by Maia Starr
“Come,” I said quietly, wishing with all I had that we hadn’t been able to find this human, even if it meant a victory for the opposition. It would have been better to know she was safe and sound at home on Earth, in her own bed, and with her own people. They wouldn’t hurt her. Not like this. “I have news for you that may bring you peace.”
The human sat up, abruptly and rigidly, her deep blue eyes boring into mine and making my heart thud dully in my chest. I had to keep it together.
“There is nothing that you could ever say that would bring me peace. I won’t tell you anything you want to know. I will not betray humankind.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “But isn’t it true that you want to get out of here?”
“What prisoner wants to stay in the confines of her cage?” the human demanded.
Now she was back on her feet, the fire in her eyes that had first drawn me to her captivating me and holding me still where I stood once again. There was no doubt in my mind. This was the female for me.
“No, no prisoner wishes such a thing for themselves,” I agreed, moving slowly, carefully to the door of her cage and letting myself in. She moved as far away from me as she could, pinning her back against the far corner of the cell. I held my hands up as if to show her I meant no harm, and she relaxed a little, but only slightly.
“You have no business in here with me,” she said darkly.
I opened my mouth to respond, but all I could manage to do was look at her. I studied the golden cascade of hair that fell on her shoulders, and the blue eyes that stared at me with anger and trepidation. She had such small, unremarkable features compared to the females of the Verian species, but somehow, they brought all of my senses to life. Everything from her arched brow to her full lips made me awaken with a longing to have her closer to me: to feel what it meant to earn her trust.
But that was ridiculous. She wanted nothing to do with me, and I couldn’t blame her in the least. I was the enemy, pure and simple. I had abducted her. I had stolen her away to a foreign planet and subjected her to the cruelties and abuses of the insecure Arke. And that was something I would have trouble forgiving myself for the rest of my life. I could only imagine how the human might feel about the whole thing.
“My business is not with you personally, but with the people of Earth,” I said quietly. “No, I do not intend to hurt you, and neither shall you be hurt with me present. I will take a post here to protect you from the cruelties of interrogation.”
The human’s eyes studied me, skepticism, and something else, something much harder to read, dancing in her beautiful eyes.
“It isn’t because I wish to help you,” I said quickly, though obviously, I knew that this was a deep, dark lie. “It is because I wish to help my people to move forward in their evolution as a species. And I feel that neglecting the rules of conduct for prisoners of war is a blight on our moral potential as Verian men.”
“I really don’t give a damn what kind of crusade you think you’re on, man,” the human said darkly. “You’re not going to get anything out of me. Even if you did stop these men from coming into my cell and seeing what it takes to make me bleed with those dull knives of theirs, I’m not going to tell you anything.”
“What if I promise to protect you? Here, every day. To keep you out of harm’s way,” I said, desperate to see her relax a little, for her to feel safe despite her situation. I knew it was a lot to ask, but it was all I wanted for her.
“You can’t promise that, and the only reason you would is to get something from me. I don’t want to owe you anything, so spare yourself the trouble.”
The human’s face was black, brown, and teal colored, and I frowned and touched it. She flinched away from me and turned her back.
“Please just get out of here,” she said quietly. “I don’t want anything you think you can give me. I don’t know how to make that any clearer to you.”
I sighed and stood. “Whether you tell me anything or not, I do want to protect you. It is upon my honor that I vow to do so, whether you want me to or not.”
The human turned to face me, and I flinched away in surprise. This time, her face was no longer angry, but afraid.
“Please, just let me go home,” she whispered, her marble-like eyes filling with tears. “I just want to go back home. There is something I need to finish. Something so important…”
I could still hear the men outside the shed cackling and making lewd jokes about what I might be doing with the prisoner inside of her cell, so I knew it was about time to bring the conversation to a close.
“I will consider your requests if you cooperate,” I said, my voice low enough that nobody on the outside would overhear me. “I ask only one thing in return.”
The human clearly didn’t know whether or not she could trust me, and she blinked her thickly lashed eyes slowly at me as we stared at each other—me doing everything in my power not to give in to my impulse to touch her again, and she probably doing her best not to give in to her impulse to smack me. Still, she mustered up enough courage to stare me in the eye and face the proposition head on.
“What would you want from me?” she asked, her chin high in the air, even as her voice wavered in fear and defiance.
“Just one simple thing,” I said quietly. “Please, just tell me your name.”
The human looked at me as if I were mental, but then her face softened, and she looked down at her hands.
“My name is Ariel,” she answered. “Doctor Ariel Landon.”
I could feel my body grow light with elation and I smiled broadly at the human, bowing deeply at her.
“Thank you,” I said. “My name is Commander Pyre Juno.”
And with that, I left her cell, determined that from that moment onward, I would do everything within my power to protect the human at all costs.
***
“Human, it is meal time.”
Ariel refused to look at Arke, and I frowned. It had been three days into her captivity, and yet this was the first time they had offered the human any sustenance. If they chose to starve her rather than to allow her a meal, I wouldn’t be able to bear it. It took only seven days on Earth, roughly the same amount of time on Helna, to kill a human, and she already looked like she was in rough shape.
