Lilith turned away so Tara couldn’t see her face. “I don’t know why she kept it secret, but if you don’t believe Aimee Sandoval is my mother, I can prove it to you.”
“How would you do that?” Tara asked.
“By taking you to her,” Lilith replied. “She’ll tell you herself.”
“Why aren’t you with the Avitras now?” Tara asked. “How did you wind up with these.....these Outliers?”
“That’s another story,” Lilith replied. “Why don’t you come over here by the fire? You must be tired.”
Tara didn’t feel tired, but Reina was. One look at her face showed that. Even after so many days traveling, running, and getting stronger, Reina and the Ursidreans still showed their fatigue at the end of the day. Tara nodded. “Thanks.”
Lilith lead them to one of the fires, and Reina and the boys sat down. Ari and Aeifa set down their packs and looked around. “Do you came here much?”
“We’re migratory,” Lilith replied. “We camp here once a year. Then we move on.”
Allen raised his head. “How do you stop the Ursidreans from finding out you’re here? I would be surprised if they let you wander through their territory like this.”
Lilith squatted down next to the fire. The movement struck Tara as so familiar that she squatted down next to her. Something she couldn’t define drew her to this young woman. In spite of Lilith’s scale-like feathers and slender limbs, Tara saw herself reflected in Lilith. Her eye scanned her surroundings with the quick assurance of a hunter. Taut muscle covered her bones. She understood hard travel, hunting, and living rough on unbroken land. Lilith had more in common with Tara and the other Lycaon than with Reina and the Ursidreans.
“The Ursidreans don’t know anything about us,” Lilith told them. “No one does. We travel though territory the other factions don’t use. We don’t go anywhere near their inhabited territory. That’s how we survived so long without them disturbing us.”
Allen sucked his breath through his teeth. “So we’re nowhere near the Ursidreans’ inhabited territory.”
Taman growled under his breath. “I knew it.”
Tara stiffened. “How far are we from the Ursidrean city?”
“Which one?” Lilith waved her hand. “It doesn’t matter, because the nearest one is days’ travel from here. You’re better off with us, anyway. Forget about the city. It’s a death trap.”
Tara took a deep breath. “We’re trying to reach Harbeiz. That’s the Ursidrean capital. It’s these boys’ home, and we’re hoping the Ursidreans can find their parents—our parents. Can you help us get there?”
“To the city?” Lilith shot back. “Not a chance. You won’t catch me or any Outlier anywhere near the Ursidrean city or any other faction.”
Ari spoke up. “What about your mother? Don’t you ever visit her?”
“I haven’t seen her since I was small,” Lilith replied. “That’s why I’m here, because I don’t want anything to do with the Avitras.”
“But they’re your own faction,” Reina pointed out. “Why don’t you want anything to do with them?”
“I don’t have a faction,” Lilith replied. “The Outliers are my people.”
Chapter 3
The fire’s circle of light forced back the darkness. It glowed golden orange on the faces sitting around the circle, and it gleamed on Lilith’s black scales. Her eyes, too, reflected the light in green, purple and blue flashes.
Ari leaned back against a log. Reina sat at his side, though she kept a thin bubble of space between them. Taig sat on her other side, and every few minutes, he inched closer to her. Allen sat next to Tara with Taman on her other side. Aeifa sat next to Taman on the end.
The fire gave them all a comfortable glow after the meal the Outliers fed them. The yellow aurora flickered in the sky, and Ari leaned his head back on his folded arms to look at the stars. “This is all right. We could stay with these people for a while.”
“If they’ll have us,” Tara corrected him.
Allen faced him. “You were the one who wanted to wait alone in the forest for our parents to come back.”
Ari shrugged. “Everything changes. We’re here now. We might as well enjoy it while it lasts.”
“You heard what Lilith said,” Aeifa told him. “We’re a long way from Ursidrean territory. These Outliers stay far away from the factions. We might as well enjoy their company while it lasts. We could be on our own for a long time before we get back to inhabited territory.”
