I cringed when the door hissed shut behind Laike, and once again I was sealed into this nightmare. The taste of the red liquid was sickeningly sweet on my tongue, but I had to admit that my headache was beginning to feel much better. Whatever they had given to me, it was numbing the pain, and I was starting to be able to think clearly again. That meant that I could start getting to work on a plan of escape.
Over the next couple of days, I decided to take advantage of the invalid card. Perhaps if I acted helpless, Laike would slip up and lower the security that kept me a prisoner in this strange room full of trinkets I didn’t understand.
“I’m going to work,” he would always inform me. As I started healing more and more, I would climb onto the floor and look through the contraptions strewn about the room. He had far too many to clear out, and had only taken the biggest ones out of the room to make way for the bed.
I couldn’t help but admire his brilliance as I analyzed each piece of work. If a man like Laike had been born on Earth, our society would have been far more advanced for it.
All around the room were beginnings of inventions that I could only guess the full implications of. Some of the technology was similar to the type I was used to studying as the Director of Engineering. I was particularly impressed by how environmentally sustainable all of the technology was. None of it needed a dirty energy source; it all managed to be powered by solar energy or another, more elusive type of energy simply garnered from the air around the object. It was mind-blowing.
If I ever made it back to Earth, I suddenly knew what I was going to do. I would replicate all of these impressive inventions that I had found on Laike’s floor. I would introduce the advanced technologies to the human race and hope that it would slow down the destruction of our natural environment. Maybe then, we would rely less on the Vellreq and begin focusing our energy on more important things, such as rebuilding a sustainable world to live in.
“Laike!”
My heart thudded heavily in my chest when an unfamiliar voice called Laike’s name. The man shouting it was right outside my window; the window I had secretly been opening the second Laike left so I could get some fresh air.
“I took your advice, man. I finally came here instead of making you go out to the red desert. I know you hate it there.”
But Laike wasn’t home. In fact, there was no telling when he would be back. And I wasn’t sure if this was a good or a bad thing. My heart thudded in a mixture of fear and excitement. Maybe if I was discovered, somebody would be able to help me. But on the other hand, it was possible I would end up with another Thressl’n man like Zod.
“Laike, what the gods, man? Are you working on something? You never get your head out of that rubbish, do you?”
Suddenly, a dark blue Thressl’n face was poking into the window. We locked eyes, both of us shocked to see one another.
“You’re not Laike,” he said, his brow furrowing. Although the Thressl’n didn’t have eyebrows to speak of, they did make facial expressions similar to humans.
“No, I’m not,” I answered. “Who are you?”
The man hopped through the window, and I felt immediately uncomfortable. There was something off about him. The energy in the room crackled in a similar way as it had when I was in the presence of Zod. For the first time, I wished Laike was there.
“My name is Absle,” the man said, walking menacingly toward me. “Who are you, human?”
“Spit it out, female!”
“Emily,” I finally said. Why hadn’t I just left the window closed like Laike had told me to?
“Emily, you’re going to have to come with me,” Absle said, grinning strangely at me. “I have a feeling I know where you came from, and Zod is eager to have you back.”
“You can’t!”
But before the words were even out of my mouth, Absle had struck me hard on the head, and I blacked out.
***
“This is unbelievable,” Absle was saying to himself. I had regained consciousness and found that I was on the floor of a huge vehicle. I hadn’t seen what Laike had transported me in, but the sound of the engine was the same. Absle’s craft was hovering swiftly through the air, and for a few moments, I was mesmerized by the sky through the clear dome on top of the craft.
“Zod has been pestering us about something he was missing for the past two weeks. Laike has been acting bizarrely for the past two weeks. Now, I finally go to his house to see what the hell is going on, and what do I find? A sodding human! Before any of the humans from the camps have been assigned.”
Absle glanced into the back of the vehicle, still muttering to himself.
“I know this is exactly what Zod is looking for. And I am finally going to go up in rank because I found the prize. Yes, I did. How would Laike get his hands on a human unless he stole her? Stolen from the camps, maybe. But probably not. She had to have been stolen from Zod. I’m going to be rewarded generously for this.”
I sat up slowly, unable to hold my position on the floor any longer. Although I was afraid of Absle, I couldn’t help but stare down at the world below me from the hovering craft. It was absolutely stunning.
“Human! What are you doing back there?”
Absle was torn from his monolog by my movement, and I caught his cold green eyes glittering at me from a mirror fixed on the dashboard of the vehicle.
“Nothing,” I said quickly, sitting back against the spongy backrest.
