Dark Strength

by Cynthia Sax

  Balvan caught Orol’s gaze, saw the apprehension in his friend’s eyes, a feeling he shared.

  The dangers during the previous siege had come from within the walls, not outside them. Carinae E attracted the most vicious, violent beings in the universe, rule-hating rebels and outcasts. They often sought sanctuary within the Refuge, abiding the laws for a short duration, then leaving to release their true brutish natures outside Kralj’s terrain.

  Caging beings like that would result in bloodshed and death. In the past, Balvan and Orol only had to worry about protecting themselves. Now, they had females to safeguard.

  “If there is a siege, I’ll shield the mates of all modified humanoids from violence.” Kralj tried to ease their unspoken concerns.

  “There will be no siege if I kill them all.” Balvan didn’t want to leave Elyce’s side but he’d make that sacrifice to eliminate threats to her, to ensure she not only was safe but felt safe.

  “We’ll assess the situation first.” Kralj was irritated about his lack of information. Balvan heard that in his voice. The Ruler was usually all-knowing, all-powerful. “Then we’ll decide upon next steps.”

  Elyce’s tormenters would die. Balvan would ensure they paid for their brutal treatment of his female. But he could wait for Kralj’s endorsement of that action.

  He turned, gazed in the direction of the medic bay. Were they done? Could he return to Elyce?

  “She’s not awake.” Kralj’s tone was dry. “Focus, warrior. Once I have communicated the situation, residents are unlikely to leave my terrain. Some of them will leave the Refuge, however.”

  Kralj’s rules only applied within the settlement. Residents would venture beyond the safety of the walls to kill, to vent the darkness within them.

  Balvan blew out his breath. “There will be an increase in violence outside our gates.” They had to plan for that situation.

  He couldn’t yet return to his female.

  Chapter Five

  “There you are.”

  The female voice pierced the darkness. Elyce squeezed her eyelids shut, not ready to open them. Balvan had vanished. She couldn’t feel his presence and she didn’t want to face the cruelty of the universe without him.

  “I was looking all over for you, for anyone. Everyone is gone. Even Hulagu was called away for an emergency meeting and Azalea won’t leave their domicile without him. It’s no fun.”

  The names were strange to Elyce, meant nothing to her, but this couldn’t be reality. She felt no pain. This must be another dream.

  “Hush, Paloma.” Another female voice said.

  Paloma, that damn name again. Elyce grimaced. This wasn’t a dream. This was a nightmare.

  She didn’t open her eyes. If she left them closed, her surroundings might change, as often happened in fantasies. Balvan might return, and with him, the illusion of safety. The fear fluttering in her stomach would go away.

  “Who is she?” Paloma’s voice grew louder. Elyce resisted the impulse to move backward, away from her. “What happened to her neck?”

  The horror encapsulating that question caused Elyce to cringe. All she had left to trade was her body, her face. If that was horribly scarred, repulsing other beings, she had nothing.

  “I don’t know.” The other voice told her.

  “You mean you won’t tell me.” There was a pout in Paloma’s voice. The female, unlike Elyce, was accustomed to having her own way, to beings catering to her every whim. She hadn’t been beaten, abused, forced to follow orders, giving up her independence, her freedom, everything.

  Elyce hated her for that, for being the cause of her torment.

  “You won’t tell me anything and I’m tired of it.” Paloma continued her tantrum. Boot heels stomped against floor tiles. “I’m not a child anymore.”

  “You’re not mature either.” The other voice argued.

  The two females nattered at each other. It was irritating and felt…real. Elyce pinched the skin at her wrist. Pain shot up her arm.

  Fuck. Her heart raced. This wasn’t a dream. She had escaped Marowit and his males, had somehow made it to a domicile.

  Only to find herself in the same chamber as a Paloma. It was an unusual name. Elyce opened her eyes a crack, looked through lowered eyelashes.

  A pregnant brunette female sat low in a chair, her expression vexed as she listed the information she’d shared in the past. She was the second female, the source of the other voice.

