23. Emma

Someone was coming down the steps.

Worse still, I felt a distinctive tug in my chest.

I knew who it was, who it had to be.

Iav.

He was coming, and he was going to catch me.

I ran back in my cell and scooped up the keys the giant had dropped when I first struck him.

Then I turned and bolted down the hall in the opposite direction to the main entrance.

Some of the other prisoners waved their arms at me through the bars in their cell doors.

They wailed for me to stop and help them.

I couldn't understand the words they were saying but once again, I didn't need to.

It was the emotion I understood.

Desperation.

Anger.

Fear.

Maybe the real language of the universe wasn't math but deep emotion.

And beneath it all, one sound gave me pause more than any of the others…

I thought I heard the soft female whimper of someone speaking English…

I shook my head, certain I must be hearing things.

And even if there was another Earthling trapped in one of the cells, there was no hope I could rescue her.

Or all of them.

Not with Iav hot on my heels.

I slipped the heavy metal key in the lock and felt relieved when it clicked open.

I cast a glance over my shoulder at the blinding inner light at the other end of the single hallway.

Iav had almost arrived.

I swung the door shut behind me.

I had to brace it with both hands.

It was so heavy it took all my strength to get it moving.

I slipped the key in the lock and turned it over again.

I tossed the key into the shadows and bolted up the stairs.

I was relieved to find these stairs were the exact mirror opposite to those we'd descended just a few short hours ago.

I rounded each flight and angled my neck upward, hoping I wouldn't come across any other Shadows.

And if I did?

If they spotted me?

I would act normal, as if I belonged there.

I'd seen many female Shadows wandering around earlier, so-called "warriors" who'd headed out into the multi-verse to find their fated mate and bring them back.

So long as they didn't look at me too closely there was a chance I could slip past them, wasn't there?

And where would I head?

To the launch pad.

I could creep aboard a ship while the others weren't looking.

There was no chance the computer system would listen to my commands.

I would stowaway and figure out a way to get them to take me home.

Already, I was beginning to lose hope.

Escaping the Citadel was one thing.

Returning home was quite another.

There were too many unknowns, too many things beyond my control.

Worst still, with the bond still attached to me, I wouldn't have long before Iav caught me.

He would see the bodies dotted about my cell and know I was gone.

He would set to drawing the net tight and alert others to my escape.

I rounded another corner and gripped the handrail, preparing to fly up the next flight of stairs when I met a thick throng of Shadows busily filtering in a dozen different directions.

This was the floor with the most foot traffic by far.

A pair of Shadows caught me staring and I hastily dropped my eyes to the floor.

I hurried past them and entered the broad room on the other side.

Yes, this was where I had entered with Iav just hours earlier.

The room was massive, with large archways and a ceiling so high it made making out the intricate artwork hard to see.

The Shadows here were loud and boisterous, cheering at something out of sight.

But not out of hearing range.

Screams interspersed the voluminous cheers.

The more someone cried and whimpered, the louder the response from the baying crowd.

The blood drained from my face.

I couldn't help but edge toward the audience that stood at banisters peering down at the show below.

It was a small arena, I realized, penned in on each side by a line of onlookers.

At their head, the dozen Elders who'd inspected me and the other captured fated mates earlier.

They sat on thrones and watched intently as a female alien creature was drilled from behind.

The Shadow clasped his hands around her throat and speared her relentlessly.

She wasn't enjoying it.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as the Shadow that mounted her thrust her for the final time, his buttocks tensing as he groaned loudly and spilled his seed inside her.

I was both nauseated and mesmerized at the same time.

The Shadow extracted himself from the female and stood up.

He faced the crowd and raised his arms over his head triumphantly, naked as the day he was born.

The crowd cheered him on.

The female clutched her torn dress to herself in a vain attempt to conceal her nakedness from the braying crowd.

She peered at the mob surrounding her, a lost and broken look on her face.

She might have thought the worst was over but it was anything but.

It had only just begun.

The Elder on the far end got to his feet and strode into the middle of the arena.

