I wanted to scream once the Thressl’n man was out of my sight, but I was already exhausted from my trip to this lowly planet, and more dehydrated than I had ever felt in my life. I hadn’t had water since the day I was captured. If I didn’t get any soon, I would die.
My eyes had finally begun to adjust to the darkness in the tiny space where I had been tied up. At first, I hadn’t been able to see a thing. At least not until my second captor had forced me out of the bag. Now I knew that I was in a dank little room surrounded by creepy looking jars. I had no way of knowing what the substances inside were. I couldn’t help but let my imagination take over. Everything started looking like body parts. Everything in there was strange.
A sudden bang from upstairs made me jump, and my heart began to pound. My dry mouth became desert-like, and I closed my eyes. I had never been a particularly religious person, but I was imploring any deity who might listen to spare me from any more cruelty at the hands of the Thressl’n race.
“Hello?”
I was confused by my reaction to my captor’s voice. It was strong, but gentle, and had a lyrical quality that made me shiver. I could hear his footfalls heading closer to the cellar door, and soon the tiny room was filled with light.
“I need water,” I croaked.
“Oh!” he exclaimed, turning his back on me and retreating up the steps. He came back moments later with a saucer full of water and held it to my lips. I drank it down greedily, but it was hardly enough to sate my thirst.
“More, please.”
His eyes looked into mine, perplexed, and I couldn’t help but be drawn into them. They were gentle compared to the eyes of the first man I had been abducted by. Instead of the dark, steel eyes of the first man, this man had a warm glow in his eyes, despite them being an icy blue color. I had to begrudgingly admit that he was attractive in a way; a broad, kind face and sensitive eyes, with dark black hair that grew in thick waves and reached the bottoms of his ears. When he smiled at me, I felt a confusing mixture of emotions.
“Here,” he said, untying me. “Come and get it yourself.”
I couldn’t believe what he was saying. Was it some kind of mind game? Surely I wasn’t really free to go as I pleased in this man’s house. There had to be some kind of catch.
As much as I wanted to, I was too scared to budge. He laughed, a gentle, rumbling sound that made me long to feel comforted by it. But there was no way I could let my guard down. Not with these monsters. How many others had been abducted and treated this way? The announcement had said one hundred. One hundred women from Earth suffering like this was just too much.
“Here,” he said, leading me up the stairs and to a strange looking machine in the corner of what appeared to be his kitchen. I was terrified, but he didn’t make a move to harm me and simply pressed a sequence of buttons until a thin stream of water began to flow from the machine’s nozzle.
I timidly filled the little saucer again and drank, but it was far too shallow a vessel to quench my thirst.
“Do you have anything bigger than this?” I asked with a sigh.
“Oh…yes.”
He turned his back to me and began to rummage in a cabinet.
“My name is Laike Ostra’ki,” he said, as if we were friends or something. I couldn’t believe his nerve. “Welcome to Jenal’k.”
“Some welcome,” I sneered, snatching the cup he offered me from his hand and filling it full of water. I drank three more full glasses before I finally felt satisfied. “You know, I need a lot of that stuff. Every day.”
“I see,” Laike said, furrowing his eyebrows. “I’m sure Zod didn’t accommodate you very well.”
“No,” I mumbled, fury burning my breast. The memory of Zod’s cruelty made me want to pummel Laike with the cup he had given me and get the hell out of there. If only I knew how to get home.
“He’s a piece of work,” Laike said, his face clouding over. “I’m not very fond of him.”
“Is that why you stole me from him?” I asked, in what I thought was a spiteful tone. But Laike somehow seemed oblivious.
“Yes!” he said, beaming at me.
I glared at him, and the smile faltered on his face.
“What’s your name?” he asked, tilting his head inquisitively. It seemed like he genuinely cared about who I was, but I was probably just desperate for some type of comfort after such a traumatic ordeal.
I didn’t answer and kept my glare fixed upon him.
“I asked you your name,” Laike said again, his metallic eyes beginning to harden. I didn’t want a repeat of what had happened with Zod, so I finally relented.
“Emily,” I mumbled.
