Chapter 11

"Wake up, lovebirds!" a guard sneered as he barreled into the cell and pulled Cora and Levi apart. He threw Levi to the side and held Cora by the arm, looking her up and down as though he wished they could be alone.

"Get off of her!" Levi launched himself at the Jorvlen mass, hitting him in the face. The guard detached his hand from Cora and then planted it around Levi's neck and squeezed. Levi kicked him in the gut and scoffed as the guard doubled over in pain.

Cora's heart jumped into her throat as she watched the guard shoot a bloodshot glare at them. Stepping between her and the guard, Levi leveled a pointed stare. Don't even think about it, it seemed to say.

"We knew it was only a matter of time before you bedded each other." Another guard watched from the doorway of the cell, unconcerned. He barked a laugh. "What is it with Lorr and human chicks? I hear your royal family is lousy with 'em."

Cora shivered and slipped into her clothes before anyone could stop her. Goosebumps had crawled across her flesh at the nauseating touch of the hideous Jorvlen. Her head ached, her eyes felt like sandpaper, and her mouth tasted like a sewer.

"Get it together, Loke," the guard at the door ordered. "We gotta go!"

"Hey, I've got an idea," the other wheezed. "How 'bout next time, you take the lumps and I stand by the door and do nothing?"

"How you doing?" Levi whispered to Cora, reaching for his own clothes while the guards argued.

Cora tossed her curls and ran her fingers through them, suddenly self-conscious. "I feel like I have the hangover without the party." She rubbed her forehead and blinked hard.

"Well, I had fun last night," Levi said, raising his eyebrows in mock resentment.

Cora managed a half-smile. "You know what I mean."

Levi wasn't going to give her an inch. "Of course. All the pain, none of the pleasure. I'll have to try harder next time."

Cora chuckled and pushed him playfully. "I think if you try any harder, I might keel over."

"Hey! Break it up! No time for porking." The guard from the door had come up behind them. Unlike the one who had absorbed Levi's full weight to his midsection, this one seemed to have a brain. He stood just out of reach and pointed his weapon at Levi's head.

"Get moving," he growled. "Loke, get the girl. Can you handle that?"

Loke snarled but said nothing. Before Cora could put her shoes on, he took her wrists and twisted them painfully behind her back to immobilize her. Levi flinched in her direction, but the other guard placed his finger on the trigger to his blaster, pointed at Levi, and raised his eyebrow in warning.

"Whatcha gonna do now, huh?" Loke barked at Cora, who could feel his astringent breath on her ear. The smell of it made her stomach roll. "I could fuck her right here, and you wouldn't have a damn thing to say about it."

He stuck out his tongue and ran it across the ridge of her ear, sending chills crawling down her back like a clutter of spiders. Levi breathed deeply, his chest heaving and his murderous gaze darting from one Jorvlen to the other as they laughed mercilessly.

"All right, fun's over. We've gotta get 'em to Jorvla so they can stop sucking up all our air." The reference to air made Cora wonder if they knew about her jaunts through the ventilation system. She trained her eyes on the guard's shoes and told herself not to make eye contact.

Though momentarily relieved that she was not about to be responsible for Levi's death, Cora still trembled from the proximity of the hulking menace at her back. Her shoulders stretched, threatening to pop from their sockets as Loke shoved her forward.

The tense group left the cell, Levi in front with a gun at his back and Loke bringing up the rear, holding Cora's wrists. "Keep your hands in the air," the nameless one commanded. "You'll try none of that nonsense with me." He muttered threats the entire walk down the hallway.

Cora tripped along as quickly as she could, her toes barely touching the metal grating of the floor. She concentrated on the pipes and prayed that Levi would behave himself until he knew he could disable the guard with the blaster. He obliged.

"Sure took you long enough." Yet another Jorvlen monster waited for them at an airlock that led to a small shuttle. "This one give you trouble?" He jerked his chin at Levi.

"Only Loke. Switch with ‘im. He's not ready."

"What?" Loke screamed.

"Heh. Can't handle a little slip like this? " The new guard and the nameless guard had a good laugh over that one.

Loke sputtered in his anger. "Y-you can't do this!"

The new guard shoved the muzzle of his blaster into Loke's face. "You'd better believe it, sonny. Learn your lessons and learn 'em quick. Next time, we'll blast you out of this here airlock for stupid mistakes like that. Now take my post."

Loke obeyed, though Cora imagined he was secretly planning the deaths of the older Jorvlens. At least she assumed they were older. The filthy aliens were so ugly it was impossible to tell.

Having been shoved into the shuttle and shackled to chairs opposite each other, Cora ducked her head to see if she could catch Levi's eye. He finally looked at her, took a deep breath, and smiled before nodding, as if to say he had it all under control.

How could he keep it together like that? Cora had never been on Jorvla before, and she was willing to bet Levi hadn't either. What if they got separated? Surely, they wouldn't allow them to stay together once they got onto the planet.

She had plenty of know-how but none of Levi's tools. She had been dead in the water before he was thrown in with her, and she would be dead in the water when he was taken away. What had she been thinking, sleeping with a fellow prisoner?

Levi caught her eye again as the transport shuttle left its dock and rattled away from the mothership. He looked at her steadily and breathed visibly in a sensual communication that connected and calmed them as they passed the time. She caught on and took some deep breaths as he was directing her.

Thoughts of the previous night came unbidden to her mind, and Cora's heartbeat evened out. In her mind, she ran her hands over his body, feeling his nose trace the side of her face and his arms pull her close.

She opened her eyes to find him staring at her as though he could read her mind. Raising an eyebrow and smirking, he spread his legs, giving her a full view of his erection. Her pulse hammered in her head, but she ached elsewhere now.

The shuttle bumped and roared as it entered the atmosphere of Jorvla, and Cora was momentarily distracted by the knot of fear choking her again. Looking out the window, she bit her lip but returned her attention to Levi when she heard the click of his foot tapping the metal floor.

Breathe, he mouthed insistently. She nodded and managed a smile. Just minutes later, the shuttle bumped onto the surface of the strange planet. The guards uncuffed them from their chairs, and for the briefest time, Cora and Levi were pushed together as their wrists were bound.

"Follow my lead," Levi whispered so low she wondered if she had imagined it. Looking into his eyes, she knew she hadn't. She would follow him to the ends of the universe.