Chapter Four

 

This was madness. She wasn’t cut out for this. She didn’t have the first clue how to fight or fire a weapon. Saffron had given her some basic instructions on how to work the blaster she gingerly held in one hand, but the idea of actually firing it made her feel ill.

Toughen up, Alice. Lives are depending on you.

And that scared her more than anything else. She shouldn’t be responsible for others, not when she couldn’t even take care of herself. But she could do this. She had to. She peered into the Mariana’s cargo bay, glad to be out of the small confines of the vents even though she was practically bouncing with nerves.

“I can’t see anything, can you?” she asked Saffron.

“No. But let’s wait a few minutes and see if there’s any movement.”

Nothing happened. But Alice’s dread continued to grow. She swallowed heavily, jumping when Saffron tapped her on the shoulder. “I think we should go.”

Alice nodded nervously. She flinched at every little sound, certain some of those aliens were about to appear around the corner, ready to attack. Her bladder protested. Like always.

“You’re gonna give yourself a heart attack if you keeping jumping like that,” Saffron told her.

“Sorry,” Alice said. “Guess I’m not used to this much excitement. I live a really boring, quiet life.”

Saffron snorted. “Lucky you. Sophie and I have dreamed of a boring life.”

Guilt filled her for all the times she’d dreamed of something exciting to break up the monotony of her life. She needed to be careful what she wished for, or her wish might very well come back to haunt her.

“Lucky for us, they left the door open,” Saffron said. She looked over at Alice. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

She followed Saffron as the other woman crept towards the open cargo doors, using crates to hide behind. When they arrived at the doors, Saffron gestured for her to stand to one. They studied the cargo area of the Coizil’s ship. There was no movement, no sign of life. Suddenly, Saffron stepped out from her hiding place and ran down the ramp. Alice struggled not to cry out.

Saffron hid behind a large storage unit then turned and gestured at Alice.

Now or never.

Ten minutes later, after doing a sweep of the cargo bay, Saffron crouched and gestured Alice close.

“There’s no one here,” she said in a low voice. “Contact them.”

Alice nodded and switched on her communicator.

“Alice?” Macon rumbled.

“The cargo bay is empty.”

“Good. Go and wait back in the transporter but keep this communicator on. We will be there soon.”

“All right, see you later, alligator.”

Saffron looked over at her incredulously. She shrugged. “I’m nervous. I say stupid things when I’m nervous. He said to go back to the transporter.”

Alice turned then froze as she heard a noise. Saffron paused in front of her, turning back. Eyes wide, Alice looked over the covered object they were hidden behind as two Coizils entered the cargo bay. They could ruin everything! She didn’t know when Rich and the others would arrive. It could be twenty minutes or two.

Biting her lip, she forced herself to think. Staring at Saffron, she pointed at herself then the guards. Then she pointed at Saffron and the transporter.

Saffron shook her head frantically, but Alice ignored her. They didn’t have time to debate this. She stood and took off running.

She heard the startled shouts but didn’t look back. Her heart beat wildly, drowning out everything else. Hoping she didn’t accidentally trip, she weaved through crates and containers, leading the Coizils away from the transporter and Saffron.

Beside her, a crate shattered and she screamed, staring at it in shock. What had just happened? Then her frazzled brain pulled itself together.

They were shooting at her!

She circled around them, heading for the internal entrance to the cargo bay. More blaster fire shot out, and she groaned, stumbling as her legs grew weak. Fire engulfed her side as she fell.

She’d been shot.

This had not been part of the plan.

***

Jaxan exited their spaceship into the cargo bay of the Coizil’s ship. He ran down the ramp then took a defensive position, guarding the other warriors as they exited behind him. They took up positions around the cargo bay, tense and ready. They were now on borrowed time. They had to find the women and get out. He glanced back at their ship, but it was still cloaked. It only became visible once you were within a few feet. The pilot, Racar, and Annabel would remain on board.

Rich raced over to the human transporter.

“Jaxan, with me,” Macon said, following Rich. “Toriq, you will remain in charger here. Annabel? Are you ready?”

“The eagle has landed, darlin’,” she purred through the open communication line. “No one is sneaking up on us.”

Jaxan looked at Macon in confusion.

“I assume it means that she can see if anyone is about to enter the cargo bay.”

“Stop your jabbering and hurry up,” Rich said irritably. “Alice! Alice!”

“Jeez, you guys are loud enough to wake a freakin’ volcano.”

