"Do you have somewhere to stay?" he asked, his eyes darting from her to the door.
"Yes, don’t worry I’ll be fine," she assured him. He seemed concerned for her welfare. But agitated.
"But where can we get in touch with you should we need to know your whereabouts," he asked, and off the top of her head Melanie reeled off the name of a nearby motel she’d passed on the walk here. Its flashing neon sign had a couple of letters unlit. It had caught her attention.
~ * ~
"Now what?" Reve asked as she headed to it along the main street. Traffic trundled by, the fumes from the exhaust pipes making her feel slightly sick. Or was it nervous tension?
"I have no idea. All I can think of is, I go there and wait. Pederman must have strong links inside the force to have survived so long. He’ll soon find out where I am, and come after me. Then it’s up to you to kill him for me. But whatever you do, Reve, don’t make it look as if I’ve murdered him, for then I’ll be in big trouble."
"You can leave it to me."
Melanie knew that for certain. How would he accomplish it though?
"Have no fear, Mel-aanie, one thing I promise you This evil man will perish." There was a thread of steel in the vow.
They had reached the office of the motel. The door set off a bell as they entered the dingy foyer. Wiping her hands on a tea towel, the receptionist came from the rear.
"I’d like a double room," Melanie said, and the woman nodded, giving her a form to sign. She didn’t seem to think it odd she’d arrived alone at this late hour with no luggage. The woman obviously presumed she had a male friend joining her. Melanie paid with her bankcard and was handed a key.
"Room seven." With another nod she watched Melanie walk out.
There were only eight units in the block set around a small car parking area. "This is very primitive," Reve remarked as they entered number seven. He wasn’t kidding. It was a dump. But at least the bed coverings looked clean.
"You think this is primitive, you should see some of the third rate rooms and apartments around. This is quite luxurious." Melanie heard his snort of disbelief as she sat on the edge of the king size bed and tossed off her boots. Crossing her leg over her knee, she rubbed her toes and felt Reve’s presence beside her on the bed.
"Let me," he offered, taking over the task. She sighed as he massaged one foot, then the other. His fingers were like magic, easing away all the aches.
"We haven’t time for this," she said, not really meaning it, when his lips caressed the side of her neck. His hot breath was like a wisp of silk brushing her skin.
"There is always time for pleasure." His tongue sought out the sensitive point behind her ear, then his teeth nibbled on the lobe and made her catch her breath. "If you decide to stay on this noisy, smelly, dirty, planet you call home, we may never get the chance to taste such delights again." His voice came as a whisper.
Melanie let out a long sigh. The thought of never sharing passion with him ever again made her feel hollow inside, desolate.
"Oh Reve," she murmured.
"Come, close your eyes, and let me help you relax," he coaxed.
Before she knew she had moved she found herself naked and wanting, face down on the bed.
"Don’t worry, it is all in the mind," he whispered at her ear as she allowed him to pull her deeper into his sensual trap.
~ * ~
Melanie woke with a start. The room was in darkness except for the flickering shadows dancing across the floor from the neon sign at the entrance to the motel.
"What was that?" she whispered. As she pushed herself onto her elbows, she saw she was fully clothed again. The garments felt restricting.
A quiver of fear rippled over her when she couldn’t feel Reve’s presence.
"Reve," she hissed, but got no answer. God, surely he hadn’t deserted her. Perhaps his lovemaking had been his way of saying goodbye. No! He’d promised to help her, and vowed to keep his promise. Was this the moment of truth?
"Reve!" Her voice quivered with the fear of her abandonment.
Silence.
Where could he have gone? Not back to the craft, surely. Barely had the thought entered her mind than the door slowly opened and she realized a noise outside had awakened her.
It couldn’t be Reve. No way would he have materialized. He’d warned her not to expect to see him in any shape or form while they were down here.
A dark figure loomed over the bed like a great bat, and a scream stuck in her throat when the light from a flashlight was aimed at her face.
