by Emma Vance
I walked quickly away from the luxury gardens, twisting my hands together to still their shaking.
Chapter Eight
Three years ago, Nisha
“Nisha!” Clio’s sharp voice called through the female’s tent, bringing me from my thoughts and into stark reality.
“You are late for the choosing,” she said flatly, her skin pulsing an angry blue, the color of a bright gas flame.
Right. The choosing. Since Otun and I had been together, I had been going through the motions, looking for him in the eyes of every guard I saw. But I hadn’t seen him since we’d first slept together.
I snorted. What a nice way of saying he spent all the hours of the night fucking me backwards, forwards and fucking sideways. He subdued the angry, painful need that buzzed through my blood until it was a dull murmur. It was a good thing we had spent the night together—I hadn’t been chosen the next night either, so I would have been a basket case. Or possibly dead. Who knew how the sex poison worked?
I thought I saw Otun earlier, walking through the luxury gardens, his fur frosted body and thick bushy tail whipping behind him. He wasn’t close, or I would have attempted to cross paths with him. Instead, I just watched him like a psycho, staring at his masked face, black hair glistening from underneath his helmet, his thick flanks flexing in the burnished sunlight.
It almost felt like the aching pain of the poison came back in full force when I saw him, and I bit my lip hard. But I realized it for what it truly was.
Lust. I wanted him, without the urgency of the sex poison guiding my libido.
I shook myself and went back to the females’ tent. I didn’t even know it was him, it could have been just another tailed alien with black hair.
But I knew it wasn’t.
Ugh, I hated that I had a crush on this guy. I looked for him in every tent and around every corner, just like my first crush in junior high where I would camp out in the library waiting to catch a glimpse of him coming in with his friends.
I couldn’t like someone. Especially not a guard. The world I was in now wasn’t built for a relationship of any kind. That’s why I was sitting alone, my head in my hands, late for the choosing until Clio found me.
“I’m sorry,” I stood abruptly, heat flooding my face. I looked around and all the other females had disappeared. “I must have forgotten.”
Clio’s one eyebrow raised high as all four of her eyes widened. Then her mouth twisted in disgust.
“Humans. How could you forget your only purpose here? You are here to make coynes for Bardoa. Not daydream. You are lucky you are even here.” She crooked a finger at me.
I sighed. I’d heard this spiel many times before. I was tired of hearing how lucky I was when I was a sex slave on another fucking planet, with no freedoms and my body poisoned.
“You could have been taken to any other pleasure planet. They are not all like this. Bardoa takes care of his females. There are other planets where females are passed between males until they fall apart. I cried with joy when I was chosen for Stryxx.”
It was hard to imagine Clio crying at all, given how dismissive she was about any emotion, and especially considering she had four eyes to produce tears from, but I blinked away the image and said nothing. Complaining about my fate hadn’t helped me before.
I followed her to the choosing tent, and she ushered me forward.
I shuffled in, standing at the back behind the final female. As usual, the female aliens were lined on a large tier of steps, all wearing the same filmy dress no matter the species, size, or body parts.
A male alien sat in a chair in the centre of the room. I couldn’t see what he looked like, because he had another female in front of him that he was inspecting.
I glanced around the tent, and my eyes widened. It was unusual for there to be only one male. Usually there were a few males in the tent picking their female for the night. Either business was slow, or this guy was mega rich.
I poked the purple female alien beside me, with little mirrored discs on her skin like scales. She turned and glared at me.
“Why is there only one?” I whispered.
“He paid for the privilege,” she hissed back at me. “Now stop talking to me. I’d rather not draw attention to myself.”
Interesting. He was both rich, and at least one female alien didn’t want to fuck him. That was rare, given almost all the other females besides humans acted like getting fucked by a strange alien guy was the best thing since sliced bread. This guy must be really awful.
As if on cue the female alien in front of him bent over. She squealed and was pitched forward.
“Not a tight enough cunt, I’m afraid. Send me the next female!”
The little female alien scrambled up from the ground, clutching in between her legs and ran out of the tent.
Shit. This guy was a douche. Normally the males weren’t allowed to treat the females badly at all. He must have paid Bardoa a lot of money to handle the females this way. This didn’t bode well.
I looked towards the male in the chair, now that he wasn’t blocked by the female he was abusing. I nearly fell over.
He was . . . horrible looking.
His skin was like putrid flesh, puckered, gooey, and rotting. His face looked like melted candle wax, and his teeth – which were currently on display because of the awful grin that split his face, were black and jagged. He looked as if he had open sores covering his body, with pus sliding down all the parts of his skin that I could see. His eyes were red and looked like they had been gouged out of his face with an ice pick.
“What. The. Fuck,” I whispered.
The purple female looked over her shoulder at me and made a sympathetic noise.
I so did not want to get chosen by this guy.
“Next!” his gravelly voice shouted and the females around me jumped in fear. Another one near the front hopped off her display step and sauntered over to him.
He bade her to turn around, slapped her hard on the bottom, and then laughed cruelly when she squeaked out loud.
“I want a female with a good arse I can ride properly. Yours is an embarrassment. Next female!”
