22
Celine
Claustrophobia had never been a problem for me. I may not have liked being around people too much, but I didn’t feel frightened or unable to breathe in large groups or small spaces. At least, I never did before. Now, though, as I was surrounded and jostled and bumped, I finally understood why some people avoided concerts and carnivals like the plague.
“I can’t breathe!” I shouted to Donna. She was wide-eyed and looking around frantically, but she didn’t seem panicked like I felt. Her gaze was shooting from male A’li-uud to male A’li-uud, absorbing the sights of their exquisite abdomens and muscled backs and sharp, fierce faces.
“This is horrible!” she groaned loudly in my ear. “All these gorgeous men and not a single private place to take one!”
“I can’t breathe!” I yelled again.
I couldn’t. The air, already thick with the moist humidity of the swampy kingdom, was swallowed by the thousands of noses and mouths around me. Everyone seemed to be some degree of perturbed, but I couldn’t tell if it was because they, too, were suffocating or if they were just agitatedly wondering why we were all here. Donna had asked me several times when we were being taken to Pentaba why we were being relocated, but I’d repeatedly lied and said I didn’t know. I knew she didn’t believe me. Thankfully, she eventually gave up asking, and, now that we were squished like sardines together with an uncountable number of men, it seemed to have escaped her mind for at least the moment.
Early in the morning following my conversation with Lokos behind the dormitory in Montemba, we were awoken by Donna’s guide. He was a slender A’li-uud, and he looked youthful, fresh-faced and a little out of his element. He told us we needed to get up and grab our packed items because we were leaving immediately. Within a half hour, my entire dorm and the neighboring dorms on either side were gathered onto a barge-like ferry outfitted with enormous blades on its front to slice through the icebergs that blanketed the ocean.
We spent two nights on that boat. Only this morning around dawn did it finally come to a stop outside Pentaba’s capital city, and we were told to enter the forbidding gates and wait for further instruction by beefy, teal-skinned A’li-uud holding bulky gun-like weapons with blinking aqua lights. But further instruction never came. We lingered around in the open square near a towering, luxurious palace I could only assume belonged to the kingdom’s Elder without a word from anyone, and, hour by hour, more humans showed up. With them came droves of A’li-uud. Now, almost a full twelve hours later, I was elbow-to-elbow with aliens I didn’t know and being jarred from left to right.
I hadn’t stopped looking for Lokos. I’d discovered quickly that he wasn’t onboard the ferry with me, but I assumed he was just on another. As the city began to fill, however, and the faces coming through the gates at varying intervals were still unfamiliar, I started to feel a pit of dread weighing in my stomach. What if he hadn’t been given a safe haven too? What if he was back in Montemba with absolutely no protection if the Novai arrived before the thirty days? It made me sick to think about it.
“Ooh, I got one!” Donna exclaimed excitedly, grabbing my hand and bouncing it in hers.
I followed her gaze. An A’li-uud who I could only assume was Pentaban from his shimmering blue-green skin and thick, over-muscled arms was wending his way through the crowd with his eyes pinned on us. He was rather rudely shoving people aside to reach us faster, and, when he finally cleared the last of the pack in his way, he grinned broadly.
He was attractive, I supposed, but I wasn’t attracted to him. Perhaps I had become accustomed to Lokos, but the sheen on the alien’s skin unnerved me, and his angular chin seemed too pointed. Instead of the brilliantly white hair I’d come to expect on A’li-uud, he had tresses of pure, shining silver that he’d pulled back into a ponytail. It wasn’t the silver of elderly humans, either, but a lustrous, illuminated silver that seemed almost alive. In conjunction with his shimmery skin, he reminded me of a piece of jewelry. His irises were as white as Lokos’, but there was something sinister behind them that made my stomach roll uncomfortably.
“Hi!” Donna called over the sounds of chatter and bustling.
The smile that tightened over his mouth was more of a leer than anything pleasant, and he said, “Hello. I have not seen you in our colonies.”
