Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 46803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
I let out a shriek as I feel the collar tighten around my neck. There’s a pulse, and then a flash of sensation. I don’t know if it is detecting his fingers, or if it thinks I am trying to take it off, but whatever is happening, it doesn’t like it. A spark jumps down my spine, flashes across my scalp. I hear Rex let out a grunt and feel his fingers slacken and fall away.
When I turn around, all hell is breaking loose.
There is a snarl that makes the walls of the ship shake as Kahn appears out of fucking nowhere. Rex is collapsing, on his way down from whatever the collar just did to him. I’m guessing one hell of a belt from the device. I had no idea that it protected me as much as it claimed me.
My shock roots me to the spot as Kahn sends the soldiers flying like skittles and snatches Rex by the neck, wrapping big, long, clawed alien digits around his throat. That’s one hell of a way to break a fall. Seeing Rex handled by Kahn is like seeing a doll being roughly handled by a boy child whose only interest in the toy is breaking it.
While Kahn takes hold of Rex, Arkan is handling the rest of the soldiers. He gathers them up like a bundle of dropped sticks, pulling them up into his arms before pushing them through the nearest doorway and sealing them behind it. It all happens too quickly for them to be able to fight back. I hear them clamoring at the door, but I know there’s no chance they’re getting out of there in the short term.
Arkan and Kahn look at one another, and I know that the two of them are doing that thing again, that thing where they talk with their minds.
I have no idea what they are saying, but they clearly intend to take Rex away, judging by the way Kahn has already started to drag him away down the hall. I am surprised that nobody is paying much attention to me. I am left standing in the hall, free, but confused.
But of course, I have not actually been forgotten.
“Go back to the room,” Kahn barks over his shoulder. “NOW!”
There is such deep authority in his voice I don’t dare disobey him. I know I’ve fucked up. I know I almost got people hurt right now. The soldiers could have been killed. I don’t know what he and Arkan are going to do to Rex, but I bet it’s not going to be fun.
I have the strangest feeling in my belly. It takes a minute to realize what it is, because it’s not something I’m accustomed to feeling: guilt.
I feel bad for sneaking out. I feel bad for taking advantage of Kahn’s kindness. I feel bad for creating a dangerous situation where any of us could have been seriously hurt or worse. I feel horrendous for getting caught by Rex. He didn’t know I was here, and now everybody knows.
I fucked up, and not for the first time.
But for the first time, it suddenly feels like my fault. And it suddenly feels like I care.
I mope back to the room, knowing that Kahn will return, and that when he does, I am going to be in trouble.
Proper trouble.
The kind of trouble that is going to make me sorry and sore.
9 REVELATIONS
Kahn
The human twitches in my grip.
I thought I would kill him when I saw him touching Stella. I felt pure rage surge through me. Not the cool, collected murder urge I am accustomed to feeling. I have always been so logical and so in control of my temper. But when this man put his hands on her, I felt like an absolute animal.
Arkan puts a hand on my shoulder. I hear his voice in my head. Soothing.
“She’s safe.”
But she’s not safe. None of us are. Not while we exist in this uneasy truth with a pack of fierce hominids. Even now they are probably trying to break out of the room Arkan locked them in.
“Are the other humans secure?”
He glances at the bridge’s control panel.
“Yes. And Stella is back in your room. I’ve closed the doors. The ship is in a complete lockdown.”
For now. Until that pack of animals finds a way to pry the doors open and flood toward the bridge. I suppose, if anyone were to hear my thoughts, I might sound afraid of humans. I am not. I am afraid of what they will make me do to them. I will not be caught off-guard. I will not fall where others have fallen. And I will never, ever allow them to put hands on Stella again.
“Let… me… go…” the human rasps.
“Not until you understand that Stella is off limits to you. To all humans.” I flex my fingers and tighten my grip, cutting off a little more of his air. I wonder if he has ever been held this way. I wonder if he has ever been made to feel truly helpless. He is an older male, and clearly one who has excelled in the military. The way he gripped Stella was with an easy kind of ownership, as if he had every right to touch her. As if she belonged to nobody, least of all herself.