My heart was racing as we climbed the steps back up to where the self-proclaimed king was. I didn’t know what I was doing. The man made my skin crawl every time he looked at me. I considered myself to be a pretty good judge of character though, and the guard escorting me didn’t seem to fit in the with rest of them. He didn’t want to be there, I could almost sense his apprehension. His concern for my safety showed that he was different.

The room was empty as we waited, and I knew I needed to try and get to the case near the ‘throne’ where Vega had been. I casually strolled closer, but the guard shook his head and I sat down on the second of five steps leading to the seat. With a dramatic sigh, I leaned backward and looked at the guard again. He was watching me.

“What’s your name?” I asked him.

He ignored me at first but I kept watching him until he caved. “Davidson.”

“Davidson?” I asked. “Do you have a first name?”

“Anthony, and we shouldn’t be talking. I’m just here to make sure that you don’t run. Vega will be right back, he went to check the assets.”

I snorted, “The assets? You mean the brothers of my friends down there? You know he’s going to torture them, don’t you?”

He winced at my words and turned away. I took the opening and moved up another step. Just one more and I would be able to lift open the case to see what was in it. It was obviously a medical case, not something that someone would just keep lying around unless it had a very good purpose. Anthony turned back to look at me and noticed I’d moved again but said nothing at first.

“Why are you here if you don’t want to be?” I pressed.

“That’s none of your business. Stop moving or I’m going to take you back down there.”

“Your boss wouldn’t be too happy with you then, would he?” I asked. “Come on. We are both stuck here so we might as well talk.”

“I can leave anytime I want.”

“Then, why don’t you? Do you have some sort of sick fetish to watch people get tortured? Is that what gets you off?”

He was about to say something when the large double-doors opened and Vega walked in, his breathing labored under the heavy weight of his obese figure. When his eyes landed on me and saw my proximity to the case, he glared at Anthony. I quickly stood up and moved away from it, cursing my luck under my breath. This wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought.

“So, you wanted more of me, sweet thing?” he huffed, dropping into the chair and making the wooden platform groan under his massive weight.

“Um, no,” I shot back. “I know when I am defeated though. I want to strike a deal.”

He laughed at me, “What kind of deal, you’ve got nothing.”

“I’ve got myself. Don’t think I didn’t see how you watched me. You want me, don’t you?” I asked.

Vega snorted. “So? You think that gives you some kind of bargaining chip?”

“I do. I have friends and family, you know. They will come looking for me unless I tell them to stay away.”

“I’m not scared of any of you pathetic outlanders. You are nothing to me. My men could wipe out all of you within days.”

“I didn’t say anything about outlanders.”

His eyes grew wide, “Dragselians? I don’t believe it.”

I shrugged my shoulders and turned away from him, “Fine, suit yourself then.”

“You are bluffing.”

“Are you really willing to risk that? You have what? Like fifty men? That’s nothing for my people. You would be wiped off the planet before you knew what happened.”

“Please, we are over a hundred men strong. So, you are offering yourself for what? To set your boyfriend free? Fine.”

“No! All four of them!” I demanded.

“Over my dead body. Call in the Dragselians then and we will see who dies. I promise your pretty little head will be the first one to roll after I have my fun, of course.”

“You are disgusting. Zaruv and the others will never let you get away with this,” I hissed.

His cheeks flushed and he stood up, “I do not like to be threatened. It looks like you’re gonna need to be put in your place. Davidson! Take her to my bedroom and keep an eye on her.”

“I’ll die before I let you touch me!” I screamed at him.

Vega took another step forward, “You won’t have the chance.”

He raised his hand up to hit me and I stumbled backward, almost falling down the steps before Anthony caught me. I thought I was going to feel the powerful blow of his hand across my face but instead, I felt Anthony let go of me and I opened my eyes. Vega had turned bright red, his face ballooning up. I could tell that he couldn’t breathe and for a brief second, I thought that he was going to die. Then, it hit me. The case must have something he needed in it!

I ran past Anthony who was screaming for help, “Get away from him! What the hell are you doing?”

“Do you know what’s wrong with him?” I asked quickly.

He shook his head, “No! We don’t have any doctors around here. We go into the city to find help!”

“He needs something, quickly! Give me some room, I am a doctor,” I lied.

I quickly flipped open the case and saw two rows of syringes, each one filled with a clear liquid. Without thinking about my own fate, I grabbed two and reached for Vega’s convulsing arm. He couldn’t control himself and in a flash, I was flying across the room. I cradled the syringes and landed on my back. Pain shot through me as Anthony ran to help me.

