“Maybe it’s him,” he says in Nebulous.
“I am nothing.”
“And yet you use light to make bombs and fracture bone. Take him to Helarina.”
36: Tessi
Radar jumps through the portal just as it closes. He barks until I hear the peep and whir of a warming warp pulse gun. Dread tears through me.
“Radar,hide!”
I can see him processing my request, disagreeing with it, then bounding off into another passageway right as a blast goes off. I hear a yelp. My stomach turns.
I thrash in the grasp of my attacker. “What do you want with me?”
They jerk me around and throw me into a cell made of black glass. The door slams, and I can’t hear anything or see anything beyond its walls.
“Do not hurt my dog or I swear to the cosmos I will find you and fucking kill you!” I shout at the top of my lungs. I angrily punch the glass but all it does is flare pain through my hand.
“Fuck!” I clutch my hand and study the space to take my mind off of the pain. It is glass everywhere, top and bottom, even the bench looks like glass. Only the shallow drain in the floor is metal.
I sit down and think about the situation.They’re probably outside looking in at me and wondering if I’m the one they want.I’m pretty sure it was a Nebulous soldier who captured me, based on the short gray fur of his arm.So they portalled onto a base and took me right out from under Mindoran noses.I hope they didn’t get Rhysan and Sky.
Based on the number of males surrounding her, I don’t think Nebs will capture either.
I sit cautiously on the bench. An hour passes. Maybe more. I check my wristband, and wonder if my ship ever made it to thebase. When my patience wears thin, I get up and pace. “I don’t know what you think I can give you. I don’t have the powers you think I have.”
The door opposite the one I entered opens. A tall Nebulous soldier stalks inside. I back up, but his long arm span is impossible to escape. He draws me close, inhales a deep breath, then licks his pointed teeth.
“Munn-click-ta-ra,” someone calls to him.
His delight turns to a scowl. He grabs my vest and drags me out of the room. The hallways are dark, gritty, cold, and filled with Nebulous soldiers, but not the ones I typically see.
These aren’t covered in the same body armor. They wear formal armor that shines with angular plates in matte and gloss blacks. Their eyes glow a pale blue-white in the darkness. All of them look down at me as I’m slung through the passageway and into a large room with a man in light gray armor trimmed in silver. He gets up from a throne of black glass and walks down to me.
Munn-click-ta-ra shoves me down, onto my knees and keeps his hand on my shoulder as their leader circles me.
They talk in a series of clicks and pops. Very little of my time in college was spent on Nebulous culture and language, but it’s not difficult to see that they’re trying to decide what to do with me.
“Yai-nok-a-co-click.”The leader motions toward a pale blue glass chamber in a light gray room surrounded by windows. “Helarina.”
Munn-click-ta-ra picks me up and drags me toward the chamber.
I frantically try to pry myself free, kicking, and twisting.
The male I assume is their commander sighs like I’m being petulant. “It is not wise to fight him, human. The Vulturous are happy to run you through their circle and hand you over to thegod of death in your world, which I believe is called a reaper. Get in the damned chamber.”
I get my feet under me and let the beast shove me into the chamber without a fight. “What are you doing to me?”
He ignores my question as another human eases into the light to speak with him. The chamber seals around me. The convex glass warps my view of the room outside and the human’s shapes.
But that blond hair… Those perfectly pressed clothes…
Geist is dead. Falgus and Reji aren’t interested in intergalactic games, just cash and ass.
Blue lights fill the pod, circling my body in beams. A Neb monitors a screen beside me. He speaks with the leader and nods. I have whatever it is they want.
Dread fills my bones like hot lead.
