incessantly each time that she thought of him. Her hand wrapped around a handle embedded in the control panel and she pulled it experimentally. A hatch beside her opened, revealing another complex set of controls. Rain let out an exasperated sigh. Though she knew that it had been more than 115 years since the last time that she had been on Penthos, it wasn’t until this moment that she felt the years that had passed. Encountering the species that lived on Uoria, falling in love with Lynx, even hearing the women tell her that their disappearance had been a heavily-covered element of their education from the time that they were young children. None of it had made her really feel the impact of the years that she had been locked in place by the Covra. This technology, however, made those years crash down around her.