He went down the line of all the females before me. Always finding fault, insulting them in some way, and hurting them. The more I watched, the sicker I felt.
Finally, it was the purple female’s turn beside me.
The disgusting male made a gagging noise as soon as she stood before him.
“Tilian! I hate that species. The females all have loose cunts and are ugly as crocus fish. Look at you.” He stood, his squelching, pus-ridden flesh shifting against itself, the sores on his body creating new fluid which ran down his body in rivulets. His arm shot out faster than I imagined him able to move and he grabbed her by the throat. She gasped, grabbing his arm and writhing. He forced her to her knees in front of him, laughing all the while.
“All you’re worth is to choke on my cock, so I can’t see your hideous, Tilian, face.”
He began unzipping his pants, still gripping her throat so hard she was making choking, sobbing sounds. It sounded like he was killing her.
And no one was doing anything about it.
The guards were standing still and silent around the tent, watching him choke the life out of her, and they were the ones who were supposed to be protecting us.
She was struggling less and less, and the repulsive male alien fumbled with the fastenings on his pants.
He was going to kill her and not even notice. Unless I did something.
“Wait!” I found myself screaming.
The disgusting male snapped his gaze up to mine. Then, he released the purple female alien, dropping her to the ground. She fell in a heap, but was thankfully gasping air, wheezing great gulps of it as she crawled away. At least she wasn’t dead. But any relief I felt was quickly overshadowed by the vile male alien that I had just saved her from.
He was focused on me. He tilted his head, his red eyes narrowing.
“Who are
you to interrupt my pleasure?”
I don’t know what kind of pleasure he got from forcing his cock into a dying female’s mouth, but I didn’t comment on that. Instead I painted a sly smile on my face and stepped down from my pedestal.
“You haven’t examined me yet, my lord.”
That previous grin split his face again and he crooked his finger in my direction. I came towards him, trying my best to mask my revulsion.
“Ah. Human. I was told there were a few in rotation here, though the others appeared to have been purchased by other males.”
He grabbed me, pulling me against him, slamming me hard against his putrid body. Then he buried his slimy face against my neck and inhaled. I felt something long and boney prod against the front of me and I realized with a start that it was his cock. It moved against me, seeking my flesh, as if it had a mind of its own. I wanted to run away and never experience anything like this again.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have that option anymore.
He released me with a groan.
“I’ve heard humans have some of the tightest cunts in the galaxy. And that their screams of pain are absolutely delicious,” he whispered, his rotting flesh making it difficult for me to fight the rising nausea that was churning in my belly. The stench of him was all-consuming. It was what I imagined decomposing dead bodies to smell like.
But his words made the fear crawling under my skin come directly to the surface. Because he wasn’t just postulating. I heard the ring of truth in them.
This alien was going to hurt me, and I might not live through it.
Chapter Nine
Otun
I watched as the Turxxian male held Nisha against him, grabbing at her flesh and handling her with painful force. She stiffened but didn’t cry out, though I could tell by her expression he had hurt her. I curled my fists at my side, my stomach tightening in anger. I wanted to raise my spear and drive it through the disgusting bastard who dared touch her with force.
She was smart. She must have suspected screaming only made the pain worse. He smacked her across the face hard, and my vision tainted blood red. I would destroy this male.
But I couldn’t. I knew I couldn’t do anything. Not if I didn’t want to get us killed. There had to be a way to get her out of this.
The male snapped his fingers at the guards. “Bring this female to my tent. I’ll have her for the night.” He eyed Nisha with obvious glee. “If she lasts that long.”
I moved forward quickly, ahead of other guards.
I took Nisha by the arm, and she yelped, startled. Then, she stared up at me, her dark eyes wide. I saw the recognition hit her as she looked at me. A feeling of warmth spread through me as she recognized me, but it warred with the fear that if she showed she knew me, the Turxxian male would be suspicious.
I shook my head once, hoping she understood. If she acknowledged me now, I might not be able to help her.
“I’ll be along shortly. Make sure she’s ready for me, guard.” The male cackled, and I could have gladly ripped his jaw from his face and ground it beneath my boot.
Nisha wisely stayed silent. I could feel the tremors of fear race through her as I gripped her arm and walked her from the tent to the Turxxian’s accommodations.
I wanted to tear the male limb from limb for even thinking about hurting Nisha. I knew what he had paid Bardoa to do. They were rare on Stryxx, but those who could afford it were given the privilege of doing whatever they wanted to the females they chose. The idea that he would be doing whatever he wanted to Nisha caused my blood to ignite with fury.
Not while I was living.
I clenched my teeth, not even listening to the voice inside my head that told me not to care. We’d only been together that one night, and I’d avoided her as much as I could since then. I’d even tried to get out of the guard shift at the luxury gardens choosing tent tonight because I’d known I’d likely see her. Why should it matter if she was used and discarded as so many Stryxxian females were? If not today, then it would happen in the future. When she aged and grew too old to be used as a sex slave, then she’d be thrown to the discount house likely anyway.
