by C F Rabbiosi
Helsing kicks me in the side and, as I groan, he barks out that I’m not going to make it. My friend’s clothes shred as she squirms and Alexander replies, “Well, either way, she’ll be of use still for hours.”
Blood trickles down my side, warm and thick, but my skin feels so cold.
“No, you can’t…” The words are lost in a sob. All the strength I had, the fire, is extinguished into helpless, soggy ashes. The only flames left roar through my chest in the form of useless despair.
Anguish pours from Scarlet, my departing song as I slip away. My cold, stiff legs are thrown apart and as Corinthian ascends on top of me, I think of the ghosts that visited Scrooge. Will an evanescent spirit rise from my dead flesh? As my thoughts and consciousness cannot be seen, will that be all that’s left of me as I float around? The book we have found the most copies of, the Bible, tells of a creator who awaits us in a beautiful, perfect place. Though this book has black words on cream-colored pages like any other, it’s different somehow. The stories seem to touch the soul they speaks of. Is that to be my final adventure? Or do I simply become nothing now as my brain dies like the anatomy books describe? Never really having lived, always longing for freedom to come out here, back inside is all I wish for now. Safe, warm, next to my momma by the crackling fire. Beautifully bored, enchantingly simple, every task is now the heaven described upon the parchment of the Bible. Every laugh of Scarlet, pure magic. Every song dancing off our tongues miraculous.
I’m so sorry my friend. My mother. Finn…
A crack brings my consciousness sharply back into focus. The man on top of Scarlet crumples to the side, head dangling from a twisted neck. The shadow of a massive figure stands over him, chest heaving, fists large and balled at his sides. Corinthian flies off me and slams right into a fleeing Alexander. The second they crash to the ground, the huge being has already appeared above them. My heart soars as Alexander’s face shows the terror I have been struck with all night.
My head snaps over toward my friend. “Run!” I coax her out of her frozen stupor. She isn’t safe yet. Pushing the yell out with damaged muscles in my stomach, I’m seized with pain. “Scarlet, run!” Wide-eyed, she gains her senses and, crawling up to her feet, she tears away. Her heartbroken cry for me fades as she runs. I can die happy with that sound.
A squelching sound pushes back the little black dots swirling into my vision. The giant squeezes the Corinthian’s head, his toes dangling above the earth. Cries burst through the air with a note of inhuman suffering as a gush of fluid sprays from Corinthian’s ears and his skull cracks and parts, becoming a mess of meat and bloody tissue. It should scare me. It should disgust me, but instead, elation pulses me back to life. He throws the man’s body into one of the torches and it falls over. Alexander lies on the ground, a purple knot forming between his eyes, and he comes to just in time to be gripped in those large, bloody hands.
“No, please!” he begs, a magical sound that caresses my aching wounds. The monster’s back glows in the torch light as he takes Alexander’s arms just under the shoulders and yanks. Blood gushes from each meaty hole and his screams don’t last long. His face lands into the ground and, after a round of violent chills, he stills forever. Relief, excitement, then fear all rage through me at the same time, but in that second, he turns around and grips me in silvery pools of angst, and everything ceases to exist.
Bigger than any man, he stares at me, through me, his face strangely pleasant though a scar mars his brow. The fire light flickers in those bracing eyes lined in black, and I realize they’re the hue of pure dominance, a reflection of cold-blooded aggression. They thrash fear through me, because although he’s striking to the senses, that one look and there’s no doubt he’s a monster. Paralyzing. Predatory. No mercy lives there.
He reaches for me and I shake uncontrollably, remembering the blond girl with purpling skin lying in her dirt-caked blood. I’m dying, and he’s going to see me to the next life by the most torturous violations of my flesh. Alexander had also planned to use me even after my breath had ceased. As he reaches for me, I flinch, and as he lifts me, I’m nothing in his thickly corded arms. The throbbing in my belly screams in protest to his handling and it feels like we’re flying when he runs.
