by Stacy Jones
It took a second of staring before her mind translated the garbled chicken scratch into anything comprehensible. When it did, she saw a seemingly endless list of gladiators, but they weren’t labeled by their names, only species and whether they were male, female, or something else.
“Bastard didn’t even bother to learn the names of the people he stole.”
Kix clicked on one of them at random, and a picture of a gladiator appeared on the tablet. She knew that one, or one of his species anyway. Spikey arms and a face like a beetle.
Kix swiped the screen, going down to where there were labeled sections. First was a series of numbers.
“What is that?” she asked Kix.
“Date of acquisition,” he answered grimly.
“How long has he been here?”
“According to this, it is this planet’s 4593.34th sol. He was acquired in 4587.48.”
“So, he’s been here almost six years.”
Farther down were tabs for species, gender, and tournament statistics. After that were nutritional needs, skills, strengths, weaknesses, and mating habits. The useful information, for them at least, was near the bottom in a section labeled, Assessment and Placement.
This being was apparently a soldier on his planet but was prone to compassion and empathy. To correct that, they’d done something to his clone body. Aria didn’t understand all of the medical terminologies, but she got the gist.
They’d fucked with his hormones a little more than they normally did to counteract his natural compassion and make him more aggressive. They’d also zapped his brain to turn off the part that felt empathy, in addition to the usual inhibitors to suppress his conscious mind.
Physiological tweaks were listed—what they’d done to fix his body’s defects and make his system more efficient. They made him stronger, sped something they called a zgalish—what she assumed was his species version of a metabolism—so he healed faster, and did something to his DNA so his original body lived longer. They changed his internal systems so he no longer needed to void waste, required as much sleep, or… molt?
Scrolling further down, she found a note that said his people apparently went through some kind of mating frenzy. They’d turned that off, but only recently. This being had apparently been used in the Mating Games until only a few years ago. They realized they’d turned up his aggression a little too much, and he was killing the females as often as he fucked them. Sometimes while he fucked them. It disturbed the viewers.
“Sick bastards,” Aria growled, her stomach twisting.
As much as it pained her to deny someone freedom, she couldn’t wake this one up, not until they figured out how to undo the damage Zhrovni had done to him.
“Go to the next one. This one needs to stay… asleep for a while longer.”
They went down the list, looking through a couple dozen files, including Skaa’s, and had already found eighteen promising ones. The rest were either too aggressive after Zhrovni’s modifications, or they were violent criminals on their homeworlds. That was a pattern she’d noticed. Almost all the gladiators were either criminals, warriors, or fighters—people with combat skills or those who already had heightened aggression. There were a few, however, that were catches of opportunity, like Skaa.
On her world, the trees apparently gave off a frequency that disrupted locking beams. She’d only been captured because she wasn’t under their protection.
There was a note in her file suggesting they acquire more of her kind because of how well she’d done in the arena.
Not fucking happening.
Aria spotted a file labeled Human, but past that was a name she didn’t recognize. Still, something about it caught her eye. Following her gut, she clicked on it and found herself staring at a picture of an alien male, one she didn’t remember ever facing in the arena. He had jet-black skin, like a starless-night sky, patterned with purplish-gold scales along his arms, chest, and legs.
His facial features were the closest to human of anyone she’d seen here, but still alien enough to be strikingly exotic. His full lips and wide, square jawline were humanoid, but his pointed ears, lack of hair anywhere on his body, and sharp, inverted, V-shaped nostrils were distinctly other.
Aria took the screen out of Kix’s hands and brought it closer to her face. There was something about his eyes, something familiar. They were solid white with the exception of two black, vertical, slitted pupils bisecting them.
“The dragon,” she whispered, shocked. “He’s a man?”
Chapter 9
Aria’s heart skipped a beat, and her stomach went weightless as she stared at the picture of him, an echo of the recognition she’d experienced in the valley fluttering through her.
Darting a shocked look up at Kix, she asked, “Did you know he could… transform?”
He shook his head, appearing just as surprised as she felt. Tirox came up behind her, his chest pressing against her back, and peered over her head.
“Another bald male. Poor bastard,” Tirox sighed, sounding genuinely upset.
Aria bit back a smile and leaned her head against his chest to gaze up at him. “Babe, some people are just naturally hairless. It’s not considered a defect if they’re supposed to be that way.”
He snorted quietly and gave her a soft look like he thought she was just trying to be kind for Kix’s sake.
Letting it go, she focused back on the screen and scanned the male’s body. He was impressively built with bulky, defined muscles. His fingers and toes were tipped with white claws, a bold contrast to his onyx skin, that both drew the eye and emphasized their deadliness.
He definitely looked like a fighter. There was a scowl on his face, and his entire body was covered in scars, big and small, old and new, telling the tale of a life full of pain and violence.
Almost of their own accord, her eyes zeroed in on his groin and her brows slowly crawled up her forehead. If his body wasn’t impressive enough, his dick certainly was. Deliciously thick with ridges along the top where a human man’s cockhead would be, it looked like it had been designed for a woman’s pleasure.
