by Jane, C. R.
I stared out at the beautiful blue sky outside of the floor to ceiling windows deciding I loved living so high up in the air, sharing my space with birds and clouds. Was this what it would be like traveling in a spaceship when the Vepar came to Earth, keeping only the universe view for company? I’d heard on TV a Vepar once saying, the crew slept for most of the trip, so maybe it wouldn’t be so great. Plus, the one time I did catch a flight as a child, I got the worst motion sickness.
I realized that I was rambling to myself and tried to slow down my thoughts, but for the first time in too long, a newfound joy beamed through me, and I couldn’t even understand the reason.
My stomach growled with hunger, and with no idea how long I’d been asleep, I untangled myself from the sheets and pushed my legs over to the edge of the mattress. I expected to hurt because earlier I wasn’t sure that I would be able to walk without falling over, but as I climbed onto my feet, I bounced on my toes, feeling ready to run a marathon.
Damn, whatever had been in Derrial’s blood had left me feeling amazing. At that moment my euphoria cleared enough that I was able to remember his words about our bond. A cold dread shifted over me, pushing out the strange joy I had just been feeling. I needed to find out what exactly the bond meant, knowing that I wasn’t going to like whatever it meant. It was ridiculous for me to think that he could have at least told me about it first. After all, he hadn’t exactly asked for my permission before kidnapping me from my world.
I padded over on bare feet into the kitchen admiring how the floorboards in this hotel were shiny and so clean. I pictured myself living somewhere like this, with such luxury, and I doubted I’d ever leave to go outside. Not when I had everything I needed right here.
Like the previous days, I swiftly scanned the tables and couches in case Derrial or one of the guards had left behind their cells considering all the phones had been removed from this penthouse. Maybe I was being foolish in even believing I had anyone to call for help. After witnessing Derrial’s influence over world leaders, what exactly would authorities do if I called, insisting he’d kidnapped me? I wasn’t a fool not to know how badly that could go for me. I would need a different tactic. Sure, I loved it here, but this was me floating high on an alien’s blood and daydreaming of living in a fairytale.
Stomping over to the fridge, I pulled it open, expecting food, but instead I stared at bottles of water. I sighed before having a bright idea. I grabbed some water and headed over to the couch. I flopped down and collected the menu from the hotel’s restaurant. This would all be under Derrial’s name, which meant I could order anything.
Once I made my choice, I headed to the front door and cranked it open. In a flash, a guard stepped in my path, broad shouldered and enormous.
“You can’t leave,” he snorted.
“Fine by me.” I shrugged and handed him a piece of paper.
He stared at it, his brow furrowing in a dozen lines, then glanced up at me quizzically without accepting the note.
I pushed it to his hand once again. “I’m hungry and I need you to go order this food for me.”
He cocked an eyebrow, stiffening as if getting me food was below his pay rank. The other guard farther down the corridor chuckled, and I noted only two of them guarded my door.
I slouched a hip into the door frame and huffed. “Do you really want me to tell Derrial I’ve been starving all day, close to fainting, because you refused to get me a bit of food?”
He made a grunting sound deep in his chest, glaring at me from hooded eyes, and snatched the paper from my hand before studying it. He snorted. “A bit of food? Where are you going to put all this?” Looking my way, he scanned me head to toe. “And there’s no salad or vegetable in sight?”
I gritted my teeth, refusing to show him how much I wanted to hit him in the nose, even if it required me to get on tippy toes to do so. If I was trapped in a penthouse, then I was spoiling myself, and right now I was so hungry, it made me impatient and my pulse raced with a desperation to eat something.
“Don’t forget the sundae.” I stepped back inside and slammed the door shut.
Where had my feistiness come from, all in the name of food? Hell hath no fury when my stomach rumbled. I smirked, grabbed an apple from the complimentary hotel fruit basket, and crashed onto my bed while switching on the television.
Half an hour later and still no food, I was about to check with the guards where my order was, when the click of the front door sounded.
Yes!
I hurried out of my bedroom, calling out over my shoulder, “Give me a sec, I’ll be right out.”
With my mouth already salivating and deciding I’d devour the sundae first, I rushed down the hallway and into the living room.
But instead of food waiting for me, I found Derrial, his back to me, staring out the window. He wore jeans and a black dress shirt. When did he get changed? Peering at him closer, I realized that he stood wrong. One shoulder sat slightly lower than the other, he looked somehow smaller, deflated. Strange since he was a man who towered over others, never backing down. Maybe something had happened at the Summit?
“Derrial? Is everything okay?”
He didn’t respond at first, but he cracked his neck, and a shiver slithered up my back. Unease crept over me when he didn’t answer.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
The space around him seemed to quiver or was I seeing things?
When he started to turn around, the room dimmed…
Something was very wrong.
The energy around him darkened and now flowed off his body like waves. And when he faced me, I gasped.
My stomach sunk through me, rattling me at the core.
“Who are you?” I recoiled, hugging myself, noting he stood in my way to escape.
A different Vepar I’d never seen before stood before me, and in a heartbeat, he lunged towards me. Eyes wide and dark, hands reaching out for me.
