by A. G. Wilde
“I swear on my father, Mark Wilson’s name, that if you put your hands on me, I will kill you. I fucking swear it.” Nia gripped the pebble, happy that her voice didn’t shake with the fear crawling up her spine.
One of the aliens moved to one side of the cage and the other went to the next side.
She glanced between them both, terror flooding through her veins.
What were they going to do?
She could hear her breath in her own ears and to make matters worse, the room suddenly went dark.
“Herza is starting the launch sequence,” one said.
“Seems so,” the other replied almost absentmindedly.
Fuck.
FUCK!
Nia raced to the front of the cage.
Without the pebble in her shoe, she could move much more quickly, and she gripped the bars.
The only thing she could see was the lights of the buttons by the door, but the natural hum of the ship seemed to grow even louder.
The ship’s engine.
Shit.
She stared at the illuminated buttons, forgetting the aliens around her for a moment as she rubbed the pebble between her fingers.
It was smooth, about the size of a marble, but heavy enough that she could feel the weight in her hand.
She had an idea.
A stupid, highly risky idea, but an idea nonetheless.
She just had to hope it would work.
Ka’Cit dropped down from the hatch, his feet landing on the floor of the upper deck almost silently.
His tail shot out behind him, aiding his balance as he stood to his full height.
He’d timed his entry, there shouldn’t be anyone in the corridor now that the launch checks were being done, but as soon as he took a step forward, a Niftrill turned the corner.
Phek.
Ka’Cit let out a breath as he saw when the Niftrill spotted him.
He hadn’t deployed the smoke canister yet.
The Niftrill hesitated for a second, and Ka’Cit could see the moment the Niftrill decided he needed to raise an alarm.
“Oh no you don’t.”
As the Niftrill turned to run the other way, Ka’Cit’s hand was already drawing a throwing knife from one of his pockets.
The knife went through the air, slicing through the silence to lodge itself into the Niftrill’s leg, but it wasn’t sharp enough to penetrate Niftrill skin; it merely took the Niftrill down.
“Intru—!” The Niftrill began to scream, but Ka’Cit was upon him in a second, dragging the Niftrill to his feet and clamping a hand over the Niftrill’s mouth.
He pulled him backward, kicking open a supply closet and pulling the Niftrill along with him into the darkness of the small room.
“Where’s the human?”
The Niftrill didn’t answer, he only began struggling to release himself.
“Look, friend, we can either do this the hard way, or we can do this the easy way. I, for one, prefer the hard way, but I’m not sure you would like that.”
The Niftrill struggled again.
“Hard way it is.”
The Niftrill stiffened then and stopped moving.
“Thought so. Now, where is the human?” Ka’Cit released the Niftrill’s mouth just enough to hear him speak.
“In the upper sector.”
Hmm, that’s where he’d thought Herza would put her.
“Listen, Niftrill. You are not my enemy. I am only here for the human. I’m going to let you go in the next few seconds…but if you raise an alarm…”
He left the rest unsaid, and the Niftrill jerked his head in compliance.
But no sooner had he let the Niftrill go than the henchman grabbed an object within the supply closet and jabbed it towards him.
Ka’Cit caught the object with one hand, his gaze barely darting to it.
“Really?” he asked, and the Niftrill’s red eyes widened a little. “I try to be nice and—”
A sigh made his shoulders sag as Ka’Cit drove his fist forward, connecting with the Niftrill’s hard outer skin.
He didn’t know why he’d bothered to be nice.
The suddenness of the blow was enough to make the Niftrill sag and, in the next second, his body fell to the floor.
“Phek,” Ka’Cit cursed and flashed his hand in the air.
Rule number one, never fight a Niftrill with your bare fists. It was like hitting rock.
His gaze fell to the Niftrill. The henchman would be out for a few minutes at least. Enough time for him to find the human.
But, for good measure, Ka’Cit secured the Niftrill’s hands to a pipe within the closet.
Taking the smoke canister from his pocket, he peeked through the door.
There was a little thrill he could feel at the base of his spine—a little excitement.
He wasn’t quite sure where it was coming from but it was there, and as the smoke canister slipped from his fingers and rolled down the corridor, the gray cloud beginning to fill the air, Ka’Cit allowed the feeling to simmer.
Time to go get that human.
9
The ship was humming much louder now, and Nia knew she didn’t have a lot of time to get the hell out of there.
No way could she allow them to take off before she found a way off the vessel.
Her eyes were on the door in front.
If she could open the door, the cage would open too. Well, at least that’s what she hoped.
When the aliens had pressed the orange button, the door and cage had both closed in synchrony.
She assumed they worked together, and that made things a helluva lot easier.
If she managed to open the cage, it would give her just a few seconds to rush out of the room and into the main corridor. From there she could do what the alien had been so afraid of. She’d lock down the room and the two aliens still in it.
