Breeder

by Marissa Farrar

  Nadeusz turned back to me and spoke in a low growl. “It’s going to start getting busier now we’re closer to the city. Keep your hood up and your head down. If anyone stops to question us, you belong to me. Got it?”

  I nodded. “Got it.”

  Miko shoved his bag at Diarus. “You’d better take this.”

  Diarus shouldered the bag. He needed to take on the role of slave, and carrying the Trad’s belongings would have been expected of him. I still didn’t miss the little flash of anger in his amber eyes, however. He played his role well, but he didn’t like doing it.

  A group of three Trads barreled toward us, speaking loudly in their own language. I did as Nadeusz had instructed and kept my head bent, hiding within the shadows of the cloak. The Trads nodded at each other as they passed, but no one stopped or challenged us.

  I exhaled a long, shaky sigh. My heart raced, my palms clammy. I was headed directly into the lion’s den, and even though I had people to protect me, I’d have been stupid not to be terrified.

  We kept going, passing more Trads as we went. Some of them were alone, while others moved in small groups. Each time we passed, Miko and Nad gave them a nod of acknowledgement, and they ducked their heads in return, though no smiles or greetings were ever exchanged. The Trads were a serious race.

  “We’re passing beneath the city wall now,” Nad told me. “We’re now in Vrale.”

  “Do these tunnels run beneath the whole city?”

  “Yes. It’s the only way we can move around easily when the sandstorms hit.”

  “Of course.”

  I fell silent as two more male Trads approached. They nodded at Nad and Miko, and then their gazes flicked to me, then over to Diarus. I kept my head down, my mouth running dry. But I hadn’t looked away quickly enough to miss the flicker of recognition across one of the Trad’s faces.

  They were about to walk on, but one of them paused. “Wait,” he called out. “Name yourselves.”

  To my shock, Nadeusz didn’t even hesitate.

  He swung around, his fist connecting with the other Trad’s face, his strong tail lashing around the Trad’s throat and throwing him to one side. I’d seen Nad fighting when he’d saved me from Rhett, but the strength and speed of his movements still took me by surprise.

  The second Trad had enough time to exclaim something I didn’t understand, then Mikotaj was on him. This one had the chance to duck Miko’s blow and throw one of his own, which Miko easily evaded.

  A strong blue arm wrapped around the second Trad’s throat from behind, getting him in a headlock. The Trad let out a strangled gasp and clawed at the arm blocking off his airways. His tail lashed around behind him, trying to get purchase on his attacker, but Diarus nimbly ducked it. Miko stepped in, delivering a knockout blow to the Trad’s nose. His eyes rolled back in their sockets, and he fell limp in Diarus’s grip.

  All of this happened in a matter of seconds, while I stared, opened mouthed at the turn of events.

  “We need to hide them so no one else stumbles across them and alerts the polityk to there being a problem,” Nad said, already dragging the one he’d knocked unconscious across the ground.

  Diarus and Miko grabbed the other one between them and followed his lead, while I stood by anxiously, worried someone else would appear and demand to know what we were doing. The bodies scraped across the tunnel floor, the tails trailing behind. The heavy breathing of the others from the effort of moving them filled the tunnel.

  Nadeusz hid the first Trad in a crevasse in the tunnel wall, similar to the one we’d hidden in when we’d started the first leg of this journey. Diarus and Miko dumped the other guy on top.

  “They should be out cold long enough for us to get to our destination,” Miko said, dusting off his hands.

  Nadeusz scowled. “Maybe we’d be better off killing them.”

  Miko shook his head. “We’re not going to start killing just because someone happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Diarus stepped in. “We’re wasting time even talking about it. What’s done is done. We need to keep moving.”

  He was the voice of reason, and the two Trads stopped arguing so we could continue.

  “Is it much farther?” I dared to ask.

  “No. We need to go up onto the streets, but we’re almost there now.”

  I wondered exactly where ‘there’ was.

