“I need my daughter,” Sera said, lifting her chin defiantly.
The priestess smiled thinly. “You have a one-track mind.”
“You congratulated me once on my maternal instincts,” she reminded her. “Don’t act like you’re surprised by them now.”
“Not surprised, dear Selected. Only annoyed.” She waved a hand, and the three males went back to wherever they’d come from.
Sera looked at the guards, then back at Alaia. “And these people, with their shiny little wrist cuffs? I assume they’re going to be hanging out with us, too?”
“Of course. You will be granted privacy, as well. After all, the royal family must increase.”
Sera scowled. Increase this, bitch, she thought, realizing too late that Beno was still inside her mind. He chuckled appreciatively.
‘You’re such a badass,’ he told her admiringly. ‘I love that about you.’
A distant claxon began to scream, and Alaia went pale. She turned to the guards. “Take them to the safe room and protect them there.”
The soldiers hurried forward to do as they were told, bundling the three bond mates up and whisking them toward an elevator with cut-out tracery for doors. “What’s going on?” Sera demanded.
“It’s a raid,” the captain of the guards told her. “The Taluans are coming for the cull a week early.”
The elevator took them up three floors to a room in one of the towers. They were escorted into a room with no windows, but with comfortable furnishings not too unlike what Sera would expect to find in a hotel room. The guards closed them inside, and after the white and silver ornate doors closed, solid blast doors slid down behind them.
“It’s a panic room,” she said. “A lot of rich people on Earth have these things. They’re special rooms that have limited access and are completely defensible in the event of a home invasion.”
“Why is it called a panic room and not a safe room?” Theyn asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess because you don’t go into them unless you’ve started panicking.” She stopped short. “Oh my God. Kira is out there.”
“They’ll protect her,” the blond Ylian said.
“How do you know?”
“They think she’s their god,” he answered. “They will die to keep her safe.”
Beno reached out with his telepathy again, but this time he was unable to make contact. “I think these blast doors have a heavy lead component. I can’t extend my telepathy beyond them.”
“That’s good, actually.” Sera and Beno looked at Theyn as if he’d lost his mind. “I was told that the Taluans have developed some of our more robust psychic abilities due to their horrible diet. If they have any telepaths with them, if they get this far, they won’t be able to tell that we’re in here.”
They could no longer hear the alarms, but to Sera, it was as if each shrill blast was still echoing through her skin. She sighed and leaned against one of the walls.
Behind her, something clicked, and then a door that she hadn’t seen opened. She nearly stumbled backward but caught her balance against the wall.
Theyn stared over her shoulder. “Look…”
On the other side of the door was a small dark room. The wall directly across from the door Sera had inadvertently opened was stacked with video screens that blinked into life as soon as the prince stepped across the threshold. The images that appeared on the screen were vivid and horrific.
Taluan soldiers in riot gear were marching down the streets of the city. There were hundreds of them, armed to the very pointy teeth. They broke into smaller groups and started kicking in doors and dragging Ylians and hybrids out of their hiding places and into the light. Their victims were lined up on their knees, hands behind their heads. With every doorway they broke down, the Taluans added to the number of kneeling prisoners. Soon there were dozens of frightened people on their knees in the street.
When the buildings on that block had been cleared, the alien soldiers scanned each prisoner with a hand-held instrument of some kind, and an officer ordered the people to be divided into two groups. She assumed that one group was made up of the breeders and the other of the fallow, as Alaia had called them. Any who resisted were clubbed into submission. She looked at their faces. The hopelessness in their expressions was painful to see, and she realized that it was all far too familiar.
Sera had seen films of similar raids when she was in school. The films had shown humans being horrible to humans in 1939, the black and white images just faded enough to make the events seem far away and unreal. Unlike those old films of the Holocaust, these images were in vivid color, and she could see the red-orange blood of Ylian hybrids as it pooled on the sand.
“Jesus,” she muttered. “And there’s nothing we can do to help…”
Theyn shook his head. “No.”
Beno turned his back on the monitors, unable to watch any longer. “Where is this so-called Resistance? They should be putting a stop to it.”
“They can’t,” Theyn told him quietly. “They’re too outnumbered and would only get themselves killed, too.”
“If they’re that outnumbered, how are they ever supposed to succeed?” Beno demanded. “It’s so stupid. A few zealots against an entire planet? Or worse, two? It’s a fool’s errand.”
Sera joined in. “I don’t know what they think you can do. I don’t know what anyone can do to stop this.”
She and Theyn watched in silent horror as the Taluans methodically isolated the group they wanted to take, subdued them by force, and loaded them up into the hovercraft. Different monitors showed the scene from different angles, following the loaded vessel as it passed through the city.
Theyn sighed. “They’re coming to the slaughterhouse.”
The hovercraft had reached familiar gates, and instead of going to the right toward the hospital, it veered left. Dozens of Bruthesans and their Taluan guards met the craft with weapons in their hands that looked like upgraded boat hooks.
“What are they going to do with those?” Sera asked.
Theyn only shook his head.
