118. Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-One
A nya
I’m not sure what’s weirder: being abducted to outer space, or being in love with two people—one of whom doesn’t have a body.
Poking around inside myself, I test out how I’m feeling. Is this okay? Am I crazy? Immoral? I wonder what my parents would say if they knew.
Actually, I think they’d approve. They always supported my every endeavor. I think my folks would be happy I figured out a way to make lemonade out of lemons. I’ve been dealt some sour lemons. But after what just happened here in this bed, I’d say my lemonade is pretty sweet.
“Beloved,” Zar says.
I’m getting to know some of my males’ subtle differences. No one else might be able to pick up on them, but I’d know that low, rumbling timbre of his voice anywhere.
“How’s my mate? Seriously. I want to know. We have to make certain this works every step of the way. Holding back will be the sure path to misery,” I say.
“My wise female.” He slides his thumb across my chin. “I won’t lie. I never wanted to share you. But Rynn’s a good male and we’re making the best of this. Besides…” He gives me a teasing grin, “You suck cock so well, how could I ever let you slip away?”
He gives me the sweetest smile with just a glimpse of fang. It speaks volumes and is full of love and admiration and says just how much I mean to him.
Rynn was so tired and blissed out, I don’t think he could leave the bed if he wanted, but Zar seems ready to run a marathon. He bounds out of bed and then leans down to pull me with him. After lifting me up so I straddle his waist, he twirls with me around the room. It’s half dancing, half a victory celebration.
“I’ve been in hell most of my life,” he breathes into my ear. “You, Anya. You’re my heaven. My reward for all the bad days.”
All of a sudden, he gets solemn and stops circling. After piercing me with a steady gaze, he says, “I’d die for you, Beloved. I hope you know how special you are to me.”
There’s something about this moment that touches deep into my soul. It’s so solemn, so serious, it’s hard to hold onto. I tell him, “I know exactly how you feel. I’d do the same for you.”
This calms him. It speaks to him somehow. I see his shoulders relax and a small smile play on his lips.
“Now let’s make love, mate,” I urge.
His hands splay across my back, my legs still circle his waist. He hitches me closer, then kisses a path from the indent in my throat to my chin.
“You going to make me roar tonight?” he rasps as he nips my cheeks with his fangs. I love when he does it. Knowing he’d never harm me with his razor-sharp teeth never fails to turn me on.
Feeling his cock bob against my bottom as he strides across the room, declares how ready he is for me.
“You going to take me soft or hard tonight?” I prod.
“Nothing, nothing about me is soft tonight,” he chuckles. “But I’m thinking maybe a little of both.”
We’re both startled when we hear shouting in the hallway. There’s one thing about being mated to a gladiator, I’m seldom fearful for my safety. But when I hear Dax and Shadow yelling, I cringe, every muscle in my body tensing.
“Hide!” Zar hisses as he sets me down. “Bathroom. No matter what happens, don’t come out unless I tell you.”
He looks like a different person. The calm, happy look on his face has been replaced by sheer lethality—jaw clenched, eyes narrowed, ready to spring.
Zar
There are good warriors in the hallway guarding us. I couldn’t catch what they were saying, but there’s a skirmish out there. My parents’ guards took all our weapons, but after our calm and welcoming dinner, I thought any cause for worry was long over.
It’s suddenly preternaturally quiet out there, which does the opposite of calming my nerves.
Fireplace poker to your right, Rynn says. Metal clothes rods in both closets. I think we’re strong enough to rip the wooden canopy bedpost from the bed. It could be lethal. Tell me what to do, brother.
Just what you’re doing. Help me stay one step ahead of whatever’s happening, I say as I rip one clothes bar out of its holder, then grab the poker.
I have one makeshift weapon in each hand when the bedroom door bangs open and slams against the wall. Six warriors in hard-shelled body armor force themselves into the room. Their laser rifles are all aimed at me.
“On the floor! Now! On the floor!” one of them shouts.
A couple of pieces of metal, even wielded by a seasoned gladiator, are no match against six armored males armed with lasers.
“Now! I won’t tell you again.”
As soon as I hit the floor, I’m told, “Hands on your head, asshole.”
I follow their orders. My sole focus is on keeping Anya safe.
Luckily, the bed isn’t obstructing my view of the door. I can see the intruders. These aren’t my parents’ people, which strikes fear even deeper into my heart. Is God really so cruel as to tear my family away from me only hoaras after I first met them?
A male dressed in royal regalia strides in as if he owns this place. He wears a wide ribbon, upon which dangles what appears to be a diamond the size of a baby’s fist. I saw pictures of him when I investigated Ton’arr on the Intergalactic Database shortly after we overthrew our captors. This is the King who I now realize is my uncle, the male who arranged for my kidnapping as an infant. This is the bastard who overthrew my father.
