I’m giddy with excitement as my powers continue to grow exponentially, and it opens up so many possibilities.
After dinner, I’m chatting with Cooper again, explaining about my training session when he brings up a troublesome topic. “You need to be careful, Alinthia. Using dark feelings to access and master your abilities is a slippery slope. It’s not the way we were training you for a reason. Hold tight a sec. I want to ask Beck something.”
There’s radio silence for a couple minutes and then he’s back. “Beck says wielding control using dark emotions is the first step toward dark magic. We wouldn’t put it past Zorc to be doing this deliberately.”
“Neither do I, but I don’t know any other way to do this with the short window we’ve got.”
“Just be careful. Be on guard. And don’t let him push you too far.”
How prophetic his words turn out to be.
The following afternoon, Zorc tells me has a surprise lined up for me. “I don’t like surprises,” I lie, because I just know I won’t like his idea of a surprise.
He laughs—it’s his preferred form of communication instead of like, you know, responding to me. “We need to travel to the other side of the compound,” he informs me, leading me out of the training room where a two-seater electronic cart lies in wait. “I hate that I can’t teleport in here,” he grumbles, getting behind the wheel as I slide in the passenger side.
“Where are we going?” I ask, ignoring his childish hissy fit.
“Patience, Princess. Patience, and all will be revealed.” I want to punch him in his arrogant, irritating face, but I grind down on my teeth instead. “The distraction is being set up for this weekend,” he murmurs. “So, you need to do this one final thing to appease the humans.”
Sirens start firing in my head. “Why do I get a sense I won’t like this?”
He smirks. “Because you won’t. You’re going to hate it.”
“I thought you said it was a surprise.”
“It is. I just never said it was a good one.”
I roll my eyes to the ceiling and count to ten in my head. We don’t talk after that, and it suits me just fine. I want to connect to Coop, but I’m afraid I’ll give the game away. I can always tell when the guys are telepathically communicating, and I’m a complete novice at this, so I can’t risk it. Keeping Zorc in the dark about this is important. I sense it.
After ten minutes whizzing through the compound, Zorc brings the cart to a halt at two large, steel double doors. Once we’ve gone through the security checks, he leads me into a narrow, empty passageway. The walls are painted a ghastly blood-red color and the ceiling stretches up and up. At the very top, I can just about make out a strip of windows, faint sunshine glinting off the glass. We stop outside the only door, and he turns to me with a familiar cautionary look on his face. “You won’t like this, but you still need to cooperate. This is your final hooray before we leave this place. Keep that in mind.”
Hooray. Who the hell uses words like that?
We exit the cart, and Zorc opens the door to a mini-auditorium of sorts. I count ten rows of bleachers on each side as we walk up the steep stone steps. We come out at the bottom of the bleachers in front of a mesh fence. I lean over and stop breathing.
Down below is a round pit with sand scattered on the floor and a giant pillar in the center of the space. Large hooks and chains drape from all sides of the pillar, and a shiver skates up my spine. Unless I’m mistaken, those colorful marks splattering the sides of the pillar are blood—from several different species.
“What is this?” I pin Zorc with a horror-filled look.
“Alinthia,” Director Tanner says, approaching from the other side of the auditorium. “You have shown yourself to be a creature of unique ability, but we need to test your powers outside the training room. In more of a real-life scenario.”
I was afraid he was going to say something like that. And who the fuck is he to call me a creature? He’s already on my shit list, but I’ve just elevated him to the top spot. “Care to elaborate?”
“The less you know, the better. We want you to react instinctively.” He gestures behind him at the two rows of men and women in official military garb. “We have top government operatives, senators, and ministers of state here today.” He leans in close. “Let’s give them a show they won’t forget.” He winks conspiratorially, as if we’re best buds. Fire simmers in my veins and burns the backs of my eyes.
“Save that for the arena,” Zorc suggests, gripping my shoulders and steering me back down the steps. When we reach the bottom, he opens a side door I didn’t notice previously, and I follow him through, still reeling.
