by Marie Dry
“That is a lie,” he said vehemently.
Rose frowned at him. He’d never wanted her around, so why did he protest the truth now? For a moment the little girl inside her, who’d been desperate for his attention, hoped that he wanted her at last. But then she remembered the kidnapping, the way he’d always looked at her. His pride. “It will hurt your pride to acknowledge that I’m not yours. You can’t stand the thought that Mother loved another man.”
“She never loved him,” he shouted. Red patches mottled over his dark skin.
Zanr stepped forward. “You do not shout at her.”
Rose would be forever grateful that he didn’t call her breeder in front of this arrogant man. It would only give him something to mock her with.
Rose stared at the man she’d called Father, and horror crawled down her spine with sharpened claws. She knew, suddenly she just knew. Maybe the kind of job she did allowed her to put all the clues together. Or maybe she was just ready to accept the truth at last. “You had me kidnapped,” she blurted.
If she didn’t watch him so closely, she would’ve missed the slight flinch, the way his eyes shifted away, the way his cheeks darkened. “Is this another attempt to get attention? I thought you’d grown―”
Rose held up a hand. “I’m done. I want to speak to my brother before I leave, but I’m done with you.”
“Your brother is not here.”
She could hear the truth in his voice. Maybe it was a good thing that Charles wasn’t around. If he was innocent in the superman crack case, she’d try and keep him out of it. But she very much feared he’d been corrupted by his father.
She shook her head at the man who was not her father. “You are responsible for the superman crack being on the street. What happened? Did you become greedy?”
He lifted his chin, raking her small figure with a contemptuous up-and-down gaze, sure he was untouchable, even confronted with Zanr. “It was an accident. A technician fouled up one of the processes. But then we discovered what the drug did to people, and we refined the addictive aspect of it and sold it as a drug that gave you superpowers.” He smirked. “The name caught on quickly.”
Rose shook her head. “I can’t believe you can brag about doing something so awful. Don’t you have any conscience?” No, he didn’t, she answered her own question. A man who could kidnap a child, even if she was the result of his wife’s affair, had no conscience.
She moved closer to Zanr. “I’m done here. I’ll find my brother later.”
Zanr moved so fast, she didn’t see it happen. One moment he stood next to her, the next her father dangled in the air, Zanr’s fist in his jacket holding him off the ground. “We will shut down your company until new management can be brought in,” Zanr said.
He struggled in Zanr’s iron grip. “You can’t do that; the police are on their―”
“The police do not rule this planet—Zyrgin warriors do—and we do not tolerate drug dealers.”
“How dare you.” The man who was not her father raised his legs and tried to kick Zanr with no success. “I’m a businessman.”
Zanr shook him like a rag doll. “I am the warrior who you answer to, human. You will be taken to a camp and given work to do. If you do not become a productive human, you will be put to death.”
Rose stared at them. She should be horrified at Zanr’s actions, his threats, but she didn’t care. What did it say about her character that she was willing to go along with the aliens punishing this man? Because of her own grievance?
Zanr dropped him, and taking her hand, they walked to the door. She heard a distinctive click behind them, the sound of a laser pistol’s safety being removed. Zanr turned smoothly and at the same time, he stepped in front of Rose. “Pull that trigger, human, and I will tear you apart slowly. I will enjoy doing it.”
Slowly, the man she never knew lowered the pistol. By the time they reached the gate, a shuttle landed, and Zyrgins marched out of it and through the broken gates. A week ago, she’d have been furious at the thought of aliens taking command of the law in her country. But at that moment she just didn’t care.
And she didn’t want to think about her family. About the right and wrong of her own choices. She turned to Zanr. “Let’s go home and go at it like bunnies.”
He blinked. “How do bunnies go at it?”
Rose laughed and hoped he didn’t hear the hysteria. “It’s a saying—it means making love a lot.”
He stared at her.
She threw her hands in the air. “I thought you read all the best romances and watched them on the TC. I’m talking about many hours in the sleeping place.”
Behind them the Zyrgins marched her father out the door and she turned her back. She didn’t need to see him ever again. Didn’t want to know anything about him.
Zanr smiled at her, that awful-looking smile she’d come to love. “I am superior at going at it like a bunny. For many hours.” He drew her closer to him, then abruptly he stiffened and his eyes became fixed, the way he did when he talked to the others.
“What―”
Zanr remained statue still; he held her close to him, a finger over her mouth while he did a lot of grunting, then at last he looked down at her. “That was Viglar. He found a way to get the nanos out of your system.”
Rose nearly collapsed with relief. They went to the hoverbike and then to the shuttle they’d parked on one of the tall buildings in the city. The doctor waited for them outside their dwelling. Rose trembled when they walked inside. She went to the couch and sank down on it.
“Are you sure it will work?” she asked the doctor.
“It is the best chance,” Zanr said. “And you do not speak to other warriors.”
Rose rolled her eyes, but didn’t protest.
“I will give her a treatment that will force the nanos to leave her body,” the doctor said in English and Rose smiled at him.
Zanr turned her face to him. “You do not smile at other warriors.”
“All right. Am I allowed to breathe?”
