by A. G. Wilde
She didn’t hear it at first, not from the sound of her own blood beating in her ears, but as soon as she picked it up, her senses began screaming that something dangerous was happening.
There was a sound above them, like an engine of some sort and Cleo forced herself to think rationally.
She didn’t just hear that.
She hadn’t heard an engine in so long, the sound was…alien.
But it was definitely an engine.
She could hear it clearer now, as if whatever vessel it was, was lowering from the sky.
“Sohut?”
He swallowed hard. She could feel that even in his back.
“Clee-yo…” His voice was hoarse and so, so pained. “I’m sorry, Clee-yo.”
Her mouth spoke the words in her mind without much input from her. She suddenly felt…numb.
“What’s happening, Sohut?”
He swallowed hard again and even though he was blazing through the forest like Usain Bolt’s alien brother, he didn’t pause or slow down.
He was running for his life…or for hers.
“They’re coming.” was all he said.
She didn’t need to know who they were.
Her whole being knew who they were.
Time paused and there was a sound.
A sound she’ll never forget.
It was a blast so strong, it flattened everything in the surrounding area.
All the trees…the vines…every single plant lay flat on the ground and she knew this for a fact because the light that suddenly flooded around them was so bright it was as if the sun had risen in an instant.
Sohut stopped. He stopped so suddenly, it took her organs a second to fall back into her body from the sudden lack of motion.
The light.
It was so bright.
As her eyes adjusted it became clear, however, that this was no sun.
It was the light from whatever vessel was hovering above them.
She could hear the engine clearly now—a soft hum that cut through the quietness of the jungle. And even as she lifted her head, trying to see through the veil her hair had made, she saw something that cut through her senses, turning her to cold stone.
Someone, some being, landed behind Sohut. A leathery tail swung behind the legs.
She knew those legs…that tail…she’d seen it before.
A long, long time ago…so long ago, she’d thought the memory had been locked in the recesses of her mind, but it was right in front of her now.
Clear as day, she remembered, as if it hadn’t happened over a year ago—as if no time had passed and she was back on that alien slave ship.
It was the legs of one of the guards. The same guards that had manned the ship that had taken her away from Earth.
They were here to take her away. Not the green orcs that had pulled her from the rubble to sell her to the zoo, but them.
She’d rather jump off a cliff than go back with them.
She couldn’t breathe now, literally, and it had nothing to do with the constriction around her neck.
“Merssi…you have been foolish, keeping us waiting so long.” The voice came from behind her and a chill ran down her spine.
There was more than one of them.
Sohut stiffened.
“You’re not taking her.” He was growling, an animalistic sound that would have scared her if she didn’t know who he was, and she knew his fangs were bared.
His arm tightened around her and she heard the unmistakable sound of his claws protracting.
He was ready to fight.
So was she.
He just had to put her down. She’d claw their eyes out with her bare fingers if she had to.
Their laughter was sickening.
It was the sort of sound that seemed to clap the air, echoing into the darkness.
“Of course, we are taking her. You sent the signal, made our work easier.”
The signal.
Cleo blinked, unmoving, her mind trying to make sense of their words.
Which signal?
Then it came to her.
The device that was blinking even right now in Sohut’s hand.
For a moment, a little voice in her head made her doubt everything.
That device was why they were there. It had summoned them, and Sohut had possessed it all along.
He’d had the means to make them find her at any moment.
“Sohut?” Her voice cracked as she said his name and she felt him stiffen even more, his growling interrupted for a second.
The guards around them laughed again.
“Qrakking human. The Merssi has developed feelings for it, don’t you see?” The guard laughed.
“Are you surprised? They are both useless beings. Excrement tends to stick to excrement.”
Sohut growled, but he didn’t move.
There was movement in front of her and suddenly she was face-to-face with one of the guards.
He bent so he could look into her face and Cleo stifled a gasp as the guard’s alligator-like snout came far too close for comfort.
“You didn’t trust him, did you, jekin?” The way he said the word made it sound as if he was calling her a bitch. “You thought you were free?” He laughed in her face. “The Merssi had the tracker for you the entire time. You belong to our lordships, the High Tasqals. The Merssi cares nothing about you.”
They were wrong.
She knew Sohut better.
They’d made love, many, many times. She’d given herself to him. Trusted him.
At that moment, she knew with certainty a thought that she hadn’t forced herself to acknowledge before: she’d rather die than let them hurt the man she loved.
The man she loved.
A ball of emotion developed in her throat, causing her to choke.
“Release the jekin,” one of the guards ordered. “Her master awaits.”
“NO!” For a moment, she thought the word came from Sohut—it was uttered with such ferocity, such power, such defiance—but the sudden strain on her throat made her realize the exclamation had come from her.
She felt Sohut’s arms tighten around her.
