by Elin Wyn
He tackled him right before the man had a chance to fire, but the three accomplices behind him immediately ganged up on Zarik.
They pointed their guns at him but, knowing that they might shoot their accomplice if they fired, they used the butts of their rifles to hit Zarik repeatedly. I saw him punching his attackers in a whirl of motion.
Oh, my.
My kind, gentle giant was a warrior.
Hearing the commotion, some of the other humans decided to try their luck and grapple the guns away from their captors.
Shots were fired, bodies fell to the ground. I watched it all happen in slow motion, horrified at the scene, but my attention quickly returned to Zarik.
Using the man he had tackled as a shield, he pried the rifle from his hands and fired it against his other attackers.
Two of them fell to the ground, clutching their legs, and the remaining one simply threw his gun down and started running toward the woods.
He was almost there when a green Valorni appeared out of nowhere and tackled him to the ground.
It wasn’t much of a fight.
Even though the humans from the camp had the numbers, they were no match for the experience of the strike teams. It took the aliens only a few minutes to subdue the humans, and then they lined them up in front of the main building.
Still holding the same man from before, Zarik shoved him toward the others and then wiped the blood off his lips with the back of his hand.
He didn’t seem to be hurt.
He seemed to be enjoying every moment of it.
My chest loosened, but my relief didn’t last long.
I was scanning the line of prisoners when I realized there was something eerily familiar about one of them. Holding my breath, I narrowed my eyes into slits and then…
I gasped, finally realizing who I was staring at.
I climbed down the tree I was in as fast as I could and started running toward the camp like a woman possessed. I didn’t even notice the way the vegetation seemed to reach for my shirt, thorns ripping holes in the fabric. All I cared about was the man in the camp.
A few aliens wheeled around as I jumped into sight and, even though they looked surprised to see me, none of them stopped me. I made a beeline toward the prisoners and, reaching one of the men, I slapped him so hard that pain shot up my arm.
“You’re Dreve,” I hissed. “I know you. I’ve seen you with Kyle. Where is he? What the hell are you doing here?”
“You were an easy target,” he spat. “I did what I had to do.”
“Yeah?” I threw back at him. “And this is what I have to do.”
Cocking my arm back, I punched him straight in the face.
Zarik
I stepped back, giving Miri room. She deserved it, after everything the bastard had put her through.
And when she was done, I might take a swing myself.
“Was it worth it?” Miri screamed. “Look at you now! You’ll never taste freedom again, which is exactly what you deserve since you tried to do that to me!”
Dreve looked shocked.
I wasn’t sure if he was more afraid of the prospect of a lifetime in prison, or of Miri.
“Do you even care how many people you’ve hurt?” she went on. “You disgust me.”
By the way he quivered and refused to meet her eye, I could tell he wasn’t the leader of this operation. He didn’t have the mettle.
He didn’t even possess the intelligence to disguise the fact that he’d used Kyle’s key to get into Miri’s apartment. If he’d smashed the doorframe or broken the lock, we would’ve never suspected him.
I wondered how he ended up in a place like this, but then I realized that I didn’t care. He deserved to rot in a cell, surrounded by the aliens he hated for the rest of his life, for what he’d done to Miri. He deserved worse.
“I think we’ve found the human in charge,” Karzin called from the rusty metal structure. A moment later, two other strike team members appeared, holding a man by the arms. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but I wasn’t expecting a portly man, with very little hair, two feet shorter than me.
At first, I wondered how such a weak-looking human could’ve created a place like this. But then he looked my way. There was nothing in his eyes but coldness and madness. The sick smile on his face was almost as unsettling as his eyes.
He lacked what the humans called a soul. I’d never put much stock into souls until I looked into the eyes of someone who didn't possess one. A shudder passed down my spine. It took a great deal to unsettle me. I was usually the one doing the unsettling.
The team members that held him pushed him to his knees at the feet of Karzin. I suspected they wanted to use his hair to force him to look up, but there wasn’t enough of it to get a good grip. Karzin kneeled down enough to grab the man’s chin and tilt his face upwards.
“I have a lot of questions for you,” Karzin smirked.
“Too bad,” the man snarled.
“Let’s start with something easy. Does the name Roddik mean anything to you?”
I hadn’t expected Karzin to ask about that, though it was a good gateway question. Hopefully, it would lead us somewhere useful.
“He was a moron,” the man said with a sneer. “I heard about his failed settlement. We intended to bring them into our fold, but we didn’t reach them in time. Though I don’t consider it a great loss.”
“How did you hear about Roddik?” Karzin asked. The man responded by spitting at him.
“That wasn’t polite,” Karzin snarled.
“You savage brutes wouldn’t know the meaning of polite.” The man rolled his eyes.
“And you do? Last I checked, polite, civilized people don’t kidnap innocents to perform sick experiments,” Karzin snapped.
“Have you never heard of doing something for the sake of the greater good?” the man asked with a cold smile.
“You know nothing about the greater good,” Karzin scoffed. “Why were you injecting your captives with memory-erasing toxins?”
