by Laynie Bynum
Glancing down at my arms, I noticed both of my arms were bandaged from elbow to wrist. Thrusting the covers aside, I got up and walked around the room. There was another television on the other side of the bed. There was no other furniture in the room. Suddenly, the door opened and two aliens walked inside the room.
They were broad in stature and looked like body builders. They had horns and tails. The alien on the right walked forward with a silver tray that held an array of food. He placed the tray down on the bed and smirked at me. “Eat while you can. You will need your strength for what will happen next.”
I backed up until my back was pressed against the cold stone.
When the aliens left the room, I heard a soft clicking noise. I rushed to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked from the outside. Waving my hand at the water on my tray, I was shocked when it floated to me.
I took several swallows before I placed the glass down and smiled. The next time the door opened, I would gain my freedom. I walked back to the bed, sat down, and waited. Qiaris have mercy on anyone who opens that door. Leaning my head back, I waited. It was only a matter of time before someone would come into my room. I must have fallen asleep.
I woke up. The room was cast into darkness and had become cold. The hair on the nape of my neck stood up. The door creaked open. Someone entered and crept toward the bed. I smiled.
A large hand ran up my leg and traveled up my back toward my arms. Harnessing all my energy, I channeled it on the man touching me. I wrapped my energy around his neck and yanked him forward then thrust him back against the wall.
“I’m going to kill you,” he roared. He struggled against the force that held him pinned to the wall.
Lifting my hands, I narrowed my power to his neck, focusing on his trachea. Tightening my hands, I applied pressure until it crushed. His body went limp and he slumped to the floor. With my left hand, I waved the closet door open, and I sent the alien into the closet and closed the door. Running to the door, I listened a few minutes before I crept into the hall.
The hall was clear, but I heard several footsteps headed toward me. Up above, there were intricate symbols written in different colors, but I didn’t know what alien language it was written in. There were two doors to the left and right of me. Choosing right, I opened the door and rushed inside. With my back against the door, I tried to adjust my eyes to the darkness of the room. A movement off to the left caught my attention. His aura was black and deadly.
His hand shot out and wrapped around my neck. The sheer power of his strength lifted my feet off the floor. My right hand fumbled along the wall, grasping for anything that could be used as a weapon. I forced my body to go still, and right before he cut off my air completely, I drew in a deep breath. When my heartbeat slowed and my body went limp, he lessened his grip on my neck. He flipped on the light and gasped.
“Princess Miho.” He released his grip on my neck and dropped to his knees.
Chapter Ten
Amitai
N
uigora prison was hell on Keoria. There were places worse than Kubris’s hell and this was one of them. It had started to rain. It was as if the gods themselves cried for the lost souls trapped behind those walls. Nakatomi and Miyoshi had agreed to stay on the warship with Uriah and Jaliyah. Nakatomi was a frustrating headstrong female, but she hadn’t put up a fight at all this time.
No one had ever escaped from Nuigora prison, and that was because the prison was located underneath the Ruthian Sea and built into a mountain. The position of the prison made it impossible for anyone to escape. There was no way for anyone to verify its very existence. It was a prison for the lost and forgotten souls known only to a choice few. It was a fate worse than death.
Clutching the Keorian dagger in my mouth, I dove off the warship into the icy cold depths of the Ruthian Sea. The water was so dark it appeared black as I swam deeper. I focused on the currents and their movement to judge where the Waticka’s were lurking. Watickas were large carnivorous mammals that weighed several tons.
All around me, the smaller mammals and fish swam in large packs in the opposite direction. My ears twitched and I turned to see a Waticka headed toward me. Holding my position, I treaded water in place, waiting for a chance to strike it. When the Waticka was almost on me, I dodged right and grabbed the huge fin on top of its back. Gripping the fin tightly, I leaned and urged the beast toward the underwater landing.
When the Waticka came near the landing, I jumped off its back, landing on the platform. As General of the Drokninian military, I had access to many of the empire’s secrets, some of which were codes. Punching in the code for hostages of war, the door to the prison opened.
The hallway ended in a half-circle pattern. On the wall was a silver button and nothing else. Pressing the button, a half-moon-shaped platform appeared. Stepping on it activated the transparent glass walls which enclosed me in a cylinder-shaped elevator. It plummeted down several stories before it stopped.
The doors opened and I was in the body of the prison. A stench of death, blood, and decay hit me in the face like a ton of bricks. There were five floors that contained about twenty cells on each side. The dull flickering light above made my eyes hurt. Walking forward toward the warden’s office, I saw and felt each inmate huddled in their cell with desperation in their eyes and despair in their hearts. In every single cell, the inmates appeared to hoover on the brink of death.
Torture isn’t always physical. If there’s one thing the Drokninian Empire is great at, it’s breaking races.
The deeper I traveled into the prison, the worse the knot in my stomach grew. Passing the last cell, I glanced inside and saw her. A pregnant woman who slept on the floor. She looked like she was about to give birth any day now. Life was precious, and women and children were a line I didn’t cross. The empire, however, had no moral boundaries. Something inside me broke when I saw her. Her aura was like a turbulent rising storm with despair at its core.
