“Why didn’t you just run?” Regan asked. “You have this badass ship, even though it’s falling apart, you could have fled far away from this place.”
“It’s not that easy,” Arkei replied. “Mephistopheles always finds who or what he’s looking for. Whether his powers are through universal connections, technology, or are even supernatural, I don’t know. All I know for sure is he always gets what he wants.”
“I feel bad for this Bob character,” Bob said.
Arkei realized then that she had to stun Bob to transport him inside. She didn’t hesitate. She pulled out her ray gun and fired a single stunning shot.
Bob went down.
“Arkei!” Regan shouted.
“I had to. I have to clear my debt, and a human is the only way. It’s the last species I owe him. Bob will be observed, experimented on, then put in a cryofreeze for eternity like the rest of Mephistopheles’s specimens.”
“Yeah, but—” Regan attempted.
“There’s no backing out now. I can’t let him get you, Regan.” She stepped up to him. “Promise me that when we land, you’ll stay aboard the ship. You’ll stay with Straya and Reverie, and after I hand Bob over, we can all fly away together, finally free.”
Regan said nothing. Arkei could tell he was nervous, but she didn’t wait for his answer. She pulled him close and kissed him. Kissed the mouth that, she felt, liberated her.
She pulled away and touched his face with both of her hands. He kissed the thumb on her bionic hand.
“I trust you to do this,” he said. “And I’ll wait here.” These words made her feel powerful and confident. She lifted her chest, stepped away, picked up Bob, and approached the doors of her ship.
She didn’t look back at the three people she had come to love. And when that thought entered her mind as she descended her ship, she realized she did love them all.
I can’t let them down. They saved me. Now I’ll save them.
She wished she could save Bob too, but the universe was an unfair place. Right now she had to save the ones she loved.
Arkei entered Mephistopheles’s species museum like she had a hundred times before, with yet another new species slumped over her shoulder. She walked tall, as if she wasn’t afraid, and passed underneath the massive iron doors.
They were large enough to fit her entire ship through, and she had always admired their architecture and stature when she was a child, but she saw them now as egotistical and menacing.
When she entered, she passed the long hallway of frozen species. She had caught many of them, and they triggered memories. Memories of her breaking into the homes of innocents and stunning them, handing them over against their will. And she was doing it again.
There were others she passed who were caught by Mephistopheles himself or others before her. He would always replace the ones who worked for him, and Arkei knew that after this transaction, she too would be replaced.
She looked forward to it. She looked forward to dropping Bob at her master’s feet and leaving on her ship for all time. Her heart began racing at the thought. Freedom was close. She could taste it.
After passing the frozen species, the hallway was decorated with weaponry from many races. Swords of kings. Entire battlefields worth of blasters. These walls were trophies and medals that Mephistopheles awarded himself by slaughtering armies and warriors. It was a last-minute reminder that he was all powerful, and to cross him would mean a place on his wall.
Yet Arkei told herself it wouldn’t be that way for her. She had what he wanted, after all.
And when she arrived before the great throne and saw Mephistopheles himself, he didn’t give her his normally pleased smile. He sat there with his hair slicked back and his cape wrapped over him. The cane in his hand stood exposed with the golden knife sticking out the top of its handle.
There was someone new at his side, a beautiful woman with feline ears and a tail. Her eyes were black and her skin was pale with brown stripes. She had exquisite features, and she purred at Mephistopheles’s side. Arkei imagined him petting her.
My replacement? Well, that didn’t take long.
“NO!” he shouted when she stood before him. His voice boomed through the hall, and it caught Arkei off guard.
“My lord?” she asked.
“I want the other one.”
“The… the other one?” Arkei tried, but knew it would do her no good.
“The one you conveniently left on your ship,” he said with a twisted grin. His eyebrow arched to a sinister point. “I have access to your life form scanners, you know. So, hurry now, collect him. Bring him before me.”
“But… I have a human for you right here!” Arkei protested. “Why the other one?”
“Because he is clearly the one of more value,” Mephistopheles stated.
“Not true. I’m giving you the younger one. He has more life left in him.”
“I will place him in cryofreeze after I’m done with him, anyway. Age does not concern me.”
Arkei was furious. She had to find a way out of this. She couldn’t hand over Regan. He had fought for her, and she would fight for him.
“I’ve mated with him!” she shouted. “You know that my species mates for life. I can’t be separated from him.”
Mephistopheles laughed at this.
“You haven’t claimed the Hiveroth species as your own for quite some time. He must really be something.” He continued laughing. “Well, I’ll be fair. Bring him before me still, but I’ll judge the two of them side by side. I’ll choose then which one I’ll keep.”
The feline woman crept over to Arkei, put a pair of limiter cuffs on Bob’s limp wrists, then handed a second pair of limiter cuffs to Arkei to bind Regan with. She smiled when she handed them over, and Arkei wanted to destroy her right then. Arkei turned her attention back to Mephistopheles.
“This isn’t fair!”
Mephistopheles erupted from his throne, his eyes flaring red. His cape flew open, and he seemed to grow several feet taller, his voice echoing throughout the great hall.
