Chapter Five
Kadelyn
“This is what you get for stealing!” I shouted to myself as my mech came plummeting down to the ground below. I could see the streams of smoke trailing behind my ship. This wasn’t the first time I had stolen a mech, nor was it the first time I had would have crashed one.
But never from this height or at the hand of a Vithohn.
Then it occurred to me that my final thought before hitting the ground was going to be: Joel is going to kill me.
I didn’t like that, and so instead I thought, I’m going to get that Vithohn bastard.
I signaled the thruster on and off, hoping the bursts of air would make for a slower descent, but only the left one was working, forcing my ‘ship’ to spiral and plunge to the ground while twirling through the air. The mech was spinning so fast I almost threw up one thruster chugging out its last breaths.
Everything was a blur after that… me desperate to explain myself, then running, then pinned down on the ground with such force I couldn’t even catch my breath.
And then suddenly, my crush didn’t seem so appealing anymore.
He pushed me down into the mud, my body tired and sore but still willing to struggle.
I understood him, in a way. Feral. He didn’t know what he was doing; his aggression was ruling him. These were things I understood in my mind, but as he pushed me down into the puddle and my lips hit the muddy water, my throat filling with liquid and clumps, I started to panic.
Should I let him take me? Give myself willingly so that whatever happened now between us could later be seen as some sort of redeemable first?
He flipped me over and grabbed my throat, his eyes wide and wild. I tried to convince myself that he would see me. See me. Any minute now.
His aggression would slip away and whatever the calling was would kick in.
But it didn’t.
He grabbed my left breast and pulled my pants down, kicking them into the sopping mud.
“Wait, wait,” I said, trying to take control of the situation. Trying to make it right. “Please, tell me your name.”
I knew his name. It was Zawara. I knew that because I’d heard his friend use his name several times in the past few weeks.
But it didn’t matter. I just wanted to make it right. To make him see me and to let me see him as a person.
The Vithohn breathed hard into me, and I watched his eyes flick to mine, some recognition there. I reached up, taking my face out of the water and kissed him, putting my hands on both sides of his angular cheeks.
He kissed me back, deep with tongue. He pulled away then and looked me over, saw the fear in my eyes. I thought this would be the moment where he apologized, where we fell in love. I thought this was when he would have his awakening. He looked like he was about to speak to me, to start making love to me, to do anything that might make this not an assault.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he thrust into my body, hard and fast, rhythmic and animal. Completely on instinct.
I grit my teeth at the pressure and tried to keep my head out of the water as he jerked my body back and forth, wincing and squinting my eyes before I bellowed out a single cry.
Then he stopped.
He inhaled and exhaled heavily, shaking over my body.
I felt his body release mine, his torso slinking backward and his shoulders sloping in defeat.
My hand instinctively reached down to see if he had finished. He hadn’t. And then I looked back up at him and wondered why she stopped.
“I’m…” he began and reached down to touch the back of my head, inspecting me.
I swallowed hard and shook against his touch, trying to squirm my way out of the puddle.
“I’m so sorry,” he finally finished, thumbing my cheek with such sweetness.
I was about to say it was alright, to explain to him how it worked with the Vithohn and the humans. I was ready to let it go and continue on with my plan—to bring a Vithohn into our camp and become part of “The Club.”
But I couldn’t do it. As I looked up at his face and his suddenly calm demeanor, the only thought that raced through my head was: ‘I don’t like this. I don’t like this. I don’t like this.’
I didn’t like anything about it: his touch, the struggle. It didn’t turn me on. It wasn’t a sexy battle. It was terrifying.
With a deep swallow, I reached up and massaged my throat, backing up—crawling backward out of the puddle until I could feel the wet grass under my wet skin.
“Are you alright?” the creature asked me, turning briefly to grab my clothes.
The moment his back was turned I ran.
And here I was, still making my way back to the camp, figuratively and literally hanging my head in defeat.
I felt the branches of the familiar forest scrape up against me and bristled at the sharp cuts they left on my arm. I ran, making noises that I could barely register were coming for me.
My mind twisted on whether I should go back and finish what I started, cursed myself for getting the mech ruined, convinced myself to keep running.
And then I thought about Rachel. I thought about how she and Nevir had met, how he had sex with her and couldn’t get enough. I wondered what their first time was like and if she was afraid: if she thought she was going to die.
I wondered whether Nevir had apologized. And then I thought about how in love he said they were… and I was making a mistake by leaving.
My feet stopped then. Just in time to hear footsteps behind me, ready for more.
“You’re familiar with the Vithohn,” the voice said, and immediately I knew it was Zawara’s friend.
I spun on my heel and crossed my arms at the man; he looked me over
He had dark red tattoos across his pale white face and a long, thick spire. His eyes were bright and green and reminded me of Nevir’s. He brushed a hand through a mane of black hair and tilted his head back, revealing a single fang that sat on the surface of his lip.
“He didn’t know what he was doing,” he said as though that was supposed to be some kind of argument.
“I know,” I said without emotion.
“He’s… losing his mind,” he explained, choosing his words carefully. He watched my expression, but I tried not to betray too much.
“Here I thought he just got it back,” I snapped and crossed my arms.
The man laughed. “Come back. Let him make it right.”
