When he didn’t respond, except to shut his eyes against my voice, I moved away from him. The male guard clicked to a stop and looked at the Senator.
“Her room,” he said thickly.
No, no, no! I was trembling.
The guard escorted me down the hall, and I took peripheral glances at his weapons. He kept a hand on the gun at his waist, as if expecting me to attack at any second. Panic made my heart thunder.
I went into my room, hearing the door close and the click of the lock. I stared at the walls. The fancy paintings of Parisian hills. My ornate bed. If Linette’s warning meant what I thought it did, this pretty room would be my grave.
God, was this it? Suddenly the walls seemed to be closing in like a tomb around me, and panic rose. I launched myself at the door, pounding with my fists, not caring what any of the guards thought.
“Senator Navis! Please!” I screamed, yanking the handle, banging and smacking the door until I felt hoarse and my hands throbbed. Nobody was coming. I spread my palms on the door and rested my forehead on it, catching my breath as reality crashed down, smothering, making me gasp for air.
Then I thought of everyone else in the building. The children. Little Milna, who wanted me to play with her hair. The tiny perfectionists with their brilliant minds. Did they deserve death, just because of what they were?
My heart ached. If spared, someday those Baelese children would be grown. Would they rise up to try and take over again? If they were raised differently than other Baelese, maybe they could learn compassion and empathy, like the Senator had.
Or had he? In my heart, I truly believed he had, but his sense of honor and loyalty to his people clouded his better judgment. He was too easily influenced by others. But not by me, it seemed. It figures the first time a guy turned down sex with me would be the one time it really mattered. Granted, I always went for the kind of jerks who didn’t care about anyone but themselves.
Except Tater, who I failed.
My last words to him had been that we couldn’t be together. We couldn’t touch again. Why didn’t I just let myself love him? Why couldn’t those have been my last words to him?
I fell onto the bed face first and curled into a ball. My dress was too confining in the chest, suffocating me. I sat up and yanked it over my head, throwing it at the wall. Next I tore off my uncomfortable bra and thinning, stretched underwear before curling back into myself. This is how I would die. Naked. The same way I was born.
How exactly does a person fall asleep when they know they’re about to die? And not just a small doze, but a hard, dead-to-the-world, deep sleep? I don’t know, but when I heard my door open, I was groggy and confused, and I panicked.
I made an inhuman yelping sound as I leaped backward into the headboard, yanking the covers over my nakedness. For a few seconds I didn’t even know where I was.
And then the Senator slipped in, closing the door by leaning against it, filling my whole room with his presence.
Holy . . .
My life and situation came into clarity with a single realization: I was naked. And even with the blanket pulled up, he was staring, his eyes ravishing me. I immediately started panting, unable to look away. What time was it? We had to get out of here!
“Navis,” I whispered, too afraid to move. His eyes weren’t the way they were when I left him today. They now had laser beam focus. Had he been thinking about me all this time? Driven to distraction, as he called it? Because this was the look of a man with a woman on his mind.
His hands reached up and undid a button of his shirt. My entire body went slack with surprise. I couldn’t move as he slowly prowled forward, undoing buttons, pulling off his shirt. Damn.
When he made it to the side of my bed, we both stared. I wanted to ask what time it was, but I was afraid to bring attention to the fact that I didn’t have a clock.
So, instead, I whispered, “Navis, let’s leave.”
He reached for my hand, and placed it on his chest. He closed his eyes as I felt the warmth of his skin. I sensed his need—not just a physical need to be touched and satisfied, but a need for connection, for emotion, for something—and maybe it made me a bad person, but my heart hurt for him. I pushed that thought aside. In order for me to get what I wanted, he had to be under my control.
I scooted forward, dragging the blanket to keep myself covered, and I went up on my knees, placing my lips against his chest. His hands went into my hair, and the sound he made was of pure bliss.