“We’re Montemban colonists,” Donna replied brightly.
“How nice.” The way he said it didn’t sound nice at all. He had the same uneven, clipped manner of speaking English that Lokos did, but his inflections and intonations were different, choppier.
“Do you know why we’re here?” Donna asked him.
His leer remained in place on his face as he glanced at the Elder palace behind him. “They are going to make a speech,” he answered. His malicious eyes flicked to me. “You do not speak?”
“Not much,” I said stiffly. Donna shoved her elbow into my ribs, but I returned the favor in kind. This A’li-uud made me very nervous.
“Such a pretty mouth should be put to use,” he purred.
I broke out in a cold sweat at once. His words were very similar to something Lokos had said to me, but the intent behind them was completely different and much more hazardous. When Lokos said it, I was aroused and needy. When this man said it, I was terrified.
“What’s your name?” Donna inquired. I wasn’t sure she had heard his comment to me, but I looked at her incredulously anyway for encouraging him.
He barely turned in her direction as he said, “So’vit.”
Dramatic movement at the top of the grand staircase leading up to the Elder palace caught my attention. Several robed A’li-uud had appeared, most with skin tones in shades of blue I hadn’t yet seen. They were circled into a small group, and I could see by the way their chins waggled they were speaking quickly to one another.
“Look, I think they’re about to start,” I announced, pointing. I hoped it would distract So’vit enough for Donna and I to slip away from him.
Instead of following the direction of my point, however, So’vit grabbed me by the forearm and yanked me to him. I stumbled over feet, though whether they were my own or not I didn’t know, and nearly fell on my face. His hulking form caught me, my cheek slamming into his rock-hard chest, and he shoved me off of him without releasing my arm.
“It is rude to point,” he hissed, bearing down on me.
“S-Sorry,” I stammered. “I didn’t know.”
Donna grabbed my free hand, but I didn’t feel any safer. The hold he had on my arm was vice like and immovable, and I was afraid to even ask him to let go. He leered at me again, and up close I could see pearly and surprisingly sharp teeth.
“Maybe you would like to learn about our customs, yes?” he asked.
Had the question come from anyone else, it would have been innocuous. Coming from him, it was a threat—and there was no right answer. I looked to Donna for help, but he had me pulled so closely to him that he was able to speak in a low voice audible only to me, so she hadn’t heard a word he’d said.
“Yeah, I’m starting to,” I said uncertainly. “My guide has been teaching me—”
“A guide only teaches you the basic points of A’li-uud life,” he interrupted. His face was growing closer with each passing second. “I can teach you the deep, dark details.”
Suddenly, without letting me respond, he twisted. My arm was jerked down, my elbow popping outward at an unnatural angle, and I was forced to hunch if I wanted to avoid breaking the limb. Donna leaped forward to grab my other arm, but So’vit was too strong. He stormed through the crowd with rapid purpose and a steely grip, and I quickly lost sight of my friend. My body was thrown against legs and hips and rears as he pushed his way through the biggest gaps he could find, but, before anyone could look to see what had rammed into them and notice me being taken away by this burly abductor, I’d already been swallowed up. So, I did the only thing I could think of.
I screamed.
23
Lokos
I had spent most of my life honing my skills as a warrior. Quick strikes, stealth attacks, stamina, agility, shield moves. My being named War Chief was no coincidence; I was one of the deadliest warriors on all of Albaterra. But I had never been as quick, as strong, as fast, or as lethal as I was the moment I heard her scream rip through the air.
My body sprang into the air in one great leap, flinging me over the heads of a handful of milling A’li-uud before I crashed back to the ground amongst them. They scattered as best they could, and several fell, but I refused to stop. I barreled through, throwing people to the side with such ferocity they actually knocked over the others around them. I heard banging footsteps behind me that I recognized as Silah’s, but, still, I did not stop. Celine’s head was still bobbing away from me, still struggling against her captor.
