by Gabby Dark
He laughed. “Will you kill me?”
“Yes!”
He wrapped his hands around the back of my neck. His fingernails were literally digging into my flesh. He was so strong. So, so strong.
“I’m going to do what Anik failed to do. And when I’m done striking your backside, I’m going to fuck your well-lubed pussy into submission. Bak’ku k’a. Xi xima bak’ku k’a.” Bend to your master. But he was not my master. He grabbed my hair tightly in his fist and forced me down to the floor.
Tears welled in my eyes as my knees scrubbed the raw carpet.
“It’s a pity, pet. It’s a pity I must mark you so.” Taz’ul snapped the rope behind me.
Before the folded end of the rope came down across my back, I extracted a blade from a strap on my left leg and buried it into his right thigh right above his kneecap.
Taz’ul hollered once and then pressed his thin lips together and uttered a Zunatorian curse. He slapped my face and hauled me up. On his way to what I expected would be the bed, he knocked over all of my paint supplies. The colors splattered to the floor.
He threw me on the bed and tried to mount me. I clawed at his face with my fingers and then threw myself over the side. One of Anik’s axes was lying near a panel, I threw it across the room where it landed hard on Taz’ul’s toe.
I scrambled to reach the blade, and as soon as Taz’ul descended on me again, I stabbed him in the shoulder. This time, he didn’t make a sound or scream.
“Pain is but a sensation,” he said, tauntingly, shoving his hands between my legs to keep them open. “And soon, I will penetrate you just like so, like the blade you bury in my flesh. As I bleed, you will leak. I will fuck your human sheath until you are begging for forgiveness. I will violate your womb with my seed. And then, I will mount your face and watch as you choke to death on my kuvak.”
I buried the blade deeper into his shoulder. I yanked it out and stabbed him in the chest, but all he did was laugh as his blood dripped out on me.
I realized I had to kill him. If I wanted this to stop, I had to kill him. I had to break a law. I had to kill another warrior in cold blood.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, but when I opened them again all I saw was Taz’ul’s huge body being pulled away from me. The next thing I knew he was thrown across the room. His back hit the opposite wall violently and he came crashing down on the wooden pedestal and crystal bowl of water by the door.
Anik! Anik was here. While Taz’ul was still on the ground, Anik picked up the heavy bowl and brought it down hard on Taz’ul’s head, cracking it in half. Taz’ul screeched in pain and curled himself up into a ball against the wall where he wailed and cursed up a storm as red jolts of electric bolts physically shot up to his skull.
I scrambled up off the floor and ran to Anik. I couldn’t speak. I was panting so hard.
“You okay?” he asked.
I nodded. “I think so.”
He pressed his palm against my face where it still stung from Taz’ul’s hard palm-slap and growled. He left me to attack Taz’ul. Taz’ul got up and they collided.
The fight was so violent, they ended up on the other side of the door where a crowd of people had gathered to find out what was going on.
I had never seen anything like it before. I had seen lots of men fight. I’d even been thrown into the middle of a gunfight once, but nothing like this. These men were big and powerful. They used all of their strength and wits. Everything they had. Although, they had weapons strapped to their persons, they used their fists, beating each other senseless, probably hoping for a knockout.
Word had gotten around, and in the distance, I saw King Crencik running across the field with twin boys with full manes of black hair closely behind him.
“Cease! Cease!” the King called out in his Zunatorian tongue.
Both Anik and Taz’ul stopped fighting, although they circled each other like they were itching to finish.
“What in the marti lurtuǔng is going on here?” the King demanded.
One of the guards filled the King in on what happened. He looked straight across the field at me and a look of pity flooded his face. He came to me. “Forgive me. This should not have happened,” he said.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I said.
One of the Zunatorian women brought me one of her silks to replace my ripped garment. She spoke to me softly in their tongue. I understood some of it, but not much.
The King took a stance in front of Taz’ul. “Taz’ul tutu ak Zauburt, you will be executed!”
