14. Lily

PRESENT DAY

Bang!

The slam against the door was different from the hundreds of others I'd heard until that point in the back room of the Prize Pool. The metal creaked and groaned as it began to give way.

It won't be long now, I thought. I disliked that I had been thrust from warmer, happier times, but we had to be honest about the situation we found ourselves in.

The demons were coming and they were going to claim our bodies. We would all be ruined, I knew. We likely wouldn't be able to return to normal service for some time… if at all.

And that would spell our doom.

Some held the belief that we would be taken to some far and distant planet where we could live in freedom and peace after our service was through, while others thought we would be allowed to return to our home planets.

I didn't believe either theory.

We would serve our purpose and then be tossed on the slag heap. There was only one true way out of Ikmal for a Prize, and that was death. We served our purpose and once we were done, we were removed and never seen again.

Not that I would tell the other girls that, of course.

As the madam, they instinctively believed I knew more about our situation than they did, and that I kept it to myself as a way to protect them. But the truth was, I knew nothing more about our situation than they did.

Bang!

The metal snapped and I bolted to my feet, clutching my useless wooden cudgel close. I listened but didn't hear the thunderous pounding of heavy footsteps racing across the wooden floor of the outer room.

The other girls got slowly to their feet, likewise holding onto their weapons like life preservers.

Then I heard it:

Thump, thump, thump.

The heavy footfalls of a prisoner approaching from the other side of the wooden door that separated us. He wasn't running, he was walking, and behind him, I made out more footsteps, following in his wake.

In no rush.

Because they already knew they were going to get what they wanted? It wasn't the frantic hurrying I'd expected.

A big figure appeared in the door's frosted glass. His green skin was bright and glowing. He raised a claw and tapped on the glass. "Are you Prizes in there?"

There was no use in being silent. After knocking through the outer door, they could virtually walk through this one as if it were nothing.

"Yes," I said, shocked at the calmness of my voice. "Don't come in. We're armed!"

"I have to come in," the prisoner said.

I pulled my cudgel back and the other girls did the same. I admired their spirit and wondered if their hearts were thudding in their ears the same way mine was.

"Don't you dare!" I snapped. "Or you'll regret it!"

The prisoner didn't say another word and instead lowered his claw to the door handle and pressed it.

I took a step closer, my muscles firm and hard, ready to bring the cudgel around at a moment's notice.

The beast opened the door and it caught on the lock, but the creature just kept pushing and the lock tore free from the frame and came with the door.

Like it was tissue paper.

The prisoner was a fizzark, with green scales, a yellow chest, and a thick mane of dark hair that ran from his head and down his back. An impressive beast under normal circumstances… but this was no normal circumstance.

The figure raised his eyes and looked us over, his eyes dropping to our bare legs and the weapons clutched in our hands for a fraction of an instant. It was enough to peer behind his veil of obvious sexual attraction before he swallowed and cleared his throat.

"Get back," he said.

I blinked at that.

"Get back?" I said, raising the business end of my snapped chair leg. "That was what I was going to say."

"My name is Jeeth. We've been sent to protect you."

Ghisak whined with relief.

I double-blinked at his statement. I wasn't going to believe him so blindly as Ghisak. "What do you mean, you've been sent here to protect us? Sent by who?"

"Thillak," Jeeth said simply. "Put down your weapons. They're not going to protect you anyway."

Other alien male prisoners filtered into the room and moved to remove the makeshift weapons from our shaking hands.

The females looked over at me with two parts hope, one part fear. The same question was posed on each of their lips, although none could bring themselves to ask it: Can we trust them?

I knew little of this Thillak figure, other than the fact he was the leader of a crime syndicate in some far-flung solar system. He was also meant to be one of the most ruthless criminal figures in the entire galaxy… but he was also, so some of the champions had told me, a creature of his word.

But there was a bigger, more pressing reason to let the beasts take our weapons from us. There were half a dozen of them, each wrapped with layers of muscle beyond counting. Even if we teamed up, we wouldn't have stood a chance against even one of them.

The fact they were also working together, seemed to know each other, and appeared calm despite the riot taking place outside… it gave me pause for thought. A filament of hope wheedled into my consciousness.

I nodded at the females who handed their weapons over.

Next came the moment of truth…

"We'll protect the outer room," the prisoner said. "Are there any other entrances into this back room?"

"Only the showers and our bedrooms," I said. "But there are other entrances into the outer room."

Jeeth's eyes slipped down once again. He might have been sent there to protect us, but he was still a male.

I didn't care. He could look all he liked — just so long as he helped keep us safe.

"Good," he said. "Then you watch over the Prizes while we guard the outer room. We'll repel anyone who attempts to break in."

"Why don't you leave one guard with us?" I said. "He would make a lot of the females feel safer."

Jeeth snorted and shook his head. "If I leave one of us in a room full of Prizes, we might as well not bother defending you at all."

As I looked over at them, I could already see the other gang members eying the Prizes… and to my chagrin, some of the Prizes were eying them appreciatively back!

Great way to keep them calm, idiots!

Jeeth turned to leave.

"Wait," I said. "There's something I need to know. Why did Thillak send you?"

Jeeth shrugged his massive shoulders. "You'll have to take that up with him."

He turned and barked orders at the other gang members. They slipped back through the doors and took positions in the outer room.

I didn't know who this Thillak figure was, and I didn't know what he wanted, but I sensed it was going to cost us and cost us big.

Not that it was the first time I had been indebted to an alien inmate I hardly knew…