Chapter Sixteen

Sarden

 

“Zoe? Zoe?” I shouted as I jogged down the pitted road as quickly as I could. I kept my eyes down, following her scent and the drops of blood I saw every few feet. She was going to need some serious medical attention by the time I found her.

If I found her.

But I wouldn’t let myself entertain that thought. She was out here somewhere—I just had to get to her before whoever was chasing her did.

The droplets led into a narrow alleyway. Down at the end, I saw a dark figure swathed in a cloak doing something to a door. Something that made a lot of sparks, glowing golden in the darkness.

I crept quietly down the alley but it wouldn’t have mattered if I had been playing a Grobian fizzween and doing the Yakitan stomp dance. The dark figure was completely engrossed in his work. As I got closer, I saw that he was using some kind of hand-held blast laser to try and cut through the hinges of the door. Such tools are highly illegal but also quite useful for getting into places you’re not supposed to go. I’d been guilty of using one a time or two myself during a few of my dicier smuggling runs.

Over the smell of the melting, scorching metal, I could still catch Zoe’s scent, now with a tang of desperation. Had she held him off down here and somehow gone through the door he was trying to get into? Was she inside the dark building it led into?

“Who in the Frozen Hells are you and what have you done to Zoe?” I demanded, grabbing him by the shoulder and spinning him around.

I grabbed for his wrist, meaning to disarm him at the same time but before I could grab it, the laser flew from his hand, narrowly missing my crotch but burning me just the same.

I got lucky—he didn’t have it collimated, so only the outer edge of the beam hit me. It left a long, burning trail down the inside of my left thigh, parting my tough Byrinian leather flight trousers and sending a line of blazing pain through my flesh. It could have been worse though—if I’d been hit by the full force of the beam, I could have lost a leg. Another flit to the left and I would have lost my balls as well.

Of course, just because it missed my more delicate areas didn’t mean the laser didn’t hurt. It did—it burned like fucking hell.

“Ah!” I snarled and lost my grip on the unknown assailant’s arm. He whirled away from me, cape swirling so I couldn’t see his face, and pounded back down the alleyway.

He turned once for an instant to look at me but all I could see were his eyes shining with a strangely metallic glitter in the dim light.

“You may have stopped me this time but I’ll get her,” he shouted in a thin, angry voice. “Her or another like her and then the Last Day will be the First!”

Then he sprinted away.

I wanted to go after him but I doubted I could catch him with an injured leg. The good thing about being burned with a laser is you don’t have to worry about bleeding out because the laser cauterizes the wound. The bad thing, as I said before, is that it hurts like hell.

But I had more pressing business to attend to than my own pain. The unknown male had almost finished cutting through the door’s hinges. I picked up the hand-held blast laser—very, very carefully—turned it back on and finished the job. Then I kicked open the door (with my uninjured leg) and shouted her name.

“Zoe?” I yelled into the echoing blackness. “Zoe, where are you? Please, sweetheart—answer me!”

Zoe

I heard someone shouting my name and I was pretty sure it wasn’t Count Doloroso—mainly because they were calling my name instead of “young lady” or “bitch.” I hoped against hope it was Sarden but I didn’t dare answer back. That was because any loud noise on my part seemed to make the red-eyed growling thing in the darkness angry. At least, it growled louder, which I assumed wasn’t a friendly greeting filled with joy.

“Easy now…easy,” I whispered to it, trying to make my voice low and soothing as I took a step backwards. “I didn’t know this was your territory so I’m just going to back up really, really slowly. Okay?”

“Grrrrrrrr,” was my only answer. Apparently Mr. Red-eyed growlypants didn’t like me moving backwards any more than he’d liked me moving forward.

The eyes got closer and I took another step back and gripped my metal pole with both sweating palms. If it came at me, I was going to go down swinging. But we know how well that went last time, when I swung at Doloroso and I had actually been able to see him. In this case, all I could see were the red, animal eyes coming towards me and I had no idea how large the animal attached to them might be. From the sound of the rumbling growl coming from its throat, though, I’d say it had to be pretty big. Maybe the size of a grizzly bear?

