“Just tell me what to do! Nothing’s happening!” Juliette hopped from one foot to the other as she dangled the sleeping Targo out over the wires, debating about whether to cut and run or stay and try to disable the elevator.
“Rub its belly. It’ll spew acid. But be careful, Ju-Ju. They’re so tiny they don’t have much, so its extra lethal.”
“Extra lethal. Like a baby rattle snake. Got it.” Juliette rubbed the tiny belly as fast as she dared, praying she’d made the right choice to stay and disable the elevator. She wished Torrin was here. Her heart squeezed painfully at the thought of never seeing him again. She hadn’t told him how she really felt. How she’d been afraid for him. Afraid he would leave and never come back, hiding behind her anger like a shield. She was very much afraid she’d fallen deeply, irrevocably in love with him.
The door slid open. The evil blue man with yellow eyes smiled. “Going somewhere?”
Juliette shrieked, whipping around with the Targo still held outstretched. The baby Targo chose that moment to spew its acid, hitting him square in the face.
Bellowing in rage and pain, his face bubbling grotesquely, he fell back through the doorway and the elevator slid shut.
Juliette swallowed the bile rising to the back of her throat. She couldn’t afford to fall apart. Not now. The baby Targo yawned delicately, then curled itself around her wrist and promptly went back to sleep to the sounds of agonized screaming from the other side of the elevator door. “I-I think this one is done. She’s already gone back to sleep.”
With trembling fingers, she reached down and uncurled the other Targo. This time, the tiny creature spewed its deadly acid over the intended wires before it, too, curled around Juliette’s other wrist and went back to sleep.
The acid melted through the rubberized insulation, causing the exposed wires to spark and short out. The lights flickered, then went out completely, leaving Juliette in the dark. Only a very faint red glow emanating from the opening in the ceiling allowed her to see anything at all, casting everything into a shadowy, alarming red. Hopefully the doors would stay shut now, and no one would be able to use the elevator at all, giving them slightly better odds of getting out of there alive.
“Quick! I can hear running!” Balinora reached down, her hand outstretched. “I’m stronger than I look. I can pull you up.”
Heart thundering, Juliette reached a hand up. Balinora pulled her up and through the opening with ease. Shaking with fright, Juliette closed the ceiling panel as quickly as she could, fear making her fingers stiff and clumsy.
“Look,” Juliette whispered, looking all around the small space, her eyes landing on an enclosed, rectangular shaft just to the side of the elevator. “I bet that’s an emergency escape elevator system. See the door? Let’s use it while we can.”
As soon as they entered the rectangular box, it began a slow descent. Balinora wobbled as the elevator lurched, her face going a sickly shade of green. “We’re going down really fast. I can tell. We’re going to die.”
“We’re not going to die,” Juliette said through clenched teeth. “I bet they’re using a counterweight, so we actually can’t plummet to our deaths. This place only had, what, three or four floors? And we were on the second one.”
As the elevator picked up speed, they clung to each other. Balinora shook her head. “That’s just what we could see. We might be going miles down into a secret underground space port, and that’s how they escape with all the people they kidnap without anyone seeing them.”
Juliette scrunched her nose at the teenager’s dramatic declaration, then couldn’t hold back a shiver of apprehension. Hadn’t Torrin said good people disappeared here? She really wished she’d listened to him and stayed on the ship. Wished he was there, holding her. She’d been arrogant in her anger. She should have trusted that his reasons for wanting her to stay back were legitimate, instead of assuming he was just being a sexist asshole, thinking she couldn’t take care of herself. Now it was too late. She may never see him again. Never be able to say she was sorry or tell him how she was falling in love with him.
The escape elevator shuddered to a halt, causing both girls to let out a small whimper. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Juliette pulled one of the sleeping Targo’s from her wrist, pointed it toward the door, then looked to Balinora, nodding her readiness. The Targo may not have recovered yet, but perhaps just holding the baby would be deterrent enough to make anyone wanting to hurt them stay back a pace or two.