I screamed when my world tilted under me.
11
When I woke up, darkness surrounded me. It took me a second to gain my bearings, but eventually I realized I was slouched in some kind of chair. It was a darkness like nothing I had ever experienced before. It was so thick I wouldn’t have even been able to see my hands in front of my face even if they weren’t bound behind my back. There wasn’t even a beam of light coming in from under a door. It was a darkness like nothing I had experienced before. I went through the last things I could remember and the image of the unfamiliar Vepar crashed into my memory. The last thing I remember was looking into his eyes… Eyes that were completely black as if his pupil had taken over everything, and a pasty face as if he had no pulse. A shiver raced down my spine at the memory.
I was getting tired of being kidnapped. I’d take waking up in a mansion in a sunny room over this experience any day though. I tugged on the bindings on my wrist, trying to see if they would loosen at all, but they held firm.
“Hello,” I called out, feeling like one of those girls in the horror movies right before their death.
I waited for a moment, but I couldn’t hear anything. I opened my mouth to call out again when the strangest thing happened. It was like all the darkness was sucked out of the room in an instant and suddenly there were glowing brick walls all around, and the strange Vepar stood in front of me. I watched as the last remnants of darkness were sucked into him.
I had never seen anything like it.
The man wore the same black shirt and jeans Derrial had on when I first saw him. He slowly studied me before beginning to circle me. He stopped in front of me, and I watched, again amazed, as the blonde hair that he’d been using to impersonate Derrial melted away, leaving a Vepar with hair so dark that it matched his strange black eyes. I gasped. That was the most alien thing I’d seen so far.
Staying on the theme of horror movies, he looked like a character from one of those movies that portrayed people who were possessed by demons. Except I was pretty sure the creature st
anding in front of me was far scarier than a demon would be. For one, I’d seen enough flicks and read enough to know what a demon was. But this thing in front of me… I had zero clue and that terrified me. I shook in my chair, desperate to run. Except, I was stuck inside a room.
Another prison.
And this time I was with a monster.
“So fascinating,” he whispered in a voice that was as smooth and slick as oil. The voice seemed to emanate from inside my brain, and I shook my head at the strange feeling.
I knew I shouldn’t say something, but my curiosity won out. “What’s fascinating?” I asked.
The creature grinned. Unlike the other Vepar I’d seen who all seemed to have perfect movie star smiles, this one carried a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, kind of like a shark. I had been thinking that this creature was a Vepar, but now that I had seen the strange teeth, I wasn’t so sure. All I knew was that this being made Derrial and the others look as friendly as a teddy bear compared to him.
“It’s something I’m sure they weren’t anticipating,” the creature muttered to himself, still staring at me avidly. He must have seen the look of confusion on my pale face because he smiled again, flashing those horrid teeth that had me pressing back into my chair. “The bond, little human. You’re the first successful human/Vepar bond to be completed since they started trying. And by completing the bond, you also became the target for every Vepar enemy in the vicinity.” He chuckled and the sound was like knives down my arms.
Nope, nothing good would come from this thing in front of me.
I must have still been staring at him with a dumb look on my face because he continued. “Humans normally don’t even appear on our radar. Your species are like ants scurrying about with no idea of anything that’s going on around them. Only higher-level beings garner any interest.” He raised his chin, his shoulders back.
He went on, “Vepar and all the rest are almost like glowing figures in night vision goggles, they’re easy to spot. While they appear as a faint glow, you my dear are like the fireworks. You light up the darkness like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Every creature within a hundred galaxies will want you. And I got to you first.” His voice darkened and he almost drooled at saying those last few words.
I was trying to absorb his words and their meaning. “If what you're saying is true, how did you get to me so fast. The bond only just happened.”
He smiled again, his teeth sending sharp shivers of dread throughout my body, and I decided right then I loathed his smile. Better he grimaced.
“We had something planned for the Summit. But when I saw you, everything changed. You were too good to pass up,” he answered with a shrug.
“What are you?” I demanded.
The room started to darken, black mists erupted from his skin until it started to envelop everything, creating that same all-encompassing blackness as before.
“We are the Khonsu,” his voice whispered, seeming to be coming from all around me. I could feel something stroking my face, almost like a hand. It was as if the dark mists were an extension of him.
Suddenly the faint touches changed from a soft sensation to what felt like a whip lashing across my face. A jolting pain shuddered across my cheek, and I screamed as the lashes spread all over my body, ripping at my skin.
I screamed and tucked my chin low, but my hands tied at my back kept me locked to the chair.
A piercing pain seared across my body worse than a branding iron.
It was impossible to tell where the next lash would hit next since I couldn’t even see an inch from my face. All my mind could comprehend was pain. I lost all thoughts; all I could do was burrow my head into my chest. Away from the pain radiating me, burning me alive.
The assault never relented, never stopped, never gave me a chance.
Blood soaked my torn clothes, each new strike a sharp bite to my flesh, ripping me to shreds. My throat grew raw from cries, but they went unheard.
In those moments, I prayed for my death, to be taken because I couldn’t take another second.