She’d have to be perfect. There was no room for mistakes.
Movement to her right caught her eye and she could see the alien advancing her way again. There was movement under his cloak as if he was rubbing something and the thought made her want to vomit.
Right. She’d rather take her one chance than stay in here and let them do whatever was in their twisted minds.
Gripping the pebble, she focused on the yellow button.
The pebble felt heavy between her fingers, and she only hoped that it was heavy enough to depress the button when she threw it.
It was her only hope.
F = ma. Newton’s first law of motion.
Goddamnit, she should have paid more attention in physics class.
“You first or me?” one of the aliens asked.
Yea, he wasn’t speaking to her, but she wasn’t waiting to hear the other alien’s answer.
Stretching her arm through the bars of the cage, Nia aimed. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at her target and, for a second, the thought that she might miss was prominent in her mind.
She wasn’t going to miss.
With a singular movement, the muscles in her arms primed and she threw the pebble, and the moment it left her fingers, her heart thumped in her chest.
It was dim in the room. She couldn’t actually see the little rock sail through the air, but she knew she couldn’t have missed.
She couldn’t have.
The pebble hit something, the sound almost drowned out by the hum of the ship’s engine, before she heard it land on the floor and roll away.
Nia’s heart sank.
Well, at least she’d tried.
“What was that?” The alien to her right spoke.
There was a hiss then, and the cage shuddered a little before it opened. At the same time, the door opened as well.
Wait. Nia paused for only a second. She’d done it.
This was it. This was her chance.
Without a backward glance. Nia grabbed the hem of her cloak, lifting it to free her legs, and rushed forward. She barely heard the surprised cries of the aliens behind her as
she reached the hallway.
She turned and caught movement in the room.
They were coming after her but they weren’t going to be fast enough.
“Bye, motherfuckers.”
A feeling of triumph shot through her as she slammed her hand on the red button outside the door.
An alarm blared immediately as the door hissed shut.
“Upper sector lockdown in progress.” It sounded like it came from the ship’s intercom.
“Upper sector lockdown in progress.”
Shit. Had she done that? She hadn’t expected an alarm.
Nia turned just in time to see the doors at the end of the hallway closing.
Shit.
There was a corridor to her right, but she had no idea where that led to.
Better go the way she came.
She didn’t think twice. She made a mad dash toward the closing door, hoping she would be fast enough.
She made it just in time, or, at least, most of her did. Her cloak caught in the door just as it closed behind her, and she had to pull it hard enough for it to rip.
She was heaving now, trying to catch her breath from the sudden exertion, and she paused, hands on her knees as her breath came hard and fast.
She’d done it.
She’d frickin’ done it.
She shuddered to think what would have happened if she hadn’t even tried.
She’d paused to catch a breath for only a few seconds, but she soon realized something was wrong.
She could hardly see anything.
There was smoke everywhere.
She was in that long corridor with all the levers and stuff. At least, that’s where she should be, from her memory.
Just to make sure, she reached forward with one hand, to brush it against the wall.
Her fingers moved over buttons, wires, and what she assumed was a lever.
She was right.
This corridor should lead back to that lower section with the huge room and the ramp that led outside the ship.
But where was the smoke coming from?
Her heart beat fast in her chest as she struggled to see even her hand in front of her.
It couldn’t have been the lockdown that had caused it. Right?
Definitely not.
Shit.
It dawned on her then.
The ship was on fire.
And she was still stuck on it.
10
Her steps were light and cautious as she advanced down the corridor.
She’d covered her nose with one thick sleeve of her cloak and was feeling her way forward by hand.
The smoke was so thick, it was unnatural, and it wasn’t burning her eyes, only making it nearly impossible to see ahead.
Shit. If there was a fire, why was it so quiet?
The alarm that had blared when she’d locked down the sector had stopped a few seconds ago, and apart from distant clanks and muffled sounds, she couldn’t hear anything else.
Damn it.
But maybe she could use this to her advantage.
With the chaos of the fire, she would have a better chance of escaping undetected. She just had to hope the two henchmen who’d been guarding her didn’t get out and raise an alarm before she managed to get off the ship.
With that thought in mind, she glanced behind her as she hastened her steps—not as if that helped because the smoke was like a thick grey wall.
She couldn’t see if she was being followed.
She was just turning back around when she collided with a wall.
Her hand shot out and hit something firm.
No, not a wall.
Cold, hard, muscle.
Her insides withered.
She’d been found.
Oh fuck.
She hadn’t even heard the henchman approach. He’d been so silent and with the smoke she hadn’t seen him either.
A whimper escaped her as she spun to run in the other direction, knowing there was nowhere to go. Her only thought was to run. To get away.
She’d figure it out after she put distance between herself and the enemy.
But she was too late, or he was too fast.
A hand closed around her arm, the effect of which caused her to be yanked backward, and she fell back against the henchman.
