by C. R. Jane
I walked along the corridor of the ship as calmly as possible. I knew that there were various cameras all over the ship, I just didn't know where they were located. Hopefully they wouldn't be paying attention to my whereabouts since they had so much to do. I kept myself at a steady pace just in case they were. If they saw me walking naturally, maybe they would think I was just going to grab a headache tablet or more food or something since I wasn't in my bedroom yet.
I got to the medical room and walked in. I felt a wave of desperation as I looked at the rows of silver cabinets. There was no way I was going to be able to tell which of the medicines here worked to knock you out. What if I picked the wrong one and I accidentally killed them?
Something shiny on the counter to my left caught my attention. There were two syringes full of shimmery liquid laid out on a tray. I knew the medicine that Corran had used on me had looked like that. I’d gotten a good look right before he knocked me out. Had they pulled the syringes out just in case they needed me to "cooperate" again.
Just the thought made me even more furious. They were willing to do anything required to get me to do what they wanted; I knew this already.
It wasn’t a far stretch to think that these syringes had most likely been meant for me.
But I still felt like I needed some way to confirm. I wasn't comfortable giving them something when I wasn't positive what it was.
Maybe I could just hit them over the top of the head with a pan, I thought to myself, beginning to giggle a little crazily. Just then voices sounded in the hallway. It was Thane and Derrial, apparently walking to wherever they were monitoring the position of the Council’s forces.
"At least we didn’t have to knock her out again," said Derrial mildly. Thane laughed. The sound of it made me want to kick him in the nuts.
"Corran had the syringes ready just in case," said Derrial casually, like he was talking about the weather rather than drugging his mate.
That comment made up my mind for me. I didn't care if these were the right syringes, I was so upset that maybe I didn't care at that moment if the syringes were filled with something dangerous.
No, I didn't mean that.
But what they had just said cleared the way for me to use this medicine on them. As far as I was concerned, if it wasn't the right one, it was their fault.
I carefully emptied both syringes into a cup and took them back to the room where I had first been held.
My next order of business was figuring out if there were, in fact, the smaller safety ships on this ship. If not, I was going to have to knock them all out and take the ship back to the Khonsu’s city.
I made my way down the various corridors of the ship. It was a lot larger than it appeared from the outside and I wondered if that was another invention of Corran. After 30 minutes of searching, I was starting to get nervous. What if I didn't find where they were kept in time and we traveled all the way back to the Capitol?
I guess I could hijack the ship after they got off to find the fix for the blood bond. I didn't want to wait that long though. That meant I would be traveling the entire distance back to the Khonsu city by myself. I wasn't sure I was ready for that. Somehow it didn't seem so bad to only have to retrace our steps halfway.
I finally got to an entrance that looked more industrial than the others. I felt around the outside, trying to figure out how Corran operated the entrance. When he walked through, they seemed to just appear, but other times when Thane and Derrial passed through the entrances, it had opened like a regular door.
I waved my hand in front of the door just in case it had a motion sensor, probably looking like a lunatic. When that didn't work, I then started to feel around the edge of the door, hoping there was some kind of invisible button or something I had to press that would open it. I had gotten all the way around the other side of the door when it suddenly opened.
Lo and behold, two, small, one-to-two person-sized ships were sitting there.
Perfect, I whispered to myself.
I retraced my steps back to the mess hall. I had Corran’s machine create a small meal for all of us. I included some of the guys’ favorites. Then I incorporated the liquid from the syringes, hoping that they were tasteless and that they worked when taken orally.
Taking the tray, I walked to the Bridge, butterflies filling my stomach. I couldn't believe I was about to do this. I almost talked myself out of it several times. It was only the memory of Thane and Derrial talking so casually about knocking me out that kept my feet moving forward.
I walked into the Bridge. Thane and Derrial hadn’t come back yet. Corran looked at me in surprise as I walked in, his face flushed with pleasure as he saw my loaded tray.
"What's all of this?" he asked, walking towards me and taking the tray from me so that he could set it down on the table.
"I just wanted to do something nice for you. You guys are always taking care of me," I responded, the words feeling dirty as they left my mouth.
Corran brushed another of his gentle kisses across my lips. "Thank you," he said.
He put his hand to his ear, speaking into the communicator that they all seemed to have. "Come eat," he said, his voice definitely not as sweet as when he was talking to me.
A few minutes later, Thane and Derrial walked into the room. Their faces held the same pleasure as Corran’s had as they saw the food spread out. "Did you do this?” Thane asked.
"Just wanted to say thank you," I repeated, forcing a smile on my face. I wasn’t sure why this was making them so happy. Maybe I hadn’t done as many nice things for them as I should have.
Our lives were always so up in the air, that I couldn’t remember a time since our stay together on Earth where I had actually had time to do something like bring them dinner.
If we ever got back together after this, I was probably going to have to make a lot of dinners to make up for what I was about to do. But then again, I wasn't sure if there was anything they could do to make up for what they had done to me.
