Chapter 4
FOUR
Hara
I stood in an empty structure. The floor was a hard gray material that I didn’t recognize.
The only light source was a round ball above me that hung from a high ceiling.
Smoke hung in the air, obscuring my vision.
Despite the smoke, a chill remained, and I rubbed my arms to warm them.
A shiver of cold and fear rattled my spine. Where was I?
A figure emerged from the smoke, and Zuri’s face greeted me.
I rushed toward her, happy to see someone familiar…
but she looked different. This was Zuri, but she wore different clothes—a brightly colored loose fabric covered her top, and her pants were a thick, ribbed blue.
On her feet were curious shoes with a platform on her heel that made her look taller.
“Zuri?” I whispered.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “This is a warehouse in Jersey.”
“Where?”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. You won’t be here long. Ethan will be here soon. Just stay with him.”
“Who?”
Zuri cocked her head. “Ethan. You know him.”
“I don’t— “
Hands wrapped around me from behind. Lips touched the rim of my ear.
“Hey Goldie,” the voice said, and warmth rushed through my body.
The smoke cleared, and Zuri disappeared as the hard floor transformed under my feet to Torin’s grass.
The waterfall trickled in front of us. I turned around, and I met the brown eyes of my human.
“Hey there,” he grinned and cupped my cheek. “I should leave you.”
“What?” I didn’t understand.
“I’m bad for you.” His grin faded. “But I can’t leave.
” Blood dripped from his hairline. His body shook.
Wind whipped around us, tossing my hair into my eyes.
The smoke returned, thick and choking. I reached for him, and our fingers linked.
A strong gale sent us crashing into each other, and I clung to him as he wrapped me in his arms. Through gritted teeth, he said, “Hold on to me. It’s going to get rough. ”
I jerked upright and my forehead collided with something hard. I let out a gasp of pain as a grunt sounded from above me. The human was crouched above me, rubbing his forehead. “Damn, Goldie.”
My heart raced as a small slash in his eyebrow dripped with blood.
In my dream, he’d been covered in it. I grabbed his chin and turned his head to both sides, but other than the small cut, he was fine.
He gripped my hand and pulled it from his face before giving it a squeeze.
“Hey, you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I didn’t know what a ghost was. But I was shaking from the existence of this human in my visuls. Because I should only be having visuls when I met my—
No, I shook my head. Impossible. I pulled my hand from his and slid out from under him to rise to my feet. As I brushed my hands, he stood, watching me carefully.
No way could he be my mate. Sure, some males had found mates in female humans, but that couldn’t be my fate. There was no way Sherif would let another male species into our settlement. I’d be exiled. And I’d never see my friends again.
I was already in over my head, but as soon as he told me where he needed to go, I knew I had to go with him.
The terrain would be tough and fraught with predators he’d never encountered before as a human from Earth.
The location of the X marked on his map was a river valley familiar to me.
But why did he need to travel to the Druble Valley?
I wasn’t sure how I could ask him. Already the contents of the dream were fading in my memory. I tried to remember the name in my dream. “Eee-than?”
He jerked back, nearly falling over. His small human eyes went wide. “What did you just say?”
I pointed at him. “Eee-than?”
He jerked a thumb at his chest. “Yeah, I’m Ethan. How did you—?” He cocked his head. “Wait, when you are asleep, did you—?”
But whatever he planned to say next was cut off as an arrow slammed into the ground next to Ethan’s foot.
“Fuck!” He hollered, just as another arrow sailed past his head. “Get down!” He shoved me, and I went sprawling into the dirt as he brandished a shining metal weapon and fired into the distance.
The familiar arrow shaft sent a bolt of fear into my heart.
Rogastix had been getting bolder lately, and while they’d never attack our settlement, they would capitalize on singling me out.
I would be captured alive, but I feared they’d kill Ethan on the spot.
I could blank, but then Ethan would think I abandoned him…
“Run!” Ethan hauled me to my feet with one hand while he held his gun in the other.
He pressed the trigger and a series of laser bullets fired into the trees.
I spotted the familiar green scales of the Rogastix as they charged toward us.
One went down under Ethan’s laser fire. Ethan’s eyes were golden flames as he whirled on me.