"Mrs. Ross, I presume," the guy, who was built like a battleship, queried in a soft voice she knew was deceptive.
When he lowered the flashlight, she could just make out his features in the dim light, and there was nothing soft about him. His face looked like a lump of battered modeling clay--a lump bashed around a lot. He had come for her. To take her to Pederman.
"What…what do you want?" she asked in a quivering voice. What a stupid question. "Reve!" she called in her head, as loud and persistent as she could. When she still didn’t hear a response she shouted, "Reve!" this time aloud.
No answer!
She yelled again.
The brute turned his head, as if expecting to see someone coming up behind him. Melanie thought of making a run for it, which would be silly. Hadn’t she wanted Pederman to come after her? But she’d not expected to face him alone.
When the man saw her shout hadn’t brought someone to her aid, he smiled. The twist of his mouth was a grim caricature of a grin. "Up you get, little lady. We’re going on a short trip. The boss is very interested in you, you know. He wants to find out just where you’ve been all these months. Who’s been hiding you then, eh?"
Suddenly he had her arm in a grip like a steel trap. Melanie forced herself to stay calm. Reve was somewhere nearby. She knew it. Why she had such faith in the alien she didn’t know. But it was the only thought stopping her from melting into a pool of insanity.
All the fear she’d felt when Chris had died returned in force. Perspiration ran down between her breasts but she shivered. The monster dragged her from the bed.
"Them your boots?"
She nodded.
"Best put them on. Don’t want to raise anyone’s suspicions, do we?" After she’d pulled them on he dragged her up again, then outside.
A two-tone Holden sedan was parked alongside the unit--its back door open. Roughly he pushed her into the rear of it and didn’t care when she bumped her head as she fell onto the seat. In the car there were two men, the driver and one on the back seat beside her. This one grinned evilly as he clutched at her arm and dragged her in. Her captor slammed the door and got in the front passenger seat.
"Let go of me!" she ordered as levelly as she could. But he just widened his grin, and tightened his hold.
"Not likely. The boss would skin me alive and throw me to the sharks if we let you go again. Be still and perhaps we’ll treat you nice." He guffawed and Melanie squealed in terror.
I am here, Mel-aanie, Reve said in her head, and she nearly passed out with relief.
Where the bloody hell did you go? she transmitted back, too annoyed with him to soften her tone, even inside her head. This moron came into the room.
I went back to the craft while you slept. She wondered exactly where he was fitted into the cramped space of the car. I have not taken on any shape, he enlightened her, and his powers once again awed her. I had to bring the report up to date. There were many things to note about this primitive planet. Distaste colored his voice. It is so noisy. Can you ask the idiot steering this collection of junk to please do something about the disgusting din coming from his control panel? What is it, in the name of the Great Bodka?
It’s rock and roll, she informed him tartly, still thoroughly annoyed with him for leaving her at the mercy of the great oaf up front. And you might have let me know you were flitting off. I nearly died when I woke up and this goon was coming in the unit.
; I am sorry, Mel-aanie. He sounded genuinely upset. The racket, please! Even his groan transmitted to her.
"Do you have to have your radio so loud," she said to the driver. "It’s making my head hurt."
He laughed, an ugly sound. "Poor little girl. Hear that fellas. Her head hurts," he taunted and then swore viciously as the radio began to crackle. Then it went off. Silence reigned. "Bloody hell!" he cursed again as he fiddled with the knobs. Nothing happened.
"What’s up, Snotty? Lost your music?" the man holding her captive asked sarcastically. "The tart’s right. It was a racket. This is better. Nice and quiet so I can sit and appreciate our little parcel here in peace." He ran his finger up her thigh and Melanie squealed again as she cringed into a corner.
Then, as if in slow motion, the offending finger was bent back to its limit. The man howled. "You bitch! How’d you do that?" He stared at his hand as if it had changed into a toad. Releasing her, he bit out a string of caustic curses as he rubbed at his now straightened finger.
