by Marie Dry
“Bring a holding tube. A small one.”
Zanr nodded again and carefully picked up the woman. She looked frail, as thin as Sarah looked when they first found her. Larz went back to Parnell, smiling when he found the agent obviously trying to figure out how to get out of the dampening field.
“Some of your answers need clarification.”
“Fuck you.”
***
When Zanr came back with the holding tube, the human was a bleeding, sobbing mess. Larz had not expected Parnell to be a brave human, but he had anticipated some resistance. No Zyrgin would give in that fast under torture.
“We’re going to have to squeeze him a bit to get him in,” Zanr said with an evil look in his eyes.
They opened the tube they used to detain enemies in space. Putting them in the holding tubes and into a hibernation state was the safest way to deal with transporting prisoners.
“I don’t want him asleep. Let the fucker enjoy being trapped inside a small space,” Zanr said.
Larz nodded and they went back to the shuttle, the tube floating next to them. They’d put a force field around the building to ensure that no innocent humans would be blown up. In Larz’s opinion there were very few innocent humans, but he didn’t want to have to listen to Natalie crying about poor innocent humans dying in the blast. Margaret would object as well and he couldn’t face her tears.
“I want to be the one to detonate this building.”
“You want to do it from the safety of the shuttle, cleaning bot.”
Larz showed him a palm. He didn’t mind the warriors calling him that. Not one of them said it in a mean way.
“I may be only a citizen, but I can outrun the bombs faster than you.”
Zanr’s eyes glittered, his body seemed to vibrate. “Let’s go.”
Larz scaled down the building where they parked and ran across the street, jumping over cars, his body functioning the way it was designed to do. A Zyrgin was made for battle, to kill their enemies, to push himself physically every day.
They ran to the top of the building. “If we stand on the roof, it would take extra time opening the door,” Zanr said.
“If we ran down the stairs, instead of jumping down the middle opening, it would make it more interesting,” Larz said.
“Wait, are you sure you are allowed to do this? Your human mother would cry if you got hurt. Maybe she’d insist you live with her where she can keep an eye on you,” Zanr taunted.
“Drittsekk, asshole,” Larz said and hit him and at the same time he detonated the bombs and ran for the rooftop door.
They ran down the stairs while the building exploded around them, the last few steps disappeared and they had to jump and increase their speed to avoid having the building fall down on top of them.
For the first time since he went through his third change, his body was alive and functioning like a warrior. When they went through their third change, the challenges and training intensified. For the first time, Larz realized exactly what he would miss out on for the next one hundred years.
“Let’s stay around and observe the humans after a bomb explodes.”
“They’re like sheep. They will probably run to the explosion to see what is happening.”
“Their building materials are inferior. A human child can blow up anything they can build.”
In the end, the humans did run closer to come and see what happened. Disgusted, the Zyrgins took off and returned to the mountain with Parnell stowed in the back of the shuttle.
“Do you know what the new weapon does?” Zanr asked.
“No, it will be something that does not kill many humans.”
“I’ve heard that it will make the volunteers disappear for many years.”
“Zacar will show it in less than twenty-four hours.” Zanr gave the command for the battle to be fed through to the shuttle. “Not much of a battle,” he said.
“I don’t mind missing it anymore. The guards we dealt with at the building put up about the same amount of resistance.”
“They gathered outside the force field for months to kill us, but they haven’t even wounded one warrior. If we do not travel to the wars, we will become soft on this planet,” Larz told him.
They landed and Larz signed Parnell over to a bored Zyrgin who insisted he’d rather join the fighting than take charge of a holding tube.
“There is no fighting to be had on this planet. Only slaughter without challenge,” Larz told the warrior then went to his dwelling and his breeder.
CHAPTER 17
Margaret didn’t notice the mountain landscape she could see in any direction she cared to look while sitting on the couch. Even the fact that the bottom half of the walls, the part that wasn’t transparent, was a warm cream color didn’t excite her like it did a few hours ago.
She’d put on the TC to see if she could come across anything about the design and manufacture of cars and found only war on every channel. That’s what it looked like--bloody gruesome war, horrific slaughter shown in gory detail on the TC.
When she’d activated the TC, it had shown Zacar and about twenty warriors battling raiders and military types who shot at them with everything from laser pistols to cannons. She’d changed channels and found a broadcast of Zacar giving the men in the camp the chance to surrender and swear allegiance to The Zyrgin. The humans refused. Zacar had made it clear that this would be their only chance to surrender. His voice had boomed through the TC. “If you choose to battle us, humans, it will be to the death. No one will be spared when the battle begins.
She’d known the aliens meant to take over. She’d seen their technology and had flown in their shuttles. That had not prepared her for the sheer savagery of their fighting. Nothing brought home their strength and threat to Earth than the scene shown on the TC. This was a show of strength, a message that clearly told the humans, join us or die.
Journalists shouted out their reports over the human cries of pain and fear and the Zyrgin battle cries. Blood flowed and spurted and then puddled in the dust. She didn’t see Larz among the warriors. Did he have to deal with equipment and water again? She knew he’d want to be at the battle. And because of her, he was relegated to the sidelines. How many times would this happen before he hated her?
