Stolen

by Evangeline Anderson

  “Well…not exactly.”

  Penny wasn’t exactly sure how to explain everything that had happened to her in the time since she’d last seen her friend. It was too much to go into—too overwhelming. But she could give Kat the basics.

  “Commander Rive and Y’lla are stuck in a slow time-suck—I mean, a temporal anomaly,” she said. “I barely escaped from it myself.”

  “Oh, no!” Kat looked stricken. “That’s terrible.”

  “Well, they got stuck together at least,” Penny offered, trying to make her feel better. Literally, she thought, remembering how her shipmates had been in the middle of making loud and exuberant love right before they’d been caught in the time-suck. “But I’m afraid they’re probably not coming back any time soon,” she added. “So I’m kind of on my own out here.”

  “I hate to ask, but did you guys recover the Eye of Ten’gu before they got stuck?” Kat asked. “I know that sounds insensitive but Nadiah just had another vision and the Goddess told her it was urgent that we recover it. Sylvan is afraid someone else is moving in on it.”

  “I’m afraid not.” Penny felt awful, like she was falling down on the job. Here she had been specially hired for this particular mission that the Kindred considered extremely important and she had failed to even get to the planet where the dig was supposed to happen!

  Also, she didn’t discount what Kat said about the Kindred Goddess as she had back at the beginning of her mission. After hearing the warm, comforting female voice that bolstered her spirits back at the Compound, Penny was no longer quite so agnostic as she had been before. So if the Goddess said something bad was about to happen if they didn’t get the artifact quickly, she believed it was so.

  But what could she do?

  “I’m afraid you’ll have to send another team to meet me here,” she said to Kat apologetically. “The whole ship is engulfed in the time bubble and from what I heard from the, uh, natives of Hell’s Gate, it’s probably not going to move out anytime soon. So I have no way to get to Yown Beta and find the Eye of Ten’gu.”

  “Yes, you do.” V’rex was suddenly there, sliding into the captain’s chair beside her, though he had promised to give her privacy for the call.

  “V’rex!” Penny exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

  “V’rex?” There was alarm in Kat’s blue eyes as she stared through the viewscreen at the huge Hybrid. “Penny, I warned you about him!”

  “I know, I know,” Penny said quickly. “And I didn’t go looking for him—I promise. It’s just that the two of us both got captured by the same cult and then we were put together in the Unification Ceremony as Forever Mates and we had to pretend to be a couple until we escaped or we would have been recycled. We’re not together now—I’m just staying on V’rex’s ship until you can send another team to help me recover the Eye because I have nowhere else to stay in Hell’s Gate.”

  “My goodness…” Kat blinked, clearly overcome by the rush of information. “It sounds like you’ve been having all kinds of adventures.”

  “If being captured by a cult of NeverBreeders and their ‘Glorious Leader’ and then running for our lives through the fucking Deadly Jungle is your idea of an adventure, then yes. Yes we have,” growled V’rex. “But it was no fucking fun—I can tell you that.” He looked at Penny. “Well, most of it wasn’t, anyway.”

  Penny felt her cheeks getting hot but she refused to acknowledge the big Hybrid’s allusion to the sexual relationship they’d had at the Compound.

  “Anyway, as I said, we escaped and now I’m in V’rex’s ship at the far end of Hell’s Gate Station,” she said to Kat. “I’m sorry I can’t go get the artifact for you, but if you’ll send another team—”

  “Or just send the two of us,” V’rex cut in again. “Hey,” he said, shrugging at Penny when she shot him a scowl. “I’ve got nothing better to do. We might as well get your work done as sit around here for a solar week waiting for the Kindred to show up.”

  “I don’t know about this…” Kat looked indecisive. “Hang on, doll,” she said to Penny. “I need to talk to Sylvan before we go any further.”

  The screen went blank for a moment and Penny turned on the big Hybrid furiously.

  “Why are you doing this? Why are you embarrassing me in front of my boss? Now they’re going to think I lost my head and ran off and had a romantic fling instead of doing my job!”

  “Being captured by the NeverBreeders was hardly a ‘fling,’” V’rex said dryly. “If they’re reasonable people, I’m sure they can see that.”

