by Ella Maven
Sax shifted his weight, but still didn’t make a noise.
I wouldn’t call Hawn’s expression a smile, but the curl of his lip and the glint in his eye screamed satisfaction. He wanted to see us suffer. Call me bloodthirsty, but I wanted to see him die at the end of Sax’s blades. Maybe after a tail whip to the face and a few broken bones.
Polu snapped his fingers at the Kulk guards. “Bring them to the lab. Let’s see what Borhan has planned.” He grinned at Sax. “I will hear you scream before this rotation is over.”
Sax finally spoke through clenched teeth. “Don’t bet on it.”
I curled my fingers into the waistband of his pants, reminding him not to rile Polu. We couldn’t afford Sax getting injured before we got to the lab.
The Kulks stepped forward and connected their poles to Sax’s collar. I hated watching him like this, being walked like a dog, but I had no choice once Hawn gripped my arm and hauled me out of the door behind Polu, the guards, and my only hope.
Sax’s tail swished against the ground angrily, but he walked without struggling, the heavy tread of his bare feet slapping the metal floor. They refused to give us shoes, which was going to suck if we ever made it out of here.
Don’t think that far ahead, Val. One step at a time.
We approached the lab, and inside Borhan sat next to two cots, smiling at us with that creepy-ass grin. Gram stood nearby with his hands clasped in front of him, looking for all the world like a dutiful assistant. But I didn’t miss the way his eyes locked onto Sax and then me. He scratched his left ear, and I let out a small relieved breath. That was the signal the plan was a go.
If Sax was nervous, he didn’t show it. If anything, he looked the most relaxed I’d seen him since we’d met—other than after an orgasm. I could picture him now after I’d gone down on him—the way his lips had curled into that lazy smile and his fingers drifted up my side with featherlight touches. Fuck, I needed to pay attention to what the hell was going on.
We shuffled inside, and although the lab was pretty large, it felt cramped with me and Sax, four Uldani, and two Kulks all taking up space. And everyone was taller and stronger than me. Goddamn it. Was I predator to anything on this planet? I just wanted to see one thing smaller than me for fuck’s sake.
“We’ll check her first,” Borhan watched me happily, like this was a fun little checkup. He patted the cot. “Put her here.”
Nothing about how Hawn handled me was gentle. He picked me up and slammed me on the cot with so much force, the breath rushed from my lungs. I had just sucked in enough oxygen for my brain to work when straps wrapped around my ankles, wrists, and neck. Fuck, I remembered these things now, and I hated them.
A steady growl emanated from Sax, but that was to be expected and wouldn’t cause suspicion. Him being protective of me was nothing new, and I was pretty sure Hawn liked dominating me just to shove it in Sax’s face, the prick.
“We’ll start with a blood draw. Did they mate?” Borhan asked.
“They aren’t talking, so I’m going to assume no,” Polu answered.
Borhan just hummed under his breath. “Well then, I’ll go ahead and sedate her before we start the exam.”
“Don’t bother,” Hawn said. “She should suffer for her refusal to follow our directions.”
Borhan slowly turned to Hawn. “I said sedate. Not numb. She’ll feel everything and won’t even be able to scream.”
I clamped my lips between my teeth so I didn’t start hollering about how he was a sick fuck and I couldn’t wait to watch him take his last breath. If this didn’t work… If Sax couldn’t get us out of here… Tears pricked at my eyes, and I sucked in a deep breath, willing myself not to cry. Not now. Not yet.
A shadow fell over me, and I looked up in Borhan’s face. He held a syringe in his two-fingered grip and tapped as a drop of liquid beaded at the tip. He peered down at me with a gleeful gleam to his eye.
And that was when all hell broke loose.
Sax
The machets rippled to attention on my arms and down my back, power surging through me. This was the moment I finally had some control. I flexed my fists and licked my lips, the taste of revenge sweet on the tip of my tongue.
I ripped off my collar, and the Kulk guards stood dumbfounded for a moment as the ends of their poles clanked to the ground. I glanced down at the now useless hunk of metal that had circled my neck for what felt like a hundred sun-cycles. Their hesitation was their downfall.