The man stared up at Karzin, silent and defiant. My temper flared. I wanted nothing more than to ram his nose into his skull. I clenched and unclenched my fists. I needed to remove myself from the situation before I did something I would regret.
Actually, that was inaccurate. I would never regret anything I did to that soulless creature.
I wasn’t too keen on getting in trouble with General Rouhr, though. We needed the psychopath alive until he gave us the information we needed.
I looked toward the half-collapsed metal building. From what I could tell, no one else was inside investigating it. Surely it contained something useful. Perhaps something inside would lead us to the answers the madman refused to give.
Miri had taken a break from yelling at her cousin’s friend, but the look on her face told me she wasn’t quite done.
“I’m going to look around in there.” I pointed to the structure. “What do you want to do?”
“I’d rather stay here.” She took an unconscious step backward when she looked at the structure. “But, what if Kyle’s in there? I should go…”
But her feet refused to move her.
“I understand,” I assured her. “I’ll be right back.” I pressed a kiss into her forehead before heading toward the structure.
I couldn’t believe it was still standing. Much of the key structural support seemed rusted away. Sharp edges stuck out all over the place. How all of the residents weren’t covered in infected scrapes and cuts was a mystery to me.
The inside of the structure was essentially abandoned. The floor was covered in dead leaves that had fallen through the gaping holes in the ceiling and walls. There were a few discarded pieces of broken furniture. From what I could tell, they were using it as a storage space.
That didn’t make sense. I had to be missing something.
I examined every detail of the structure. It wasn’t very large. It certainly wasn’t used for much. Something bad clearl
y had happened to Miri here.
But where?
I was about to give up when my foot caught on a miniscule rise in the floor. I smoothed away the dead leaves, revealing a wooden square with a handle. A trapdoor.
It was locked, but that wasn’t an issue. With one good yank, I separated the handle from the wood, leaving a jagged hole behind. I flipped the door up, exposing a ladder that went straight down into blackness. I heard noises below that sounded like they came from something living.
I hurried down the ladder, well aware that I could be walking into a trap. I stretched my shoulders back, relishing the idea of a good fight. It had been way too long, and that group of humans had been nothing but an appetizer.
But when I reached the bottom, there was only blackness.
The noises were louder but, at the same time, they sounded muffled. I felt along the walls for a light switch. After some blind groping, I found a lever. I pushed it in the only direction it would go. Crude exposed bulbs crackled and lit up. One sparked a bit.
I stood in a room larger than the structure above it. The walls were crammed with overflowing mismatched shelves and tables covered in devices I didn’t recognize.
A muffled squeal came from farther inside. I hurried in the direction of the sound. There was a small hallway in the back of the room that led into another chamber. This chamber contained five tables with restraints. Four of the tables were occupied. Humans lay there, restrained and blindfolded. One male. Three females. They were all covered in filth. Even from here I could tell they were underweight.
“I’m here to help!” I called to them.
I went to one of the females first. The restraints had left purple bruising around her wrists and ankles. I let her remove her own blindfold. When she saw me, tears filled her eyes.
“It’s over,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “It’s finally over.”
I released the male next, and he helped untie the other females.
“I knew those monsters had the wrong idea about you guys,” the man said as he shook my hand gingerly.
“Are you able to climb? The only way out is a ladder,” I explained.
They all nodded, two of the women leaning on each other for support.
“Go up to the ladder. If you walk up to anyone that isn’t human, they will help you,” I told them.
The ragged group gave me one more grateful look before heading toward the ladder.
I thoroughly checked any place big enough to conceal a human, just in case there was someone else I couldn’t see or hear. There was no one else.
I looked at the fifth table and a sickening feeling came over me. That table belonged to Miri.
I returned to the main chamber to examine its contents. I realized that the devices littering the tables were outdated lab materials. I began tearing through the crammed shelves and opening every drawer.
I skimmed the contents of the first datapad I discovered. It was an outline for an experiment. The goal was to create a memory-erasing substance that wouldn’t be affected by the antidote developed in General Rouhr’s lab. That antidote wasn’t public knowledge. How did these people know about it?
I continued searching for any useful information. By the time I got through everything, I’d located ten datapads. Some of them were very cleverly hidden. I almost missed the last one entirely. I didn’t have the time to read them all, but I was certainly going to bring them back to General Rouhr.
I found a ratty old bag discarded on the floor. It would be just fine for transporting the datapads. Hopefully, General Rouhr wouldn’t mind a little grime.
After one final sweep of the room, I made my way to the ladder.
It was time to take Miri away from here forever.
Miri
“Do you want me to take you back to your apartment?” Zarik asked me.
I stood there, in the middle of the government building’s lobby, and shifted my weight from one foot to the other.
I wasn’t sure if I could go back, not with all the memories of what had happened feeling so vivid inside my head. It was ironic—in a way, I almost wished I could forget all about Kyle’s friend and his stupid actions.
And after all the time and effort trying to get my memories back.
Sigh.
“Is something wrong, Miri?”