Immediately I wished I hadn’t thought that. Now all I could imagine was a huge alien grizzly bear coming at me in the dark.

I had seen a documentary about how a grizzly savaged and ate an entire group of campers when I was little and watching supposedly “kid-friendly” shows on Animal Planet. The images of human bones with all the flesh gnawed off had given me nightmares for months.

The nib-nibs in my hair had gone completely quiet. I got the feeling they were frozen with fear—the same way I would be if I let myself get hypnotized by those glowing red eyes.

Suddenly I heard echoing footsteps running down the hallway.

“Zoe? Zoe?” someone yelled. I felt a surge of relief when I recognized the voice—it really was Sarden. I dared to look over my shoulder—though what I expected to see in the pitch-blackness I didn’t know. Surprisingly, I did see something.

Sarden’s golden eyes glowed in the dark too. And clearly he could see a lot better in the blackness than I could because he said,

“Zoe! Thank the Goddess!”

“Don’t thank her yet,” I told him in a low, trembling voice. “We’ve got company.”

As if on cue, the growling started up again and the red eyes started moving closer and closer in a slow and deliberate way. Then I knew for sure—the damn thing was stalking me.

And it was about to pounce.

Sarden must have seen it too because he shouted at me, the tension in his deep voice near the breaking point.

“Zoe!”

I whipped my head over my shoulder again and saw an incredibly bright beam of golden light suddenly appear in his hand. What the Hell? How did he get his hands on a lightsaber? my frozen brain demanded.

“Zoe,” he shouted again, breaking my train of thought. “Zoe when I say, you have to jump to the left! Do you understand me? Jump to the left!”

“Why?” I gasped. The eyes were getting closer and now I thought I could feel a hot, damp wind blowing against my exposed skin. It had a horrible smell, too. You know how your cat’s breath reeks after you feed it a can of the really stinky fish-flavored cat food? That was what it smelled like—a rank, fishy odor mixed with the stench of rotten meat. It was enough to make you gag.

I felt my insides turn to ice water as I realized what was going on. The thing was breathing on me. It had its mouth open, ready to take a bite!

“Just do it!” Sarden bellowed. “NOW!”

At that point, several things happened at once.

The red-eyed growling thing jumped at me and I threw myself to the left. A beam of light flashed over my head and the growl rose to an unearthly pitch—it was like the scream of a wildcat mixed with the roar of a tiger and the screech of some other creature I couldn’t even name. Something alien and hungry and angry, anyway.

But I soon had other things to worry about.

I had jumped as far as I could and had expected to hit the ground pretty hard. Instead, I found myself falling—falling and flailing wildly through the air as the nib-nibs screamed and chattered in my ears.

And then I plunged into an ice-cold pool of deep, deep water.

 

Sarden

 

I knew how Zoe hated the water—hated getting in over her head. But there was nowhere else for her to go. The chudd’x was about to spring and she was its target—its intended prey. I just hoped I could finish it off with the blast laser and dive in the reservoir myself before she drowned.

I sliced one of its forepaws—a chudd’x has six in all, three on each side—with the first swipe, but I was too far away to do much damage.

It growled and seemed to debate whether it should go after me or jump into the reservoir and pursue its intended prey. Though I was the one who had hurt it, chudd’xs generally have a one track mind when it comes to hunting.

“Here! Over here, you big bastard!” I shouted, running forward and swiping at it again with the laser beam. It shook its black, shaggy mane and screamed at me—a shattering sound that echoed unbearably from the rounded metal ceiling. Despite the horrible noise, I could still hear Zoe floundering around in the water. Well, at least she was still alive—if I could just finish off this damn chudd’x I could hopefully keep her that way.

“Here!” I shouted again, running recklessly right at it, my boots thudding on the metal deck around the reservoir.

