Page 9 of Infala: The Alien's Bond
Dark tattoos peered out from the edges of his garments, the winding lines tracing his musculature, running all the way to his wrists and hands, it seemed. And those hands possessed five fingers, like humans, but longer and somehow different. It took her a moment before she realized he had extra joints in those meaty digits.
Of course he does. He’s a freaking alien.
While the others averted their gazes from the imposing figure, Darla was tired, freaked out, and more than a little pissed off at her situation. She pulled her eyes from his impressive physique and forced them upward, following his thick neck to his strong jaw and angular cheekbones until they met his own bright gaze. He was clearly alien, but kind of attractive, in a massive, beastly sort of way.
And his eyes? They were not what she expected from such a powerful-looking man. They were fierce, no doubt, but were also a beautiful shade of violet, the irises rimmed in gold.
He cocked his head ever so slightly at the unusual little human’s strong gaze locked with his. Feisty, indeed.
“What did you say?” she demanded, not looking away.
“I said, you are livestock,” he repeated.
“Livestock? How do you mean?”
His enormous shoulders shrugged ever so slightly. “You are not to be sold as slaves. You do not have that sort of value to the Raxxians. And your kind is not worth experimenting on.”
“Then what?”
“You arefood, little one. Nothing more. The Raxxians are voracious, and your kind are a convenient species to fill their larder.”
Darla felt her stomach drop to her feet as her blood flowed cold at his words. Their captors were enormous lizard people. And just like Komodo Dragons or other apex predators, it made sense that they would eat meat. Unfortunately, that diet now included humans. Suddenly she realized why the woman called Mei was so quiet. She was the last of her batch of captives. Who knew what sort of horrors she had witnessed.
But this one, this alien, he wasn’t human, so why was he in here with them? He looked like he could give the Raxxians a run for their money in a fight. Maybe that was how he wound up here in the first place, and how his clothes got so torn up.
A lightbulb flashed on in Darla’s mind.
“Hang on a minute. Why do you speak English?”
“I do not.”
“You’re speaking it right now.”
“You are mistaken, but I will clarify, yet again, as I have had to do for most of your cohort. You have been marked with the translation rune. It is a weak pigment with very limited power normally used only on livestock and lesser creatures.”
“I’m sorry, you’ve lost me here. A translation what, now?”
Maureen turned her head and lifted her hair, showing the small symbol tattooed behind her ear. Several others did the same, all bearing the same mark. The alien, likewise, showed her the marking behind his ear, though his was more ornate and with a darker ink that seemed to shift under his skin ever so slightly.
“These are translation runes. Symbols that harness the power of the pigment, allowing us to understand one another,” the alien said. “In the case of livestock, such as yourselves, it tends to be less robust, but it serves its purpose.”
“Its purpose being?”
“To make it easier to direct animals,” he replied matter-of-factly. “When your beasts understand, one can direct them without the need of prods or ropes.”
Darla hated to admit it, but it made sense. She raised her hand, touching the area behind her ear. She almost jumped when her fingertips grazed the still-tender flesh where she had been marked. The area was warm, almost tingling with the pigment still fresh in her skin.
Dammit, my first tattoo and it’s as some freaking alien cattle?
She was more than a little pissed that after all those years not giving in and getting impulsive ink on a drunken bender with Tammy and the others, she was finally a member of the club. Only this version was not a club she wanted to be a part of. Not one bit.
“How is this possible? It’s just ink,” she wondered aloud.
“Not ink.Pigment,” the alien corrected. “Living color, extracted from very powerful plants, bonded to your flesh to provide certain enhancements.”
“Hang on. You’re saying this is magic ink—I mean,pigment?”
“Magic? Hardly. It is a core power of the universe, harnessed by a few certain species of plant life from their contact with sunlight and galactic energies, condensed into pigments that can enhance a person’s natural abilities when combined with the correct runes to direct its power. And in return, the host’s own life force keeps the pigment alive. It is a very beneficial, symbiotic relationship.”
