by Stone, Layla
Seeing her slumped in his arms didn’t make him feel better because, eventually, she would wake up, and he was sure that she would have something to say about his treatment of her. But that wouldn’t be for another ten hours.
He slid his arm around her waist and lifted her off the ground. Two steps later, he was laying her down on his bed, unzipping her shoes, and placing them at the foot of the bed. Then he covered her with the blanket.
Usually, he would stay up and watch a documentary, but tonight, he didn’t want to hear anything, see anything, or do anything. He just wanted to sleep. Honestly, he didn’t think his mother’s birthday could have been worse.
Everything was falling apart. At this point, Shine didn’t know if it was even worth it to try and put it back together.
4
Back to Life
Shine woke to his alarm trilling. He reached over and crushed his index finger against the Minky pad. Sweet silence found him again, and he closed his eyes for another few seconds as he lay there, mentally gathering the things he needed to do.
Grabbing the light blanket and pulling it off his body, his skin rippled to the chill of the bedroom air. He bent his neck and twisted his head to pop his stiff bones. Doing the same to the other side, he thought about his current issues with the latest blood coagulant formula he had been working on. It had been months, and he still hadn’t figured out how to turn blood into stones.
Z’s genie pistol was on hold, and it was driving Shine mad. He never struggled this long to figure out a formula. And he’d had his doubts in the past. For example, the pixy pistol concept was ludicrous, and yet it had only taken him five hours to figure out.
Z’s latest gun designs had him stumped.
Shine rubbed his face, felt the fresh stubble, and debated whether to shave or not. Most likely not.
Pushing himself to his feet, he turned towards the bathroom and stopped. In his periphery, he saw a lump on his bed.
Turning fully, he saw thick, blond hair feathered over his dark pillows, and a small pool of saliva gathered under the female’s mouth.
Nara.
He exhaled and lowered his head, embarrassed that he’d foolishly forgotten about the nip. Then he lifted his head again, wondering how he’d forgotten her in the first place. He never slept so deeply.
As he pondered that, he got an alert on his Minky screens. It was the front desk to his complex. He had a visitor requesting access.
Shine selected a video image of the building’s entry before he allowed access. The program pulled the image from the desk. It was the same Red Demon from the other day. Karr’s driver.
Granting access, he exited the notification and walked to Nara on the other side of his king-sized bed.
Reaching his hand to Nara’s sleeping body, he gently squeezed her shoulder. “Hey, it’s time to wake up.”
She didn’t stir.
Keeping his hand on her shoulder, he shook her twice more. “Nara. Wake up.”
Nothing.
Snorting, he grabbed a handful of the covers and pulled. Her body had warmed the blanket, and he had a momentary lapse in judgment as he let his curiosity get the best of him and pulled the comforter to his nose.
Oddly, he didn’t smell her.
Letting the handful of material drop, he bent over and grabbed one of her boots and set to getting her ready. With each passing moment, he expected her to wake up, but nothing happened.
Maybe the fat-black-night tap has yet to wear off. It should have been out of her system by now. “Nara?”
Her only response was to take another breath.
A heavy knock echoed from the front door. The Demon had made it, and she wasn’t awake. Shine looked over the female and didn’t know why, but he didn’t like the idea of handing her over while unconscious. Especially to one of Karr’s people.
Shaking his head, he said, “If you’re faking, you might want to get up, or I’m going to carry you to the door.”
Still no response.
Another round of pounding rolled in the air, and Shine felt a small squeeze in his chest. “Last chance.”
All right. Well, he’d tried.
Moving from the bed, he stood up, bent over her body, then grabbed her wrist and pulled her up. Her head flopped, and he winced. She wasn’t playing. Maybe he’d misjudged the potency of the fat-black-night tab.
Bending at the knees, he used his shoulder while pulling her up. It wasn’t graceful, and he was glad that she wasn’t awake to see that he almost dropped her.
Steadying his hold, he made his way to the door. When he got there, he unlocked it and used his free hand to press the automatic door opener.
There on the other side was a tall, thick, copper-skinned Red Demon. He wore no shirt, and his black Red Demon marks swirled around his arms and shoulders. They proved that he was full Red Demon. His right shoulder held the marking from his mother, and the left was from his father.
It wasn’t odd to see a Red Demon without a shirt on, but Shine thought that with the male being a driver, he would at least try to dress appropriately. Karr probably didn’t care as long as the Demon got the job done.
And if the partial nakedness wasn’t enough to make Shine leery, he had to watch as the Red Demon eyed Nara’s ass and thighs appreciatively.
With a smirk, the male asked, “You wear her out?”
“I helped her relax.”
The male looked confused for a moment but then recovered with, “The boss expects her to be able to work today. The fact that she’s still asleep means you slipped her something.”
“She’ll be fine in a few minutes.” At least, he hoped.
The Red Demon didn’t comment as he reached out and took Nara from Shine’s shoulder. Once he had her, the Red Demon turned to leave but then stopped. “Before I go, did you make her any deals I need to know about?”
