by Luna Hunter
Kane pulls my hood down.
The rat-man sits up straight instantly, knocking his foot-bath over, grey water spilling down the steps. He snaps his fingers and the girls leave instantly, their heads bowed.
Melkov inspects me from head-to-toe with his beady eyes, and it makes me deeply uncomfortable.
This man going to help me ‘save’ this planet? He looks like a dictator to me.
“You’ve brought me a human,” he exclaims gleefully. “Glorious! Come child, let me take a better look at you.”
Kane nudges me. I don’t move. This man gives me the creeps.
“Come on,” he hisses. “I won’t bite.”
I’m not so sure about that.
I give Kane another look, hoping he’ll rescue me again, but he nods decisively — even though I see in his purple eyes that he’s conflicted.
I walk over to Melkov, my eyes aimed straight at the ground. As long as I don’t have to look at him, I can pretend this is not happening…
The rat-man grabs my cheeks with his bony-yet-hairy fingers and inspects like one would inspect a horse.
“Excellent condition. You have done well. She will make us rich!”
My left eye twitches. What?
“You mean she will help the clan,” Kane thunders with his booming voice.
Melkov looks tip, confused. His beady eyes cross Kane’s intense gaze, and the rat-man perks up.
“Right, right, help the clan,” he says.
Not very convincingly.
“Her power belongs to the clan!” Kane stats again forcefully, as he pulls his own hood down. “She will bring balance to Vagreon!”
“Ah, Silver,” Melkov says. “Now it makes sense. Ragh told me about you. You’re the one with the memory issues, right?”
Kane’s amethyst eyes dart over towards me. I can see he’s as unsure of this situation as I am.
“I don’t see what that has to do with any of this,” the Zoran growls. I can sense he’s growing impatient.
Melkov waves him away. “It doesn’t. Your mission is accomplished. Ragh will give you whatever he promised you. You can leave now.”
I turn around and look at Kane.
Please don’t go.
The rat-man roughly squeezes my ass, and I recoil in horror, nearly stumbling down the slippery steps. I run over to Kane, and he holds open his cloak for me, protectively wrapping his arms around me.
“Hand her over,” Melkov says.
Kane hugs me tightly, and I fight the tears. “Don’t give me to him,” I whisper. “Please.”
“Zoran. Hand the cargo over,” Melkov insists.
“I’m not sure I can do that,” he tells the rat-man.
“Don’t be a fool,” Melkov hisses.
When I open my eyes I see there are guards surrounding us on all sides, brandishing swords.
“What are you planning?!” Kane growls. “What’s the meaning of this?”
“That is not for you to know!” Melkov says. “You are a tool, Silver. Nothing more.”
“We’re leaving,” Kane says. “I will go see Ragh.”
Melkov throws his head back and laughs. “If you think I’m letting you walk out of here with that prize, you’ve been huffing too much Jet, my friend.”
My cheeks burn hotly. I still can’t believe this. A bunch of aliens are about to start fighting — over me?
I would have voted myself least-likely-to-be-abducted-and-fought-over-by-alien-warlords, if it had been an option. Yet, here I am. Kane’s arm wrapped tightly around my waist, and more than a dozen armed rat-folk glaring at us.
Despite the imminent danger we’re in, Kane makes me feel safe. As long as his arm is around me, I know things will end up well.
He took out a whole ship of Ganon by himself. He can take care of these guys.
I hope.
“I don’t understand,” Kane growls, frustrated. “You are Sahr! You are the clan! You ought to be fighting slavery, not practicing it!”
“Of course you don’t understand,” Melkov bites. “You’re a tool — one that has outlived his usefulness. Ragh saw potential in you, and rightfully so. With your tattered brain, you would have believed anything!”
Kane’s silver face turns a ghostly pale. “No,” he breathes. “No.”
