Page 28 of Xefe (Nozaroc Alien Warrior #1)

V ictory. It was hard to believe, but I could embrace it now that the supreme and his cronies had exited the stage. It tasted so sweet, despite my failures during the race, the biggest being my inability to access the Oro. My one advantage on this fakakta planet, and I couldn’t use it.

Thank Dios , we’d still won. I’d done it all on my own, well…

with a little help from Nheenya. And maybe the other two.

Plus, I hadn’t gotten my assed kicked by Greenie and the green-team, so that was another win.

But I’d have to keep an eye on her. No way, she’d be a mature adult and move forward.

Get beyond her tragic accident when I’d accidentally pushed her off the beam, mid-race, in the hopes she wouldn’t be able to compete. Ever again.

“We did it. We did it!” Nieve grabbed Nheenya’s palm, raised it in the air, and gave her a high-five.

The purple alien startled until she saw Nieve slapping palms with Querida and me. But she quickly got with the program and high-fived her way through the crowd, almost taking a few aliens out with the power of her swing.

“Querida, mi amor . When did you steal those floating rock thingies? You’re a genius!” Nieve tackled Querida in a big hug, and the redhead actually blushed.

Genius was a little strong, but I kept my mouth shut for once. Instead, as they celebrated, I searched the crowd for Valentina. And Sunny. But all I got was his trusty sidekick.

“Earthers, it is I, Loxo.” The eager alien sprang up behind us.

Le sigh. Him again.

“Your performance was legendary. I have never seen anyone as inventive as all of you. Strength. Smarts. Ingenuity and bloodthirsty violence. I was quite impressed.” He flashed his sharp canines in a wide grin.

“And most importantly, you caught the attention of my supreme… and the Aavvee spectators,” his voice dropped conspiratorially.

“I know.” His spot-on summary of our talents made me less annoyed with the mouthy alien. “It was awesome!”

He tipped his head up in a nod. “Spectacular.” He leaned over to sniff Querida’s hair. For once, she allowed it, but only for two seconds, and then the metal shards were back in her hands. Where the hell was that girl hiding all of her hardware?

“So Loxo, where is—”

“Earthers. You are due back in the competitor’s quarters.” Sunny’s impossibly deep voice boomed behind me.

“Jesus! Give a girl a little warning.” I spun around and ate him alive with my eyes.

He wore the full-on, spiked uniform, which gave him another foot of height.

Glittering particles surrounded him, and the canela odor, like spicy cinnamon, permeated the stage.

He smelled glorious, and I wanted to bathe in his scent.

I also wanted explanations. “Where have you been?”

“Protecting my supreme.” He crossed his arms and wouldn’t meet my eye.

“Hey, Sunny,” Nieve said, peeking below the belt for evidence of a pito . Little did she know, Sunny’s little friend had popped out the night before. “What did you think of our performance?”

“My name is Xefe.” His sunset eyes didn’t swirl or glow, which told me he was back in robot-warrior mode.

I hated every minute of it. It made me feel… invisible. I lived my life with the sole purpose of attracting attention, good or bad. Love me. Hate me. Give me something . Anything. But whatever Sunny had going on wasn’t working for me. I folded my arms and asked, “Did you miss me?”

He peered at me with narrowed eyes, which I took for a win, until he swiped out his staff and pulled out the glowing metal rope.

“No. Don’t—” My hands were cuffed in front of me in seconds. “Damn it! You know how I feel about these.” I tugged with all my might. “You can’t do this.”

“I can do many things. Maybe you will think about that. After all, you think I am a prisoner, like you. Which I am not .” He slammed his staff on the ground, and the force field surrounding the finish line shimmered and then disappeared in front of me.

Our little talks had been getting through to him. At least, he’d been listening. And I was right; he was as much a prisoner as I was… except for the cuffs. “ Sunny. ”

“Xefe! Why do you make me repeat this?” His eyes swirled for a moment as he tugged me along.

“Yes, earthers. We are here to escort you back to your new quarters. Now that you have proven yourselves as worthy competitors, you will be given a bit more freedom. Isn’t that wonderful?” Loxo moved faster than the blink of an eye, and he had Querida and Nieve manacled as well.

“What the hell? I thought you were on our side.” Nieve struggled and eyed Nheenya. “And why isn’t she cuffed?

“It pains me to the core to restrain you. It makes me feel as if my bones are being pulled from my body, one by one, at the idea of upsetting you.” Loxo gathered the girls in front of him.

“But our Supreme decreed the earthers must be monitored and shackled at all times outside of your cells.” He pulled Querida and Nieve behind Sunny, who already had me on one of the alien hover-machines.

A jumbo-sized version of the one I stole the day before.

“As for Nheenya, she is a trusted worker. She did not have to compete today. She chose to race.”

“ What? ” Nieve craned her neck to look at the purple alien, her snow-white hands glowing against the restraints. “Why would you compete if you didn’t have to?”

Nheenya looked down. “I-I appreciated our camaraderie when we tended to the soup. What Hera said about me. How you all defended me. I have lost my family and… I didn’t want to leave you alone.”

My mouth dropped. “But what if I hadn’t chosen you? You could have died!”

“But you did choose me.” Her purple cheeks brightened, and she blinked large lavender eyes. “It was a knowing. I felt it here.” She placed her hand over the middle of her chest.

