When there was no response, he scratched again, this time a little louder. From the other side of the door, he heard heavy footsteps. The door opened and he wasted no time entering the room, taking the large Vilitos guard by surprise. He didn’t stop to wonder why an Ambassador of Cappra would hire the lizard-faced mercenary. He didn’t have time to care. With a shove to the guard’s shoulder and a sweeping kick behind the knee, Torrin pushed the giant creature off balance, followed by a swift, powerful fist to the throat.
The Vilitos went down hard, dropping his Ziphrion blaster to clutch his damaged windpipe, struggling for breath. “Lumerian filth,” he choked out, “they’ll come for you.”
Torrin grabbed the blaster before the Vilitos had time to recover, shooting him in the leg. “More like you?” he snarled, all the pain and anger at his previous imprisonment reflected in his voice. “I think I’d like that. And I’m not Lumerian.”
Howling in pain, the guard swung his tail at Torrin, curling inward. “Fool. You don’t even know what you are.”
“Where’s the orb?” Torrin fired back impatiently, dodging the tail.
The guard hissed. “Let’s make a deal.”
“Never. I know all about Vilitos deals. You make promises on both sides of the table, then later betray whomever you think is on the losing side. You have no honor.”
“Honor is for fools. We survive. That’s all that matters,” the Vilitos hissed again, lunging toward Torrin with death in his eyes.
With one final blast to the head, Torrin dispatched his enemy with deadly accuracy.
Searching the room as quickly as he was able, he grew more and more frustrated. He’d scoured over and under all the furnishings, looking for clues. Nothing. “There’s something here,” he murmured under his breath, “I know it. The only place I haven’t looked is under the floor.”
He carefully looked around again, this time paying attention to creaking floorboards. There! He stepped back, then forward again over the same spot. He’d missed the tiny noise the first time. Kneeling down, he put his ear near the creaky floorboard and began gently pushing different spots. At last, he heard a small click. Clever. Too much pressure and it stays locked, so walking over it won’t release the mechanism. Only a tiny amount of pressure releases the lock.
Torrin lifted his finger off the floorboard, and sure enough, the whole piece popped up. Beneath the floorboard was a switch. He flipped the switch and a hidden staircase leading down below the floor began to appear.
Holding the Ziphrion blaster he’d snatched from the guard, he silently made his way down the stairs. Anything could be down there. Anyone.
The room was empty except for dozens of shipping containers. The Lumerian Orb he’d been searching for was in the third container. No larger than a child’s marble, he knew the power it held, and was careful while handling it. The orb wouldn’t activate without instructions, but he didn’t want to risk breaking the small artifact through carelessness. Tucking the orb into his pocket, he turned to leave when a flash, or perhaps a reflection of light, caught his eye.
There, laying on the floor, covered in dust, was an old sword. The blade was semi-liquid, with ancient runes engraved down the center. “A Lumerian sword,” he breathed reverently. Falden had encouraged him to choose a sword from the many they’d recovered over the centuries, as was tradition when becoming a Knight, but Torrin had never been interested in any of them. They were just as beautiful, perhaps even more so than the one he stared at now, but this one pulled at him. He longed to hold it. Knew in his heart this was the sword meant for him. This was his choice.
Wrapping his hand around the pommel, he lifted the blade. Aloud, he said the traditional words of choosing. “From this day forward, be you willing, I would use the gifts you bestow to right only wrongs, carry you upon my back, raise your blade in times of war, and name you mine until my final breath.”
If the sword chose him as well, there would be a sign of some sort. A zap. A ping. A flash of light. Something. He waited. Ten seconds. Twenty. Nothing. Lowering the blade in disappointment, he was unprepared for the massive shock wave that hit him square in the chest, lifting him off his feet and throwing him across the room. He slammed against the wall, his head smashing into the hard concrete.
Torrin fought to stay awake, his vision swimming in and out of focus. He was pretty sure his head was bleeding, but he didn’t have the energy to check.