With my heart pounding, I let the blanket drop so I could take his hands into mine, and lead them to my breasts. Aliens were not immune to the lure of boobs, apparently, because his laser beam focus turned to euphoria as he cupped my soft skin. I gasped when he ran his thumbs over my nipples.
“There are things,” he said in a seductively low voice, “that Baelese women do not allow. Many things.”
He gently pushed me down and pulled the blanket away, looking down my body until his gaze stopped at my core. His hands ran over my hips to my inner thighs, and my breathing hitched. This was crazy, and my thoughts were a mess. Everything that made me who I was, my morals and emotions, were unraveling and tangling. I was coming undone.
“Tell me what you want, Navis,” I breathed.
Instead, he showed me, lowering his face between my legs. When his hot lips touched me, I grasped his hair, fighting the moan that begged to escape my throat. There were surely guards nearby. He was taking a huge risk coming here.
Frantic fear swirled with my longing to be needed and touched, becoming a cyclone of confusion in my head. This was wrong.
I sat up and pulled him forward onto the bed, pushing him to sit against the headboard so I could take control. I straddled him, and his arms went behind my back, pulling my chest against his as our lips crashed together. The feel of him . . . physically, he could very much pass for a human. His slacks were rough against my softness as he jutted his strong hips up against mine. The growl that came out of him scared me. He was getting too far gone. Focus, Remy! I needed his help. If I let this go further, he would be of no use to me.
In the back of my mind were emotions of wrongness, thoughts of Tater, and the nagging question . . . what time was it? Why had Linette wanted me out of the building—what was going to happen? I knew what I had to do. His walkie-talkie was on his hip. He could give an order, and I would be taken back to Primo Town. Perhaps I could make a visit to his office for a weapon first. In his current frame of mind, I had no doubt he’d give me the code to his weapon case against the wall.
But then what? He’d stay here, in the same building where all the Baelese kids were. If someone was coming to attack, they would all die. But they’re the enemy, right? I held Navis tighter, pressing my forehead to his as we panted for air. Oh, God, help me. I didn’t want them to die. If I could get them to safety, we could have a new reality. The Baelese were brilliant. The children could be raised the right way. They could help us rebuild, and we could work together, two species, the best of both worlds.
My words came out breathless. “Let’s take the children on one of the busses and leave. A night astronomy lesson.”
“Remy.” He growled again and took one of my nipples in his mouth, making me shudder and fight to think straight. He pressed his hips upward and I clenched my thighs to stop him.
“Look at me.” I took his face, lifting onto my knees so that our damned crotches couldn’t touch. His eyes were bleary. I started to shake as my mind cleared.
“We need to leave,” I said sternly. “I have a bad feeling, okay? There’s danger. Let’s get the kids out of here. Now.”
“Danger,” he whispered, eyes glazed.
“Yes.” I jumped off him and snatched up all of my clothes. “But we can’t tell anyone. It’s our secret.” I pulled my clothes on and rushed over to help him put his shirt on. It was like dealing with someone who’d had a few too many tequila shots. Blessedly, he wasn’t likely to puke.
My heart was slamming n
ow. I patted his cheeks hard, trying to clear his eyes. I shouldn’t have let things go so far. I had to get him out of here. But the guards would not be okay with this. I looked up at the ceiling. What the heck was I going to do?
I backed away from where Navis sat sloppily on the edge of the bed.
“I need you to call your guard and tell him you decided to have a night lesson with the children. Tell them to pull a bus around and wake the kids. I’ll drive it.”
“I . . .” He pinched the skin between his eyes. “A bus?”
“Stand up.” I started to feel frantic. His hair was sticking straight out in all directions, and I quickly combed it down with my fingers, trying not to be seductive with my touches. “You need to be able to walk straight.”
“Yes.” He was slowly pushing to his feet when the door burst open and I screamed, hitting the wall.
Five Baelese guards rushed in, brandishing their rifles. Senator Navis blinked and stood, wavering slightly. Before he could say a word, a familiar woman marched through the center, and a chill fell over the room.