  We reached another exit and left the tunnels, stepping up onto the streets. I was surprised to find it was bright daylight, and I lifted my hand to shelter my eyes, the hot sun burning down on my shoulders. The hood of the cloak offered me some shade, but the extra material shrouded me, and sweat instantly dampened my back and prickled across my forehead.

  The city was surprisingly modern after the almost archaic sandstone tunnels. Tall, silver buildings rose high into the air, interspersed with lower, older-looking structures made of the same red stone that had been so prevalent in the tunnels, and also the wall surrounding the city. The streets were narrow, however, and though they were paved, they weren’t set up for vehicles like in our cities back home. I quickly spotted the reason why. Between the tall buildings, vehicles wove through the air. They seemed to follow unseen tracks and stopped at invisible junctions—I assumed they were being guided by onboard computer systems and satellite navigation, or whatever the Trad equivalent might be. I understood the need for the tunnels. When the sandstorms started, with their high winds and lightning strikes, having cars that moved through the air would be useless.

  “Come on,” Nad said. “We need to move.”

  I tore my gaze from the spectacle above, put my head back down, and hurried after them. They all seemed to know exactly where they were going, including Diarus, and it occurred to me that this wasn’t his first time out of the facility.

  It didn’t take us long to reach our destination.

  I was surprised to see that we’d stopped in front of a store that sold Trad clothing. I highly doubted we were going to do a little shopping.

  Nadeusz led the way, and I followed. The bell above the door tinkled as we entered, and I held back a smile of amusement. Something as twee as a bell simply didn’t suit the big, tough Trads.

  From the back of the store, someone hurried out to us. The Trad appeared older than Miko and Nad. His gaze flickered over to me and Diarus, and I shrank back.

  “I need boots,” Nad said. “Size forty-three.”

  I had no idea how sizing worked on Tradrych, but I was fairly certain the line was saying something different to this new Trad, and that we weren’t here to buy new boots.

  “This way,” the Trad said. “I have just the thing.”

  I glanced back to Diarus, who gave me a reassuring smile. He didn’t appear nervous, and I wondered if he’d been here before.

  We passed through a changing room, and then out into a stockroom stacked high with boxes and railings filled with clothes. The Trad who either owned or worked in the shop stopped at a floor-to-ceiling shelving unit. He reached out and tweaked something, and to my surprise, the entire unit slid back to reveal a metal door behind it. The Trad pressed his thumb to a scanner beside the door, and it unlocked with a low beep.

  Still without saying a word, he stepped back and allowed us through. Nadeusz glanced back at me and nodded to tell me it was okay, but that didn’t stop my gut from churning.

  Where the hell were we going?

  Chapter Eighteen

  We weren’t alone on the other side of the door. Another Trad waited for us, as though he’d been alerted to our arrival.

  “Nadeusz,” he said as we passed into the hidden building beyond the shop. The metal door shut behind us with a bang. “Mikotaj. What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at the facility.”

  “Things changed faster than we had anticipated,” Nad replied. “We’re here to see Aleksy.”

  The new Trad frowned over Nad’s shoulder at me. “And who’s this?”

  Nad glanced over at me
as well. “A human woman. We took her from the facility.”

  “That wasn’t agreed with Aleksy.”

  “No, but she’s on our side. More than anyone, she wants this to stop.”

  The Trad’s lips thinned. “She’ll draw unwanted attention to us.”

  “She might be able to help us.”

  The last thing I wanted was to be forced out of the group. I didn’t want to be abandoned alone in a Trad city.

  “I will,” I said in earnest. “I’ll do anything I can to help you take down the facility and stop what’s being done to the other women.”

  As I said the words, I realized I meant it, too. The horror of the facility needed to end. It wasn’t only about the women who were already there, like Dawn and Avery, or about women like Zoe who’d already given birth and had been moved on to be impregnated again by other Trads. It was about the women who would continue to be brought to the facility, all those who were still being abducted from Earth, and would continue to be until we could put a stop to it.