Blood is thrumming in my ears, and adrenaline courses through my veins. Lighting is dim and the noise of our footsteps is the only sound in the dark corridor as we walk. Emerging into a brighter hallway, we walk past a row of cages, and a chorus of boos, insults, and catcalls ring out. Foreign species of all shapes and sizes rush the bars, snarling and growling and tossing taunts and vulgarities about. Some reach arms through the gaps in the cage, desperately trying to grab me. I scoot sideways, sticking to the other side of the passageway as I hurry to keep pace with Zorc. Bile floods my mouth, and anxiety is a heavy weight on my chest as I scurry away.
He veers left, into an empty corridor, and I release the breath I was holding. “Who are they?”
“Aliens we captured who refused to cooperate. Most came here in recent months looking for you.”
“They’re not part of the prophecy fan club, I see.”
“Definitely not. They came to Earth to kill you or kidnap you.”
“Well, that’s reassuring. Not.”
“At least it should make it easier to kill them.”
It’s exactly as I thought, and I’m appalled. Whether they were sent here to kill me or not isn’t really the issue. It’s the thought that they’re being wheeled out so I can exhibit my newfound skills. That I’m expected to kill them without giving it a second’s thought. To show the powers that be what exactly I’m capable of. That’s not who I am. “What if I don’t want to kill them?”
Zorc slams to a halt, spinning around to face me. “You don’t have a choice! It’s kill them or be killed. Do you think any of those mercenaries would think twice about ending you?”
“It’s wrong.”
“It’s no different than what you did the other times you fought your enemies. It’s survival of the fittest.” He taps his fingers off my temple. “Get with the program, Alinthia. Unless you want to die. And you know what that means.”
If I die, my protectors die, and then all hope is lost for the galaxy.
I follow Zorc without any further protest, hating what I’m about to do but knowing there is absolutely nothing I can do to change it.
I get dressed in the clothing left out for me. The black jumpsuit is made of a strange, stretchy fabric, yet it clings to my body like a second skin. The shiny black boots zip up to my knees, and there’s a slight lift in the wedge heel. I strap the black artillery belt around my waist, but it’s only for show. They have given me no weapons, and it’s clear they want me to fight using only my special powers. Smoothing my hair back, I tie it into a tight ponytail, mentally preparing myself for what’s coming next.
Zorc returns to collect me, and I walk silently by his side as he leads me to the outer pit. We stand in front of a large black gate as it slowly rises. “You could do this in your sleep, Alinthia. Go out there and show them who you are. Show them they are right to fear you.”
They fear me? Good. They are right to, because I hate what they’ve done in this compound, and I hate what they’re now forcing me to do, and I won’t rest until they pay for their sins.
The gate retracts fully, and I draw a deep breath, nodding at Zorc as I step outside. He hangs back, disappearing inside a minute later.
With a confident look on my face, I lift off the ground, extending my arms on each side of me, and fly to the center of the ring.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot the group of men and women lined up around the mesh fence, noses pressed into the grill, shocked expressions fixated on me.
I hover a few feet off the ground as an opening in the sandy floor appears, and a row of cages slowly rises.
Floating to the ground, I crack my knuckles, plant a solemn expression on my face and adopt a fighting stance.
The first cage opens, and a male with stark white features charges toward me.
Fire rushes through my veins, and I narrow my gaze as I watch him advancing.
I don’t like it, but I will do what needs to be done.
It’s game on.
CHAPTER 15
I hold still as I watch the guy racing toward me. I haven’t come across anyone that looks like him before. With his milky-white skin, hairless white head, and piercing white eyes, he looks like he was dipped in a vat of glowing white paint. As he gets closer, I see teeny tiny red pupils in his eyes, glinting with venom, all leveled in my direction. The guy lunges at me, and I sidestep him, spinning around quickly to get a kick in, but he’s gone.
Vanished into thin air.
What the hell?