“I agree with Ari and Aeifa,” Tara added. “The Outliers have welcomed us. If they’ll have us, we should stay with them—for now, anyway. We can head back to search for our parents soon enough.” She turned to Lilith. “Will they take us? We won’t stay if they don’t want us to.”
Lilith cocked her head to one side, but instead of answering, she turned to a wrinkled old man sitting on her other side. A collection of motley people, from young men to old women and even children completed the circle around the fire. “Are you ready?”
The old man grinned back at Lilith, and a row of rotten teeth showed between his wrinkled lips. “Which one?”
Lilith got to her feet and towered over the group. She cast an imperious glare around the group. She picked up a stick as thick as her thumb from next to the fire and walked around the circle in front of the Outliers. Tara smiled up at her. She admired this tall, proud young woman, who commanded the attention of everyone around her. The exchange with the old man convinced Tara that Lilith must be some kind of leader of the group.
Lilith strode around the fire and planted her feet wide. She swept the newcomers with another superior gaze and swung her stick at her side. Then she took two more steps so she stood right in front of Ari. He lifted his head and smiled at her, too. No one could take their eyes off her powerful form.
Then, with the slightest movement, her hand shot out. The stick flashed in her hand, and she struck Taig across the side of the head. He toppled to one side with a squeal. The others jumped up. “Hey!”
But they were too slow. Within seconds, the Outliers fell on them and wrestled them to the ground. Two burly young men laid hold of Taig and dragged him out of the circle. Tara tried to grab him, but the other Outliers blocked her. They hauled Taig to his feet, and they surrounded Tara and her friends in a menacing ring. Tara sank down into her place again. Once, her hand crept too close to her hunting knife, but one of the Outliers struck her wrist with a twisted cord. She rubbed the sting out of it and pushed her fist behind her back.
Two Outliers held Taig by his arms. He tugged one hand free to rub the side of his head. “What was that for?”
Lilith strutted to the other side of the fire. The flames flickered off her high cheek bones, and her eyes flashed. “You want to join us.”
“No one ever said that,” Ari shot back.
Lilith waved her stick again. “That’s what you said.”
“We said we would stick with you until we were ready to go back to Ursidrean territory,” Aeifa told her.
Lilith shrugged. “It’s the same thing. You’re here, so you’ll follow our customs.”
“What customs?” Allen asked. “What are you going to do to him?”
Tara couldn’t stop herself from getting to her feet again, but one guard stopped her with a curt shake of his head. “Let him go.”
Reina laid her hand on Tara’s arm. “We’ll get him back.”
Lilith let out a horrid laugh. “That’s what you think. You’re in no position to get him back, not until we’re finished with him, and then maybe you won’t want him back.”
Tara shuddered. “What does that mean?”
Lilith waved her hand again, and the two Outliers dragged Taig away. Old women stuck sticks in the fire to light torches, and the crowd followed them to the edge of the forest. They bound Taig by his wrists between two trees. He struggled for a few minutes until he realized it was useless. Then he stood still.
“This is our initiation ritual,” Lilith told them. “This is what happens to anyone who wants to join us.”
“What are you going to do to him?” Tara hated to ask.
Lilith brought out a string of balls dangling from a braided cord. She hung a loop in the cord on a branch next to Taig’s head. She dandled her fingers through the balls and set them swaying. “Anyone who wants to join us has to make a sacrifice. That’s our law.”
“We don’t want to join you and we don’t want to make any sacrifice,” Ari told her. “Give us our friend and we’ll be gone before you know it.”
Lilith shook her head. “You’re here now. You have to make the sacrifice. That’s the law.”
“What sacrifice?” Allen asked.
Lilith took hold of one of the balls and held it up. “Whenever anyone comes to us, we choose one person from the party to sacrifice. The sacrifice pays for the others. Everyone here was bought and paid for by some other person who served as a sacrifice.”
Reina gasped. “Do you mean you sacrifice a person?”
Lilith held up the ball for her to see. “See? Here they are. Can you see the eyes?”
