After a while, a long while, it did. I raised my shirt and studied the bruise on my side. It was the exact shape and size of Alex’s boot. I vaguely recalled him slamming his foot down on me while I was huddled on the ground with my arms over my head to protect it.
More nausea, and I took a few deep breaths before shuffling to the full-length mirror against the far wall. I turned my back to the mirror and carefully twisted my head to study my back. A horrified groan snuck past my lips. No wonder my kidneys and lower back felt like they were on fire. My pale skin was covered in angry red welts and mottled purple bruising. The whole area felt swollen and hot, and I couldn’t bring myself to even touch my lower back.
I had blacked out as Alex was punching and kicking me and normally that made him stop, but it looked like this time, he’d kept going. I lowered my shirt, wincing at even that pressure and quietly left my bedroom. I hobbled down the hallway, pausing at Alex’s bedroom. I could hear his loud snoring through the door, and I stepped over the squeaky spot on the floor and continued to the bathroom. It was doubtful I would wake Alex up, not after how much he drank last night, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
It burned and hurt like hell to pee and I wasn’t surprised when I stood up and saw blood in the toilet. It wasn’t the first time I’d peed blood after being beaten by my stepbrother.
It’ll be the last.
I blinked in confusion at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. Why would it be the last time? I was sure Alex would find a way to beat the shit out of me even after I was married to Troy and living…
My eyes widened. I was leaving. I was moving to the planet of Draax and being married to their king. I would never be beaten by Alex again.
Fuck! What time was it? I staggered out of the bathroom, forcing myself to walk quickly despite the agonizing pain, and looked for my PAR phone in my bedroom. It was shattered on the floor, Alex must have broken it, but I didn’t have time to mourn its loss. I needed to know what fucking time it was.
I snuck back out into the small and messy living room. It didn’t matter how many times I cleaned, Alex and his friends were pigs and never picked up after themselves. I glanced at the clock on the hologram screen and dismay filled me. It was ten to eight. The people from the agency would be here in ten minutes to pick me up. If I wasn’t downstairs, they might leave, or worse – knock on the door. If they woke up Alex, who knew what he would do. Hell, he would probably try and kill me before he let me go.
I walked back to my bedroom, avoiding the squeaky spot again, and grabbed the large backpack from my closet. I had very little clothes or personal possessions, but I still wouldn’t have time to pack everything. I was going to get up early this morning and pack – it was too risky to pack beforehand – but I hadn’t planned on being beaten unconscious by my stepbrother last night.
I stuffed some clothes into the bag, then my wallet, and my broken PAR phone. It was probably pointless, but it had a ton of photos on it. Maybe I could somehow get the phone working and transfer them to a memory stick or something.
I bent – God, did it hurt my back – and slid my hand between my mattress and the floor. The picture was still safely tucked under the mattress and I studied my father’s face before pressing a kiss against the photo and carefully sliding it into the backpack. It was the only picture I had of him, Alex and his mother had burned the rest when he died, and it was my most precious possession.
I slipped out of my bedroom. It hurt too much to lift my backpack and I had to drag it on the floor behind me. Distracted, I didn’t avoid the squeak in the floor, and I froze when I stepped on it. Alex’s snoring cut out and I pressed my hand over my mouth, the tears dripping down my cheeks.
To my immense relief, he started to snore again. Shaking and shuddering, my entire body pulsing with pain, I grabbed my toiletry bag from the bathroom, stuffed it into my backpack and headed toward the front door, checking the clock again.
Three minutes.
Shit.
I eased out of the apartment I had called home for the last decade without looking back. I closed the door, the click of the latch excruciatingly loud in the silence, and, still dragging my backpack, hurried down the hall. I paused to press my hand against Candy’s apartment door. I had said goodbye to her yesterday, but she was my only friend and I was going to miss her terribly.
I wiped away the tears and dragged my backpack down the hall and down the narrow dirty stairs. Maybe the king would let me hologram with Candy from time to time. I stepped out into the street. A black vehicle was just pulling up and I knew it was from the agency. No one in our neighbourhood could afford a vehicle, not even a land one.
Trying not to look like I was in agony, I walked slowly toward the car as a man stepped out from behind the wheel. “Ms. Fisher?”
“Yes, that’s me.” I glanced behind me at the building door, half-expecting Alex to come busting out into the street.
“I’ll need to see some ID, ma’am.”
I rooted through my backpack for my wallet, glancing behind me again. Fuck. Where was it? I finally found it and yanked it out, showing the man my ID. He studied the picture carefully before studying me and I tried not to give him an impatient look. I peeked behind me again.
“Good.” He handed my wallet back and I stuffed it into my backpack and zipped it up. He took my bag and set it in the trunk before opening the back door. I climbed in, my breath hissing out between my teeth as pain sliced through my body, and breathed a sigh of relief when he shut the door. I’d never been in a car before and as the man used voice controls to start the vehicle, I watched in fascination as the dashboard lit up. The man studied his phone and typed on the keyboard as the vehicle pulled out onto the street. I closed my eyes and rested my head against the back of the seat.
I was free.
* * *
“Evelyn, open your eyes, please.”