Scrolling past his picture to the information below before Kix caught her flash of arousal, Aria read about him. He was from a planet called Thrarion. Next to the planet’s name was his acquisition date.
“That can’t be right,” she muttered to herself. “It says he’s been here for damn near eighteen years. He looks like he’s in his mid-thirties. That’s most of his life.”
Swiping farther down, she found the usual: nutritional needs, tournament statistics—he won, a lot—skills, strengths, weaknesses… mating habits. But, what caught her eye was the section titled ‘Enhancements.’ She’d only seen that on a couple of other files, and none as long as his.
They’d done something to his DNA, something more than just extending his life span.
His people were apparently capable of rapid mutation and regression. They could change some aspects of their physical appearance, and even their internal systems to a lesser degree, to adapt to what was apparently a volatile environment on his homeworld.
Zhrovni had magnified that natural ability a hundredfold.
With the help of bio-nanorobotics to serve as an energy source for the transformation, he could now shift from his humanoid form to that of the hrykaask and back again, in addition to thickening his skin so it basically became armor and a slew of other defensive and offensive adaptations.
“No wonder he wins so often. He can change to counter anything his opponents might throw at him,” Aria breathed. “He’s on the list. We need to find him and wake him up.”
“My song… ”
Kix’s tone perfectly conveyed his misgivings in those two simple words, but she shook her head, cutting him off, and turned so she could meet his uneasy stare.
“You were busy fighting in the canyon, so maybe you didn’t notice the way he didn’t kill anyone, even when doing so would’ve been easier and would’ve prevented the majority of
the wounds he suffered.”
Kix narrowed his dark eyes, searching her face before he said softly, “I feel it, as well. The knowing. The sense that I should remember him more than I do. Yet,” His gaze flicked to the tablet in her hands, “his file speaks of a dangerous male, one that should be treated with caution.”
“I know what it says, Firefly. But, I also know what I feel. I was right about you and Red wasn’t I? Trust me.”
He sighed deeply but eventually nodded. Bending, he cradled her face and gazed at her seriously. “Be cautious, my song.”
Smirking, she nipped his lower lip, making him hiss and his eyes flash with hunger, then declared, “Always.”
That earned her a snort and a dubious look.
“Worry not, bright one. If any should threaten harm to our mate, we shall just maim them, or kill them if necessary” Tirox declared, giving Kix a friendly slap on the back that made him grunt and stumble slightly.
Aria and Kix both turned to give him incredulous looks.
Kix deadpanned, “Perhaps you were too busy fighting. Did you not see the size of the hrykaask? Or read his file just now? As Aria says, we are good, yet I do not know that we are that good.”
Tirox’s smile went from its usual cheerfulness to something dark and threatening as he answered, “I did. I also saw the soft scales on his belly, the break in his wing, that he favored his right hind leg, and the way he could not see his attackers coming at him.”
Her eyes went wide as she regarded Tirox in both surprise and appreciation. He was so gentle with her, so loving and sweet. But that very clearly only extended to her.
“Damn, babe. And here I thought you had your hands full with almost a dozen gladiators down in that canyon.”
Tirox snorted, “You thought I would let you face that beast unprotected without first gauging the danger he presented? I am not so foolish as that, my tiny goddess.”
Aria stared up at him in disbelief, her brow arched and her eyes narrowed. “Let me?”
He returned her look with a sharp one of his own and leaned down until they were almost nose to nose, pinning her with his golden eyes, their swirling halted completely for the first time.
“Yes. Let you. Would you allow me to run off to face a beast the size of a mountain without first assuring yourself I would not die in the battle?”
She pursed her lips, seeing his point but still not appreciating that he thought she needed his permission for anything, before finally answering, “No. Of course not.”
Tirox shook his head and gazed at her softly. “I would never ask or want you to be anything but what and who you are. Nor would I seek to make you feel less than capable. You are fierce and deadly, my heart, and I adore your strength. But, you are my mate, and I will not lose you. Not to anyone for any reason, even your pride.”
He cupped her cheeks and rested his forehead against hers before she could do more than frown. Sighing deeply, he gave her somber eyes and swept his thumb over her cheekbone, whispering, “My sorrow to burden you with this knowledge, but we must have truth between us. I would lose my will to breathe without you.”
“Tirox… ” Aria gasped, shocked.
“No, my heart. You must live. You must. I would have your vow you will not foolishly endanger yourself. Not for anything.”
“Tirox. I… ” she sighed. “I won’t do anything stupid. I promise. But, I can’t promise not to put myself in danger. Not here, not with what we’re facing.”
That was as good a promise as she could give. She could tell he wasn’t anywhere near satisfied with it, but voices in the hallway outside prevented him from pressing further. Still, she could see in his eyes he wasn’t finished with the conversation.
Turning away to the sound of his low growl, Aria ran silently to the door and pressed her back to the wall beside it, cocking her head to listen to the conversation on the other side.
“Take this one to the modification suite. She was acting suspiciously in the tournament. I do not need another of my jeleking slaves waking up and causing disorder.”
“Yes, Overlord,” came a deep, hissing voice before footsteps departed down the hallway, opposite the direction from which Aria and her men had come.
