Chapter 8
He was sitting within a large cell, surrounded by metal bars. But it wasn’t any sort of metal Darcy recognized. It wasn’t like the stainless steel from back home. This was a dark, rusted red color and covered in tiny spikes. It reminded her of a spider’s legs, but thicker, stronger.
The large red alien sitting inside was staring down at his bare feet with his head in his hands. He didn’t look up when she entered.
Darcy took the time to study him, to really look at him.
She came to find that he was not quite as large as she remembered.
Perhaps her fear had made her imagine him larger even than A-rec and the others, but that simply wasn’t the case.
In fact, he was probably the same height as the rest. His markings were black and looked like flames against his red skin, and with his horns, he looked like a fire demon come to life.
His hair was long and black, and cascaded in a braid down his back with a few stray pieces falling forward to cradle his face.
He looked positively mad, on the brink of insanity.
I-ya, the previous caption of this vessel did not look like the monster she imagined him to be, but a broken man.
“God, you look pathetic.” Darcy finally said, unable to bite her tongue. Her mouth would get her killed one day.
He glanced up at her, and she saw his eyes, the same red color of his body, were surprised by the sight of her. She watched as his face morphed into something brand new; he went from meek and broken to one of mocking and false confidence. She could see right through him.
“Ah,” he said, rising to his feet to meet her where the bars began. “Little human. A-rec’s Mate, is it not?” He smirked at her.
“My name is Darcy, NOT A-rec’s Mate.” Darcy snapped back. “You will remember that.”
He chuckled at her, and his eyes actually sparkled, as if he thought her the funniest thing he’d ever seen. “I don’t envy him. You look like you’d be a bitch to deal with.”
She wanted to be offended, but she knew it was the truth, so she decided to shrug it off instead of allowing him to bait her. “I came here to talk to you about something.”
“Figured as much,” I-ya said. He leaned, took a step back, and stretched his arms above his head. “What do you want?”
Darcy noted he fact that he was still a bit shorter than A-rec when he did this. If his goal was to intimidate her, he had failed. “What I want is to watch you fucking burn, but for some reason I don’t think your little pals would like that very much, so I’ll just have to deal.”
He pretended he didn’t hear the insult and instead raised an eyebrow in her direction. “Hm?”
Darcy met his eyes. “I want to know how to open the transportation pods.”
I-ya stared at her for a moment in disbelief…
before tilting his head back and laughing out loud so loud that Darcy glanced at the door, hoping no one would come in to investigate.
“You sneaky har-ca-on.” He said, switching from English to his own language.
“Why should I tell you? What are you going to do for me?”
Oh. So he was one of those. Why was she not surprised? Darcy glowered in disgust at the red alien in front of her. “Ew. I will not be trading sexual favors.”
“What?” I-ya asked. “No, I would never. You may think so little of me, DARCY, but I would never take a brother’s Mate. Besides,” he said, his tone changing to one of mocking, “YOU are the last female I’d stick my cocks into.”
“Ouch,” Darcy replied, faking a wince. “How ever will I go on knowing THE I-ya would never fuck me?”
He chuckled at her. He seemed to be doing that a lot.
“I do not envy A-rec… Well, that’s not entirely true.
” He stopped his pacing and turned to face her fully now.
He grasped the metal bars that imprisoned him, seemingly unaware that the tiny shards were piercing into his hands.
“I will give you this knowledge, human,” he said carefully.
“But you must promise me something in return.”
Darcy took a step back. “What?” She didn’t want to promise this guy anything. Fuck- he was, after all, the man who KIDNAPPED HER AND A DOZEN OTHER WOMEN! But…she needed this information. “What the hell do you want?”
“A Mate.” He said simply, as if it were the most normal thing in the world to ask for. He pushed himself off the bars of his cell and stared down at her. “A human woman of my own.”
“What, the girls of your Tribe don’t want you?” It was Darcy’s turn to smirk at him.
“You will do this for me, human Mate of A-rec, or I will not help you.”
“You’re insane,” Darcy snapped back. “I can’t just GIVE YOU one of the women.
The whole point of waking them is so they have a choice.
Giving one to you completely defeats that purpose.
Also… I CAN’T JUST GIVE YOU A WOMAN? This isn’t the 50s, dude.
She has her own brain, her own thoughts, her own body.
You can’t just demand she submit to you and be your Mate.
” If she thought this guy was bad before…
“You will give me a human Mate out of the women you awaken, or I will not give you the information.” He said again, narrowing his eyes at her.
She had to be quick. She was running out of time. The guard would be back any minute.
Fuck it. She was going to hell anyway. What was another lie?
“Fine.” She said, pretending to be furious about it. “Tell me how to open the transporters and I’ll bring one to you… Wait. How do you know they won’t just take her away from you?”
I-ya was very serious when he answered. “When the first Mating is done, a Mate cannot be separated from their partner. It is the law. Why do you think you’re still here?”
What the actual fuck. No way. Let’s add RAPIST to the list of things wrong with this guy.
“Um, okay, whatever.” She couldn’t address that comment if she wanted to continue with her lie. It was taking everything inside her not to completely lose her shit on this guy. Fucking sexist pig. “Tell me how to open them.” She demanded once more.
“The red button on the side. Press and hold down until it turns green.”
Darcy blinked at him. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” She could have figured that shit out on her own! “Are you fucking with me?”
I-ya ignored her outburst. He leaned close against the bars again. “When you free them, you bring one to me. IMMEDIATELY. The Mating Bond must be complete before the others are aware of what’s happened. Do you understand?”
Okay, so much for keeping up with that lie. “Fuck no, I’m not doing that. Are you crazy?”
She watched as his face twisted into a sneer. His eyes, once tough and frightening, faded into one of…almost fear. “You gave me your word!” He said urgently.
“Yeah, I was lying.” Darcy rolled her eyes at him. “Did you really think I would just GIVE YOU a woman like she was some toy or object?” She felt a smirk rising on her lips. “You’re even more insane than I thought.”
“You LIED to me!” He tugged against the metal bars that held him within his cell. “You have no honor!”
Darcy laughed out loud. “I have no honor? Look in the mirror, dude.” She turned and gave him a little wave over her shoulder. “See you later.”
She could still hear him yelling as she scurried away.
The guard had returned, and he was just as angry as before. He glanced at the door. The sound of I-ya’s screams could be heard from down the hall.
“What did you do?” The guard demanded, glaring down at her.
“I didn’t do anything! That guy is crazy.” She replied.
She didn’t stop to chat. She didn’t know how much time she had, but she wasn’t going to risk losing any more.
She was on a mission.