“Move!” I barked in A’li-uud. The shout was loud enough to capture the attention of the nearest groups, and they separated enough to give me a narrow pathway through which I could sprint. I was rapidly gaining on Celine and the Pentaban, but, as I caught a snippet of her, I saw he had her arm twisted so severely it was nearly broken, and I picked up speed.
“Lokos!” I heard Silah shout behind me. I was unaware if he wanted me to stop completely or to slow down so he could catch up, but I ignored him either way. I could clearly see Celine’s form now, hunched and stumbling as she was dragged. Fury coursed through me and carried me for the last stretch until I bent at the knees and leaped into the air once more.
My fist came down first, squarely in the center of the Pentaban’s skull. He released Celine immediately and fell to a crouch before rocketing upright again. Celine fell on her side from the sudden lack of support, but I was more concerned with the kidnapper at the moment. I slammed my fist into his head again, this time making contact with his nose. It cracked beneath my knuckles and rolled to the side with a nauseating squelch. He bellowed in pain, swinging at me without seeing.
I felt him hit my right side and my left shoulder simultaneously, but I was too drunk with adrenaline for it to ache. For a third time, I crashed my knuckles into his face, sending his jaw to the side and throwing him to the ground with force.
“I will kill you!” he roared, writhing to his hands and knees.
His voice was almost silent over the roaring in my ears, and I delivered a powerful kick to the space between his eyes. His head snapped back, and, for the smallest fraction of a second, our gazes met. He was dazed and uncomprehending. Then, almost gracefully, he tilted back and fell.
Everyone around us was screaming, either yelling for help or calling for loved ones. Silah had finally drawn up to me, but he was standing back with Celine, who he had helped to her feet. I walked calmly to the teal-faced man’s side, barely able to make out his features through the gush of blood covering his face, and planted the sole of my boot on his throat. He made a strangled gurgling sound.
“Do not. Touch her. Again,” I hissed. Though the crowd was deafening, my words sliced through with ease. I bent lower until our faces were only an arm’s length apart. “She. Belongs. To me.”
Then, I turned around, curled my arms around Celine’s waist, and lifted her over my shoulder. This time, she curled against my body like I was her lifeline, and I heard not a hint of complaint.
I carried her through the throng easily as bodies scattered to make room for us. Rather than taking her to the boardwalk or somewhere less crowded, I beelined for the palace. I could see a few Elders gathered at the top of the elegant staircase, Sevani and Dane amongst them. All of their faces were turned in my direction.
As I ascended the staircase, the ear-splitting buzz throughout the city square slowly dulled to a low hum. I could feel thousands of eyes on my back, but I kept my pace steady so as not to jar Celine. When I reached the top and drew level with the Elders, I swiveled my gaze to Sevani.
“You can either lock the barbarian up,” I said coldly, “or I will finish him.”
Dane was looking at me with an unreadable expression. Sevani glanced at the only unoccupied area within the mob, which was where the Pentaban’s body lay. “I will inform Khrel,” he replied.
Without another word, I swept inside the palace and disappeared into silence.
Celine flexed her arm, bending it to her chest and straightening it to the side. “I think I’m okay,” she said, studying her muscles and tendons as she moved.
“What happened?” I asked in a low voice. She looked up at me, and I stared back at her with hard eyes.
“I don’t really know why he came over to us—I guess Donna was flirting with him from a distance or something—but he was being really creepy. And then I noticed the Elders at the top of the stairs and pointed at them, and he grabbed my arm and said pointing was rude. But he wouldn’t let go. Then, the next thing I knew, he was pulling me somewhere because he was going to teach me the deep, dark details of A’li-uud life,” she explained.
Hot, boiling rage bubbled in my throat as she recounted her tale. I was so angry, I could have breathed fire. “Animal,” I spat in disgust.
She shifted on the cushion, which was part of a very long and very soft sage green couch. Her eyes kept darting between me and the floor, and she was twisting her fingers in her lap. “He, um…” She shifted again, uncomfortably. “He said my mouth should be put to use.”