Someone had to have alerted the media of the coming battle. They’d lost interest in the gathering raiders months ago. When Zacar stepped through the force field to give his ultimatum, several journalists were there to film him. The news cameras had captured him giving the humans the chance to surrender.
The humans encamped outside the force field had refused and slaughter commenced.
That irritating tune announcing breaking news interrupted the noise of the TC. “Now what?” Nothing could be bigger news than this?
“This just in from Washington.” The battle disappeared to be replaced by images of the biggest dust cloud she’d ever seen. It covered everything in the TC image. Slowly like a snake lazily uncurling, fire twisted through the smoke. A strange sinuous battle ensued for supremacy between the fire and dust.
Margaret instinctively pressed back on the couch, her eyes glued to the scene on the TC. This had something to do with Larz and, deep in her heart, she knew that, when the dust settled, it would reveal Parnell’s life in ruins.
Her heartbeat sped up until it pulsed louder than the TC. He’d done this for her. To avenge her. For a man like him, there’d be no other choice. Except she didn’t deserve to be avenged. Sarah should be avenged. The families of the people Parnell had killed, tortured, and misused should be avenged.
The dust slowly settled and the fire roared. The news team tried to report but couldn’t make themselves heard above the roar of the flames and noise of the crowd. One newscaster tried shouting, but Margaret could only see his lips move. Someone held messages scrawled in thick black ink on pieces of paper before the camera.
A shaking hand held up the piece of paper with words that looked like they were scrawled hast
ily with a trembling hand. Old FBI building exploded. Collapsed. Concrete burning at improbable temperatures.
“That was Larz all right,” Margaret muttered.
The Zyrgins obviously had the kind of technology that could make reinforced concrete burn like wood. Did it make her an awful person that she wished Parnell was inside when it exploded? As long as he was free, she’d never sleep easy.
Tears tracked down her cheeks. He’d done this for her, blown up a building. For her. Did who knew what to Parnell. For her. She should be horrified that the building collapsed and she wouldn’t relax until Larz assured her that he found a way to get everyone else out of the building. What if Parnell had someone inside the box? What kind of person was she that she didn’t ask Larz or Zacar to help her rescue the other women?
Another card flashed in front of the camera. No survivors. Oh God. She had to believe that Larz got everyone out safely before he blew the building.
Raiders in Montana desperately battling to keep us safe from alien invasion.
Only Parnell and a few of his most trusted people had worked in that building. She always suspected he had a secure apartment there as well. She shivered. That grave in the basement would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Aliens bombed FBI building. Aliens reported to be bullet proof.
She didn’t hear the door open, but she knew he’d come home. Maybe some part of her was tuned into him. She knew if she were blindfolded in the middle of a desert, she could find her way to Larz. If she’d had any doubts about it being him who blew up that building, those doubts were now erased. Splatters of blood, dust, and soot befouled his uniform.
“You smell awfully fresh.” She wrinkled her nose at him. “Were you inside the building when it blew up?”
Who knew what Zyrgins could withstand? If their skin could withstand bullets, then who knew what else they could walk away from unscathed?
His teeth flashed white and, as always when he did his version of a smile, she had to concentrate not to climb the back of the couch and hit the ground running.
“No.”
Their insistence on playing with danger didn’t make sense to her. If she had the choice, she’d never face any of it again.
They stared at each other. In the background, the TC was back on the fighting.
“They’ve been fighting for hours now. Or, rather, slaughtering the men in the camp.”
“You object?”
She thought about the things she’d seen while she’d been undercover in the camps. Now that she didn’t view it as Marcie, the full impact of it hit her.
“No. The raiders made their choice. They all faced the warriors with weapons they never hesitated to turn on innocent unarmed people.”
He nodded. “I will shower.”
She followed him, leaned against the doorjamb, and enjoyed the view. He’d shed his clothes and stood in the shower. The big airy bathroom with the ceiling set to see through was her favorite space in the house. She drew her T-shirt over her head and pushed down her jeans. She loved this shower--no walls or glass fencing her in--and she loved the way the water made his beautiful skin glisten.
He turned to face her and she smiled at him, wondering if her smile looked as odd to him as his did to her.
She took the cloth, made from the same material that they literally made everything from. “Let me.” She started with his face. “Bend down, I can’t reach your head.” Even with the half an inch in height she gained as her own cells reasserted themselves, she was still much shorter than him. He bent over and she gently drew the cloth over the ridge on his head.
“I can’t understand how this ridge can be so tough and sensitive at the same time,” she mused.
“We feel pain, not as much as humans and the ridge is the most sensitive part of our bodies.”
“You guys are such a contradiction. You have a ridge on your head tough enough to protect you from a sword.” She stroked a finger over the top of the ridge and smiled when he shivered. “And yet it is so sensitive.”