Night Demons were notorious for making deals. Shine hadn’t made one with Nara, but he didn’t want to admit that without knowing why the Red Demon wished to know. “I’m feeding her and housing her. What do you think I did?”
“I don’t know what to think. Because out of all of us loyal to Karr, he chose you to take this beauty in. And I know you’re not one of us. So, how did you get so lucky?”
Shine had thought about that too and had no idea what the answer was. “Are you sure I’m lucky?”
The Red reached over and grabbed one of Nara’s ass cheeks and squeezed. “Feels like luck. I bet it would taste like fortune. Or have you already done that?”
The male was a nip. Where did Karr find this idiot? Shine lowered his voice and said, “Touch her again, and I’ll use a vibrant pistol on you.”
“You claiming her?”
The words were out of Shine’s mouth before he could stop them. “No.” He realized what he’d said and amended, “But I don’t need to because Karr gave her to me. So, hands off what doesn’t belong to you.”
The male looked Shine over as if sizing him up. In turn, Shine held out his hand. “You may be bigger than I am, but I’m a Night Demon, and you know what that means.”
The male pursed his lips then pulled out a black device and clicked the top.
The cuff on Shine’s wrist beeped, and the three red lights turned solid white.
Shine stood in the doorway until the elevator doors had closed. The Red Demon’s words echoed in his mind: “You claiming her?”
The short answer was no. But looking back on everything he’d said and done over the past few minutes, all of that said Shine was claiming Nara.
It would be a miracle if the Demon didn’t repeat what Shine had said.
Then again, it was hard to think straight when the female was awake. When she came to, most likely, the male wouldn’t get a chance to recap any of it.
5
Lies
Nara woke up in a Grummer. The hard leather of the seat was stiff on her back, and her neck was sore. To her right sat a large-faced Red Demon with black marks on his bare c
hest. He was slouched over in his seat.
Covering her eyes with the back of her hand, she said, “I can’t look at ugly this early in the morning.”
The Red Demon laughed. “You looked at me all day yesterday. Don’t tell me you prefer the Night Demon to me.”
She didn’t prefer either.
“I know he drugged you. Probably stripped you down, stole your panties. Night Demons are sick bastards like that. Oh, wait, that would be me. And I’d wake you up with my tongue up your pussy.”
Her stomach lurched as she got a visual of the Red Demon doing such a horrid thing. To her surprise, the Demon chuckled. “You probably do prefer the Night Demon. But that’s only because you haven’t blitzed a Red Demon. You saw the size of his horns, right? So you have to know it’s not going to be fulfilling.”
Nara squeezed her eyes closed. The male’s voice was more annoying than Shine’s breathing. It was pitched deeply, but his enunciation was off, and he sounded like a corbi.
“He’s small, and you need a real male to give it to you good. I know you’re probably in debt to him, but when this is all over, I’ll square up the deals he’s offered to you, and you can come to my apartment.”
She held up her hand. “I can’t hear this. You’re going to make me vomit all over you. I have a very delicate gag reflex, and you’re an oversized rhail larva.”
The male moved, and Nara lifted her hand to see that he was doing something with the top of his pants.
“What are you doing?”
He unbuckled his seat belt first. “I’m going to help you get over that gag reflex.”
That was it. Too much. She covered her mouth and gagged once. Then everything came up her throat and splattered on the floor between them. The Red Demon bounded back, holding his pants back together.
Another wave of bile and old food tunneled out of Nara’s mouth. The smell was acidic, and the pool of slimy, digested chunks disturbingly cut into her mind, making her even sicker.
Oh, no.
She proceeded to throw up until nothing else came out.
* * *
Nara was in a fresh set of clothes standing in the middle of Karr’s lab under an abandoned warehouse. Karr was beside her, typing something into his Minky watch. When he finished, he said, “I want to be mad at you for vomiting all over my Grummer, but I watched the internal video feed and saw that my escort didn’t heed your warning. So, I’m going to forgive you. I’m also docking the price of getting it cleaned from your pay.”
Nara scoffed. So she was getting paid in addition to being kidnapped? That was a new twist that only a Demon would be able to come up with. Also, it was illogical. “Dock his pay. He was the one unzipping his pants.”
“I would, except he has a gambling problem and never has money. Also, I fired him, so he will likely end up being thrown into the ocean for not paying his dues.”
Yep, Karr was a Demon. Other races didn’t usually talk so informally about death. Taking in his lack of Night Demon attributes, missing black Red Demon marks on his upper body, or blue Roth Demon patches, the male had to be a Silk Demon.
Nara, however, was from a race that didn’t revere death either, which was why she moved on to the next topic. “While you were ransacking my ship, did you happen to grab my Nebulas? I need my caffeine.”
“No,” he said, but there was some amusement in it. “But I did stock the room with nutrient bars and water.”
She held up her hand. “I can’t even look at those tasteless things. And who drinks water packages? Those are for moon camps. Lotus Adaamas is a port planet, isn’t it?”
“I saw water packages on your ship. Don’t act like you’re too good to drink them.”
“I need them to water my plants. Oh, by the way, are you watering them? You’d better be.”
