by S. E. Smith
“Lina, I have the…,” Mechelle said behind her. “Oh! I… Do you need help?”
Lina felt a shudder run through Edge before he slowly released her wrist. She leaned back until she was sitting on the bed again, and flashed a look of warning at Edge before she turned her head to look at Mechelle. Rising to her feet, she stepped up to Mechelle and held out her hands for the tray. Lina nodded to Mechelle when her friend asked if everything was alright again.
“Everything’s fine. I was checking Edge’s pupils,” Lina replied.
Mechelle raised an eyebrow. Lina resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the skeptical look on the other woman’s face. Mechelle looked at Edge who was watching them with an intense expression.
“Bailey said to make sure he ate this slowly. His system may have some issues if it’s been a while since he’s eaten,” Mechelle murmured.
“Thanks, Mechelle,” Lina replied, turning to place the tray on the crate.
“Right…pupils,” Mechelle muttered under her breath as she was leaving.
Chapter Seven
Edge carefully observed the exchange between the two women. He knew that they were human. What he didn’t understand was how they could be here. Leaning his head back, he fought against the desire to close his eyes again as a wave of fatigue hit him.
Grasping the container with the nutrient-rich water, he raised it to his lips. His hands shook so badly he was forced to grasp it with both of them. Frustration and rage burned through him. He had never in his life felt so weak.
He followed the woman with his eyes as she placed the tray on the crate next to the bed. Two bowls sat on the thin sheet of metal. Spirals of steam rose from each bowl. The fragrant scent of the soup made his stomach clench with hunger. It had been weeks since he had eaten anything.
“You might want me to help you with this,” she said, picking up one of the bowls.
Edge ground his teeth together when he saw her glance at his shaking hands. He lowered the container of water back to the bed. His mind felt disconnected and fuzzy. He was trying to piece everything together, but the effort caused his head to pound.
“Where am I?” he asked again, this time in a softer voice.
Lina gave him a rueful smile. “You’re basically in the sewers,” she said, lifting the spoon to his lips. “You eat, I’ll talk.”
Edge grunted his agreement. This woman – Lina – was very bossy, he decided, opening his lips and accepting the warm soup. The liquid hit his taste buds and he moaned in bliss.
Lina chuckled. “I swear Gail is the best cook in the universe. She can take the most unappetizing stuff and create a dish that will make your mouth water.” Her expression sobered as she continued. “There are six of us all together. You’ve met Bailey. She was the one who helped doctor you up a bit. Mechelle is the one who brought us the soup. Her twin sister, Mirela, is here as well. Then, there is Gail, Andy, and myself,” she explained.
Edge frowned. “How…?” he asked between mouthfuls.
Lina’s mouth tightened, and she looked down at the bowl in her hand for a second before spooning up more soup and lifting it to his lips. There was anger in her dark brown eyes. He was fascinated by how they could express so many emotions in them.
“A son-of-a-bitch named Colbert Allen sold us to a blue prick named Badrick. He was the Usoleum who the Alliance council assigned to Chicago. Badrick was supposed to be working to end the battle between Destin and Colbert. Instead, Colbert and he had come up with a partnership to sell human women to a bunch of other aliens. Those in our shipment were divided up. A group of aliens known as the Armatrux took us,” she bitterly explained.
Edge lifted his hand and touched her arm when she placed the spoon in the soup. Between the water and the soup, he was feeling stronger. What she was telling him was unbelievable. The Armatrux would never let such precious cargo escape them.
“You expect me to believe you… that a group of… human women were able to escape… the Armatrux?” he demanded, his voice filled with suspicion.
Her mouth tightened again. His weakened condition appeared to be hindering his ability to hide his emotions and thoughts. She turned on the bed and placed his bowl of soup on the tray. Edge caught his breath when she twisted back around with surprising speed. Her hand wrapped in his long hair, pulling his head back while the front edge of the pointed spoon pressed uncomfortably against the soft skin where the main artery in his neck was located.
Her grip on his hair tightened when he dropped the water container. It hit the floor with a loud metallic clunk. She was straddling him. Rising up on her knees, she forced his head back a little further.
Edge wrapped his hands around her waist. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the curtain that had given them the illusion of privacy being jerked open. Five additional women suddenly surrounded the bed. Each held a weapon trained on him.
Edge’s grip on Lina tightened. His gaze remained locked with hers.
“I can take him out,” Gail said, drawing a bead to the side of his temple.
Lina’s eyes held a satisfied challenge and he understood her message: even if he was able to hurt her, he’d be dead in seconds. A wry smile curved his lips, and he forced his fingers to relax.
“Just give the word, boss lady,” Andy said.
The tension grew as the silence lengthened. Lina slowly removed the spoon from his neck and slid down across his lap. Another feeling of discomfort swept through him. This feeling had nothing to do with the fact that he was weak and everything to do with the woman rising from the bed.
He watched as she skillfully twirled the spoon between her fingers before placing it in the bowl of soup. The other women were a little more reluctant to lower their weapons. He moved his gaze to each one before returning to Lina.