Whatever they’d been expecting on the other side, they didn’t get it. Balinora whooshed open the door, only to be confronted by cold, dank darkness. No one jumped out at them. Nothing was waiting for them but empty black corridors.
Cautiously, one silent step at a time, they exited the safety of the escape elevator and crept down the deserted hallway, the only light coming from beneath a series of closed doors.
Balinora reached for the first door handle, then hesitated. Carefully pressing her ear to the door for a few seconds, she slowly backed away and shook her head, fear clouding her eyes. They moved to the next door and she repeated the process. Finally, she nodded at the third door. Swiping a hand across the access panel, the door slid open silently and they slipped inside.
Juliette breathed a huge sigh of relief as the door slid shut behind them. Wrapping the Targo around her wrist so that she could more easily look around seemed like a good idea, and the truth was that she was just a tab bit afraid of accidentally causing the baby to spew acid on her.
While the room felt slightly cooler than the rest of the residence, Juliette was surprised to see her breath each time she exhaled. Was it truly that cold in there? She thought the change in temperature came as a welcome relief as cold air blew across her overheated skin. Her body felt like it was on fire.
Sick or not, she couldn’t give in to whatever was going on inside her body. She’d been sick before. Cold and alone out on the streets. She’d survived that. She would survive this, too. They weren’t out of danger yet, but at least they weren’t being chased, either. Relief set in until she got a good look at where they were.
Hanging from hooks were large and small cuts of meat in various stages of preparation, while others were being fed into grinders. Drip pans lined the floor to catch the blood. Large butcher blocks lined one wall, an assortment of tubes, bone saws, knives, and scalpels laid out on each. As Juliette walked farther into the room, a cold chill raced up her spine. Taking the only item that would fit into the pocket of her dress, she grabbed the scalpel. It wasn’t much, but anything was better than nothing at all.
Juliette turned to Balinora, ready to tell the child they needed to leave, then stopped cold. The girl stood transfixed, staring into one of the barrels that had yet to be closed, horror in her eyes, tears streaming down her face.
Spurred into action, she rushed to her side. Juliette peered down into the barrel. Staring sightlessly up at them, swimming in a pool of her own blood, was a woman who looked just like Balinora. “Oh my god.”
She wrapped her arms around her new young friend, tears blurring her vision as she held the sobbing child, gently turning the girl away from the horrific sight. “I’m so sorry. So, so sorry.”
Balinora’s tears slowly dried, only to be replaced by a steely, cold, determined look. “I knew she wouldn’t just leave me behind. I knew it.”
“Of course she wouldn’t, sweetheart,” Juliette reassured her, whispering urgently. “And I’m so sorry, but we have to get out of here. We have to leave.”
Balinora nodded her understanding. In tandem, they turned back toward the door and froze.
A red humanoid, with black hair and eyes, stood in the doorway. Behind him was a huge Vilitos reptilian guard. “So glad we found you,” he said, smiling evilly.
Juliette shoved Balinora behind her protectively before stretching her fingers toward the Blue Targos.
The red humanoid laughed. “I’m afraid they can’t help you. At that size, they can only produce eno
ugh acid to hit one target. It will be days before they produce more. As you so graciously used one to kill my man, then the other to disable the room finder, I’m fairly certain you’re out of options.”
Before Juliette could respond, Balinora shoved Juliette aside, racing across the room with teeth bared toward the evil man, a blood curdling scream of rage, pain, and desperation ripping through the room. She was almost on him when he stepped adroitly to the side.
In his place, the Vilitos guard jumped forward, a sinister looking blade gripped in one hand. With one smooth motion, he swung the blade from hip to shoulder. Balinora fell, dead before she hit the ground.
Juliette screamed. Collapsed. Her knees hit the hard tile with a loud thump. She took no notice. She was horrified. Her mind refused to process what she’d just seen, yet the evidence was directly in front of her. Her friend. Gone. Dead. Killed in the most gruesome display she’d ever seen. “Monsters!” she cried. There was no point in running. She was trapped.