“You must eat,” I said firmly, ignoring the sour look on Arke’s face. He was always over the top when it came to punishments; he had a lot to prove to himself since his masculinity had been all but robbed from him. My disease for some reason was very slow-moving, and because of that, I had maintained a very powerful position both within the Verian government and among the opposition.
“How do I know I can trust any of the food you jerks bring me?” Ariel asked, her eyes flashing out at me. I would get her out of there as soon as I could. I had to. She wasn’t doing very well in there at all. I could sense it. It was impossible not to pity the poor human.
“I suppose you can’t trust anything of the sort,” I said, looking out the window coyly at the short, long-haired Pelin men standing outside with trays of food over their heads. “But maybe you can trust these men.”
I snapped my fingers, and soon, a small parade of Pelin was marching to the cell, depositing trays underneath the bars of the door. The small shed was filled with the appetizing scent of Pelin cooking; as far as the Verians were concerned, they were the best in the galaxy. Unfortunately, the resources of Helna were severely limited and, day by day, our ability to vary the dishes we ate and served dwindled drastically.
I could tell by Ariel’s face that she was also affected by the scent of the food as it filled the space around us, and glanced down at the trays with longing and apprehension etched clearly on her face.
“What do you expect me to do?” she asked with a sigh. “Trust that you’re just going to feed me after all you’ve already done?”
I looked her in the eye. “It’s the least we could do. And we do the same for the other prisoners as well. You just happen to be a spec
ial case.”
She glared at me as if she wanted to say something else, but instead seemed to think better of it and hesitantly lifted the lid of one of the silver trays on the floor of her cell.
A funny little gurgle came from the human’s stomach, and she swallowed hard.
“I promise you,” I said firmly. “No harm will come to you from eating that food. You must be well-nourished. The knowledge you harness is valuable. We would be foolish to let you waste away.”
Arke nodded in agreement, and upon seeing his movement, Ariel clamped the lid of the tray back down and backed away from the food.
“I would rather die than help you!” Ariel shouted.
“Leave us,” I commanded, turning to face the small group of Verians and Pelins in the building. Arke opened his mouth, blubbering in disbelief, but I couldn’t have him risk dealing with the human any longer. “You’re clearly doing no good with her here. I would like to take full command of the prisoner.”
“You don’t have the right!” Arke shouted. “We’re doing just fine here without you!”
“I don’t have the right?” I demanded, arching my brow. I opened my vest and pointed to the official crest on the badge I was wearing inside. “I out-rank you, Arke. And if you’d like to dispute my authority, we can see what the Doyan has to say about this. But for today, it is your job to respect my orders, and I want you and your men out of here so that I can deal with the prisoner myself. I’m tired of you krochas messing everything up! Tell me, what have you learned? Absolutely nothing. The cause is still lost and will stay lost if the task stays in your hands. Now leave!”
“The Doyan will surely hear about this,” Arke said darkly, motioning for his troops to follow him out the door. “By this time tomorrow, you had better believe that you aren’t going to be allowed to set foot through these doors.”
“We will see about that,” I said, refusing to take my eyes off of Arke. He knew that I was stronger than he was. There was no reason to fight any longer. Even pride could only go so far in a battle such as this. Still, he was right. The Doyan had put Arke and his men in charge for a reason. He wasn’t going to like me changing the rules on him.
“Fine,” Arke growled, slamming the door open and marching outside. “But this isn’t the end. You’re going to regret this, Yul Pyre! And mark my words…”
Arke’s voice grew muffled as I slammed the door in his face and the human let out a quiet laugh.
“Really,” I said, turning to her. “You must eat.”
Ariel cut her laugh off, and I gazed into the perfect roundness of her mysterious eyes. Never before had I felt such a thing for a female before. Now I could understand the thrill that many Verian warriors described in regard to their females. I had to admit: it was both distracting and intoxicating. But I had to keep the task at hand in the forefront of my mind if we were going to succeed.
“What do I eat with?”
I was surprised, and we spent the next few minutes undergoing an impromptu lesson in Verian dining etiquette. Ariel got the hang of it much faster than I anticipated, and soon she was slowly eating the food that the Pelin had left out in front of her, closing her eyes in appreciation every so often. I wondered if it was simply because the food was very good, or if she wanted to avoid looking at me. Either way, I could tell that she enjoyed it.
“What did you think?” I asked when she finished, clearing the dishes away and stacking them near the door for the Pelin to retrieve.
“I have never tasted anything like it,” Ariel said, still refusing to look me in the eye. But at least she was talking to me. I took it as a good sign.
“Well, the Pelin feel indebted to the Verian race. They like to do things like cooking for us.”
“Good for you,” Ariel said bitterly, her beautiful face creased with resentment. “You have slaves all over the galaxy, don’t you?”
“Slaves?” I asked, frowning. “We don’t have any such thing.”
“Oh, you just call them prisoners, then,” she grumbled.
I shifted on my feet. I certainly took offense to her words, but unleashing my terrifying temper on a small female seemed in poor taste.
