“I didn’t mean to....”Carmen stammered.
Marissa waved her hand. “You told me all about your marriage breaking up, so I might as well tell you my story. I grew up in that neighborhood. I grew up in an apartment right around the corner from Penny’s Peppermints. It wasn’t the easiest place to grow up, as you might imagine, and when I was seven, my parents split up and left me.”
Carmen frowned. “What do you mean, they left you? Do you mean your father left? Or your mother?”
“Both of them,” Marissa replied. “My father ran off with a waitress from Seattle, and my mother moved back to Arkansas to search for her old high school sweetheart. I didn’t even know they were gone until I woke up one morning and no one was there to cook my breakfast.”
Carmen stared at her. “So what did you do?”
Marissa shrugged. “I got the cereal and milk out of the fridge and made breakfast for myself and my two younger brothers....”
Carmen gasped. “Your younger brothers!”
Marissa nodded. “They were four and two at the time. I took care of them....”
Carmen covered her mouth with her hand, but she couldn’t stop the cry from tearing out of her soul. “Four and two! And you were seven!”
Marissa nodded again. “Someone had to take care of them, so I did it. I took care of them by myself for seven months.”
Carmen’s jaw dropped. Then she shut her mouth with a click. “How did you do it?”
Marissa gazed up at the ceiling. “I don’t really remember much about it now. I remember some of the ladies in the apartment building used to give me money and food and clothes for the boys. One of them used to come to the apartment and make us hot meals every now and then, and they used to check and make sure our bedding and our clothes weren’t too dirty.”
Tears stung Carmen’s eyes. “And you kept that up for seven months!”
Marissa smiled, but her own eyes misted over. “I think one of them must have reported us to Social Services. They eventually came and got us.”
“Thank God!” Carmen exclaimed.
Marissa studied her. “Not really. I never saw either of my brothers again.”
Carmen couldn’t stop the tears from overflowing her eyes. One of them coursed down her cheek and splashed on her hands. “I am so sorry. I never should have asked you about that.”
Marissa waved her hand. “Everyone in our neighborhood has a story like that. It’s the nature of the beast. Just ask Aria.”
“Did Aria have a similar experience?” Carmen asked.
Marissa shrugged. “I should let her tell you herself. I’m just saying no one is worse off than anybody else. I only wanted to explain to you why it’s kind of hard for me to get close to people. After my parents left, I thought I had a nice little home and family with my brothers. I thought in my childish little way we were doing all right. Then they left, too, and I’ve never had a real home or family since. I don’t think I ever will.”
Carmen bowed her head and sniffed. “I’m sorry, Marissa. I only wish there was something I could do.”
“You’re doing it,” Marissa replied. “You’re a cop. You’re doing what can be done to make the world work the way it should. Now we’re here, and you’re doing what you can to deal with this mess, too. Just make sure you understand the rest of us are doing the same thing. We’re all in this together.”
Carmen raised her eyes to Marissa’s face and nodded. “All right. I understand now. You can count on me.”
Chapter 6
The room vibrated, but no sound entered the cell. Carmen got to her feet, and the others looked around, but they had no way of telling what was happening. When the vibrations stopped, the four women stood together in the middle of the room.
“How long do you think we’ve been here?” Marissa asked Carmen.
“What I don’t understand is why none of us had to go to the bathroom,” Carmen replied. “We’ve been here for hours at least, and I had to go to the bathroom when I arrived at Penny’s Peppermints, but I haven’t had to go since.”
Penelope Ann guffawed with laughter. “We’ve been abducted by aliens, and all you can think about is going to the bathroom.”
Carmen smacked her lips. “If I had to go before, I wouldn’t be thinking about anything else in this box without a toilet. All I’m saying is these aliens must have some psychic way of suppressing our biological functions. Has any of you needed to go to the bathroom in all the time we’ve been here? Or been hungry or thirsty?”
Penelope Ann dropped her eyes.
“You’re right again, Carmen,” Marissa told her. “That’s the only explanation for how they could have kept us in this cell for so long.”