I was rendered speechless, touched yet worried for the trusting alien. How had she survived on this killer planet when she was so… sweet ? It reminded me far too much of my love-crazy sister, and I couldn’t respond. I blinked away a sheen of tears.

Even Querida stopped sharpening her metal shards and stared at Nheenya.

“That… that’s a big chance to take. On Hera.” Nieve cut me a look, and I didn’t even protest. She was right. No one should put that much trust in me.

We stayed quiet as Sunny and Loxo pulled us off the hover board and escorted us through more dark, never-ending tunnels.

When we didn’t head toward Sunny’s quarters, I pulled at my wrists, but his grip didn’t budge. His hold wasn’t hard enough to hurt me, but it also had none of the care from the night before.

No me importa. I didn’t give a damn, although his actions made me feel stupid. I hated feeling anything other than spectacular. So, maybe, I did care. “Where are you taking us? Exactly?”

No answer.

“Am I going with you?”

“No.”

“You have to talk to me.”

“I don’t.”

With each monosyllabic response, heat flamed through me.

It sparked in my chest, spreading up into my throat and cheeks.

Furious was too inadequate a word. I’d just fought for my life, somehow pulling off an impossible win, and this was how he treated me?

And when I got mad, bad things usually flew out of my mouth.

“Is this because of yesterday? Because of what happened between us and your vibrating pito ?”

“Vibrating what ? What happened yesterday?” Nieve asked, her head bobbing back and forth between us, as if she were watching a tele-tennis match—her inner chismosa on high alert. She knew there was tea, and she wanted it spilled.

His shoulders tightened, then released. He felt emotion, then went cold. And he still wouldn’t look at me.

“You’re ignoring me? You seemed pretty engaged when I ‘best orgasmed’ the hell out of you last night!” I fought to get out of his hold, but he held tight.

“Orgasms?” Querida whispered, her gaze riveted below Sunny’s waistline. “With what?”

“Silence, earther!” The frost melted for a second. “Speak of this to no one!”

“I will speak to whomever I want. About whatever I want!”

The tunnel opened, giving the impression we’d moved under a whole new mountain.

It felt different. A little wilder. Unkempt.

At this point, I was so turned around, I wouldn’t even know how to make it back to the arena.

We came to an abrupt stop at the edge of a natural gorge so deep, it looked bottomless.

Well, this is it. I’d mouthed off one too many times, and now Sunny was going to push us over. “Just know, pendejo . If you throw us off, I will haunt you for the rest of your life.”

“Throw us off? What the hell? ” Nieve screeched. She and Querida huddled closer.

“Haunt? Do humans possess this ability?” Loxo tapped his double thumbs against his chin. “Fascinating. What does that look like exactly?”

All hell broke loose. Nieve wailed. Querida whipped out her metal shards and got real stabby, and Nheenya cried.

And I… I stared Sunny down. Let’s see if this wakes him up.

“Silence!” His brows shot down in his signature frown. Instead of talking to me, he whipped out his staff, tapped a few buttons, and particles floated out, gently landing in front of us, igniting a long bridge. As the substance moved, the walkway became more substantial.

My mouth dropped open. Some of the technology on this planet seemed barbaric, and then I see something like this—a reminder of how advanced these aliens really were.

Before I could protest, Sunny pushed me in front of him.

I yelped after the first step but was relieved the bridge held.

It was solid under our feet. After a good quarter mile, we came to a wide opening, protected by the metallic glint of a portal.

The entryway was much larger than anything we’d seen before.

Holy hell. Where is he taking us?

We stepped into the portal, and the voices returned in full force. But this time they whispered, fight, fight, FIGHT .

Disoriented, I looked around. No one else looked disheveled or terrified by the talking portal.

Except maybe Querida, but she looked like that all the time.

We were in an enormous room the size of a heli-jet hangar.

Hundreds of caves lined the wall. Rickety stairs led to each section.

The whole place was silent. Eerily quiet.

Empty yet heavy with something . It felt like a million eyeballs watched us.

“This place is weird.”

“Find a cell to sleep. This is your new home before the next race. You will have days to train. These are your rations.” Sunny pointed to a floating box next to our feet. Had that been with us the entire time? “Food, water, and sleeping mats are included.”

“Do you need our assistance? In finding a dwelling?” Loxo’s red eye swirled for the briefest second. “Perhaps it’s not safe.”

“No!” All of us shouted, even Querida.

“I will take them to my cave. Worry not, brave warrior.” Nheenya smiled and flashed blunt teeth.

I spun around and faced Sunny after he released my cuffs. Hurt slowly replaced the anger, and I whispered, “You’re really going to leave me here?”

He balled his fists and for the first time, met my eye. For a moment, the shortest of my life, I saw emotion swirl in his gaze, a mango whirlpool of movement in his pupilless gaze. “I must.” His deep voice vibrated into my chest. “To keep you safe.”

We were only inches apart.

He took a step back. Then another and another.

Like a fool, I watched. Didn’t move a step until he spun around and was out of sight.

The grief pounded with each step. But it taught me a vital lesson.

I’d begun to trust Sunny. Had actually thought he was concerned for me.

After I’d shared my body and my care with him, he made it clear, yet again, I was not a priority.

For that, he’d pay.