A short, dark-haired female that Jaxan assumed was Alice moved towards them. Her gaze was wary, her body tense, as though ready to flee. He noted the blaster she held in her hand. Shouldn’t she be happier to see them?

“Who are you?” Rich asked.

Not Alice then.

“Saffron. One of you Rich?”

“Yeah, me. Where’s Alice?”

Saffron looked nervous. “Two of those assholes came into the cargo bay a few seconds after she finished talking to you guys. Before I knew it, she’d raced off. She was drawing their attention to give me a chance to get back to the transporter.”

“Fuck! That little idiot!” Rich threw his hands in the air.

“She is not an idiot.” The woman gave him a fierce glare. “You jerk.”

Jaxan found her defense of her friend admirable, although it was obvious from the way Rich’s face grew red and blotchy, that he did not.

“There’s something else.” The female turned to Macon, ignoring Rich. “I think she’s hurt. They fired at her, and she fell. When they picked her up, she was limp. I think she was unconscious.”

Rich started swearing, pacing back and forth. “If she dies, I am going to fuckin’ destroy these bastards.”

“First sensible thing you’ve said,” the female stated.

“What is your name?” Jaxan asked.

“I’m Saffron. You taking us away from here?”

Macon nodded. “We will protect you now. You must come with us.”

Saffron studied them all. “Alice seemed to trust you. Although I’m starting to wonder why.” She gave Rich a withering look. “Guess you can’t choose your family.”

Rich continued to mutter to himself.

“Soph, you can come out now.”

Jaxan was surprised as a thin, blonde woman stepped out from behind a crate and moved towards them. She watched them all warily, her fear almost palatable. Her gaze darted back and forth between them, as though she was trying to decide who was the greater threat. Jaxan immediately tried to make himself seem less frightening, which was not easy considering how much larger he was than the delicate female. But he could not stand the fear in her gaze.

Saffron pulled the other female close, protective even though she was half a head shorter than the blonde female. “This is my sister, Sophie. She’s coming too.”

“Of course,” Macon said with a nod. “Come.”

“We need to find Alice,” Rich said urgently.

“Did she still have her communicator on her?” Jaxan asked.

Saffron turned to him. “I assume so. Why?”

“We can track her.”

***

Alice was pretty certain this was hell. Her father was wrong. It wasn’t fire and damnation. It wasn’t being tortured for your sins for eternity.

Hell was a tiny, windowless room filled with fifty hysterical women.

She knew it was uncharitable of her to think this way. They were scared, and they had every right to be afraid. Perhaps she would have had more patience for their theatrics if her side wasn’t burning, making every breath extremely painful. She still lay on the floor, where the Coizils had thrown her. She ignored the hundred questions being thrown at her, and just tried to think past the fiery pain.

Red hair filled her vision. She blinked in an attempt to bring the face into focus. At some stage, she’d lost her glasses.

“Alice, are you okay?”

“Bianca?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s me. Alice, what happened? Are you okay?”

“Hurt. Been shot.”

“Shit.” Bianca knelt. “Anyone here know first aid? Alice has been shot.”

“I do.” Someone else knelt on her other side.

“Lola?”

“I’m sorry we didn’t listen to you, Alice,” Lola told her. “You were right. The crew wasn't coming back. We should have hidden.”

Around her, women wept, some so loudly that Alice winced.

“All of you, be quiet,” Lola ordered them. “Alice is hurt, and I need to concentrate. Help me roll her, Bianca.”

Alice screamed as red-hot pokers pressed into her side. She took shallow breaths, trying desperately not to vomit.

Lola pressed something into her side, and she screamed again. Around her, everyone fell silent. Perfect. They weren’t quiet any other time, but now that she was sobbing like a baby, they decided to shut up.

Wonderful.

“I’m sorry, Alice,” Lola apologized. “I’ve got stop the bleeding.”

“It’s okay,” she croaked out through the pain blinding her. Oh, this hurt. If she took every scrape or bruise she’d suffered over the years and combined them into one, it still wouldn’t hurt as much as this.

“Alice, where have you been?” someone else asked. It sounded like Maria. “Where are Sophie and her bitch sister? Were they captured too? Is there a way out of this?”

“Maria, shut up,” Lola told her. “She can’t talk right now.”

“But you heard them, Lola. They’re going to kill us.” Maria sounded half-hysterical.

“Help is coming,” Alice managed to say, swallowing heavily. “My cousin is coming.”

“What? Did you say help is coming?” Someone grasped her shoulder, shaking her. Pain swamped her once more, then blessed darkness.

