by Iona Strom
“The oveelian is Taluvian delicacy, Avay.”
“No. It is a pet, Nulis. You know, to pet,” I say, stroking my hand in the air. “To care for and love.”
“You are worse than Xuel,” I hear him grumble with a shake of his head.
Nulis returns the chain to the peg and turns to speak with the merchant. Waving his hand at the crate, the merchant scratches his head in confusion but answers with a stiff shake of his head, at which point, Nulis becomes aggressively agitated. Hostile words are traded. Hand and arm gestures begin to fly. Just when I’m in a full-blown panic I’ll have to either steal the creature or leave it behind, Natu steps in and takes over negotiations.
Natu quickly calms the rising storm—I swear, a truer diplomat never existed. Natu turns what was ugly into a fair trade with practiced calm, and what I suspect are natural political skills.
If these guys ever decided to invade Earth, Natu would be the one needed to make negotiations.
Once negotiations have been settled, and a handful of rillium has changed hands, I collect my crate of cuteness. I coo at the little furball, and to my immense surprise, it coos back! I wonder… Making a purring sound, the creature mimics me perfectly. Whistling an easy tune, it’s echoed back to me.
“You should not play with your food, shoulsis,” Nulis grunts.
“I had no idea hidden under that brusque exterior was a sense of humor,” I poke back. “Thank you for helping me save this adorable creature. Peace offering or not, I’m still mad at you for shouldering me like a sack of flour.”
“I know not what fluuer is, Avay, but while you were preoccupied being angry at me, you forgot to be afraid of the market.” Nulis’ sage look is not lost on me as he turns to resume our tour of the market.
I thank Natu with a lingering kiss and fall in line behind Nulis with Natu taking his place in the rear.
Reverse psychology from my beast of a mate. Out of the three, Nulis is the most surprising. I’ve been mistaken that he is only interested in sex. There’s a depth to him I can’t wait to explore.
On our last stop, Natu trades the remaining gems in his pouch for a few sacks of some strange greenish grain. He hands off the last of our purchases to the small yellowish creatures we hired to load all of it onto the shuttle. Only steps away from the row of parked land vehicles, and I can’t wait to take a break from all this walking—
A colossal monstrosity comes barreling out of nowhere.
Snatched off my feet in a bruising grip, the crate with my fur baby slips from my hands. More concerned with my pet than what’s crushing my ribs—as if time slowed—I keep my eyes on the falling crate as it hits the ground and shatters.
“Noooo!” I shriek and claw at the crushing grip banded around my waist.
The arm of my assailant is covered in a sleeve of wiry bristles that pokes and tears at my tender skin. Great in height, the monstrosity’s long strides carry me farther and farther away from my precious crated creature and my males, who are running full tilt to catch up.
The monstrosity veers off the path with a sharp left. Cutting between two merchant’s booths, I lose sight of my males as I struggle to breathe. My head is light from the heat. I feel my breathing device dangling, hitting against the side of my face with every loping gait.
Bursting through a set of rustic barn-like doors, the monstrosity closes us inside the musty structure. Low of ceiling, my abductor crouches as I’m carried to the far side of the single room space.
Hiding behind stacks of goods, I recognize Natu’s voice as my males draw near.
Pulling in as much of the thin air as I can muster, I only manage to squeak out my call for help. No one hears my feeble cry, and my males, along with Mont’clure, run past where I’m hidden.
As commotion turns to silence, I watch with dimming vision as dust floats like fine snow through the stabs of light filtering in through the slats of the haphazardly built structure.
The monstrosity huffs as if it’s been holding its breath. I’m tossed to the dirty ground and rolled over onto my back. Large hands—belonging to what I now realize is the colossal monstrosity with the heavy purse Xuel bid against on the red planet—rip my dress from my body.
Ragdoll limp, with little oxygen filling my lungs, I can do nothing to stop the monstrosity from grabbing hold of my ankles and yanking my legs apart. With a lewd lick of his thin lips with that forked tongue I remember from the market on Tirius, he kneels down between my outstretched legs. My sex exposed, his tongue flicks out, the twin tips brushing over my labia. I can only watch in disgust as he tastes me with eyes that close on the vertical in appreciation.
Wide open and helpless, I’m glad for the hypoxia taking me away from this horror as the monstrosity shifts his clothing to expose his hideous sex. My blurry eyes shut as the monstrosity takes his sex in hand, lining it up with mine.
A savage roar pries open my eyes in time to see Nulis rip the door from its hinges. Fangs bared, he is a terrifying sight.
Caught with his pants down, the monstrosity about to rape me is caught off guard. Bunched around his ankles, the material acts as a shackle, giving Nulis the upper hand.
Never slowing, Nulis mows down the freak like a freight train, their coupled momentum halted with a rebound off the closest wall. Too limp to move my head, I can only guess at the skirmish at my feet.
Mont’clure is suddenly at my side, clipping the breathing device back into place. With a few adjustments, misty air is a welcome relief from the suffocation. I’m dragged to the opposite side of the room, and I see Natu has joined the fight.