At that moment, the door appeared in the side wall, and the Romarie’s invisible telekinetic power grabbed hold of them. This time, the four women exchanged a nod before their captors removed them from their cell. They would conserve their strength for the time when they could escape.
The Romarie moved the women straight to the vehicle that took them from the bakery. Not even Rotnim bothered to taunt them. The instant the door closed, the vehicle started moving. Carmen and the others sat in a circle on the floor and waited until it stopped.
The door opened again, and the Romarie took them out with the same overpowering force, but now they found themselves in an enormous hall filled from one end to the other with people—at least, they looked like people from a distance.
On closer examination, Carmen realized they were dozens of different kinds of creatures, none of them human. They looked remarkably human, with two arms, two legs, to eyes, two ears. Each one had something about them, though, that told her instantly they weren't human. They all stood taller than the average human. Everyone in the hall dwarfed the four women. Some had crests of feathers sticking out the tops of their heads. Others walked on webbed feet.
Carmen stared at the scene. What was this place? The Romarie set the four women in a line in front of their transport vehicle, and the crowd instantly mobbed them in all their exotic extravagance. They babbled to one another in strange languages and pointed to the women on display.
One giant male with a bushy ring of hair around his head stepped forward and said something to Rotnim. To Carmen’s astonishment, Rotnim bowed and retreated in submission. He came up to her, and his tentacles slithered toward her. In an instant, the babble of voices broke into understandable language. She looked up at Rotnim. “What did you do?”
The big male stepped closer to her. His powerful muscled shoulders stood out under his mane of reddish-brown hair. “He implanted a translator code in your brain so I could speak to you.”
Rotnim strode down the line of women and did the same thing to each of Carmen’s companions. She gazed up at the big male. She could have been looking at any human male, except for his dark reddish tanned skin and his golden reddish hair setting off his strong face. “Thank you.”
He nodded, and his flat nose twitched. “Tell me about your journey. How did you get here?”
Carmen glanced at Rotnim. His eyes blazed, but he made no move to stop her from speaking her mind. “These creatures abducted us from our home planet. We’ve been locked in a cell ever since with no food, no water, no contact with anyone. He,” she nodded toward Rotnim. “He tried to attack my friend over there, but she overpowered him and beat him to the ground. She would have killed him if the others hadn’t intervened.”
The big male’s bright orange eyes widened. He turned to the onlookers and said something Carmen didn’t catch. A murmur went through the crowd. Carmen tried to look closer at the creatures standing around her, but Rotnim stepped toward her. For the first time, she noticed he carried some kind of weapon in his belt. His comrades were armed, too.
Carmen’s heart skipped a beat, and she cast a quick look toward her friends. Did they see what she saw? Was this the opportunity they were looking for to make a break for freedom? If only she could whisper a w
ord to one of her companions, they might be able to hide in this crowd.
Rotnim took one more step closer, and all her hope vanished. He might let her talk to this big hairy creature, but he could hold her still and stop her running away with a flick of his tentacles. He would never let his prize escape.
Carmen faced the shaggy alien and found him glaring at Rotnim with glittering brown eyes. A mask of hatred and disgust marred his otherwise princely countenance. “I guess this is the market on the planet Corax.”
His head snapped around. “This isn’t Corax. What made you think that?”
Carmen waved her hand at the crowd. “He said he was taking us to the market on Corax to sell us to the highest bidder. If that’s not what’s happening here, what is?”
The alien shook his head. “This isn’t Corax. This is nowhere near Corax. This is Angondra, and we don’t have anything to do with those filthy markets with their putrid slave traders.”
Carmen’s eyes widened. “You don’t? Then what are we doing here?”
He snorted through his nose, and a rumble of laughter rolled out of his barrel chest. “We hate the markets and everything about them, and we especially hate the Romarie.” He snarled in Rotnim’s direction, who cringed and fawned before him in abject servitude. His tentacles quivered, but the big alien paid no attention. Maybe the Romarie had no telekinetic power over these creatures.
