Chapter 11
Rambo
Hannah
I am losing my ever-loving mind. I’m stood in the middle of the orange scaly tale of Ambassador Rerasha, who has trapped me but is more interested in grovelling to Alaric than dealing with me.
“Izule is a prince and he is, well, dangerous if crossed, as all royals are, so I was keeping her safe by bringing her back, love.” My jaw drops as I realise they are more than just work friends.
I’m not shocked because they are both men, or different species, but because they are having a lovers tiff right now, when my sister is trapped behind a ‘dangerous royal’?
!? We were told the Ucfeni were friendly.
What’s this about dangerous royals? Of course they’re dangerous.
They’re ten foot long fucking snake monsters.
How could I be so stupid to swallow the company lie like that?
I want to scream and throw my white shoes at the oversized orange worm, but instead I jump over his tail and try to leg it back to my sister.
I scream with frustration when he flicks his tail out to coil around my waist. He lifts me effortlessly off the ground.
My arms and legs flail as I try to get free.
“ALARIC YOU FIX THIS SHIT SHOW RIGHT NOW!”
“Hannah, please remain calm so I may do just that, thank you.” Alaric strains to try and keep me calm, but I can see how pale he is and how the vein on his forehead is throbbing.
“Rerasha, you don’t understand, Billie is vital to our efforts to establish global communications and the programming of our new satellites.
” He thrust his hand back and forth between the pair of them.
“If she refuses to help us because she’s been traumatised, we’re screwed. ”
“Why would she be-”
“I’ve already told you that Billie Blac has a mental condition called Aspergers.
She thinks and perceives the world differently, which means she struggles to interact with it.
She’s also brilliant. The things she can get computers to do is borderline magical.
Seriously. I headhunted her myself because no one is as good as she is at coding. ”
“I understand what you’re saying, and I agreed to have her housed in one of your facilities, but she was supposed to be escorted directly to me to arrange that. Instead she came straight into the pairing room.”
“We were basically threatened to hurry our asses up to get in here!” I seeth and try to pry myself free of his tail. “That stressed Billie out before we even set foot in here.”
“Then it wasn’t my people that upset her, it was yours.” Rerasha hissed, and Alaric and I both couldn’t believe he was trying to point score. Someone wasn’t getting laid later, I’d bet money on that.
“Oh, so Mr ‘Ambasaddor Rerasha says you and I have a lot in common, come here’ had nothing to do with you then?” I banged my fists on his orange scales and glared at him with as much venom as I could.
“It was your ‘friend’ who yanked Charlie off his feet and sent Billie reeling into me! She panicked and ran her ass over to the only part of the hall she thought was clear!”
“You did what?” Alaric seethed up at the orange Naga, who didn’t seem as confident in his coiled position anymore.
“I was trying to make a better match for that male human who said he was attracted to male Ucfeni, that’s all. I-I had no idea it would lead to-”
“You’re right you had no idea! My people are my jurisdiction, not yours.”
I looked up at the ceiling and swore over and over.
I tried clawing at his scales, banging my fists on them, and even tried to pull my mouth over to see if I could bite him, but he caught on and his tail tip moved around my throat to force me upright.
“Let her go or I will file an official complaint with-”
“You’ll file a complaint?! She was about to bite me like a wild animal! Do you expect me to simply let her harm me?!”
I have never felt so vulnerable in my life. There is a muscular orange tail coiled around my waist and neck so tightly, I can barely breathe. One flick of it and I’m sure he can kill me.
I’m not angry anymore. I’m scared. I’m terrified I’ll be easily killed like this. I’m scared for Billie. I strain to look out the corner of my eyes to the right but all I can see is the massive King Corba looking monster glaring at me from across the hall. Watching, but unmoving.
I start to cry. Is this how I’m going to die?
On an alien planet, having failed to do the one thing I promised my parents I would always do.
Take care of Billie. I chew my lips and taste my tears there.
I swallow and the movement of my constricted throat against the tail makes my necklace cut into me.
The necklace! I paw at my chest and manage to take hold of my communication gem. I press it in until it pings and shudder when I hear a voice answer my call.
“You have been connected to operator-”
“The monster is going to kill me! Please h-h-help me! My sister, s-save my sister, please!” I’m sobbing and screaming, shaking and unable to see through my tears.”