The bloody scene grows dim as we leave it behind. Scarlet is safe. She got away. And I will be dead before this Koridon stops and throws me down again.
8
~Calypso~
He moves quickly, dodging branches and jumping over boulders. He doesn’t rest. He runs faster than the horses in tales of the old west, but his species is just as amazing and fantastical as has ever been told. He has unbelievable speed and endurance. He slows just as light breaks through the trees, and a soft dew settles across my skin.
He holds me so tightly against his bare chest, the blood from my wound cracks away when I move, the bleeding minimal. Truly believing I would have slipped away by now, joy courses through my weak heart, even with the impending threat of the mighty Koridon. And with that, I breathe in the scent of his skin. The salty yet pleasant aroma seems to dance through my senses. It smooths the fear and enchants me, and I wonder what he plans for me to have brought me all this way. The other girl was found so close to my settlement.
Even with the images of what he did to Alexander and the others, a strange feeling of safety warms me.
A gigantic spherical object with overgrowth up the sides looms in front us as he comes to a stop. I look up at him in wonder, but he does not connect with me here, only prowls, waiting for something. Wind whips his long, tied back hair, and his feet sink into peculiar dirt, light colored and airy, as we approach. “Where have you taken me?” I ask weakly, knowing he can’t possibly understand my words.
As cold as rock, that sharp, predatory gaze is unfaltering. “Arey, nos tredatas!” the Koridon yells and jerks me to the side. Another approaches, long, black hair fixed down his back in a braid. He sneers, the giant eating the distance between us.
“Carvena hayor blasformatas!” the new male scorns and my Koridon bristles, holding me so tightly against him my ribcage crushes, my heart squeezes. He sets me down and growls at his brethren, arms flexed at his side, ferocity emanating from him in waves. I watch helplessly on my back, still feeling the paralysis of my wound.
They collide, and I feel the blast from where I lay. With movements so fast my tired eyes have difficulty tracking, blows land and a struggle ensues. A brutal fist into the face, a daunting knee to the belly. I beg the forces that be to let my Koridon triumph. Who can imagine the reason for this violent display, but I watch with bated breath and jump, though it hurts me with each vicious blow. Suddenly, the other bestial male races toward me, pure rage staining his face, and in a mere second, he will end my existence.
My Koridon breaks a fist into his skull and his opponent flies. He jumps six feet over the falling giant and, before his body hits the ground, secures his neck in the crook of his elbow. “Tevena, cara vor entraces.” A horrible snap breaks through the dawn and the Koridon falls limp in the dirt. The one who brought me here hits his knees over the fallen male and lets out a cry like nothing I’ve ever heard. The very atmosphere rattles, and it vibrates me to the core.
***
A hostile feeling envelopes me along with the Koridon’s bruised arms as he brings me inside the strange domicile. Several more of his people have gathered with looks of shock and dismay after having watched the terrible fight, but none of them dare say a word. Scarcely ever having thought of a female Koridon, I get stuck on one as we pass. Smaller, but with a fierce edge, she has beauty that reminds me of a wood nymph: sharp cheekbones, full lips and black hair with a sheen of cobalt.
I am in the home of a Koridon.
He lays me down on a bed inside a small room where the walls are made of thick glass that shows the overgrown forestry around us. He leaves as quickly as we entered, the door sliding down behind him.
The room is pristine and empty besides a table that ascends from o
ut of the floor. According to stories told from long ago, this great sphere could be one of the ships that came to our planet before they destroyed everything. But look what it’s become. Grounded for ages, how could this be what they wanted? I blink up at the white lights emitted from glass structures above and feel a vague sense of familiarity. What did they call these things? Lamps? That means that the Koridons have power sources I have only read about.