They look alike. The same coloring, similar eyes, but they’re nothing alike in disposition. Where my father wore an open, pleasant expression, this male looks nothing like him in temperament. Slitted eyes, a snarl on his face. He looks ready to kill.
“You just couldn’t stay dead, could you, Zaypien?” He steps close, but not close enough for me to reach out and grab his ankle. “I should have killed you as a babe. I thought I needed you to use as leverage.” He shrugs. “I was young then, too na?ve to know it would have been just as easy to kill you and simply say you were alive on some mythical planet. Oh well. What’s done is done.” He sneers at me derisively.
I’m scouring all the databases in my head, Zar. I can find nothing that can help us. Can we fight? Rynn asks.
No. We’re outnumbered. Keep watching. Look for any weaknesses from Kato or his males.
“Stand up. Let’s see what thirty annums as a gladiator sculpted you into, nephew .” Reaching back his hand, wordlessly asking for a weapon from one of his guards, he then takes a few steps back and points it at me.
He’s arrogant and egotistical, but he’s no fool. He’s not close enough for me to wrest his weapon from him.
“Slowly,” he instructs, as he makes a show of pointing his weapon at me.
Biding my time, I tell Rynn. This isn’t over yet.
“So this is the product of a thousand annums of royal DNA plus thirty annums of physical training. Pathetic,” he sneers. “Oh, your intercepted comms tell me you’re mated. Where is the little human ?” He snorts derisively, then says, “Species mixing? You’re more of a disgrace to the royal family than I would have thought possible.”
I’m so angry, I’m thinking of a biting retort when Rynn says, “She didn’t come with us.”
Kato moves quickly and uses the butt of his gun to jab me in the face, breaking my cheekbone. Blinding pain spikes like a hot poker up my face and into my eye.
I could have wrested the gun from him, but the six guards in the room had all stepped forward, focusing their sights’ red lights on my chest.
I glance at Rynn in our internal control room. He’s never received a punch before and is shaking his head, trying to regain his senses. The pain doesn’t faze me. I’ve already pushed it out of my awareness.
It only takes a moment for two of Kato’s males to scour the suite, find Anya, and yank her into the bedroom. She’s behind me, but I know the exact moment Kato sees her by the look of sheer disgust on his evil face.
“You were that desperate? Mating that… human thing ? Pathetic.” He pauses for effect, then, “You’ve caused me a great deal of trouble. If you hadn’t shown up, it would have been business as usual, but my sources tell me you have the potential power to bring not one but two ships of trained gladiators into the mix. That was enough to garner my attention.
“I let your parents live all these annums , knowing they were weak, that they’d never challenge my position. But you? You could be a different story. I need to make sure all of you suffer an untimely death. I have a rule: never leave the important work to others. Thus, I’m here to take care of this personally.”
“Haven’t you caused enough suffering?” Anya says from behind me.
His face loses all trace of control. It’s a mask of anger and disdain. He seethes, “Bring. Her. To. Me.”
The two males who found her drag her to him. He grips her cheeks between his fingers and squeezes until she yelps in pain.
“You’ve angered me. You, Zaypien, your parents, and this little animal from the dirty end of the galaxy.”
He twists her head this way and that, amused at how his tight grip distorts her features.
“Your parents are being held by my guards, as is everyone else in this pathetic excuse for a palace. That includes your gladiator friends. Funny how lasers trump unarmed gladiator flesh every time,” he sneers. “We have all the time in the world to teach you a lesson before I kill you all.”
He spares no time tearing off the towel Anya had wrapped herself in while hiding. Her shocked gasp rips through the room. We all realize at the same time what my uncle has planned.
Zar, we can’t allow this to happen, Rynn says through gritted teeth.
I’m dying inside, too. We’re outgunned, I say as my mind races to find a way out of this.
Two choices, he’s talking rapid-fire as we watch Kato squeeze one of her perfect breasts. We could lunge at them, hoping a stray laser will kill her before she’s brutalized, since that’s what he has planned anyway.
His words hit me like a fist. He wants me to hasten her death so she can escape his touch?
I have a better idea, though, Rynn says. Get me close enough and I’ll slip into his body.
That’s against your rules. You said you don’t invade, I say as I consider his suggestion.
You think some arbitrary set of rules is more important than Anya? It will mean certain death for you , though.
You think I’m not ready to sacrifice my life for her? She’s the most precious thing in the universe.
Get us close, Zar. As close as possible. Usually our lips need to touch, but I think I can fly out of here in my Arclite form. I’ve never had to do such a thing before. If I succeed, I’ll make his males stand down. It will save Anya and your parents.