“Fair? Do not talk to me of fair! Collect the other human and bring him before me!”
Arkei set Bob down and headed back to her ship. She wanted to cry on the way, again feeling insignificant before her master. She felt like she had no control. And when she boarded her ship, she knew that Straya, Reverie, and especially Regan could see this pain.
She handed Regan the limiter cuffs.
“Put these on,” she said. “He’s insisting on examining you.”
Regan inhaled sharply.
“But…” he tried, before stopping.
“He will compare the both of you, so just try to be as uninteresting as possible so he chooses Bob over you,” Arkei pleaded.
“Why don’t we just blow the place up?” Straya asked.
“There are laws, you know,” Arkei said to her. “I have an agreement with him, a binding one! It’s even filed with the Intergalactic Council. He upheld his side, so I have no choice. I cannot violate the agreement or I’ll be his forever, or worse…”
As she was explaining this to Straya, Regan had locked himself into the cuffs. He nodded.
“It was a long shot that I’d get out of this anyway,” he said. “And after all we’ve been through, I’m not gonna leave you high and dry like that. How long do I have until he decides?”
Arkei shook her head. She wanted to cry, but didn’t want to instill more fear into Regan.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But we aren’t going anywhere. We’ll be right here, ready for you when you’re released.”
“If I’m released,” Regan said.
Arkei couldn’t help it then, she turned her head away. Straya put her arms around her. Reverie too. Then the three of them looked back at Regan.
“You’re smart,” Reverie said. “You’ll find a way out of this.”
“You must,” Straya added.
Regan nodded his head then turned to face Mephistopheles. He
was the bravest being that Arkei had ever met, and she hoped she would see him again.
Chapter Seventeen
Regan approached the doors to Mephistopheles’s museum, his concern growing with each step. The doors were massive and intimidating, but what was inside the long entrance hallway really concerned him.
On either side of him were frozen specimens. So many of them. And what made it worse was that Regan knew Mephistopheles had done all kinds of strange experiments on these poor creatures before freezing them.
He wouldn’t let himself end up like this. He had to convince Mephistopheles to choose Bob. Sure, it sucked for Bob, but this was life or death, and Regan wasn’t about to wind up here, frozen in a pod for all of time.
I refuse to be a space exhibit.
And just beyond the pods he was taken aback by the hall of weaponry. If Mephistopheles was trying to intimidate him, or anyone else who entered, it was working. Regan was taking in a large scope of his enemy’s true capabilities.
Then he saw him, the collector himself, sitting on his throne, waiting for his latest subject. He sat tall in the high throne and wore a black cape. He looked almost ape like, except posh—if an ape could look posh, anyway. His hair was slicked back and his grin was frightening, matching the arch of his brows.
On the ground before him was Bob, who was being shaken awake by a fair-skinned woman with feline features. She looked at Regan with her black eyes, her expression almost child-like in its innocence. Regan wondered if she too was in debt to Mephistopheles and was just biding her time before her escape.
“So you are the human who tried to steal Arkei away from me,” Mephistopheles boomed throughout the great hall.
“I haven’t tried anything,” Regan said. He knew he had to play dumb if he wanted this to work. He knew he had to be outdone by Bob.
Mephistopheles waved off the reply, as if he already knew Regan’s situation. He turned to his feline companion. “Go get the artifacts that Arkei was supposed to give me with the humans. It seems she conveniently forgot about them.”
The woman nodded and scurried off, moving fast.
Bob got to his feet by then and was scratching his head in confusion.
Mephistopheles motioned at Bob. “And you are the one she tried to palm off to settle her debt, so she and her lover could roam the galaxy free together. How does that make you feel?”
Bob looked up at Mephistopheles with fear and confusion, then he looked at Regan.
“Who’s the monkey?”
“I’m your new owner,” Mephistopheles replied, hardly roused.
Bob blinked, then shot an accusatory look Regan’s way. “I remember you from the ship! Are you trying to sell me to this guy?”
Dammit, Bob. Keep it together.
“No, Bob,” Regan said in a low voice. “Remember what we talked about earlier? You’re to be the representative of humanity. You’re too clever not to study.”
Bob’s confusion deepened as he looked back and forth between Regan and Mephistopheles.
Regan realized after his statement that he needed to cool it. Needed to be less assertive. He had to be uninteresting to Mephistopheles.
By then the feline woman returned with two boxes. They were the items that Arkei took from Regan and Bob’s homes when she kidnapped them. She lifted the boxes of artifacts for Mephistopheles to peer into.
He pointed at Bob’s books.
“I suppose these belong to you?” he asked.
“I have a test!” Bob shouted. “Shit! I forgot! How could I forget? I have to get out of here!”
Mephistopheles laughed then lifted the game controller from Regan’s items. He looked at Regan with interest.
“This must be a weapon of some type?” he asked. “Some command module?”
“It’s for games,” Regan said with a hint of youthful excitement, as if attempting to sound harmless.
“Warrior games, no doubt,” Mephistopheles said.
Regan forced a laugh, as if there were no way he would even consider playing games involving warriors, battles, or violence at all.
“No no no,” Regan said. “Just friendly games.”