I shouldn’t have cared. I’d grown up in this, I should have been numb to it. I should have focused all my efforts on escaping this planet.
But since I had been with her, I did care. It was more than just the physical act of being with her, though I knew my kind did not take sexual relations lightly. I’d spoken to her, gotten to know who she was, her sense of humor, her fears, her desires. I couldn’t stop thinking about her since we’d been together, and now, the thought of her being subjected to a male like this was unbearable.
I knew, as I gripped her arm and we walked towards the Turxxian’s luxury tent, that I might give up any chance I had of escape so I could save her.
I released a breath at the thought. I was a foolish male, to throw everything I had worked for away on a female who would likely die anyway.
But I was going to.
I pulled her into the tent, glancing around to make sure we were alone.
“We don’t have much time,” I hissed at her, my voice rough—from disuse or emotion, I couldn’t tell which.
She stared up at me, dumbly. She was in shock. I shook her shoulders hard.
“Nisha, do you hear me? I need you to listen to me.”
She opened and closed her mouth, then looked around the tent. “Otun. He’s going to kill me.”
Her voice cracked at the end, and her whispered words nearly undid me. I gathered her close to me, breathing in her scent, trying my best to calm her.
“We are going to make sure he doesn’t,” I said with a growl into her dark hair.
“How?” she asked, her arms clinging to me as if she never wanted to let me go.
If I had my way, she never would. But we didn’t have time for any of this, not comfort, not embracing, none of it. I likely only had a few minutes to see if I could save her.
I crouched down, so that our heads were level and I was eye to eye to her. “Listen to me closely.”
I reached into the little pouch that hung on the inside of my lappet. The one that held one of my closely guarded possessions. The thing that took me nearly five years to get a hold of. The item that was integral to my escape plan and living a free existence.
As I held out the vial to her, she blinked and took it from me. Her fingers were so gentle and soft, it seemed incongruent that she held one of the deadliest poisons on this side of the galaxy in them.
“Use all of it. Pour it into his wine and make sure he drinks it.”
Footsteps sounded behind us.
Someone was coming.
My eyes swept the doorway. We had seconds.
“What does it do?” she asked, following my gaze.
“It will kill him,” I said flatly, and her eyes widened.
“But then I’m as good as dead anyway,” she said, her voice torn from her in an anguished cry. “They’ll know I killed him.”
I wrapped my arms around her, desperate to touch her again before I no longer couldn’t.
“Listen to me,” I said, my voice low in her ear. “This poison is untraceable, and it will appear he died of natural causes. But you must get him to drink it. Once he does, and he dies, I need you to scream. React. Throw any suspicion off you of any wrongdoing.”
She nodded fervently into my chest, and I held her there a moment longer than I should have. Finally, when I could hear the footsteps getting dangerously close, I released Nisha and pushed her away from me.
“Take your dress off!” I ordered, making my voice controlled and commanding, folding my arms across my chest.
She looked at me, stunned, and then over my shoulder, her eyes widening.
“Don’t just stand there, whore. Do as the guard said.” The Turxxian male was there, as I knew he was. I’d scented him outside, growing closer and closer. His stink now filled the tent.
“Or, would you like me to have it torn from y
our body, female?” I could sense the pleasure vibrating in his voice. The poison I gave Nisha was too good for him. He deserved to be gutted with a dull blade. Preferably by me.
Nisha reached up to untie her dress, her hands moving mechanically.
“Too late. I’ve decided I’ll have the guard do it instead.”
We both whipped our heads to the Turxxian male.
“Sir?” I asked.
“Don’t just stand there or I’ll have Bardoa whip you for insubordination. Do as I say. Rip the clothing from her body.”
He came closer, the squidge of his flesh echoing in the silent tent. Nisha’s breathing grew harsh.
I stepped towards Nisha, my mouth turned downwards in anger, my fists clenched. She met my eyes and nodded.
I took her dress in both hands and tore it in half with one efficient rip.
It felt to the ground in tatters, and Nisha stood bare before both of us.
I didn’t look away from her eyes, her beautiful face as it was painted with a placid expression. Hiding the fear, revulsion and shame I knew was beneath.
Then, in a flash, her tight mouth curved into an enticing smile and she threw a glance towards the male.
“Surely you want some refreshment before pleasure, my lord,” she said, turning towards the pitcher of wine on the small table behind her.
I stepped back, becoming the faceless guard again, blending in with the surroundings as I moved to leave the tent.
Nisha bent over, and her curved backside was illuminated in the torchlight. As she poured the wine, the Turxxian male slid over to her, the skin of his body smacking against itself.
All she had to do was drop the poison in the cup, hand it to him, and he’d be dead within minutes.
I should have left the tent. I should have made myself scarce, so I wasn’t attached to the incident. But something held me there, prevented me from leaving. I don’t know if it was the fact that I didn’t want Nisha to face him alone, or that I wanted to see this foul male die, but my legs did not move. I stood my ground, watching the scene unfold.
Nisha turned to the male, her lovely skin bared to him, and I wanted to rip out his eyes for daring to look at her. Instead I was frozen, my fists clenched at my side.