The friends stared at the ball. In the dim torchlight, they could just make out the papery eyelids covering mummified eye sockets. A small lump stuck out where the nose used to be, but parchment-dry skin covered the hole where the mouth used to be. “Oh, my God!”
Lilith let go of the ball, and the whole string swung back and forth. She stepped close to Taig and ran her fingers through the fur on his head. “He’s perfect. Strong features, strong body. He’ll be delicious.”
Tara clapped her hands over her ears. She couldn’t listen to this anymore. She couldn’t stand here and watch whatever they were going to do to her brother. She started to turn away, but one of their guards caught her and held her still. “You’re not going to do this. You can’t.”
Lilith’s eyes skipped from one face to the other. “First, we prepare the sacrifice. Then we have the feast.”
“What are you going to do?” Ari asked.
No one answered him. Lilith nodded to the guards, who forced the friends down on the ground. They herded them into a tight bunch and encircled them with powerful guards. The other Outliers formed a wider ring outside the first, and the old man came to Lilith’s side. She bowed to him, but he shook his head. “He’s your choice. You can have him.”
A glorious smile broke over Lilith’s face. None of her grisly grins resembled that smile of pure joy. “Could I?”
The old man nodded. “You’re mature now. You’ve been with us long enough to know our laws. You’ve earned the right to take him for yourself.”
Tara couldn’t keep silent any longer. “What are you going to do to him?”
“I’m going to prepare the sacrifice,” Lilith replied.
The other Outliers fell back in a circle and sat down behind the friends. The old man squatted next to one tree. Only Lilith remained standing next to Taig. Tara’s teeth chattered, and she couldn’t force herself to sit still. She would have jumped up and fought them all to the death if Reina and Aeifa hadn’t held her down.
Lilith sauntered across the space from one side of Taig to the other. She studied him with cold eyes. Then she slipped up close to him. She pressed her body against his and brushed his ear with her lips. A shudder went through his body and he tried to pull away, but she snatched a handful of his hair and shoved his ear against her mouth. She stuck her tongue into his ear and panted into it.
Her other hand snaked around behind him and slipped between his legs. She squeezed his buttocks with one hand and licked his ear. Taig gasped for breath, but she slipped around in front of him and caught him around the hips with both hands. She rubbed her hips against his crotch and gnawed at the skin of his neck. He panted and whined. He kept his eyes clamped shut, but he couldn’t stop her.
She let go of his hips and grabbed the front of his shirt. With one yank, she ripped it open to reveal his bare chest. An arrow of black hair ran down both sides of his chest and plunged into his belt line. Lilith growled in animal hunger. She ran her fingernails over his chest and pulled his chest hair. Then she pulled up her bra and rubbed her bare breasts against his chest.
He kept his eyes shut as tight as he could, but he couldn’t stop himself from responding. Lilith pushed both her hands down the back of his pants and forced his crotch against her. She gyrated and arched her body to rub against him. Then she darted around behind him and pushed her hands down the front of his pants. She buried her hands in his crotch and rubbed and fondled him from behind.
Taig struggled to breath. Tara and her friends stared on in horror, but they dared not move to help him. Was this the preparation for the sacrifice? She slipped around in front of Taig again and ran her tongue down his neck. She bit his nipples and shoved her breasts in his face. From her place on the ground, Tara saw plainly the bulge of his hardening cock inside his pants. No man could resist this.
Lilith turned her back to him and backed her buttocks against his crotch. She ground her buttocks against his cock and arched her back and moaned. He thrashed against his bonds in agonizing desperation. He couldn’t pull away from her and he couldn’t move toward her. Then she turned around to press her body against him. She bit him down his neck, down his chest, and down his belly to his swollen cock. She bit his cock through his pants until he howled to the stars in tortured ecstasy.
Lilith stood up and faced the crowd. She nodded to the guards. “You can go back to camp now. He is ready.”
Tara couldn’t swallow the lump in her throat. She couldn’t find voice enough to ask again what they planned to do with Taig. She slumped over on the ground and closed her eyes. She couldn’t look at him hanging limp and defeated from his outstretched arms. She didn’t move when the guards kicked her and ordered her to get up.