I nibbled on my food, trying not to stare at them too closely as I waited for the medicine to kick in. It happened to Corran first, I assumed because he was the smallest of the three. He began to look drowsy, his eyes opening and closing slowly as he tried to fight it. He looked over at me questioningly, but before he could say anything he passed out.
Thane was next, following Corran into slumber just a couple of seconds later.
Derrial was the last one. He stood up in his chair to walk towards me, a look of betrayal written across his face. I got up as well and started to back away from him. He only lasted a couple of steps until he sank to his knees and passed out.
It was time to go.
I was sure I didn't have a lot of time. I sprinted down the corridor, running as fast as I could until I got to the room where the ships were kept. I jumped into the closest one. Looking around at the controls, I tried to figure out where everything was located. Despite its size, it still had most of the same controls that Corran had showed me earlier.
I went through in my head what Corran had shown me and then started pressing buttons. Once I got the ship turned on and it seemed like I had inputted for the ship to return to the last destination inputted, I turned my attention to opening up the main door of the spacecraft to let my smaller ship out.
I looked around in a panic, trying to see which button looked correct. I just knew that they would wake up at any time now and run in to stop me.
Finally, I saw a green button on the left side of the ship that wasn't a part of any of the controls that Corran had shown me earlier.
Taking a deep breath and sending a silent prayer that it wasn’t a blaster or something, I pressed it.
A few seconds later the doors of the main ship opened. Pressing the control I knew moved the ship forward, I flew out away from Corran’s spacecraft.
I never in a million years dreamed that I would be flying in an alien spacecraft on an alien planet.
It was as terrifying as it
was invigorating.
Chapter 7
(Thane)
My head was still groggy from being drugged, and my blood boiled that she had knocked us out. I scrubbed a hand down my face, remembering us all waking up on the floor, and it didn’t take long to work out what she’d done.
Ella’s flight path had been easy to follow as well since all our ships shared the same database. With a few taps to select her coordinates, her journey flicked up on my screen. But I didn’t need it to know exactly where she’d gone. To understand why she’d stooped so fucking low.
My heart had shattered at hearing her cries, and I felt like the worst person in the universe when we tore her away from her dad. It broke me, but her running from us like we were monsters wanting to hurt her, fucking hurt me.
Taking a deep breath, I recentered myself. I clenched my jawline but reminded myself why she did it.
Desperation to get her dad.
Instead of talking to us, she did the unthinkable.
Guilt chewed on my insides because I should have guessed she’d do something stupid.
“How in the hell’s galaxies does she know how to fly a ship?” Derrial hissed, his words clipped and sharp. He flopped in the front passenger seat near me.
“Give her credit. She’s been watching everything we do, teaching herself, learning. And desperation does funny things to people. Thing is...” Corran said from the back where he attempted to make contact with her ship, apparently, not only had she learned to fly a space cruiser, but she had also learned how to switch off the comms. “The ship practically flies itself if she selects the last destination we flew to. I told her so myself when she suddenly seemed interested in how to fly the ship. I should have suspected something then.”
“Yeah well, hurry up and get us there already,” Derrial growled my way. Fuck, he had a temper on him, but we were all just as tense.
The faint vibration of the ship thrummed under us, and we lifted off. I wasted no time and hurled us forward.
“Well, I can’t get ahold of her,” Corran hissed. “I’ve initiated the comms destabilizer. Better no one detects us since we have everyone after us.”
Derrial ran a hand down his face and huffed loudly, his knees bouncing.
All I could do was focus on flying, avoid heavily populated air space, and pray to the universe Ella hadn’t been captured by the Council or the Khonsu.
Flashes of Ella filled my mind, her bending over in the forest, me ravishing her, seeing her naked out in public had me burning up. I wanted so much more time to really show her pleasure, and how I could make her scream with arousal. The memories in my mind were uncontrollable, repeating over and over until they drove me insane.
Her scent still clung in my nose, and her moans echoed in my ears as I thrust into her over and over.
Life taught me to never get too close to anyone, to not believe in deep relationships that lasted. My past partners never worked out. We ended up in arguments, with differences, and it was easier to walk away. Always easier to walk away. But this was different with Ella. She’d somehow crawled under my skin and now I’d lost myself with a human woman when so many odds were stacked against us. I refused to let myself think of the future when we’d be lucky to survive today.
Focus on the here and now.
Save her.
Get to a safe place for all of us.
Everything else could wait for later.
“What if she’s captured?” Corran asked, his voice pensive.
“Then we go and rescue her, we do whatever the fuck we need to until she’s with us and safe. That’s what we’ll do.” Derrial didn’t move but kept his attention out the front window as he spoke.
“How far are we from reaching her?” Derrial barked.
“Five minutes tops.”
“Make it two.”
Silence suffocated us, and we cut through the sky, the reflective shields up, masking us, meaning to anyone looking toward us, they’d only see the sky, the charcoal clouds promising a storm.
As we finally cruised over the landscape of the Khonsu’s territory, I spotted our other black cruiser down amid the woods, finding no sign of Ella.