It’s a bloody battle as my males take hunks out of the monstrosity that stole me away. Their combined efforts bring a gruesome fight but are no match for the wirehaired beast.
The monstrosity regains his footing, tearing away the clothes that hampered him and tosses Natu and Nulis away as if they were no more than buzzing flies. That’s when Mont’clure leaves me to join the fight.
A leap onto the back of the monstrosity is just the distraction my males need to reengage in a frontal attack. Fangs digging in deep, they tear meat from bone, the ripping sounds of mangled flesh a nauseating backdrop to the fray that’s now coming my way.
On all fours, I scramble backward until my back hits the wall.
At first, I don’t believe what I’m seeing. I rub at my eyes to clear my vision, but the eight tentacles that have replaced what I thought were Mont’clure’s legs stuffed into pants that easily tear away, wrap themselves around the monstrosity’s limbs, tripping him up.
Falling in a thunderous heap, my males take advantage as Mont’clure’s tentacles rope around and stretch the monstrosity spread-eagle on the ground. With Mont’clure straining to maintain his octopus hold, my males go to work on the monstrosity’s exposed throat, but their vicious strikes with dagger-like fangs aren’t without consequence. Bleeding from multiple puncture wounds around their face and mouths, it’s as if they’re biting through the quills of a porcupine.
Sprays and splatters paint the walls the deep purple of the monstrosity’s blood, and it’s becoming apparent who is dominating the fight. It’s only a matter of time before the monstrosity succumbs to its injuries.
The glint of a blade is nothing but a flash before sinking in deep to the tentacle squeezing the monstrosity’s thigh. With an anguished cry, Mont’clure’s grip loosens just enough for the monstrosity to free first one leg, then an arm.
In an unexpected turn of events, the monstrosity heaves himself to his feet, throwing out an arm in a wide arch, catching Nulis with an uppercut to the jaw. I gasp in shocked horror as I helplessly watch my male get thrown through the outside wall that’s already weakened from the first impact.
Golden light spills in from the new hole formed from Nulis’ body. Gone is my mate, and all I can see beyond the gaping mouth of the jagged hole is waving blue grass.
“Noooo,” I shriek and run to where I last saw Nulis.
I don’t reach my destination
before I’m grabbed around the middle, and like a child with a doll, the monstrosity tears out of the structure, running as I dangle, clutched in one enormous hand.
My vantage point bounces around in hard jolts with the monstrosity’s determined strides. The sky comes into view with one stride, then Natu’s leaking face as he gains ground in the next.
Mont’clure is far behind, limping badly but still giving chase.
To my surprise, Nulis careens around the corner of the next merchant’s booth, blue grass torn from the ground, still clinging to his bleeding flesh in multiple places.
I reach out to Nulis despite my position, and he reaches back but appears to be slowing. Leaking like a sieve, he collapses on the hard ground in a bloody heap, unmoving, and my heart breaks a thousand times over as he lays dying.
I impotently struggle against the monstrosity’s bruising grip, but there’s no freedom to be had as the monster tightens his grip.
The monstrosity looks back to see Natu gaining. Increasing his speed, he leaves Natu in the dust and plows through the marketplace, toppling over displays and trampling over merchants. Natu grows smaller and smaller as I’m rushed past the shattered cage of the tiny creature I’d hope to save.
Cleared of the marketplace, the massive feet of the monstrosity slap the ground of the flight pad. Hundreds of spacecrafts, including our own, pass by at an alarming rate.
I know with a sickening feeling; I will never see it or my males again.
A quick jaunt to the left, and I’m taken aboard something similar to what I traveled in, and I know I’m fucked in more ways than one as soon as the door to the monstrosity’s shuttle slams closed behind me.
Return: Nomadican Mates Series 4
A Peek Inside
Cael: Mythical Ink Series 3
Paranormal Romance
Copyright © 2018 by LS Anders
Cael: Mythical Ink Series (book 3)
All rights reserved.
Please respect the work of this author. No part of this eBook/book publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Use your own judgment to determine if the content of this novel is appropriate for you.
This romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Chapter 1
Realm of the Dead
The momentum of the wheel slowed from its spin, coming to a gradual halt. A disembodied number appeared in the space above it, followed by a round of disappointed groans that percolated through the crowd.
Cael peered down, disbelieving the token in his hand. Number forti-tre was engraved on the face of the smooth surface. Rubbing his thumb over the indentations that made up the Realm of the Dead’s swirling numeric equivalent of the number forty-three, he couldn’t contemplate what being relieved of his purpose would be like even for a short term.
The transporter standing atop the dais called out the number and looked around expectantly at the gathered crowd. The holding arena, the place where Utopia and Netherworld were joined, was packed tight with sentries and transporters alike. Most held tokens while the few others who had chosen not to participate in the drawing hung out on the periphery of the crowd.