“Only at me,” he said and she had to laugh despite the hope and fear that made her insides tremble.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Viglar injected her and then turned to Zanr, and they grunted at each other. She really had to make some effort to learn that grunty language. Could a human make those sounds? The doctor left and Zanr came over to her. “Viglar said it will take a few hours before the treatment works.”
She sighed. “I suppose it was too much to hope that I’d be cured instantly.” She clutched her arms around herself. “Will it hurt?”
“Yes.”
She glared at him. “You can at least try and reassure me.”
“You said never lie to you.”
She sighed. “You picked a great time to listen to me.” That dizzy feeling had the room spinning around her, and she laid down on the couch.
He knelt before her and took her hands in his. “You are losing your balance again?”
“Yes.”
“You may lie to me about this, my breeder,” he said, sounding haunted.
Her smile had to be as pathetic as she felt. She traced his prominent brow, the ridge running to his head, down his temples, over his cheeks, and to those tough-looking lips.
“Remember I told you I was kidnapped?” She needed to talk about this. To tell someone about what happened. To look at it with grownup eyes. And maybe forget that if the doctor’s injection didn’t work soon, the nanos might still kill her.
“Yes.”
“They grabbed me from my home. At the time it didn’t occur to me to wonder about that. I was too young to think about it. But my father, I mean my mother’s husband, was the one who gave them access.”
His eyes looked like erupting lava. “That woumber needs killing.”
“I don’t know anything about the camps you’re sending him to, but I don’t doubt someone is going to kill him soon.”
“I would like that someone to be me.”
“He’s no
t worth your attention. Anyway, they put a blanket over my head, and when they took it off, we were in a wooden hut, and I could see no houses nearby. Just dead trees. I was so relieved to be able to breathe properly again.” She stopped talking and took a deep, shuddering breath. She took Zanr’s hands in hers, held on for dear life. “They put me in a suitcase.”
“What is a suitcase?” Zanr asked, but she could hear from his voice that he already knew.
“It is a case you pack clothes in when you travel. I was small for my age.”
“You are still small for your age.”
Rose glared at him and let go of his hands. “Do you want to hear this or not?”
He took her hands back in his, held on with a firm grip. “Of course, I want to, my breeder.”
“Well, my Komodo, they kept me in there for two days. I didn’t know it was only two days then; I only heard afterward.” She clasped her arms around herself, unaware that she’d rolled herself into a small ball until he rose to sit on the couch and drew her onto his lap.
“I have found the kidnappers.” He sounded as if the words were torn out of him.
Rose realized her mouth hung open. “How, where, why?” She couldn’t think, didn’t know what to ask first. When did he have the time to even look for them?
“I tracked them down with superior Zyrgin skills.”
Rose wasn’t fooled. If she had to guess, he’d gotten their whereabouts from her mother’s husband. “What did you do to them?”
“I only hurt them a little. But I didn’t know they put you in a suitcase then.” There was a grim promise in his voice and she knew if those kidnappers were still alive, they’d pray for death soon.
They stayed like that for the next two hours and then Zanr stood with her in his arms. “We have to go to the infirmary. Viglar has monitored you remotely, but he needs you close now.”
She nodded and hid her face in his chest. “When will I meet the other human women?” she asked, more to take her mind off of her fear than anything else.
“Natalie, Zacar’s breeder, has invited you for tea with her and the others five days from now.” She could hear the tension in his voice. Both of them knew she may not be alive in five days.
He took her inside the mountain and to another area in the opposite direction from where they’d been before. The infirmary was cold and clinical, and she shivered. “We will adjust the temperature for you,” Zanr said.
He laid her down on a solid-slab table that reminded her uncomfortably of a mortuary table in the TC movies. The doctor came and attached a silver band to her wrist and another one around her forehead.
Her left leg jerked and kept jerking, and then her whole body convulsed. The last thing Rose saw and heard before she lost consciousness was Zanr’s flashing teeth and his agonized roar.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rose opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was Zanr standing next to the slab where she lay. He looked as if he stood guard duty. Her heart melted. How long had he stood there, waiting for her to wake?
Then she remembered. Her body ached and even her eyelashes hurt when she blinked them. “Zanr?” She could barely whisper the words but his eyes snapped to her, and he grabbed her and held her against his chest.
“You are awake, my breeder.” She heard relief in his voice.
“Did it work?”
Silence—and her heart sank. Then he said, “Viglar managed to get most of the nanos out of you.”
“Most of them?” she squeaked. She wanted to start scratching again. Could almost feel the little machines swimming inside her body.
“He is refining the process. You need to become stronger before he drains the last of the nanos out of you.”
“What if they kill me before he gets them out?”
“He will monitor you every moment until he can do the procedure again.”
“Can I go home to our dwelling?”
He picked her up and ran to the domed house she’d never have thought of as home months ago. Now it was the only place she wanted to come back to
***
Zanr went to the training grounds. He was a very lucky Zyrgin. His breeder was healthy with no more nanos in her blood. She’d met the other breeders a few days ago and had told him she liked them all though she’d said Margaret was not at all the way she remembered the human female when she’d still called herself Maeve. When he’d told her to keep away from that crazy one, unlike the other breeders, she had agreed.