Fuuuuuuck!
Nia kicked out as she tried to claw forward, causing herself to stumble, and she lost her shoes in the process. But instead of releasing her, the henchman gripped her tighter and went down with her. He landed on his side with her gripped against him.
He was frickin’ strong. She could feel it in his hands.
The henchmen hadn’t felt so strong when they’d been carrying her earlier.
Maybe this was the Hulk of the clan that she hadn’t been introduced to till now. And what a moment to meet him.
Terror made her cry out as she tried to struggle from his grasp while the thought that she had nothing, no weapons, nothing, swam in her head.
As she strained against him, struggling to release herself, the only thing her hand landed on was one of her shoes.
Nia grasped the thing and spun in the alien’s hold, twisting enough that she was facing him.
They chose the wrong girl to mess with.
They really fucking did.
If they thought they were going to take her, use her, then sell her to the highest bidder, they had a big surprise coming.
Granted, they might actually achieve their goal. But she wasn’t going to go willingly.
She was going to fight.
Even if it meant using her fingers to claw their eyes out.
Gripping one end of her shoe, her wrist flicked with an accuracy that was passed down through generations.
The sound of the shoe making contact echoed in the room.
Nia didn’t stop. She didn’t wait.
Her wrist flicked again and her shoe landed in what she hoped was the henchman’s face.
But whatever she hit made a dull thud like she hit something solid…like metal.
The henchman made a strange sound but didn’t let her go. That didn’t deter her though.
It was her only weapon.
Her only chance.
She pummeled his face with her shoe as if she was slapping the devil out of him, even as she struggled to break free.
“Let—”
Slap.
“Me—”
Slap.
“Go—”
Slap.
“—you blasted fucking fiend!”
She was kicking, struggling like her life depended on it, but it seemed she was going nowhere.
He was too strong.
Strong and fucking unbothered.
He didn’t even grunt and Nia realized that somehow, in the process, she ended up fully on her back.
The henchman gripped her arms, holding them down.
“I’m not one of them, ta’ii.”
It was a rich, deep voice.
One that made her pause.
Well, he definitely didn’t sound like one of them, that was for sure.
They sounded neither male nor female, but he…he was definitely male.
His voice was a deep vibration that tickled her ears and made her hyperaware.
“I’m here to help you.”
What?
Some of the fight within her limbs died a little, but she wasn’t completely convinced.
She knew no one here, and none of the aliens on the ship were on her side. So who the hell was he?
“We have to be quick. There’s not much time to get you out of here.”
She didn’t dare to believe. After all, she couldn’t even see his face.
But it hit her then that he wasn’t trying to restrain her. He seemed to only be holding her down so she’d stop kicking.
He was certainly strong enough to lift her upright and force her to walk, but he wasn’t doing that.
“And what the phek did you hit me with?”
&n
bsp; One strong arm reached up and touched her shoe.
His fingers brushed hers as he moved them over the shoe, and Nia jerked once more to release herself from his grasp.
“Your foot covering.” A rumble of a laugh vibrated against her belly. “You hit me with your foot covering?”
Apparently, she hadn’t hit him with it hard enough.
Nia jerked against him one more time, trying to wring her hands from his grasp.
“Don’t fight.,” he said. “I don’t want to hold you too hard and accidentally hurt you. I’m on your side.”
Nia stiffened again.
“I—Who are you?” She jerked her hand in his grasp once more. “And why should I believe you?”
There was a pause, and he made a sound she couldn’t put a meaning to.
“I can’t understand you,” he finally said. “Your language upload…I do not have it in my translator. But you can understand me, can’t you? Riv’s mate, La-rehn, could understand me.”
Nia’s eyes widened and she froze. He knew Lauren.
“Who are you?”
He didn’t answer.
Of course, he just told her he couldn’t understand her—not that she’d expected him to be able to. No one, bar five other beings (the one who had brought her to the Sanctuary included), could understand her on this planet.
The alien made another sound, and this time she was sure it was a groan.
“Not the best of ways to introduce myself to you…between your legs. A gentleman would have at least greeted you first.”
What?
Alarm went through her as she realized her cloak had ridden up in their scuffle.
And yes, indeed, he was settled between her bare legs.
Hudo III was warm. She hadn’t worn a separate outfit underneath the cloak for that reason. If she’d done that, she might have suffered from a heatstroke.
And now, she was almost naked underneath this…man.
The arm holding her shoe was pinned above her head and her other arm was pinned down flat.
Her free leg was bent and pressed against his side, and she realized that the hardness she felt on the inside of her thigh was the hard muscle of his.
Fuck, he was huge.
It was muffled, but it sounded like he chuckled and murmured something underneath his breath.
“But…I’m no gentleman.”
The words were a whisper, and if not for the sudden silence between them, she might have missed it.