“Em-il-y,” he repeated slowly, enunciating every syllable. “I think there is something you should understand while you are here. You are not allowed to leave this house. You are not allowed to speak loudly, especially if you hear somebody outside. You understand why, don’t you?”
I nodded. Of course I understood why. I had been kidnapped. For whatever reason, nobody could know I was there, just as any kidnapper on my own planet would have forced me into silence.
Laike’s smile brightened. “Great! I am glad. I hope we will be able to learn a lot from each other.”
We stood in an awkward silence for a few moments, before Laike finally smiled at me again. My heart thudded involuntarily; he was shockingly handsome. But that didn’t mean I had any real interest in him. I would have to be crazy. I was smart enough to avoid Stockholm syndrome. I just had to keep hold of my anger and figure out a way back to Earth. That would be the real challenge.
“Well…since you’re here, I guess we need to figure out sleeping arrangements,” Laike said.
I couldn’t help but be surprised. I had assumed that he was just going to keep me in the cellar. It was dangerous to get ahead of myself though. I would have to wait and see what his plans for me were.
“Follow me.”
I glanced around the kitchen, my eyes scanning for anything I could come back for in case I needed a weapon later to escape. But nothing in this place was familiar, and before my eyes could fix on anything useful, Laike was summoning me away.
***
“I don’t have another bedroom,” Laike said, pushing a button. A door hissed open, and I looked inside, my eyes widening in shock. It was a room full of mechanical and electrical parts. Sort of like what I imagined my utopia would look like. “This is where I work. I suppose you could stay in here if you wanted.”
What did it matter what I wanted? He had abducted me. Why was he trying to act like my friend?
“I could move most of this to the communal room,” Laike continued, leading me inside. We both had to step carefully over the debris strewn on the floor. I didn’t see how I could possibly sleep in here. “I assume you will let me know if this is big enough. We would have to block out the windows though. If anybody saw you, we’d both be in trouble.”
Why would we both be in trouble?
“Go ahead and sit down; I’ll get the room ready. Unless you would like to see the bedroom.”
“No, thank you,” I said quickly. I sat heavily at the large desk against the wall. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck sleeping in this bizarre man’s bedroom. Who knew how much worse the situation could escalate in there?
My eyes followed Laike’s back as he gently scooped up trinkets from the floor and placed them carefully in a steel box. His muscles rippled, bringing me to distraction. I had to work hard until I was able to focus my attention on the strange little contraptions he was moving. I couldn’t help it; being an engineer, I was unwittingly curious. Everything he was building was interesting and complex. I wanted to know the functions he had in mind. And yet I resented the hell out of my curiosity.
“This should be enough room,” he said, after about fifteen minutes of the same careful cleaning and a few trips to empty his box.
“For what?”
But he didn’t answer me.
“Wait here,” Laike said, disappearing from the room. He was gone a few moments before he emerged, dragging a huge mattress behind himself. He placed it in the corner he had cleared out and fiddled with a hidden panel in the side of the mattress. Suddenly, the mattress began to float in the air and a sleek metal frame emerged beneath it.
“Wow,” I couldn’t help but breathe. He shot a grin at me, and my face flushed hot. Why was he so attractive?
“It’s my design,” he said. But he didn’t say it in the bragging tone that most men on Earth had. My engineering courses had always been a pissing contest full of men trying to out-do each other and get as much praise for their ideas as possible. But Laike’s tone was simple and matter of fact, as if simply conveying information to me. Was it possible he wanted praise? Would it keep me safer to give it to him?
Like hell I would kiss his ass. I needed a plan.
“I see,” was all I said. Still, it was a very elaborate design, and I couldn’t help but be impressed. The bottom of the frame was solid, with built in drawers. Apparently, it was all retractable.
“Is this big enough for you?” Laike asked, frowning down at the bed. “I…don’t know how humans sleep.”
“It should be fine,” I said, looking from Laike’s handsome, teal-colored face to the floor uncomfortably. Why did he seem to care so much?
“I will bring you blankets.”
I sat numbly, my mind reeling. I had to find a way out of this place. And as soon as this clumsy captor turned his back again, I was going to find my way out.
