by Stella Sky
I loved the look of it here.
The people? Not so much.
Nadirath was okay, I’d found. The rest were easy enough to manipulate, though they clearly needed mates soon or I was about to get myself in trouble with them.
I’d taken to sneaking in a little time with him each day. He was respectful enough of my personal space and was able to make good conversation. He talked about his planet, Udrenahine, and his growing respect for us crafty humans.
“How unlike him to leave you alone,” the man said, scratching the stubble that grew around his very human looking face. The only thing foreign about him were his wider-than-average alien eyes and the tubes that scrawled out from his forehead and turned into tentacles as they reached his back.
Nadirath was extremely handsome. It certainly made it easier to talk to him, but I had no intentions of acting on the attraction.
“Why did you come here?” he asked, pushing back in his chair to lift his heavy boots onto the intricately carved table.
“Oh, I don’t know,” I breathed out wryly. “Beg for a truce, watch a man get ripped to shreds by his people.” I splayed my hands to him and made an over-exaggerated ‘Whatcha gonna do?’ face to the man.
He laughed and shook his head, crossing his legs. Then he went sullen.
“I couldn’t sleep after it happened,” he said slowly and then messed his face up, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What an odd sensation.”
“Yeah, me neither,” I agreed. “I just kept replaying that shit in my head.”
“I meant you,” he said, releasing his fingers. “An odd sensation you bring to our camp. Just like Fiona.”
I felt my hands go cold at the mention of her. I didn’t know if it was pure and simply jealousy, but I was getting awfully sick of the comparison of me to Fiona.
“Feisty,” he said. “She had different plans than you, one could assume.”
I flashed him a tired grin: toothy and full. I wondered if I should use the opportunity to ask about her: exactly how her plan different from mine, but thought better of it.
“What kind of truce were you thinking of?” Nadirath asked.
“Well,” I inhaled, sitting up straight for a change. I leaned into the table, propped up on both my elbows, and matched his gaze. “If the Kilari are really coming, then I want to protect my people, and I’m pretty sure you want to protect yours.”
I waited to see what he thought: if he believed in the Kilari rumors. It was obvious he did as he leaned into my thoughts, taking his boots off the table and hitting them hard on the ground. He slicked back his long black hair, and I blushed at the gesture.
“We can do so much more if we work together,” I said, suddenly feeling unsure of myself.
“Why would we need humans?” He laughed. “We’ve defeated them before.”
“Yeah,” I weaseled out. “But you knew the land back then. It was on your own planet. And plus, we have weapons.”
“As do we,” he argued.
“And we aren’t predisposed to the inability to see reason.”
He paused at that and tapped the tip of his nose thoughtfully.
“You seek humans, right?” I suggested, rolling my wrist as I spoke. “Why don’t you use us, then? I’ve been gathering treaties between the humans and—”
“Do you seek to be used?” he interrupted.
I felt my face go hot and I shook my head, flustered. “No, that’s not what… that’s not really what I meant. I meant that if we work together, we might be able to benefit each other. See, we have a lot of tech, different battle methods.”
“I find you intriguing,” he said smoothly and looked me over before turning his attention to the roaring fireplace in the center of the oversized and under-filled room.
I scraped my bottom teeth over my top lip, which I realized probably didn’t make me look any more alluring. “Thank you,” I mumbled, feeling suddenly frozen.
“You don’t stop,” he said. “Your bravery is…” He paused and thought on his words. “Ridiculous,” he finished with a laugh and then quickly added, “Yet fascinating.”
“Thanks?”
“You’re remarkable, and these…” he began and then leaned over, taking my unarmored breast into his hand and offering it a small squeeze. “They stir something in me.”
I swallowed hard and looked down at his hand, wanting to smack him away but wondering how to go about it without inciting his aggression. Without any better ideas, I moved my chair back so that my chest was just out of his reach.
“That’s why he brought you here, isn’t it?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious. “I’ve heard of you. You took Lanaraxx from us: sent him out as a pawn of the humans.”