“She’s not going anywhere,” he spoke through gritted teeth.
There was a pause and then the guards cackled. They cackled as if they’d just heard the funniest joke and their lack of concern sent a chill down her spine.
What were she and Sohut going to do?
They were outnumbered, outmatched.
She was sure they could probably outrun them and put up a fight, but she wasn’t sure how she’d fare in one-and-one combat—that didn’t mean she wouldn’t fucking try her best.
One of the guards spoke, his words slicing through her senses, making her think she’d missed a part of the conversation.
“Qrak, we’ll make you then.”
Sohut stiffened even more, and he took a backward step as something zinged in the air. It sounded like an electrical current, the sort of sound you hear if you get too close to compromised power lines.
“Don’t you phekking dare. You’ll hurt her too!” Sohut growled.
“Does it look like we qrakking care?”
That was all the warning she got before the pain.
A searing pain that felt as if she was burning from the inside out. Her entire body shook as she lost control of her limbs and she was vaguely aware of going down…
But she wasn’t the one falling. Sohut was.
He fell to his knees, his arms still locked around her as she heard him grunt and she realized that whatever the guards were doing, they were doing to him, not her. She was only receiving the second-hand effect.
As Sohut fell forward and her back hit the earth below, she was suddenly staring upward through her watery eyes into the faces of three alligator-guards.
Their cruel yellow gazes stared down at her and Sohut as the weapon in their hands glowed strangely in the light of their ship.
It looked like a power rod. A sh
ock rod.
They’d shocked Sohut with a direct current.
A rage she didn’t know she had burst within her organs and she screamed—only no sound came from her mouth. Her scream was silent as her body shook with the after-effects of the current.
She didn’t have time to get to her feet. The gator-guards helped her with that as one moved forward and pulled her from Sohut’s arms.
No.
“No.” Sohut groaned as he tried to stand. He reached for her, but the shock rod was promptly planted into his back and another dose of the current sent through his body.
His skin was turning black.
They were killing him!
His green gaze met hers and this time the scream that ripped from her body echoed into the forest.
She tasted the blood before she realized her head snapped to the side. The pain of the slap followed but she didn’t care.
She turned her burning rage on the guard that had slapped her, kicking and flailing but as her legs connected with his underbelly, he only grabbed her to stop her movement.
“I’ll kill you,” Sohut groaned again and began to move and something inside her crumpled and wrung. “I’m going to kill every last one of you.”
He needed to stay down.
They were going to kill him if he didn’t.
The guards cackled again and the world around her began to fade.
They were being beamed up into the ship above them and there was nothing she could do about it.
Her eyes locked on Sohut’s, on the man that had stolen her heart without her even realizing, and the utter pain in his eyes was enough to break her heart.
“Sohut…” She gulped.
The last thing she saw, an image that would be committed to her memory forever, was Sohut reaching for her…
Her heart broke.
It broke into a million pieces because there was a distinct feeling that she’d never feel his touch ever again.
27
Sohut fell on his back, his breath coming in labored gasps.
They’d almost shocked the life out of him and he’d have let them if that had meant he could’ve saved her.
But he couldn’t.
He’d failed.
Again he’d failed.
In the darkness of the jungle, the world never felt more alone…more desolate.
Clee-yo was gone because of him.
Once more, he was the reason the person he cared about the most was going to…
He didn’t dare to say it.
He didn’t even dare to think it.
The feeling of dread that he’d been harboring finally settled around him.
This was what he’d been afraid of.
This was the future he hadn’t wanted to happen.
This was the reason it’d all felt too good to be true.
A pained sound left him as he tried to rise into a sitting position, propping himself up on his elbows.
In his hand, something blinked red in the darkness.
The tracker.
His life-organ skipped a beat.
He still had the tracker.
It gave him a bittersweet feeling and he gripped the device tightly.
He couldn’t have destroyed it. Doing so would have activated it anyway. He’d needed to decommission it completely and the only way to do that would have been to take it back to his friend, Ka’Cit.
Ka’Cit would have had the tech to do such a thing.
Bio-trackers were finicky devices. It wasn’t something he’d wanted to play around with.
So he’d kept the thing.
The very thing that had led to the Hedgeruds finding them…finding her.
His physical pain turned emotional, churning in his stomach and he almost doubled over.
It was like when he was a chid and his mor had decided to send him and Riv to the mines. It was the same feeling all over again.
“But, momor, I don’t want to go!”
“Shut your phekking mouth. Look at me! I cannot. No longer can I do this alone.”
“But momor…”
“This is your fault, Sohut. Remember that. I could deal with Riv alone…but not you. Not you and your weakness…
Remember that you are the reason your mor has to beg on the streets of Dragxul because you are weak. I rue the day you fell from my body…you pest.”