Dirt smudged his flushed cheeks. Fury bled from his every word. “Go home, Goldie. Now!”
No. He didn’t understand. I couldn’t leave him. I gripped his arm, trying to plead with him. I’d have to blank. I could do that and then defend him—
A pain pierced my neck, and immediately my plan went up in smoke. I yanked the dart from my neck, but the damage was already done. My body weakened. My vision went blurry. They’d shot me with vanik, and that meant I couldn’t blank until it wore off.
I reached for Ethan as he shot wildly at the advancing Rogastix.
I wanted to tell him to stop, that it didn’t matter, that he was only making it worse.
My throat tightened as I fought to breathe.
The vanik wouldn’t kill me, but I’d be a mess for a while.
Ethan turned, and I was sure he saw how I felt—unfocused eyes, unbalanced stance.
His furious eyes widened, and he let his gun drop to his side limply.
“Goldie,” he whispered as the closest Rogastix closed in. “No, babe. What’d they do to you?”
He reached for me just as I reached for him, but our fingers never touched.
“Don’t hurt him!” I screamed, but my words were slurred.
Ethan disappeared under a pile of Rogastix bodies.
I heard his cries as the blows rained down on him, but he didn’t scream of pain, only anger.
A Rogastix grabbed me and hauled me against his body.
My stomach lurched at his stench.
“I forgot how pretty you Kaluma bitches are,” he sneered at me.
And that was all it took. I gagged, and the lunch I’d shared with Ethan came rushing back up. I threw up on the Rogastix boots, and he shoved me away with a roar of disgust as I upended the rest of my meal into the grass.
Ethan was still roaring. Two Rogastix on either side of him had Ethan on his knees with a firm grip on each shoulder, ordering him to be still, but he wasn’t listening. Instead he fought like a caged beast, his bloodied hands reaching for me.
“Goldie!” Bloody spit flew from his mouth.
One eye was already swelling shut. He’d nearly healed under my attention, and now his body was once again littered with cuts and welts.
He tried to shake the Rogastix grip, but they were twice his size.
He had to see that, right? He had to see this was a losing battle. Why didn’t he just give up?
“Don’t touch her, you motherfuckers,” he roared. “Or I’ll blow up this entire fucking planet. Don’t fucking touch her!”
One kicked him in the chest, and he fell back with a wheeze, only to pop right back up, still screaming with a voice nearly hoarse.
I was on my knees having thrown up everything I could. The Rogastix in front of me wiped his boots in the grass. “What is that thing?”
I tried to answer, but my tongue wasn’t working right.
He waved a hand dismissively. “Never mind. Just kill it.”
One of the Rogastix holding Ethan raised a laser gun to his head.
“No,” I managed to say. Still on my knees, I gripped the Rogastix pant leg and did something no self-respecting Kaluma would ever do to a Rogastix. I begged. “Don’t kill him. He’s a hu—” I licked my lips as I took my time to form these important words. “Hu-human. He will be wo-worth a tr-trade.”
The Rogastix—the leader of the group based on his raggedy vest decorated with medallions, considered my words. His gaze flitted between me and Ethan, who was still reaching for me, although weakly. His voice was nearly gone, but he managed to whisper, “Goldie, you okay?”
He was bleeding profusely from multiple places. He was clearly the one who was in worse condition than me.
The Rogastix leader crouched at my side, and I didn’t like the gleam in his eye. Not at all. My stomach clenched around nothing. I’d seen that look many times, when I’d been forced into the pardux’s tent—
I was shaking. Trembling. The Rogastix reached out and gripped my hair, tugging my head back painfully so I was forced to look him in the eye. He was filthy, ugly, and smelled like he’d died three weeks ago.
His grip on me sent Ethan into another fit. His words were nearly intelligible around his swollen mouth. I couldn’t focus on what I had to do if I was worried about him, so I tuned him out, even as the sound of flesh hitting flesh wrought a new cry from his damaged throat.
The Rogastix leader’s tongue curled out of the side of his mouth like a wirm. “What’ll you give me to keep him alive, pretty one? Huh?”
His pants were bulging. I couldn’t stop my full body shivers. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t do this. But I had to do this. I had to keep Ethan alive.
“Whatever you want.” The words were poison in my mouth, worse than the vanik dulling my sense.