The crowd gasped.
“You cannot kill me, Your Majesty!” Taz’ul yelled.
“No, he cannot. You touched what was mine. You threatened what was mine.” Anik charged him. “I will kill you with my own bloody hands!”
They rolled over on the ground again, wrestling and punching.
“Bap’ku. Bap’ku.” The King screamed again for them to stop fighting.
Taz’ul dropped to the ground on his knees directly in front of the King. “Your Majesty, that bak’ku killed my brother. I beseech you to punish her at this instant so that everyone may see that Fulcid is avenged!”
“Taz’ul, you are broken. My order was given already. You disobeyed me. You ignored me. You have marked a free woman with your bare hands. You threaten her life with your words. Your intentions are clear. Your actions have been clear tonight. I am King, and you will be executed.”
When the King turned around, Taz’ul got up and said, “You cannot kill me! I challenge your son to a fight.”
The crowd gasped.
Taz’ul spat at the King’s feet. “I challenge him!” He pointed. “In the cages. That is how I will appease my brother’s slaying. By fighting you.” He pointed at Anik. “We will fight to the death.”
“You cannot challenge your commander to a fight! He is a prince. My son!” King Crencik pulled out a machete from the sheath attached to his waistband. “End this dispute now! Finish him!” He thrust the machete at Anik.
Anik looked at the weapon but he didn’t take it. “No, Father.” He looked back at Taz’ul. “I accept your challenge. We will fight to the death.”
The air rushed out of my lungs as Anik sealed his fate.
In that moment, I wished Anik had punished me like King Crencik had demanded all along.
Now because I wouldn’t accept a series of whippings on my backside, Anik would have to risk his life by fighting in a cage.
Chapter Sixteen
Anik
* * *
“I’m sorry for what has happened to you.”
I covered Ryleigh’s hand with mine where she was tending to my bruises. I brought her fingers to my lips, pressing a single kiss to them. “I brought you here. This is all my fault.”
She dropped the wet cloth into the bowl, then slid between my thighs, lifting herself on her knees so that she could see me eye to eye. “I won’t let you blame yourself for another person’s vile actions. I don’t want to be anywhere else. Just here. With you.”
I smiled. She tilted her lips and kissed me gently. Even now, I was hungry for her touch, so I picked her up and then sat her down to straddle my lap. My ǔre was already activated to heal, but now, with so many emotions running through them—love above all else—it pulsed avidly beneath my skin.
I had sent the doctor away earlier. The only hands I wanted on my body were Ryleigh’s. I was pleased with the way her tender touches soothed my agitated soul.
I pressed my nose to the curve in her neck and inhaled. Her body smelled of lotus blossoms. I had watched her earlier in the washing room as she bathed, getting rid of all the evidence of her struggle. But still, what Taz’ul intended to do to her left a bad taste in my mouth and a wretched memory I could not get to leave my mind.
I was going to kill him tomorrow. He wouldn’t leave well enough alone. His brother was dead because Ryleigh feared for her own life after seeing him snap the neck of one of the other captives. It was the truth. And even
if I did not have my telepathic gifts, I trusted Ryleigh’s recount of what happened in the van that night. There was no doubt in my mind that I would make Taz’ul pay for his assault on Ryleigh.
“Are you comfortable here, Ryleigh?” I asked. We had since left my pod house to borrow one of the rooms in my father’s house. Taz’ul had made a mess of my place. He had violated my domain in the worst way imaginable.
“Yes. Your Father has been nothing but kind to me. I misunderstood him before. And your mother…she was very accommodating. She’s shy, I think. Or maybe she doesn’t like me.” Her brows furrowed. She thought she did something to make my mother not like her.
“My mother thinks very highly of you actually. And you’re right, she’s an introvert. As you saw, my mother’s ǔre is golden. She has a spirit soul.”
“A spirit soul?”
