Unexpected Demon

by Layla Stone

  Healing didn’t happen that quickly. Not for a Yunkin. Not for any race.

  But Yon didn’t see her reaction. Instead, she saw him frown at the female. “How many Flourgs are in this hangar, girl?”

  “Two thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-five. And my name is Yelena.” She turned her head to peer out through the bars, and it almost looked like she was watching the windows that were getting darker as dusk settled outside. The lines in her skin grew brighter and more pronounced. She closed her eyes and buried her face between her knees.

  The small door, the one closest to Vivra’s cage, opened, and the Terran male who had found Vivra and pulled her by the hair smirked as he sauntered their way. He tapped the barrel of his rifle against the bars and pointed at Yon’s head. “I’m glad you are so valuable to your captain. He’s paying me seven hundred keleps for you.” Then he looked at Vivra. “None for you, baby. I guess you’re not worth getting back.”

  “Lies,” Yon hissed.

  “But, unfortunately,” the male continued, “you won’t be seeing your captain. You see, Madame Amri took over after Madame Allure died on Lotus Nexis. And she’s looking to start a brothel house of men. She says there are plenty of female customers who will pay for the use of high-valued men like yourself. She specifically requested a Yunkin.”

  Yon used his usual dark and sarcastic voice. “Is that right? Well, I should warn you, I’m more of a Demon between the sheets.”

  Yelena’s head pulled back, and her gaze shot to the Yunkin on the ground. He was looking back at her, as well. Vivra had a feeling that something passed between the two for a short moment before the female’s black eyes looked away.

  “Are you? So, I get double your running value.” The male made an air-kiss towards Yelena. “But these mine workers will be our most profitable product. Thousands of buyers waiting, the rest to Madame Amri.” He pointed the phaser at Yelena, daring her to move as he reached in between the bars and rubbed the side of her ribcage, moving to her breast where he squeezed. He didn’t seem into the action, but he did enjoy watching Yelena’s reaction. “Don’t like that, do you? But you can’t do anything about it, can you?”

  Vivra didn’t know what she was more upset about: Yelena for not fighting back, or the sick bastard that was groping her in front of the entire hangar, speaking loudly enough for everyone to hear, and acting like no one would take action.

  When seconds ticked by, Vivra realized that no one did anything.

  Leaning forward, the male sniffed her and then immediately started coughing. “I will have to wash you dirty rats down before we make the trade. When was the last time you showered?”

  The bastard started to twist Yelena’s nipple, and Vivra could see the female’s eyebrows pull together in a wince. Vivra had never trained for battle, but she wasn’t a stranger to self-defense. She grabbed the male’s hand and smashed it against the bars, breaking his wrist. The Terran screamed, pulling the trigger on the gun and hitting several of the occupants. He pulled his arm free and pointed the weapon at her. She fell forward as a fresh wave of fear washed over her—death by bullets.

  The shots never came. She sat back, watching the male limp away holding his wrist delicately. “Trevor! Get down here, now.”

  Another male rushed through the sliding door. “Hey! What the hell happened, Gason?”

  Gason pointed at Vivra. “That green slut just broke my damn hand!”

  Trevor didn’t look too concerned. “What have I told you about getting too close to the cage?”

  “Screw you!”

  “Sharp as a dull crayon, Gason, that’s what you are.”

  Gason sneered. Vivra just watched casually, taking in the descriptive words and wondering how Terrans ever learned to get their alien butts in space. They really did sound like imbeciles.

  “What were you doing near the cages, Gason?” Trevor asked pointedly.

  “Telling the Yunkin about how he’s going to be tied down and used as a sexy toy in Madame Amir’s new palace.”

  Trevor shook his head and then looked at Yon. Then he kept looking and moved forward, pulling out his phaser and pointing it at those lined up by the door. “Move, and I will kill you all. Tempt me once, and it’s over for you.”

  He unlocked the cage and slowly made his way back, pulling the back of Yon’s jacket towards the opening of the enclosure when he stopped. He tilted his head and leaned down.

