by Lara LaRue
Willoughby answered, “Reynauld called our office in a panic after the attack. He was in over his head. When I reviewed the communications and records of the program, it was obvious that when he interviewed for the job, he faked several of his references and commendations. I’ve taken over. The program will now fall under the oversight of my office.”
“And who are you?” Baelon continued just as bluntly.
“I’m President Maeda’s secretary of state. We’ll be coordinating with the Department of Security, and we can get resources from the Defense and Justice if need be to ensure a smooth recovery of Ms. Knight.” Willoughby’s answer was slick and well-prepared. I had no doubt that he and Maeda had rehearsed it on the way over to meet us.
Baelon continued his interrogation. As these were questions I wanted answers to as well, I let him continue. I liked Ken, but these mistakes were simply unforgivable. “What department was over the Peace Program? The Department of Ineptitude?”
Willoughby’s calm response was a stark contrast to Baelon’s heat. “The Department of Science and Advancement, sir. Your Majesty, if I may?” He turned to me.
“Yes?” I answered.
“How did your government decide which DNA to send to us to use for the experiment? How did you know it would work?”
“We sent mine,” I answered. “The royal lineage is the most genetically pure, with little degradation.”
He blinked at me slowly, then removed his spectacles and polished them before replacing them on his face. “It makes sense that you would send the best sample. However, if a human were inoculated with your personal DNA and survived, that would mean that she has a compatible biology to your own.”
And that explained the mark. If she weren’t my life mate, it would have killed her like the others. It helped my confusion to draw these connections, but I hated the idea of the setback costing lives. Mixing our genes with humanity was a huge gamble. And we didn’t yet know if it would work.
I took a deep breath and offered the two humans more honesty than I had before now. “Our Council hasn’t approved this treaty yet. The Council will not agree to this exchange on a planet-wide scale if it isn’t feasible. There was only one way to proceed with the biological trials.”
They both blinked back at me in surprise and said nothing, so I went on, “The treaty is actually just between your planet and my family. I couldn’t ask someone else in my family to send DNA for an experiment, so I had them send mine. If it works, then I have proof for our council to go planet-wide.”
“Is that why the crest appeared on her skin? Would some other family crest have appeared if other DNA had been sent?” Baelon sounded curious.
T’ral answered, “No. Traditionally, the crest appears on the life mate’s skin after the bonding ceremony, which is a blood exchange. The DNA we sent had no blood traces. We double-checked the samples before we left. Also, historically, no other families have ever had life mates with visible skin markings—only the royal family.”
“Perhaps the exposure to your DNA was enough,” Willoughby ventured.
Baelon was still skeptical. “So even with a personal treaty with the royalty of another planet, you assigned an incompetent man to the task?”
“Baelon, enough,” T’ral interrupted.
I stayed quiet, just lifting an eyebrow. I wanted them to work out their dispute without my intervention.
“No, T’ral, I’m not sure it is enough,” Maeda interjected. “He has a point. We let Reynauld have too much slack, and Ms. Knight and the other volunteers paid for our mistake. We won’t make a mistake like that again. You have ambassadorial quarters waiting for you here in the Center. I’ll be staying next door until this matter is resolved.”
“Sir…” Willoughby began.
“No, Derek, we need a show of solidarity with the Juhlians. We need to show our citizens that we fully support this peace initiative. I feel we have not done so prior to now. By giving the assignment to an underqualified individual, we did not show our people how important it was to us. They must think we’re not endorsing this treaty, when, in fact, we need it. Get the two topmost floors. We’ll reserve the highest one for Raevu and myself, and the one just beneath for his warriors and our security detail. If we need more space than that, continue taking over whole floors as a safeguard.”
“Yes, sir,” Willoughby conceded. “I’ll make it happen.” He turned and left the room, speaking into his communication device as he went.
Maeda turned to me, “Now what, Raevu?”
I smiled slightly, finally getting the sense that something around here was being done properly. “I’m impressed, Ken.”