  There was a collar around her neck. The brunette was also enslaved. That drew Elyce’s sympathy but only a tinge of it. The stranger’s collar was dainty, delicate, a work of art, and she showed no signs of being abused. Her abductor treasured her.

  The female standing beside her wore no collar, wasn’t owned by anyone. She was blonde, curvy, stunningly beautiful even with her curled lower lip. Any male would covet her, want her.

  And her name was Paloma.

  Shit. Shit. Shit. Terror blasted Elyce, shredding her illusion of safety.

  The blonde must be the female Marowit was hunting.

  Somehow, Elyce had reached the Refuge, the settlement Paloma was residing in, and if she could enter the site, he would be able to enter it also.

  Elyce wiggled away from the two females. The covering cloth slipped off her naked form. She didn’t retrieve it. The flimsy fabric wouldn’t protect her from anything.

  The females stopped arguing and turned their heads toward her.

  “She’s awake.” Paloma sounded smug. “I’ll ask her what happened.” She extended one of her hands, reaching toward Elyce.

  “Don’t touch me.” She jumped to the floor, putting the massive sleeping support between her and her adversary.

  The air was cool against her bare skin, a vivid contrast to the unbearable heat of Marowit’s camp. That served as another confirmation that she had temporarily escaped.

  She would do everything within her power to remain free.

  “Stay away from me.” She warned the females. Marowit would come for Paloma, his precious prize. The greater the distance she put between herself and the female, the safer she’d be.

  Paloma’s perfect forehead furrowed.

  The brunette pushed herself to her feet, struggling with the effort. “We won’t hurt you.” Her voice softened. “I’m Rhea. This is Paloma.” She waved her hand at the blonde. “We’re friends of Balvan.”

  They knew Balvan. Was he real also?

  “Don’t come near me.” Elyce backed against the far wall, pushing away her thoughts of Balvan. She had more urgent concerns than determining her green giant’s status.

  Her gaze darted around the space. The two females stood between her and the only exit. Machines lined the perimeter of the chamber. Everything was white, clean, smelled of medic supplies.

  “We won’t come near you.” The brunette, Rhea, assured her.

  Elyce didn’t trust her, didn’t trust anyone. She searched for a weapon, picked up some sort of gun, pointed it at Paloma. “I want you to leave.”

  Rhea’s smile was gentle. “We can’t leave. I promised to stay with you until Balvan returned.”

  Elyce glared at the brunette. The female maintained her gaze, determination in the set of her jaw. Paloma watched them, acting as though the confrontation had nothing to do with her.

  Because she hadn’t made any such vow, Elyce realized.

  I promised, Rhea had said. Not we promised.

  “I don’t care about you.” Elyce decided, waving her weapon at the brunette. “You can remain.”

  Rhea wasn’t Marowit’s target, wasn’t the object of her abductor’s obsession.

  “I want her to leave.” Elyce didn’t hide her distaste for Paloma, the cause of so much of her pain.

  The female’s blue eyes flashed with hurt. “What is your problem? I don’t even know you.”

  “I know you, Paloma.” Elyce bared her teeth at her nemesis. “And I don’t want you anywhere near me.”

  The female stared at her, her expre
ssion puzzled, as though the thought of anyone not wanting her near them was a strange occurrence. And it likely was. Elyce’s lips twisted. Paloma was beautiful, more beautiful than Elyce’d ever been. It was no wonder males, including Marowit, traveled halfway across the universe to pursue her.

  “Rhea, what is going on?” The blonde turned to the brunette, looking for answers. “Why does she hate me?”

  She sounded so lost, so confused, so young.

  It could be a trick. Elyce struggled to hold onto her anger. The female could be as devious as Marowit was.

  Elyce couldn’t let down her guard. She had to be selfish, protect herself. “You’ve destroyed my life, caused me unthinkable pain, ruined any chance I have at happiness. That’s why I hate you.”

  Both females gawked at her. Lines etched around Rhea’s lips. Paloma’s face flushed. She swallowed once, twice. Her eyes gleamed with unshed tears.

  She was crying because she’d been spoken to harshly. Elyce looked at Paloma with open disbelief. This was the female Marowit boasted of being the ultimate pain slut, craving the bite of the whip, the jab of his dagger.

