by Anna Carven
His eyes burned with desire, quickly hidden as he looked away.
Her eyes widened ever so slightly, before she dropped her gaze to the floor.
She walked forward, her heart pounding.
Their relationship was now a forbidden thing. That look could have cost them everything if Alerak had noticed. But he hadn’t.
Adrenaline pumped through her, but she kept her expression blank, slumping her shoulders in defeat.
The way he’d looked at her had been possessive yet at the same time gently reassuring.
You’re with me.
That’s what he’d been saying to her, in the space of a single glance.
“Come, slave,” he said aloud in Universal, with an imperious wave of his hand. “You belong to me now.”
~~~
Xal sighed in relief when they were in his quarters, away from the harsh stares of the Kordolian guards. He tore the restraints off Sera’s wrists, pulling her towards him. “Sorry you had to see that,” he whispered. “I won’t allow them to so much as look at you again.”
Sera ran her fingers over the collar around her neck. Xal growled and ripped it off. “I hate these things,” he spat, tossing it across the floor. “Such a barbaric device.”
She looked up at him in wonder, once again reaching up to caress his horns. Xal shuddered as her slender fingers stroked the sensitive surface. She tenderly pushed a strand of stray hair away from his face.
“You’re amazing,” she murmured, confusing him.
“I was horrible,” he muttered, closing his eyes as a pleasant sensation crawled across his skull, relaxing him.
“You were flawless. If I hadn’t gotten to know you over the past few days, I would have been shit scared of you, just like Alerak was. He seemed equal parts terrified and awed. Being spoken to like that; it was as if he liked it but hated it at the same time. That was strange, Xal.”
“He’s a temin,” Xal said flatly. “In Kordolian culture, there are those who become excited when they are treated cruelly, or when pain is inflicted on them. Alerak is a classic example. I just played to his base instincts. My mother slaps him around all the time, and he loves it.”
That seemed to fascinate Sera. “What a strange and complex society you come from, Xal. The journalist in me is dying to pick your brains.” She searched his face, her brown eyes glittering with curiosity. “But the lover in me wants to know you, Xal. I want to know all of you.”
She was feeling him out, seeing how far she could go with him.
He wasn’t ready for that. Xal pulled away from her. “There are things you’re better off not knowing,” he said darkly. “That perverse little glimpse of Kordolian life you had just now is enough. Believe it or not, I was once like them.”
She glared at him. “Just because you’ve been there, doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, Xal.” Sera pinned him with a look that threatened to strip all of his deepest secrets bare. “Back there you said something about a child,” she said softly, cutting him deep, reaching a place he really didn’t want to go to right now.
Xal held up a hand. “Don’t.” His voice was ice-cold.
Thankfully, she knew when to retreat, her soft, pink lips pressing together in a tight frown.
“I have to show my face on the Bridge,” he said stiffly, turning away from her. “You’re smart enough to know that you’re not to set foot outside my quarters. Please don’t get into a state where I have to rescue you from the holding cells, because I will risk everything to save you.”
“Yes, master,” she said ironically, her eyes traveling up and down his uniformed figure. “Don’t worry, Xal. I won’t be going anywhere.”
Xal slipped out of the room, a strange emptiness filling him as he left his beautiful Sera behind. A part of him had wanted to reveal everything to her, but now wasn’t the time.
He was playing a very dangerous game with these Kordolians, and he needed to remain sharp. He had something they wanted, and that gave him power, but he would slowly need to draw them into his lie.
Alerak was easy to fool.
General Daegan, on the other hand, was another matter. He wasn’t as easy to fool, but Xal had sensed his weakness. Unlike Tarak, Daegan was a desk soldier; he commanded his troops remotely, rarely going off-planet. The fact that he was here in Sector Nine was a sign the Empire were desperate.
And desperation led to mistakes.
He would have to use all his wits and cunning to convince these Kordolians to withdraw from Earth and go after the Fleet Station, and General Tarak was about to give him a big helping hand to convince them.