"Leave her alone," the one called Snotty ordered menacingly. "The boss said undamaged, and you know how annoyed he gets when his orders are ignored."
"I wasn’t damaging, just having a touch." Her tormentor sounded like a small boy deprived of a toy.
"Well, keep your filthy mitts to yourself. We’re here anyway. Get her out, and for Christ sake keep her quiet." The car came to a stop.
They were near the sea. A jetty had numerous motorboats lined up along its sides. She didn’t recognize the place, but knew by the Harbor Bridge in the background they hadn’t gone far from the city.
Her captor put a sweaty palm over her mouth as he held her tightly to his side with the other hand. She gagged, then bit the meaty side of his hand and relished the sound when he let out a low squeal.
He growled. "Do that again bitch, and I’ll swipe you one, whether the boss wants you undamaged or not." With his strong arm about her waist, he guided her down a few steps. He almost lifted her off the ground so her toes dragged along the boards of the jetty. They boarded one of the motorboats.
Before they’d barely set their feet on the deck, the boat was heading across the harbor. Melanie was pressed down onto one of the seats along the sides of the craft. They were making for the heads. The waves became choppier and she wasn’t sure if it was the motion of the boat, or fear making her queasy. Which was stupid considering she’d traveled to the other side of the universe and back again. A small sob caught in her throat.
A soft touch on her forehead seemed to dissipate the queasy feeling. You have nothing to fear, Reve assured her while his feather light touch soothed.
As long as you don’t leave me again, she wailed, shivering.
Never. His sure tone gave her strength.
The boat made for a huge ocean going yacht riding at anchor, and in no time at all it seemed they were tied up alongside it. The brute who had taken her from the motel pushed her up the narrow steps and paid no heed when she stumbled, but roughly manhandled her as they boarded the yacht.
"So, we meet again."
Melanie didn’t recognize the bulky man who stood on the deck straight away, but she would know his voice anywhere. It made her skin crawl, her insides lurch.
"Justin Pederman," Melanie said, her chin high.
She saw the snake’s eyes and recognition returned in full. His hair was shorter, and a different color. His jowls had grown lax. Likely too much living on the wrong side of the law, mixing with seedy types and flouting authority had given him the thoroughly jaded air.
"The one and only."
Pederman was a man with no scruples, a man who would try his hand at anything where money and power were involved, as long as he was the one wielding the power. There was a reptilian look to him she couldn’t remember being there before, as if his rotten ways had made him take on a slimy cast. Evil clung to him like chewing gum to a boot.
He smirked, an awful caricature of a smile. "Well, this is a pleasant surprise. I must admit I thought you’d gone off in a puff of smoke, little lady, when Badger here said you was there one moment and gone the next." His eyes drifted over her as he snapped a finger and thumb. "The poor sod thought you’d gone down a black hole. Like a sort of magical trick. You did him out of his fun. Never mind, we’ll make it up to him." He turned to the man whose finger Reve had twisted in the car "Told you there’s no such thing as magic, didn’t I Badger old boy?"
Melanie tried to stop her mouth from trembling. Even the nervousness she’d encountered on first arriving on Amaryllis, or the moment when she’d seen this thug on the balcony of her apartment, didn’t compare to this fear.
But she had to believe Reve would look after her.
"I knew all along someone from the force had double-crossed Chris. It was you, wasn’t it?" Melanie glared at him. Then he sauntered over to stand near enough to touch. "How could you let your fellow officers die like that?" She had to automatically move back. His sickly after-shave tickled her nostrils, revolting her.
He shrugged carelessly. The shoulders on him were a mile wide. "Needs must, and all the rest." He looked behind him to where another man stood, unsmiling, a cigar held between his fingers. His dinner suit was immaculate, and the white shirt beneath glowed as if fluorescent and made him look incongruous on this vessel.
Without being told she knew she was about to meet The Baron.