The Vilitos guard stepped over Balinora’s lifeless body and headed toward Juliette. Reaching into her pocket, she clenched clammy fingers around the scalpel. Surprise would be her only advantage. The guard was huge. Easily three times her size. When he was directly in front of her, she leaped for his head with a quick jab to his left eye. The scalpel was so sharp, it sliced into his eye with ease. Fluid spurted over her face as she pulled the razor’s edge out, then stabbed him in the other eye as he screamed and reared back, throwing her off.
Juliette hit the ground hard. Every bone in her body ached, her breath knocked out of her. Still, she rolled to her feet, the scalpel gripped tightly in her hand.
With lightning speed, the red man was on her, ripping the scalpel from her before she could react. Grabbing the back of her hair in an iron grip, he yanked her toward her dead friend, a look of boredom and regret flashing across his face as he prodded Balinora with the tip of his very expensive looking polished shoes. “Pity. I’d planned to sell her on the black market. Her kind make excellent pleasure-pain slaves.”
He heaved a sigh then continued, “No matter. She was young. Her meat will bring an excellent price on the blood market. But you,” he said, using the back of his free hand to stroke her cheek before caressing her long black hair between his fingers, “are the real prize.”
Juliette refused to fall for the ploy. Refused to ask what he meant. She wasn’t going to play his game, whatever it was. Rape or murder. Or both. That was to be her fate. She wasn’t stupid. Glaring into his face, she sneered, “How fortunate for you.”
“Allow me to introduce myself,” he bowed his head slightly. “I am C’bor Ubrion, eldest son of Intergalactic Council Member R’Gan Ubrion of Cappra. May I have the pleasure of your name?”
“Drop dead,” she glared.
C’bor raised an eyebrow, his tone amused. “You humans are so fragile, yet you choose to antagonize those of superior strength and ability without concern for your wellbeing. Your continued existence. A quality I find extremely attractive. I knew the moment I saw you walk through the front doors that I had to have you for myself.”
He held out a hand. “Agree to be mine willingly and I will make you my bride.”
Juliette refused his hand. Instead, she closed her eyes, tried to slow her racing thoughts. Focus on options. She couldn’t make herself marry C’bor, but maybe agreeing to marriage right now would buy her some time. Time for Torrin to return to the ship and see that she was gone. Time for him to find her.
Opening her eyes, she placed a trembling hand in his. “Very well. I will be yours as long as you agree to my conditions.”
“You are in no position to make demands. However, I am feeling magnanimous. Tell me, what is it you want?” he asked.
Juliette swallowed her tears. Pushed her sorrow down deep. Right now, she had to survive. “First, you will not eat my friend. She deserves a proper burial, which you will give her.”
“Of course,” he agreed.
Juliette narrowed her gaze. His smile was patently false. The truth was there in his own beady eyes. He had no intention of honoring her request. He found her amusing and was merely humoring her.
“Anything else?” he asked when she failed to continue.
“Yes,” Juliette said, her own smile as false as his. “I want a big wedding, with a big, fancy dress and lots of flowers.”
C’bor smiled in true victory. “And whose name shall I put next to mine on the invitations?”
“Juliette Diane Rosen,” she glared, too angry to make up a false name.
“Excellent. And do you formally and of your own free will, Juliette Diane Rosen, agree to be my bride?”
“Yes,” she hissed, bile rising to the back of her throat.
“A gift of my affection then,” he nodded. From his pocket he pulled two small ankle bracelets. He attached first one delicate chain, then the other to her ankles. With an evil glint in his eye, he said, “And I, C’bor Ubrion of Cappra, do formally and of my own free will, agree to take you as my bride.”
Juliette gasped as each bracelet shrank and hardened into one solid piece, the links liquefying and re-solidifying as if by magic. She tugged at them, but they wouldn’t budge. Wouldn’t come off. “What is this? What have you done?” she yelled, her heart thundering in panic.