“It’s time. Policy stands, but we need to uphold it and reinforce it. This is a start.”
Maeda and I watched my warriors converge on T’ral. He pulled up a data screen and began compiling information. One by one, the four that had spread out through the Center came back and added their details to the rest of the gathered intelligence.
T’ral’s fingers flew across the screen. Baelon pulled out his own data screen and watched the data organizing itself within the display. I waited for their conclusions.
A chime rang through the room. My warriors went on guard and moved into defensive positions around me. A rich but strangely emotionless male voice sounded over the intercom.
“Mr. President, Your Majesty, there is an incoming transmission. I am attempting to track its source, but it is encrypted. I will send all information to Lord T’ral’s data communicator as I receive and decode it.”
“Who was that?” I barked, wary.
“Thank you, Geoffrey. Hold the transmission for a moment, please,” Maeda said as he turned a mild expression on me. “Geoffrey is a computer interface we assigned to Ms. Knight. Unfortunately, Reynauld did not think to put a communication chip in her lapel so Geoffrey could track her and reassure her of our progress.”
“Geoffrey, who is calling?” I asked.
“Unknown, sire. As it is encrypted and coming to Ms. Knight’s suite, I’m assuming it could be her kidnappers. May I patch it through? I will continue to collect information as it relays.”
Willoughby started to protest, but Maeda held up a hand, and I ordered, “Yes, Geoffrey, patch it through.”
The monitor flashed to life on the wall, and we all turned to face the screen.
The focus of the picture was a man dressed completely in black, including a black mask. He couldn’t disguise his eyes, though. They had a wild, gleeful gleam in them, almost crazed.
Immediately, my rage burst from the tight hold I’d had it under, and I spat out at him, “I know your face from when she pulled your mask off. The mask does you no good.”
He snatched off his mask and sneered at us through the communicator. “That’s fine. I don’t care if a blue alien freak knows who I am.” His voice was a high wheeze, as if his throat had been damaged.
His ashy, blond hair and pale skin appeared washed out against the black turtleneck he had on. “We’re the Humans for Humanity League, and you won’t be taking any human women from this planet,” he declared in a righteous fury.
“Is that so?” I replied, unimpressed.
“Yes! Every woman you attempt to kidnap we will free from your alien clutches. We will shut down the ‘Peace Program,’ which is nothing but human trafficking, and we will liberate our women to live happy lives where they belong. Here on Earth with human males!” He shook his skinny fists at the screen.
President Maeda cut into his tirade, “Where is Eva Knight?”
“Ah, Mr. President, finally we get the recognition we deserve.” The terrorist’s scratchy tenor voice was grating on my nerves, and all I wanted to do was leap through the screen and strangle him. But I held still and silent, waiting for his answer.
He smirked. “She’s fine. She’s right here with me.” He stepped to one side to reveal a figure sitting in a chair behind him. No, not sitting, at least not voluntarily. Tied to it and struggling against h
er bonds. My anger flared anew. Eva didn’t look hurt, but her eyes held so much anger it made me want to rip off the man’s head.
He scuttled over to where she wrestled against her restraints. Now that he was next to her, the microphone clipped to his collar picked up her voice, and we could hear how she yelled against the gag in her mouth.
“Trust me. She has plenty of human fire to give to a human male.” He reached out a hand, cupped her breast, and gave it a squeeze. She bucked in protest to the touch, rage in her eyes. I took an involuntary step forward. How dare he touch her?
The pervert’s lips twisted, wet and trembling. “She likes my touch. See how she arches into it?”
What I could see was Eva’s jawline firm in threat as she grew very still. My guess was that her thoughts were very similar to my own…I’ll kill you.