To our right sat the compound and sheds, while on the far left, the mountain sat where Ella had run up.
I commenced our descent in a small clearing not far from hers. The surrounding trees would cover us hopefully from detection. At least until we rescued her stubborn ass and ran.
Derrial cleared his throat, while my gut clenched with dread. Was she okay?
With a small lurch, we landed. Unbuckling myself, I shot to my feet and raced into the main cabin. I dragged open the weapon compartment latch and my mouth dropped. “Why the fuck is this container empty?”
“We haven’t really had the chance to load weapons,” Corran growled.
“Fine. We do this the old-fashioned way. Corran, you check the other ship for any weapons.”
I shook my head and did a double check of our surroundings through the heat sensor monitor. Once I saw that it revealed no one in near proximity, I hit the door button and it slid open.
We rushed outside, my muscles tense, my senses alert.
I ran through the woods toward her ship. Please don’t be dead. Derrial and I surveyed the perimeter, keeping watch while Corran entered the cruiser.
Moments later, he emerged. “She’s not here. No sign of struggle.”
Good. That meant she may not have been found yet.
Stalking the grounds, we pressed on, targeting the shed where Ella had found her dad, knowing it was exactly where she would have gone.
“You know the protocol,” Derrial muttered. “Get Ella out of here the moment you see her. Leave without the rest of us if needed, just evacuate her. Understood.”
Corran and I nodded.
I’d never leave without her.
A high-pitched scream came, violently ripping through the air.
Moving faster, we burst out from the treeline, emerging into an open field. Up ahead lay those three sheds.
Ella emerged from around the corner of a shed with a man I recognized from the cell, the man we’d torn her from...her father, and together they ran in our direction, their faces fear-stricken. Behind her, four Khonsu guards charged after her. Big sons of bitches, pounding the ground with long strides, moving with greater speed than I expected for someone their size.
My heart slammed into my throat.
She glanced toward us, her eyes widening with hope, silent words falling from her lips.
That’s right, keep running, kitten.
We ran toward them.
The monsters were almost upon Ella and her father. They were moving too fast.
I darted forward, a war cry bursting from my lungs. My fists curled, feeling nothing but raw adrenaline. A Khonsu with a shaved head and the reddest eyes I’d ever seen was within arms' reach of Ella.
I propelled myself forward and launched past Ella and up at him. My fist connected with the side of his head so hard, the crack shuttered up my arm. But he fell.
Stumbling to my feet, I ducked a swinging punch from another Khonsu and rolled out of reach. I shot to my feet and attacked the brute, my fist connecting perfectly with the roaring Khonsu’s face. He stumbled backward from my strike, and I threw a curved kick into his gut to help him along. His feet caught on a patch of grass, and he fell head over heels. Fuck yeah, that was what I liked seeing.
I spun around as the guards started to climb to their feet. Up ahead, Derrial lunged onto the back of another guard who had Corran pinned to the ground.
Ella and her dad kept running past them, and all I could think was that I had to get her out of here.
Priority.
A roar sounded behind me, and I jerked around to see a horde of savages pouring out of the main building. They were coming in our direction like a fetid wave of sewage. Some kept their humanoid form, others morphed into four-legged monsters with black leather hides. They were damn fast. Bastards.
I spun on my heels and ran. This wasn’t a fight we’d win. There was no shame in running away.
My feet punched the ground as I sprinted after Ella and sucked in air rapidly. Veon was becoming a dangerous and ugly planet, no longer feeling like my home. Things had changed so much in the last couple of decades, all because of the Khonsu invasion and our Council’s response to hide in the cities while these monsters slowly grew in numbers, kidnapping women from around the galaxy to breed with.
I burst into the woods, following her and her father. She was swinging left and right through the woods like she’d lost her way to the ship.
But I didn’t have time to chase down a lost girl. Our time was almost out.
Closing in on her, I swept an arm around her side and swooped her against me. “Faster,” I shouted toward her father noting that his clothes were ragged, his flesh bruised and covered in healed wounds. The Khonsu had tortured him for fun, for blood, for anything they needed. Fucking vile things.
“Run faster or we die,” I barked the order, needing to get them both to safety.
“Thane,” she cried with relief in her voice, her breath racing, eyes wide and terrified.
I dashed toward her ship as it sat closer. Slapping my palm over the sensor, the door slid open with a swooshing sound, and we rushed inside. A sudden surge of exhaustion rattled through me and I stumbled on my feet. I dropped Ella on her feet and darted to the controls as the door shut closed.
“Don’t hurt us,” the man’s shaky voice pleaded, his body so frail and thin.
“Dad.” She scrambled to her feet and threw herself into her father’s arms, crying uncontrollably. An ache settled under my heart to hear the sorrow in her whispers, to finally find her father after he’d gone missing so long. Once she settled down, she’d ask questions… so many questions about how her dad ended up here...like if we knew anything about it. I swallowed down the boulder in my throat and my head spun, but I couldn’t collapse now. Not fucking now. I refocused on getting us out of here.