Chapter One – Veronica
Her lungs felt like they were full of water. Veronica Benson coughed violently, unable to pull in a proper breath. Her head spun. She felt her legs beneath her but couldn't seem to make them work. Where was she? Flashes and bursts of color came from every direction. Nothing made sense. She lay flat on the cold floor, trying to get her mind and body under control.
Breathe first, think later, she told herself, screwing her eyes tightly closed. She forced herself to take a few deep breaths, ignoring the uncomfortably full feeling of her lungs. The nausea churning in her stomach diminished and her head stopped spinning as much. Veronica shivered. What had happened? What had she been doing just before she got so suddenly ill?
I was walking home from the fertility clinic.
It had been a rocky appointment. The doctor had spent half the appointment trying to convince her that she should settle down and get married instead of trying to have children on her own. He eventually gave her the treatments she had paid for, but only with a great show of reluctance. This was despite the fact that she was over thirty, had all of one boyfriend in her life, and hadn't even had a date for about five years. She suspected it was more that the doctor thought she was too fat.
Veronica's job as a financial advisor was going well. With a steady, sizable income, she could support a child. She already had looked at what she needed, had begun stockpiling diapers, and was looking at the best nannies to hire. Not to mention she had lots of family around who would shower the baby with attention, and three brothers who were ready to be positive male influences in its life. She explained this to the doctor, but he kept acting like she was going to end up making her child a drug addict because she didn't have a husband. By the time the appointment was over, she was so angry that she decided to walk back home instead of taking the bus in order to cool off.
But what happened next? Veronica opened her eyes only to be blinded by a bright light. She closed them again.
Had her mother called? She remembered a ringing sound. And a light. Had she answered her phone and stepped out in front of a car? There was a scream. Pain in the base of her spine…
Something bit into her behind her right ear. It was a sharp jab, like the bite of a black fly. Veronica jerked, her hand flapping at her ear. Another hand caught her wrist and pushed it down to the floor. Her eyes snapped open, adjusting quickly now that the light wasn't shining into them. Another bite just behind her left ear.
"Translators in and functional," a voice said from somewhere.
"The sedative is wearing off," another voice said. "Give her some more."
"I've given her enough. She has been in stasis for billions of years. It would be too easy to overdose her in this state. A dead human is worth far less than a living specimen. Let her adjust a little. If need be, I'll give her something to make her more complacent in a few minutes."
The hand released her and she whirled around. Her eyes widened and her heart jumped to her throat. A gray face stared into hers, tentacles squirming around its nose and mouth like a living goatee. Pale white eyes with no pupils stared down at her. Her jaw dropped open to scream, but nothing came out.
"Ah, it appears she's more aware than I thought." The mouth moved, the sound coming from the gray face, but it didn't match up. It was like watching a badly dubbed movie. And yet, she could understand every word.
Veronica's panic pushed to the back of her mind. This had to be a dream. She often had vivid ones, although she could usually tell when she was dreaming right off the bat. But gray tentacle-faced creatures weren't real, so this had to be a dream. Which meant she was safe. Right?
"We're lucky we were able to find a ship that still had a living specimen on it," the gray face said. "These days it's difficult to get them before the Zon Sanctuary arrives."
"That T'shav thinks he's the creator incarnate," a voice said from the side, full of disgust.
Veronica turned her head towards the speaker. A blue person with gold eyes stood there. It was a he, as far as she could tell, with a tall, lean figure. He held a long stick in his hand that looked like a fire poker. Just behind him was a coffin. Or at least something that vaguely looked like a coffin. Or one of those little fish oil capsules, only blown up a billion times bigger. A combination of the two, maybe. Thick yellow goo dripped out of it. She looked down and saw she was covered in the same icky stuff. She could feel the weight of it, a slight chill on her face, and her head spun again.
Just a dream.
It didn't feel like a dream. She jerked upright, slapping away the gray creature's hand as it reached for her. The blue creature straightened, the stick in its hand pointing towards her. Veronica pushed herself backward until she was pressed against the wall. Her heart faltered. This was no dream. An elaborate prank? Had she been kidnapped?
"Who are you? What sort of sick joke are you playing? What do you want with me?"