Her spinal column protruded from her flesh, and she remained huddled in a tight ball on the cold concrete floor. I doubted she would survive childbirth. I bit my lip to control the rage crashing through my veins.
I yanked the warden’s door open. The entire door came off its hinges, so I set the door aside and strolled inside. This place made me want to kill the warden, guards, and anyone who’d had a hand in the horrible treatment that these people had endured.
“General Palacheck, to what do I owe the pleasure?” asked Callan. He sat at his desk, which had mounds of papers towering toward the ceiling.
Callan Argov was the distant cousin of Akiva. He used his family bond like it was magic. He had been given the position of warden of Nuigora prison as a way for Akiva to hide him. Everyone on Keoria knew he was the family screwup. He drank way too much and slept with multiple women across the galaxy. If he knew any secrets at all, he would give them up for a drink and a beautiful female.
“I’m here to take Annika Oksana.” I looked past him to a large duffle bag lying in the corner of his office. It stuck out among the clutter, dirt, and debris. A small red hexagon insignia caught my attention. Every muscle in my body went rigid. I knew that insignia. It was insignia of the Faceless Ones.
Was Callan stupid enough to get involved with the Faceless Ones? He’s a noble, and most nobles never get their hands dirty. They prefer to hide in the shadows and hire someone to do their dirty work for them.
I reached the duffel bag in three strides. Bending, I opened it. Several large gold bars fell out. This slimeball had taken a payout. He didn’t want it to be traced, so he took gold bars instead of having it loaded on a credit chip. No one took payment in this primitive way anymore because everything was loaded on a credit chip that was implanted in your genome.
Callan jumped to his feet, spitting out his drink. “Why would you want her? If you had called me instead of dropping in unannounced, I could’ve told you she died this morning.”
“You are a lying bastard,”
she said.
The soft female’s voice was barely a whisper, but I heard her clearly. Refraining from turning around, I walked forward and leaned on the bookshelf, angling my body so I could watch her out of the corners of my eyes.
I pointed to the duffel bag. “Callan, what have you done?”
He shrugged. “It was a bet and a friend finally paid up.”
No one’s hurting this pregnant lady anymore.
Her face was turned toward us, and her lips thinned as she rolled her eyes at Callan’s words.
My eyes narrowed at him, but I remained silent, waiting to see if he was going to ramble. Something wasn’t right. His body language showed me that he was shocked, angry, and fearful.
“You can have Gabriela Shoshan. She would be a great choice after she gives birth, of course.”
“What made you think I was here for a pleasure slave?” My eyes narrowed.
He hurried around his desk with his keys in his hand. He led me over to Gabriela’s cell, where he jangled the key into the lock.
Her eyes grew wide open when she stared at Callan. It was as if she was seeing Kubris himself. She rushed to the back of the cell as far as she could to put distance between Callan and herself.
When he opened the lock, the door slid back with a loud clank. The aroma of stomach contents and urine filled the air. Her cell was filthy and it should have been condemned. It was evident that Callan and the guards hadn’t been inside to take care of her.
He stalked toward her, yanking her out of the corner by her hair. “Don’t you dare run from me. You’re a slave and you do whatever I tell you to do.”
“Lay another hand on her and I will kill you. Remove your hands from her hair right now.” My voice shook with restraint as I stood, daring him to challenge me. I ached to paint the walls of her cell with his blood.
He immediately dropped his hands from her. “Walk out here to him.”
She headed toward me like a lamb about to be slaughtered. I wondered how she’d managed to live in the prison this long, pregnant and suffering the abuse of Callan and the guards.
I had to stop looking at her and focus on the situation. Every time I saw her looking pregnant and broken, I wanted to kill Callan. “Take me to Annika’s body.”
Callan slammed the cell doors shut and locked them. “I told you she’s dead.”
“I spoke with Akiva, and she said for me to call her. I’ll just call her now and let her know that you have screwed up her plans and that she should come down here now.”
He threw up his hands in a gesture for me to stay my hand. “I haven’t vetted this information for myself. Let us go now and see if she has really died.”
Gesturing for Gabriela to stay behind me out of Callan’s reach, we followed him inside a hidden elevator. He touched his palm to the panel, and after it read his biological signature, the doors opened.
The elevator doors closed behind us and I watched Callan from the corner of my eye. I had a feeling that I might have to kill him before this visit was over.
A sinking feeling in my stomach told me that he knew who was behind the kidnapping of Koyama. He knew something, and after I got Annika, I would make him talk.
Upon reaching the upper level, I followed him to the last cell on the right. This floor was different from all the others. It was the only cell that had an inmate. Every camera on this floor was pointed away from the cell. My hands clenched into fists, and I looked behind me to Gabriela. Latching onto her wrist, I jerked her closer to me.
I pointed to a camera that was angled at a lower level wall but not recording anything. “Stay close to me. I have a feeling you do not want them to get their hands on you.”
She snorted. “Do you think they haven’t made raping me a nightly ritual? Don’t be stupid. You are no different from the others. You will be nice to me, and when I let my guard down, you will pounce on me like a wolf devouring its prey.”