  Then he began to curse, dropped the back of the Yunkin’s collar, and kicked Yon in the head. To Gason, he said, “Do you see the black lines on his collar? He’s not full Yunkin. Not going to get crap for a half-breed Red Demon. Better tell Rob before we take off.”

  Yon was…half Demon?

  Yon was not playful or stimulating like Pax, or into games and tricks like Clalls. He was strict, enjoyed following the rules, and had a dark, arrogant humor. Never would she have guessed that he was a half-Demon. Let alone the kind that were supposed to be charming.

  Trevor reached down and pulled the shirt. “We might as well kill him now.”

  “You said our captain was going to pay seven hundred keleps for him. Why not get the money?” Vivra said urgently.

  Trevor pointed the phaser at her. “Gason is a liar. We never contacted your captain. You think we’re idiots? We even moved your transporter so he wouldn’t find us.” To Gason, he said, “Go tell Rob I’m going to take the half-breed outside.”

  Vivra jumped at Yon, keeping him in place, not letting Trevor take him outside to finish him off. No way was she going to sit back and do nothing.

  Hard, cold metal touched her temple. “Two seconds, Bolark, and you’ll die first, then him.”

  “Do it,” she said confidently, believing Trevor to be a man of money, not one to lose his resources.

  Yon, though, well, he surprised her by pushing her off him. “Don’t shoot the gurk, she doesn’t even like me. She just doesn’t like the idea of working on her back.”

  Pulling his phaser back out, the male pointed the weapon at Yon. “Since you got the energy to talk and push the female off you, I suspect you can walk, too. Now, get up slowly, or I shoot you and then break all your ribs before letting you die.”

  Yon didn’t move.

  “He’s hurt. Or don’t you remember beating him unconscious?” Vivra said.

  “He doesn’t look very unconscious to me.”

  Yon was lying down one second and then the next, he wrapped his arms around Trevor, grabbed the male’s hand that held the phaser, and made him pull the trigger. On himself. It happened all too fast. She wasn’t even sure if she saw Yon move. He was a blur.

  Trevor’s red blood splattered up to the top of the cage and then back down on the occupants in warm, thick, sticky drops. Yon used Trevor’s dead body as a shield for a half-second, then pushed Vivra and Yelena down, keeping them from getting shot by Gason with the rifle and his limp hand.

  Pulling them behind him, Yon reached into the side of his boot and pushed an object into Vivra’s hand. The next moment, he was rushing out of the container, Gason shooting as he went. Yon threw Trevor’s dead body and hit Gason straight on. The other Terran fell back, the gun sliding across the floor.

  Yon reached down and took the male’s head in one hand, with the other, he snapped Gason’s neck. The Terran’s whole body jerked, and Vivra watched stupefied. She had never seen such gruesome acts of violence.

  Yon, the unexpected Demon, turned his dark eyes on her. “The bastard’s dead, move past it and call someone to come and get us.” Then he saw Yelena kneeling on the ground and added, “All of us.”

  Vivra’s feet moved before she could even think of where she was going. But she was out of the cage and through the hangar door in a blink. She heard sounds behind her. She almost screamed, thinking she was being followed, but it was only Yelena.

  “Where are we going?” Yelena asked, not overly winded Vivra noticed.

  “I was able to call Mish on a Mi
nky communicator, so I know he has one. I need it to call my captain.” She felt cool steel in her hand and lifted the object up to eye level as she ran. Yon had given her a boot knife?

  Then she heard a succession of pops, and Yelena jumped onto her back, knocking her to her hands and face.

  The ground was hard, and the dead grass prickled against her flesh.

  The pops continued. Vivra turned to see if anyone was behind them. Yep. A male with another rifle. He was running after them.

  “We need to stay down,” Yelena said.

  “We need to keep moving,” Vivra argued.

  Fortunately, the male stopped shooting, and both she and Yelena saw Yon at the door of the hangar. He killed their attacker.

  “Okay. We should get moving again,” Yelena added. They both ran for the red storage hangar that looked small but got larger the closer they got.

