by Zara Zenia
“I need you so much,” Urie grunted as he entered me.
I bit into his shoulder to stifle a scream, felt my body being entered with such force that my legs buckled out from under me. And I was pinned to the pillar, impaled on his monstrous cock. I came in an instant with my juices falling to the ground in a puddle.
“Fuck,” he grabbed me tighter. “Uuuurgh!”
With one violent shudder, he reached his climax and leaned against me panting.
“You’re beautiful.”
He kissed the top of my head.
“Don’t listen to a word anyone says. You are my wife. It doesn’t matter what anyone says.”
Chapter 13
Urie
Go to the door marked with a red x. Tell no one and come alone when it’s dark.
“Young Urie… what does this mean?”
Oban was holding the note in front of my face.
“Give me that!”
I snatched it from his hand.
“It’s nothing.”
“If it’s nothing then why are you so pleased to have it?”
“Be quiet, Oban. Don’t you have some special advisory meeting to attend?”
He looked hurt and walked away, slamming the door on his way out of the study. I don’t even know why I let him in here. Ugh… he’s always snooping around in my things.
I clutched the note in my hand. The door marked with a red x… I knew exactly where that was.
I missed Samantha already. Every moment away from her hurt and I ached for the warmth of her body now and the way she caressed me as we slept in each other’s arms.
Celestial Mates’ warehouse was in the distance and I looked around to make sure no one was around. Of course, I told no one I was coming but now, in the dead of night, I realized how unsafe that was. Was it a trap? Walking the streets alone in the darkness made me an easy target.
You’re an idiot, Urie. You should have known better.
I reached the door and placed my hand upon the x. Below, a pin was stuck into the wood, holding a piece of paper in its clutches. I ripped it away.
Caston Diova
197649275xxx
Black Canyon
Traitor!
“Bastard!”
I crumpled the paper in my hand. It was time to find the treacherous beast who had sold us out to the X’Sorians.
The trucks hurtled through the desert. My heart was racing as though we were approaching battle. Beside me, my most trusted Shocktrooper guards stood tall and proud with their guns already pushed into their shoulder and their eyes fixed on their crosshairs.
“What do we know about him? Have you run his name through the database?” I asked the Shocktrooper captain.
“He’s an unknown, a sheer mystery.”
“How can that be?”
The captain gave me a blank look.
“I’m sorry, sir but I don’t know. It’s as it if he has not existed until this very day.”
I didn’t know what to think and looked up to the sky. Dawn was rising with the sun smearing its purple haze across the horizon.
“I will gut him,” I said.
“I think that would be too kind,” the captain smiled and gave me a wry look.
The canyon loomed up before us. Situated within the hollowed out ground was a cluster of buildings, dank little hovels where the worst of worst scraped together a meager and miserable living. These were close quarters where disease was rife and the smell was so bad it would send most civilians reeling back in horror with bile rising in their throats.
We parked on the edge of the canyon and looked down. Our boots crunched on the gritty, red sand. I couldn’t understand why people chose to live out here but then maybe there was no choice to make. Maybe it was made for them generations ago.
The homes, small box shaped dwellings, were stacked up upon one another like patchwork bricks. Children were waking up as their mothers began their morning chores.
“His home is not far from here.”
The captain pointed to a block in front of us.
“He lives in the third one to the left.”
“Ok,” I took a deep breath. “How do we do this without creating civilian casualties?”
He thought for a moment.
“My best bet would be to enter from the back. The further back into the compound you travel, the fewer families reside. There’s nothing but marrow dust smokers and degenerates back there.”
I ignored his last comment.
“Ok… Let us proceed.”
Already people were noticing us, they were scurrying inside their homes and bolting the doors shut.
“Urie, you’re coming with me,” the captain grabbed my shoulder. “Let’s go via the back stairs.”
We climbed them quickly, our feet stamping down on the ground making the steps tremble. My guards surrounded me from all angles but as per usual I wanted to be at the front of the action, wanted to take the lead. I overtook them all as I ran round a corner then I was there. The house of the traitor stood in front of me looking mundane and unassuming. There was no way you would have known a dangerous man lived inside, one that was capable of dispatching an assassin into the palace.
We raised our guns, prepared ourselves to enter. I stretched a leg, limbering it up in preparation for kicking in the door but before I got the chance, shots were fired. They flew out the door. A bullet hit the captain and he hit the ground, falling in a heap as blood ran from his chest.
“Empty them!” I yelled. “All of you empty your fucking clips!”
The door was destroyed. Bodies fell out into the doorway. Blood ran down the stairs in a river. It would seem the traitor knew to be protected. It was almost as if he knew we were coming. I pushed a new clip into my gun and continued to fire. I didn’t stop until there was so much blood on the stairs that it pooled up to my ankles.
“They’ve all been dispatched,” a guard told me. “We can stop now.”
I looked down to the captain. He had children just like I was soon to have, but there was no time to shed a tear for him. The fate of the planet depended on catching the traitor.