I released her hand from my grip. Normally, I would kill anyone who disrespected me, but I couldn’t fault her for her feelings. This was something that a person learned and was not told. In time, she would see that I was nothing like those men.
Callen stopped at the cell but made no move to open it.
“Open it. Now.” My hand went to my sword. I’m not a patient man, and he had used what patience I had. He would do what I told him or be killed.
“I don’t think—”
My sword was unsheathed and at his throat before he could finish his sentence. When I pressed the blade deeper into his flesh, drawing blood, he hissed.
Something deep inside me told me not to kill him yet, but I lusted to inflict all the pain on him that he had inflicted on others.
“Don’t be rash. I’m opening it.” He fumbled with the keys until he pulled out a skeleton key from the ring and opened the door.
The appearance of a second skeleton key on his ring drew my attention. I almost missed it, but I saw him stiffen and glance at his ring before looking at me. I averted my gaze so he didn’t know that I saw him.
He keeps someone else in here that he doesn’t want me to know about. Could he be hiding Koyama down here, right underneath my nose? I will kill him. If anyone has dared to touch her, I will kill them all.
I thrust him inside. “Bring her here.”
Annika was lying face down on the concrete completely naked. Her back had long bullwhip markings all over it. If she lived, it would be a miracle. She looked so tiny and fragile lying there, beaten and naked.
When Callan turned her over on her back, she cried out. “Just kill me.”
Her legs flew out haphazardly as she rolled onto her side, weeping.
“Annika, I am here to take you from this place.” I watched Callan carefully. He looked afraid that she might say something.
She winced when he picked her up.
Moving quickly, I plucked her from Callan’s arms. I gently tapped her on the cheeks. When her eyes fluttered open, I sat her down on her feet. I turned to Gabriela. “Help her into her clothes.”
Moving to him, I sheathed my sword and pulled out my short dagger. “Take me to the other skeleton key cell.”
He stiffened. “It’s empty.”
“Good. I can put your dead body in there. Lead the way.”
Gabriela shook her head. “I heard him bragging the other night about how slick he was about having his insurance policy right under everyone’s nose. He hides Sechenova Tikhonovich here, whom he calls his insurance policy against The Faceless Ones,” said Gabriela.
“You are a lying sack of..” said Callan. He tried to lunge at Gabriela, but I jerked him back and pressed the blade deeper into his neck.
Callan is a coward. He would not have held Sechenova here on his own. This is the work of the Imperial Council, but why? What are they up to?
“I can’t take you to her. They will kill me, and not even Akiva will be able to save me.”
“You can die now or take me to her and run before they find out what you’ve done. Make your choice.” With my other hand, I stabbed him in the side and twisted the blade toward a vital organ. He doubled over.
“I’ll take you. Give me a second,” said Callan.
He didn’t know that the dagger’s tip was poisoned, so he was going to die very soon, within twenty-four hours. There wasn’t a cure for the poison that now infected his body.
I stepped away from him, sheathing the dagger back in its special case. He got to his feet thinking that I might stab him again and rushed toward the elevator.
We went all the way down as if exiting the prison. We walked to a wall in the back. He placed his palm on the scanner of the wall, and the doors opened. Inside was one prison cell. He opened the doors.
Callan waved his hand. “Come on, freak.” He started coughing into his shirt and doubled over in pain.
Sechenova walked out the cell. She sniffed the air then backed away from Callan. She looked at Gabriela and Annika.
“Who the hell are you?” aske
d Sechenova. Her eyes narrowed as she backed away from Callan.
“We were prisoners just like you, except we were raped while you were hidden down here like some fairy treasure,” snapped Gabriela.
I turned my head to the door. Callan was swaying on his feet. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to do anything but lie down and die. We needed to be out of this prison room before then.
Callan shook his head. “What the hell did you do to me? You poisoned me with that dagger, didn’t you?”
I shrugged. “If you open the door and tell me why The Faceless Ones gave you those gold bars, I will give you the cure.” I reached in my pocket and pulled out a small cylinder with golden brown and cream granules. I held it up in front of him.
He reached for the cylinder, but I moved it away from him and stepped back. “Give it to me,” said Callan.
“Fine,” he said. He pressed his palm on the scanner and the doors opened. His chest was heaving and his breath was labored. He walked out into the corridor and collapsed to his knees.
He held out his hands. “Give it to me.”
I shook my head. “Why did they pay you?”
“I’ll find a way to make you pay for this. You will always be a bastard,” said Callan.
I slid the vial into my pocket and his eyes bulged. “I told Filippov that the Tellurians killed Sechenova. He is planning to destroy their planet and we will destroy him. He will be too weak to fight us. The poor bastard who paid me was desperate for her body. I mentioned that I had a lead on her dead body, and he paid me two billion for the lead.”
“I will kill you,” yelled Sechenova. She rushed forward, but Gabriela and Annika held her back.
I tossed him the vial. “Let’s go.”
We walked to the entrance. I activated my neurotransmitter.
“We’re ready to be picked up. I have three women with me, so fly as close to the platform as you can.”