  “Well, why are you offering to come with me?” Penny demanded. “What’s in it for you?”

  The minute she said it, she wanted to call the words back. The look on V’rex’s face was beyond hurt. But a moment later the expression disappeared to be replaced by amused nonchalance.

  “Maybe I’m afraid I’ll get bored sitting around here just waiting,” he drawled, shrugging one muscular shoulder at her. “Or maybe I just want one more ‘adventure’ with you before we never see each other again, sweetheart. Did you think of that?”

  Penny wasn’t sure what to say. It was the first time he’d called her “sweetheart” since he had Forsworn her. What did it mean? Did he care after all? Or did he really just want to help her as a way of saying goodbye?

  “I don’t—” she began but just then the viewscreen came back to life and this time it showed Commander Sylvan. The normally mild-mannered Head of the High Council was glaring at the big Hybrid fiercely. His fangs were out and showing and he looked more menacing than Penny had ever seen him.

  “V’rex,” he said, addressing the other male directly. “What is your stake in this game? What are your intentions towards Penelope? She is in my employment and under my care. If you harm her, you will have me to answer to.”

  V’rex’s face lost its mocking charm and became serious at once.

  “Penelope and I have been through a lot together in the last solar month,” he said, meeting Sylvan’s pale blue eyes unflinchingly. “I do not wish her any harm and you should know that I have Foresworn myself of her.”

  “Then why do you wish to help her recover the artifact we sent her to get?” Sylvan demanded. “I’ll tell you now that the Eye of Ten’gu has no monitory value. We only wish to recover it because of a prophecy sent by the Goddess. It’s a dangerous artifact that carries great risk and evil with it.”

  “I’m not looking to steal it, if that’s what you’re thinking,” V’rex said, frowning. “I want to help Penelope because I owe her my life. I couldn’t have survived in the situation we were both in if I hadn’t had her to confide in. She helped me keep up my courage.” He shot a glance at Penny. “In fact, I’ve never met any female as brave and strong and beautiful as she is.”

  Penny didn’t know what to say and apparently, neither did Commander Sylvan. He just looked at V’rex for a long moment.

  “You speak like a male who wishes to bond a female to him,” he said at last. “But you tell me that you have Forsworn Penelope?”

  “I have.” V’rex frowned. “Circumstances make our bonding…impossible. But that doesn’t mean I admire her any less. If she has a difficult or dangerous job to do, I want to be with her to protect her and see her safely back again.” He cleared his throat. “To tell the truth, Commander, I don’t think I would be able to rest, knowing she was in danger. I must be with her on this mission. My honor demands it.”

  Sylvan frowned.

  “There are some who would say you have no honor, V’rex.”

  “Because of my status as a Hybrid with a Kru’ell One half, or my harassment of your ships?” V’rex growled. “Because let me tell you, Commander—I have good reason to doubt the honor of the Kindred as well.”

  “What do you mean? Explain,” Sylvan demanded.

  “My mother, Ellora of the tribe of Tar’quill was a rare Beast Kindred female—a Khalla as the Kindred call them,” V’rex growled. “She was kidnapped by my Sire and raped—
impregnated with me. But when the Kindred came searching for her and found out one of their sacred Khallas had been defiled, they didn’t even bother to bring her back. She died by my Sire’s hand because they wouldn’t bear the shame of having a despoiled Khalla on their hands.”

  Sylvan frowned.

  “I know the sad story of your mother’s capture, V’rex,” he said seriously. “For my own Sire was married to a Beast Kindred female for a time—this was when I was only a child—and my half-brother, Baird, was born on Rageron. But as I heard it told, your mother’s brothers went searching for her but never found her, though they never gave up the search.”

  “I don’t believe you,” V’rex sneered. “The Kindred abandoned my mother—and me—to the tender mercies of a Kru’ell One. You pretend to be so good and honest and yet you won’t even defend a female in need!”

  “Again, that isn’t how I heard the story,” Sylvan said in a low voice. “May I ask who told it to you? Was it your mother?”

  “No. My Sire,” V’rex snapped. “He loved to tell it because it made my mother cry.”