“Tell me… what happened,” he asked in a soft voice.
Lina nodded. She raised her hand and spread her fingers. As quickly as they had appeared, the women retreated. The oldest woman shot him a warning look before she closed the curtain.
“We’ve lived, worked, and fought together for years,” Lina said, sitting on the crate near the bed.
She picked up the second bowl of soup and drank it before placing the empty bowl on the tray. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Then she picked up his bowl, and was surprised to see that the bowl was almost empty.
Edge started to shake his head, but stopped as a wave of dizziness threatened to send him sliding sideways. Whether he wanted the soup or not, his body needed it. He curled his fingers when they began to tremble.
“I had forgotten how fierce the women on your world could be,” he said, grateful when she held the rim of the bowl to his lips instead of the spoon. He drank deeply, then leaned back against the pillow and closed his eyes as the warm liquid hit his stomach. “How long have you been here?”
“Almost two years,” Lina replied, “give or take a few weeks.”
Edge opened his eyes in surprise and met her gaze. She gave him a wry smile and indicated that he should finish his soup. He drank the remainder.
“Two years,” he repeated in disbelief.
Lina nodded and placed the empty bowl on the tray. “From what we could surmise, the Armatrux were planning on selling us. Unfortunately for them, they met up with some other aliens who were even bigger and badder than they were – Jawtaws. During the fight, the electrical system went haywire for a bit. The cells the Armatrux were holding us in opened and we escaped. It wasn’t too hard for us to find a place to hide. Spaceships are pretty damn big. The Jawtaws must not have realized that we were a missing part of the cargo and, from what we could see, the bastards didn’t leave any survivors to tell them about us. With a skeleton crew, it wasn’t difficult for us to remain out of sight. Two and a half months later, they docked on this Spaceport. Mechelle is brilliant when it comes to costumes and makeup that allows us to blend in. The Jawtaws were selling off things left, right, and center from the ship. We dressed up, pretended to
be shopping merchants, and walked off the ship. My brother once told me that you could get away with anything as long as you acted as if you belonged there. We slowly worked our way down, learning more about the Spaceport. Seven months ago, we found this place and here we are,” she said.
Edge blinked as he absorbed what she was telling him. The dangers were almost too many to comprehend. The possibility of their surviving this long without being caught was impossible to calculate. A shiver ran through his body followed quickly by another one.
“Lina,” he suddenly hissed, his head fell back and his jaw fiercely tightened.
“Bailey!” Lina yelled, reaching out and gripping Edge’s hands when his body began to jerk uncontrollably.
From the recesses of his mind, Edge heard the sound of the curtain opening. A burning pain was beginning to overtake him. His stomach twisted and churned. He felt the touch of cold metal against his neck. He jerked in surprise when the injector hissed before darkness surrounded him, mercifully pulling him down into its inky embrace.
Chapter Eight
Edge came awake to the soft sound of singing. He didn’t recognize the song, but he’d heard it several times through the haze of pain. The words and melody calmed the raging torment tearing him apart.
He kept his eyes closed, listening. He could hear the soft murmur of women’s voices in the background, but it was the sound next to him that held him spellbound, the barely audible singing of his goddess. Her voice mixed with the sound of water as it was poured into a container.
A moment later, he felt a warm cloth slide across his brow and down along his cheek. The process was familiar, as if it had happened numerous times over the past few days. The cloth continued to move down his body.
He focused on each gentle stroke. A delicate hand lifted his arm and the damp cloth was moved over his skin from shoulder to fingers. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d ever felt anything so sensual. He recognized the gentle touch of the woman caring for him as she replaced his arm on the bed. Once again, he heard the sound of water and knew that she was refreshing the cloth.
Flashes of memory came back to him in slow, uneven waves: dark brown eyes that challenged him, language that seemed too harsh to be coming from someone so feminine – and then he was falling as a never ending fire ripped through him.
The hand and the cloth returned, moving with slow, methodical precision over his other arm and chest. He continued trying to connect the pieces of his memories.
The face of the woman appeared again. Her eyes flashed with a fire that burned as brightly as the one searing through him. Whenever the insects came, she had soothed them away from his flesh and mind, preventing them from eating him alive. Her voice calmed the chaotic thoughts inside his head and made the pounding go away.
He moved his hand with lightning speed when he felt the sheet over his waist begin to slide downward. He forced his fingers to loosen slightly when he felt the fragile bones underneath them. Opening his eyes, he met a pair of intense, amused brown ones.
“I was wondering how far you’d let me get before you’d open your eyes,” she chuckled.
“You knew I was awake?” he asked, looking up at her with a rather droll inquiring expression.
She glanced down his body before turning back to peek at him with a wry grin. He followed the path of her eyes. His own eyes widened when he saw the tented sheet around his crotch. A rueful smile curved his mouth. He dropped his head back against the pillow.
“Yes, I guess that would explain how you knew,” he admitted before he grew silent for a moment. “How long have I been… like this?” he asked.
She leaned over and dropped the cloth in the bucket of water on the crate next to the bed. His eyes followed her when she lifted a hand and tenderly brushed his hair back from his face.