I set my jaw, looking back at him with disgust. I remember Lanaraxx. He was my first recruit: the first Vithohn of five who had sought me out for sex: to regain control of himself.
“Thought you didn’t have a problem with my being here?” I snapped.
“I feel very good about you being here, actually,” he said smoothly, standing from his chair and walking up to me. “I would love to watch you get passed around between us.”
“How sweet,” I lamented, standing from my chair and walking backward away from him. “But that’s not—”
Before I could respond, I began to feel his tentacle crawl up my leg, spinning around me and squeezing like a boa constrictor. My leg throbbed and pulsed with blood that was begging to flow again. I could feel it going cold and white as he pulled me closer to him.
“Nadirath, don’t,” I said, still trying to maintain an air of levity. “I don’t do that anymore, okay? I’m with Kodyn.”
His tentacle crawled up my leg and loosened its grip until it was wrapped around my midsection.
“What happened to you being a gentleman?” I tried to laugh, pushing away from his chest more frantically then.
“I guess I stopped trying,” he said, giving into his baser instincts. He pressed himself up against me, and I could feel his hard dick against my stomach: massive and throbbing. I swallowed nervously: repulsed.
Taraxen entered the room, clicking the door shut behind him and watching as Nadirath reached his hand down the front of my pants. My eyes went wide, and I started screaming at the top of my lungs as I saw the new Vithohn enter, terrified by his mindless pull toward me.
Upon seeing the newcomer was interested, Nadirath kissed my cheek and released me to Taraxen, who grabbed me by my neck and buried his mouth against my breasts.
I kept screaming, pushing away from the creature, shocked at his immense strength. I reached for my gun, still holstered at my side, and Nadirath watched me carefully, wondering what I might do.
The cool metal of the gun hit my palm, and I pulled the hammer back, only to have it tossed from my hand with a sharp slap from Taraxen’s tentacle. The gun hit the floor and let off a loud crack as it fired off into the ceiling.
“I don’t think so,” he said quietly and pressed into me.
I screamed and pressed my fingers into his eyes. It was the only thing I could think to do. He threw me across the room, recoiling back in pain and cursing at me.
“Nadirath, please,” I begged, pressing myself into the corner of the room.
The Vithohn didn’t move. He watched me curiously, like a cornered animal, and then smiled.
“If you want to help us gain reason, have us all be like Kodyn, then this is the way to do it. No?” he asked coolly.
I felt the breath leave my body as Taraxen pulled his fists away from his eyes: the white of them now red and swollen.
My screams sounded off so loudly that my voice began to crack and the only thing that halted me was the sudden drumming from down the hall. The intense sound of boots on the ground that made my heart speed up even faster.
I watched Kodyn burst through the door and immediately lost my ability to stand. I slid down the wall behind me and pooled into a heap of sobs, listening as the Vithohn began their familiar battle.
>
Taraxen launched himself at Kodyn, and the two began grappling with one another, fighting for the high ground.
Nadirath grabbed Kodyn’s tentacle, wrenching him back and slamming him into the floor with a bone-cracking thud. The fight became more aggressive, with Nadirath holding Kodyn to the floor with his tentacle, lighting up his hand and spire in a bright purple glow and firing bursts of hot energy into Kodyn’s chest.
Kodyn screamed out, pinned, and Taraxen joined in the fray, beating Kodyn with his fists and causing blue blood to spurt from his nose and mouth.
I wanted to scream but knew I had to stay quiet if we were going to get out alive. I had to make a plan.
Taraxen continued to beat on the man until his fists were red and bloody. He protracted shallow black claws and ripped at Kodyn’s chest and arm as he struggled to get up, even cutting Nadirath in the process. I could see Kodyn try to release his shield, but he was too weak. The pink bubble flickered in and out like a broken screen.
That was when I noticed that while Nadirath continued to hold Kodyn down, he wouldn’t deliver the finishing blow.