***

“Okay, you need to go through the next set of doors to your left. The doors are locked and alarmed. So is the door to the room where the women are being kept. I don’t have eyes in the room, but I can see the passage outside. There aren’t any guards. Arrogant bastards didn’t expect us,” Annabel spoke through the open communication channel.

“Can you unlock the doors?” Macon asked.

Jaxan watched their backs, even though Annabel had ‘eyes’ on them. Safan, Calum, and Rich had come with them. Getting here was easy. The harder part was getting fifty women through the ship back to the cargo bay, undetected. The women would be split into groups of ten. One warrior to ten women. It was formidable odds but not impossible.

“They’re on different systems. These guys are smarter than I gave them credit. Okay, this could be a little tricky. I’ll turn off the alarm and unlock the first door. All of you go through and wait. I’ll need to reset the alarm and lock it again before I tackle the room the women are in.”

“Got it. Come on,” Rich said impatiently. “If Alice is hurt she needs us. Now.”

Macon scowled at the other man. They waited until the doors swooshed open then ran inside. Toriq stood by the door while Safan moved to the door at the other end, watching out the small window. If the Coizils came upon them then they were in a bad position. They had to move quickly.

“All right. Here you go.”

The door to the room open and a woman screamed.

Jaxan strode inside.

“Hush,” Macon said as the women started talking. Some were crying, others watched on fearfully. A couple of the women were naked with visible bruises. He wanted to murder those who had hurt them. Slowly.

But it was the female lying in the middle of the small room, her face deathly pale, that caught his attention. Once he saw her, he barely noticed anyone else. There was something about the tiny, red-haired female that called to him.

“You must all be quiet. We are here to help you. But if you make noise, you will alert the Coizils we are here, and we all die.” Macon stared around at the women.

“Go, babe, scare them half to death. That’ll help,” Annabel said through the communicator.

“Alice!” Rich pushed past him and knelt beside the injured woman. “Alice, wake up.”

“Is she okay?” Annabel asked sharply. “Damn it, I can’t get eyes in there. Rich, is she all right?”

Rich held two fingers against her neck. “She has a pulse. Her chest is moving. She’s breathing.”

“Of course she’s breathing,” the female beside him snapped. Curvy, with dark skin, she seemed to take huge offense at Rich’s words. “She fainted because Maria is a stupid bitch and shook her.” She turned and glared at another woman who watched on fearfully. “She’s been shot, and she’s lost a lot of blood. We need to get her stitched up.”

Rich nodded then gently picked Alice up. The unconscious female groaned, the sound ripping through Jaxan’s heart. What was wrong with him? He did not know this female. Yet he found himself fighting the urge to rip her from Rich’s hold and tug her against his wide chest.

He wanted to be the one to protect her. To hold her.

Could it be? But he had not even touched her. There was no way of knowing that she was his mate.

“Jaxan! Jaxan!” He turned to find Macon staring at him irritably.

“Yes?”

“Start removing their collars. You’ll take the first ten women and go first.”

He nodded and moved to a female, grabbing the small laser attached to his belt. It was time-consuming removing the collar with the laser because he had to be careful not to go to burn the female’s skin. But he worked slowly and calmly.

“Ten?” one female asked. “Why only ten?”

“We will need to split up. There are too many of you. Each group will have one warrior. You must do exactly as he orders. Remain silent, no matter what.” Macon gave them all a stern look.

“Good luck with that one, babe,” Annabel said.

“Annabel, quiet.” Macon’s voice had softened despite the rebuke. He turned to the women. “This is life and death. You speak at the wrong moment, and you could get all of us killed. Do you understand?”

They all nodded, their fear so ripe he could almost taste it. He hated that they had to frighten them further, but Macon was right to ensure their obedience.

“Rich, take Alice and go with Jaxan.”

Rich nodded. “Let’s go.”

Jaxan looked down at the female who still pressed a cloth against Alice’s side. “You have healing knowledge?”

She nodded. “I was a nurse on Earth.”

He knew that was a type of healer. “Then you will come also.”

“Wait. Why her? Anyone can hold a cloth,” the same female who’d spoken earlier asked.

“Shut up, Maria. Think of someone else for a change,” a female with bright red hair told her.

“All of you, quiet,” Macon said harshly. “If you cannot be quiet we will gag you.”

“Ooh, honey, I love it when you get all forceful.”

“Quiet, Annabel,” Macon snapped.

“Mom, I don’t want to get up yet. I’m tired.” The female in Rich’s arms muttered and attempted to move. She let out a cry of pain. “Oww.”