  “This isn’t for you to decide anyway, Geharz,” Mikotaj said. “We’re going through to speak to Aleksy, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  The other Trad scowled but stepped out of the way. “Fine, but he’s not going to be happy.”

  Miko shrugged. “That’s our problem.”

  I wondered who this Aleksy was. I was fairly sure I was going to find out soon enough.

  The building was a bit of a Tardis from the outside. I followed the others down a corridor and then through another one. We came to a halt outside a closed door, and Nadeusz lifted his hand and rapped on it with his knuckles.

  “Come in, Nadeusz,” a deep male voice called from inside. “And the rest of you, too.”

  Nad gave me one final glance over his shoulder and then opened the door.

  Screens covered almost every wall of the room and showed images from the streets outside and the inside of the shop and the corridors we’d just walked down. Our every movement had been witnessed. A Trad was sitting at a computer, but he got to his feet as we entered and turned to face us. He stood tall, his square jaw lifted, his shoulders back. His V-neck, silver, long-sleeved top fitted his muscles perfectly, giving me an unfettered view of the impressive shape of his body. His white-blond hair was swept away from his forehead and curled down to rest on his broad shoulders. He regarded us with eyes that were a pale blue and bright with intelligence. The horns jutting from the top of his head were pale, too, like ivory, and even the scales across his skin appeared more golden than red. He gave off an aura of total authority, and even the likes of Nadeusz looked small and defenseless in his presence.

  This must be Aleksy.

  His gaze traveled past the males and landed on me. I stiffened and stood straighter, while fighting the urge to hide behind Nad and Miko.

  Aleksy’s head tilted to one side. “We don’t get many of your kind here.”

  I held his icy gaze—so opposite to what I’d seen in other Trads. “That’s probably because this isn’t our planet.”

  I wondered how he’d react to my retort, and for a moment I thought I might have pissed him off, but then a flicker of a smile touched his lips. “That’s very true. Though right now there’s more of you on Tradrych than there should be.”

  “That wasn’t our choice.”

  “I’m aware of that, which is why we’re trying to put a stop to this horrific practice.”

  I had to wonder what his motives were. “You’d rather see your species vanish?”

  “No, of course not. But I believe there’s a way of continuing it without resorting to abduction and imprisonment.”

  He took a step closer, and I sensed the others press into me as well, as though they were trying to protect me. But this Trad wasn’t dangerous, was he? Surely they wouldn’t rescue me only to bring me somewhere else that might cause me harm.

  His eyes narrowed. “Do I frighten you, blondie?”

  I thought he had a nerve calling me blondie considering he was far paler than me. “No,” I said resolutely, though he certainly intimidated me.

  “And you’re clearly not afraid of Mikotaj and Nadeusz here.”

  I glanced to my sides, where the others stood. “I was...at first. But not now.”

  “Then that’s exactly what I’m talking about. We might seem fearsome because of our appearance, but we’re all different. I think if the human species got to realize that, then maybe we could create a more...willing connection. At least, that’s my hope.”

  “On Earth,” I said, remembering, “you didn’t come to us looking like this. You pretended to be something else. That’s no way to make a connection—if the very first thing we see about you is a lie.”

  “That’s very true, but do you think there would ever come a time where those on Earth, or even those human women who are here now, might accept us as we are?”

  I bit my lower lip. Could women ever accept a Trad as a lover? I knew I was thinking about both Nadeusz and Mikotaj differently now—I saw them as brave and protective, and strong, and yes, even beautiful. But that was me, and I couldn’t speak for the entire female human race. “After everything the Trads have done to us? Honestly, I’m not sure.”

  He seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. He turned his attention to the others. “Nadeusz, Mikotaj, Diarus, too. How did you think I was going to react to you bringing a human here? If polityk Borys raided this place, we’d have no way of explaining our way out of her being here.”

  My blood ran cold as I realized he was saying that I wasn’t welcome.