Then I remembered, Kodyn was a Voth, and the only one who could differentiate a Kilari from a Vithohn.
Nadirath couldn’t kill him. He wouldn’t dare.
I scrambled for my laser pistol, crawling across the cool floor and grabbing the barrel of the gun with trembling hands.
Tears streamed down my face, and I could feel my throat closing, tensing against the sobs that ached inside me.
“Kodyn!” I yelled, just long enough to get Taraxen’s attention. I pulled the trigger on the pistol, sending a long line of blue laser fire directly into the attacking Vithohn’s shoulder.
Kodyn shot up then, using the opportunity to get away. He grabbed Taraxen by the face and began slamming him into the oversized fireplace, making use of its sharp corners. I heard the torturous sound of metal on bone and watched as Kodyn rubbed the man’s face back and forth into the jutting corner: blood spewing off onto his wounded chest.
I watched, shaking, with my hands over my mouth, and saw Nadirath simply standing back watching. He didn’t move to help Taraxen nor to stop Kodyn.
“That’s enough!” I yelled, but he didn’t stop.
With what stamina he had left, Kodyn fired off three balls of warm energy into Taraxen’ center. It warmed the room with an unmistakable heat.
Then Taraxen slumped to the ground, twitching.
Kodyn heaved heavy breath’s, turning to Nadirath with a show of dominance, tilting his bleeding head back with victory.
Nadirath nodded slowly at the show, looking over at me and then back down at the heap of body that was once Taraxen. Then, with a quiet parting of the lips, he said, “I suggest you run.”
Chapter Ten
Kodyn
A fight broke out in the fortress after Taraxen’s death: a swarm of Vithohn ready to kill me.
Nadirath stood watching. As a Voth, I had seniority: too respected for him to kill without suffering the consequences himself. But he would gladly watch the others rip me apart.
I took his head start and grabbed Elise, taking off into the pitch-black night.
I set my jaw and fumed, replaying the night over and over again. I hated her for putting herself in danger: hated myself for not protecting her sooner. Jealousy and guilt swam through my veins and made it feel impossible to speak. I wasn’t sure who I was more furious with: Elise or myself.
We ran through the freezing cold desert, making our way back to her ridiculous Scarlet Heights. The wind had died down since we first left, but I could feel my wounds burning from under my armor: blood still pooling at the seams of my chest plate and my jaw feeling like it was going to fall off at any moment.
“Kodyn,” Elise said, breaking our silence as she tugged on my bleeding arm.
I jerked away from her and whipped around, disgusted. “I never should have brought you here,” I hissed.
“I'm sorry,” she said quietly, tilting her head down as we walked. “I’m just…desirable, I guess.”
My eyes went wide. “This is funny to you?”
“No,” she said simply, swallowing nervously.
“I killed my people for you!” I fumed, stopping suddenly so that she stumbled into me. The warmth of her skin was intoxicating, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hold her or scream at her.
“I know,” she stammered out nervously. “I’m sorry.”
“Do you know what that's like?” I extended my arms on either side of me, gesturing to the flat plains around us. “Do you know what we've done?”
“We're outcasts!” she screamed back, spitting at me as she did so. “I get it!”
“No, you don't! You wanted this!” I accused, knowing it wasn’t true. Not entirely. “All you wanted was to get away from your people, and now here you are, with a security guard in tow.”
Elise ran a hand across the buzzed side of her hair: incredulous. “Like I planned this?” she enunciated with disgust.
I shrugged, biting, “Why were you talking to Nadirath then?”
She blew out a long breath, low and slow. Then both brows shot up, and she announced with spite, “You and me, we’re not speaking.”
“Fine by me,” I scoffed at the ridiculous threat and waved her off, walking far ahead.
A number of hours passed and I could feel the energy leaving me. When it seemed safe to do so, we stopped by an outcropping of rock that offered protection from the elements. I sat hastily, leaning up against the mountainside and stretching a foot out.