“Why should I?” I said, but my stupid heart fluttered at the impossible thought of ‘making it right.’ It must happen all the time, I thought. Right? If this was how the Vithohn reacted to females… but females were with them anyway then… maybe the payoff was too good to deny.
Then I remembered our struggle in the mud and shivered, a painful shudder crossing my body.
The alien looked me over, toweringly tall. His eyes roved about my body, looked at the mud and bruises that covered me from my scuffle with his friend.
“How would you feel if you were born into consciousness after you’d just done something horrible?” he asked, his voice smooth and low. “Scared? Alone?”
Anger went through me then. Nice argument, asshole, but no thanks.
“No,” I said, and turned around, doing my best bitch-march back into the woods.
The alien laughed to himself and followed behind me, keeping pace with me. He wore white leather armor with spikes and studs, covering his entire body.
“What about you?” I spat, turning to him. “You seem to be pretty ‘of sound mind.’”
“I am,” he said.
I scoffed, narrowed a brow as I berated, “And you didn’t stop him?”
He shrugged. He seemed wise, calm, collected, but the ignorance of his shrug bugged me.
“You seemed like you wanted it,” he said and then quickly corrected. “By which I mean, I know you’ve been watching him.”
I swallowed. “What?”
“For many moons now.”
I wanted to laugh at his use of the term ‘many moons,’ but I was too angry. “So what?” I argued. “I deserved it?”
“No,” he said. “But you like him, obviously.”
“Not right now I don’t,” I sassed back. He let out a breath of laughter, and I continued, “And who says? Who says I’m not interested in you instead?”
“Me,” he argued.
“Oh, great seer! He knows all!” I mocked loudly, throwing my hands up in the air. “Who are you anyway?”
“Axen Du’aou,” he said evenly.
“Vithohn have last names?” I asked, still incensed. “Not son of so and so?”
“No. Not me, anyhow,” he said. “Come back. You won’t regret it.”
I looked around, squinting my eyes incredulously. I leaned against the wide tree I stood near and set my leg up against the bark. “Are you kidding me? Do you know what shit just went down between me and your little buddy?”
“I have eyes,” he said. “Yes. He wasn’t himself.”
My heart sped up. I looked down at my muddy legs and my torn jacket and then back up at Axen.
“And I’ll like him?” I asked.
Axen looked at me, giant eyes beaming. Then he laughed again. The sound coming from him was almost startling for its candor. “Something tells me my answer doesn’t matter at this point. You’ve made it your mission to get him, and so you have. Now go ease his conscience.”
I hate when people are right.
My feet picked up before my brain had the chance to comprehend what I was doing. But what I was doing was walking back with Axen. Back to my obsession.
It didn’t take long before we were back in the clearing, outside of the massive rock dome with its many carved embellishments.
The alien, Zawala, was there, looking handsome and distressed. I looked over his body with a strange sensation crawling over my nerves. It was strange to think that he had already been inside of me. It felt like it wasn’t real.
You’re in shock, idiot, I thought to myself.
Maybe I was. The fact felt more like something someone had told me. ‘Kidd, this happened to you.’ Not something that had happened minutes ago. It was a secondhand piece of gossip.
Zawara turned to me, blue eyes beaming and broken horns looking pitiable. He was tall and towering, like Axen, and he bit his lip with concern. His thick hands reached out to me and then pulled back unsurely as he said, “I am more regretful than you could eve—”
“Save it,” I said, setting a hand out to stop his advances.
He cocked a brow, unsure whether to continue the apology. “Save it?” he repeated.
“Yep,” I said. “I mean…” I shrugged. “In the nicest way possible, save it. It’s fine.”
“That…” he looked down at his hands, shot an unspoken word to Axen, and then looked back at me, wincing. “What I did to you…”
“Hey, you weren’t in your right mind, right?” I said with a hard breath, wanting this to be over as quickly as possible. This part. I wanted this part over with and wanted to get on with the Rachel/Nevir part. “What are you doing out here, anyway?” I asked.
Zawara looked around the field, up to the tower, and then back to me, defensive again. “Besides attacking innocents?” he let out a sad breath.
“Relax, get over it,” I said, irritated. “I have.”
“It’s that easy?” he asked, gravelly voice sounding uncharacteristically small.
“It’s that easy,” I repeated, crossing my arms once more and walking circles around him.
“Huh…” Zawara looked at Axen, who shrugged with a bemused smile and then said, “I was looking for a Kilari. You ever heard of them?”
“Sort of,” I said. “Aliens?”
He snorted. “Good guess…”
“Kidd,” I filled in the blanks. “My name.”
“Good guess, Kidd,” he corrected.
“They’re the enemies of the Vithohn, right?”
He nodded and turned as I continued walking, trying to keep his eyes on me. “It’s what’s making us…” he twirled his finger.
“Crazy,” I offered.
“Smooth,” Axen interjected but didn’t make to comment further.
“Right,” Zawara said with a bit of a laugh.
“So, you weren’t looking for our camp?” I asked, genuinely surprised. We were constantly warned by the other Vithohn how their Voth leaders were holding a crusade to find the betrayers, to destroy the remaining humans. Rowen, our camp, was at the top of the Vithohn’s shit-list.
“Your…camp?” Zawara said, and Axen’s ears perked up.
“Take a seat,” I said with a breath. “It’s a hell of a story.”