Black boots entered his line of sight. Black, just like Falden’s. Lumerian armor, flickering in and out of sight, swam into view; came closer. Knelt in front of him. Funny, he didn’t remember Falden’s armor looking quite so ancient. And his eyes were the wrong color. Still a big fucker though, he mused.
A deep, gravelly voice slowly pulled Torrin back to reality.
“That was quite an introduction, young Knight,” the voice echoed off the walls, “I’m Taeger. Loratha, Mover of Mountains, has chosen you. She is yours now. Treat her well. It is good to see her returned after so long missing. The last time I saw her, she belonged to a friend of mine. A royal.”
“Loratha.” Still dazed, Torrin responded as was tradition, “honors me.” He put a hand to his pounding head. “Where did you come from?”
“We’ve been following you since Mora Five. Come,” Taeger urged, “you must gather your wits. My men on the outside said your woman is entering the residence along with about twenty other women in the parade. They have been unable to pass through the scanners on that side, even though they are cloaked. We’re dealing with much more advanced technology than we expected. She’s on her own until they can get inside through the rear entrance, as we did.”
Torrin’s mind cleared at the news of his woman, his heart pounding with mounting terror. “Juliette is here?”
Chapter Eleven
Cappra – The Parade
Juliette shivered as a chilly gust of wind whipped her hair into a tangled mess. There had been no time to change her clothing before following Torrin, and the thin sarong she’d been wearing could either stretch to floor length, leaving her shoulders and arms bare, or shorten to mid-thigh and provide long sleeves. She’d opted for the long sleeves, which meant the cold wind went straight up her dress.
As the parade dispersed, she, along with twenty or so other young women of varying species, were ushered inside the Ambassador’s residence. They were escorted through a large entryway into a sizeable banquet room, complete with comfortable sitting areas, refreshments, and a large table laden with delicious looking snacks. The other women dove into the food, eager for a taste of luxury while she and her new friend Balinora hung back.
Juliette fidgeted, trying to finger comb a few of the snarls out of her hair as she looked around at the ornate interior of what she could only describe as a modern alien castle. She should have stopped to braid the unruly mass, but she’d been intent on following Torrin. Fat lot of good that had done her.
Looking down at her trusty flower clogs, she groaned, reminded all over again of the blisters on her feet. Yes, that’s right, blame the shoes for not being able to keep up, she chided herself. Certainly wasn’t the fact that while you’re a human of average height and well, let’s face it, average athletic ability and speed, you never stood a chance against that tall, gorgeous hunk of alien man who clearly was in top condition and had some sort of alien superspeed on top of it. Should’ve turned around as soon as you lost track of him, not wandered the rest of the way into the city without a clue where to go or how to find him. Now you’re cold, and tired, not to mention lost. If it hadn’t been for Balinora pulling you into the parade, you’d probably still be wandering around. Juliette groaned again. Her feet really did hurt, and she was starting to feel a bit off, probably from those disgusting mushrooms her friend had insisted on purchasing for her. Food poisoning was still a thing, wasn’t it? She shifted from one aching foot to the other.
“Did you say something, Ju-Ju?” asked Balinora, either unable, or unwilling to say Juliette’s full name,
probably due to the mouth full of piranha teeth. Otherwise, Balinora almost looked human, with long, willowy arms and legs. She was pretty, with large lavender eyes and long, silky white hair. “Maybe that translation fungus I bought for you isn’t working yet. I didn’t understand you at all. Eat some more.”
Juliette protested, “No, no. It’s working fine. See? I was just making noises. Nonsense noises.” Shuddering at the thought of eating another one of the slimy mushrooms from the upscale shop they’d dashed into during the long parade route, she knew she couldn’t do it. “Really. Thank you, but no more.”
“Oh, you sound so cute with your human accent!” she squealed, clapping her hands quietly.
“What do you mean? I don’t have an accent,” she said, frowning. “Do I?”