Tarak had started withdrawing his fleet from the station and had ordered them to surround Earth. If Daegan were to see that the Fleet Station was unguarded, he wouldn’t be able to resist the lure of capturing such a hefty prize.
Xal strode down the narrow corridors, heading in the general direction of the Bridge. He’d assumed Ristval V would have a similar layout to Silence, because Tarak told him they had both been modeled on the same prototype.
The soldiers he passed in the corridors looked at him with flat eyes, bowing in acknowledgement.
Xal ignored them, his skin crawling. Stepping onboard Ristval V felt like stepping back inside the Empire, with its bleak, painful memories.
The Empire was death.
They had taken two precious souls from him, and billions more from the Nine Galaxies.
Xal made his way past the residential quarters and found himself standing at a precipice, looking down over the command center of the warship.
He stood in a cavern-like opening, beyond which a narrow bridge extended out across the heart of Ristval V. Xal strode out onto the walkway, making sure his footsteps were heard as he looked down. General Daegan was sitting in the command chair, looking at a series of holoscreens. His subordinates were gathered around him, monitoring a stream of data.
They looked up at Xal in unison.
He stared down at them with an icy expression, not saying a word. Daegan spun in his chair. “Xalikian.” His low voice reverberated around the space. “You have information for us.”
“Daegan.” Xal regarded him for a moment, trying to remember the sincere young commander who had been a friend to his father and had treated him with affection when he was a child. That man was long gone. In his place was a cold-faced, cynical soldier.
Daegan looked tired.
Xal leaned over the balustrade, raising his voice. “I don’t trust you, Daegan, and I’m certain you don’t trust me. What stops you from taking my head once you have the information you need?”
“I have an edict from the Empress, ordering me to bring you back alive. Your mother needs you by her side. Do you wish to see it, Xalikian?”
No! His first instinct was to refuse. But that would arouse suspicion. Slowly, he nodded, and Daegan brought up a holographic projection.
His mother stared back at him. The image was a shock to his system. Xal’s mouth went dry and he gripped the balustrade tightly.
Hatred flooded through him.
Anger nearly made him tear the metal railing from its fixtures.
A pair of familiar crimson eyes stared back at him. The Empress Vionn’s face was composed, almost serene, but her eyes held seethed with a deadly combination of power and madness.
Xal saw himself mirrored in her. The resemblance was unmistakable.
But his mother had aged since he had seen her last. The lines in her pale, silver skin had deepened, and her hair was shot through with black. She was still intimidatingly beautiful, but time was slowly asserting its authority, siphoning away her youth.
Xal fought hard to keep his expression neutral.
Seeing this perfect representation of the female he detested so much was a shock.
“General Daegan,” she began, in a low, silken voice. “Your comrade is a thief. Tarak al Akkadian has stolen my Human, half of my military, and even my only remaining son.” Vicious anger radiated from her, reverberating
through her speech, making her eyes as hard as gemstones. “I need you to return what is mine. Bring me the Human, bring me back my Fleet Station and bring me back my son. Make it clear to Xalikian that he will be welcomed with open arms. My flesh has healed and all is forgiven. I need my heir, Daegan. Akkadian will learn the hard way what it means to betray me. I will take back everything he has stolen from me and then I will make him suffer. Do you understand me?”
Daegan cut the recording then, watching Xal carefully as the image of his mother flickered and disappeared. “Do you still think I would want to kill you, Prince?”
“I was only being cautious, Daegan.” Vionn’s yearning for an heir filled Xal with revulsion. There was no way he would ever sit on her cursed ebon throne, but he kept any hint of his true thoughts to himself.
“As are we, Xalikian. That is why we had you bring the Human; as proof of your true intentions. There are reports that Akkadian is quite attached to that female, although I have no idea why. There are suggestions he has even mated with it.” His features twisted in distaste.
“It belongs to House Kazharan now,” Xal said icily. “I will be responsible for training it.”