She moved the hand not holding the cloth down until she cupped him intimately. When she was Marcie, the memories implanted by that evil machine made this something ugly--something she did to manipulate a target. She’d never know how many of those memories were real and what was implanted. Truthfully, she’d rather believe it was implanted. Touching Larz, holding that part of him in her hand, cleansed her. She did this because she wanted to, because she loved him.
She gently squeezed him. “Even more sensitive than here?”
“Yes.”
She continued to stroke him while she washed his face, his neck. His hips jerked once and then he held still with rigid control. She smiled up at him and washed his ears. “I can’t wash behind your ears.”
They were more recessed into his skull than a human’s. He braced his feet apart and she smiled when she saw his eyes swirl red. Her alien enjoyed her touch.
“Is it important to humans?” His eyes narrowed. “Natalie always said to remember to wash behind your ears. It was annoying and confusing.”
“Humans say it to their children to make sure they wash properly.”
Did he just scowl at her? “Zyrgins are born with the knowledge.”
She was sure he was about to explode when he took the washcloth from her. She should’ve remembered his iron control.
“I wash you.” He started at her forehead and gently moved over her cheeks and chin. Leaning down to stare at her, so close her eyes saw double, he washed behind her ears. He moved down over her breasts, the cloth a delicious friction over her nipples, down her stomach until he parted her folds and his cloth covered finger stroked and caressed and her breathing became choppy, her hips jerked against his hand. She continued to move her hand on him. She tautened and collapsed against him as she heard him roar his release, felt him jerk in her hand.
If he wasn’t holding her, she’d be lying boneless on the floor. “I’m a monster,” she mumbled.
“Why would you say this?”
“Your people are slaughtering my people, and I’m in here seducing you.”
“Not making love will not change what is happening.”
“I suppose.” It still felt wrong.
He handed her clothes and she shook her head. “I’ll get fresh clothes.” She went to the closet and put on jeans and a T-shirt and grabbed her sneakers.
When she turned back he was dressed. “I brought a surprise for you,” he said.
Margaret smiled at him. “What is it?”
“We will eat and then I will give it to you.”
She ordered food from the replicator, to save time, and quickly ate half her food. “I’m done, gimme my surprise.”
He stared at her plate, as if calculating if she’d eaten enough to survive on, and then nodded--another human gesture which she thought the Zyrgins probably picked up from Natalie. Only the warriors in the cave did it. The rest who were stationed on the ship and only deployed on Earth every few days seemed more stiff.
“We will sit together on the couch.”
“All right.”
He settled beside her and she looked at him expectantly. She couldn’t think what the surprise could be. Maybe some more clothes. Or something for the kitchen.
He murmured something in Zyrgin and the wall lit up again. Her recoil was instinctive when Parnell’s image appeared.
Larz took her hand in his. “We will enjoy this together.”
“What exactly will we enjoy together?”
The hairs at the back of her neck stood up. You never knew what a Zyrgin would consider a good surprise. He acted as if they were a normal couple about to watch a movie. Only she didn’t think they were about to watch a Space Ranger episode. No, she had a really bad feeling about this.
He grunted and, even though she’d heard him do it many times, she still couldn’t hear any words in there. Parnell’s image on the TC landed against the wall with a sickening thud. She couldn’t move, couldn’t even
blink her eyes. “What is this?”
“My gift to you.”
On the screen, Larz stood over Agent Parnell who tried, without success, to throw off invisible restraints chaining him to the large desk he’d sat behind with so much pride. Larz’s image moved down and jerked Parnell’s head to the side. “You will face the recording device for my woman’s pleasure.”
Her former boss and tormentor’s face was twisted with hate and pain. “Fuck you and your traitorous whore.”
Larz casually broke his leg. “For the insult to my breeder your death will not be merciful.”
Parnell screamed in pain. “You bastards won’t take my country.”
“He never stops,” she whispered.
“I stopped him.”
“You don’t understand. He has this great patriotic act going, but he’s just a thug out to grab what he can for himself.”
The first year of her training she’d fallen for his patriotic speeches, but, even as a scared sixteen-year-old, she couldn’t miss the self-serving aspect to everything he did.
“He will never rule Earth. Zyrgins do not allow puppet regimes.” He motioned to the screen. “This is the good part.”
She shivered. The way he said it, all they needed was popcorn. On the wall, the image of Larz showed no mercy. He beat the arrogance right out of Parnell. The image disappeared.
Knowing Larz’s protective nature, she figured he probably wanted to spare her seeing the worst of it. “Did you kill him?” What did it say about her that she fiercely enjoyed the torture of another human being, that she wanted him to be alive to suffer some more.
Red flashed in his eyes. “By the time we are done with Parnell, he will wish that I had killed him.” He grunted and the TC showed the battlefield. “Did you like your surprise?”
“Yes, I needed closure, but maybe there is more of Marcie left in me than I thought.” She hid her face in her hands. “What kind of woman enjoys the torture of another human being?”
“You are a strong human. Few human women have to endure what you did. If you did not become strong, you would have died very young. Being able to enjoy Parnell receiving his punishment does not make you a monster.”