“Yes! Isn’t it wonderful? So much better than that nanotech everyone gets nowadays, unless you can afford the really good stuff that sounds real instead of flat and robotic.” Balinora hugged Juliette gleefully. “Oh, they’re sure to pick us both now!
Juliette hugged her just as hard. “Wait. I told you, I don’t want to get picked. I don’t want to leave Cappra without my friend. I just want a quick look around inside this guy’s house to see if he’s inside.”
“But Ju-Ju, I thought maybe once we got inside and you saw how pretty it was, you’d change your mind and want to come with me,” she whispered. “Please?”
“Balinora,” Juliette said, suddenly worried for the girl, “how old are you?”
“Fifteen,” she confessed.
“What?!” Juliette was about to say more when a blue man with yellow, wolfish eyes entered the room and clapped his hands. All eyes turned to him as he began what was obviously a frequently repeated speech, his monotone doing nothing to inspire her.
“Ladies, we are pleased that you have come here today seeking a new life. A new beginning. Once you pass through our testing program, you will be placed in the appropriate category and we will give you further instructions from there. Your first exam will be medical in nature. Please disrobe and don one of the examination gowns we’ve provided for you on the table to your right, then proceed through the door.”
As the other women in the group began obediently disrobing, murmuring in confusion, Juliette quickly pulled Balinora to the side, uneasiness turning into outright fear. Whispering urgently into the girl’s ear, she said, “We have to get out of here. No way am I submitting to some kind of creepy alien probe, and neither are you.”
Balinora shook her head defiantly, tears gathering in her eyes. “No Ju-Ju. I must do this. I must be chosen. You don’t understand.”
Gathering Balinora into her arms, stroking her hair soothingly as she would any distraught child, she tried to reason with the girl. “Sweetheart, I know they told you this is the interview process, or beauty pageant, for some sort of off-world modeling job, but where I come from, the only type of people who lure children like this are very, very bad ones. I can’t believe your mother agreed to let you do this.”
“She didn’t. That’s just it,” Balinora shuddered, tears flowing more freely as she hid her face in the crook of Juliette’s neck, her hair obscuring her next words. “She disappeared last month. She was looking for work. I-I saw one of the fliers hidden in her bedroom. If she came here, I’m sure they chose her. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I thought if I could just get to wherever they sent her, everything would be fine again. I don’t understand why she didn’t take me with her, unless she was still mad at me for sneaking out of the house?”
Juliette held the girl tighter, her heart breaking for the child, for she knew, or suspected, at least, what the girl didn’t. Balinora’s mother was probably dead or sold into slavery. “No. No. Shh,” she crooned, rocking the girl side to side. “She would never do that. We’ll find out what happened to your mother, but please trust me, this is not the way to do it.” Her hands were shaking as she urged the girl, “Can you do that for me? Can you trust me?”
Balinora nodded, sniffling.
“Good. Alright then,” Juliette whispered, looking around the room for a way out. “We passed a stairway on our way in here. If we can get back to that, maybe we have a chance.”
“What about your friend?” she asked.
“I’m not even sure he’s here. He didn’t know I was coming, so he won’t be looking for us. We’re on our own.”
Balinora straightened, squaring her shoulders. “I understand. I’m ready.”
Together, hand in hand, they edged along the wall until they came to the door. Juliette waved her hand at the scanner behind her back, but the door remained closed. They were locked in. Juliette shook her head slightly, letting Balinora know this door wasn’t going to be an option. The only other doors were the ones they’d been ordered to go through for the ‘medical exam’ and the one the blue man had used.
One of the twenty women finished changing into the examination gown and opened the door. Juliette caught a glimpse into the room. Another woman was already inside, lying naked on an exam table, her wrists in heavy restraints, gynecological stirrups holding her legs open. Attached to her head were thin wires, at least a dozen, placed all over her head. She thrashed, her back arching off the table. No way in hell were they going through that door.
Glancing at each other in tacit agreement, they headed for the other door. Seconds passed like hours as Juliette’s heart thundered painfully, fear sending adrenaline spiking through her system.