“Oh yes,” Melkov smirks. His beady eyes are filled with hatred — the sick bastard is getting off on this power trip. “Yes. You were quite useful, Silver. With your help we Sahr grew from insignificant bottom-feeders to the top of the food-chain! The Seven Lords are dead thanks to you, their organizations in disarray, and Vagreon is ours for the taking! With the credits we’ll earn by auctioning off that human piece off ass you’ve delivered right to my doorstep, we can make our final push. I know several Gyx princes who can’t wait to try human flesh, and they’ll pay me a fortune for it!”
Melkov throws his head back and laughs. He laughs and laughs and laughs, and the sound makes me sick to my very stomach.
Kane is trembling, his purple eyes filled with horror. For the first time he looks vulnerable. I don’t completely understand the implications of what the rat bastard has just said, but I do know it’s got Kane shaken up good.
“Let’s go,” I whisper. “Let’s go. Now!”
We turn around, and two of the rat-folk block our exit. In a flash Kane pulls out his gun, and two bangs later we’re off. He lifts me right off my feet and I wrap my arms and leg around his powerful frame. Wind whips my hair around as he sprints down he tunnel, and I focus on the sound his heart makes, the rhythmic thumping the only thing keeping me from freaking out.
He bursts out into the courtyard, but more ratfolk are waiting for us there, and behind them an entire crowd of onlookers has assembled.
“Hold on,” Kane growls.
He charges at them. Every step the Zoran takes is massive, and he jumps right into the crowd… and just when I think we might make it out of there in one piece, a rope is thrown around Kane’s neck.
He’s stopped dead in his tracks. I, on the other hand, am launched like a missile. I crash down hard on the rocky floor, the crowd dispersing. When I look up, I see Kane’s gun is only a few feet away from me.
My gut turns to stone when I see the Zoran is lying on the floor, and more than a dozen of the rat-people are beating him with metal pipes. The crunching sound every blow makes me stick to my stomach.
The whole crowd is focused on the orgy of violence, and no one both to look at me. If I wanted to, I could slip away unseen right now.
If I ever wanted to escape, this is my chance.
But… I can’t.
I can’t just leave Kane to die.
I have to do something.
The gun!
I scramble towards it, stand up, point it at the rat-people and pull the trigger.
Bam!
The explosion is massive. The force of the shot throws me back as few feet, and the rat I was aiming at is blown away — literally.
All the rat-folk look up, surprised. And their beady eyes all land on me.
Oh fuck.
Kane used this opportunity to scramble to his feet. He pushes a few of the rats out of the way and charges towards me. His entire body is bloodied and bruised, but his amethyst eyes see me perfectly. I jump into his arms and we’re off, jostling our way through the crowd and then ducking into streets, alleys, going left, right, left, left, in a building, out the back door, into another alley, and all the while my heart is pounding like mad and adrenaline is racing through my veins.
It seems we’ve lost them.
Kane enters a rundown building, charges up the stairs, opens a door and throws it closed behind him. We’re in an empty apartment. He sinks down to the floor, and motions for me to be quiet.
We wait. For several minutes we barely dare to breathe. Kane is in bad shape — he’s bleeding all over, his silver face now bruised a deep purple.
And then, Kane laughs.
“We lost them,” he grins. “We lost them.”
I clap my hands together. Yes!
My relief if short-lived, because Kane slumps down, his eyes shut, his head lulled to the side. My battered-and-bruised savior has lost consciousness.
Chapter Seven
Kane
I awake with a jolt, my fists raised.
“Calm down,” Piper says, pushing me back down onto my back. “I’m nearly done.” Her touch feels fantastic on my naked skin… my naked skin?
I glance down to see I’m lying on my couch, half-naked, with fresh bandages all over my bruised body. A thin blanket covers my frame. While I was out cold the human cared for me? I briefly expect her work, and I’m impressed. Couldn’t have done it better myself.
She hums to herself as she changes my bandages, and I enjoy the soothing tune. In the distance I hear the soft, familiar sounds of my record player. She leans in and her soft hair tickles my silver skin.
