Except for that scar over his eye…But, it did fit the animalistic aura that wafted off him, as if he were trying to decide whether to throw me to Rhone without mercy, or to just throw me.
He set me back on the ground, surprisingly gentle.
“The woman comes with me.”
“Wh…what…?” I managed to stutter out the singular word.
Rhone barked a laugh. “Why? What do you want with this mere Earthling woman?”
“That is my concern. A life for a life. You killed Fyland, I take this woman. Would you prefer I take your life, instead? Or, perhaps, the life of Siteer?” Kajo gestured to the man who was still twirling his daggers back and forth.
Rhone put his hands on his hips. The four other minions who had arrived took two steps forward, waiting for the order from their boss—my boss—to pounce. I guess they had done the magic trick teleportation thing, too? That had to of been a trick of the eye. There was no way I had seen people teleporting.
“Will you be taking her away from Earth?” Rhone asked.
“Wait—hold on—what?” The men were all still ignoring me.
“She will join me on my ship. She will never be able to alert Earth authorities that you killed a man in your office.” Kajo’s grip on my wrist tightened a little and he looked at me again. “This isn’t a negotiation, Rhone. I am taking her. The next time I hear you have corrupted one of my legions, I will not be so friendly with you.” He flicked his other hand toward the four men standing behind Rhone and they went flying backwards, their bodies thudding loud against the walls, ribs surely breaking, then they crumpled to the ground.
He had just thrown them…by magic!
“It’s not magic,” Kajo said as he turned to me. “It’s a skill. It’s telekinesis.”
That’s fucking magic.
“It is not fucking magic,” Kajo said. My mouth dropped open and the glimmer of a smile graced his deep blue, threatening eyes. “I can also hear your thoughts. So, be careful what you think of me…”
I twisted my wrist in his grip. Was that a joke he was making? I honestly couldn’t tell. His face looked so severe as he said it.
Rhone’s men were gathering themselves as Rhone held his hand up to Siteer, making sure his daggerman didn’t lunge at the Beast King.
“Let us go.”
“Whoa, hold on, I’m not going—” Before I could finish the sentence, Kajo had pulled me into his arms, pressed hard into his body, and light was glimmering all around us. He held me tight, my head buried in his leather chest plate, his bare arms wrapping about me. The light grew, sparking blue and green. A tingly sensation filled every cell of my blood, bone, and sinew.
“Stop struggling!” Kajo growled into my ear, his fingers pressing so hard into my arms that I was sure they would leave bruises. He pinned me against him so tight I struggled to breathe. He wrapped one leg about my legs and pulled them in closer to him so I couldn’t even kick out against him. My mind raged, overcome by panic at the restraint, at the tingling sensation that was starting to turn into a needle prick against every surface of my skin, and at the awe-inspiring reality of what was happening to me: what did it mean that he was taking me away from Earth? A ship? A spaceship? This was unbelievable.
My fingertips had started to tingle and I knew it was hypoxia, my breath so choked out, coming hard and fast, unable to catch it, Kajo’s arms crushing my skeleton into his muscular frame. My vision blurred – no, wait, the world around us was blurring. It was as if we were spinning, or the world was spinning. Then the lobby of the building blinked out of sight and I was wrapped in the sucking gel of a teleport, fire branching through my arteries, my insides feeling like they would be ripped out through every orifice. Dark space flashed, glimpses of bright lights spinning by outside the blur now and then, and suddenly we reappeared, with a sucking flash of light, on a metal platform.
Kajo released me, pushed me away from him, and I dropped to the ground, vomiting immediately onto a metal floor engraved with geometric patterns. I dry heaved and then rocked back to my knees. I watched Kajo walk away from me in a blur, headed down a hallway lit by blinking lights. Two women in bright green uniforms approached me and I slid backwards from them, swiping my hoodie sleeve across my mouth to clear the vomit.
The Beast King paused in the hallway and looked back at me. “Take her to my secondary quarters. Get her into something nicer looking.” Then he spun away.
I wanted to hit him. I wanted to spit at him, wanted to demand where he had taken me, wanted to clobber him until he was as dizzy as me.
Which was righteously so, I realized again as the two women technicians hauled me to my feet. I couldn’t fend them off, I was so weak. I was still catching my breath and the sensation of fire and needles was slowly retreating.
The women half-carried, half-dragged me, laughing and gossiping in a language I didn’t understand and was certain was not of Earth, down the corridor. Doors slid open for us to pass through, one after the other, high pitched beeping and occasional lights blinking.
One of
