Chapter 3 Callie #2
His laugh vibrated through me. “God? I am no god, merely a humble collector of interesting things. And you, my dear, are very interesting. A human woman, abducted from her homeworld and thrust into a war not of her choosing, following along after a lone Rijitera and her unlikely mate. It is the stuff of adventure vids. I mean to add you to my collection. It will be delightful.”
The hell he would!
I struggled anew, trying to twist out of his grasp.
I clawed at his back, ruffling the fur there and ignoring how soft it was under my palms. Anubis continued walking through the crowd of gathering onlookers like it was a Sunday stroll through the park and I was merely a sack of potatoes he’d thrown over his shoulder.
I hissed at the aliens gawking at us, too many strange faces and bodies to get an accurate catalog of all the different species.
Some stumbled back at my warning, but others leaned in to get a better look as we entered a lift.
The doors closed us away from prying eyes and Anubis laughed again when I tried to use the wall as leverage against him.
“You are as feisty as I thought you would be. I am delighted that my servants decided on you instead of the good doctor. She is a beautiful woman, let there be no doubt, but much too sweet for my taste. But a statuesque warrior such as yourself? Beauty and fire? Ah, now that is a combination worth collecting!”
I ceased my struggling as his words penetrated. “The good doctor?”
How the hell did he know that much about us?
He hummed, patting my leg. “Sam is a doctor, yes? The lovely but mentally unwell Patty was an interest for a time, but I rather like my heart where it is, whole and uneaten. And you, Callie, are a pilot in the United States Air Force. Then there is Jack, the savage and proud Rijitera as the de facto leader of your little clan. Am I missing anyone? I don’t count Ohem, Aga, and Rema because they are natives to this part of the universe.
Oh, Anu! The Rijteran former Empress who is now a meddling virtual consciousness. Can’t forget her.”
What in the actual fuck?
The lift stopped and Anubis glided out onto another walkway with more shanty buildings pressing in close on either side.
People chattered from balconies and other walkways above and below us, shaking out rugs, hanging clothes on lines strung between buildings, and going about their daily lives while Anubis carted me around.
Some people glanced our way before going back to their business, but most paid us no mind.
It was the weirdest thing ever. Like this kind of thing happened often enough to be normal.
Maybe it did. Maybe my asshole kidnapper did this on the regular.
I was going to kill him. Right after I found out how the hell he knew so much about us and why.
“Ah, here we are. Home sweet home.”
At the far side of a wide roundabout was a sprawling sandstone palace, like something plucked straight out of Egypt.
It was so wildly out of place, surrounded by the metal and light of the space station with the swirling nebula cloud overhead, that for a moment I was struck dumb, hanging limp, staring at it slack-jawed like an idiot.
A solid black statue of Anubis standing straight with his feet together and his arms behind his back in a thoughtful manner, his face serene, was situated smack dab in the center of the roundabout, surrounded by blood red flowers, their stalks black as pitch.
Aliens milled about, some heavily armed and predatory, their eyes catching the light to flash with dangerous intent and others carrying small children or goods being carted by light vehicles that hovered a few inches off the ground.
The roundabout was packed with people, like the chaotic streets of Kolkata, and Anubis weaved through them like an expert born to them.
The low hum of constant noise was overwhelming, as was the myriad of smells.
We went up a set of terracotta stone stairs through a door that whooshed open as we approached.
It was a relief when it closed and the sounds from the city died with it.
We stepped into a wide room with deep maroon colored walls that smelled like incense and some kind of spice that tickled my nose.
We passed plush couches sitting atop a mix-match of lush woven rugs, through another door, down at least two hallways with walls covered in gilded framed pictures of various sizes depicting portraits of important looking aliens and then through a narrow black door that slid open silently.
The world shifted again, air whooshing past me as I was tossed from his shoulder and onto a soft bed where I sunk into the mattress and blankets deep enough I had to fight my way out, rolling onto the floor and coming to my feet with my fists up, ready to beat this fool to death with my bare hands.
Anubis just cocked his hip with a sardonic smile and waved his hand at the room lazily.
“This will be your quarters for now. I am a gentleman after all, but have no fear, dearest, simply ask and I will permit you into my bed.”
Permit me? Oh, he was dead dead.
“Listen motherfucker, either you let me go right now or I’m going to set your whole place on fire.”