“Good, no fever. You’ve been in and out of it for over a week,” she admitted. “This is the first time since right after we brought you here that you have actually been lucid enough to understand what is going on.”
“The fire…,” he said, running his hand over his flat stomach.
Lina nodded. “That and you kept saying something about insects. That was when your withdrawal symptoms were the worst,” she commented, fingering his hair.
He remembered the fire and the insects—and her touch and voice, nothing else. He noticed that his hand still shook. He clenched his fingers into a fist. His gaze snapped to hers when she reached up and covered his hand.
“Why? Why did you risk your life to help me?” he demanded.
“We want to go home and you are our only hope,” she replied. She released his hand and stood up. “I have some things I need to get done. Bailey will come to sit with you.”
He was surprised by the sudden change in her. It was as if a wall had suddenly gone up between them. He could almost taste her desire to escape.
“Lin… Lina….” He paused, hoping he had correctly remembered her name.
She paused at the curtain and turned back to look at him. “Yes?” she asked.
“Thank… you,” he said.
Her lips twisted into a wry smile. “Don’t thank me yet, big guy. You aren’t out of the woods and neither are we. Until I know we can trust you, you’ll be under guard. Just don’t try anything stupid or….” She stopped and looked at him in silence before she shook her head. “Just don’t try anything stupid. I’ll let Bailey know you’ve made it back to the land of the living.”
Edge watched Lina disappear through the wall of curtains. He flexed his fingers back and forth as he tried to control their trembling. Glancing up at the ceiling, he prayed to the Goddess that the worst of his withdrawal from the drugs was over. He needed to get his strength back as soon as possible. If there was one thing he had learned during his captivity, it was that the Waxian would never give up. Whether the women were aware of it or not, they had started the countdown that would only lead to death and destruction if they didn’t find a way to escape, soon.
Four days later, Edge watched as Lina quietly chatted with the woman named Gail. He had finally learned all of their names. What normally would have taken a few minutes had taken him two days to achieve.
There were times during those first few days when he felt like pulling his hair out. At other times, he had felt like doing something much worse just to end the agony and find peace. During the first few days, he swore he could feel thousands of small legs climbing over his body. At other times, an unexpected fire would flare up inside his stomach. The fire was hot enough to drive him to his knees.
Then, there was the nausea that kept him over the waste unit throughout the day and halfway through the night. The few moments when he would try to rest, dizzying swirls of uncontrollable thoughts would start. By the end of each episode, he was left weak, shaky, and sure that he was either going crazy or dying.
Yet, during each occurrence, Lina had been there. Talking to him, washing his face, and softly singing the lullaby she had told him helped her when she felt lost or unwell. She never looked down on him as if he were weak or… unworthy.
“Hey, how are you feeling?” she asked, walking over to where he was sitting.
“Stronger,” he replied, coming back to the present.
She chuckled at the stubborn tone in his voice. “That’s good. Andy and I are going to go topside for a bit. We need to see if we can pilfer some more of that miracle water for you. Gail, Bailey, and the others will be here,” she said.
“No,” he immediately responded.
She blinked at him in surprise. “I beg your pardon?” she replied, frowning at him.
Rising from his seat, he clenched his fists against the panic winding its way through him. The thought of her going to the top, where the Waxian could find her, sent a chill through his body.
“I forbid it,” he said.
“You…. Listen up. I don’t take orders from you. If you are going to get your strength back, you need more of that water. We also need to see what is going
on up there. The only way to do both is for us to go up top,” she explained.
A muscle ticked in his cheek. Behind Lina, the other women were watching them with a mixture of amusement and fascination. He returned his attention to Lina.
“Let someone else go,” he finally said.
She looked at him with a confused expression. “And why would I do that?” she demanded.
A part of his mind warned him that he was treading on dangerous ground. What kind of warrior offered up a defenseless female to go into a hostile territory? His gaze moved to the locked door that opened to the outer corridor.
“I will go,” he suddenly said.
“Oh, hell no,” Andy commented behind her.
Edge heard the other women murmuring the same sentiment. His jaw tightened. He drew up to his full height and glared back at them.
“I am a warrior…,” he began.
“Exactly, big guy. Not just any warrior, but a Trivator warrior who has escaped from the Waxian and who happens to be hiding under the prick’s arrogant, pathetic nose,” Lina retorted.
Gail shook her head at him. “Talk about a bull in a china shop. We might as well put a target in the center of his forehead if he goes up there,” she remarked.
“He can’t go. We need him to…,” Mechelle started to say before she bit her lip and looked at her sister.
“I say we get Bailey to knock out his ass again,” Mirela replied, straightening and fingering the gun at her side. “Or, I can shoot him in the leg.”
Lina twisted and scowled at Mirela. “We are not shooting him,” she snapped in exasperation before she turned back to glare at him. “But Bailey knocking out your ass if you try to leave sounds like a good plan.”
“I’m ready,” Bailey replied, pulling the injector out of the medical case and twirling it around on her finger.