I saw it crouch for a spring and dropped to the ground just in time, sliding on the slick metal floor. As the chudd’x’s momentum carried it over my head, I flipped over on my back and sliced with the laser set on maximum collimation, as precisely as a surgeon making the first cut.

There are some wounds too big to cauterize and this was one of them.

The deadly beam of light sliced it open from neck to groin and suddenly a rain of hot chudd’x guts was falling on my head. Including a glob of something wet and slimy that somehow made its way directly into my mouth, nearly choking me.

The huge creature screamed again but when it fell, with a final sounding thud that seemed to shake the entire room, it didn’t stir again. Apparently being eviscerated didn’t agree with it.

Something was stirring though—or someone. I could hear Zoe still splashing in the water below me, could hear her ever-weakening cries for help.

Grimly, I spat out the gob of chudd’x offal and dove headfirst into the freezing water.

 

 

 

Zoe

 

“It’s okay. It’s okay—I’ve got you,” I heard Sarden saying in my ear. And then a strong arm was coming around my waist to help me keep my head above the water. Which was good, because the nib-nibs were still up there chattering with fear and indignation at the impromptu bath they’d been forced to take.

I was feeling pretty indignant myself—well, in between being scared to death and having awful flashbacks of my past. God, why did I keep ending up in the water when it was the very last place I ever wanted to be? Was the universe trying to tell me I needed to learn to swim?

If so, the universe could go screw itself.

It was exactly what my old therapist, Dr. Wainwright, was always trying to get me to do. “If you can just get over your fear of the water, Zoe,” she’d say. “You can start moving away from your past.” She wanted me to take swimming lessons, which was why I’d gone and stood, shivering , at the side of the indoor swimming pool every day for two months straight before giving up.

Now I kind of wished I’d sucked up the courage to get in and at least learn how to dog paddle.

“Sarden,” I gasped, though chattering teeth. “Help!”

“I’m here.” His deep voice was warm and steady, making me feel better even though I was up to my neck in icy death-liquid. “We’re going to get out of here.”

“How?” I tried to keep my chin up as the chilly water lapped against my cheeks. God, it felt like all of me was going numb—I could barely feel my arms and legs anymore.

“This way,” he said. “Towards the lip of the reservoir.”

“What way? I can’t see in the dark!” I reminded him tartly.

“Here—hold on to me and I’ll get us there.”

He had me hold on to his neck and though I tried not to choke him, I was pretty panicked so I probably squeezed tighter than I should have. Sarden didn’t complain though. He just kept swimming with long, slow, even strokes until I felt him come to a stop, as though he’d bumped into something.

“Here’s the wall,” he said, his low voice echoing softly in the darkness. “Reach up your arms—can you grab the edge?”

I didn’t want to let go of him but I knew we had to get out of here somehow. Keeping one hand tightly gripped on his broad shoulder, I reached my left arm up as far as I could. But all I could feel was the slick, ice-cold metal wall with no edge anywhere.

Sarden must have been watching my efforts because he made a disgusted-sounding grunt.

“All right, I see the problem—your arms are too short. Why are you Earthlings such puny creatures?”

“Just because we’re n-not all as t-tall as professional basketball p-players—” I began with chattering teeth, but he cut me off.

“Look, I can reach the lip just fine. So I’ll hang on and you’ll have to crawl up on my shoulders and get to the edge that way.”

It was extremely awkward and embarrassing—especially since I knew he could see in the dark and I was pretty sure I had lost all of my modesty patches in the icy water. But I was so ready to get out at that point, I didn’t even complain. I just climbed up, using his big body as a ladder and finally found the edge of that awful, dark pool.

I dragged myself out and then collapsed in a heap, all my energy spent. To my side, I heard a deep, effortful grunt. Though I couldn’t see it, I imagined Sarden pulling himself up with those impressive, muscular arms, his broad shoulders and tight abs working with the effort. Then he was beside me, breathing deeply in the darkness.