She opened her eyes, and he drew in a sharp breath. Pale blue eyes looked up at him sleepily. A connection pulled him towards her.

“Back off a bit,” Rich snapped, pulling him out of his stupor. The other man took a few steps back, giving him a suspicious look.

“Rich?” Alice asked. “You’re really here?”

Rich dropped his lips over her forehead in a soft kiss. Jaxan was surprised by how caring the other man was; it was not a side he had seen of Rich before. “I’m here, kid. I’m getting you out of here.”

“The other women. You have to help them.”

“I don’t give a shit about them. But the Zerconians insist we help them. However, if they do anything that risks us getting caught they will pay.” He scowled.

“Can we please get a move on?” Annabel asked. “This is gonna take some time. One group at a time needs to leave the room and wait in the passage outside for me to open the second set of doors. I’ll guide each group back then the next group can leave.”

“Let us begin,” Macon stated.

It was a tense trip back, but the females all remained quiet as Jaxan led them back to their ship. He couldn’t help but glance back a few times at the female Rich held in his arms. She was still, her eyes closed and he worried at how pale she was. The female healer was right. She’d lost too much blood.

“It’s a clear path back to the cargo bay. Two of our guys are coming to meet you. I’m going back for the next group.” Annabel’s voice was tense, serious for once.

“Understood,” Jaxan stated.

As soon as they were in the cargo bay. Racar raced out and met Rich. They disappeared into the ship. Someone gasped, and he looked down at the dark-skinned female.

“Where did they go?”

Around them, the other females look on fearfully.

“Our ship is cloaked,” he explained. “Come, you will see it once you are within a few feet.”

They all gasped as the ship came into view right in front of them.

“That’s some freaky shit,” one muttered.

Jaxan entered last. He knew he should head towards the control center where Annabel was, he found himself walking towards Medical.

He stepped inside, and Rich turned. Racar didn’t look up from where he was examining Alice. Jaxan drew in a sharp breath as he saw the slash of broken skin across her side. Blaster fire. The skin was ragged, the wound bleeding freely.

“Lost too much blood,” Racar said. “She must get into a regeneration chamber immediately.” He looked up at Rich. “Does she have your blood type?”

Both Rich and Annabel had a special blood type that a regeneration chamber could not replicate.

Rich shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Racar nodded. “I will test it.”

“She will be okay,” Jaxan stated. She could not die. Not when he had just found her. He swallowed heavily at that thought.

He moved closer.

“Her blood type is compatible with the regen,” Racar said suddenly. “Lift her across.”

Jaxan was reaching for her when Rich stepped in front of him. “Pretty sure he meant me, big guy. Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

“Of course,” Jaxan said stiffly, surprised at himself. “Keep me updated.”

Racar gave him a curious look, but his attention soon turned to Alice. Jaxan forced himself to leave. He fought his need to return to her. There were other things that needed his attention. As he strode into the control center, he saw Annabel standing in front of the computer panels.

“What can I do?” he asked her.

“I need another set of eyes, watching for Coizils. The second group was nearly caught. Come here. Watch.”

For the next hour, he worked with Annabel, guiding the other groups through the ship. Annabel grew more and more tense with each passing minute. “We need to get out of here.”

Macon’s group was the last one to return, and he knew that was where most of her tension stemmed from.

“Stop,” Annabel said sharply. “Two Coizils approaching from the right passage.”

Stars! They were so close. Thankfully all the women remained silent. The Coizils passed by, and Annabel let out a sigh of relief.

“All clear, babe. Get your butt moving.”

“We will discuss the way you speak to me when I return, mate,” Macon promised in a firm voice.

“Looking forward to it. You get here safely, and I’ll let you discuss it all you like.”

Jaxan was confused by their conversation, but even he felt hugely relived as Macon and the last of the women climbed on board their ship. Jaxan called back all the warriors standing watch in the cargo bay.

The door opened, and Macon walked into the control center. Annabel looked up briefly. “Hey, what took you so long, babe?”

“I am fine,” Macon told her, coming toward her and placing his hand on her shoulder briefly.

She snorted. “Course you are. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”

Jaxan noted that she relaxed visibly at his touch.

“Now, we’ve just got to blow this joint.”

“Blow this joint?” Toriq asked, coming to stand beside him.

“She means we are ready to go,” Macon said. “Do it, mate. I wish to be gone from here.”

“You and me both, babe. This has been the worst honeymoon ever.”