  Nad stepped forward. “We had no choice.”

  Aleksy’s fine white eyebrows lifted. “There’s always a choice. You could have left her at the facility. Were your own roles even completed there? You’ve made no mention of finding what we needed to know.”

  Nadeusz shook his head. “We’d exhausted every avenue. No one there knows any more than we do. And Tara was in physical danger from one of the Trads. We couldn’t have left her.”

  “I should order you to take her right back.”

  Beside me, Nadeusz stiffened. “If we don’t take Tara in, then you lose all of us as well.”

  “Yes,” Miko said. “I agree. If Tara goes, we all go.”

  Aleksy’s eyes narrowed, and he looked around at them all, apparently judging the seriousness of their words. I couldn’t believe that they’d break loose of their comrades just for me. I’d never asked for them to do that, but, at their support, warmth bloomed in my chest and spread out through my limbs. I reached out and squeezed Miko’s hand and then threw Nad and Diarus a thankful smile.

  But if they were working in some way toward putting an end to the facility, then I wanted to help. I didn’t want to hide away here like some fragile little bird, or be the cause of disruption to their mission.

  “You can use me,” I blurted. “None of the other Trads will suspect a human as part of the rebels. You can put me back with them, and I can help.”

  I had no idea how. I hadn’t exactly thought this through.

  “No, Tara,” Nad snapped. “You’re not going back there.”

  “I’ll do whatever it takes to help the other women. I won’t just hide away and do nothing.”

  “I understand that, but there has to be a better way.”

  The rebel leader tapped his finger to his full lips. “It’s something I’ll give some thought to,” he said. “I admit, it might be a way of getting direct access to someone important.”

  Nadeusz opened his mouth, but I kicked his ankle to shut him up. This wasn’t his decision to make.

  “So, she can stay,” Miko said instead.

  Aleksy nodded slowly. “Yes, she can stay. I’ll let you know when I’ve decided what our next move will be.”

  We’d clearly been dismissed.

  I exhaled a long sigh, my shoulders dropping. I hadn’t wanted to end up alone, but I hadn’t wanted to divide the others from the rebel group on my behalf either. We were a
ll working toward the same thing, and it was more important that we work together.

  We left the rebel leader, and I followed the others out of the room and down the corridor beyond. We passed other Trads who nodded and acknowledged Miko and Nad. I felt their gaze linger on me—curious and questioning—but no one actually mentioned my presence. I was sure news of my arrival would be spreading throughout the rebel group, however.

  Diarus spotted another Athion. “I’ll catch up with you all later,” he told us.

  “Of course,” Nad said. “Do whatever you need to.”

  I wondered what part the other alien race was playing in all of this. Why did what the Trads did interest the Athions? It wasn’t as though it affected them in any way. But then I shook my head at myself. I had no idea what I was talking about. I hadn’t even known Athions existed, never mind what their relationship was to the Trads. There was quite literally an entire universe out there that I had no clue about, and I figured the next few days, or weeks, or however long I managed to survive for, were going to be a massive learning curve.

  “You can take my room,” Miko said. “I’ll bunk down with Nadeusz.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to throw you out of your own bed.”

  He shrugged. “It’s not really my bed. Everything here belongs to the Zeimias—the rebel group—as a whole. We move around as and when needed, and obviously this is a need.”

  I still felt bad putting them out, but they really did seem insistent. Besides, I was exhausted. Even though the injections I’d been given had performed practical miracles on the state of my body, I’d used up a lot of energy when I’d run from the facility heavily pregnant, and then giving birth.

  The niggle of discomfort reappeared, swirling eddies of dark emotions inside my chest, and I pushed the thought away. I didn’t want to think about the birth or the baby that had been born.

  Mikotaj opened a door onto a small space. It was a windowless room containing only a single bed, a shelf, a desk, and a stool. A second door led onto an even smaller shower room.

  “Here you go,” he said. “Get some rest.”

  “Thanks, I will.”