“You’ve caused Zod quite a lot of heartache, you know,” Absle said. “But now that I’ve found you, I’m sure that he and Supreme Leader Aloitus will reward me generously for your return.”
“Please, don’t take me back to Zod,” I blurted. I would have done anything to return back to the safe little room in Laike’s house. I longed more than anything to see the kindness in his blue eyes that contrasted so starkly with the cruelty in Zod’s. Sure, I was a prisoner, but at least Laike was a merciful captor. So far.
“I’m afraid I have no choice. Laike is going to be severely punished for harboring you for so long, and I am going to be set for the rest of my life. Perhaps I will get a promotion. A high rank in the army as opposed to the lowly dishwashing position as the fleet cook.”
“I’m sure there’s another way for you to get what you want,” I pleaded. “Zod is a cruel man. He will hurt me.”
“It is not my business or concern what Zod does in his personal time,” Absle said dismissively. “What concerns me is my future. I cannot possibly wash dishes for the rest of my life. What must be done, must be done.”
I could have cried, then. There was no reasoning with men like Absle or Zod. Laike might have been made to see reason, but he was nowhere to be found, and there was a very low chance that I would ever see him again.
My gaze wandered to the window. I was too defeated to continue the bleak conversation.
“Oh gods!” Absle exclaimed. I furrowed my eyebrow, unable to understand the source of his outburst until I heard a shrill honking sound from the hovering vehicle passing by us. I squinted into the tinted window of the craft opposite us and saw Laike’s handsome face. He was smiling brightly at Absle, apparently happy to see his friend on the way home from work.
The smile faded when Laike locked eyes with me. A brief flicker of confusion, then anger, crossed his face, and the friendly honking grew angry.
“Absle!” Laike’s voice called. It was muffled through the glass, but I was impressed by its power. “Stop your craft!”
“Not this time, Laike,” Absle mumbled, throwing down a red lever. The hovercraft pushed forward, and I became immediately nauseated as we sped forward.
The honking grew faint as Laike was left behind us, and I felt my heart shattering. What had I done?
***
“Zod’s going to love this,” Absle was murmuring again.
I felt like such a screw-up. If I had just followed Laike’s instructions, I could still be sitting in bed, waiting patiently as his masculine voice hummed pleasantly in the kitchen as he prepared us an evening meal. It was shocking how many times a day the Thressl’n ate, but not at all surprising when I considered how densely built they were. It seemed like the majority of their bodies were pure muscle.
The thought sent a strange heat coursing through my body. Laike was incredibly attractive, and the forbidden curiosity of what his body might be capable of had been testing me for weeks now. I was probably just suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Still, if I had to be anywhere on this planet, I wanted it to be in the little bedroom at Laike’s house. And as much as I hated to admit it, I wanted to see more of the mysteries of the Thressl’n body for myself.
“Gods!” Absle shouted. I was flung painfully forward in my seat as we screeched to a stop.
“Get out of the craft, Absle.”
My heart fluttered at the sound of Laike’s voice, and I couldn’t help but stare in wonder at his handsome, determined face.
Absle’s mumbling had come to a halt, and I felt a shiver run through me as Laike’s arm suddenly shattered the glass of the dome.
“Laike, I just replaced that!” Absle whined.
“I told you to get out of the craft!”
Laike’s voice echoed off the strange metal of the craft. I could feel it reverberating through it and against my body. I caught Absle’s look of fear in the mirror and couldn’t stifle the satisfaction I felt. Laike was going to protect me. And he was going to do it because he cared about me. At least to more than Absle or Zod ever could.
Absle shouted, and I was torn from my thoughts by Laike’s strong arms lifting Absle by the shoulders out of his seat. The safety strap against Absle’s chest snapped with a loud tearing sound, and Laike held him up in the air, balancing himself on the outside rim of his own hovercraft as it hovered quietly beneath him.
“Let go, Laike. You don’t want to do this!”
“Let her go,” Laike said darkly. My heart pounded hard as the fight unfolded before me.
Absle struggled against Laike’s grip, but was unable to free himself. The show of power was intoxicating, and an involuntary desire spread through my loins. Laike was handsome, strong, and determined to look after me, no matter the cost. What exactly was it that kept me from exploring my feelings for him again?
Laike squeezed Absle hard around the neck, turning his piercing blue eyes to mine as he held his friend still in his grasp.
“Get in my craft, Emily,” he said sternly as Absle flailed in an attempt to free himself. I glanced at the craft hovering beside Absle’s, wondering how in the hell I would be able to leap from one craft to the other. “Now!”