Instantly I’m as hard as a rock — and there’s no padded coat or armor to keep my manhood from bursting out into the open this time. I raise one knee so that the tent that has risen underneath the covers isn’t too obvious.
I shouldn’t be having thoughts like these. It’s my fault she’s here, and I should be taking her back home, not fantasizing about taking her innocence.
“There. Good morning,” Piper says cheerfully. “How are you feeling?”
It’s morning already?! How long have I been out?!
I try to stand up, but again, the human female stops me.
“Cut it out,” she says. “You need to take it easy!”
I need to save you from yourself, human.
“Close the curtains,” I growl angrily. “What if someone sees us?! And turn off that music!”
Piper rises, looking wounded, and follows my instructions to the letter.
I lie back down and hold my head in my hands. Can I ever not be an asshole?
“Sorry,” I say. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she says as she sits back down next to me. “You’re right. We need to be careful.”
“Yes, but I shouldn’t yell at you. Not after you saved my life.”
“It was nothing.”
“No, it was noble of you,” I say. “You’re brave.”
A soft blush appears on her cheeks. “Thank you,” she whispers, the corners of her lips curling up into a shy smile.
I grab her hand and give it a soft squeeze. Instantly, her face turns crimson, and she pulls her hand away like I’m as hot as stove.
“Did I do something wrong?” I ask.
“No, it’s this simulation, I mean, this dream I had, I mean, forget about it. Just forget I said anything.”
“Gladly,” I say.
“What is this place?” she asks. “Your home?”
“Something like that,” I answer, taking a look around. Bright monitors fill the dingy apartment, the computers constantly scanning the local web for any keywords that are relevant to my interests.
From the text rapidly flashing across the screens, something big is going on.
“It’s my hideout,” I answer. “A safe house.”
“Are you…” Her voice fades away.
“Go on. Say it.”
“A hitman?”
“I’m whatever the clan wants me to be, or at least, that’s who I was. Now… now I don’t know who I am anymore. Except for the fact that I’m a chump who got played.”
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t want to know.”
Piper gestures at the dark, empty room.
“Pretty sure I have the time,” she says with a smile.
No matter how dire the circumstances, that bright smile of hers is always there on her face.
“Fine,” I say, “but you won’t like the answers.”
“I haven’t like a whole lot recently, it can’t possibly get any worse,” she shrugs.
Ouch.
Piper grabs us both a cup of tea, and she finds a comfortable position on the couch next to me.
Here goes.
“It all started six months ago. I woke up and found myself in a pile of burning rubble, my hands and ankles tied to a metal frame without a single memory in my mind. I didn’t know who I was, or how I got there. The only thing I knew for sure was that the fire had started licking my skin, and that was about to die an agonizing death.”
“So that’s why…” Piper whispers.
“Hm?”
“Your leg,” he says. “I was changing your bandages, and…”
“Ah. You saw my scars.”
She nods. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
I wonder how much more she saw of me. It seems she’s at advantage, because I have no idea what she looks like underneath that well-fitting bodysuit of hers. Not for long, though… Her glorious curves will be mine…
No! I push the wanton thought way. Again. I should be protecting her innocence, not plotting to seize it for myself. It has to be the pain that’s making me delirious.
“You’re right,” I say. “That is why I have those burns. Right at the moment when I had accepted my own death, a figure appeared in the flames. For a second I thought I was delirious, but no, it was real. Ragh was his name. He saved my life, and I pledged it to him and his cause, which I thought was just.”
A bitter taste fills my mouth.
“It wasn’t.”
Piper is hanging on my every word. She doesn’t look at me like a murderer or a wild beast, like most people here on Vagreon. She looks at like I’m a person.
I could get used to that.
“What happened next?” she asks. “Don’t leave me hanging!”
“I need to check the computers first,” I say. I try to get up, but a quick flash of pain has me stumbling. Piper is at my side in a second and helps me find my balance.
Those Sahr really did a number on me.