The Senator stared, taking far too long to process before whispering, “Vahni?”
She cocked her head with a morbid jerk. “Did you think we would let you play house with the human forever?”
My heart nearly stopped. She couldn’t talk to him like that. What was she doing here?
He stood taller, and I was proud to see how quickly he was snapping out of his stupor. “You have been banished from these headquarters. Guards, take her into custody.” None of them moved or took their rifles off of us. I leaned heavily against the wall as dread crawled over my skin.
Vahni merely blinked. “I am Bahntan now, Navis. It has been decided. You have dishonored yourself and our people. You served your purpose feigning to be a human leader, but you are not fit to rule our kind. You were never fit to rule.”
No, no, no, this couldn’t be happening!
Navis gave her a hard glare. “Your greed has gone too far. Do you know what humans call those like you? Narcissistic.”
“Do you know what they call those like you? Weak.” She lifted a handgun. “And dead.” A deafening shot rang out, echoing against the walls with my screams.
I covered my ears and slid down the wall as Navis fell back and crumbled into a heap.
“No.” I crawled toward him, but blood flowed faster than I thought possible. Before I could touch his still body, Vahni shouted in Baelese, and the guards converged. I screamed as they lifted me to my feet to face her.
“Each of these guest quarters was given an alarm clock,” she said. “How interesting that yours is missing, and that my soldiers came across a strange signal coming from Primo Town this evening.”
I shook my head, blood draining from my face as fast as it drained from the Senator’s chest. I couldn’t help but take one last look down at him, a sob rising from deep inside me. He was dead, a pawn of the Baelese.
“Apparently two executions was not enough to strike fear into human hearts this week,” she said. “We will have to make this one more memorable.”
She marched from the room, and the guards yanked me out, their fingers digging into my flesh.
Amber
The airplane was small, and it felt unsafe to be standing up, bumping into one another as we bounced along. I wanted to throw up as Josh and I buckled ourselves into the tandem system. I wished I could be facing him so I could attach myself like a tree frog and bury my face until it was over. But I had to face forward.
Every now and then Josh would put his hands on my shoulder and squeeze, reassuring me that I’d be fine. His laidback confidence helped.
Letting Rylen go had been harder than ever before. No matter how awful things on Earth were, I couldn’t imagine it without him. Every few minutes I had to remind myself that he was an amazing pilot, and that this was a stealth mission. If all went well, our fighters would be in and out in a blink, dropping bombs and paratroopers, then circling the fight to see if they were needed for additional targeting.
As for me, what I’d be jumping into was more dangerous. All we could do was hope it truly was a surprise, and that they wouldn’t be waiting to pick us off one by one.
“You’re pulling the cord with this hand, right?” I asked, patting his right hand.
“Yeah.”
I felt really stupid, but . . .”Would it be okay if you put the other one right here?” I grabbed his left hand and pulled it tight around my abdomen, taking a deep breath.
Josh chuckled. “I mean, Rylen might kick my ass, but I’m not gonna say no to holding you closer if you want it.”
His arm settled securely around my waist, and I grasped his forearm, leaning my head back against his shoulder and closing my eyes.
“Scared?” Texas Harry asked from beside us, grinning. “’Cause if my scaredy-cat ass can do it, you definitely can.”
Before I could respond, Top gave the signal and opened the door, sending in a deafening sound and whoosh of air through the cabin. It was pitch dark outside. I held onto the plane’s hanging straps with one hand and practically clawed Josh’s arm with the other.
“Don’t let me go!” I shouted up at him.
He laughed near my ear, holding me tighter. “I got you, girl. Let’s do this!”
Remy
If I had to guess how I’d react to certain death, I would have said hysterical crying, but I didn’t shed a single tear or make a sound as we drove to Primo Town. I knew what she had planned for me was worse than the fate of Ms. Oliver. I would not receive a gunshot. My death would not be quick. And why should it be? I deceived the Baelese in the worst way and tried to seduce their leader.