“So I have heard.” Daegan said coolly, eyeing Xal with barely concealed speculation. “You have claimed it, then?”
“The Human is mine now,” Xal snapped, baring his fangs. “And I protect what belongs to me, even if it is a mere slave.” It wasn’t too hard to make that last statement believable. As with everything, there were elements of truth mixed in with the fiction.
“Hm.” The General looked thoughtful. If he harbored any suspicion, he didn’t let it show. “Well, my orders were to bring you and the Human back in one piece, so if you are intent on breaking it in, that is one less specimen for me to worry about.”
Xal hated the way he was forced to talk about Sera. He hated the way these Kordolians spoke about Humans, dispassionately and coldly, as if they were animals. But right now, he had no choice.
He had to keep up the facade.
Fiction and truth.
He was capable of cruelty and ruthlessness if provoked. It was a character flaw.
“The Fleet Station is anchored in Sector Seven,” Xal announced in a lazy drawl, before turning. He started to walk away. He waved a hand in the air. “Co-ordinates Jel-Kau-Vir-Sea-08941. Thinly guarded at the moment, I believe. Of course, you will still have to fight for it, but it’s nothing the Ristval V can’t handle. Run a scan through Imperial Surveillance and check it. If you are so desperate to claim back one of the Empire’s jewels, you will set the most direct course for Sector Seven. Forget about Earth. There is nothing of value here. Leave General Akkadian to defend his precious Humans. The next move is up to you, Daegan.”
“How do we know this isn’t all part of Akkadian’s master plan?” Daegan called after him. “How do I know I’m not playing right into his hands?”
“You don’t.” Xal turned, bleakly amused. “You have to account for that possibility too. You’re a General, aren’t you? That’s what you’re supposed to do. You can stay here in Earth’s orbit, waiting for something to happen, or you can complete your duty by retrieving the Fleet Station and returning to Kythia. Remember, we have Akkadian’s Human. He’s bound to be angry. You had better think about leaving soon, because he’s probably planning his attack as we speak. In this life, hesitation will cost you dearly, General Daegan.”
Xal left the promise of glory and the fear of Tarak al Akkadian to sink in as he disappeared into the shadows.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
After what felt like hours, they finally started to move. At least that’s what Sera thought was happening. The whole ship seemed to vibrate, and she assumed that was the thrusters powering up. She couldn’t be certain though, because she was in a windowless room and everything surrounding her was black. Kordolians seemed to dig the color black.
Xal had gone out again after dropping off some food. The brown, gelatinous bars smelt like seaweed and jerky and Sera put them aside to attempt when she was really starving. She wasn’t desperate just yet, and now she could understand why Abbey had been salivating over her ramen.
Imagine being stuck for months on a spacecraft with only that to eat. She shuddered.
Xal had said something about going to look for an escape pod, just in case they needed to leave in a hurry.
That was rather sensible of him. They were only on an enemy warship leaving Earth’s orbit. Like, what could possibly go wrong?
Sera positioned herself in the centre of the room and started to go through the motions of a warm-up routine. They were heading to Sector Seven, according to Xal.
For Humans, that was a three-month trip, at best.
Kordolian spacecraft were faster, and after a long discussion with Xal trying to figure out equivalent units of time measurement, she estimated that on Ristval V, the journey would take about two weeks.
The speed this thing was capable of was mind-boggling.
But that meant two weeks cooped up in these dark, depressing quarters, and that could be a recipe for insanity. At least she wouldn’t have to go out and face the creepy Kordolians, though.
She’d had quite enough of being looked at as though she were nothing more than a piece of flesh.
So she’d decided to try and stay fit, because even in the confines of the ship’s quarters, there were a whole bunch of exercises she could do to keep herself lean and toned.
Sera propped herself up on one elbow on her side and started to do some hold crunches. After the first twenty, her body started to protest, but she continued, grunting with exertion.
There was something a bit surreal about what she was doing now, calmly going through her workout routine while they sped towards possible doom.