The crowd hushed, turning quiet.

The Shadow Elder reached for the pin at his shoulder and yanked it free.

His robes unfurled like a taut knot and spilled to the floor.

His skin was red raw and the single horn on his head stood proud, twinned with the horn between his legs.

He raised his arms, playing to the audience, who cheered once more.

He approached the violated girl.

She raised an arm to protect herself and pleaded:

"Please. Let me go."

He yanked her aggressively up onto her feet and knocked her arms away.

He reached into her torn dress and cupped an aged hand over her exposed breast, pinching and twisting her nipple so hard I thought he would tear it off.

Then he turned the girl toward her fated mate, who stood, watching.

The Elder bent the girl over a stone plinth in the middle of the room and thrust inside her violently.

She screamed as he pumped away at her, the crowd returned to cheering and applauding the horrific scene.

My breath turned hot in my throat and I backed away.

What was wrong with these people?

What twisted pleasure could they derive from this?

And this was what Iav planned to be my fate…

But only if I failed to escape.

I backed away from the leering crowd as they thrust their fists in the air in time with the slapping flesh below.

These creatures were pure evil.

Pure darkness.

And right now, in a thousand rooms similar to this one, the same scene was happening.

Abducted alien creatures—both male and female—were being forced to mate against their will.

I felt sorry for the creatures I'd left behind in their cells.

When I escape, I promised them, I would tell others about what I had seen.

Maybe if they teamed up against the Shadow, they could take them down.

But not me.

Not on my own.

Vai was as kind as they came and yet still there was nothing he could do about this terrible treatment.

All he could do was rescue one of them.

Me.

I needed to get out of there.

I needed to make my escape.

I needed to—

I backed into someone.

I instinctively turned and apologized but the sentence caught in my throat.

The creature that stared peered down at me, the creature I had bumped into, grinned at me with that damn dimple in his cheek.

But my instincts weren't fooled for a moment.

The dark shadow cast across his face warned me he was not my savior.

He was my destruction.

His hand snapped around my arm so tight I thought he would break it.

"There you are," he said, his tone soft. "We wouldn't want you to miss your turn now, would we?"

I'd been sodisgusted with the scene below I had taken my mind off that throb in my heart.

It was still new to me and I had to focus on it to fully absorb the information I could glean from it.

My mind had floated away and focused on other things.

Terrible things.

And now I was going to pay for it.

Pay for it big time.

I pried at Iav's hand but it was no use.

It was a vice.

"Let me go!" I wailed.

I knew it was in vain.

There wasn't a single part of him that could lend itself to showing me any hint of kindness.

I kicked his shin and he brushed it off like a fly had bitten him.

He dragged me through the hall, the onlookers paying me no mind.

The onlookers.

Maybe they would help me…

There had to be one decent man among them.

"Help me!" I cried. "I'm being kidnapped! Help!"

Not one so much as raised an eyebrow.

The only ones who seemed even moderately interested were the other abducted mates.

And they already had enough on their plate to worry about.

Iav dragged me back down the stairs but didn't take me to my cell.

Instead, he dragged me to just one floor below the main one.

Down here was a long series of doors.

A grand mix of alien species marched to and fro with great purpose.

None were Shadows but darkness had seeped into their features as if the evil in this realm had embedded itself in their very DNA.

Iav shoved a door open and thrust me inside the room.

He yanked my head back and reached into his pocket.

He came out with a vial of shimmering blue liquid.

He held it over my face and tapped it.

A single drop fell from its tip.

I turned my head just in time for it to land on my cheek.

"Open your mouth," he growled.

I shook my head and breathed heavily through my nose.

"Open it or when your time comes, I'll be extra rough with you," he warned.

Extra rough…

I doubted he would do anything else, no matter what I did.

I kept my mouth and teeth clenched shut tight.

He snorted at my refusal.

It gave me some pleasure to see that expression on his face.

Maybe if I was difficult enough they wouldn't want me to serve as one of their breeders, I thought.

Maybe this was my only real hope of escape…

"Very well," he said.