I lay on my side, shivering and gasping with the angry nib-nibs still chattering in my hair. I felt woozy and ill. Half-drowned and almost completely frozen. I couldn’t feel my arms or my legs anymore at all.

All I could think was that back home in Tampa, I had always wished I had enough money to go visit other countries. I wanted to backpack through Europe and hike the Himalayas and explore the Far East and have all kinds of exotic adventures—at least I thought I did. Now that I had been abducted by aliens and was actually living the dream I realized something.

Adventures suck. They really do.

“You okay?” I heard Sarden ask.

“Yes,” I wanted to say but somehow nothing came out. The cold started leaving my body and I felt toasty warm instead.

“Zoe?” he said again and I thought he sounded concerned. “Sweetheart? Talk to me!”

I wanted to but somehow I just couldn’t. My mouth didn’t want to work—nothing wanted to work. Not even my heart. I swear I felt it stop, although that ought to be impossible. But I did. The steady thud-thud that had been my own internal clock since birth went silent in my ears.

The room was dark all around me but I felt Sarden take me in his arms. He shook me and said something else, then pulled me to his chest. I couldn’t see him but I heard the panic in his voice. I felt bad about it but I couldn’t answer—couldn’t do anything now.

And then, I don’t want to say everything went dark because it was already dark. But I saw a pinpoint of white light in the blackness which slowly grew into a tunnel. A tunnel of light that seemed to be beckoning, just to me.

After that, I don’t remember any more.

 

Sarden

I held her in my arms—her frail, soft body, as cold as ice. I pressed my ear to her chest but I didn’t hear a heartbeat. Gods, what had I done? How had I let this happen?

Your fault, a little voice whispered in my head. Your fault, Sarden, you bastard! She’s beautiful and unique—a sheltered flower. And you took her. You plucked her from her home world and brought her out into the big, dirty universe to be hurt and abused and nearly drowned. And now she’s gone—gone beyond your reach forever.

“No!” I don’t think I realized I’d said the word out loud until I heard it echo back to me, bouncing off the metal walls of the reservoir. It sounded loud and anguished and hopeless. But I couldn’t lose hope—not now.

I held Zoe’s limp form close to me, trying to massage life back into her limbs. I needed to warm her up, but how? My own body was almost as chilled as hers. In fact, I was shivering as I held her to me. But before I thought about bringing up her body heat, I had to restore her heartbeat.

“Come on, sweetheart,” I told her, willing her to hear, willing her to come back to me. “Come on, my little Pure One, just breathe. Just live. Please.”

I squeezed her tight and placed the heel of one palm on her chest, pressing hard and rhythmically, trying to massage life back into her. Come on…come on…

I don’t know how long I did that—held her and massaged her. I think I prayed at one point—begged the Goddess of Mercy for help. I’m not a religious male but I knew that I couldn’t bear this—I couldn’t lose her.

“Please,” I prayed. “I’ll make things right—just don’t let her die. Don’t let her be gone forever. Please!”

But my prayers seemed to fall on deaf ears. Zoe stayed limp in my arms. Limp and cold and silent.

Gone. She was gone. I felt pain such as I hadn’t known existed and something seemed to tear inside me. How could she mean so much to me? I had known her such a short time and I never intended to keep her for myself. And yet somehow, knowing she was gone beyond my reach devastated me to the core.

I gripped her to me, too numb to cry out.

“Zoe,” I whispered, my voice a choked whisper. “I’m so damn sorry…”

And then I felt it—a single heartbeat. Just one faint flutter under my palm. And then another and another.

Warm her, a voice seemed to whisper in my ear. Warm her and she will be well.

Who was it? The Goddess in one of her many aspects? One of the Ancient Ones, looking down from on high? Or maybe just my own common sense telling me what had to be done?

Whatever or whoever it was, I knew I had to listen. I looked around again for a way to get my little Pure One warm and my eyes fell on the steaming hulk of the dead chudd’x.

I knew what I had to do.