I slammed my machets through the eye slits in the armor of the first Kulk. Blood sprayed as I gripped the pole of the other Kulk, bringing him closer so I could punch his head back and rake my machets across his exposed neck. He gurgled, spitting blood at me with wide eyes before stumbling to his knees. When he hit the ground face-first with blood pooling beneath his body, I turned away.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gram discreetly press a button to release Val’s restraints. She immediately rolled off her cot and hit the ground with a smack before slithering under a table and covering her head. Scanning the room for my next victim, I sneered as Borhan cowered behind Polu, who brandished his shock rod with a crackle.
“Kill him!” Polu shouted to Hawn as he and Borhan backed into the corner, leaving Gram to fend for himself. If this all worked out, they’d die without ever knowing Gram had a hand in this.
Hawn twirled the shock rod in his hand and braced his feet apart. He didn’t rush me like the stupid Kulks would have done. He approached me on steady feet, never giving me his back, and keeping a wide enough berth that my tail couldn’t reach him.
“Get the human!” Polu shouted at Gram.
Gram seemed to be frozen in fear. He might not have been acting.
Hawn swung the shock rod with both hands, his intention clear. He didn’t want to subdue me; he wanted to beat me. He’d been waiting for the moment when he could end my life. He swung. I bent backward, and the rod sailed over my face, missing me by a clawtip. The crackling energy tickled my nose.
Hawn growled and advanced now I was off-balance. But he’d never battled a Drixonian hand to hand, and it showed. I swung my tail, taking him off his feet. He crashed to his back and the shock rod went skittering out of his reach.
I strode toward him as he scrambled backward on his hands. He panted, black eyes rolling in his head wildly as he learned quickly that without his precious weapon, he was far outmatched. With a panicked grunt, he pushed a cot in my way, and I easily shoved it to the side. Next, he kicked a chair at me, and I batted it away.
“Polu!” he shouted. “Help me!”
Polu had no intention of moving. He continued to guard Borhan as they slowly shuffled their way toward the door. They thought they could escape? In their flecking dreams. I had to finish Hawn so I could end them too. This wasn’t the time to savor a victory over the cruel Uldani who’d hit my Val, as much as I would have liked to.
With a growl, I pounced and landed on Hawn’s chest in a crouch. Bones cracked beneath the soles of my feet, and he gasped for breath as blood bubbled from his lips. “You’ll die knowing your threats were empty,” I snarled in his face. Rearing back my first, I slammed my knuckles into his temple. Again. And again. And again. Blood sprayed. Bones crunched. Hawn’s head lolled to the side. When I rose, his chest didn’t move.
“Sax!” Valerie cried.
I turned to find Polu and Borhan sprinting for the door. I picked up a nearby cot and heaved it at them. The heavy object slammed into Polu, sending him crashing to the wall. His hip hit first with a thud, and he collapsed to the ground with the cot pinning him in place. Borhan squeaked like scared vermin and waddled away to cower behind his table of machines.
Polu shoved at the cot and managed to throw it off. He struggled to get up, but his ankle was bent at an odd ankle. These flecking Uldani. So fragile. He pointed his shock rod at me as I approached, his eyes wide and filled with pain. “Stay away,” he said. “You’ll never make it out of Alazar. If you submit now, I’ll make
sure your death is quick instead of drawn out.”
I snorted. “Your demands mean nothing. They never did. And especially not now.” I slammed my tail into his wrist, and he cried out as his snapped back. The shock rod flew from his fingers.
His cradled his broken wrist to his chest and began to blubber, “I’m Polu Yannis, commander of the Uldani—”
I picked him up by the throat, cutting off his words. His legs kicked, but he was too weak to do any damage. “No,” I snarled in his face. “You’re dead.” I released his throat and slashed my forearm machets across his neck. He was dead before he hit the floor, his head nearly separated from his body.
I cracked my neck. “Fleck, that felt good.”
I turned to my last victim. Borhan.
His entire body shook as I strode toward him. I flexed my hands, and his black eyes bulged out of his skin, which had gone from silver to sickly gray. “Wait,” he called out as he shuffled around the table to maintain the distance between us. It wasn’t going to work. “I’ve only been trying to help you!”
