The human motions for them to open the hatch. I move to get up, but Munn-click-ta-ra points a gun at my face.
Carielle smirks. “Bingo, bitch. Finally captured you. Too bad you don’t have something cooler like blowing shit up. But whatever. I guess you can see through shields. Makes sense how you were able to find so much good stuff that the rest of us missed.”
That’s why the Nebs want me? So they can see cloaked ships?
“So just lie back like a good girl, and let them use you to wreck this fucked up universe.”
“Why are you working for the enemy?”
She picks at a fake nail covered in rhinestones. “Because my mother said I was too reckless to inherit the companies. So my stupid younger sister got them. She only pays me a pathetic portion of the profits every month. If I helped Geist capture you, he was going to give me half the bounty.
“Geist is dead.”
Her face blanches. She finds her resolve again. “Well, it’s no matter. I hated sucking his pathetic dick, anyway. There are other men.
“You just enjoy your life. What’s left of it…” She reaches in, making the motion with her hand like she’s going to flick my collar. I grab her hand to stop her at the same time that Munn-click-ta-radoes.
Making contact with both of them opens me to their emotions: her jealousy and rage because of her life, and his lust and impulsivity from being denied everything he’s ever wanted. I feel what they do. But they each sense the other’s emotions, too. I see it reflected on their faces.
Deep down, Carielle longs to be taken by the beastly monster.
And now he knows.
Munn-click-ta ra grabs her by the chest of her suit. He speaks to her with hungry need as the chamber begins to close again.
“No… What are you doing to me?” she screeches.
He gathers her against him with force and grinds into her.
“He knows you want him!” I shout. “I can also see through the shields people put up around their hearts and minds…Bitch!”
But my triumph is brief.
The moment the hatch seals, the chamber fills with pale blue light. It hums with energy until I’m sweating. Belts strap over my body with auto-securing programs, drawing me tight against the hard backrest. A visor folds down, over my eyes.
“So you can watch.” The leader’s rumbles inside the chamber are sinister warnings. “We finally have our advantage after decades of searching.”
I don’t want to know how many had to die before they found me.
The ship tilts. Gravity shifts toward my back, and I see Viriden’s ship come into view.
“I see it now.” The leader smirks and commands his underlings in his native percussive tongue.
Shots race across the sky from the ship, and I fear I’m going to be the reason my mate, his brother, and Viriden meet their ultimate fates.
Viriden’s angelic vessel blossoms with fiery hits, and I can’t tell if it’s still in one piece. There are three Neb ships in orbit, Viriden’s main battle cruiser, and many smaller ships on both sides that clash in vibrant waves of missiles and fracturing fighters.
No!I can’t cry out due to the machine’s strain on my body. Veins rise. Pale light pulses through them to the rapid thrashing beat of my heart. It becomes so utterly hot that I’m not sure how much longer I’ll survive. Maybe I don’t have to in their minds. Maybe they never find one of us they want to keep, and we’re just disposable, used once in a battle and cast out to the stars as trash.
To my horror, Nebs start annihilating the Isonians.
“Stop!” I wheeze. I close my eyes and try to fight my power even though I don’t know how.
The leader shouts at someone. The ship shudders and shakes as it sways through the battle, taking down Isonian fighters.
Desperate to end the torture, I tug on the hand that’s loosest in the belts and slowly wrench it free. I work my other hand out and feel around for any way to open the chamber or for cables I can unplug or tear free. But there’s nothing except glass everywhere.
Come on! There has to be something!