I whirl around, looking everywhere, and then he materializes right in front of me, his meaty hands circling my neck before I can evade him. He pulls me up off my feet, grinning as he squeezes my neck tighter, constricting my air supply. His teeth are like rubies, red and shiny, in complete contrast to his ultra-bright exterior. Remaining poised, I reach out and grip his arms, latching on and invoking my supertouch ability. The look of gleeful delight evaporates in his eyes, and he loosens his hold on my neck as he tries to pry me off him. Heat funnels from me to him and my feet return to the ground as his hands fall away.
Not wishing to prolong his agony, I push my firepower through his body as quickly as I can. Thick red veins crawl over his skin, like a network of fine, spidery lines. His eyes turn completely blood red and his body shakes and vibrates under my touch. Ignoring the urge to close my eyes and pretend this isn’t happening, I keep my gaze trained on him, only stepping back as his body begins to disintegrate. His legs go first. His body quickly follows until all that’s left is a pile of ash on the floor. A chorus of hisses and boos emerge from the hostile audience in the cages.
I step around what’s left of him and straighten up as the next assailant is immediately let out of the cage. This time it’s a girl. She’s so freaking tall, all slim legs and arms, and she strolls toward me with a preternatural feline prowl. Her eyes are squinty and way too small for her long face. My arms are in front of my body in defensive mode, expecting her to strike, but she just tilts her head, staring at me. At this proximity, I can see the whiskers over her lips, the unnaturally long eyelashes, and the downy coating of feathery soft fur over her skin.
She doesn’t move. She just stands there. And I wonder what the hell her game plan is. Does she want me to strike her first? Or to lull me into a false sense of security? I summon fireballs in my hands and narrow my eyes at her. In the blink of an eye, her tongue darts out, long and green and slimy, extending with ease until it adheres to my cheek, reeling me in. Fog creeps into my brain and my limbs turn loose. I feel intoxicated, and not in a good way. But I’m coherent enough to understand she’s drugging me.
Planting my hand on her shoulder, I let a fireball loose. She jerks away from me, howling like an animal in pain, and her tongue retracts back into her mouth where that freaky, poisonous thing belongs. The mist in my head clears, and I shake my head, refocusing. With her shoulder and her arm on fire, she lets out a guttural roar and throws herself at me. We fight, swinging punches, and I invoke all the moves Zorc taught me. Her tongue extends from her mouth again, rolling left and right, trying to latch onto me a second time, but oh, hell no, that gross, slimy, venomous viper of a tongue is not coming into contact with me again.
I duck and dive, and we continue playing this deadly dance. Every couple seconds, she howls in pain, and I decide to take pity on her. I soar into the air, gliding over her head. She jumps up, swiping at me, but she can’t reach me from this height. Angling my palm, I blow on the flickering flames dancing atop my hand, sending a rush of heat straight at her. There’s a monstrous lump in my throat as I watch her attempt to outrun the flames, but she’s not fast enough. Her entire body is engulfed in flames in mere seconds and she runs around the pit, arms and legs flailing.
Her high-pitched agonized screams will haunt me forever. And then, just like that, she’s gone, her body combusting into oblivion.
But there’s little time to feel remorse because the next cage is opened, unleashing another enemy. I lower to the ground and assume my fighting stance, wondering how many more I’ll have to kill before I can call an end to his horrific farce.
I fight three more, pretty effortlessly, and I can no longer deny how badly this is affecting me.
With every death, a little piece of my soul dies. The thread of humanity I cling to grows weaker and weaker.
As the next cage is being opened, I fly upward to the enraptured audience, hovering this side of the fence as I address Director Tanner. The men and women all instinctively step back, clearly wary of me, but all I see is fear and begrudging curiosity.
There’s no remorse.
No disgust for what has gone down in that pit.
“That’s enough,” I tell the director. “I think I’ve adequately proven my skills.”
Zorc’s displeasure practically bleeds into the air, and he shakes his head sternly at me, but I pretend I don’t see.
“It will be enough when I tell you it’s enough, Alinthia,” Director Tanner says, spearheading the posse who shoot disparaging looks in my direction.