***
I tossed and turned that night after a horribly awkward meal with Laike. I was starved after nearly three days without any food or water, and although I was horrified to be fed the same mysterious substances I had encountered in the cellar, it was all surprisingly palatable.
“What is it like on Earth?” Laike asked me, his icy, metallic eyes fixed intently on me. “I’ve never traveled off of Jenal’k.”
I didn’t feel like talking to this man about the planet I had been stolen from. It felt like a gaping wound that he was rubbing salt into. I chose to stay quiet.
“What’s the matter?”
I laughed sharply and startled us both. Was he really asking me what was wrong? How did he not have a sense of how twisted it was to be trapped in this man’s home and lightyears away from my own?
“Did Zod hurt you?”
The question silenced my laughter completely, and I stared hard at Laike. His eyes were so beautiful; I wanted more than anything for the concern in them to be sincere.
“I’m fine,” I said, tearing myself away from his gaze.
“Well, you’re my female now,” Laike declared. “I will protect you from him.”
The look on his face implied that I should be flattered by this, but in truth, I was infuriated.
“I’m not yours. And don’t call me a female. I’m a woman.”
I pushed my food away and stood abruptly and left the table. I could feel Laike’s eyes boring into my back, but at that point, I couldn’t have cared less. My father had always told me that my temper would get me in trouble one day, and even as I stalked to the room Laike had assigned to me in a blind rage, I had to pray that this wouldn’t be the time it happened.
The door had hissed closed behind me for only a few seconds before Laike’s fist pounded against it.
“What do you mean by that?” his deep voice demanded. He sounded angry, and again, the fear welled in my breast. “You are mine now. And that is the way it has to be. I have to protect you from Zod, and I will do so if it kills me,” he paused before bellowing, “woman!”
I cringed, expecting him to come in the room and go off on me the way Zod had, but instead, I could hear his angry stomping descend down the hallway and toward the door that I could only assume was Laike’s bedroom. It was going to be a long captivity.
***
Night fell on the planet Jenal’k, and I was shocked by the beauty of the sky and the mountains. Laike hadn’t covered the windows like he had mentioned doing, and I was grateful for his lapse of memory. I had never seen such a sight.
The night sky was a deep purple color, with swirling constellations. The stars seemed closer to Jenal’k than they were to Earth, and they shone in brilliant and dazzling colors. But the most striking difference was the three moons in different locations in the sky. One was apparently very close to the surface of Jenal’k, and was a huge circle of dim golden light. The second was higher in the sky, at 45-degree angle to the left of the biggest moon. It was a more brilliant golden color, and had craters in it that reminded me of Earth’s own moon.
The most interesting moon of all, however, was the smallest. It was far away from the bigger golden moons, but it was also the most brilliantly colored. It was a deep maroon color that cast a brilliant silver-red glow over the mountains to the east. I had never seen such a sight before, and couldn’t imagine what else could possibly be in store for me on this strange planet.
I wanted so badly to go out and escape into that night, but the windows and door were locked. If I tried to break through the glass, it would surely wake Laike, and I would undoubtedly be subjected to the same cruelty as I had suffered at the hands of Zod. I had told Laike I was fine, but in reality, I needed time to heal.
Besides that, I was absolutely exhausted. I hadn’t been able to get a good night’s sleep in far too long, and without sleep, there was no way for my mind to function at its full capacity.
I laid back on the mattress, shocked by how soft and welcoming it was. I supposed it wouldn’t hurt anything if I got some sleep. It wasn’t as if I had a good plan yet anyway. It would do me no good to go into a situation blind. I would just have to wait for my opportunity.
With that resignation, I slipped easily into a deep, rejuvenating sleep.
***
“Greetings to the new day,” Laike’s voice said. Half asleep, it reached my ears like a warm blanket, and I felt a bizarre sense of peace.
However, as soon as my waking mind registered the sound of his voice, I sat up with a start.
“What are you doing in here?” I blabbed. Tact wasn’t my strong suit.
“I am greeting you into the new day. It is the first time you have awakened on a new planet. It is a happy occasion. I brought you a meal to commemorate it.”