Reina helped her to her feet. “Come on, Tara. We have to go.”
Tara dragged her head up. “We can’t leave him. We can’t leave him like this.”
“We have to,” Reina told her. “If we try to help him now, we’ll all die. Come on. We’ll go back to camp. We might be able to help him later.”
“But they’re going to kill him,” Tara cried.
Ari appeared at her side. “He’s not dead yet.”
Tara’s head shot up. She’d never heard that low menace in Ari’s voice before. She studied his face in the torchlight. The old careless humor was gone. Smoldering hatred burned in his eyes. He didn’t look at Tara. He kept his eyes fixed on Taig.
A shadow darkened his face, and Tara found Lilith at her side. “Go back to camp. The sacrifice takes place at sunrise, and after that, we have the feast.”
“What feast?” Aeifa asked.
“The sacrificial feast, of course,” Lilith replied. “We consume the sacrifice to make him part of us. That’s our law.”
The friends stared at her. Only Allen had enough presence of mind to ask. “Are you telling us you’re going to eat him?”
Lilith shrugged. “He’s the sacrifice, isn’t he? He’ll be perfect. Delicious.”
Chapter 4
Tara came to her senses in a dark tent. She whimpered in her sleep and started upright, but a cool hand touched her forehead and eased her down. “It’s all right. I’m here.”
“Taig!” she cried.
“He’s all right for now,” the voice told her. “They won’t sacrifice him ‘til morning.”
Tara’s mind cleared enough to recognize the voice. “Allen. What are you doing here?”
His soft voice came to her out of the dark. “Someone had to stay with you. Reina wanted to, but I convinced the others to let me stay.”
She looked around, but her eyes couldn’t detect the faintest light. “What time is it?”
“It must be after midnight,” he replied. “The whole camp’s asleep.”
She swallowed a lump in her throat and her voice quavered. “
Except Taig.”
“It’s all right,” he murmured. “We’ll find a way to get him out. We won’t stand by and watch them kill him.”
She clamped her eyes shut and threw her arm over her eyes. She couldn’t break down now, especially with Allen sitting right there. His hand settled on her shoulder. “It’s okay.”
She tried to sit up, but he pressed her down again. “Rest a little longer. You’re spent.”
She sank back on a pile of blankets. Her eyes hurt, and nervous exhaustion tortured her every nerve. She wished she could sink into unconsciousness, but worry for Taig kept her alert.
Out of the darkness, Allen’s hand came to rest on her forehead. He stroked her hair back from her face and soothed her nerves. “You passed out when they told us they planned to eat him. They let us bring you here, but they would only let one person stay with you.”
“Why did you decide to stay?” she asked.
“I care about you,” he murmured. “Don’t you know that by now?”
She blinked. She couldn’t see any more of him than a shadow. “I didn’t think....”
“Don’t think.” His lips landed on her forehead, and his breath rushed into her hair. “Shh.”
She relaxed back on the blankets. Her mind roiled at the possibilities, from Taig out there tied between two trees, to her parents and village vanished without a trace, and back again to her cousins and friends. She couldn’t forget the danger they were in, but her soul cried out for Allen. She could lean on him for comfort in a way she couldn’t with anyone else. She could show him her fear and let him support her.
If Reina was here, Tara would have to be strong and sure. She couldn’t show any uncertainty around Reina, or the girl would fall apart. Tara would have to get up and formulate a plan for their escape. Allen had a twin brother of his own. How would he feel if Taman was tied to that tree right now? Would she be able to offer him comfort in the face of a hopeless situation?
Without meaning to, she threw her arms around his neck and hung on for dear life. Everything she’d ever done and everywhere she’d ever gone, Taig had been by her side. If anything happened to Taig, she would be alone in the world for the first time. Not even Ari and Aeifa could take his place. Allen could anchor her. His massive shoulders could shelter her and keep her safe.
Optorio Civil War Complete Series Box Set (Books 1 - 6): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance (Optorio Chronicles Book 2) Page 90