“Help me? Do you think I’m flecking stupid?” I roared and, with a swipe of my hand, cleared half of his precious machines and screens off the center table. They crashed to the floor in an explosion of sparks and mechanical whines.
“No!” he screeched, way more concerned about his work than the Drixonian about to slit his throat. “Gram help me. Shock him!”
Gram no longer looked afraid. Instead he walked forward, his eyes locked on Borhan. “No, I don’t think I will. I think I’ll watch you die. Like you let my father die. Remember Hayuna Parrula?”
Borhan’s mouth fluttered like hunner’s wings. His brow furrowed. “No, that… you…”
“I’m still alive.” Gram lifted his chin. “And I’ve waited all my life to see yours end.”
“Fuck you!” came a war cry from behind me, and I spun around to see Val pummeling Hawn like the lioness she was, her little fists smacking his face. Hawn’s eyes were open, one hand grasping for his shock rod. With a grunt, his fingers closed around it. I didn’t have time to react before he lifted it with a triumphant gleam in his black eyes.
He plunged the rod into her chest. The sight of her mouth opening in a silent scream and her small body flying off Hawn from the force of the jolt would haunt me forever. She landed with a lifeless thud on the floor.
“Val!” I roared just as something sharp slammed into my thigh. I whirled to see Borhan skittering away from me, and a needle sticking out from my leg, the plunger depressed. I tore it out of my skin and lunged at Borhan. There was no time to draw this out. I took him off his feet with my tail and raked my machets from his throat to his groin. His skin split open like a swollen bladder, and I turned away at the gruesome sight. No medis would fix that.
Hawn stumbled to his feet, blood bubbling from between his lips. Gram rushed over to Val with a vial of medis. I had to trust he’d heal her. One of Hawn’s arms hung limp at his side, the bone bulging awkwardly. With his one working hand, he held the shock rod.
“You really think you’re going to do something with that?” I gestured toward his torture device. “It’s over, Hawn.”
“I know it’s over for me.” His breath was ragged. “But at least I took her out with me. Humans can’t sustain a blow from one of these. You knew that, right?”
I glanced over at Gram, who was bent over a still Val. He didn’t look up at me, but his hands shook as he worked over her, and for the first time since entering this room, dread slithered up my throat.
“She’ll live,” I said.
“Don’t be so sure,” Hawn said. “Is she breathing, Gram? Or should I call you traitor?”
Gram didn’t react to the insult. His eyes met mine, and he didn’t need to speak to tell me the answer.
“No!” My legs threatened to give out as I stared helplessly at Val’s motionless form. Her pretty hair spread around her pale face, and I ached to see her pretty blue eyes one more time, to see the lines around her mouth when she smiled at me.
I’d failed to protect my human. My Val. My fierce lioness.
The agony of my failure morphed from sick despair to white-hot rage. Fueled by retribution, I homed in on Hawn, the one responsible for the crippling pain tearing my cora to shreds. I roared out my fury as I flew at him with fists and teeth and machets.
He managed to stick me with the shock rod, somewhere, and I only knew because the pungent smell of my burning flesh filled the air. I was beyond feeling anything but the satisfaction of Hawn’s bones giving way beneath my pounding. I slashed him, again, and again, and again. His body, his face, his limbs. I didn’t see, my eyes blinded by the blackness of his blood and the red haze of my wrath. My machets scraped the floor, and that was when I finally stopped, chest heaving, to see Hawn scattered around me in bits of unrecognizable pieces. I reared back, stumbling to my feet as I held my hands out in front me. They were coated in Uldani blood. My scales reeked of death, and my machets dripped with the remains of my enemies.
But it was all for nothing.
I fell to my knees and crawled to my human, gathering her body against me. I wished for her arms to circle me one more time, for her to draw me to her breasts. I buried my face in her hair and inhaled.
I didn’t feel anything. Not the pain in my thigh or the ache in my muscles. Distantly, I registered an odd tingling in my wrists, but I ignored it. But within seconds, the tingling became an intense burning. I lifted my hand, trying to detect what was happening. Two parallel white lines encircled my wrists. A pattern began to emerge between them as the lines shifted from blinding white to a golden hue.