“Strategy, I imagine?” Mephistopheles asked.
“Uh… not really. They’re really easy. Mostly children play them.”
“Guys!” Bob interjected. “I have to get back home. I have to take this test or my mom is gonna kill me!”
“Your desire for intelligence is attractive to me,” Mephistopheles told Bob. “I would love to get a look at that brain of yours and see how it lusts to consume.”
“You can’t keep me here!” Bob shouted. He then snapped his attention at Regan. “Wait a minute! You and I already talked about this on the ship. I remember that now! You told me I’d be a representative of humanity. Not a prisoner! You lied!”
Regan didn’t have a reply. He didn’t like how this was turning out. But it didn’t matter, because Mephistopheles started clapping his hands.
“This is wonderful!” he shouted. “In-fighting! What a treat. I think from now on I’ll start collecting my specimens in pairs!”
Oh no.
“Calico,” Mephistopheles said to the feline girl. “Take both specimens to the holding cells. I will keep them both and study their interactions. We will have great fun with these two.”
Calico nodded and made her way slowly to Bob and Regan. Bob tried to resist, but Calico was quick to get her hands around his limiter cuffs. She was strong and yanked him forward. He couldn’t fight back.
Regan decided not to fight back either. He raised his limiter cuffed hands to her and he swore she purred when she grabbed a hold of them.
She walked Bob and Regan out of the great hall like a flirtatious girl, pulling them along either side of her. There was even a bounce to her step, as if she were skipping slightly. She was enjoying this.
Regan took one last glance at Mephistopheles before Calico pulled them from the room. He was watching his subjects leave as he rubbed his hands together, excited about what was to come next.
Regan hated seeing the happiness on his face. He hated that Arkei was ever in debt to him. He hated how Mephistopheles had betrayed his word with Arkei, but he wasn’t surprised. Mephistopheles was an asshole, after all.
But there was one thing he knew for certain: He would not be this guy’s prisoner.
He knew that once he was locked up, he’d do everything he could to escape. He had defeated Brutes and pirates, slept with gorgeous space babes, and won life or death games of space poker. Though Mephistopheles was a worse foe than all the others, Regan felt he had a few more tricks up his sleeve.
Chapter Eighteen
As Calico led Regan and Bob to their holding cells, Regan ran through many scenarios in his mind, trying to pinpoint a way out. He knew he wouldn’t be able to break out of his cuffs, and was sure that whatever cage they would place him in would be strong enough to contain any species, let alone a human.
It also surprised him at how careless Calico seemed, hardly even holding onto them. Either she was scatterbrained, or perhaps just at ease with her role. But didn’t she know the truth? That when Mephistopheles was done with her, he’d betray her just like everyone else?
If she was the replacement for Arkei, then she was in for an eventual double cross.
Regan wondered if he could use this to his advantage. He wondered if he could convince Calico to help him escape.
Help Bob too if it came down to it.
“How long have you worked for Mephistopheles?” Regan asked her.
She turned to face him and smirked coyly, shaking her head.
“It’s not worth prying, human,” she said. “You’ve already been caught by the big bad wolf. Just relax and enjoy the ride.”
“The big bad wolf is going to let you down one day, just like he let down Arkei. He double crossed her and you saw it happen. Why would you be any different to him?”
Calico turned and made a pouty face at Regan.
&n
bsp; “Poor, poor Arkei,” she said with a teasing whimper. “Well, Mephistopheles and I have a mutual understanding. I don’t think Arkei was ever on the same page with him.”
They turned a corner and entered a room with a series of jail cells. She opened one cell and motioned for them both to get in, which they did.
After following Bob in, Regan stopped and looked at Calico again. He stared into her dark eyes, and they seemed to open up for him when he did so.
“He’s evil,” Regan said. “If you help us, we can help you.”
She put her fingers over her mouth and smiled slightly. She winked at Regan.
“You’re adorable,” she said as she locked him inside the cell. “But no, I don’t think I’ll be helping you. And I don’t think I need your help.” She put her hands on the bars and leaned into the cell door suggestively. “You see, I have Mephistopheles wrapped around my finger. I’m exactly where I want to be, in fact. So why would I upset that advantage?”
“Because he’ll ultimately find you out and ruin you. I know the type. A man like him won’t take kindly to being played.”
“You just seem to know everything,” she said with a smile. “Quite a different performance than the one you gave in front of Mephistopheles.”
Damn. I gotta be careful. I’ve been pressing my luck.
Regan was about to say something, but kept his mouth shut.
Calico released her hands from the bars and took a step back.
“Since you’ll be bored in here, maybe I can fetch some of your belongings?” she suggested. “Something to help you get by until the fun starts?”
Regan thought about his bat, but he knew it wouldn’t work. He just shook his head.
“My books!” Bob shouted from behind Regan.
His shout made Calico laugh. She bowed then skipped toward the door to leave. She purred, “I’ll see what I can do,” as she disappeared.
Regan didn’t have the best feeling about her, but he knew she might be his only ticket out of here. He didn’t think Arkei would go for breaking him out, not when she had a contract she thought she had to uphold. He would have to keep working this one from the inside.
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