  Penny’s heart ached for the big Hybrid all over again. What a terrible childhood he must have had! Was it any wonder he’d grown up to be on the wrong side of the law when he hated both sides of his heritage so much?

  “Let me do some research into your story,” Sylvan said at last. “As Head of the High Council, I have plenty of contacts. I’ll send my half-brother Baird, who is a Beast Kindred himself, to investigate personally.”

  “It doesn’t matter now.” V’rex waved a hand, as though shooing away an inconsequential fly. “What’s done is done. I’m just letting you know why I hold you all in contempt. But it doesn’t matter how I feel about you—I’m focused on Penelope now.” He glanced at her and then looked back at Sylvan, intently. “I want to protect her during this mission and I swear by the Goddess I will.”

  Sylvan nodded reluctantly.

  “You are willing to give me your oath as a Warrior?”

  “I am.” V’rex nodded and lifted his chin. “I swear by The Mother of All Life that I will guard Penelope until the last breath leaves my body,” he said formally. “I will shield her from harm or danger. The first drop of her blood shall not spill unless the last drop of mine has been poured out upon the floor as I die defending her.”

  “It’s a good oath.” Sylvan nodded in approval. “Strong. You may be called upon to live up to it. The more we learn about the Eye of Ten’gu, the deeper our unease grows. It is an evil artifact—filled with the malice of the Cruel Father himself.”

  “I heard stories of the Cruel Father from my Sire,” V’rex said steadily. “I’m not afraid.”

  “I can see that you’re not. Very well.” Sylvan nodded, clearly having made a decision. “We’ll send a new team to pick Penelope up, but in the meantime, you can accompany her on the mission. Just remember,” he said, turning to look at Penny. “The Eye must be handled with care and it must not awaken. Keep it away from direct sunlight—that’s very important.”

  “I understand.” She nodded. “Will you send me all the coordinates and details again, please? I’m afraid everything we had is still locked away in the long-range shuttle with Riva and Y’lla, engulfed in the time bubble.”

  Sylvan frowned.

  “Of course, I will. I’d like to say we’re looking into a way to free Commander Riva and Y’lla from the temporal anomaly, but as far as I know, there’s no known way to get anyone in or out of an anomaly. You just have to wait for the time bubble to move on.”

  “That’s what I’ve heard too,” Penny said. She thought of poor Granny Two-two, going to visit her perpetually young parents, trapped forever in a party that never ended.

  “Please be careful, doll,” Kat said, sticking her head into the frame with Sylvan. “It would be awful if you got stuck in one of those anomalies too!”

  “Don’t worry—my ship has the latest in temporal sensors,” V’rex said. “Nobody else is getting stuck in a time-suck.”

  “That’s good to know.” Sylvan nodded at him formally.

  “There’s something else,” V’rex said. “If you want to prove your honor and that the Kindred give a damn about other people, there are over a thousand poor bastards trapped on Yown Alpha in a Compound in the middle of the Deadly Jungle.”

  Sylvan frowned. “Would that be the, uh, ‘cult’ that Penelope told Kat about? The one that captured you both?”

  “Exactly.” Penny nodded eagerly. “They capture people and brainwash them using hypno-whispers. They…” She almost choked on the words. “They force them to breed until they can’t produce any more babies and then they recycle them.”

  “Recycle?” Sylvan frowned questioningly.

  “They fucking chop them up and eat them,” V’rex said bluntly.

  “I lost a friend that way.” Penny struggled to keep the tears out of her voice when she thought of poor Claudette. “She was the only other one there immune to the hypno-whispers aside from V’rex and me. I wanted to bring her out with us but just before we escaped, the cult killed her.”

  “Oh, hon—I’m sorry,” Kat said sadly.

  “They’re just horrible,” Penny said fiercely.

  “They turn fetuses into little orange humanoids called ‘NeverBreeders’,” V’rex offered. “Oh, and their leader just goes by the title, ‘Glorious Leader.’”

  “You can’t miss him—he looks like Colonel Sanders from KFC,” Penny added quickly.