“No! Hold Vega down!” I yelled at him. “Whatever this is, he needs it and I can’t do it without your help.”

Anthony nodded and helped me to my feet before running back to Vega and wrapping him in a bear hug. By this time half a dozen other guards had heard his yelling and they all rushed in. Anthony quickly told them the situation and they held the large man down as I found a vein and quickly shoved one of the needles into his arm before emptying the clear liquid into his body. Within seconds the convulsions stopped and Vega’s breathing returned to normal.

I stumbled backward and sat down away from the throne on the floor, trying to compose myself while carefully checking that the second syringe was safely tucked into my bra. It seemed intact, though I would have to be careful. There was no way of knowing what was in it but whatever it was, Vega needed it to live. I pulled my attention back to Vega and went to him. His pulse had returned to normal and the other guards were now giving me enough room to work after seeing me save their boss’ life.

After a few more minutes, Vega looked at me in shock. “How did you know to do that?”

I shrugged, “I am the medic in my outpost. It comes with the territory.”

“You could have let me die,” he muttered.

“I still need your good graces. Plus, killing you isn’t my endgame. I just want my freedom.”

“You’ve earned that I think, but not that of your friends. I still have a business to run.”

“Then send me back down because I’m not leaving without them,” I said stubbornly.

He eyed me suspiciously before shaking his head and talking over me. “Davidson!”

“Yes, sir?” Anthony said, still obviously shaken from the ordeal.

“Take her to the kitchen. Get her something to eat and see if she changes her mind. If not, stick her back in the cell and let her stew for a while. You’ve been offered your freedom for saving my life, but I won’t offer it again after today. I suggest you think about it.”

“And I suggest you get a doctor on staff.”

He laughed, “If you don’t leave them behind, then I will have one. For the rest of your life.”

I glared at him as Anthony took hold of my arm and drug me back through the large doors. As they slammed shut I thought about everything that had just happened. I didn’t want to get food, I wanted to get back downstairs and be with Zaruv. Maybe he would be able to offer some insight into what the syringe was. Or at the very least I could stick him with it since apparently not much killed his kind.

“Just take me back down,” I muttered. “I’m not hungry.”

He shook his head, “Sorry, but I’m not risking my ass for yours. He said to feed you, so that’s what’s going to happen. If you want to get back down to your boyfriend, then I suggest you eat fast. Vega isn’t a generous man, I don’t know how long it will be before he changes his mind about sending you to the cell and not his bedroom.”

“Oh,” I muttered.

It wouldn’t do anyone any good if I was taken there. I would die before letting him touch me. As Anthony led me through the mansion I looked for any exits that I could, mentally making a note of the twists and turns that we followed. The kitchen was elaborate, with two people that I could see working in it. One of them, a large and angry-looking woman, dropped a plate of fruit in front of me without another word.

Anthony watched as I ate slowly, “How long is this going to take?”

“How long do I have to pretend to eat before you’ll take me back to my cell?”

He rolled his eyes and nodded his head. Silently, I followed him out a different way than we came and before long, he was locking me away again. Zaruv stuck his hand through the bars and I took it into mine, leaning my head against his through the metal.

“I was so worried about you,” he whispered as Anthony walked away.

“You had no reason to be, I can take care of myself.”

I looked around and pulled the syringe from my shirt, passing it to Zaruv and explaining to him where it came from. “Do you know what it is? Is there any way to find out?”

He shook his head for a second then squirted a small amount onto his finger. One sniff and he jerked away. I saw his eyes change to the same bronze that I had seen before when he was really angry.

“What’s going on?” I asked urgently.

Our eyes met and I knew that something had changed. “Ragal, we have a problem.”

“What?” he asked.

I cleared my throat, “You better tell me what is going on. I’m the one who just got that after all.”

He held up his finger to the cell that Ragal was in and the princely brother jerked away. “Well, son of a bitch! I can’t believe it. I guess it all makes sense now that I think about it. That’s how he knew so much about us, they all do.”

“They who?” I screamed, getting fed up with the lack of information.

Zaruv turned back to me and shook his head, he was enraged. “Vega, he’s more like us than you, it would seem.”

I rolled my eyes, “You better stop talking in riddles or I might take him up on his offer to get the hell out of here.”

“That would be a mistake, Infernians never let any prize go.”

I swallowed back the lump in my throat. “What?”

Our eyes met, “Vega is an Infernian.”