“You are doing no good in making an enemy of me,” I warned her, doing everything possible to keep the fury out of my voice. But she was walking a fine line.
“Really? Because last I checked, you were the enemy,” Ariel said, her deep blue eyes piercing into mine. I sighed deeply, doing my best to even my breathing before I said or did anything I would regret. I did not want her to compare me to Arke. I wanted to claim her, not kill her.
“It would be nice if you knew as much about things as everyone seems to think you do,” I said darkly instead. “But you need to guard your secrets from these men. They are not going to do you or me any favors if they get any information out of you. What do they know?”
The human blanched suddenly and averted her eyes away from me. So she had told them something. But was it enough?
“Ariel, this is important. I can find out on my own what you’ve said if you choose not to tell me.”
“It’s just obscure data,” she whispered. “I don’t know what they injected me with or what I told them afterward. All I know is that I was in pain the entire time.”
I frowned deeply. It might already be too late. If we were going to give the opposition an edge in this race against time, then we would have to act fast.
“Do you think it was enough that the Verians could win the war against the humans?” I demanded, slamming my fist down on the small wooden table across from her cell. Arke’s small saucer full of oka rattled fiercely, and the human flinched away from me, fear and resentment flashing in her eyes.
“I don’t know!” she exclaimed. “Why do you guys keep pestering me and asking me questions that I just don’t know how to answer? Can’t you just leave me alone?”
I stood my full height, at least a head and a half taller than the human, and studied her coldly. “The time is not yet right for us to let you go. And when we do, all that will happen is that you will be taken to a camp and bred like all the other females of Earth. Is that what you want?”
“You’re such an ass!” she exclaimed, kicking weakly at the bars of her cell.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Fighting with the human because I was agitated about my situation wasn’t going to help anything. It would be better to just give her some space and go collect my thoughts. I was the strongest man left on Helna currently; as far as the men who hadn’t regained their strength through breeding were concerned, anyway. All of the Verian men who were born or had become super soldiers were stationed in the war zone.
I, however, was needed on the ground of my home planet and forced to continue enduring the strains of working as a double agent of the Verian government and of the opposition. It was a difficult position, and if the Doyan ever found out about my place among the rebels, I would be imprisoned and tortured for life. Death would be a welcome release if that were the case. It would make it especially dangerous to free her.
But none of that mattered. I had vowed to myself, and now to my men, to rescue the human, and that was exactly what I was going to do.
Chapter 3
Dr. Ariel Landon
“Human. Good morning.”
“There’s nothing good about being here,” I mumbled, rolling over and trying to ignore the wave of heat that Pyre’s voice always seemed to ignite in me. It was probably just a reaction to the fear and adrenaline I felt in the face of these dangerous beings from Helna. I knew I shouldn’t give it too much consideration.
“That’s good to hear,” he said, surprising me with the pleasant candor of his voice. “Because we are leaving now.”
“Leaving?”
I paused and looked at the Verian man, for the first time taking in his dazzling white suit and the uncharacteristically casual way he was wearing his long, silver hair.
“What is this?” I demanded just as realization slowly dawn
ed on me. I gasped, covering my mouth with my hand. “You’re not aligned with the military, are you?”
The Verian froze, and I grinned privately. I knew it.
“Who I am is none of your concern. What you need to do is start behaving before this situation gets any worse for you.”
“Behave?” I asked, quirking my brow at him. He stiffened, and I couldn’t help but laugh. For being so strong and masculine, it sure didn’t take a whole lot to make him uncomfortable.
“This is a serious situation,” Pyre said, his mysterious eyes locked on mine. “If you are not silent, I will be forced to take some precautions.”
Pyre dipped into the pocket of his snug white pants and pulled out a small case. He opened it to show me that inside was a needle and a thick yellow serum. I frowned, but he seemed serious enough that I obeyed.
He pocketed the serum, and I watched as he rummaged through the room, pausing to rifle through stray documents only to discard them in a fury. Finally, he approached my cell, his eyes angry and wild.
“You are coming with us, human,” Pyre said, sending a jolt of fear through my body. He didn’t look like the same man who had abducted me at that moment. He looked savage and uncivil, as if he were doing everything he possibly could to keep together his self-control. I was terrified of what might be lurking on the other side of that hard-won composure.
I didn’t resist this time as he gripped my shoulder in his big hand, his long, slender fingers digging into my flesh firmly, but not painfully. He pushed me to the back of the shed, away from the doorway, and I frowned in confusion. What exactly was he planning to do with me?
Just then, a tiny, almost imperceptible beam of light shone through a small crack in the building, and Pyre pushed it forward. At first, I thought that the building was going to collapse entirely, but I was shocked to find that the wall opened up into a small tunnel.
“Go through here, and do not speak. Listen to the yul leading you as if your life depended on it.”
Pyre spoke his words quickly and quietly in English, then closed the opening. I was abruptly cut off from the serious lines of his handsome face, the savage energy behind his eyes. It was disconcerting, but I wasn’t sure I missed him very much this time.