It was funny to think that if Navis had taken me up on it earlier today instead of coming to me tonight, we might have avoided all of this. Or maybe not. Who knew how long Vahni had ben waiting for him to fail so she could swoop in. Perhaps all of these guards and other Baelese had been on her side all along, letting him pretend to be in power, playing the fool. What assholes.
I wanted to rub my eyes, but my wrists were securely bound, the sting reminding me of pain that was to come. I wished there was a way to warn Linette—wait . . . my pulse jumped inside my skin as I remembered what she’d told me. Something was supposed to happen tonight. I slowly turned my head, but all I saw was darkness, and all I heard was quiet. It had to be the middle of the night by now. Whatever Linette thought might be happening clearly wasn’t.
I hoped one of the other women would take Kelsey under her care and protect her from seeing whatever was supposed to happen. Maybe Linette had been smart enough to get rid of the radio. Maybe they would never know who—
“Ms. Haines.” Vahni’s shrewd voice hurt my ears as we neared the encampment. I turned my eyes to her with hesitation. “To whom did you give the radio?”
Oh, shhi . . .
I relaxed down into the seat, my emotions flattened. “Linette Thompson.”
“As I thought,” she said. She motioned to a guard, and the female tightly tied a gag around my mouth, between my teeth.
Emotions came back to me as I was yanked from the car and dragged toward the gates. Vahni said something to the guards in Baelese, and five of them jogged to the women’s dormitory. I held my breath as they banged the door open, and ran in. The sounds of girls screaming ripped my heart to shreds. I heard Linette shout, and a soldier shouted back at her, using the calming control voice. An immediate hush filled the air, and moments later Linette came out between two guards, stumbling. She was bleeding from her eyebrow, bound and gagged like me.
The rest of the guards went into the men’s dorm, and brought out every member of Primo Town. Using their controlling voices, they forced me and Linette to the front, and all of the town members went to their knees in the dirt, eyes on us like drugged sleepwalkers. Tater was on the end. Lifeless eyes. The fog in my mind began to clear. For the first time since Vahni had taken me, I felt the urge to cry.
Linette gave me an annoyed loo
k, as if to say, “This is not how tonight was supposed to go down.”
Vahni marched to the front of the silent crowd, her heels clicking on the hard, dirt ground.
“You all have been coddled. In a matter of three days we discovered four of you breaking the rules. Simple rules. First, giving in to lusts. And now these two have been caught lying, stealing, and worst of all—” she shot me a steely glare, “—putting hands on a Baelese.” She paced up and down the front line, staring at people as they watched her in fear. “I am quite aware of your lack of intelligence, but I thought these rules were quite clear, even for humans.”
She stopped and pivoted, marching to stand in front of Linette and me. Without looking away from us, she shouted, “Come forward, Jacob Tate.”
What in the world?
Tater moved forward, eyes as soulless as ever, and stopped in front of her. My stomach rolled as Vahni pulled a wickedly sharp, curved knife from her belt.
“Take this blade, Mr. Tate, and do exactly what you are told.”
Oh, no. Oh, God.
I tried to squirm back, but two guards held me firm.
Vahni’s voice split the air again. “Ms. Haines is no longer in need of her tongue, her ears, or her pinky fingers.” She looked at Tater. “You will begin by removing the fingers.”
I pushed backward, shaking my head and screaming through my gag.
“Be still!” one of the guards shouted, and with one last quiver, I settled. “Do not move. Hold out your hand.”
A whirring sound began in my ears, a buzzing that had to be mental, my body trying to cope with the trauma that was to come.
Tater stared at my hand as I lifted it.
“You will remove the finger, Mr. Tate,” Vahni said, but Tater’s movements were so slow. He raised the knife in one hand and took my hand in the other. He held my pinky, so small in his strong, firm fingers, and he stared at it like he’d never seen a hand before.
He looked physically ill, and when I whimpered, his dead, confused eyes lifted to mine.