Page 11

“Keeping her awake will not bode well for you,” Diexa said, glaring at her like not being stunned was her fault.

She gritted her teeth, fury burning along her senses. They’d kidnapped and drugged her and planned worse. But if she lost her shit over their audacity, releasing all this pent-up emotion, she’d risk angering them. She wasn’t that stupid.

The pilot spun around the hook-shaped end of the island before slamming down on a flat rock. She replayed the swift image she’d caught of the beach where no pier extended out nor boats bobbed alongside it. Why boat when they could shuttle? She swallowed a groan.

Jagged rocks broke the volatile waves, and off the shore were rows of trees with black bark and no foliage. She studied the ground and its lifeless soil where nothing grew, not even a random weed. Had a fire come through, burning everything in its path?

When Lizu tried to snatch her, she leapt aside. “I can walk,” she said, raising her chin to meet his gaze.

“Lizu.” One Eye pointed at her.

“She can walk,” Lizu growled.

“The kuliriji will not be pleased.”

“I do not know him other than displeased,” Lizu said.

She coughed to hide a chuckle. Yithians could be sarcastic?

Entertaining, but in this situation, there sure as hell wasn’t anything to laugh about.

A knife in her boot gave her a false sense of security.

She wasn’t an idiot to think she could take on seven sharks and remain unscathed.

And Lizu had said ‘stun.’ She grimaced. That didn’t sound pleasant.

The door to the shuttle opened, hitting her with a blast of sunbaked sea air. She breathed it in, having not smelled anything this good in ages.

With a nudge at her back, she followed the parade down the ramp and onto the rock. Her 180-degree view showed no buildings. They headed toward a clean section of the beach, only to halt.

“Truly?” One Eye asked, slapping the holographics on his wrist, then he gestured with a finger to turn.

Back they went, around the sleek, silver-gray shuttle—with a pointed nose and boxy ass—then into the trees. The ground crunched under her boots. She stroked a tree in passing, expecting soot to line her fingertips. But the bark was solid. With a stumble, she scanned them all. They weren’t dead.

On they marched, no one paying the macabre scene any attention.

Some of the women were beginning to moan; they, too, were ignored.

Away from the shore, they continued, then around the hill and onto a worn path that cut into the rock.

Partial shadows fell across them, granting a little reprieve from the three suns.

Icky, sweaty, and smelly? She shuddered, wishing she could walk into the waves splashing onto the beach, willing to risk them being acidic for the chance to be clean.

And she should’ve asked before they left that side of the island.

But she doubted One Eye would’ve let her. What an ass.

They veered right under an overhang and onto a paved patio.

Glass windows lined it and stretched along the structure built into the cliff.

She admired the facade and smiled. This was stunning.

Typical of a science facility to be architecturally beautiful while death coated the walls within.

A double door opened on silent wheels. She followed it with her gaze, noting the ridges of metal beside the grooves.

“About time you arrived,” a yellow-skinned man demanded, striding toward them across a beautiful marbled foyer. He wore a long, purple tunic that brushed his booted feet. The flowing garment made her think of Earth’s religious gurus.

“We lost many, Criass,” One Eye said.

Criass jerked to a halt, scanned the group, then settled his solid-black gaze on Wren. “Why is she not sedated?” His strange tentacles swayed like a feathered headdress.

“I asked not to be,” she said, dragging her focus away from his ‘hair.’ “Besides, I stink. No one should carry me.”

Fire exploded across her cheek. She stumbled to the side, blood pooling in her mouth. Pain radiated outward, and she’d swear he’d shaken a few of her teeth loose.

“Why did you do that?” she asked, moaning when she poked her gums with her tongue and tasted the metallic tang of her blood.

“Do not speak,” he snapped. “She will be first. Bring her.”

Someone shoved her forward, forcing her to straighten or she’d sprawl onto the floor.

“She is right.” One Eye sniffed the air around her. “Let us cleanse them before you begin your experiments.”

She froze. Cleanse? As in bath? But the word ‘experiments’ gripped her thoughts and wouldn’t let go. ‘Hell no’ formed in her mind, but she didn’t dare say anything.

“You are done here, Captain. My people will take over.” With a wave of his hand, more yellow-skinned aliens spilled across the ‘hotel’ foyer, their slippered feet not scuffing the polished stone floor.

These aliens were skinnier than the Yithians, but still, with this many present, she wasn’t about to try an escape.

They’d recapture her and find her knife.

When a man swept her over his shoulder, she let him.

Now wasn’t the time, but as soon as she could, she’d stab Criass in the neck. She was damn sure he didn’t have a heart.