Alien in the Depths (Thryal Mates #2)

Chapter 15

Sofia

The moment she heard the door open, Sofia scrambled to conceal the wrist comm in the pile of dirty clothes she’d been sitting on. Her heart raced as she shoved the device deep into the pile, turning her back to the laundry door to obscure her efforts.

One leg was bent beneath her, the other curled up almost to her chest, and she hoped the amount of thigh this revealed beneath her tight black dress would distract her captor. If she could get him staring at her legs, even just for a second or two, she might be able to draw his attention away from what her hands were doing.

“Hey!” barked Vexis from the doorway, striding into the small laundry room he’d commandeered for her captivity.

From where she crouched among his sweaty shirts and dirty underwear, Sofia turned her face toward him and brushed a strand of auburn hair away. She hoped she would appear unfazed by the Rikuan’s tone.

The truth was, though, he scared her.

Still, she wasn’t about to be bullied into submission, and despite her trepidation, she looked him square in the eye.

“Yes?” She raised an eyebrow and turned half her body to face him, just to drive the point home.

Vexis, who had, in fact, been staring at her thighs, suddenly met her eye. He scowled and closed the gap between them before grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her roughly to her feet. The gesture took her off guard, and though she’d already discarded her heels, she stumbled for a second.

But what worried her more was Vexis’s sudden violence. For a second, she feared she hadn’t been fast enough in hiding the comm after all. Her heart thundered in her chest, and a single thought invaded her mind.

If he finds it, I’m done for.

For a long moment, Vexis simply glowered at her, his tall frame dwarfing her meager five-foot-six, his black eyes boring into her. The patterns on his skull were glowing again, shimmering a phosphorescent blue that rippled across his skin.

But all of a sudden he laughed, and the shimmering subsided a little. It was a cruel, grating laugh that reminded Sofia of scraping metal.

“You know, part of me hopes Zaraq doesn’t come back with the weapon after all. I think I’d enjoy hurting you.” He looked her up and down, the way he had just yesterday when she’d danced for him and the way he had in the club before everything went south.

Only this time an edge of violence crept into his gaze alongside the usual misogyny.

The words made Sofia shudder, and since she no longer had to feign flirtation, she tried to step back out of Vexis’s grasp. He only gripped her wrist tighter.

“Ahh!” she cried involuntarily, but the sadistic look in his eye was obvious. When she saw how her outburst pleased him, it stopped her protestations short. Instead, she forced herself to stop wincing and softened her gaze.

“Zaraq didn’t do anything,” Sofia insisted, trying her best to maintain composure despite the pain shooting through her wrist. “And neither did I. This is all a huge misunderstanding! You have to believe me!”

She knew her lies were probably in vain, but she had to try anyway. If she could find some way of getting through to Vexis, even just for a moment, that could be the difference between life and death, between false imprisonment and freedom.

The look on the Rikuan’s face told her he wasn’t buying it, though. His mauve cheeks and nose wrinkled as his purple lips curled up into a snarl. The black eyes that had been so cruel just moments earlier now carried a hint of something else—amusement almost.

“Oh, really?” he spat, though not without humor. “So what, you just show up at my doorstep and lure me out of the house on the same night Zaraq breaks in and robs me? The same Zaraq you have stored in your comm? And I’m supposed to believe that’s a coincidence?”

The mention of the comm set Sofia on edge. Had he noticed it missing from the pod? He hadn’t seemed to realize she’d shoved it down her bra when he was dragging her into the house, but maybe he’d gone back to find it in the interim.

The question made her heart beat faster but she did her best not to show it. Instead, she attempted to steer the conversation in another direction.

“And what do you think he stole?”

Her free hand tugged nervously at the hem of her dress, while the hand Vexis gripped was beginning to turn numb.

When she glanced down, she saw her skin was turning white.

Vexis appeared to notice too and, to her relief, he finally released his grip. The feeling was short-lived, though. As Sofia cradled her hand, Vexis pulled open the black coat he was wearing and grasped at something tucked into his leather belt. Her heart raced to see it was a blaster, and as he pulled it out and held it up to her, Sofia’s blood turned cold.