Screw them.
I’m done with this.
I don’t want to kill anyone else, so I lie. “I was trying to be discreet, Director Tanner,” I add, gracing him with a fake smile. “Using my powers like this drains me, and I’m close to my limit. I’d rather not risk it. Unless you don’t care if one of them gains the upper hand and ends me?” I challenge.
“You have been training for hours upon hours every day, and I’ve witnessed no such thing.”
“This is completely different. Torching a living, breathing being is not the same as lasering a piece of stone!”
A rotund man with a protruding belly whispers in the director’s ear. “Very well, Alinthia. One more assailant, and we’ll call it a day.” The director talks into an earpiece, whispering instructions, and I spin around, a sense of relief washing over me.
But it’s premature.
A whirring sound above my head captures my attention, and I tilt my head back, looking up. A large metal weapon of some sort has appeared through a hole in the roof and all sense of relief evaporates. “Stay up here with us, Alinthia,” the director instructs, only confirming my suspicions.
On the ground, a short man with silver dreadlocks spits abuse at me in a foreign tongue while he paces the ground, shaking his fists. I watch in horror as a beam of red light shoots from the weapon, capturing the man in a hazy bubble. He’s instantly frozen and mute and completely unmoving under the red haze. The bubble elevates off the ground a few feet, twisting from side to side, with the immobile male trapped inside.
“Allow us to demonstrate our latest weapon,” Director Tanner tells his captive audience. They all inch forward, eager to watch more death and destruction. My stomach sinks, and I bite my tongue to keep from ripping them a new one.
A piercing sound reverberates off the walls, and the red beam from the weapon pulsates, growing thicker as it penetrates the bubble, eliminating the male in a second. Tiny particles of matter float through the air, and that’s all that’s left of him. I feel sick to the pit of my stomach.
Holy shit. What kind of technology has Zorc shared with the government, and what other kind of weapons do they have? The fact the humans have this kind of tech does not instill a warm and cozy feeling.
A loud round of applause sickens me. I want t
o turn around and berate them, but what’s the point? The humans have already proven they have little regard for other lifeforms. Unless we can offer them something, we are expendable.
When I look back down at the pit, the row of cages is gone. Lowering myself to the ground, I glance anxiously around me. An ominous sense of foreboding sweeps over me, and I have a feeling Director Tanner’s comment regarding “one final assailant” is not as innocuous as it might seem.
The floor trembles underfoot, and my apprehension rises. The trembling intensifies, and I lift off the ground solely to maintain my balance. A massive, wide gate opens at the opposite end of the pit, and I almost throw up when my next assailant finally makes an appearance.
He’s a little like one of the aliens I battled back at the house except this guy is the supersize version. He kinda resembles one of those talking, moving trees in Harry Potter except this dude is one scary-ass freaking creature. His arms and legs have got to be ten-foot wide, and they look like the trunks of trees. All cracked, hard, impenetrable skin, and he even smells a bit woodsy. Tufts of green spiky hair grow out of the top of his head. He only has one eye, but two noses, and a ridiculously wide mouth. He’s like a science experiment gone terribly wrong.
When he cracks his knuckles, the sound is so loud everyone winces. He stalks toward me, and I lift higher into the air, hovering above him as I shoot laser beams out of my eyes. The rays hit his body, bouncing off his bark-like limbs. Shit! My firepower can’t penetrate his skin.
Opening his mouth, he emits a stream of air, and it’s like being hit by gale-force winds. Obnoxious, toxic, gale-force winds. That dude so needs some mouthwash. I soar backward through the air, at speed, crashing into the mesh fence. The fence rattles violently, and alarmed shrieks and shocked gasps emerge from the audience behind me. But I’ve zero interest in worrying about the reactions of a few humans because the freak comes at me again.
He swipes at me with his humongous arm, but I manage to straighten up in time, flying to the opposite side of the pit. He comes at me again, and with his giant-sized strides, it doesn’t take long for him to reach me.
The Warrior Princess: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Alinthia Book 3) Page 11