He added a couple of dots of the liquid to his fingers.

"There's more than one way to administer it," he snarled.

He thrust his hand down my underwear and inserted his fingers inside me.

I grabbed his arm but he was too strong for me to fight.

He roamed around as if looking for the golden ticket.

I squirmed to pull away from him.

I was dry and felt hot friction on either side of his fingers.

He yanked them out and I was relieved to see there was no blood.

He leaned his face close to mine.

"You will give me what I want," he growled.

He ground his hard cock against me.

I spat in his face.

The anger that flashed across his features promised great violence to come.

I wondered what sort of mistake I'd made to rile him up this way.

I'd already seen what was standard in this place.

What would he do now I had upset him?

He released his grip and I fell to the floor.

"Prepare her for the ceremony," Iav snapped. "She's next."

He slammed the door and was gone.

The women approachedme slowly and I pulled at my clothes to cover myself up.

"It's okay," a blue-skinned beauty said in a soothingly soft voice.

Her eyes were at least three times larger than a regular human's.

Her skin shimmered and shifted between aquamarine and navy blue.

"I'm Narissa," she said. "Come on. Let's get you onto your feet."

She bent down to help me up.

I pulled away from her, still recovering from my recent experience of abuse.

I reached for that shadows to pull something out of it.

Anything would suffice.

If I only had to sneak past these females to escape, I had a strong chance of success.

My hand came up empty.

I blinked.

Maybe I was still too shocked by earlier events to concentrate properly.

I tried again but the result was the same.

I calmed my mind, turning it ice cold, and tried again.

Nada.

This couldn't be right…

I clawed at the oily blackness and kept coming up empty-handed.

I began to panic.

"The medicine he gave you took it away," Narissa said. "They give it to all of us."

I looked into her big welcoming eyes.

They were kind eyes, somehow managing to survive the ordeal they had been through.

I peered over at the others and found each of them wearing the same smile.

Friendly but sad.

"Let's get off the cold floor," Narissa said.

No.

I refused.

I decided to never do a single thing anybody in this place asked of me.

I wouldn't stand.

Not ever.

And then I got to my feet.

"There," Narissa said. "That's better, isn't it?"

She dusted the dust, dirt, and grime off me.

Was she magic?

How had she managed to get me to stand?

I could be as obstinate as an old mule when I had a mind to be.

"I need to get out of here," I said… at least, I intended on saying it.

Instead, no words formed on my lips.

What the hell is going on here?

"You managed to escape?" Narissa said.

I nodded and still words escaped me.

"Wow. You're going to have to tell me the story sometime. Come sit down."

Narissa ushered me to a chair.

I didn't want to sit in it.

I didn't want any part of what was going on here.

And then I sat down.

Narissa turned the chair around so I was facing a mirror.

She began running her fingers through my hair and moving it from one position to another the way a hairdresser might to find the perfect style.

"I need to get out of here," I wanted to say.

The words were never born.

Narissa sprayed something in my hair that made it shiny and smooth.

She ran a comb through it, turning it even smoother and cleaner.

Take the comb, I ordered my hand. Take it or I swear I'll put you on ass-wiping duty for the rest of your days.

Not a single muscle twitched.

Okay… So move a single finger.

I focused on my index finger.

Just a twitch.

That was all I was asking for.

But it was no use.

I couldn't move any part of my body.

I was a living mannequin.

Narissa sighed and shook her head.

"Try as hard as you might, there's no escape from here," she said. "Serve your duty and learn to live with your reality. It's the only happiness we have now."

There must be a way out of here, I thought

There must be.

"If there were a way out, someone would have found it already."

Could Narissa read my mind?

It wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that some alien species had that ability.

"And now, it's too late for us," Narissa said.

She shifted her dress aside, pulling it so it tightened over her bulging stomach.

She was pregnant.

And as I peered past her at the other captured mates dotted around the room, I noticed they each possessed the same bulging stomach.

These were the breeders, I realized.

And my destiny was to become one of them.