“Zhrovni,” Aria hissed on a breath of sound. “He has to be talking about Skaa.”
“One of you go retrieve Vhraress and her males. They need yet more correction. If I have to turn her mind to jeleking soup to get her back under control, that is what I will do!”
Two sets of footsteps headed off in the direction of the labs.
“And prepare for a new shipment,” Zhrovni yelled. “The Gaulik should be arriving any rotation now. Cock-tonguing rzklii are always late!”
“They will sound alarms when they do not find us in our stasis tubes,” Kix warned quietly.
“I know. Fuck. Okay, where is the dragon kept? We grab Skaa from wherever they’re taking her then find him. We’ll be a hell of a lot harder to stop if he’s with us. We just have to hope he’s in his man body, so I can choke him awake, and that he’s willing to fight with us.”
She felt Kix’s wariness at the mention of the dragon, but so, too, could she feel his acknowledgment that what she’d said was true. An ally like that would be a game-changer. She barely heard his footsteps as he ran back to the data console to find out where he was kept. Her shoulders relaxed when she realized he wasn’t going to argue.
He returned just as the footsteps departed outside, heading to the left in the direction they hadn’t been yet.
“The modification suite is three doors down. Skaa should be there. She will not be unattended. We will have to fight to free her.”
“So be it. And the dragon?”
Kix hesitated long enough that she turned to look at him, taking her gaze off the door for the first time since hearing the footsteps.
“What’s wrong?”
His shoulders raised and lowered in a resigned sigh. “His location was not on the main system.” Before she could voice a demand that he search again, he halted her with a placating hand. “I managed to bypass the security. I found him. It will not be easy to reach him, if it is possible at all.”
“Spit it out, Firefly.” He looked taken aback at that, so she rephrased impatiently, “Tell me.”
“He is kept one level down. In the underground prison.”
“Prison? Are you kidding? Like a fucking dungeon? Are there other people kept down there?”
“Yes. Four others, I believe. That level is under constant armed guard. Fortunately, it is only two guards at a time, six total, on a rotating schedule. From what I was able to discover, the prisoners are all considered too dangerous to allow into the arena unrestrained.”
Aria frowned. Something about that didn’t add up. “If they’re so dangerous, why so few guards?” A possibility occurred to her. “Maybe Zhrovni is doing something illegal down there and wants to keep knowledge of the dungeon’s location or even existence to a select few. That could be good for us. If we make it out of here, we could use that against him. I’d rather kill the bastard, slowly, but I could be content with knowing he’s a prisoner, just like all the people he’s stolen.”
The hallway had been silent for thirty seconds by her count. It was time to go. Glancing up at them, she met their gazes for a moment before asking, “We ready?”
They nodded and unsheathed their weapons.
“Time to go hunting,” she whispered, anticipation speeding her pulse.
Just before she input the code to open the door, she peered down at her body then back at the guys’. They were only clothed, if you could call it that, in weapons and harnesses. Aria smiled wryly.
Watch out, bad guys. A gaggle of naked slaves are coming to get ya. Gonna strike fear into their hearts with my bouncy tits.
Chapter 10
Aria and her men moved cautiously, but quickly, down the hallway, counting doors until they reached the room where Kix said Skaa was being held. She’d more than half expected to fi
nd sentries posted outside the door or along the hall. She took their absence as further proof Zhrovni was entirely too complacent with the security in this place. He thought he was in total control of his slaves.
Aria was more than happy to show him just how wrong he was.
Quickly punching in the code, she squeezed through the door the second it slid open far enough and scanned the room in the span of a heartbeat.
There was an ant lab worker who immediately darted to huddle against the back wall, a stasis tube in which Skaa lay motionless taking up the center of the room, and two bi-pedal, crocodile-looking guards, both facing the door as if they’d been waiting for her. She instantly zeroed in on the weapons strapped to holsters on their chests. They weren’t made like any handguns on Earth, but she’d seen enough science fiction movies that they weren’t entirely unfamiliar either.
So the bad guys have guns. Good to know.
Aria didn’t pause but took a running leap at the guard closest to her before he could pull his gun, trusting her men to handle the other.
His cold, greenish-golden eyes locked on her, and his upper lip pulled back in something halfway between a snarl and a smile. He caught her effortlessly as she launched herself at him and used her momentum to throw her sideways. She hit the wall so hard it knocked the breath out of her, but she was grinning viciously even as she slid to the floor gasping for air.
Just as she’d wanted, he’d been distracted with her flying at him and missed the knife she was hiding against her forearm.
He was a scary looking bastard and looked like a man-sized version of Godzilla, but she’d clocked the soft, fleshy scales on his throat the second she saw him and planned to end him, fast and painless, by stabbing him there. His throwing her into the wall threw off her plan a little, but he wasn’t quick enough to avoid her blade entirely.
His eyes went wide as blood spurted from the new gash in his neck, but instead of showing alarm, he looked… excited?
What the fuck?
Aria managed to convince her diaphragm to relax so she could drag in oxygen and pushed to her feet. Darting a glance at her men, she found them struggling against the other guard, but quickly focused back on the one facing her when he lunged at her.