“If you hate the Romarie,” Carmen asked, “why did you let them bring us here?”
He gestured toward the crowd. “You see the different subspecies of our people here? You see those ones with the feathers? They are called Avitras. Those ones with the webbed feet are Aqinas.”
Carmen nodded. The Avitras were just as tall as the other Angondrans, but slight and wiry. They didn't sport heavy chiseled muscles, and in addition to the feathers around their heads, they had rows of feathers along their forearms.
“Angondra has five factions,” he told her, “but we’re really just different variations on the same race. We all hate the Romarie, and we agreed to keep them off our planet. Only the Ursidreans agreed to let them land here and show their wares.”
“Who are the Ursidreans?” Carmen asked.
He pointed to a burly alien crossing the room. He even dwarfed Carmen's new friend with his hulking frame. “They hate the Romarie, too, but those shifty criminals took advantage of the Ursidreans’ trusting nature. They made up a big story about the benefits of bringing in new females after ours died out in the plague....”
Carmen peered into his face. “So you lost your females in the plague, too? Maybe you should get new ones.”
He shook his head again, and his shaggy mane rippled with the movement. “We have enough of our own kind to regenerate our population without contaminating ourselves with the Romarie. We’ve worked for many generations to keep their influence off our planet. That’s why we came to this gathering, to make sure the Romarie don’t try to manipulate anyone or invade our world. They’re pure evil, you know. You can’t trust them for an instant.”
“I know,” Carmen murmured.
Another creature stepped out of the crowd. Soft black hair surrounded his delicate head and lay back against his face in a striking ruff. Pointed ears peeked out from his dark hair. Carmen noticed others of his kind in the hall with grey or light red hair. When he opened his mouth to speak to Rotnim, Carmen spotted gleaming fangs in the corners of his mouth.
Carmen inclined her head toward her new friend. “What faction does that creature belong to?”
“That is Caleb,” he replied. “He belongs to the Lycaon faction.”
“And what about you?” she asked. “What faction do you belong to?”
He puffed up his chest, and his shaggy mane rose on end to make him look more grand and imposing than ever. His heavy shoulders towered over her. “I belong to the Felsite faction. We used to rule this planet, but now the different factions keep to their own territory.”
“What’s your name?” she asked.
His eyes softened, and he smiled at her. “My name is Renier. And you?”
She smiled back at him, and when she automatically extended her hand to him in greeting, she found her limbs free to move. The Lycaon must have distracted Rotnim for a moment. “My name is Carmen. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
At that moment, the whole scene exploded before her eyes. To anyone else, it may have passed in a fraction of a second, but to Carmen, the events of the next few minutes unfolded in slow motion.
Caleb, the slender newcomer, bared his teeth in disgust when Rotnim answered him, and Rotnim withdrew in horror at the sight. His tentacles lashed the air, and the telekinetic power blew the delicate hair back from the Lycaon’s face. But the invisible force had no effect on him other than to make him even more enraged.
Caleb’s dark lips slithered back from his fangs and he growled at Rotnim. Rotnim’s thin veneer of polite condescension evaporated before Carmen’s eyes, and he raised his hand to his belt for his weapon. A lightning bolt of alarm shot through Carmen’s guts, and every nerve and muscle stood on end. This could only end it a fight.
But Caleb moved faster than thought. He brought up his hand and struck Rotnim’s arm away from his weapon. The impact sent Rotnim staggering backwards, which caught the attention of the other three Romarie. They spun around and grabbed for their weapons, too.
Renier noticed the confrontation first from his place at Carmen’s side, but the other Angondrans didn’t take much longer to realize what was happening. In an instant, several dozen Angondrans from all the faction rushed the Romarie brandishing every weapon imaginable. The feathered Avitras wielded long staffs with curved blades attached to both ends. They swung their staffs around their heads, and the blades whistled through the air.