The door slides back up and my Koridon appears. In this light, he’s sort of human-looking, except…he’s not. Wearing worn leather pants and arm guards, he’s rough and solid but glows with something that can only be described as otherworldly. I expected an advanced alien being to be dressed in strange, silver garb, or maybe even fine threads like The Great Gatsby. I don’t remember them ever being mentioned in a way that does his muscular chest justice, the black markings inked into his broad shoulders and down his arms adding more danger to his already threatening appearance. Facial hair travels from above his lips down his chin and is long enough to tie ornamentally with twine. Perhaps life here has caused them hardship enough to roughen their elegance. My home, a place they were never meant for.
Standing over me with a foreign metal device in his fist, he gazes deeply into me with wild instability. My nakedness glares under him as though lacking, and the dirt and blood that blankets my bare skin does little to ease such discomfort. His hand shakes as it comes toward my wound, and I cringe into the bed, wondering how long it will take for him to kill me. The thought sends aching reminders shooting through my lower region As formidable as this warrior is, I will not be taken without a fight.
He moves the metal device over my stomach and I snap a hand around his wrist. With a grunt, he smacks my forearm, but I do not unlock my hold despite the sting.
Those silvery eyes light with amusement as he forcefully removes my grip and places the device against the slash in my stomach. A warm sensation trickles through the wound and a calm moves through me.
The door slides up again and the nymph-like female appears. “Kassien. Erdat gavara et sama?” Voice stern but feminine, she’s beautiful like him.
He encircles her waist and says, “Endnon, servayet.” Her large oval eyes search him for answers. He holds her tightly, then turns his head around to glower at me. “Avatas imen fasetiun, Efaelty.” Her features soften, and I realize he may be healing my body to make it stronger to endure…something. Maybe they’ll both wish to use me to death.
She moves toward me, so gracefully she appears weightless. The sharp pain in my belly subsides and I can move again, but I don’t dare. The male kneels on the other side of my bed. Her touch trails across my breasts, then down my stomach where dark, crusted blood clings to the closing wound.
My Koridon sets his hand atop hers and drags it down to the place too low for comfort. “Renevna imperiden ist natrana.” His mate’s silvery gems flick up.
“Imen noctra!” Her fingers fly to my throat and I gasp under her strength, though the air locks at the level of my crushed windpipe.
Mindlessly, my legs kick and my lungs quiver, starving for relief. They constrict tighter and tighter and my face throbs, threatening to pop my head from my shoulders. “Efaelty! Drev ta!” he bellows as she shakes wildly. With his backhand to her cheek, she finally releases me. I suck in a shrieking breath and my skin prickles with sweet relief.
He grabs his woman’s chin. “You will not hurt her.” The fresh blood that runs through my pulsating face drains away again as I understand his words.
He takes her by the arm as she shakes her head tearfully. The creature has sadness so strikingly apparent painting her dominant features that it puts fear through my heart. She relents and, regaining her immaculate composure, walks out.
The brawl outside. The fight with his female.
He is fighting for me.
9
~Calypso~
He stands facing the closed door, where the ghost of the Koridon female’s presence still chills the room. I hold my belly, still accustomed to the stabbing pain, and sit up. “You…you can understand me?” His broad shoulders tense, black ink traveling over every striation, every rippling facet of such a back. Excitement bursts like the overripe berries of summer, imagining all the things I could learn from him if my fate were determined by any other stars.
“Yes. For our survival in this place, we are all taught your language from a young age.” The familiar words are so strange on a Koridon’s lips, and the bass rumbles my chest. He stands a few feet taller, the god of war embodied before me. My protector. The nightmarish ogres I used to envision, the ones my people described, melt away.
I’ve often wondered how they survived here, and it makes sense that they would have to learn to communicate with us to grow food in our soil and climate. To learn about our geography and animals. What was left of it, anyway. Incredibly advanced as one must be to travel to and destroy worlds, this is all new to them, and they had to start from scratch as we did, though I suspect they had an even harder time of it. Clinging to the soft bed covering, I stand. If it were possible, his body tenses even harder with every step I take toward him.
Backside bare, I hold the blanket in my fist against the heart that crashes against it. I can’t just lay in bed helplessly, waiting for him or whatever comes through that door next to do what they will to me. I have to draw closer to the mouth of the beast, Samson on his knees before Goliath. “What am I?” I reach toward the markings painted in permanence down his spine and hold. My fingertips only an inch away, his breath catches.