  The large door was open, and both females ran inside, stopping just at the doorway. Vivra’s mouth hung open so she could breathe better. “Okay…okay…the electronics should be up front, right?”

  Yelena was breathing hard now too, but she didn’t look overly winded. Vivra wasn’t envious…much.

  “I’m not sure, but we can split up if you want?”

  “No,” Vivra said, grabbing the female’s arm. “Never split up. Self-defense 101.” Yelena didn’t pull her arm from Vivra’s hold as she maneuvered them into the first two rooms of storage. Vivra conspicuously ignored the door she knew Mish was behind.

  “Aren’t we going to check in there?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t want to disturb the dead.”

  Yelena’s eyes bulged for a second. But there was no other reaction. Or at least she didn’t speak until they were well past the door. “So, how long have you been on Brica?”

  The female answered softly. “Fifty years.”

  From the beginning. Wow. Yon was right, they might actually be able to find out where she was contracted from because she had the original files. That thought made Vivra feel empowered, knowing she could actually do something to get justice for the kidnapped victim-turned-slave.

  Finally. A room with a Minky screen and a lot of paper files.

  Archaic way to organize, but regardless, she had a way to contact her captain.

  Quickly, she pulled Yelena after her into the room and dropped her grip when she was in front of the screen. She tapped the screen, and a prompt appeared. A prompt for a password.

  Password!

  She cursed.

  Yelena, thankfully, remained quiet, seeming almost to try and make herself smaller by crossing her ankles and arms. Vivra appreciated the silence, but in the back of Vivra’s mind, she felt that the female needed a heavy dose of Bolark confidence.

  “Okay, let’s see if Mish wrote the code down somewhere,” Vivra said, making herself think positively.

  Yelena turned to the large, metal table-turned-desk and went through the papers one by one. Vivra looked around in boxes full of file papers and manila folders that should have been out-processed a hundred years ago…or more.

  “Looking for me?” Mish said from the door, his face skinless. He must have pulled off all the hardened glitter gel. His body was still covered in places but cracked as if he were made of glitter stones.

  His eyes, though. That’s what scared Vivra the most. His red, beady eyes. They were focused solely on her, and in them, she saw his need for retaliation.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Wrath

  No time for a pithy response, the gnarled and skinless Red Demon rushed her. Her nerves battered from the kidnapping and escape, her legs were primed to jolt to the side.

  But not fast enough.

  Mish knocked her off her feet. Her world tilted, her arms flailing as she tried to catch herself before landing hard on her side.

  The ground was littered with cardboard boxes, some open and some closed. The ones Vivra fell on were unopened, secured with packing tape and hard as rocks. She took the hit on her elbow and the side of her ribs.

  Vivra didn’t bother looking back to block an attack. All her mind kept telling her was to run. And fast. Her heart pumped in her chest, giving her the necessary drive to keep going. To escape.

  Straightening, she rushed to get up. The hard concrete scraped at her skin, but she dug in her nails to grab the boxes under her to propel her forward. She was stopped instantly by an explosion on the side of her face.

  Mish’s fist.

  The blunt recourse was so rough, she fell, stunned and unmoving. That’s when she saw the Demon’s horrific face up close and personal. Blotches of blood, some spots exposing white sheets of fat cells, and other areas exposing muscle. He was a twisted, craze-filled nightmare.

  He didn’t utter a word.

  Just pulled back his arm and slammed his fist down on her face. This time, she felt her bones crack. Or maybe it was her entire face. Her eyes watered, her nose stung, and she could taste her own blood.

  Her eyes closed, so she didn’t see the next hit. She also didn’t recognize her voice as it broke, screaming out in terrifying pain.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Sacrifices

  The second Pax entered the ship and saw the Cerebral’s face he knew something was wrong. Sci was holding himself straight, but his gait was off, his breathing looked labored, and his eyes didn’t focus on anything very long.

  He was obviously drained. But he didn’t say anything.

  Unfortunately, Pax needed Sci’s help too much to address it and offer to let the male rest. He was willing to push the Cerebral’s mental capacities to the max until the male fell unconscious. In the past, Pax had watched Sci do just that during training exercises.

