Page 68 of Taken to Voraxia
The king grins and it’s like shrapnel pummeling flesh. He is easily the most terrifying being I have ever beheld. “They are already dead, myRakukanna,” he says and it sounds like he is completely fine with that fact. Maybe even happy about it.
“There is just the one. The one who refuses to let go.Sevrenn iahndru lat.In him, life persists. The Niahhorru honor this, so he will not die today. Not by our hands. But we will not let him prevail in his attempt to keep you from us. You are our bargaining chip, my sweet Rakukanna.”
He steps aside and four of the four-armed pirates drag Krisxox in by the hair and the arms and the legs. They have a metal circle around his neck that sizzles with an electric charge. His face is completely bloodied and he looks like he’s been burned from the right shoulder to the right hip. His gaze rips around the room, struggling to settle but when it does, it settles on me with force.
I jerk into the work table behind me, objects on it clattering against one another. I think about reaching for another half-formed weapon, but realize quickly there’s no point. Weapons didn’t save Krisxox. And I’m no Krisxox.
Svera, in my skin, gasps. Krisxox doesn’t look at her though. He stares at me with a brutality that hollows out my insides, because he’s looking at me like the distance separating us isflayinghim. Flaying him alive.Nox, he’s not looking atmelike that…right now I’mSverain his eyes.
I open my mouth to speak, but choke. Krisxox’s ridges flare a deep and demanding grey. “Are you hurt?” He shouts, though his voice is just as mangled as he looks.
I shake my head, feeling awkward under his stare. “Svera, are you hurt?” He repeats.
“Silence,” the Niahhorru king orders.
Krixox surges towards him with a speed I can barely grasp and succeeds in dislodging one set of arms controlling him, but not the others. The ones caging him pull him back onto his knees and one of them whacks an electric stick across Krisxox’s back.
He roars in pain and Svera screams, “Stop! Please. I’m coming. Please.”
Little Svera who looks like me takes a few tentative steps towards the pirate king. He holds out two of his four hands. The other two carry a gun and a large sizzling disc of a shield unlike any I’ve ever seen — one I can only see visibly in certain angles but one whose energy I can feel from across the room.
She holds her tiny hand towards one of his, hesitating just before she lets him take her. “But you have to hold true to your word and leave him alive,” she says, voice shaky.
“I would leave you my word,” the king growls, “but do you trust the words of a pirate?”
“I guess I’ll have to, won’t I?”
Rhorkanterannu nods at her solemnly. “Then you have it. Your guard will not be killed. Today, he will live. Sevrenn iahndru lat.” He crosses one of his hands over his breast in a gesture that is surprisingly human. Svera mirrors the gesture and Rhorkanterannu’s eyes widen slightly in surprise.
She bows more deeply then and I wince when I see the hologenerator ripple across her back. The moment fades a second later, and I wonder if any of the other Niahhorru saw it. None of them react and I clutch my chest. I can’t imagine the king will take deception well, not least of all if Svera gets her way and they leave me behind.I won’t let that happen. I won’t let her leave her with them alone.
I shift to stand and take a large step forward. I freeze in the middle of the room, in the middle of the destruction. Svera looks back at me, her lips opening.
“Miari,” she rasps, but I shout over her. “Take me instead!”
Krisxox surges against his chains, but is kept still. Rhorkanterannu shoots him a disgusted look. “I do not need you,” he says of me, gaze again drifting to Svera when she takes one of his hands in both of hers.
“Leave her,” she whispers, “Please. Leave her with the other xcleranx.”
Rhorkanterannu looks down at the contact, seemingly satisfied.She’s going to get away. He’s going to leave me behind and take her.
“You’re making a mistake,” I blurt.
The king reaches out and touches her sternum — my sternum. He strokes one of his knuckles between my breasts. Through the hologenerator, I pray that he cannot tell the difference between the tunic Svera wears, and my own hybrid flesh.
“Am I?”
Svera rasps, “Don’t listen to her…”
I surge forward but one of the Niahhorru step out to meet me and I am blocked by a big silver arm. He meets my gaze. I lick my lips and shudder all over when a waft of spice hits me. Bergamont and rich, fragrant earth, it reminds me too much of Xoran…when he’s aroused.
“We should take her,” one of the pirates holding Krisxox says. He glances at me and licks his lips. Krisxox yanks hard enough to collapse the brute onto his knees and as the Niahhorru falls close enough to reach, Krisxox lifts, arches over his thick neck and bites where the plates don’t reach. I stand there, shocked and horrified as Krisxox rips out a hunk of the man’s throat, just below his ear.
He cries out and flails, but Krisxox remains anchored until one of the other males brings another lightning stick down across Krisxox’s back. Violent purple light ricochets down the staff and reflects brown over Krisxox’s red body. He twists suddenly, horribly, and even though he doesn’t cry out once, when he hunches over the floor, he spits out copper-colored blood.
My heart is hammering and my brain is fried. I can’t stand to see him hurt any more and when the Niahhorru holding the lightning stick raises it again, I clasp either sides of my face and I shriek the first words that come to mind. “She could be pregnant!”
The lightning stick hangs suspended in the air. A chilling quiet descends. Outside I can’t hear movement. Oh comets, how many died already today? In my name and honor?No more. Not Svera.