The Ursidreans pulled out some kind handheld gun similar Rotnim’s. One of them fired at Tinim, but nothing came out the end of it. A hot wind shimmered through the hall and rustled Carmen’s hair, but Tinim staggered backwards and slammed against the vehicle behind him.
Caleb followed up his attack on Rotnim by slashing him with his fangs. He leapt on the Romarie leader and knocked him flat on the ground. Rotnim’s weapon skidded across the floor. Caleb landed on his chest, and his fangs snapped at his face. Rotnim raised his hands in front of himself for protection, but it was too late. Caleb feinted, and when Rotnim tried again to repel him, he ducked and grabbed Rotnim’s neck and then he broke it with his bare hands.
A deafening roar shivered Carmen to the depths of her being, and she turned her head just in time to see Renier rushing past her into the fray. Carmen snapped out of her stunned surprise and ran forward, too. This was the best chance she and her friends would ever get to get away from their captors.
She shouldered through the crowd and grabbed Rotnim’s weapon from the floor. She hefted it in her hand, and she took half a second to figure out where the firing mechanism was. When she folded her hand around the trigger grip, it whined and hummed against her palm. She aimed it at Tinim where he struggled to get back on his feet, and before she could make up her mind to activate the firing mechanism, the thing went off in her hand.
She stared at it in astonishment. Then she understood what had happened. Her own thoughts activated it. These Romarie had telekinetic powers, so their weapons must operate on their conscious thoughts. Her own intention to fire the weapon caused it to fire.
An Avitras rushed up to Tinim and slashed him across the chest with his double-bladed staff. Orbnim exchanged fire with an Ursidrean, and Renier tackled Albinim. He pulled a short, thick blade from his belt and drove it toward the Romarie’s chest. Albinim got his weapon out in time, but it went off before he could aim it. The shot ricocheted off the ceiling and flattened a group of Angondrans rushing to join the fight.
Carmen dashed forward and grabbed Penelope Ann by the hand. “Come on! This is our chance! Let’s get out of here.”
Aria turned around and shouted,
“What?”
Penelope Ann didn’t wait to be told twice. She followed Carmen away from the vehicle and into the crowd. Marissa cast an uncertain glance over her shoulder. All the remaining Romarie were engaged in mortal combat with the Angrondrans. She set off after Carmen and Penelope Ann.
Aria hesitated one second longer, and in that second, the Romarie must have detected their intention to escape. Orbnim fired one more time at his Ursidrean foe. The shot flew wide and sailed into the crowd. Caleb rushed out of nowhere, directly into the path of the shot, and it hit him squarely in the chest. He crumpled onto the ground, and Carmen saw Marissa standing still on the other side of him. She stared down at his prostrate form. He’d stepped in front of the shot to save her from being hit.
Orbnim didn’t see any of that. He fired his weapon into the crowd and darted forward. His tentacles danced out from his face, and Aria froze in mid-stride. Carmen stopped, too.
Penelope Ann touched her arm. “Come on, Carmen. Let’s get out of here. I don’t know where we’re going to go, but we can get lost in this crowd. At least we won’t be on our way to the markets on the planet Corax.”
Carmen shook her head. “We can’t leave Aria.”
Marissa pulled her away. “Leave her. We can’t sacrifice ourselves for one person. If we don’t go now, we’ll all be recaptured. You’ve got a weapon. We can fight our way out. Come on. Let’s go.”
Carmen shook her hand away. “We can’t leave her here. We can’t let even one of us go to the markets. You two get into the crowd and find the exit. If you need help, find one of these factions that hates the Romarie. I’m going back to get Aria, and I’ll meet up with you later.”
Penelope Ann rushed into the crowd. Marissa glanced back and forth between Carmen and the path to freedom. Carmen couldn’t wait any longer. She ran back toward the vehicle, but at that moment, Orbnim threw his arm around Aria’s neck and pulled her against his chest. He turned her to face the crowd and pointed his weapon at her head.
Alien Portals: A SciFi Alien Multiverse Romance Novel Page 28