That animal is pawing at Anya. It’s disgusting. There’s nothing sexual about it. It’s anger, aggression, and possession. She’s biting her lower lips, refusing to allow a single sound of pain or fear to escape her to give this sick male any satisfaction. I can’t watch for another second.
Yes, is all I say as I prepare to lunge.
Zar. Rynn claims my attention. I love you like a brother. I—
Now is the time. The opening is perfect. I don’t have time to hear the end of his thought, nor to admit I love him, too.
Rynn
Zar leaps the distance between us and his uncle, clutches the male’s shoulders while still in midair, and presses their lips together. Kato was surprised and slow to act. Before he loses consciousness from my invasion, he only gets off a quick burst from his laser. I’m not sure where it struck, but by the smell of burning hair, he must have scored a direct hit to Zar.
I’ve readied myself to vacate, so I disconnect and become incorporeal faster than I have ever done before, and enter Kato.
Not taking the time to get my bearings or examine my new body, I head straight to the brainstem and begin the process of wrapping my filaments around his cells. I’m vaguely aware of the sound of two bodies hitting the floor—Zar’s and Kato’s—and then Anya’s tortured scream.
She might not know what happened, but she’s already registered that Zar’s body is lifelessly lying on the floor. If Zar isn’t dead already, he will be within an hoara or two. I’ve never made a meld in this fashion before, but no body that has been a host can last when a symbiote leaves. I hope some day she figures out what happened and knows Zar died to save her. I wish I could tell her, but I doubt I’ll ever get the chance.
I’m working quickly, taking over my host and relegating him to the place where the other 56 lie in their final resting places..
There are many things I need to do at once and time is of the essence. I must establish myself, ensure Kato is fully subdued, and get the body working as soon as possible so I can protect Anya, Zar’s parents, the gladiators, and the palace guards.
I’m already fatigued. This work is demanding and I’m doing it at breakneck speed. When Anya cries out, I take a moment to force open my eyes to see several of the henchmen wrenching her to her feet. Two are standing over me, calling Kato’s name.
Kato’s conscious mind gives up. I’m now in full control. I take a moment to breathe a sigh of relief, then hurry to act in character and make certain Anya and Zar’s parents are safe.
I moan, then spit, “Give me room, you fools. I knew there was something wrong with my last meal.” Rubbing my abdomen, I wince in pain. That should buy me some time as I continue to fully meld with my new host.
Although normally the procedure is slow and solemn, accompanied by soft music and the prayers of the priestesses, I realize I can perform it in record time when my beloved is in harm’s way.
My filaments are invading Kato’s brain on their own, just like the parasite Dr. Drayke accused me of being lunars ago. After opening my eyes, I heave myself to a sitting position.
“I’ve lost my taste for that little piece of filth from across the galaxy,” I say as I lurch to my feet. “In fact, I think our work here is done. I don’t want my epitaph to read that I killed every member of the royal family. Why do that? They’re weak and pitiful.”
“Now that their spawn has been neutralized,” I press my toe to his motionless body, overcome with sadness when I confirm he’s dead, “they can resume their little business while I return to ruling the planet.”
Even as the words are spilling from my mouth, I’m surprised at how quickly I took over Kato’s condescending, abusive personality.
“Leave the prince’s body where it lies. Let his parents deal with his remains,” I say, my lip curled in arrogance. Without this order, I imagine my males would enjoy abusing Zar’s body. The least I owe the honorable male is a decent burial.
I’m mourning him. I hadn’t realized how much affection I have for him until he sacrificed himself for the female he loves… loved. My chest is tight and my eyes are watering as I mentally say my farewells.
I should console myself that I just saved many lives, but after a lifetime of self-sacrifice, I long to be selfish. Leaving this room, knowing I’ll never see Anya again, feels like someone has ripped my guts out of my body and let them spool onto the floor. I know without a doubt I will grieve their loss for the rest of my life.
I have to touch her, to connect with her one more time.
Striding to her, I grip her left wrist in the same way I have hundreds of times since we came up with this physical clue. Staring into her terrified tear-filled eyes, my mind casts about for something I can say to give her comfort while causing no suspicion from my guards.
“I’m sorry I killed your beloved,” I sneer derisively, squeezing her wrist so hard I wonder if I’m hurting her. I used his special endearment. Perhaps in the days to come, she’ll replay it and discover the hidden meaning.
She spits in my face as she says, “Rot in hell, you bastard.”
I wish she hadn’t done that, but in order to keep my secret, I have to respond. Cupping her face in my hand, I move between her and my males. With my broad back obstructing their view, I pretend to squeeze her face just as Kato did earlier, but I hold her gently and try to make the new face that I wear display my love for her. As I do that, I say, “Sorry I made you a widow,” with enough disdain in my voice to convince my guards I’m still the bastard they think I am.