“She, like all human women, craves the touch of a man. A human man’s touch.” The man took his hand away and slipped it under the top front of her dress. “Human women’s nipples grow nice and hard when a man tweaks them a bit. Give them a nice little pinch, and they’re perfect—”
Just then, Eva struck. The man had leaned over a bit to watch himself play with her breast. She slammed her head forward and into his face. Blood immediately gushed from his nose and lip. My rage at her being mauled shifted slightly at her fighting spirit. I hoped she’d broken his nose.
His hands flew to his face, and blood drizzled out from between his fingers. For a few moments, all the man did was choke and stagger back as his eyes and nose both streamed blood.
“You crazy bitch!” Striding forward again, the kidnapper backhanded her across the face with enough force to knock her chair over to the floor.
I growled and stepped closer to the screen. T’ral and Baelon were hurriedly exchanging words behind me, but I only had attention for the woman on the screen. Her gag must have been knocked loose by the blow and the fall because she spat it out and started to speak in a low, controlled voice. “You fucking bastard. Touch me again, and I’ll kill you. Do you hear me?” She licked her lips and turned her head to wipe her mouth on her shoulder. A smear of blood was left behind. “Untie me now, you nasty son of a bitch. You didn’t rescue me. You took me hostage!”
“Cunt! You’ll regret that. You broke my nose!” He held a rag to his face and turned back to the communicator. “These are our terms: she gets released when the alien freaks have left our planet and have promised not to return ever again. That’s all. They go away, she goes home.” And the screen went black.
“We need to track down her captors and rescue her at once!” I pivoted on my heel to see what my advisers had come up with. I hoped it was a plan of action that ended with me killing that human idiot with my bare hands. No other outcome would satisfy me…or the anger that boiled inside.
Chapter 7
Eva
The first thing I noticed when I woke up after being kidnapped was the pain in my head. Sharp and throbbing, it felt like an illness coming on. My thirst intensified it, but I focused first on the stinging radiating outward from the center of my forehead. I lifted my hand to investigate the spot for a bump or abrasion. To my surprise, I felt both hands coming toward my head. My hands were bound together. My eyes flew open. Everything was still dark, but this time, it was because the lights were off. I used my tied hands to push myself to a seated position.
I had no idea where I could possibly be. All around me were vague shapes and looming shadows. Fuck. How was I going to get out of here? Who the hell were these crazy bastards, and what did they want from me?
As if responding to a cue, a door clicked open then a harsh light flashed on overhead. It took a moment and some blinking to be able to adjust my eyes to the light.
Three men dressed in black walked toward me. The one in front was tall, moderately built, with almost white hair, pale gray eyes, and ashy skin. There was nothing remarkable about him except, perhaps, his lack of remarkable features.
The second man was shorter and rather pudgy, with dark brown hair and cold black eyes. The third stayed back from the others. He acted unsure of the men. He was tall and gangly, balding, and seemed nervous as he kept scanning the room, not letting his eyes rest on any one thing for too long.
I noticed that he kept watching the other men when he thought they weren’t looking. Almost as if he didn’t quite trust them.
“Good, you’re awake,” the man in front spoke with a rough, nasally tenor voice. It grated on my nerves. “We’ve liberated you from your captors. You’re free.”
“Captors?” I croaked. Talking made me cough. It hurt, and I was appalled at how feeble my voice and cough sounded. I cleared my throat and tried for more oomph. “You’re the ones who have me tied up. You’re my captors. Set me free.” I held up my tied hands awkwardly.
“Oh no, lady. We can’t have you running from here to the authorities. They’d just hand you over to those alien freaks. We’re holding on to you for your own good, until those alien creatures are off our planet, never to be heard from again.” He shifted his weight, leering at me.
“I was being monitored medically when you grabbed me. For all I know, I could be contagious or something. Or you could be denying treatment I need to survive. Certainly, you’re not helping me one bit by tying me up.” I struggled against the ropes that bound my wrists and calves, but I couldn’t budge them.
He shook his head with a smirk. “You were in the Center’s ambassadorial guest quarters, not put up in some random hotel. You’re important somehow.” His smirk dropped into a frown as he peered at me mockingly. “You don’t look it. You look average and frumpy.”