She got her answer when the first few Ylians were forced out of the hovercraft and onto the ground at the slaughterhouse workers’ feet. She covered her mouth in horror at the way the Bruthesans and their masters utilized those hooks on their unfortunate victims. The images were terrible, and she was grateful that there was no sound. The sight was bad enough.
She turned away, tears in her eyes from the enormity of the crime she was witnessing. Beno gathered her into his arms, ordering Theyn in a gravelly voice, “Find a way to shut those off.”
The prince shook his head. “I need to watch this.”
“Why?” Sera demanded.
“So I can understand.”
“Understand what? How well and truly we’re fucked? We’ve got no hope, Theyn. We’re outnumbered, outmatched and outgunned.” She knew that she was edging toward hysteria, and although she could recognize that fact, there was nothing she could do about it. “We are going to die here.”
Theyn nodded. “That’s very likely.”
He was so quiet, his voice so steady and calm, that she felt a flash of unreasonable anger. “Don’t you even care?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he told Beno, ‘Take her out of here.’
Beno took her away from the monitors and into the first part of the panic room. He closed the door so that neither of them had to see the horrific events playing out in real time on those screens, and he stood with his arms crossed over his chest.
Sera paced, her hands shaking. She was filled with things she wanted to say, and she wanted to rail at the injustice of their situation, but she knew that her words would only make things worse. She inwardly ranted until she could bear to do it no longer, and then she sat on the bed, defeated.
They stayed that way for a long time, waiting for Theyn to finish torturing himself with the video feed. Sera sat and stared at the plush carpeting. Beno stood like an angry st
atue. They were all fit to be tied, and none of them had the least idea of what to do about it.
After an hour, Theyn emerged from the monitor room, his face drawn and gray. His mates looked at him with wary sympathy.
“I watched until they stopped bringing people,” he told them quietly. “I looked at every face of every victim.”
“Theyn…” she began.
“Kira was not among them.” He sat heavily on the couch and put his face in his hands. “But…”
Something in his voice was chilling, and Sera looked at Beno in alarm. Her dark-haired mate asked, “But what?”
“But Asa and Joely were.”
She shook her head. “No. No. That can’t be right.”
Theyn looked miserable. “I’m so sorry, Sera.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Did they die?” Her voice caught in her throat. “Did they use those hooks on them?”
“I didn’t see that. I only saw them being pushed into the building,” he admitted.
“You didn’t see them die.”
“No.”
“Then they might not be dead.”
He looked at Beno, then at his lady. “Sera, they were pushed into that slaughterhouse. Their chances of survival are poor to nil.”
“But you didn’t see them die, so they might still make it out. Right?” She could hear the hysteria building in her voice again, and she gritted her teeth against it. Damn it, she thought. I am not a dithering kind of person! Get it together, Cooper!
Beno sat beside her. “They might still make it out.”
She suspected that he might have been agreeing with her just to keep her from exploding, but right now, it was enough. She took his hand and held it in both of hers. “Yes. They might make it out. And we’re going to find Kira, and we’re going to make it out of this shithole.”
“That’s the plan,” Theyn said softly.
The blast doors of the panic room clicked, then slid up into the ceiling. The door to the outside opened, and the captain of the guard escorted a pair of Ylian women into the room. One was Alaia, bleeding slightly from her nose. The other was Nima.
In her arms, she was carrying Kira.
Sera leaped forward and seized her baby, taking her away from her kidnapper and holding her tight. Theyn’s healing powers made his hands glow as he touched his daughter, searching her for injury. The infant squealed and reached out her tiny arms. Sera embraced her, having to remind herself not to squeeze too hard. Kira gurgled and patted her shoulder. Beno touched Kira’s face with one finger, a look of relief on his face.
“I told you she was all right,” Alaia said.
Beno’s relief flipped into rage, and he spun toward Nima. “You bitch,” he snarled.
Nima stood her ground, but her eyes flashed nervously toward the priestess. “I had to do it. It was the only way to get your attention.”
“Calm yourself, Commander,” Alaia warned, “or my men will have no choice but to activate those probes.”
He hesitated, shaking in his fury. Nima smirked at him triumphantly.
“That’s enough,” Sera growled. She pushed Kira into Theyn’s arms and stalked toward the Resistance fighter. Nobody stopped her from getting right up in Nima’s face. “You shot me and stole my child. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t rip your head off right now.”
“Because you have probes, too, and you’d be leaving your daughter without a mother,” the younger Ylian woman said, as if she was scoring points. “Because if you lay one hand on me, these soldiers will kill you.”
She was too angry to think straight. She pulled back her right fist and punched Nima in the mouth as hard as she could. The Resistance fighter crumpled to the floor, out cold. One of the guards raised his hand toward his bracelet and the button there, but another guard stopped him.
“Coward,” Sera hissed at him.
“Selected,” the less trigger-happy guard said, “calm yourself. You have put yourself at risk by doing this.”
She looked down at Nima and sneered. “Totally worth it.”
He smirked. “I can see how you’d think that,” he said. The other guards looked at him in dismay and betrayal.