  Paloma’s reaction didn’t make sense, but Elyce didn’t have the time to figure out the situation. She had to leave the Refuge. “Go.” She pointed at the doors.

  “But—”

  “Go,” she yelled.

  The doors opened. A male ducked into the chamber, a huge, green, bald, one-of-a-kind warrior. Elyce’s gaze met Balvan’s and relief swept over her. He was here. She was safe.

  “What is happening?” he hollered, throwing the boots and folded garments he carried to the floor. “Why are you standing? You should be resting.”

  “Balvan.” Paloma threw herself into his arms, sobbing. “She hates me. I don’t know why.”

  Pain cut through Elyce’s battered heart, acute and sharp. Balvan hadn’t returned for her. He’d returned for Paloma.

  Her dream male was like Marowit, preferring the other female.

  Fuck. She was on her own again, still, always.

  “Why were you telling Paloma to leave the chamber?” Balvan blindly caught the female’s wrists and pulled her hands away from his big body, his question addressed to Elyce. “What did she say to you?”

  “I didn’t say anything to her.” Paloma struggled. “I don’t even know her. Why won’t anyone believe me?”

  “She can stay in the chamber.” Elyce lifted her chin. “I’m leaving.” She had to escape the crowded space.

  “You’re not leaving without me.” Balvan picked Paloma up and set her to the side. His gaze didn’t move from Elyce’s face.

  He watched her, wanted to restrict her movements.

  “You’re not my protector.” Her hurt escalated. “You’re my captor.” Why would he want to take her? Oh, shit. “Are you working with him?”

  “With who?” Balvan frowned.

  “With him, with my abductor.” She couldn’t say Marowit’s name, not out loud, fearing if she did, that would attract his attention, draw him to her, wherever he was.

  Balvan flinched. “No. Never.”

  “Because I won’t go back.” Elyce pressed the muzzle of her pseudo gun under her chin, her hands shaking. “I just…can’t.” She wouldn’t survive it. “I’ll kill myself before I allow that.”

  “Balvan—”

  “This is Elyce’s chamber.” Balvan snapped at Paloma, stopping the female’s words. “When she tells you to leave, you leave.”

  Paloma opened her mouth.

  “Go,” he roared.

  Rhea grabbed the younger female’s hand and tugged her away from Balvan and Elyce. The doors closed behind them.

  There were only the two of them left in the chamber, Elyce and the male she once trusted, the male she now suspected was working with Marowit. That must be how he knew her name. Her abductor had shared that with him.

  She gazed at Balvan. Balvan gazed back at her.

  Marowit had spies everywhere. He had told her that again and again. She would never escape him.

  Her thumb caressed the trigger. What was she waiting for? She should end this, end her suffering.

  Balvan sighed. “You’re not going back, little female.” He opened his hands, showing her his palms, empty of any weapon. That didn’t reassure her. His giant fists were all he needed to hurt her, control her. “I’d never allow that.”

  “Allow.” Her shoulders flattened against the far wall.

  “Allow was the wrong word.” The lines around his mouth deepened. “You’re free. I can’t dictate what you do or don’t do but I will stop anyone who tries to force you to return to that monster.”

  The anger edging his words rivaled hers. She doubted it was feigned, falsified for her benefit. “You’re not working with him?”

  “I long to kill him.” Balvan’s voice strengthened. “I want to crush his skull under my boots, destroy him and any other male who hurt you.”

  Elyce glanced down at his feet. His boots were huge. “I don’t trust you.”

  “I know.” He didn’t appear surprised about that revelation. “When I escaped the Humanoid Alliance, I didn’t trust many beings either.”

  Marowit and his males were part of the Humanoid Alliance forces. “You said you hated them.” Balvan had mentioned that during an earlier conversation. She’d thought he was a dream male then.

  “I do hate them.” His head dipped, the lights reflecting off his bare skin. “They created me, tortured me, forced me to kill for them.”

  She’d been tortured, had the marks to prove it. “You don’t have any scars.”