I knew what these were. I’d seen them on my brother and his mate. His cora-eternal. I gasped and nearly dropped Val. But then I raised my eyes to hers—her open eyes—which were staring right at me.
Nine
Val
I stared at Sax, wondering why I was lying on the floor, and why he looked so shell-shocked to see me. The last thing I remembered was Hawn. And pain. Lots and lots of mind-numbing pain.
Shit, what had he done to me? My body was wracked with tremors. And my wrists—they burned.
“S-Sath?” My tongue felt too big for my mouth, and I couldn’t form all my consonants.
I swallowed as the burning on my wrists intensified and raised a weak arm. I got a good look at my wrist and blinked. Was I hallucinating? Etched into the skin of my wrist were two golden parallel lines about two inches apart. Between them, like a thick bracelet, a pattern looped and curled in loose waves. I raised my other wrist—it had the same curious markings.
Sax raised his arm and gently pushed my hair away from my face. With a gasp, I grabbed his forearm. His wrist had the same bands, the same golden glow, and the same pattern. I met his gaze. “What—?” I swallowed. “What happened?”
My brain felt too big in my skull, like I had head trauma, but there was no pain. A distant glow crept along the edge of my mind like a violet panther.
“You’re okay,” he murmured, and that panther in my mind stood tall, sniffing the air.
“When wasn’t I okay?” I was thoroughly confused.
His breathing was off, and his voice shook. “Hawn shocked you,” he said. “I’ve never seen… Your body flew through the air and then you hit the floor hard.” His throat worked as he swallowed, and his eyes burned with an indigo intensity. “I didn’t think you’d get up again.”
“Well, let’s not be hasty.” I winced as pain shot through my hip. “I’m not exactly up.”
“I’m sorry,” Gram said from somewhere behind us. “But if you want a chance to get out of here, we have to leave now. Someone can walk by any minute and see… this.” He appeared over Sax’s shoulder, wringing his hands and glancing about nervously.
I looked around the lab. My breath stalled in my lungs. Blood. Blood everywhere. At least, I thought it was blood. Two Kulks lay in a green puddle. Polu and Borhan lay near each other, Borhan’s head connecting to his body by only a sl
im strip of skin. And Hawn… I only knew it was him because of his jacket. The rest of him was unrecognizable, like Jack the Ripper had returned from the past and traveled to a distant galaxy to rip a victim to minute pieces. I turned away from the decimated body to Sax’s hard gaze. Had he done that?
Sax seemed to know what I was thinking. “He hurt you.” He spoke slowly, each word gutted out like it cost him greatly. “I thought he killed you.”
“Guess he didn’t succeed,” I murmured.
“Drixonian,” Gram pleaded.
Sax gathered me into his arms and rose to his feet. “I think I can walk,” I protested.
“I’m sure you can,” Sax said. “But I’m faster.”
I didn’t even bother arguing. His legs were twice the length of mine, and he had super-human strength. Fuck my pride; our lives were on the line.
Gram handed Sax a metal ring, and he slipped it down to the first knuckle of his index finger. “Use the guard’s lift,” Gram said. “Take it to the top floor and there’ll be a transport vehicle there. It has access to leave the rear entrance of Alazar but ditch it as soon as you can. There’s no way I can turn off the tracking, and they will know soon you’ve escaped.”
“You sure you don’t want to come with us?” I’d hoped he’d changed his mind.
Gram shook his head. “This is my home, for better or for worse. And the worst is dead.” He lifted his chin and met Sax’s eyes. “Thank you, Drixonian.”
Sax merely gave him a short nod in response. It struck me that Gram hadn’t used Sax’s name not once. He was merely a Drixonian prisoner, and a means to an end Gram had wanted all his life. We were using him too, so I didn’t waste my time speaking up for Sax.
Gram extended his hand, and in his palm lay a small silver square. “Borhan kept all his research and files stored locally. The remote access files on the Rivian server are password protected. The only one who knew the password was Borhan. He’d told me once but I’ve—” His eyes flashed as he grinned. “—forgotten it.”