“I think you know what he stole,” Vexis replied, fingering the shiny black metal of his weapon as if caressing a beloved pet, or perhaps a lover. His eyes glowed as he inspected the blaster, almost with adoration, but then flickered back up to meet her gaze.

“You ever seen a sigma blaster?”

His voice was a low rumble, and Sofia’s breath hitched in her throat as Vexis brought the gun up under her chin. He was close to her now, his face filling her vision until she could see every pore in his mauve skin. This close up, she noticed that his black eyes held a tinge of yellow, and his breath was sour and hot on her skin.

“Uh-uh,” Sofia breathed, not even daring to shake her head. She was frozen still by the cold metal pressed against her skin—something she’d never wanted or expected to feel.

He pushed it harder against her, tilting Sofia’s head back to expose her throat. It was the most vulnerable she had ever felt, and as a woman who was used to taking control over risky situations, this was not only terrifying but deeply uncomfortable. She hated that with the advantage of a gun, Vexis had effectively reduced her to a frightened child.

“See, a sigma blaster is a very special weapon,” Vexis crooned, finally releasing the pressure and instead sliding the blaster gently along her jawline and up toward her earlobe. “They’re hard to come across and expensive. So it’s a real shame Zaraq decided he’d take mine for himself.”

Sofia’s breathing grew shallow as Vexis moved the barrel of the blaster down. He traced the line of her throat, the barrel catching momentarily at her clavicle. At her sides, her hands gripped tightly at the soft black fabric of her hem, as if to anchor her.

“That’s the thing, though. A sigma blaster is a weapon with only one purpose—to kill, efficiently and silently. They’re for professionals,” Vexis continued, keeping the blaster aimed at Sofia’s throat but bringing his dark eyes up to meet hers.

“I’m a professional. And if Zaraq knew that, he would have laid down and taken the rap for his friend’s murder. I guarantee you the cops will go easier on him than I will. But he just couldn’t do that. Could he?”

At this, Vexis dragged the blaster barrel further down Sofia’s chest until the cold metal came to rest in her cleavage.

“Instead, he sent you to distract me so he could get his hands on the murder weapon.”

Sofia tried to breathe again, attempting to ignore the threat that was all too real now. She’d made her choice to fight for Zaraq, and despite the gun, despite Vexis, despite her fear, that wasn’t about to change.

“So you did kill his friend?” she asked, forcing her voice to remain steady. If she was going to die for the truth, she at least wanted to hear it.

Vexis chuckled, and Sofia felt the gun shudder a little against her chest along with his laugh.

“I did what I had to do to get where I am,” he told her, his eyes glinting with malice. “And that means taking out anyone Slik doesn’t like. Turns out traitors are bad for business.”

“So, what, you just shot him? Just like that?” Sofia pressed, feeling emboldened now by the Rikuan’s confession.

She gazed pointedly at him, her green eyes alive with defiance. For a moment, Vexis paused, and then finally he dragged the barrel away, leaving a mark on Sofia’s breasts. She almost shuddered with relief but didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

“If I’d been using a delta blaster, yes, I would have shot him,” he told her, glancing thoughtfully at the delta blaster in his hand. “But like I told you, a sigma blaster is special. It doesn’t shoot through matter. It disintegrates it. This means when I pressed my blaster against Ryka’s chest like I did to you just now, I didn’t shoot him in the heart. It would be more accurate to say his heart ceased to exist.”

The cruel smile that spread over Vexis’s face sent a cold shiver up Sofia’s spine.

“That’s horrible,” she uttered before she could stop herself. Her comment only seemed to fuel Vexis’s enthusiasm, though.

“No, you know what’s really horrible?” he asked with a grin. He tucked the blaster back into his pants as he puffed his chest out at her. “Being the one blamed for your best friend’s death. Slik is an artist like that.”

Sofia looked at Vexis’s cruel black eyes in horror as the truth started to dawn on her. Death would have been too kind an end, according to Slikrim. No, he had to make Zaraq suffer.