Alaia stepped forward and put her hand on Nima. Sera tossed her head. “Glass-jawed little bitch.”
“Selected,” another guard said warningly, “I have a stun blaster with your name on it if you don’t calm down.”
Theyn handed Kira to Beno and knelt at Nima’s side. His hands, still glowing, rested on her shoulder. Sera was offended that he would help their baby’s kidnapper, but she chose not to get into it just now. Instead, she took a deep breath and stepped back. Theyn’s hands moved over her as he applied his healing power.
Sera crossed her arms pugnaciously. “Fine.”
Nima stirred, and Theyn stood, retreating to where his mates and his daughter waited. Alaia helped Nima to her feet, and then they retreated back toward the door.
“I brought your child,” the priestess complained. “I didn’t have to be so kind.”
Sera began to retort, but Theyn quickly said, “Yes. I’m very grateful. Thank you.” He frowned, seeing the blood on her face for the first time. “Are you injured?”
“Not seriously.” Alaia put her arm around Nima’s waist and helped her to stand up. “We will return in the morning. Hopefully then you will be in a more civilized mood, Selected.”
“Unlikely.”
With one last resentful look, the two Ylian women left the room. The guards followed them out and locked the doors once more.
“I am getting really sick and tired of this prison thing,” Sera complained.
“So am I.” Theyn came closer and smiled at his little girl, then at his mates. He held out his hand. “Nima didn’t need these anymore.”
They looked at what he was showing them. In his palm sat a compact sidearm and a disruptor glove.
She looked into his eyes and shook her head in admiration. “You’re a pickpocket now?”
“I’m whatever I need to be.”
Sera kissed him. “I love you, you know that?”
He smiled, and for the first time in a long time, he had a playful look in his luminous blue eyes. “I know.”
*
Joely clung to Asa as they were pushed down a long, dark corridor that smelled of blood, feces and fear. The Ylian hybrids and the lizard-like Taluans shouted at them, roaring instructions that they could not understand. One of the Taluans grabbed Joely by the arm and sniffed at her, hard, before shoving her away with a snorting laugh. He said something to his fellows, and they laughed, too. She was too frightened to be insulted.
Farther down the corridor, past a set of double doors made out of metal, she could hear screams and crying. A particularly blood-curdling shriek ripped through the air, and she buried her face in Asa’s chest. She could feel his heart pounding beneath her hands, and the knowledge that he was afraid, too, made her petrified.
They were pushed through into the chamber where the screaming had been, and she squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to look, unable to bear seeing any more horror. She would never get those hooks out of her mind, or the sounds and result of their use.
Asa put his arms around her. “Joe,” he said, “if we don’t make it out of here…”
“We will. We have to.”
“I – “
He was interrupted by a blinding flash and the sound of a powerful explosion. A horde of shouting people in black jumpsuits, their faces obscured by skull masks, poured in through a hole that had been blasted in the side of the building. They had long blaster rifles and were moving forward like an organized unit, firing repeatedly, felling Taluans and their Bruthesan allies alike.
A pair of the attackers grabbed Asa and Joely and hauled them out of the line of fire. The two humans were more than happy to follow where the newcomer led, and they ran through the hole in the wall and out into fresh air. A shuttle was waiting for them, and one of their rescuers shouted to them.
&
nbsp; “Get on board! They’ll take you to safety!”
They didn’t need to be told twice. They scrambled onto the shuttle. It was small, and most of the interior space was occupied by crates of weapons and what looked like high-tech explosives. Joely sat in one of the two unoccupied seats and Asa took the other. As soon as they were seated, the chairs conformed to them. The pilot glanced over her shoulder to ensure that they were seated, her green Ylian eyes glowing brightly, while the male co-pilot busied himself at the controls.
“Welcome to your freedom,” she said, “courtesy of the Resistance.”
Chapter Nineteen
Beno fussed with the controls on the disruptor, calibrating and then re-calibrating the device. Sera held Kira and paced nervously.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she worried. “What if you don’t get it right?”
He shrugged. “Then you’ll have one less mate to worry about.”
Theyn frowned. “That isn’t funny.”
“I am not living one more minute with this thing in my head.” Beno finished adjusting the controls, then kissed Sera and Kira. He hugged Theyn tightly, then said, “Here goes nothing.”
Sera turned her face away. “Oh, God. I can’t watch.”
The dark-haired Ylian took the disruptor and held it over the collar around his neck. If everything went according to plan, then the unit’s workings would be destroyed and the threat of death by brain scrambling would be eliminated. If things went badly… but Sera wasn’t thinking about that. The room was silent with tension. Beno looked at his mates, then at his daughter, and took a long, steadying breath. He was about to press the glove to the collar when there was a loud click. Sera’s collar fell to the floor, inert. Beno dropped his hand in shock, and both Theyn and Sera froze in fear.
Kira giggled. Her little hand was glowing bright green, and in it she clutched a half-dozen hair-thin wires along with several of her mother’s curly blonde hairs.
Ignition: Alien Ménage Romance (Phoenix Rising Book 2) Page 16