  “To the bridge. The captain is already on a quantum video call so he can be kept up-to-date on our progress as well as the cleanup of the Absaloka mine.”

  A subtle nod letting Sci know he heard him. Pax lead the way to the bridge.

  Amevi was in the pilot seat when they arrived. A Grach.

  “Take off. We don’t have time.” At Sci’s sway when the ship took off…Pax realized they really didn’t have time.

  “You don’t have your blocker on, Pax, I can hear your concerns,” Sci said without much emotion or energy. “I’ll be fine.”

  “You don’t look it.”

  Sci’s glossy eyes turned. “I choreographed an incursion, keeping every single member of your team alive while giving all eleven of you individual viewpoints for access.”

  Pax couldn’t exactly empathize because he would never be able to understand the depth of the mental strain, but he understood multiple lines of attack. However, he was a Red Demon and liked to joke, so he responded, “You act as if you did all the heavy lifting. I’m the one who had to fight the Krant.”

  Sci turned back to the screen. “I had to experience his pain of being stabbed in the eye. Not to mention taking sides.”

  Pax was confused. Taking sides?

  “You viewed him as the enemy, and he thought the same of you because he believed in his job. He was being paid to deliver mine workers to their next mining planet. To him, they weren’t kidnapping victims. They were products. They were bought to be miners, and he saw nothing wrong with his job.”

  Anyone with eyes could see that they weren’t machines. They were people. Dirty and unkempt and in great need of nutrition. Pax didn’t care if the Krant believed that he was in the right. Didn’t care that Sci had had to endure the pain. He would be long dead before he allowed the Cerebral to flip the script and make the slave traffickers the good guys.

  Sci’s grip on the chair in front of him increased as the ship started to slow. “If I disagreed with our side, I wouldn’t have helped as I did.” Blue eyes turned Pax’s way, a little duller than before. “But you need to get down the ramp. I can’t sense Vivra at all. As in, her mind is gone. But Yon is fighting an entire group of Terr
ans on his own right now. He’s cornered and needs your help.”

  Pax wanted to go, but he stuttered on the cold words that were now grinding in his mind. Her mind is gone.

  To the captain, Pax heard Sci say, “There are too many minds for me to count, and I can’t say for sure, but the slaves here appear in the thousands.”

  “Pax,” was all Rannn said. With that one word, Pax’s training, his callused soul, came back online as if it had never gone. He had to let Vivra go and move on. He had a crewmate to save…and, apparently, thousands of slaves, as well.

  Sci waved his fingers in front of him as if he were swatting a fly in the air. But the gesture was not lost on Pax. Sci was mentally attacking the Terran hostiles. Then, slowly, Pax watched as Sci’s head dropped forward, his shoulders hunching before he crumpled to the floor.

  Pax dropped to his knees to grab his comrade before he hit his head. He laid him gently on the floor and then looked at Rannn. “Ansel should take a look at him when we get back.”

  Rannn said, “He’s already on standby for your return.” He wiped his mouth and added, “I’ll let Sasha know.”

  Good enough for him. Pax took off, knowing that a group of eight Grach and Shady followed.

  The ship had landed right by the massive hangar. They ran in, phasers in the air, and then they all stopped. Pax wasn’t sure what he was looking at.

  “Are those people…glowing?” Shady asked.

  “Are they in cages because they are dangerous?”

  One cage, Pax realized, was open, yet the occupants were still inside. Their skin was glowing, but their clothes were ratty and covered in what looked like black, sparkly soot.

  “Find Yon. Spread out,” Pax commanded and ignored the glowing men and women as he passed their cages. A phaser in hand, he took in all the things he saw, the bodies on the ground, and when he crossed by an open cage, he noticed several of the occupants on the ground, bleeding or dead.

  “Medic. Over here. Someone help the ones in this cage.” Pax continued searching for his half-Demon crewmate. His eyes never stayed in one place long. He scanned from right to left, up and down, and then behind him when he stopped to secure an area.