“He likes to teach lessons,” Vexis continued, finally stepping back a little. For the first time since her captor had entered the laundry room, Sofia felt like she had room to breathe.

“Killing Zaraq outright would have been effective, yes, but it was too quick, too easy,” Vexis went on, pacing a little in the small space. “Framing him, on the other hand… Well, that sends a real message. Doesn’t it? It says loud and clear that anyone who fucks with Slik will pay for it in the worst possible way.”

With this last thought, he grinned again, but just as quickly as he’d given her space, he closed it. Sofia, standing with her back practically against the wall, felt her whole body tense as he leaned down and whispered in her ear.

“And anyone who fucks with me is liable to do the same unless they cooperate.”

As Vexis pulled away, Sofia shuddered at the thought of what he might do to her. But everything he’d confessed over the last few minutes only served to strengthen her resolve. He was a killer—not only was he cold-blooded about it, but he actually seemed to enjoy it. She knew he needed to be brought to justice, no matter the cost. Even if it was her life.

“I’m cooperating. Aren’t I?” she asked defiantly as she came face-to-face with him again.

Vexis only smirked. “You’re not the one I’m worried about.”

With a parting glance, the Rikuan turned and strode out the door. As he closed it behind him, Sofia heard the telltale click of the lock sliding into place. Ordinarily, this would have frustrated her, but at that moment it was almost a comfort.

Exhausted by the interaction, she slid to the floor, feeling the soft pile of laundry cushion her body. Her heart was still racing as she forced herself to steady her breathing until she finally felt her heart slow. She was shaken, but she was still alive, and as long as she was alive, she could keep fighting this.

“Zaraq,” she whispered to herself, her heart suddenly aching at the thought of what might happen to him if he showed up there.

Sofia sat still for a second, straining her ears in the silence of the room. Outside she heard faint voices, but they sounded far away.

When she was sure no one was lingering at the door or trying to barge back in, Sofia rummaged through the pile for the wrist comm again. She dug through swathes of black shirts, gray pants, and more pairs of Vexis’s underwear than she cared to see. Finally, though, the shiny silver casing of the device appeared between the folds of a jacket.

The battery was concerningly low, but it had just enough juice to send Zaraq another message. She pressed the record button, hoping the tiny beep it emitted wasn’t audible through the laundry door.

“Zaraq,” she whispered urgently, a fresh wave of defiance coursing through her. “You have to clear your name. You have the proof to show you didn’t kill Ryka. Please, please just take that and get out of Rikuus. We worked too hard for Vexis to take it back.”

She sent the message but there was something else… those three words she wished she’d told him back in the hotel room before all this happened.

In her hand, she gripped the comm, debating whether to say it.

“I love you,” she whispered, but only to herself. The words, though she meant them, felt tacky in the context of a voice message.

She longed to tell Zaraq face-to-face. Leaning against the laundry wall, the pile of clothes beneath her, Sofia closed her eyes and remembered. She remembered her first glimpse of Zaraq before she fell for him. It wasn’t that long ago, yet it felt like a lifetime had passed since then.

The handsome alien that had surprised her in the catacombs had become so much a part of her life that she could hardly imagine it without him now.

The cold hard surface of the wall behind her dissolved, replaced by memories of her bed in the annex back on Thryal. The plush sheets that caressed her skin on that first night together, the warmth of Zaraq’s skin on hers, the way he touched her, the way he made love to her.

The memory of Zaraq’s kiss felt almost real, and when she opened her eyes, she realized she’d lifted her hand to her mouth. Her fingers absentmindedly traced the curve of her lips, as if she might grasp what was left of his kiss.

Sofia dropped her hand and let out a deep sigh. She glanced again at the comm still clutched in her other hand. It was obvious she needed to tell him how she felt, but after all they’d been through together, a comm message just wasn’t going to cut it.

I’m gonna get out of here , she decided, pulling herself to her feet. I’m gonna get out of here. I’m gonna help Zaraq. And then, I’m gonna tell him I love him.