The physical movements helped silence that small, insistent voice at the back of her mind. It helped hold at bay the terror that threatened to take hold and paralyze her.
But she would not give in to her fear. Never again.
Never hesitate.
The spacecraft accident that had left her with terrible injuries had brought her close to death at a tender age. Ever since then, Sera suspected something in her had changed. Perhaps a part of her brain had been damaged.
Perhaps that’s why she was here and not sitting on Earth, waiting for the inevitable.
She pushed herself through the remainder of her crunches then switched over to the other side, a faint sheen of sweat appearing across her forehead.
That’s when the doors slid open, and Luron Alerak stepped inside.
~~~
Sera froze, mid-crunch. The Kordolian official, or whatever he was, stared at her, outrage twisting his thin lips into a frown.
What the fuck is he doing here?
Slowly, Sera moved into a kneeling position, keeping her eyes downcast.
“What are you doing, slave?” He questioned her in Universal, his voice full of suspicion. Sera kept her head down, trying her best to appear fearful.
“Master wants me to keep my body well conditioned,” she said softly, injecting a little nervous tremor into her voice. “He ordered me to do these exercises.”
Alerak moved towards her, his orange robes swishing around him, his various bracelets and trinkets clinking as he walked. “What belongs to House Kazharan belongs to the Empire. That Human body of yours is designed to serve, slave.” He placed a hand on her head, his fingers trailing through her hair. Sera fought to keep from recoiling in revulsion.
He smelt gross, too. Like a mixture of stale musk, patchouli and a faint note of rotting cheese.
Alerak ran his hand down the side of her cheek and tipped her face upwards. “Since getting on this infernal ship, I have not received my usual pleasure.” His eyes roamed over her, trailing down to her body. “I’m so desperate right now I have even sought the company of a Human.” He laughed in disgust. “As soon as I saw you, I knew I must have you. You are ugly, but you smell delicious.” He bent and dipped his nose into her
hair, inhaling deeply.
“I don’t think Master would be very happy if you did that,” Sera warned, remaining very, very still, even though she wanted to get up and smash him in the face.
“What the Prince doesn’t know will not disturb him,” Alerak whispered. “This will be between you and me, slave. Besides, who would believe a Human?” He parted his robes, revealing his scrawny grey body. His limp cock hung in front of her face, and Sera recoiled in horror.
No. Fucking. Way.
“Master will be very angry,” she whispered. “He can get violent when he is angry. Please don’t do this.”
It was her last-ditch attempt to get this guy to go away. Because there was no way in hell she was going to suck his dick.
Alerak dug his fingers into her skull, and Sera winced in pain. “You are not to tell me what I can and can’t do, Human. “Give me pleasure, or I will make sure you suffer the most excruciating of tortures once you reach Kythia.” His voice became high-pitched. “You are a slave, Human. A slave! Do you really understand what that means? From now on, you do not speak to me; you do not so much as look at me. You will do what I say. Do. You. Understand?” His sharp nails were really starting to hurt her. Sera was sure he had drawn blood. “Do it now, Human, and make it quick.” An urgency had crept into his voice, and Sera realized he was afraid Xal might return.
“Do it,” he insisted, pulling her towards him by the hair. “Arouse me. Give me pleasure.”
In a flash, Sera was on her feet. “Master told no-one is allowed to touch me, except him.”
“Your master isn’t here. How dare you talk back to me!” He brought his arm up to slap her, but Sera was faster, blocking his blow and twisting his wrist. His eyes grew wide in outraged disbelief.
She danced back out of his reach, resisting the urge to grin. “I’m only following my master’s commands,” she said in a deadpan voice. Alerak lunged for her. Sera sidestepped and made a dash for the sleeping pod, where the wrist restraints lay.
She grabbed them and delivered a low kick to Alerak’s shin. He roared in pain and tried to grab her. He was probably much stronger than her, so she just had to keep out of his reach. If he couldn’t lay a hand on her, he couldn’t harm her.