“Spirit soul is another name for psychometry. She can read things. Objects mainly. Not people. In her case, the gift comes and goes. She does not control it. We used to be able to bring her items from our raids on Earth and other planets and she’d tell us the origin, its use, and sometimes who it belonged to. It takes a lot of energy out of her. She wears gloves most of the time.”
She frowned. “I didn’t see gloves.”
“They’re transparent. Made just for her. There are others like her here. There was a time when only my mother’s family carried the ǔre of a spirit soul. They used to call them the golden ones decades ago. They had seeing power. People would go to them for physic readings and things like that. Others steered clear of them. They’re considered anomalies, but that specific gift tends to run through my mother’s bloodline,” I said.
“And yours now too, right?”
I nodded. “Right. Nonetheless, they have other responsibilities now other than reading tarot cards in the market.” I chuckled. “My uncle is an ambassador. He does a lot of intra and inter-planet travels. I don’t see him much. When we have other ambassadors visit us from other planets and my uncle isn’t around, my mother usually steps up. She speaks five different tongues.”
“You mean alien language?”
“Mak. Alien language.”
“Your people have amazing abilities.” She stroked my skin just above my eyebrow. “You heal so quickly. There’s no scab. Just new skin.”
“It’s still uncomfortable. And I can still feel the pain. Our bodies act quickly when there’s an open wound. If the wound isn’t fatal, the first priority is to prohibit the body from bleeding to death or infection from getting inside. Our ǔre assists with that.”
“It’s fascinating, really.”
“What would you be doing on your Earth if you were there right now?” I asked.
She grinned. “Let’s see. Probably setting up and checking on booby-traps around our temporary camps. That was my main job.”
“Booby-traps? Sounds like an important job for a clever and stealthy person. Someone who’s mastered the art of escape herself.” I winked.
Her expression turned serious and she placed her fingertips against my chest, against my activated veins. “So you see, Anik? If I wanted to escape from you while I was still on Earth, I could have. I think maybe there was something inside of me, something that wanted to go with you. When you captured me, I didn’t resist. I didn’t understand why then, but I do now.”
Her words were the sustenance that fueled my soul and filled my heart.
“Then we share the same thought. I took you because I wanted you. Yet, I was the one who was afraid of admitting that to both you and myself. I—”
There was a knock at the door and my father pushed it open, interrupting our moment. A chill swept from the hallway into the room and wrapped around us.
“Anik?”
“Yes, Father?”
He looked at us without speaking. Took in everything. Ryleigh was still on my lap and my arms were still wrapped around her waist. The cloud of tension that surrounded her body told me that she was more than bashful about being caught straddling a son by his father.
My father cocked his head to one side and sent us a wry smile.
You are smitten by this beautiful human woman, son. You even risk your life for her.
My father and I could transmit thought ever since I learned how to speak, before that even. So, it was natural. The bond between a father and son was strong on this planet. We both knew each other well. Strengths. Weaknesses. Doubts. Fears. Sooner or later, he would know. Or perhaps, he already realized it. Perhaps, he sensed the tension between Ryleigh and I all along. From day one. When he assigned her to me at auction. He had great intuition like that. Yes, he already knew…
I love her, Father.
He grinned at the both of us. Before turning to leave, he said, “Come down to dinner at once. Everything is ready. We’ll have a feast in honor of tomorrow’s tournament. You’ll need the fuel, son.”
Ryleigh slipped off my lap and stood up. “You go. I’ll see you tonight when you get back.”
My father turned around at the threshold. “No, darling. You will join us for dinner too.”
Ryleigh smiled at my father and then at me. My father was right, but I was more than smitten by her. There was a lot more to us than that. My feelings for Ryleigh had increased exponentially.
Chapter Seventeen
Ryleigh
* * *
I was on pins and needles. It had been less than a day since Anik accepted Taz’ul’s challenge for a fight to the death. It didn’t have to come to this. Maybe if I had just submitted back on Earth, I might have never killed Fulcid in self-defense.