“Don’t be so stubborn and let me help you,” Piper says.
I don’t deserve her help.
She guides me to my multitude of screens. My eyes scan the text flashing by, taking all of the info in. It’s worse than I had feared. The clan put a price on my head, raising it from sixty-five thousand to a staggering two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand credits. It’s open season.
It’s just a matter of time before someone finds us. Vagreon is only so big, and the clan will be combing every nook and cranny. And in my current state, I’m as good as dead.
Piper doesn’t deserve any of this. I need to get her out of here, no matter what.
“Come on, continue your story, please,” Piper says.
Her big blue eyes demand my attention. While I’m staring into them, all my worries fade away. If I can’t save her, I can at least enjoy the time that we do have together.
“Alright,” I say, “alright.”
I turn the monitors off and settle back down on the couch. If the clan does find us, I’d like it to be a surprise, so I can savor every minute we have without anxiety weighing me down.
“Where was I?”
“Ragh.”
My short-lived happiness fades away. “Yes, Ragh. He nursed me back to health. I was desperate to learn who I was, but he had no answers. All I had was this.”
I hand Piper my metal dog-tag.
“Kane. That’s all I know.”
“Wow,” she says. “I can’t imagine what that must be like.”
“I hope you never find out,” I say seriously. “Without memories, without something to anchor yourself to in this world, you’re simply… adrift. It’s incredibly hard to find your place. That is why I latched onto the clan’s narrative, I suppose. You’ve seen Vagreon. It’s a lawless place where the strong prey on the weak. Literally. Slavery is a fact of life here, and the Seven Lords, the various crime syndicates, gangs, and families, rule this place with an iron first. Or, they did. Until I showed up.”
I take a sip of my tea, but it’s gone cold.
“We need something stronger for this story. I’ve stashed a bo
ttle of cuhla somewhere in the kitchen.”
“Say no more,” Piper says as she rises up.
“It’s a black bottle.”
“Got it! I think.”
Piper returns with the bottle and two glasses. I watch her hips sway when she walks, and the beast inside of me is growling with lust. The cuhla will lower my inhibitions even more, and it might make me do something I regret, but… fuck it. I already have my fair share of regrets. What is one more?
“Is this it?” Piper asks as she hands me the bottle.
“Yes,” I answer. “This is the only truly Zoran thing I have. It was a gift from Ragh for a job well done. I’ve been saving it for a special occasion. This is it.”
I uncork the bottle and a sweet aroma fills the room. I pour two glasses and we clink them together.
“Cheers.”
The drink is strong, yet sweet, and fills me with warmth. Piper makes a face, and I can’t help but chuckle.
“Too strong for you?”
“A bit,” she coughs, “It’s tasty though!”
I savor the sweet taste, for what I will divulge next will fill me with bitterness.
“Ragh told me he was part of the Sahr clan,” I continue. “An underground collective, fighting the Seven Lords, with the ultimate goal of ending slavery in the entire sector. Naturally, I was drawn to this cause. I owed Ragh my life, and he promised he would use his connections to dig up any information about my past he could find. All I had to do was work for him. Happy to have found a purpose, I accepted.”
I take another sip of cuhla. Already I can feel my head start to swim — it hits heavy on an empty stomach.
“As I said, I’ve lost my memory, but my training is still there. I must have been a warrior in my past life, because killing is like a second nature to me. I take no pleasure from it, but if it’s for a good cause, well, I will use the talents gifted to me.”
Piper nods as she tucks a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. She looks so innocent, and yet she pulled the trigger on my gun without a moment’s hesitation, blowing that Sahr away.
I wonder if she realizes she killed him? Either way, I’m not going to tell her. I don’t want to steal her innocence away from her.
Or do I?
“I quickly made a name for myself,” I go on. “Silver. That’s what they called me. They whispered it to each other, afraid that if they said my name out loud it would attract my attention. I was the bogeyman of the Seven Lords — except that I was very, very real, and I started taking them out, one by one.”