“I don’t want to go back there,” I said as I shook my head. “At least, not right away. That apartment...it doesn’t feel right for me to stay there now.”
“I see,” he muttered, and I could almost see a thousand thoughts parading behind his eyes. Only after a few seconds of silence did Zarik continue.
“Come with me,” he smiled gently, grabbing my hand and leading me down the lobby. I followed him through what seemed like a dozen corridors until we finally stopped before a regular door. “It’s not much, but…”
Producing a magnetic key from his back pocket, he slid it across the slit in the panel and the latch popped open with a metallic sound. “My bedroom,” Zarik announced, pushing the door open with one hand.
We stepped inside the tiny cramped room and Zarik let out a nervous laugh. “I know. It sucks.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I protested. “This is perfect.”
“Good. Then I’ll let you have it,” he nodded. He was about to turn around and leave when I grabbed his hand.
“Where exactly do you think you’re going?” I laughed. “I’m not going to steal your bed away. Besides, I made you a promise...remember?”
“How could I forget?” he asked me softly. Now facing me, he closed the distance between us and laid both hands on my waist. A shiver ran up my spine as I felt the touch of his fingers, and the air around us became electric.
“Good,” I whispered, my eyes focused on his lips. God, I was already aching to taste them again. Noticing me looking, Zarik raised one hand and brushed his thumb over my lips, parting them. Then, cupping my cheek with his massive hand, he leaned down and kissed me.
“I’ll never get tired of kissing you, Miri.”
“I’ll make you sure you don’t,” I teased him, enjoying the way he was smiling at me. There was more than just lust there...Zarik genuinely cared for me, and that in a way I had never experienced before.
Still reeling from our kiss, we slid under the covers, my body craving the comfort of his. I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes, feeling his heartbeat as he gently ran his fingers through my hair. “Are you okay?” He finally broke the silence between us. “These last few days...I know they were hard on you.”
“They were,” I said quietly. “I’m remembering more and more...and most memories aren’t exactly pleasant ones. There’s the Xathi invasion, the periods of hunger, and then this thing with the toxin…I’m becoming numb to it all.”
“Then maybe it’s time we stop focusing on the bad memories,” he said, turning on his side to face me. “Maybe it’s time we start creating good ones.” He didn’t let me say a word.
He just leaned in and crushed his mouth against mine, his tongue parting my lips at once. Our kiss started wild, and it just grew wilder and wilder with each heartbeat.
I kicked the sheets back in a hurry, eager to see and touch all of his body, and I didn’t hesitate before sliding the palms of my hands down his bare chest. In seconds, we were wearing nothing but our underwear, and that made things so much easier—allowing my right hand to explore the region below his waist, I let my fingers fall over the hard shape tenting his boxers. I grabbed it fiercely, curling my fingers against it, and started massaging his cock over the fabric of his underwear.
“You’re going to be the end of me,” he groaned, weaving his fingers into my hair and pulling on it. I gasped as he pulled my head back, his mouth now busy roaming over my neck, and didn’t protest as he unclasped my bra.
My skin prickled as the air in the room caressed my hard nipples and, by the time he pushed my thong down my legs, I was so eager to have him that I couldn’t think of anything else.
; “Not the end,” I moaned softly. “The beginning.”
“I like that,” he whispered, his lips trailing down my neck toward my breasts. Wrapping his lips around my left nipple, he sucked it into his mouth eagerly, his tongue dancing in circles around it. I tightened the grip I had on his cock and started stroking him harder, my hand moving up and down his length at a steady pace; he was massive, but I already knew that...everything about him told me the word ‘average’ wasn’t something I could use to describe him.
“I want you so much,” I found myself saying, pushing his underwear down with frenzied movements. His hard cock sprung free then, falling straight into the palm of my right hand, and I let out a soft moan as I felt its warmth against my skin. “I need you so damn much, Zarik.”
“Then you’re in luck,” he growled, his right hand rushing straight to between my legs. “I’m right here.” Cupping my aching pussy, he laid his thumb across my clit and applied just the right amount of pressure. I chomped on my bottom lip as my whole body came alive, and I shut my eyes as I surrendered to him.
My moaning turned into screaming the moment he parted my inner lips and slid one finger deep inside me, curling it upward like a hook until he found that secret spot hidden inside me. Pressing it with the tip of his finger, he kept on massaging my clit while his tongue danced with my right nipple. My eyes rolled in their orbits as pleasure took me, and it didn’t take long before I was arching my back, my whole body tensing up with anticipation.
“I’m going to…”
I trailed off, ecstasy choking off the rest of my sentence. My heart beat furiously, my blood boiled inside my veins. This was everything I had wished for, and then some more...and we were just getting started.
“Make me yours, Zarik,” I whispered, rolling to the side and climbing on top of him. Straddling him, I laid both hands on his chest and looked straight into his eyes. “I don’t care about anything else right now. I need to know that I’m yours.”
“But you already are,” he said, laying one hand around the back of my neck, his eyes never leaving mine. “You were mine the moment I first laid eyes on you. But now...I need you to show me what you want.”