Anubis threw his dark head back and barked a laugh, his earrings making little musical notes to go along with his guffawing. It made me want to punch him in the throat.
“Oh you are a delight! Sure to become one of my favorite treasures.” One second he was across the room and the next he was looming over me, his spiced scent washing over me. Yeah, that's right. Come in close. My claws ached to mete out some punishment.
“But you will do no such thing. A driven woman such as yourself seeks answers. You will demand them. And I, being the charming host that I am, will gladly give them. As such, you are my prisoner until I say otherwise. So get comfortable, my dear, and relax. Dinner will be served shortly. Do help yourself to the sanitation unit, and I’ve taken the liberty of picking out something suitable for you to wear. Ta!”
And then he was gone, the door closing with a soft snick behind him.
“What just happened?”
I rushed to the door, slapping the buttons on the control panel, but the display remained dark. He’d locked me inside. I kicked the door, leaving a shallow dent and kept kicking it, cursing the whole time.
“When I get out of here, you’re dead! You hear me? Dead!”
When the door didn’t come off its hinges from the beating I was giving it, I gave up and turned to find another avenue of escape. No goddamned god of the dead was going to keep me in a gilded cage.
The room was very feminine. Swashes of lavender and pinks with accents of gold here and there hid the terracotta clay of the walls and ceilings while the floors had a thick layer of soft rugs.
The bed was a carved silver monstrosity with sweeping lines and cloud like blankets and pillows in pink and gold.
There were no windows. The only other door led to a bathroom with a silver soaking tub dominating the space.
The pink theme continued to the bathroom.
Even the stones that made up the floor here were pink toned.
Someone somewhere had told Anubis that human women liked pink and the fool had absolutely run with it.
Like yes, here human female prisoner, here is a comforting cell, all dressed up for your liking. Please enjoy your confinement.
I caught my reflection in the silver mirror hanging over the sink and nearly screamed.
I was not what I considered a vain woman, but the poor wretch looking back at me was beyond help.
I was filthy. Dirty soot, or worse, covered me nearly head to toe.
The worst offense was that my beautiful hair was in such a sad state.
An angry pulse pounded in my head in time with my heartbeat and I pressed a hand to my temple and felt the sticky wetness there.
An outraged fury bubbled up inside my chest.
Blood. There was blood in my hair. I explored the short curls with gentle fingers and found most of the left side of my head had been soaked in blood from a cut above my temple that had mostly healed, but being a head wound it had bleed a hell of a lot and now most of it had dried into a sticky mess.
Oh. Oh, no. I could feel the knots where the blood had tangled the two inch long hair on the top of my head.
He’d had me kidnapped and trussed me up like a thanksgiving turkey, carted me through a town on display like a war prize, locked me in a room and now he’d fucked up my hair.
I’d kill him just for that. No one messed with my hair.
No one. I kept it short, buzzed on the sides and about an inch long on the top for faster care, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t an absolute maniac about keeping my hair well cared for.
Oh my god, I was going to break his face for this.
I whirled around to march to the storage unit tucked into a corner by the bathtub and jerked open a door.
There were bars of soaps in here, but no oils, no conditioners and no combs.
I opened another door and felt some of my tension release.
In a pretty silver box there were several vials of oils.
I pulled one out to open and took a cautious sniff.
A slightly nutty scent that didn’t overpower.
I was expecting a rose scent to go along with all the ‘all human women love pink’ decor.
“Comb… comb, please let there be a comb in here,” I muttered.
I pilfered through the rest of the storage unit, emptying out various silver boxes full of random feminine products but found no comb.
There was a brush, but it was one of those old horse hair brushes and wouldn’t work for my hair at all.
I also found the “suitable clothing” the arrogant furball left me.
I wasn’t wearing it. There was no way in hell that was going anywhere near me.
It didn’t matter how dirty my flight suit was.
He’d left me a dress hung up behind a seamless door next to the cabinet that I guessed was supposed to be a closet.
If you could even call it a dress. It was more like a series of silk scarves that tied in some kind of elaborate pattern that I was never going to figure out because I was never going to wear it.
I would go to dinner, to gather intel and to eat. I needed my strength… and because the hunger pains were back in full force, gnawing at my insides like a half starved, rabid honey badger. But I would do it my way.
Anubis could kiss my ass.