He waited until his fellow warriors stopped to rehydrate before he approached Larz who handed out water and towels and other necessities. He hated seeing his friend like this, but Larz appeared calm and accepting.
“Greetings, my friend,” he said. For the first time since Larz chose that human freak for a breeder, he didn’t suggest he choose another. He understood now. No matter what Rose did, he’d never give her up. Even if she had voodoo, he wouldn’t give her up.
“I have hunted a second eduki for my breeder. Will you honor me by consuming the meat with me?” When he’d killed the first eduki, he’d assumed no one would want to share the tradition with a no-blood warrior.
“I would’ve been honored, but as a citizen, I cannot share an eduki feast with a warrior,” Larz said.
“Fuck that rule, you are my friend. Even if you never become a warrior again, I would be honored to have you share a feast with me. It will not be the same without you.”
Larz’s nostrils flared, the only indication of the emotion he felt. “I will be honored to share the meat of your breeder’s eduki with you.”
Two of the other warriors stepped closer. Zanr readied himself for a fight and saw Larz change his stance, as well. He’d beaten these two before and he’d do it again—as many times as it took for them to respect him.
“We will be honored to partake of the meat of your breeder’s eduki with you and citizen Larz,” Zoro said, and Zelka nodded his agreement.
Zanr swallowed, a strong feeling almost making him act like a human female with many emotions.
“I will meet you all tonight at the feasting grounds,” he said and walked away. His lack of blood was showing because he would’ve liked Rose to be at the feast. He was a deviant Zyrgin to want that, but if it wasn’t for the fact that she’d be repulsed at the way they ate the meat raw, tearing off large chunks with their teeth, he’d have invited her, too. For all their sophistication and genetic engineering, warriors still had to consume raw meat. Their digestive systems seemed not to have developed with the times. Ever since their females had died out, they’d been careful never to let their breeders see them eat.
Late that night, after a feast with many of his fellow warriors who had joined them, he went to his dwelling and found Rose still awake. She sometimes became difficult when he woke her for his hours in the sleeping place, and he was glad to see her still watching a program on the TC.
She glared at him, her dawn eyes shooting sparks at him, her mouth pulled into a strange line. “Is this the time to come home? What kind of warrior are you, going out and carousing with your degenerate friends and coming home drunk? Leaving me alone all this time? Who do you think I am that I will tolerate that?”
Larz froze in place. He wasn’t drunk. Zyrgin warriors could get drunk, but it took dedicated drinking he didn’t have the taste for. He searched for something to say, to appease her. Maybe if he reminded her that he was now considered of the Zyrgin’s bloodline.
Rose burst out laughing, making those odd sounds humans made when they laughed. She fell over on the couch, pointing at him. “You…you…s…should see your face, m…my Komodo. I didn’t think your face was capable of looking like that.” Still she made that awful noise.
Zanr stood frozen, staring at his breeder. It slowly dawned on him that she wasn’t mad at him and wasn’t about to denounce him as a no-blood warrior, not good enough to be her breeder. She felt close enough to him to tease him. He pounced on her, grabbed her, and ran with her to their sleepin
g place, and she hooked her arms around his neck, laid her head on his chest.
In their sleeping place, he gently laid her down on the bed and stepped out of his clothes. “I’ll never get tired of seeing you do that.” Her eyes roamed hungrily over his naked body and Zanr pushed out his chest. She made him feel like a warrior born of the Zyrgins’ blood. She held out her arms and he sank down into them. He had a place at last. With warriors who considered him a friend and a breeder who felt so close to him, she teased him.
The next morning he woke to find Rose awake and staring at him.
“I am the luckiest human on Earth,” she said quietly.
He thought it over. “Yes, you have a Zyrgin warrior who loves you much.”
She smiled and drew his head down for a kiss. “I’m thirsty,” she said when they came up for air. He got up and came back with one of the silver cups.
Zanr handed her a silver cup with water. “Here is some w-a-t-e-r,” he sounded out.
Rose rolled her eyes and drank thirstily. “So, what now?” She couldn’t bear the thought of living the rest of her life trapped in a house, waiting for him to come home. She needed more.
He was in the process of getting in beside her, but paused and cocked his head. “What does that mean?”
“I mean, I can’t be a dutiful little wife, cooped up inside. Natalie and Julia have kids and their own interests. All I know is the job I had. And even though I’ve learned Parnell didn’t even train us well, that’s the job I want.”
He drew her against him. “There are five more scientists to be found before they build more bombs, and many more stolen weapons out there. We also haven’t discovered all the secret labs yet. Zacar was so impressed with our work, he wants us to find them,” Zanr said.
She turned to him. “Really? I thought your women had to be confined in their homes?”
“I told Zacar I could not do it without you.”
“And he agreed? I thought he believed a woman’s place is in the home and all that?”
“Zacar is different. They call him ‘the crazy warrior and his misfits’. He always had strange ideas. He took me on when no other conquest leader would consider me. He took Azagor and Viglar as warriors even though their first calling was not being warriors.”