The voice was loud and intrusive. The hand on my shoulder, incredibly painful. I forced my eyes open and stared at the woman standing over me. She gave me an impatient look before walking away.
I sat up, my back and shoulder and kidneys screaming in protest, and stared around blearily. I was at the International Space Station and I would never see Alex and Troy again. Deep relief swept through me, and I blinked back the tears before studying the woman sitting in the cot across from mine.
She had dark hair like me and gorgeous blue eyes and a body a little curvier than mine. I’d always been on the chubby side, but I knew enough about the Draax to know that was an asset. They liked their women to be on the larger side.
The woman was staring at my shoulder. My top had slipped down, and I hurriedly pulled it up to cover the visible bruise.
The woman looked a little embarrassed as she said, “Hi, I’m Sabrina. I didn’t get the chance to introduce myself yesterday. It was pretty loud on the ship.”
I didn’t think it would be smart to tell her I was glad she hadn’t spoken to me. It was my first time on a ship and, in addition to the pain I was in from Alex’s beating, I was fighting constant motion sickness the entire time. I’d also been terrified that when we got to the International Space Station, they would give us a physical and I’d be rejected because of the bruising.
I hadn’t needed to worry. We’d arrived late, and they’d simply shown us to a room with a dozen narrow cots. The woman named Sabrina had fallen asleep almost instantly, but I’d laid awake until nearly dawn, worrying and wondering if they would do a physical in the morning.
“I’m Evelyn,” I said. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.” She glanced at the cots around us. “Not many volunteers on this trip, huh?”
“Are you in the breeding program?” I asked.
“No. I have a job as a nanny. You?” Sabrina replied.
“Breeding program.” I could hear the nerves in my voice. Sabrina must have as well because she reached across and touched my arm.
“You okay?”
“Yes. Just, uh, a little nervous,” I said.
“Understandable, but I hear that the Draax treat their females very well.”
I tried to smile at her, and she squeezed my arm in a comforting way. “I’m sure it will be fine.”
“Yes,” I said, but even I could hear the fear in my voice.
The woman who had woken us returned to the room. Sabrina studied my shoulder for a moment before turning to the woman. “Hey. Do you have any gallberry juice she can have?”
The woman scowled at her. “Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.”
She seemed weirdly angry and impatient. I swallowed down my apprehension as she yanked a very large syringe from the left pocket of her lab jacket and walked over to Sabrina.
“Whoa,” Sabrina held up her hands, “what is that for?”
“It’s your identification chip,” she said impatiently. “It has all of your details as well as the details of the Draax male you’re breeding with.”
“Not breeding,” Sabrina said in alarm, “nannying.”
“Yes, yes.” The woman gave her an irritable look. “Lift your sleeve.”
Sabrina lifted her sleeve and the woman injected her in the upper arm with the syringe. She wiped it with a cotton ball before taking another syringe from her right pocket and moving toward me.
“Arm please,” she said as the flag emblem on her lab jacket glowed brightly. “Oh for…”
She sighed and slapped her hand against it as I pushed up my sleeve. “Yes, what is it?”
A man appeared in a hologram behind me. “Are they ready for transporting? A storm is brewing on Draax, and we want to get them there and drop them off before it gets too bad and we end up stranded.”
“I’m just chipping them now and then I need to put the translators in,” the woman said.
“Well get a move on it,” the man snapped. “We’re leaving in ten.”
“Shut up, Gary.” The woman slapped the emblem again. Gary disappeared, and she injected me with the syringe.
“There,” she said. “If you get lost, they can scan you and know who you belong to.”
“Oh perfect,” Sabrina said, “we’ve been microchipped like stray dogs.”
The woman scowled, and I gave Sabrina a horrified look. She grinned at me as the woman in the lab coat said, “You might want to watch your mouth when you’re on Draax. They like the women they sleep with to be submissive and quiet.”
“Well it’s a good job I’m nannying and not fucking then,” Sabrina said.
My mouth dropped open as the woman made a loud snort of irritation. I couldn’t believe how bold Sabrina was being and for a moment, I wished I could be like her. Or, at the very least, be her friend and watch from the sidelines as she sassed everyone around her.
The woman was rummaging in the inside pocket of her lab coat, and she removed two small gun-like contraptions.
“What are those?” Sabrina asked.
“The translators. One is embedded in your skull here,” she pointed to just behind my right ear, “it’ll translate the Draax language into English for you instantly when they speak to you. The other one is injected here,” she touched the spot above the hollow of my throat, “and it will translate your English to Draaxan when you speak.”
“Right,” Sabrina said.
“Is it going to hurt?” I asked.
“It’s not going to feel like kisses, sweetheart,” the woman said.
I flinched at the sharp bite of pain when the woman pulled the trigger on the gun.
“Lift your head,” the woman said as she reached for the second device. She quickly injected the second translator into my throat. I could feel blood slipping down my throat and the woman held a piece of gauze against the entry point on my throat and behind my ear. “Apply pressure for a few minutes.”
She walked back to Sabrina. As she readied the translator guns, she said, “So, don’t panic if these don’t work right away. Sometimes it can take a day or two for the chips to start working and translating properly.”