"So, you thought to forgo us the pleasure of seeing you die, eh?" the boss of this bunch of thugs said in a voice edged with steel. "Let’s get this over with." He looked bored as he snapped his fingers and looked to where another member of the party held something. When he flapped it about, Melanie saw it was a large plastic sack. "Tie her up." Melanie knew instantly what they meant to do and she began to struggle. "Knock her out if she gives you any trouble." The Baron strode across the deck and disappeared through a nearby doorway without a backward glance.
"You’ll not get away with this," she shrieked.
"We already have, slut! You’re a dead woman." Pederman grinned, showing yellowing teeth. "The cop at the station who saw you won’t tell a soul you turned up."
She gasped. "He’s in your pay too?
"Not exactly, but the poor sucker has a nice little wife and three kids. He wouldn’t want anything nasty to happen to his family, now would he?" His expression said he would very much like something nasty to happen to them.
Melanie shook her head. "My God, you have no conscience whatsoever, do you?"
"None." He turned to gesture to the three men from the car. "You know what to do. Now, get on with it." He showed his back as he went to the rail and put his hands on it.
One of them held her down while the other two tied her hands and feet with cord. Her struggles were useless.
"What about my bankbook and credit card? They’re back at the motel." She said the first thing popping into her head. "Someone will get suspicious when they’re found and I don’t turn up."
"Don’t worry your pretty little head about such trifles," the one called Badger said with an ugly laugh.
"Reve!" she screamed. "Do something."
Have no fear, just let them do what they intend, Mel-aanie. The soft words uttered in her head were reassuring and she breathed a soft sigh of relief.
"There isn’t a soul who can help you now, so there’s no point in carrying on like this," Badger said, as if reprimanding a child. They began to force her legs into what she realized was a body bag, and her struggles grew fierce. Then when one began to zip it up her, screams tore from her throat.
"No, please," she begged, panic making her weak. "Reve, do something," she yelled. "This has gone far enough. I can’t bear this."
Relax. His voice seemed to come through a fog and then she knew nothing.
Seventeen
Reve watched the men toss her over the side. And they appeared to relish the task, each grunting as if Mel-aanie was a heavy bag of waste instead of a tiny female.
What sort of people are these Earthmen th
at they could do this to a fellow human? The worst punishment on Amaryllis was death, but even this was dealt with a measure of kindness. Alexia had known no pain for all that she had sentenced Mel-aanie to a horrendous fate. Death had come to her instantly. But these people were throwing what they thought a conscious human into the water to a sure death by drowning. And enjoying the gruesome job.
Uttering a few well-chosen curses, he dived after Mel-aanie and caught up with her before she hit the sandy bottom of the bay. The ocean floor was littered with all sorts of unrecognizable debris. What manner of a supposedly civilized culture let their planet get into such a despicable condition? If they went on in this fashion, it was likely they would become extinct within megnums. Perhaps by then the scientists on Amaryllis would have found an antidote to this influenza virus and there might still be a chance they could settle here. The Earth people obviously held their home in little regard.
Instantly he had the bag undone, the bonds untied. With his mouth over hers, he breathed for Mel-aanie as he swam away from the vessel at top speed. When they surfaced a good distance away, she opened her eyes.
Reve’s heart lurched. "You are all right?" he asked huskily, lapping at the droplets cascading down her face and then grimacing at the vile taste of the water. It was a good thing she couldn’t see his disgust.
"Oh Reve, I was so scared." She began to tread water. "I don’t remember." With a hand to her temple she frowned as remembrance obviously returned. "Good God! How did I get out of the bag?"
"I told you I would not let you down, did I not Mel-aanie? You must learn the most important lesson in life. I will never desert you. I will always be here for you, for as long as you need me. Look." With pressure on her middle, circling her with his arms for support, he turned her to face the yacht.
Melanie wanted to see him, to reassure herself he was really here. The pressure of his arms about her was comforting, but she longed to make sure he wasn’t a presence conjured up by her imagination.
"I am real," he assured her, pressing his mouth to her nape.
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