  “The nanohumanics in my blood, saliva, and cum heal me.”

  That was a convenient story. She narrowed her eyes at him, not hiding her doubt.

  “They’re inside you now.” He expanded his elaborate ruse. “I fed you my blood to heal you.”

  There was a peculiar bubbling sensation inside her but she wasn’t completely healed. She touched the grooves around her neck.

  “They can’t heal old wounds.” Balvan’s green eyes softened.

  He had an explanation for everything. She pointed the injector gun toward him. “How did they torture you? You’re a huge male. You could have crushed their skulls.”

  “If I had resisted, they would have killed the other modified humanoids.” His lips flattened. “That’s how they controlled all of us. They’d chain me to massive horizontal supports, whip my back to the bone, gouge my flesh with their daggers.”

  They had whipped her, stabbed her with the tips of their daggers. She looked up at him. Had he suffered the same pain?

  “They’d abuse me in all ways.”

  Her jaw dropped. “In all ways? You’re male.”

  “That merely gave them one less opening to abuse.” Balvan met her gaze and she sucked in her breath, seeing the pain and understanding in his eyes. That couldn’t be fabricated. It had to be real.

  Elyce lowered the injector gun. She wasn’t certain why he wanted her but she couldn’t harm someone who had endured the same torture she had. “Did you kill them when you escaped?”

  “We killed all of them.” His lips curled upward and she envied him that satisfaction. “I tore the limbs off any of the males I found, crushed their skulls.”

  “Good.” She wished she could tear Marowit’s limbs off, crush his skull. “Why did they abuse you? Did you…remind them of someone?” Had he been tortured in place of another being also?

  “No. They abused all of us…except Kralj. He was too powerful to mess with.”

  “Kralj.” Elyce remembered that name. “The voice.”

  “The voice.” Balvan nodded. “The Ruler of the Refuge is a modified humanoid too.”

  The Ruler of the Refuge. That was Marowit’s adversary, the all-powerful being blocking her abductor from accessing his prey.

  Balvan must work for that male. Some of the tension in her shoulders dissipated. She was safe…for now.

  The barrier Kralj had erected between her and her abducto
r was only temporary. Marowit would find a way around it and then he would come for Paloma and for herself.

  She’d die.

  “I can’t stay here.” Elyce set the injector gun on a horizontal support. She couldn’t steal from the beings who healed her. That wouldn’t be right. “He’ll find me here.”

  Balvan blew out his breath. “He knows where you are, little female.”

  “He knows where I am?” Her eyes widened, fear shaking her form.

  “He won’t hurt you.”

  Balvan believed that. She heard that in his voice. But she didn’t share his confidence.

  “I guard the Refuge’s gates and no one gets near the settlement without Kralj’s permission.”

  The all-powerful Ruler was a modified humanoid, hated the Humanoid Alliance as much as Balvan did, wouldn’t grant his permission to her abductor.

  But Marowit was resourceful. Elyce had seen him do terrible things. “I have to leave.”

  Her plan to trade her body for passage off the planet was even less palatable to her now that she’d met Balvan. Yet she had no other choice, no other currency.

  Balvan had Paloma, every male’s preference. Elyce sucked back her bitterness. He didn’t need and likely didn’t want her.

  She had to look after herself, ensure she survived.

  “You don’t believe I’ll keep you safe.” Balvan gazed at her, his forehead wrinkling. “Let me show you our defenses, introduce you to the other modified humanoids, take you to the walls. Then, if you still don’t think I can protect you here, I will support your plan to leave.”

  What did support mean? “Would you book the passage for me?” If he did that, she might not have to pay for the trip with sex.

  “I’ll personally escort you to the destination of your choice.” Balvan wasn’t happy about that offer, the corners of his lips curving downward.

  But Elyce trusted him to honor it, to keep his word.

  She’d be free of this fuckin’ planet, free of Marowit, free of the pain. All she had to do was join Balvan on his tour…through the crowded settlement.

  That prospect unsettled her stomach. “There will be many males—”

  “They won’t touch you.” Balvan scowled, his expression fierce. “No male will ever touch you again without your permission.”