The blue creature laughed, and the gray one shot it a look that may have been disgust. "Do not be afraid, Human. My name is Kena, and I am a Wlobq. You were taken from Earth some billions of years ago and then put in a stasis pod on a ship traveling at light speed. The temporal distortion allowed the ship to survive all these years."
One phrase stood out. Veronica swallowed down bile. "Billions of years?"
The white eyes were unmoving in the gray face, making shivers climb up and down her spine. "The Earth you knew is dead. Humans have long since left its ground and traveled to other worlds, evolving into new species. You wouldn’t think it seems like it, but both Wlobqs like me and Aphrosians such as my companion are your distant descendants."
Veronica's head spun. She wished she could pass out again but had no such luck.
"Kena, her new owners will tell her all this. You're wasting time. Can we take her to the buyers or not?"
Buyers? New owners? "What are you going to do with me?"
The blue creature smirked, stepping forward. "Humans are rare commodities. Since all species are descended from humans, your kind can breed with anybody. Even squidface here. Best thing is, humans pass down very little of their traits to the offspring. You're also very useful in disease research and other sorts of testing."
Veronica felt the blood drain from her face. She opened her mouth, but there was nothing she could say to that.
Two sets of footsteps sounded from behind her, and she turned to see two devils striding up a long, shiny corridor. Both had deep red skin, black hair, and black eyes. All that was missing were the forked tails, horns, and pitchfork. As they got closer, Veronica processed that one was male and the other female. He wore a kilt and nothing else. She wore a flowy, strapless dress. Both had the hilts of swords peeking out over their shoulders.
The blue creature – alien, Veronica's brain was beginning to process – straightened with a frown. He pulled a gun from his waist and pointed it at the newcomers. Veronica scrambled to her feet, her heart pounding.
Just a dream. A trick. A prank. This isn't real. This can't be real.
"What are you doing here? You'll have your chance to bid on the human like everybody else."
"My brother wants to test out the product," the female said. "Chapec?"
The male stepped toward Veronica. She shrank back – until their eyes met. A spark of electricity ran up and down her spine. His eyes were deep, with so much conflicting emotion in them that she wasn't sure how to take it. Those weren't eyes looking at her as if she was a product; they were seeing her as a person. For that alone, she was drawn to him…
Or maybe not that alone. Veronica had always been a fan of alien romance novels and movies, and right now she could have been looking at a Hollywood hunk painted red. Broad shoulders, symmetrical features, strong chin, muscles everywhere. He stepped closer again.
"I just said—" the blue alien turned his gun on the male – Chapec.
Before he could finish his sentence, the female did some sort of quick wrist movement. A flash of silver sped from her hand. In the next second, a spray of blood spurted from the blue alien's throat. His eyes bugged out and he staggered backward.
The gray alien jumped to his feet, but Chapec was quicker. In one fluid motion, he drew the sword strapped to his back. An arm snaked around Veronica's waist, pulling her in tight against him as the sword made a circle. She barely had time to turn her face away before she heard the slice of flesh and twin thumps hit the floor.
Bile choked her. She fought against the alien holding her. Her awareness was heightened tenfold. The heat of his skin against hers. The smell of blood in the air. The sound of her own ragged breath. Adrenaline pumped through her body.
Oh, God! This is real.
Chapec dropped his sword to hold her with both hands. "Calm down. We're not going to hurt you."
With two bodies lying on the floor, Veronica wasn't going to believe that. She threw her head forward, her skull crunching against his nose. But even as he grunted in surprise, a sharp prick stabbed into the back of Veronica's neck.
"That should calm her down," Chapec's sister said.
Veronica sagged against the alien.
"What did you just give her?"
"A sedative. She'll hurt herself if she doesn't stop struggling. Besides that, think about it. The whole situation has a lot of shock inherent in it. It's healthier for her to sleep and process some of this unconsciously rather than being awake and going deeper and deeper into shock."
Waves of black passed over Veronica's eyes. She tried to fight against it, but it was too powerful. The last thing she noticed was that Chapec smelled nice – like vanilla and cloves. Odd for a devil to smell like that, rather than like brimstone.