Drelix

The control collar around my neck is itchy. I'd like to be able to scratch it, only my hands are way above my head, wrapped in tilon chains as I swing gently back and forth.

Across from me, Crystal is also in chains, although she has hers around her ankle, and it makes my blood rage in my veins.

"Sweet mate, are you okay?" I ask.

"I'm as okay as I was the last time you asked." She smiles up at me.

The chain is too short to allow her to reach me and for me to reach her, that's something we've already worked out in the few nova-hours we've been in this cell. A cell I only allowed them to put us in because the alternative was we were to be separated.

"What exactly are the Sisters of the All Gods?" Crystal asks, picking at the chain around her ankle and making the links chime.

"A religious sect dedicated to healing and worship," I reply.

"No, I meant, what species are they?" She puts down the chain. "I've seen a whole load of different species in my time on the station but never any who looked like zombies."

"Zom-beez?" I roll the odd sounding word around my mouth.

"It's a word humans use for living corpses," Crystal says.

"Living corpses? Doesn't make sense." I laugh.

"Humans don't always make sense. They have so many superstitions, but the concept of the dead coming back to life is one which persists throughout our history."

"And the sisters remind you of zom-beez?"

"Yes, although zombies aren't real. They're a horror story told to scare us." Crystal looks down at her ankle again. "Although so many humans didn't believe in life outside our planet, so who's to say they're not real? Anyway, what species are the Sisters?"

"I thought they were all different species from all over the galaxy, come here on pilgrimage." I spin slowly. "But it seems I was wrong."

"They were using some sort of holo tech to hide their true identity. Who does that?" Crystal demands.

"A species trying to hide their true nature," I growl.

I'm getting rather annoyed with the dangling and spinning, so I pull myself up and wrap my legs around the chain, inspecting it closely.

"What are you doing?" Crystal says from beside me.

"I'm looking to see if I can pull myself free," I say, teeth gritted as I bounce my weight against the chains in the hope something might give.

I perform the maneuver again, but nothing seems to be working. I growl out in frustration.

Until I'm falling, landing on the floor with the breath forced out of my body. I'm swiftly on my feet with a grin at Crystal, now standing against the cell wall.

"I should have done that hours ago," I say with an element of triumph.

"Yeah, same," Crystal says, making her way to me and wrapping her arms around my waist. "I also should have heeded the warnings of your human friends."

Having Crystal in my arms, her scent in my nostrils, takes all rational thought from me for so many seccari.

"What were their warnings?" I murmur into her hair.

"The babies. I guess Sarkarnii are a fertile bunch."

"I could say that about humans."

"If the Sisters are to be believed," Crystal says. "But I'm inclined to be very careful in taking anything they do at face value."

Something is poking at the back of my brain. Something which isn't the need to scratch under my collar. I release Crystal a little and look over to where she was chained to the wall. The chain snakes out to the ankle cuff which is empty of a little human.

"How?" I look down at her.

Crystal tilts her face up to me.

"Yeah, I should have done that earlier," she says with a naughty smile. "Once I'd cooled down and with a little moisture from these walls, I was able to slide my foot out and release you. I guess the Sisters miscalculated how small a human actually is."

"Not the only thing they miscalculated," I growl. "They will pay for what they have done."

"That's all very well," Crystal says, her fingers exploring the control collar around my neck. "But we have to stop the other Sarkarnii coming here, and we have to get away ourselves."

I gaze down at her sweet face. It's a visage I'd die for in a heartbeat if dying wouldn't take me away from her forever.

"I don't think we can get away. I think we have to stop them, the Sisters. If we leave things as they are, what if they entice others here, who know about Orias, who think they might find solace and safety."

Crystal takes in a long breath.

"This place, it's a place of pilgrimage for the Sarkarnii?"

"For some. For Haisarkarnii like myself, if any others survive." My heart aches at the thought of my family. "It is a place we all believed was sacred."

"I'm not so sure it is," Crystal says, darkly.

I think of the vanishing elder, the one who told me not to trust the Sisters with my mate.

"I'm not so sure it is either," I reply. "And I agree, as much as I want to get you to safety, a long way from here, I cannot let the Sisters use us or anything else against the Sarkarnii." I curl my hands into fists, anger rolling through me that I trusted them in the first place.

"Then we need to find out what's really going on here," Crystal says, lifting herself up in order to place a kiss on my jaw.

Her hand brushes over the collar again and I groan.

"Are you okay?" she asks, eyes wide with concern.

"The control collars…they always make my scales uncomfortable."

"This is a control collar?" Crystal runs her hand around it, and I lean in to her touch.

She slowly grazes her blunt fingers over my skin, and this time I'm unable to stop a moan escaping my mouth at how good it feels.

"Yes, it stops me from being able to take my Sarkarnii form. The Belek attempted to use them on us in the Kirakos, but it turned out humans were able to unlock them."

Her eyes meet mine in an instant, understanding, and I drop to my knees as she urgently runs her hands over the collar.

"How did they do it? Do you know?" Crystal says with a look at the cell door.

"I don't. Draco stood over us all as his mate undid them. I didn't want to nev off my leader any more than necessary by asking questions," I recall. "A Sarkarnii with a mate is not a Sarkarnii you want to cross."

Crystal slows in her quest, gently, slowly feeling over the metal until the collar clicks and drops away from my neck.

I slam my lips against hers, gathering her form into my arms.

"We don't have time, Drelix," she gasps against my mouth. "They're bound to know we're free somehow."

"You set me free the moment I set eyes on you, heartsfire. I've been lost in the stars for so long, I didn't believe it was possible to ever be happy again, until you. You are my sun, my moon, my stars. I'd find my way out of a black hole for one of your smiles, for the touch of your hand, for the scent of your hair. My heart beats for you, lives for you, aches for you. Fate has taken so much from me, only to place you in my path, Crystal. I'm never going to let you go."