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“Are you trying to tell me something?” I asked.
The mutant struggled to speak, sweat running down its elongated forehead.
“Hu… Human woman!” it spoke.
“Yes! She was in this cage?”
“D… Door!”
It pointed at the rear wall of the cage. Squinting my eyes, I saw a faint outline of what appeared to be a doorway. That had to be where Elara was taken. It was as if I was a Nazok who found his biggest loot, filled with a sudden exhilaration that took over my body.
I shot the cage open and hit the beacon on my percomm to alert the others of my position. I then sprang forth, shouldering the door open. The first sight I saw was another row of mutants, writhing in pain in their cells.
To my left, I found Elara. Immediately, I rushed to her, a moment of temporary relief coming over me as she threw herself into my arms.
ELARA
Iwatched in horror as Jocelyn prepared the essential oil from the strange plant. No wonder I felt reviled by the thing. It went against nature.
I couldn’t look. I curled up on the floor, pulling my knees up into a fetal position. My face hurt like hell.Oh, Draven, please find me soon!
I always loved plants. From an early age, I studied botany. I could name hundreds of uses for various different plants. Some were the deadliest of poisons unless taken in microscopic doses, but in those amounts, they could heal the most voracious of diseases.
There were carnivorous plants that would trap you in their sticky web and suck the juices from your bones, leaving nothing but a dried-out husk. Others would plant a burrowing seed on you that was designed to dig into your body and kill you, so their offspring would get some nice fertile soil to grow in.
But I never come across a plant that I felt wasevilbefore. There was some kind of malignant sickness that surrounded this beautiful but abominable bloom.
I must have drifted out of consciousness again because the next thing I was aware of was the door to the room exploding inward. I leaped up, ready to fight my captors tooth and nail to escape. Jocelyn was not going to suck the life out of me if I had any say in it.
But it was not my captors. It was the tall and wonderful Draven, the red tracery on his skin livid with emotion.
“Elara,” he said. “Thank Celestia I found you!”
My heart leaped in my chest, and I half fell into his arms. It was a bad move on my part because suddenly the room was filled with Ewani. Worse, they got the jump on Draven because his arms were busy holding me.
“My people will be sure to kill all of you,” Draven growled.
“We’ve pinned them down for now,” someone said. “By the time they break through, you won’t be around to see it.”
Jocelyn was there, standing behind them and smirking as Draven went down under the sheer numbers. “You are mine!” she screeched at me. “There is no escape for you!”
I looked around, desperate for a weapon. Right there was the chair I used on the Ewani earlier. I lurched for it, still unsteady on my feet. My fingers gripped the cold metal of the frame, and I swung in the same motion.
Draven was on the ground, a high-tech laser gun pointed at his head. My chair hit the Ewani scum that held it in the skull with a sickening crack. The blow sent him flying. The laser gun went off as he went down, hitting a fellow Ewani in the stomach. I was repulsed to witness a smoking hole appear right through the screaming rat-man, out of which his guts spilled across the floor.
Draven was still vastly outnumbered, but he struggled to his feet, his arms swinging wildly. My eyes landed on the now discarded weapon at the same moment an Ewani noticed it. We both scrambled for it and fell into a thrashing heap on the floor. Its yellow teeth and fetid breath snapped way too close to my face.
Suddenly, someone had me by the hair. They dragged me backward causing me to lose my grip on the Ewani and also my chance at an advantage.
I lashed out with my foot as I was dragged backward and kicked the original Ewani in the head. He sprawled back, the gun tumbling from his hand.
I felt the tip of a knife prick my throat. All I could do was raise my hands in surrender. I was pretty sure Jocelyn wouldn’t be pleased if the guy that caught me managed to kill me. But I couldn’t take that chance. There were, after all, a lot more humans in the galaxy, and only one me.
“Up, Vinduthi scum,” said my captor to Draven. “Or the girl gets it.”
“You be careful with my lunch,” said Jocelyn with a laugh. “I don’t want it to spoil.” She seemed to be enjoying the show.
Draven took in the situation and rose slowly to his feet, warily looking around him at the circle of Ewani surrounding him, their lips pulled back in sharp pointed snarls.