I bristled under his scrutiny. Average and frumpy? But I knew nothing would be gained by trying to reason with an ignorant asshole like him. I turned to the short one. “Surely you see the ridiculousness of this whole—”
“Shut it, bitch,” He cut me off before I could even get started with my plea. “You have some sort of alien mark on you. Dashon should just go ahead and kill you now. You’re probably already contaminated flesh, tainted by the aliens.”
“Wow,” I hissed, “both of you clearly need a psych intervention.” Shit. It seemed the coldness in his eyes reached as far as his heart. I promised myself to avoid being alone with him if at all possible. The first guy was crazy, and this one was full of bitter hatred.
I turned to the third. I licked my lips again and spoke softly, “May I go to the restroom?”
He glanced uncertainly at the other two men and then moved toward me.
“Cleve? Really?” the cold one protested. “Don’t coddle the bitch.”
The one called Cleve continued toward me. His voice was low and gentle. “I’m not coddling her. She’s a human female we’re rescuing from the aliens. She’s not to blame for any of this.” Cleve looked up at the cold one and scowled. “It was supposed to be a rescue, not a hostage taking. Did you forget that?”
The hateful one stared hard at him, face pulled down into an almost comically huge frown, but Cleve just stared back at him implacably and kept moving, until the other looked away and started sulking.
Cleve stopped in front of me. “I’ll take you to the bathroom, miss.”
“Go ahead, Cleve, take her,” Crazy spat.
I muttered to the nutcase, “You’re definitely a big fucking hero of the human race. Not.” He just tittered as Cleve crouched to untie my ankles.
“Don’t listen to him. We really did intend to rescue you,” Cleve said, but that just got laughter from the other two.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Give her a communication unit and the controller to the monitor so she can watch her favorite shows too.” Cold threw up his hands and rolled his eyes theatrically. “Who cares if she’s not even entirely human anymore. She’s not dangerous or anything like that.”
“Shut up already. We really were supposed to be there to free her, no matter how fucked up your morals are, you bitter prick.” Cleve held my arm and helped me to my unsteady feet. I desp
erately wanted to ask for something for my pounding head, but I figured that’d be a mistake in front of the other two men.
He helped me walk to the doorway and down a short hall to a tiny, dingy bathroom. I needed his support much more than I wanted to. There, he released me and told me he’d wait for me outside. I held my tied hands out toward him.
“No.” He spared an anxious glance down the hall. “I’d better not. I’m sorry. Do your best.” He turned his back to me.
Trying to figure out how this was going to work, I closed the door. There was no lock. As I walked over to the toilet, I shot a glance about the room. Only about five feet square, it had no windows, no cabinets, and nothing I could arm myself with.
I reached down and hitched up the hem of my dress, noting the smears and small tears on it. No wonder I felt so bruised. On top of the whatever-flu symptoms I had, I’d been tossed around like a bag of rice. Seriously, some rescuers these fuckers are! I’d take fifteen “hostile alien abductions” by Raevu over another minute with these asswipes.
Clumsily, I tucked one side of my dress under my armpit and reached for the other. It received the same treatment, then I scooped my thumb under the top edge of my panties, pushing them down while wriggling my hips back and forth in an awkward motion. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be fast enough, but just in time, the fabric slid over the curves of my butt to my thighs. I sat down with a sigh of relief. Phew. I’m sure that freak outside would enjoy it if he found out I peed my panties.
I had to figure out a way out of here. I didn’t care where I was. Surely, I could simply report myself to any authorities, and they’d get me back to the Center. I’d just have to keep my eyes open for an opportunity. I wouldn’t let the aches and pains slow me down, either.
I cleaned up and reversed my wriggle process to try to get my panties all the way up. That done, I hesitated in coming back out. I figured this was the only privacy I was going to get, so I paced back and forth trying to think of options. Knowing none of my resources, I came up empty. Fuck.