On a normal cycle, the holding arena would be receiving influx after an influx of new souls from the Realm of the Living brought in by the transporters to be sorted by the First Sentry on duty. Arranged by the hues of their auras, the grays of the damned were separated from the colorful of the good, the holding arena being the final stop before the final fate was determined by what was done in life. But for this short moment, the being who created it all had paused everything for this drawing to please the ones who served him.
Clutching the token tightly in his hand, Cael remained quiet. Once he acknowledged the winning token and flew up to join the other transporter on the platform, he would be on his way to the Realm of the Living—not as an unseen observer there to collect the souls of the recently deceased but to live among them as a person. To interact with them. To experience things he had never known.
He needed a moment to absorb what was sure to happen once he handed his winning token over to the other male.
Taking in the only place he had ever known, Cael glanced around at the soft, white light that backlit every surface, from the stage to the floor and ceiling that curved seamlessly into each other. There were no definitive walls. It was as if there was no end and no beginning, only a smooth, rounded transition that continued into the infinite.
He’d once tested the endless structure, flying first horizontally, then vertically, traveling a great distance until there was nothing else in sight except all that white. Pausing, he’d looked back in the direction of the holding arena and saw nothing. Not even a pinpoint of all that activity could be seen from where he’d flown. The space just kept expanding with no end and no beginning.
Fourteen times the sun would set, and the moon would rise. That’s how long he would be out of his element, serving no purpose but to satisfy his own curiosity. It was daunting to step away from all he had ever known and jump feet first into a world he was only familiar with in a working capacity. A world where his kind were known as angels and sentries were commonly called demons.
He never imagined he would be picked first to embark on this new excursion. Choosing a token from the huge pot, filled to overflowing, the odds had been stacked against him. He assumed there would be plenty of others who would go before him. Ones who would share their experiences so it wouldn’t be quite so foreign a concept once he was chosen for a turn.
He had wanted to go. When the lottery was announced, he hadn’t hesitated when his turn came to shove his hand into the vast pool to choose a numbered token of his own. Curiosity over what he had witnessed after returning the former First Sentry, Vex, to the Realm of the Living drove him like nothing else ever had. Not even his single-minded focus on his duties could compete with what his imagination continued to conjure.
When the opportunity arose for Cael to tend to the intense desire to understand why the sentry had given up his second chance to serve in Netherworld in order to return to where he had once been banished, he flew at the chance.
It was rare anyone was given a second chance once a banishment was issued. Cael would have thought Vex would have been elated to return to his purpose of assuring the souls of the damned remained within the confines of their self-made prisons. But he wasn’t. Vex had been miserable and eventually, refused to perform his duties at all, so Cael was called upon to transport him back to the Realm of the Living.
Flying Vex back through the portal that divided the realms was simple. Understanding why the male had wanted to return was not.
After delivering him to a narrow stretch between one of the living’s self-erected structures, Cael followed the male from the sky, dropping down to the ground once the sentry made his way inside a place built with a clear walled front that resembled one of the tiny, cube-like prisons in Netherworld.
At first, it appeared Vex was returning for the transporter, Lucian who had been banished along with him as he crushed the other male in a hard embrace. But it wasn’t only the transporter he’d come back for but a small female. She’d come barreling toward him, her arms stretched wide. Vex had caught her up, clinging to her as if his very existence depended on it.
The male had returned for the one he cherished above all others. He had returned for love.
Even if Cael had not witnessed the display of unbridled affection, he would have known they belonged together. Separate, Vex possessed the transparent, colorless aura of all otherworldlies and Alea one of a lemony hue. But together, their auras fused, igniting into a fiery golden hue that ri
valed that of the sun.
Soulmates. That was what he’d heard them called once.
Cael had seen many a display between the living left behind over the body of the recently departed as he collected the soul. Never had he been privy to a scene such as that between two living beings. He could not stop wondering what being loved by another would be like. To be held to such high regard by another, they would forsake the will of the creator of it all to be with him.
Turning the token over in the palm of his hand, he now held that chance to appease his curiosity. To have a taste of what Vex was living in that other realm. To sample sustenance for the first time. To feel the sun warm his face. To breathe in the air on a moonless night. To discover what it was about the female form that held such a fascination for males of the living.
Without another thought, Cael shot up from the floor, unfurled his wings, and rocketed over to the male on the dais.
“It is I,” Cael announced, presenting his token. “I have the forti-tre.”
Chapter 2
Realm of the Living
Rachel was convinced this place was hell on earth. Tonight was a packed house, but it was always like that on the weekends. Not a single seat at the bar she was tending was vacant nor a table surrounding it empty. There was barely any room as she came out from behind the bar to maneuver between two tables, holding her empty tray high above her head as she made her way through the crush of people.
Once clear of the chaos, she pushed opened the flap door to the kitchen, only to enter into another kind of chaos. The chatter of the kitchen staff competed with clanging pots and pans, dishes clanking, and waitresses talking fast as they filled their trays with their orders.
Stepping to the side to let a waitress pass, Rachel pulled her ticket book out of the front pocket of her short apron, checked the order, and loaded down her own tray with steaming plates of food.