To think back on it now, what else could have happened? If I hadn’t gone out that day looking for supplies with my group, I might have never been caught by the Nation’s guards. I might have never been sent to the labs. I might have never been captured by aliens from the planet of Zuna.
I would never be here if things had gone the other way. Maybe I would be dead in a landfill. Bones and decaying flesh. Or perhaps I would still be a lab rat lying on a table wishing for death.
But this was my fate. I was here. This was now.
I forced myself to look out into the fighting cage, into the ring. The men were fighting tirelessly with fists. And if it wasn’t with fists, they’d use their weapons. They were only allowed one machete and one shield in the cage.
One might have said that their ways were Barbaric, but this was no more Barbaric than what was going on in other places, especially on Earth where people murdered each other every day in cold blood.
Andara squeezed my hands, calmly assuring me that Anik would prevail. Taz’ul was blood-thirsty. I saw it in his eyes when he tried to mount me just yesterday. Taz’ul knew that if he killed Anik or was somehow successful in overturning King Crencik, he would be King. He knew this. Anik and his father had discussed it just last night.
Anik had been at odds with himself all day, telling me that it was his fault for leaving me alone—unprotected. I knew different. None of this was his fault.
My breath hitched in my throat when the tip of Taz’ul’s machete snipped Anik’s side. Anik knocked him back, causing him to land a dozen feet across the arena. Then, Anik clutched his side. If Anik succumbed to injuries, I didn’t know what I’d do. On Earth, all I knew was surviving. That was all that mattered. On Zunator, the only man I knew was Anik. I had come to love him. He was all that mattered.
The crowd stood up and I popped up with them. I peeked over broad shoulders and between bodies, trying to see what was happening. Finally, I got tired of fighting my way to a better view, so I maneuvered all the way to the front of the arena. Only the metal-linked cage was keeping me from running out onto the fighting grounds.
Taz’ul was stumbling around on the ground trying to find his machete. He was bleeding from the forehead. Anik followed him across the cage until Taz’ul grabbed the machete. Taz’ul lifted it up but Anik yanked it from his grip and threw it yards away.
Taz’ul got up and charged, pushin
g Anik back into the cage. He wrapped both hands around Anik’s throat and squeezed with inhuman strength. Anik’s ǔre disappeared. Too much time passed with Taz’ul’s fingers around Anik’s neck. Anik’s eyes closed, and I screamed.
“Anik…” I called. He still appeared to be alive, but Taz’ul seemed to be squeezing the life force right out of him.
He opened his eyes. They shined bright blue.
“Please don’t die. Don’t leave…” I cried out.
He turned his attention back to Taz’ul who was now spitting vial words, screaming for Anik to die.
Taz’ul was hollering bloody murder…and then suddenly, he was not.
A look of morbid shock froze on his face as Anik plunged his hand into Taz’ul’s chest and dislodged his heart. As Taz’ul stumbled back, Anik snatched the entire heart out, veins, ligaments, and all.
Taz’ul dropped to his knees. Anik picked up the machete and beheaded him.
The crowd burst out in cheers, but I didn’t care about any of it. I raced past the guards and into Anik’s arms. I kissed him. His face. His mouth. His chin.
“You’re hurt. You’re alive,” I panted.
Anik smiled. “I’m also bloody, tiki pa.”
“I don’t care. I don’t care about blood. I love you, Anik. Never leave me,” I declared.
“You don’t know how honored I am to hear you say those words. I have loved you all along. I will love you now. Forever. I’ve wanted to say it. I…” He swallowed.
“I know. It’s okay to feel. It’s okay to show it. I’ll never leave you. I promise.”
He kissed me.
“I wanted to give you something, Anik. I want to give it to you now,” I said.
“What is it?”
I parted from him just enough to kneel on the ground in front of him.
“I choose you, Anik. Before the people of Zunator, I submit to you.”
“I accept you as my mate, Ryleigh.” He held out his palm to me hands up. “Rise now, tiki pa. You shall never kneel again, for soon, you will be a princess.”