I pushed myself up into a sitting position and squinted at Laike. Although I felt well-rested, my head was aching. Zod had really done a number on me. I shouldn’t have been so abrasive to Laike, not if he could repeat the damage done to me by Zod. They were both unbelievably well-muscled. There would be nothing stopping Laike if he set his mind to harming me.
“I see,” I said, trying my best to rein in my temper. If I did or said the wrong thing, it could mean a world of trouble for me. It would be best not to rock the boat. At least until I found a way out of this house.
“This is a specialty my grandmother made for me. She told me it would be a special dish for bonding. I was never able to eat it with anybody but her, before. I haven’t been officially mated with anybody yet.”
He said this with a large, shy smile that almost endeared him to me. Almost. What was up with this guy?
“Thank you,” I said reluctantly, looking down at the tray of food he had sitting on the bed near my feet. The smell was surprisingly pleasant, and my stomach rumbled. I felt agitated at my body for betraying me, and not for the first time since I’d met Laike, either. I didn’t want any part of this bizarre charade. I just wanted to go home.
“To my Earth woman!” Laike said, grinning obliviously and holding a glass of bubbling liquid in the air.
I cringed and lifted the glass intended for me, bringing it to my lips. The taste was pleasant, but my stomach was in knots. I had finally gotten some rest after everything that happened, and it seemed clear to me that Zod had severely hurt my head. But it would do no good to tell that to Laike. It was better never to reveal your weaknesses.
“How did you sleep?” Laike asked me.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. It had been deep and rejuvenating, yes, but it wasn’t my bed at home. I wasn’t sure I would ever sleep well again.
“I know it can be strange to wake up in a new place,” Laike said. “After my grandmother passed into the arms of the Plains goddess, I was taken to the academy and woke up in a dormitory with a hundred other Thressl’n boys.”
I frowned. They had just taken a grieving boy in the middle of the night and deposited him in a dormitory? That might explain why he would abduct a woman and hold her hostage.
“It was terrifying at first. Nobody would explain to me what had happened. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t go home. Luckily the Plains goddess and my grandmother appeared in a dream and consoled me. It was my fate to end up there. I learned a lot.”
Laike trailed off, and I couldn’t help but wonder where his mind had gone. What kinds of experiences had shaped him into the man he was now and creased his handsome brow that way? Who had damaged him so much that he didn’t think twice of tying a woman up in a food cellar?
“That must have been hard,” I said carefully. I didn’t want to show too much sympathy, in case it encouraged an inappropriate relationship with my captor, but I was truly sorry to hear his story. Compassion never hurt anybody. Did it?
“It was meant to be,” Laike said cheerfully, all traces of his dark past gone from his face. His blue eyes shocked me with their intensity. I could tell there was a lot more to him than he was letting on. Not just to me, but to himself. Maybe to everybody. I had a sense for intelligence, and Laike was brimming with it. But he hid behind a goofy, oblivious façade. Why was that?
“Try the Glershob,” he said, pushing one of the plates on the tray toward me. “I made it as a way to welcome you to Jenal’k. I’m sure you don’t plan to stay here long, though.”
I frowned. Was he mocking me? But there was no trace of humor on his face, and I hesitantly took a bite.
“This reminds me of something,” I murmured. The explosion of flavor was overwhelming. It had a slight hint of coconut, but there were more savory flavors that drowned it out. It was incredibly delicious, and I chewed thoughtfully. It was a lot like the last meal I had shared with my father before he had taken off, leaving me a ward of the state.
“Togetherness is a hard memory,” Laike said as if he could read my thoughts. How would he have known though? Perhaps he was just thinking of his grandmother.
Laike rose from the bed and smiled. “I have to go to work now. Please stay in the house. It is for your own safety.”
“Work?”
“Yes. I perform maintenance on the ships,” Laike said.
So he was a handyman. That must have been how he had found me in my unfortunate circumstances. Lucky me.
“I have been alone for a long time,” he continued. “I am very glad that we are together now.”
Laike’s handsome face lit up with a smile, and again, I felt the unwelcome creep of desire heating my body. I looked away quickly, and by the time I was ready to face him again, he was gone.