“Mor…”
“This is your fault. It is your fault your saran left us. It’s your fault you’re going to the mines. You are weak. No Merssi should be as weak as you. You are a curse from my womb. A curse upon me, a curse upon your daran, and a curse upon your brother.”
A curse.
A failure.
All because he’d been a sickly child.
He was the reason his mother had sent him and Riv to the mines. He was the reason his brother had had to shoulder so much.
He was the reason his brother had lost his tail.
He was the reason his brother, the only person to have loved him, had almost died.
Till this day, he hadn’t told Riv about that conversation with their mor.
He couldn’t.
How could he say he was the reason his brother’s entire life had been upended?
He didn’t have the gonads to.
And so he’d taken the field jobs. At least then, he was useful. He was of use and such jobs caused him to stay away from the Sanctuary as much as he could, just so he didn’t have to face the recluse his brother had become because of him!
He should have run away that day after his mor had said those words.
But he didn’t.
He’d been weak.
Too weak to protect Clee-yo.
As his labored breaths began to calm down he was vaguely aware of a sound at the edge of the fallen trees.
Squinting in the darkness, he caught the shape.
Wawa.
The slizz snarled at him, racing at him through the darkness. He only managed to catch Wawa mid-air.
The slizz was snarling at him, its teeth protracted, and its eyes bled to black.
It could smell that Clee-yo wasn’t there anymore.
“I didn’t kill her!” Sohut growled. “She was taken.” He hated saying the words but Wawa seemed to calm down a little at the sound of his voice, so he continued.
“I didn’t kill her,” he murmured again. “She was taken by Hedgeruds.”
The slizz made a sound in its throat as its teeth retracted.
It was a questioning sort of mewing and Sohut let out a sad huff of a laugh.
It loved her.
Wawa loved her.
Of all the creatures, his Cleo had befriended a slizz.
Of all creatures, she had befriended him.
“I don’t know, Wawa,” he finally said and he could see, even in the darkness, that Wawa’s ears perked. It was the first time he’d had a proper conversation with the animal. “I don’t know why the Hedgeruds…”
As Wawa wasn’t trying to kill him anymore, he set the animal down and watched it as it paced in front of him, sniffing the ground as it did.
Twiddling with the tracker in his hand, Sohut frowned.
The Hedgeruds had come…not the Gori…and that spelled trouble.
The Hedgeruds only worked for the High Tasqals.
Rich, powerful and cruel, it was no secret that the High Tasqals trafficked beings from Class Four planets—mainly for their entertainment.
Their slaves never lasted long. Not with the disease the Tasqals carried. It was the same disease that was decimating the Tasqal race.
They were dying. Rotting.
And so they bred, forcefully, with beings that had no legal protection on this side of the universe.
His stomach twisted.
The thought that the Hedgeruds were taking Cleo to the High Tasqals for her to be…
He couldn’t stomach the thought.
He needed to get her back.
Groaning, he stood. Every nerve in his body protested.
“We have to get her back,” he muttered and at his feet, the slizz made a sound of agreement.
Taking a few steps in the direction of the stream felt like he was trying to claw his way up a mountain that had one-hundred percent more gravity than usual.
But he could make it.
He would make it and his body wouldn’t hold him back.
He hadn’t let it hold him back when he was in the mines, even though he was sick and close to dying most of the time. He had stayed alive for Riv because dying would have been the ultimate insult to his brother’s life.
He could do that again.
He’d overcome the pain in his muscles and he’d force his limbs to move.
“Let’s go get her, little one.” He looked at the slizz and Wawa jumped on him, perching on his shoulders just as he did with Clee-yo.
Sohut gripped the tracker in his hand.
They could do this.
They were going to get their female back.
It felt like hours before he was walking back at normal pace, but he managed to retrieve the contents of his satchel that the cursed mogs had thrown all over the vines near the stream.
Grabbing everything he could see, he set off at a run, his breath coming in gasps as he pushed his body forward.
He didn’t have a plan but what he was about to do was dangerous.
Nobody went against the Tasqals.
Nobody except the rebels in the Restitution and he was no rebel.
But he was in love.
Clee-yo was his gnora. His soulmate.
He could feel it.
And he wasn’t going to lose her, even if it meant he had to die getting her free.
Riv. He needed to call his brother Riv.
Connecting his sat phone, he punched in his brother’s code.
“Sohut?” Riv’s voice sounded over the line. He sounded phekked off, but that was his brother—he was never in a good mood.
“Riv,” he breathed as he ran through the darkness, trusting his instincts that he was heading the right way. “I phekked up badly, brother.”
“What do you mean?” The concern in his brother’s voice was immediate and it wrung his life-organ. Riv had always cared for him, like a father more than a brother.
He was so indebted to him he didn’t know how he was ever going to repay him.