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Zac looked around nervously, but no one was close enough to hear me.
“Lower your voice, Danika. Here, things are different, and the rules are much stricter than you’re used to. Females are expected to be quiet, calm, and submissive and any deviation in behavior will lead to very strict punishment, which we will be unable to interfere in. You don’t want that. We won’t be able to stop it,” Roan warned, and I bit my lip.
I tried to quell my panic and Taraik’s arms tightened around me. Like he could read my thoughts, his hand snaked over my mouth, gently cupping over it as a reminder for me to keep quiet. He felt like my protector in that moment and as much as I expected to be terrified at being handled in such a way, his tight arms felt like a giant hug. It was especially calming.
We arrived at a group of smaller white tents in the corner of the community, set off in the back. The five of us walked till we reached the last one before going inside. I looked around and was reminded of a hospital room, with a variety of different beds and chairs, including a gynecological exam chair in one corner. My eyes widened, but Taraik laid me on a metal flat bed in the center, right beneath a rather large piece of technology. Xandaar walked over by me and with a few taps of his fingers, the device powered on, blue and green lights brightly shining over me.
“Lie still, Danika. I need to scan you for internal injuries and your health status. If you move too much, our results will be compromised, and we’ll have to repeat the scan,” Xandaar directed as he pulled on a white lab coat.
“Are you a doctor, Xandaar?” I asked, and he nodded. He pulled on a pair of gloves and my stomach clenched nervously.
“Stay calm, little human,” Xandaar said and he reached over and squeezed my shoulder. The big machine above me whirred to life. Shaped like a half moon, it lowered toward me and began to glide toward my feet. It started to hum, the lights glowing brighter, and it moved upward, slowing over my torso and continuing until it scanned over my face. Then, it lifted back to the ceiling before it quieted down once again.
For a while, Xandaar was quiet. He was scanning over a holographic screen and I sat up, waiting for what he was going to say was wrong with me. Strangely, I felt nervous, like he was going to list out all my faults at once. Would it be able to read my thoughts too?
“Several sets of deep bruising and muscular damage, including a bruised rib, which the healing ointment and the laser will take care of. She’s malnourished, anemic, and underweight by a good ten pounds, so she’ll need a specific set of vitamins, antioxidants, and food in order to gain weight and normalize her levels. I’ll formulate a pill with everything she requires,” he explained, his voice strong and knowledgeable. “Other than that, she’s fairly healthy.”
“I’m glad I fucking killed those bastards who did this to her,” Roan growled.
“Me too,” Taraik replied.
“Fucking beauty like her marred by those assholes’ hands,” Zac murmured, his fury palpable.
My eyes dragged across each of their faces, saw their anger for how Neil and his goons treated me, and I could feel my heart skip a beat. All four of their gazes burned down at me, hot and sultry and focused solely on me. The only person in my life who had looked at me like that before was Kaze.
His warm eyes staring down at me. The man I loved. Used to love. Past tense.
Now he was gone.
The shot of the gun echoed in my head. It was like I was reliving it all over again.
I turned away, diving back into my hole of black icy numbness. It was too much, too fast, and I couldn’t take it. His loss had shattered me, and I wasn’t ready to feel anything else, especially not for these aliens.
I felt Xandaar’s and Roan’s hands on me, then Zac and Taraik joined in, guiding me onto my back. I turned my head back, watching as Xandaar passed a small handheld device over my ribs and I moaned, feeling my bruised rib mend back together. The pain was sharp at first, but it gradually faded. The four aliens massaged my limbs, taking away the dull ache and I bit my lip, feeling myself beginning to grow warm despite my reluctance.
They passed around a small tube and they each squeezed it into their hands. Four pairs of hands rubbed all over my body, spreading ointment over all my injuries. I sat up on my elbows and watched as my dark-colored bruises faded away. It was like magic. I hadn’t seen anything like it before.
“Wow,” I whispered in wonder. That was a cool little piece of medical advancement.
“Turn over,” Xandaar said firmly and I obeyed. They rubbed my shoulders and back, and I groaned as all my little hurts faded into nothing. It felt heavenly, the best kind of massage I’d ever had. They continued touching me and after a few long minutes, they eventually stopped.
“Her skin is like porcelain now. All those ugly black and purple bruises gone,” Roan murmured, and I looked over to him, seeing an expression of cheerful relief washing over his face. I smiled softly back. It wasn’t enough to break me out of my numbness though. I was reluctant to feel anything at all. Taraik’s eyes narrowed and I drew backward slightly, nervous at what he was thinking.
“Where are you, little dove?” Taraik asked, his eyes searching mine. “Where do you hide when your eyes glass over like that?” Gently, he took my chin and forced me to look at him. For a while, he just studied me quietly while the others watched. “They took something from you, didn’t they?” he finally whispered but I didn’t answer, even though he was right. He studied me, like it wanted to find out exactly what those men had taken from me.
It unnerved me how well he could read me, without me saying anything at all.
“You need us to take it all away, don’t you? Make it so that all that pain you’re hiding behind all falls away?” he asked, his voice strangely calming. It drew me in just a little.
At first, I just looked at him, wondering how he could offer such a simple solution. Kaze died because of me and I would always carry that on my shoulders, no matter what, but still, Taraik’s offer was tempting. Maybe, for a little while, I could be free from it all. Was that even possible? Was I hoping for too much?
My ears rang. I remembered Kaze’s eyes, the expression on his face. Had I never run off, had I stayed with him, he might still be alive. My eyes watered, and I blinked quickly, trying to stem the flow of tears before they started.
“It’s all my fault,” I answered hesitantly. I don’t even know what made me say that, why Taraik was making me feel like I could trust him. Why did I feel like I could confide in him when I didn’t even want to confront the very things that were hiding out in the corners of my mind?
“Do you want to be punished for it, little dove? Punished like a bad little human?” Taraik continued, his voice hypnotizing. Did I even dare to ask what that meant?
I lifted my eyes to meet his, his words strangely compelling. Something about the word punishment enthralled me. Taraik’s thumb brushed over my lip, his eyes searching mine.