C’bor smirked triumphantly. “It is not what I have done but what we have done. And by Cappran tradition and law, we have just bound ourselves in marriage. And my gift, sweet wife, are chains of obedience. I am a collector of ancient artifacts, you see. The practice of forced obedience is a bit outdated. Archaic, even, but that’s part of what makes it so much fun. One command from me and those chains will force your legs into any position I desire. I expect our first joining in the marriage bed to be..” he paused, “spectacular.”
Juliette’s fury at being tricked knew no bounds. ”That’s never going to happen, asshole.”
He laughed. “We’ll see.” In a harsh, commanding tone he ordered, “Follow me. I have a ship waiting at the space port.” Turning toward the door, he stepped nonchalantly over the guard who had passed out from the pain of being blinded by the scalpel and walked out of the room.
Juliette’s chains of obedience tightened painfully until she took a step toward the door. Toward C’bor. One painful step at a time she followed him; exactly as he’d ordered her to do.
Chapter Twelve
Torrin slammed his invisible armor-plated fist into the table in frustration, folding the metal nearly in two. Along with the orb and his new sword, they’d found a treasure trove of ancient technology, including a full suit of Lumerian armor. Unlike the other Lumerian’s armor, which was constantly flickering, his was the darkest shade of black he’d ever seen. So deep a black his eyes played tricks on him when he was trying to put it on, convinced he was reaching into a black hole instead of a solid piece of armor, the carbon nanotubes completely absorbing all sources of light. The effect had been almost dizzying, his depth perception completely thrown off kilter. “Dammit! Where could she have gone?”
“She’s no longer inside this dwelling. It’s possible she escaped through an underground tunnel. My men are searching for hidden exits as we speak,” Taeger said through his communication device inside his helmet. “In the meantime, perhaps I should remind you that spectral invisibility cloaking is only effective if we don’t purposely give away our positions.”
“I am aware of how it works,” Torrin snarled. “I hope they come. All of them. This place is nothing but a cesspool of blood market traffickers. Look around,” he waved his arm expansively, knowing the other Lumerian Knights would see his image through special lenses built into their helmets, just as he could see them. “There must be over a hundred barrels here, all full of blood and body parts. I have to find Juliette before..”
Torrin was about to say more when Greig’s voice, Taeger’s second in command, came through his earpiece. “Found something. Sublevel eighteen. Third door on the right. I think you should get
down here.”
Torrin didn’t wait for the other Lumerian Knights. He pushed himself to his limit, running faster than he’d ever run before toward sublevel eighteen, dread a hard knot in his gut. He drew his sword as he ran, ready for anything.
Racing through the third door on the right, he nearly slammed into the huge Vilitos guard lying on the floor. A young woman of unknown heritage lay dead on the floor not far from the guard. Torrin took in the scene at a glance. The carnage. The blood.
Several more Knights joined Torrin and Greig, including Taeger. They looked first at the Vilitos who had begun moving around, clutching his eye, then at the dead girl. Torrin grabbed the guard’s head and dragged him forward toward the girl and tapped his helmet so the guard could hear him. The others followed suit. “What happened here?”
The guard swung and missed, unable to see Torrin or the other Knights. “Lumerian scum. I knew there were survivors. Go to hell.”
Taeger growled deep in his chest. “Brought down by a child, so you killed her?” He jammed his finger into the guard’s bleeding eye.
The guard screamed in pain, clutching his face. “It was that human bitch. She stabbed me. But you’re too late. She left with the Council Member’s son, C’bor Ubrion.”
Torrin looked at Greig and Taeger, their expressions equally grim. Fear gripped his soul with icy fingers. They couldn’t be too late. He couldn’t lose her. “Where were they going?”
The guard hissed. Spit. “Fool. You care for the female. I can hear it in your voice. But you’re too late. She’s taken. Married until C’bor tires of her and feeds her to his pets as he’s done to all his other brides. Let her go. You have bigger problems,” he choked out.
This time it was Greig who mashed the guard’s eye. “What could be worse than losing your woman, your family, you filthy slime?” he raged. “Do you know what that’s like?”
“They’re here,” the guard hissed. “Again.”
Alien Knight Steals The Bride Page 11