As if sensing my end, the whips paused, granting me a brief reprieve. Tears tracked my cheeks and fell over my jawline, every inch of me drowning with agony.
I glanced up from the curtain of my hair covering my face, looking for the creature, hoping for an end. But as before, only darkness surrounded me.
Still, I sensed the bastard. Felt him in my head because just when I would recover enough to stay conscious, the whips returned.
Over and over he tortured me, and his laughter echoed in my head.
Please god, kill me.
My whole life I’d fought for survival, battled through depression after losing my parents, struggled to keep a job and keep myself going every day for the simple reason that my mom and dad would have wanted me to, that one day I might see them again.
But now… Now I had enough of everything. The exhaustion tore through me, and I no longer wanted to face the shitstorm of my life. This was it.
Just like most things in my life, I was taken, forced, and shoved aside. And I went along each time, believing in hope. But I’d been fooling myself, and now I had enough. I needed the exit button because I wanted to tap out.
I hiccupped a strangled cry and ached as a deep strike raked down my back. I floated back and forth out of consciousness.
In that moment, I would have done anything to escape.
The agony faded once again, easing the darkness that was consuming me. I watched through barely open eyes as my tormenter appeared in front of me. He smirked and heaved each breath as if my bloody state and agony delighted him. But he looked different, gone was his pasty complexion, and now he carried a shiny, healthy glow like Derrial had earlier that morning. Was this creature somehow feeding on my blood too?
The fear in my veins melted under the inferno of rage drumming through me. I had enough of being used and abused by this monster.
As I slouched in the seat, my quickened breaths grew raspy during the small reprieve, and an idle thought floated through my mind. I’d been told of vampires around campfires as a little girl. And now meeting these aliens, I questioned if the tales didn’t have it wrong. They romanticized vampires, others had them as misunderstood, or starved undead. But what if they were creatures who came from space to use humans? If I had known that as a little girl, I wouldn’t have ever been able to sleep another wink.
“Such a strong, brave, little human,” the creature cooed as he stepped closer. He reached out, catching a little of the blood that dripped from the side of my face. He licked the droplet he’d caught on his finger, almost sounding like he was having an orgasm when he tasted it, his eyes rolling back into his head, groaning. The sound disgusted me, bile climbing to my throat.
“You’re beautiful painted in red,” he declared, his eyes snapping open. Before he even started to let the darkness out once again, I was prepared for my life to end at that point, so nothing shocked me more than when the walls started to dissolve around us. The creature jerked around, his face twisting into a disfigured beast.
What was going on?
“I’ll just take some for the road,” he snarled, his upper lip creased with a look of disappointment. In haste, he swiped his palm across my bloody arm. I screamed in agony as white-hot pain raced over my skin as if his touch was barbed wire, shutting my eyes.
“See you shortly,” he whispered in my ear and licked my neck, the sound turning my stomach.
When the pain had subsided enough for me to open my eyes, he was gone, and the walls had almost completely disintegrated with only a puff of dust in their place.
I couldn’t imagine what creature was waiting for me now, I couldn’t comprehend what could be scary enough to get the black-eyed devil to flee but whatever came next would end up killing me.
Shaking all over and my vision blurring in and out, I sat there with what felt like hundreds of open wounds, blood dripping on the concrete floor around the seat, and tried to prepare myse
lf for death.
I was ready…Ready to face my maker. To end the horrendous pain.
Tears rolled down my face, stinging the cuts they fell into and continuing their journey down to the corner of my mouth. A hooded vale of death hung over me, and in that moment in time when I wasn’t sure how I could ever recover, I welcomed the easy way out. As gutless as it sounded, I couldn’t keep this up.
When a figure appeared where a wall had been minutes earlier, I blinked hard to clear my vision. Was I seeing right? A familiar, gorgeous, tatted Vepar appeared in front of me, my brain evidently having enough. I was hallucinating. Thane’s penetrating gaze was the last thing that I saw before I finally let the effects of my wounds carry me away.
* * *
“Pet, wake up,” were the words I woke to. I really would like to stop losing consciousness I decided as I struggled for what felt like the millionth time to open my eyes. I sighed as I felt a soft, wet cloth gently being moved over my burning wounds. The coolness helped ease away the pain somewhat but considering I felt as if I’d just climbed out of a pool it was clear that I was still bleeding profusely.
My muscles hurt as I tried to move them. When I finally wrenched my eyes open wide enough to see anything, I stared up into Thane’s worried, blue gaze. I’m sure I looked like hell.
“Stay with me, pet,” he murmured, continuing to move the cool cloth over my aching wounds. “We just need to get the bleeding to stop and you’ll be better in a flash.” He held a device similar to the one that Corrin had used on me at the mansion and started to run it over my injuries.
“Fuck.”
His sudden outburst had me flinching, and I regretted the sudden movement as a searing pain shuddered through me.
He threw the device down beside him, his brow pinching, and he must have seen the questioning look in my eyes. “We use that device to heal skin lesions. That bastard must have used his darkness to inflict these wounds because I can’t heal cuts this way.”