  “The Colonel? Really?” Kat exclaimed. “Are you serious, doll? You were captured by the Colonel and forced to live in a cannibal cult? That must have been so weird!”

  “You have no idea.” Penny thought of the strange dreams she’d had, of the Glorious Leader whispering, “Call me Chicken Daddy,” and shivered.

  “The point is, all of these people have been kidnapped from their regular lives, hypnotized, and forced to live and work and serve the ‘Glorious Leader’,” V’rex growled. “If you Kindred of the Mother Ship have any honor at all, you’ll check it out. Nobody else is going to bother and people are dying there—and getting fed to the other cult members once they do.”

  “That’s disgusting!” Kat exclaimed.

  “It was scary and horrible but we got away,” Penny said in a low voice. “But I don’t think anyone else will without help.”

  “I will bring this to the High Council,” Sylvan said. “Once I explain the circumstances, I’m sure they’ll support the idea of sending warriors to liberate the kidnapped victims.”

  “Be careful,” V’rex told him. “They’re pretty well armed and those little orange NeverBreeder bastards are tougher than they look.”

  “They look like Oompa-Loompas,” Penny put in helpfully. “Only bald.”

  “Colonel Sanders and his cult of bald cannibal Oompa-Loompas?” Kat shook her head. “Doll, that is just crazy.”

  “You don’t know the half of it,” Penny said fervently. “I’ll give you more details when I finally get back to the Mother Ship.”

  “You’d better!” Kat said and shook her head again, wonderingly.

  “If you’ll send me your coordinates, I’ll send the details of Penelope’s mission,” Sylvan said. He leaned forward and looked at V’rex. “Despite your reputation, I’m trusting you, V’rex—mainly because of your oath to Penelope.”

  “I won’t fail you,” V’rex replied. “Just this once, we’re on the same side.” He arched an eyebrow. “Though I can’t promise that trend will continue after Penelope and I part ways.”

  “Understood.” Sylvan nodded again and looked at Penny. “May the Goddess grant you success. I’ll send the information at once because time is of the essence. Please hurry.”

  “As fast as I can,” Penny promised. She waved goodbye to Kat and then the viewscreen went blank.

  When the conversation with the Mother Ship was over, she wasn’t sure what to say to V’rex. The big Hybrid’s oath to protect her had taken her breath away with its serious
ness and sincerity. Why would he still want to protect her so much if they had decided to go their separate ways? Could it be that he still had feelings for her somehow?

  But when she looked at V’rex, the big Hybrid was smirking at her as though he didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Well, sweetheart,” he remarked, giving her a wink. “Looks like we’re going on one last ‘adventure’ together.”

  “I…I guess so,” Penny said.

  And then found she didn’t know what else to say.

  Ninety-Six

  “Well, this looks like the entrance to the secret city under the mountain,” V’rex remarked as he maneuvered his ship through the narrow gorge that led to the sacred mountain, Ra’gar.

  The high, craggy walls of deep gray stone rose all around them—it was like flying through the Grand Canyon, only with a lot less color, Penny thought.

  “Looks like it,” she agreed. She was studying the maps they had printed out from the information Commander Sylvan had sent.

  “The Father of Cruelty with reach from Afar

  To the Eye of his scion asleep in the Dark

  Buried so deep ‘neath the mountain Ra’gar,” she murmured, reading the first half of the prophecy again.

  “Father of Cruelty—guess that’s the Cruel Father. Or Kru’ell Father in my Sire’s native tongue,” V’rex growled. “He’s the son-of-a-bitch who created the Kru’ell Ones in the first place. They’re meant to look like the Kindred but to be their exact opposite in temperament. Instead of revering and protecting females they…well, you know what happened to my mother,” he finished grimly.

  “A dark mirror image,” Penny murmured and shivered. To take her mind off the Cruel Father, she looked through the print-outs again. Aside from the map and the prophecy, they also had a drawing of the Eye of Ten’gu and some notes about the artifact which Nadiah, the priestess who’d had the vision in the first place, had found in the archives on First World.

  The Eye itself wasn’t a very large artifact. There was a drawing of it and to Penny, it looked a little like a stylized Egyptian eye from some ancient set of Hieroglyphics.