The door slid open without either of them waving a hand or turning a knob. Stumbling back through the opening, Juliette landed on her bottom alongside Balinora. The door slid shut without a sound.
Balinora was the first to spring back up. “I think we’re in a room finder. See the panel with all the buttons on that wall?”
An elevator definitely made sense. Juliette nodded, rolling to her feet much less gracefully. She wasn’t old, but she wasn’t fifteen, either, and those slimy translation mushrooms she’d eaten earlier were definitely wreaking havoc on her system. She was starting to feel like death warmed over. No matter. She’d just have to push through. Lying down wasn’t an option if they were going to make it out of there alive.
Joining her new friend next to the panel in question, Juliette pushed one of the buttons. They had no way of knowing where each one would take them, so there was no point in debating which one to push. Anything had to be better than staying where they were.
Nothing happened. She jabbed at another button in frustration. Still nothing. “I think we need an access code or something. No wonder they didn’t bother locking it from the other side.”
“The panel sticks out far enough I think I can use my teeth to get it open. Maybe then we’ll be able to make it work. If not, we can at least make sure no one else can use it.” Not waiting for an answer, she opened her mouth, her piranha-like teeth flashing in the light, shredding through the thin metal like it was soft butter.
Behind the panel were hundreds of wires, each no thicker than a silk thread, pulsing with light. Balinora leaned in toward the wires, her mouth open to use her teeth a second time, when Juliette grabbed her arm and yanked her back, her heart in her throat. “No! You might electrocute yourself. Plus, we don’t want to do anything with those wires until we have a way out of here. There’s probably an emergency access panel somewhere. Let’s focus on finding that first.”
Balinora nodded, her eyes wide with fright. Feeling along the walls and floor for the access panel, they made short work of the tiny cubicle. “Nothing,” she said whispered, despair creeping into her voice.
“Don’t give up,” Juliette responded, refusing to give in. “We haven’t checked the ceiling.” Sinking to her hands and knees, she whispered urgently, “Hurry. Step on my back and see if you can open one of the panels at the top. I have a feeling they’re going to start missing us soon.”
Balinora did as instructed, balancing on Juliette’s back and stretching toward the panels in the ceiling. “Oh! This one opens
!” She pushed the panel to the side, and before Juliette could caution her, pulled herself up through the opening. Moments later she reappeared, reaching a hand down to help Juliette, a relieved grin on her face. “Come on, I’ll help you!”
Juliette hesitated, looking back at the panel. “Okay, but I want to see if I can yank out some of those wires first.”
Balinora’s look of confusion would have been priceless had Juliette seen it. As it was, all she heard was her friend’s inelegant snort as she responded, “And you thought I was crazy? Why would you yank a few of them out when you could melt them all with poisonous acid?”
Juliette put her hands on her hips and huffed at the girl, “What are you talking about? Do I look like I brought acid with me?”
“Look,” she cried, “I know you’re an assassin, sent here to kill the ‘friend’ you were looking for. I knew it the moment I saw those Targo babies. I don’t care, okay? I just want you to help me find my mother. Please!”
“Assassin?!” Juliette hissed. “I’m not an assassin! Why would you think that?”
“Targos are assassins! The blue ones are the most deadly, and you have two wrapped around your ankles like it’s nothing! Of course you’re an assassin! No one else would be crazy enough to walk around like that, so just grab one of them and make it spit on the wires.”
Mumbling under her breath, pulse pounding, Juliette carefully pulled one of the Blue Targo babies from around her ankle and held it over the exposed wires. “Teenagers,” she grumbled with exasperation. “Couldn’t just tell me from the beginning we were carrying around deadly weapons and probably could’ve walked right out the front door. All we had to do was wave them around and everyone would’ve cleared the room.”
“Forget the wires! I can hear footsteps!” Balinora motioned with her arm, urging Juliette to come over.
Alien Knight Steals The Bride Page 10