Elise puttered around our makeshift camp, circling the spot and looking for anything she might have been able to use to build a fire or patch me up. A good thought, considering we had lost all of our supplies back at the fortress.
“I can go hunting, if you want,” she offered with sugar.
I all but ignored her. “Do as you like,” I bristled.
“Well, are you hungry? We probably won't make it back today.”
“I’m fine,” I said tersely.
She clenched her jaw tight and said, “Well, I’m hungry,” and then stormed off.
I couldn’t have felt lower. I put Elise in danger: almost watched her get raped by the monsters I’d taken her back to. I’d betrayed my own people.
I tried to tell myself the kill was for Elise. It was the protection I had never given Fiona. But I kept coming back to the pull: the gnawing gut feeling we Vithohn had to rid ourselves of the madness that we were born with. As glad as I was to kill Taraxen, I knew he didn’t know any better.
If he really had the opportunity to be with Elise, he would have gladly fought on our side.
My stomach turned at the thought and I dry-heaved into the air.
Sometime later Elise returned to the camp, small and gorgeous. I watched her toss down a handful or random plants. She’d found food, after all.
She wasted no time putting a small fire together, smashing rocks until they flinted a spark onto some dry brush. I was impressed with how quickly she got it started.
If I weren’t so weak, I would have been able to use my spire to start one easily, but I couldn’t even fathom moving at the moment.
"It's a date palm," she said of the bitter fruit, noticing that I was looking over at it. She had also brought several speared lizards back with her. I scowled at them, looking at their little faces scrunched up on the branch: their eyes open and dead.
She set them over the fire and I watched as they browned and then caught fire. She blew them out when they were nearly charred, preferring them crispy. I frowned at the food once more and waved my hand in decline when she offered one to me.
“There's a settlement to the south. They call it Red Ridge. Supposed to be a big group,” she said casually, never looking at me.
“And that’s where you want to go?” I asked. “Not back to Scarlet Heights?”
“I think it's our best bet to keep safe. For now, at least,” she offered.
“I don't nee
d your help to keep me safe,” I nipped.
“Fine,” she said, tired but defeated, tossing the sticks onto the ground and letting them catch fire. She stared down at the burning lizards and then triumphantly to me. “Then I’ll leave.”
“I won’t chase you,” I argued, crossing my arms.
She shrugged. “Good.”
“Give me a break, Elise,” I lectured, feeling too tired and angry to put up with her. “It's been a hell of a day.”
“Yeah, for me too. You're not the only one who's had it rough, okay? I'm sorry. I'm sorry it didn't work out with the Vithohn, I'm sorry this is happening, I'm sorry you had to kill your friend. What else, Kodyn? What else do you want me to apologize for?”
“If something happened to you out there,” I said, getting worked up all over again.
“Holy shit!” she shouted into the air, throwing her hands up. “Now I’m in trouble again? I don’t know why I ever thought this would work,” she said, shaking her head and coming to a realization I couldn’t understand. “I’m an idiot,” she said hoarsely, her chin quivering.
She had burst into tears then. Heavy droplets spilling from her sad, tired eyes. She buried her face in her hands and looked so alone that I had no choice but to stand, bloody, and grab hold of her.
I pulled her tiny body into my arms and set my chin on the top of her head, soothing her.
“What... What work?” I asked stupidly.
She forced her hand into my chest but didn’t push away. “Us!” she said through a flood of tears. “I have lived my life trying to seduce and trap and convince the Vithohn to join us and yet...”
I swallowed, feeling sick. “What?”
“I have never felt more alone than I do right now. I wanted this to work.”
I grabbed the back of her head and closed my eyes, unsure what to say. I began to part my lips, but she cut me off with a loud sob. In between her breaths, she managed to make me feel even worse than I already did.
“You're walls are up. Way up! I keep opening up to you, and you keep me at arm's length. It couldn't be clearer to me now what we really are.”