I ran into the house, still pumped up and ready to fight. I kicked in every door I saw as I blustered through the hell hole that was this sorry bastard’s home. It was empty.
“He escaped!”
Chapter 14
Samantha
8 Months Later
“Oh God! I’ve never felt anything like it!”
A scream ripped out of my throat. It was so visceral it sounded more like the cry of a wounded wolf. The contractions had started and it felt as though my body was being ripped in half. Urie was by my side, cradling my exhausted body as I cried. He held my hand and wiped the tears from my cheeks.
“The midwives are here,” he said softly.
They barged into the room, bustling all around me with weird instruments I didn’t recognize.
“This will only hurt a little,” one of them leaned over me.
She was holding a syringe filled with purple liquid. The needle was as long as my forearm, looked exactly like the one that was pushed into my skull all that time ago on board the ship.
“No!”
I tried to wriggle free from their grip.
“Please, calm down. This is a heavy painkiller and sedative and you will need it if you are to give birth.”
“Ok,” I gritted my teeth as the contractions rippled through my lower half. “Do what you have to.”
The needle didn’t hurt half as much as the contractions and after a moment I felt as though I was floating, drifting out of my body as the enigmatic purple juice did its job. The pain was still there, but somehow I couldn’t register it, I could only feel its heat as my pelvis expanded. There were voices all around me, terrified ones. I watched as the nurses hurried back and forth across the room picking up metal contraptions and beeping things all over my body.
“What the hell is happening? Is my baby ok?”
“Don’t worry, Samantha
. It’s under control.”
Urie looked down at me and I so desperately wanted to believe what he was saying but somehow I couldn’t. He was lying, everything wasn’t under control and his body betrayed his words as his eyes grew wide in fear.
“The baby needs to come out right now but it’s not possible!” a midwife cried.
“What do you mean it’s not possible?” Urie was raging, his fingernails digging into my arms as he held onto me.
Of course, I knew what was happening. It was my greatest fear. My body wasn’t created to bear the child of a mighty Ura-Than. I was being torn apart from the inside out as the beastly baby fought its way out of my body.
“She’s bleeding heavily,” one of them placed a towel on the bed.
I caught a glimpse of it filling with crimson blood in an instant. It was viscous and raw as though I was being gutted.
“Shit!” one of the midwives screamed.
I knew I was in danger then. Nurses didn’t swear. It was their job to deliver babies every day but now they were panicking, were losing their cool. The bed beneath me was soaking wet as my blood poured out. I felt myself becoming faint, could feel my body becoming lighter. My eyes rolled in my head as I failed to focus on what was in front of me.
“Stay with me!” Urie shouted as he slapped my face. “You’re going to make it, just stay with us!”
His voice became distant, began to float away into the ether.
“Samantha!”
It sounded as though it was traveling down a tunnel from another dimension. I parted my lips to speak but nothing came out. Just silence. The chaos all around me dissipated and seemed to fall away from my body then there was nothing. Just blackness.
When I opened my eyes the bright lights almost blinded me and I clenched my eyelids closed and shrunk away beneath the covers. There was a familiar sound outside. I thought it was shouting, angry yells from a city at war. But as I got my bearings and dragged myself up on my elbows I realized it was cheering.
“Congratulations!”
“A boy!”
“A prince!”
It was a boy. My little baby boy… I began to weep with happiness despite feeling numb from the waist down. I tried to swivel my legs off the side of the bed to stand but nothing was happening. I pulled back the bedsheets and saw blood covered bandages across my pelvis and legs. It was probably a good thing that I was unconscious for most of the birth. I didn’t even want to know what I looked like beneath the bloody gauze. I lay back down exhausted and listened to the cheering. A boy… I had a son. But where was he? No matter how much I tried to keep my eyes open they continued to fall, heavy like lead.
“A son,” I whispered. “My little boy…”
“Just coming to check your vitals.”
There was a pleasant voice beside me. Opening my eyes, I saw the friendly face of an old nurse. She was checking my pulse, her cold fingers pressed up against my throat.
“Oh you have some nasty scars here, like claw marks,” she mused.
“It’s a crazy story,” my voice croaked out of me, dehydrated and tired. “I’ll tell you about it sometime.”
She smiled and began pulling back the bed sheets.
“And how are you down there?” she asked casually.
“I can’t feel a thing.”
“Good,” she gave me a thumbs up with all four hands. “We gave you enough painkillers to knock out a cyborg. It should wear off in a day or so.”
“My boy!”
I struggled to sit up.
“Where is he? Can I see him?”
“Of course! He’s absolutely delightful,” she said with rosy cheeks. “A pure joy!”
She hurried from the room.
“She’s awake!” I heard her call down the hall. “Hurry!”
Heavy footsteps came bounding down the corridor and I recognized them immediately as being Urie’s.
“Samantha!” he beamed as he entered the room.
He was carrying a bundle in his arms. It seemed so tiny against his gargantuan frame. He sat on the edge of the bed and smiled.