“What do you ask?” An innate tempest thrashes under his skin, a turmoil I can sense but don’t understand. Though, there’s something happening inside me too, and if I can understand mine, perhaps I can understand his. Still, I reach for him with a desire that boils down my spine.
“To you?”
“You are the answer to something,” he struggles between inhalations, and beads of moisture cross his shoulder line.
I halt my touch, my palm flush with the skin that begs me to touch it. I’ve always been a bit brazen for a young girl, but there is no answer to what drives me toward a creature that was created in my worst nightmares since the day I was born. The pull has no roots in sanity, but it feels right.
Also, there’s the fact that Alexander knocked me out last night before dragging me out to be brutally handled, and I may have brain damage.
“What answer?” What could a sheltered human possibly offer him that a thousand others could not?
“You will prepare yourself to be my—” He pauses as though trying to find the word I will understand. Or perhaps he fights with something hard to choke out. “Wife.”
My hand falls against him, utter shock raking through me. As though that touch were his breaking point, he turns around, a salivating wolf, and takes me to the ground. His weight presses in, crushes, and the back of my head throbs. He breathes me in, the feel of it rustling my hair and brushing my ear. Fear sharply bends into excitement.
He groans and booms a hand into the ground beside me. “You are taking me from everything I once believed.” He lays his cheek upon my naked breast and his eyelashes tickle as he squeezes them shut.
My lungs fight to expand under his pressure. “How am I to be your wife? Koridons kill women,” I squeeze out. Hunger surges a rush between my legs, his weight soothing an ache I didn’t know I had. There are so many rushing thoughts, but disbelief and confusion keep them all from making a lick of sense.
“I would ensure your survival. I must.” He bounces up on his hands, still directly over me, and relief floods my chest cavity.
After being forced by a normal sized man to endure copulation, the kind of pain this giant would cause can’t even register. He said I’d survive. “No,” I deadpan. “I’ve already agreed to a union.” I bite my tongue, realizing I must never speak of where I came from. I’ll lead him to believe I’m a nomad, like the ones who scavenge the ruins of the fallen cities of the past for valuable books t
o trade to the hidden villages scattered throughout the land.
An amused growl rumbles from his throat and he bends down to let his lips gingerly play across the sensitive pink of my nipple. “Where is this boy? I will challenge.”
Finn. I shut the door on this train of thought, unable to bear the horror that could occur if this beast was ever put in front of my sweet boy. It’s then I realize that I will do anything this Koridon asks; I must if my loved ones are to be kept safe. I will die before ever showing him where we’re hidden by their own advanced machinery. I will slit my own throat before leading them to my mother or Scarlet. Any of them. After what occurred last night, the terror of watching Scarlet suffer and then bleeding in the arms of the most dreaded killer imaginable, every one of them in my village are the most precious things in the world. “I need to heal,” I tell him, sounding as strong as I can muster. “In the woods before you found me, I was hurt.”
He grunts and fire engulfs his molten eyes. “I know what was done to you. It was what drew me in.”
“Why?” I force out. “What is the meaning of all this? You killed for me.”
“Not for you.” He braces himself in a push up stance and comes down, so close his mouth brushes my bottom lip. It thrills. “For what you mean, I fought for. Lekoren had to be eliminated. He would have killed you.”
Knots tie my stomach, the intimacy of his near kiss making it difficult to work out what he’s telling me. How will he protect me from so many of them in this place? “Why did he want me dead?” When he does not answer, it’s fine because another burning question has formed. “Wait, the woman who was just here. Isn’t she already your mate?”
“Efaelty will understand. They all will.” He removes himself and brings me to my feet. “But you are in danger here. Even from me, though my promise is to kill myself before killing you. That is why our…” he searches for the correct term, “marriage must be performed. So I can protect you. So that you are mine and no other may have rights to you.”