“Remain at your location mam, an emergency response team has been deployed to your location. Find somewhere to hide if you can until they arrive.” I sob, knowing I can’t do that.
“…monster?” Rerasha whispers, wounded, but I don’t give a damn.
He’s scaring the crap out of me and I’m surprised I haven’t wet myself.
I’ve stopped fighting and I can’t stop shaking.
“I’m not…I’m not a monster. I was just trying to stop you from hurting me.
Y-you were tyring to bite me. You’ve already clawed at me.
How dare you call me a monster!” His hurt turned to anger and he swung my body in the air to face him.
Oh, that was the wrong move.
Face to face with the thing with his tail around my throat was not the right thing to do if he wanted me to sympathise or apologise.
Instead, I screamed and lashed out with my hands towards his face.
He ducked his head back to avoid my nails in his eyes, but my right foot swung forward and connected with something less tough than I was expecting.
He wheezed and we both landed in a heap on the floor.
My head bounced off the yellow rock and white-hot mind-shattering pain rattled through my head.
My vision blurred out of existence for a moment and I gasped to breathe now my throat wasn’t restricted.
Rerasha cradled whatever he had behind his skirt and curled up into a protective ball.
Later I would be impressed that I managed to kick him in his snake-man parts.
Right now I only had on thing on my mind.
Billie.
I ignored how Alaric showed his true colours and rushed to try and pry his way into the orange ball of pain on the floor.
I dragged myself up onto my feet and held my bruised ribs.
In response to my kick, the bugger had squeezed me and my head hurt like hell.
I tasted blood in my mouth and I could feel it trickling slowly down my cheek and to my jaw.
I approached the King Cobra once more and spat out some of my own blood as I panted up at him.
“Give…me…my…sister…” I blink and sway on my feet. Crap it’s getting hard to stay upright or see straight. Just how far did I fall?
“I don’t like your smell…but I respect your display of spirit.” He dared to chuckle at me. I gripped my fists by my sides and narrowed at him from beneath my fringe.
“Listen you mother f-” Movement caught my fuzzy vision. Billie peered out from a three-tier high coil of his massive brown tail. “Billie.” I tried to step towards her but the King Cobra hissed angrily at me. “Billie I’m right here.”
“You need medical attention.” She stood up and held her biceps timidly. “Prince Izule says I have to have a sponsor. It’s in my contract. He’s going to take care of me. You need medical attention.”
“Billie?! You can’t be serious?!”
“I am.” She didn’t look at my face. Probably because of the blood.
She’s always hated blood. “All the others were loud. He isn’t.
He’s promised not to touch me if he can help it.
And his scales don’t hurt my eyes. He’s easy to look at.
He says where he lives we’d be alone so I wouldn’t have to worry about other people. I can work quietly.”
“And once she and you have passed your sponsorship periods, you can see each other as often as you like.” I didn’t look away from Billie. She was pale and I could see her picking at her sleeve, but she was calm.
“You have no idea how to take care of her.” I challenged ‘Prince Izule’ and licked more blood off my lips. “Look how easily one of your politicians hurt me? He is nowhere near as big as you, and Billie has specific needs.”
“I will learn.” The nerve of this guy?! I wanted to take hold of his hood and wring the scales out whilst screaming.
“Learn? You’re learn? Billie isn’t a book or a new toy you can read an instruction manual for. You can’t just learn how to take care of her.”
“Of course I can. You did, didn’t you?” Yes, but it took me years! Lots of patience and my love for her taught me how to care for her, and even then I’m not right all the time.
“No, you can’t do this.” I stomp my foot and ignore how dizzy it makes me. “I am her older sister, her next of kin, and I do not give my consent for her to be transferred into your custody.”
“Yes you do.” Alaric walked up to my side and put his hand on my back, but I shoved him back two steps angrily.
“Hannah, you and Billie both signed a contract to follow the rules agreed to in the event an alliance was made with an indigenous race. As long as Billie agrees, you can’t stop her from becoming sponsored by Prince Izule. ”
“No.” I seeth and sway, but I catch myself. I take a moment to push through the fog of pain and huff at him. “Billie is a special case. You can’t give her to this m-”