She pressed the gun behind Sabrina’s ear as the curvy brunette said, “A day or two? Seriously? We’re going to be on a strange planet where we won’t speak or understand the language for like forty-eight hours and you’re just mentioning it – ow! Fuck, that hurt!”
She rubbed at the spot behind her ear and glared at the woman.
“Lift your head,” the woman said. She implanted the second translator and slapped gauze on both spots. Sabrina scowled at her. “Seriously? A day or two? Why didn’t you implant the damn things before we left Earth then?”
“Not my department.” The woman pointed to the far door. “That’s the bathroom. You’ve got five minutes and then I’ll be back to take you to the ship.”
* * *
Court
“You are really not going to go to the ship?”
Bran finished cutting up the warracot and placed it on a plate. He set the plate on the table and picked up Bella. He kissed her cheek and she giggled as he set her in her booster seat and pushed the chair closer to the table. She crowed in delight and shoved a piece of warracot into her mouth as her father smoothed her long dark hair with affection.
“Bran,” I said impatiently.
“No, I am not,” Bran said. “It is getting late, and I do not want to take Bella out into the storm. It will be past her bedtime by the time I return home with the human.”
“I can stay with her,” I said. “It was your idea to hire a human as a nanny, you should be the one to pick her up.”
“You know that Bella cannot sleep without our bedtime routine,” Bran said. “What is your problem, Court? It is not that far to the docking bay, and you have driven in bad weather before.”
“We will be lucky to make it home before the storm really hits,” I grumbled before glancing out the window at the dark clouds. “The pilots may not even be able to land the ship.”
Bran shrugged. “If not, we will pick her up after the storm ends.”
“It will last at least a moon.”
“I know.”
“I do not know why you even bothered to hire the human right now. The cold weather is here to stay, and we can care for Bella ourselves.”
“I hired her now because this will give Bella time to grow accustomed to her new nanny.” He smiled at the little girl who was still greedily eating the warracot. “You know she is shy and requires time to become comfortable with new people. If we are around while she is getting to know the human, it will be easier for her.”
Bran had a point, but I still wished he had waited until the warm months. Mainly because then I would be busy in the fields and spending very little time in the house. I had no wish to be anywhere near this new human, but the frequent storms during the cold months would force me to be in close contact with her.
I swallowed down my anger and disgust. Bella needed a nanny. We could no longer carry her on our backs while we worked in the fields. She was two and being carried around in a hot field all day was not fair to her. She needed to have the opportunity to play and learn like other small ones.
“You agreed to this, Court. Do not forget that.” Bran stared steadily at me.
“Do not forget that you agreed she would be a nanny and nothing more.”
Bran scowled. “It will not be an issue. You, more than anyone, should know that. Besides, the female is breeding incompatible. She is of no use to us other than as a nanny.”
“The female humans cannot be trusted, Bran. Remember that.”
“You speak to me as though I am a child.” Bran’s temper was rising. “You are not the only who suffered because of what she did.”
“Papa, juice.” Bella had finished the warracot and she gave her father a large smile. “Juice.”
Bran grabbed the plastic cup from the counter and checked that the lid was secure. “What do you say, meena?”
“Please,” Bella said. She grinned when Bran handed the cup to her and brandished it at me. “Juice,
Uda!”
“I see your juice, meena.”
“Drink, Uda.” She held her cup out to me.
“No, you must drink all of it so that you grow big and strong.”
She giggled and drank from the opening in the lid. Pink liquid trickled down her chin and she placed the cup on the table before wiping her chin. She licked the palm of her hand and giggled again.
As much as I hated the human who had forever fractured my relationship with my best friend, I couldn’t deny that without her, we would not have our sweet Bella. I bent and pressed a kiss against her forehead.
“You need to leave now to get to the docking bay in time,” Bran said.
I put on my cloak and buttoned it as Bran grabbed his tablet. “She has long dark hair, blue eyes and has large breasts and hips. Do you need to see her picture?”
“No. She will be implanted with an ID chip if I cannot find her.”
Bran rolled his eyes. “Your unwillingness to even look at the human I have hired is tiresome, Court. You must treat her with respect when she is here. Do you understand?”
“I understand.” I kissed Bella’s forehead again before leaving.
* * *
Evelyn
I studied the last plastic bag tucked into the side of the seat. I had already vomited twice into the other two plastic bags, and I was on the verge of throwing up again. The ride to the Draax planet was brutal, and the jolting and shaking of the ship was making every part of my body scream in pain. My kidneys were jarred with every air pocket we hit, and I was dangerously close to just screaming in pain. I held the screams back with a grim determination.
Sabrina was holding the bottom of her seat and she shouted, “It’ll be okay.”
I nodded and closed my eyes. The ship was going to crash, I knew it was. I didn’t want to see my approaching death, so I kept my eyes shut as a deafening noise nearly shattered my eardrums. I put my hands over my ears as the seat belt dug painfully into my side. The ship dipped and then dropped with a terrifying speed that ripped a soft scream of fear from my throat.
Rule (The Draax Series Book 2) Page 3