If I had thought I felt rage before, it was nothing to what torpedoed through me now. Every nerve within my body was searing. My fingers felt a powerful need to curl around the sick kidnapper’s throat. I wanted to hit something, to feel pain so that it would ease the wicked emotions stabbing at my insides.
“He will die,” I growled.
Celine eyed me with trepidation, but I saw a glimmer of her feisty self beneath the surface. “I don’t want you to do that.”
“Perhaps you do not understand what he intended to do to you,” I said sharply.
“Yes, I do. But you told me murder is the worst crime an A’li-uud can commit.”
I paused. Something in the way she said it triggered a new emotion, a deeper emotion. It was stronger than flattery but more intimate than gratitude, yet I could not identify it.
“I was not certain you even paid attention to those lectures,” I murmured.
She grinned. “Only some parts.”
Her voluptuous figure pressed against the couch’s backrest, and I remembered the sight of her bare breast only inches below my mouth in her bedroom. Thick, hot desire filled my groin, and I slid nearer to her, carefully cupping the back of her head in my hand.
“Perhaps that is why you have yet to learn patience,” I hummed, bringing my lips so near to hers they brushed. “Because you listen only to some parts.”
“Maybe you’re just not a very good teacher,” she whispered back. Playfulness glinted in her eyes.
I growled and closed the gap between us. My tongue dipped between her teeth, flicking her palate teasingly, as my mouth breathed in her sweet, addictive flavor. She whimpered with want and wrapped her arms around my neck. I felt her breasts press against my chest, and the stiffness in my crotch became shatterproof.
There was a low roar from outside the palace walls. I recognized it as the mass of people shouting the A’li-uud greeting and realized the speech was beginning. Reluctantly, I pulled my lips back from hers and stood.
“I must go,” I said. “I am to be present.”
“For the speech?”
“Yes.”
She glanced at the door behind her. “Shouldn’t I be there too?”
“No. You are to rest,” I said sternly.
An adorable pout blossomed on her lips, and she asked, “Well, can you tell me what it’s about, at least?”
I hesitated. I did not want to upset her after her ordeal, but she was looking at me expectantly, and she would have found out anyway had the animal of an A’li-uud not tried to take off with her. Besides, it was likely Donna would tell her if I did not.
“Everyone is going to be lo
cked down,” I told her. “Underground.”
24
Celine
It had been twenty-six days.
Twenty-six days without sunlight. Twenty-six days without a room to call my own. Twenty-six days without feeling like it might be my last.
Twenty-six long, long days.
The underground bunker beneath Pentaba was hardly a bunker at all. It was massive, spreading across most of the kingdom in a series of tunnels and alcoves and atria that seemed to lead nowhere but could easily take you miles from where you intended to be. There were no windows, of course, no semblance of natural light, but the walls were lit from behind with some kind of glowing plasma that flooded the corridors in a fluorescent green glow. Only the alcoves dedicated to sleeping were unlit, but there were so many of us crowded into one at a time that there was always somebody with a candle to read or a lantern in the center of a small, whispering group.
The conditions weren’t nearly as unbearable as one would expect for an underground living space, particularly one built for military purposes. There were tables for eating, rooms dedicated to food preparation and storage, recreational areas with strange games involving thick, flat circles or slivers of wood. It was much like a normal house except it was teeming with people and it was much, much danker.
To my surprise, Donna was hardly stir-crazy at all. She was normally the one who needed to get out, to see and do things. In fact, she had only lasted two days during my own personal lockdown back in Montemba. But she was in her glory. Male A’li-uud were everywhere, walking the passages with no shirts and thin, form-revealing pants. Their abs seemed even sharper in the dim green light, their faces more masculine, and Donna could hardly keep her jaw off the floor long enough to speak to one. I had hardly seen her since we’d been sent to live in the well-guarded barracks.
Lokos: A Scifi Alien Romance: Albaterra Mates Book 4 Page 10