“Sure, let’s say I am.”
He was lying, but that didn’t stop her from telling him, “I drink a green Nebula energy drink every morning. Then, for a snack, I like something with carbohydrates and meat. For the mid-day snack, I eat sweet bread. And then for second snack, I like fruit.”
Karr whistled. “When did I hire a princess?”
“Did the tiara on my contact ID not give you that indication?”
Karr didn’t respond, but he did look slightly amused. Or at least he was smirking, so she took that as a good sign that she might get some decent food and drinks. Before he was able to respond, the door opened, and a humanoid figure with illuminated skin walked in.
She had seen the images that Karr had shown her on his Minky screen, but it was not the same in person. The person’s skin was not illuminated exactly. There were lines on his flesh that glowed. And they weren’t straight, they curved and swirled.
“This is a Flourg?”
“Recognize him?”
“No.” But that didn’t surprise her. “Is he an Outworlder?”
“Really? You don’t recognize him?”
Turning to Karr, she wondered why he would think that. “I don’t do business with Outworlders.”
“He’s not an Outworlder.”
Looking back at the male, she looked him over closer. A sinking feeling settled on her. “He’s a Numan experiment.”
Karr clicked at the back of his mouth. “Knew you’d figure it out.”
Yesterday, Karr had lured her to Lotus Adaamas under the guise of her doing a redesign of the entire city. She was a designer, not a simple interior, engineer or architect. She fabricated, everything from the bottom up. When the job called for it she’d invent new material too.
She was aching to redesign the acidic planet when she first arrived.
When she landed, he had greeted her at the docks and shown her a few blueprints but then pretended like he’d accidentally shown her an image of a Flourg. The conversation had quickly turned to removing the illumination from their skin and a fifty-page step-by-step process on how to do it.
She’d thought he was being an over-sharer. When she asked if they could get back to discussing the redesign, he’d told her that she had to remove the illumination from the Flourgs first.
That’s when everything had gone downhill, and she’d ended up on an electric leash tethered to a Night Demon.
“I’ll make you a deal,” Karr said, bringing her back to reality. “You want the princess treatment, you remove the illumination from this one. You don’t get it done, then it’s nutrient bars and water for however long it takes you to do it.”
“I’m a designer. I don’t mess with fleshy bodies.”
Karr didn’t soften at all. “I’ve seen your work. You’ve thrown fleshy parties where everyone had different skin. So, I know you can do this. And I don’t care about your sensitive stomach, it’s all in your head.”
“You’re not hearing me,” she argued.
“I’m hearing you,” he said, moving his arms out wide and stepping towards the exit. “I just don’t care.”
Karr walked out, leaving her with another Red Demon and a male Flourg.
The glowing male looked at her and pleaded, “Can you at least try? I don’t want to be this thing anymore. I want to go home.”
Nara looked at the Red Demon, who remained silent. Then she told the Flourg, “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
6
Experiment 94
Shine walked inside his warehouse, grimacing at the silent machines. He needed to figure out the coagulating blood formula. Z had stopped taking orders so Shine didn’t have to check the computers during the day as they fabricated the pistols and bullets.
As much as he appreciated the lack of distraction, he didn’t like the reminder of his failure every time he walked into the building.
Zane—or Z as most called him—his business partner and lifelong friend, designed pistols with unique bullets. It was Shine’s job to make the imaginary possible. And up until now, he had always delivered on time. Thankfully, Z had not taken any orders, but he had promoted the new ammo heavily as a coming soon option.
&nbs
p; Shine knew that several collectors were messaging Z daily.
The extra urgency didn’t help Shine at all. But at the same time, it gave him greater motivation to get it done.
Passing the machines on the labeled walkway, he headed for the hallway. Pushing past the red doors, he saw three large labs, each one with a unique design.
The first door was clear and looked into his lab. Pushing it open, everything was meticulous and clean. The counters were designed to absorb spills in case his experiments exploded—which they did often, and is why he opted for the most expensive countertops.
Shine pulled out a chair and brought up his notes to begin a new series of trials. Notating the day, he added in, Experiment 94.
Placing the pad on a stand, he got off the chair and went to grab a fresh bag of blood and the next set of chemicals he was going to mix.
7
Experiment Failure
Shine sat in his chair looking at a thick glop of gelatinous blood. It should have separated, but it hadn’t. He’d failed. Again. Part of him wanted to pick up the glass beaker and throw it as hard as he could against the wall, but another part of him wanted to put his head on the table and stay there until he figured it out.
Failures had happened before, but never to this extent.
The hypothesized formula was displayed in bright white letters to his right. He needed to recheck the math and chemical compounds to see what had gone wrong. It was going to be a long night.
Mentally adding the numbers, his screen winked out as he received a video call from an ID registered as Denny.
The numbers in his head evaporated, and he felt an extra wave of tension. With extreme control, he rejected the call and went back to counting again.
The screen pinged with another call from Denny, and Shine hummed in anger. He’d meant to push reject again, but his fist did what his finger couldn’t. For good measure, he hit the screen once more.