At Laike’s command, my body moved through the fog in my brain, and I found myself climbing through the broken glass of the dome. My legs were like jelly, but I managed to leap across the space between the crafts and land hard in the bed of Laike’s hovercraft. It must have been the same vehicle he had used to cart me home from Zod’s room.
“You’re going to regret this,” Laike said darkly into Absle’s face.
Absle said nothing, and I cringed as Laike let go of Absle. He cried out as he fell heavily into his seat, and I watched in fear as he sped away quickly. Why had Laike let him go? They would definitely be coming for us when Absle sought help from the other Thressl’n.
Laike was quiet for a few moments before scrambling into the hovercraft.
“Lie low,” he ordered. “We’re alone out here, so it is unlikely anybody saw what happened. But don’t worry, I have an idea. Everything will be okay.”
I laid back in the craft, and we raced across the mountain terrain.
Laike stopped suddenly in front of an imposing building. It smelled terrible, and I had to keep myself from gagging.
“Come,” Laike ordered. He didn’t wait for me to obey, simply expected it, and led me to the doorway. “Kelron!”
Kelron ran to the doorway.
“Well gods! Get in here you two, before someone sees.”
Kelron ushered us inside, glancing over his shoulder and slamming the door quickly behind us.
“We have a problem,” Laike sighed.
“What’s going on?” Kelron asked, his weathered face growing weary.
“Emily has been discovered.”
“How? By whom? And why is she here now? I can’t keep her!”
“No, of course not,” Laike said. “I have a plan. But we need your help.”
Kelron frowned pensively but nodded his head.
“If anybody asks, and they will, whether it’s Captain Zod or Supreme Leader Aloitus himself, I need you to admit that a body bag came in here. But I require an untruth. You need to say that the person who brought it was Absle.”
“Absle? But isn’t he your best friend?”
Laike was quiet, and I stared at him. He had been willing to take his best friend on to save me from Zod? Or was he simply hoping to claim me for himself? Were the Thressl’n capable of letting go of anything they wanted?
“That doesn’t matter anymore. I just need you to do as I ask, for the human’s safety.”
“Of course,” Kelron said, gazing at me with a worried crease in his brow. “I would like to know, at the end of my days, that I have done the right thing.”
“Thank you,” Laike said, bowing deeply at Kelron. “Come, Emily.”
I followed Laike silently to his craft, and we rode the rest of the way to his house, each of us deep in our own thoughts.
***
Laike was the quietest I had ever seen him. We were in his sitting room. I was on the couch, and his powerful body was roaming the room restlessly. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him. From time to time he would scowl and run his hand through his luxurious hair, then squint his blue eyes toward the ceiling and sigh.
“This is a problem,” Laike said, his intense eyes boring into me. “I have to protect you.”
My chest was warmed by the concern in Laike’s voice, and the heat that had filled me as he rescued me from Absle returned in full force. It was almost as if I had missed him. But that was impossible. He may have felt a strong urge to protect me, but that didn’t mean he cared about me. It was more likely that he didn’t want to let go of his favorite possession.
“Come,” Laike said suddenly, turning his broad back on me and walking toward the hallway.
I hesitated for a moment before following him toward his bedroom. He quickly input the code for the door, and we walked inside after it hissed open. I was shocked to find a small collection of blankets on the floor where the bed had once stood.
“What are we…”
My voice trailed off as Laike closed the door behind us.
“You are not safe in that room anymore,” Laike said with a sigh. “You will have to stay in here with me where I can keep an eye on you. It is safer. There is more security here.”
I suddenly felt a crushing guilt weigh on my shoulders. Laike looked so tired. He wasn’t even trying to take advantage of me; he was just trying to keep me out of harm’s way. Why couldn’t I just let him?
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Laike looked at me, bewildered, before his face broke out into a handsome smile that made heat rise to my cheeks.
“The Thressl’n don’t apologize,” he said softly, moving toward me and touching my shoulder. Perhaps it was a gesture of comfort for the Thressl’n race, almost like a hug.
The nearness of Laike’s body made my heart drum in my chest, and fire filled my body. I suddenly knew what I wanted more than anything in the world. The best part was that it was attainable.
Laike’s handsome face contorted in confusion for a moment when I took his strong hand in my own. The heat of his body so close to me was getting to my head. Did it really matter what I did here? Nobody would have to know about it. Besides, was there any harm in doing what I wanted in what could turn out to be my last days with Laike on Jenal’k?
I knew what my body wanted, and for the first time since I had arrived on this planet, I was going to take control.