“Are you ready to meet your son?”
I nodded as tears welled up in my eyes.
“Say hello to your mother, Urie Junior.”
I saw his face and thought my heart would burst. He looked just like his father in miniature form except where there was a proud nose on Urie, there was a snub little button nose. I reached down and kissed it, unable to stop the tears from falling onto his face.
“I feel like I might die of happiness!”
“He’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Urie leaned over and kissed his son on the forehead.
“An heir at last and what a fine warrior he will grow up to be.”
Chapter 15
Urie
Once again the table of advisors had their eyes on me but this time, they were excited with their voices chattering in a great hubbub of delight.
“What’s all the noise about?”
I sat down at the head of the table.
“We have news!” Oban announced.
He looked at his comrades and they all nodded up and down with glee.
“Yes, great news,” another counselor agreed.
“So then, is anyone going to tell me, or is it a great secret?”
Oban took a deep breath and pressed his fingers into his beard, stroking the long green hair that fell from his face.
“Since the last battle with the X’Sorians, we have been conducting tests. Remember the psionic attacks?”
“How could I forget!”
“Remember how they affected everyone around you but you were never touched. It was as if you were guarded by something special, something almost mystical.”
“Mystical… Well, I wouldn’t go that far but yes, it was definitely a strange occurrence.”
“We think it is your club.”
“The one I carved from-?”
“Yes… the one you love so dearly,” Oban stood up as he was too excited to sit down anymore.
He strode up and down the room, his hands waving manically as he spoke.
“We’ve thought of everything else and tested all other scenarios. The only other explanation is that the rock that you carved your much-beloved club out of is somehow repulsing the psionic attacks.”
I thought for a second, wrinkling up my forehead as I pressed my fingers into it.
“How can that be? I’ve never heard of anything like that in my entire life!”
“Nature is something to be marveled at,” Oban explained with a wide smile on his face. “It does the most extraordinary things.”
“You’re telling me… A rock exists that can fight of psionic attacks?”
It almost seemed unbelievable. Surely if this were true then it would have been discovered long ago.
“If this really is the case then we need to act fast! We need to mass produce this, make sure that every soldier in the Shocktrooper elite has the power of this rock. I will not lose another man to the psionic attacks.”
“You mirror my thoughts exactly, young Urie,” Oban placed a hand on my shoulder. “But of course, we cannot be entirely certain.”
“But what else could it be?”
I stood up and joined him by the window.
“We are not sure but we have other theories.”
“May I interrupt?” a voice came from behind me.
Sat at the end of the table was one of my minor advisors, a plump little man with a wisp of gray hair and a mouth that was so thin it was almost lipless. His eyes were beady and black and his hands pudgy like sausages. Until this very moment, I had never heard him speak.
“Go ahead,” I gestured for him to speak.
“I think the only other theory that may make sense is that you, Urie, have the most brilliant psychic ability.”
“Me? Psychic?” I laughed.
“I don’t see why not. I mean it would explain why the attacks never affected you.”
“But I’ve never had a psychic experience in my life and besides if it were true then wouldn’t it be strange that it only manifested itself at the exact moment of the psionic attacks?”
“He has a point,” Oban said.
“Yes but not if you subconsciously controlled it because you were in a time of crisis.”
“That also makes sense,” Oban nodded seriously.
“Whose side are you on?” I playfully slapped his shoulder.
“I can’t help it. Both of you have made very valid points.”
“The point is,” the pudgy man chimed in. “Is that if it actually is a psychic ability of yours then you need to learn how to harness it, need to understand how to control it.”
“How do I do such a thing?”
Everybody glanced at one another as though I’d asked the most complicated question they’ve ever heard.
“The answer is that we don’t know,” Oban sighed. “We’ll still have to conduct more tests.”
“More tests…” I said without an ounce of conviction. “Then what?”
The room was silent. It would seem that the good news wasn’t so good after all but was instead completely bewildering. I felt as though we were no further forward. It came down to the wisdom inside a rock or whether I was psychic or not.
“Gentlemen… I’m not really sure where we go from here,” I said as I took my seat once again.
“I think we’re in a good place,” the pudgy man at the end said as he clasped his fingers together. “On one hand we don’t know very much at all, yet on the other hand, we at least have some leads, push off points from which we can discover more.”
“That’s absolutely right,” Oban joined in. “Push off points that we can build on.”
“Whatever,” I shook my head. “Just find me some answers.
Chapter 16
Samantha
“My little Urie Junior…” I cooed.
Tickling his tummy and hearing him squeal was the best sound I’d ever heard. It was like music that fired off a rush of endorphins in my brain. No matter how many times I held him or how long I looked at him, the feeling of joy never faded and I loved him more than I could ever describe. It was like a bursting sun in my heart, like being enveloped in a warm blanket of love, of knowing that as long as I live, I will always have the precious gift of motherhood. If only I could have a few days of privacy to enjoy it.