“Behave yourself or I will sedate you,” the same rough voice from earlier warned.
Thalia counted in her head, imagining herself back on Havik’s ship, curled up next to him watching some wildlife documentary. She needed to stay calm and keep a clear head to get out of this.
Scrubbed and rinsed off again, warm air shot up from the floor, drying all of her in a hot blast. Then she was hit with soft, cottony puffs covered with a powder.
Thalia coughed, hunching over to protect herself from the puff assault.
The blindfold came off and Thalia found herself in a clear tube, mostly likely acrylic, just wide enough to flex out her elbows but not much else. The floor was brightly light and the powder on her skin shimmered like crushed gemstones. She wore what generously be described as a shift dress made from a thin, nearly translucent material. The dress barely reached her ass.
Her tube was one of six, similarly lit with nearly naked women of various planets inside, and all arranged in a circle. Shadowy figures moved in the dark room beyond the light of the tube. She couldn't tell if the figures were vague shapes because of the lighting or her lack of glasses.
The woman in the tube nearest to Thalia was also human. She had so vivid a shade of red hair it obviously came from a bottle. Tattoos decorated her arms. Thalia squinted but couldn’t make out any details. Maybe red roses and a black bird? Black and red ink.
Frustrated, she balled up her fists. Her missing glasses made her feel more vulnerable than being practically naked and rolled in stripper glitter.
“Hey! Hey,” Thalia shouted. The woman did not respond.
Thalia slapped a hand on the glass barrier and received a shock for her trouble. Hissing in pain, she clutched her injured hand to her chest.
The action snagged the woman’s attention. The woman’s mouth moved but Thalia couldn’t hear a word.
Great. Soundproof display cases.
The audience milled around the tubes. Some barely glanced at the naked flesh on display. Others leered and made Thalia wish for Havik to hurry up already and crash the party.
Barely dressed and vulnerable, she tugged down the back of the dress to cover her ass.
“I’m gonna steal the rings right off your fingers, you pig,” she promised one particularly lecherous frog-like alien male who licked his lips and waggled his long, grotesque tongue at her. “Then I’m going to rip the warts right of your slimy skin and shove them down your throat.”
His eyes sparkled like the fucker thought she was cute.
Cute. She was a damn goddess of wrath and righteous fury.
Thalia spat on the barrier and the lech reared back, a look of disgust on his purple face.
“No. Wait. Come back,” she said mildly, not done threatening him. She had barely scratched the surface on her creativity.
“Warning, specimen is agitated. Initiating gentling protocol,” a robot voice said. A hiss was all the warning Thalia had as an odorless gas filled the chamber.
“No! Don’t gas me!” She pounded on the glass, like that would help.
Her muscles relaxed and her eyes felt heavy. Suddenly she didn’t care so much about the strangers leering at her, wanting to purchase her like livestock. Her head floated away from her body, attached only by the thinnest of strings.
She wanted to be present. She clawed her way back, the force of her will making her alert, but the world outside her cage felt so distant.
A figure drew closer, more shadows than man. His eyes gleamed but he remained too far away for her to see him clearly. Recognition pricked along the back of her neck. He was bad news, but Thalia found it hard to muster fear or panic.
The shadowy alien who bought her on Earth.
For a long, horrible moment, Thalia could taste Nathan’s blood in her mouth again and hear the pounding of rain on the metal roof of Nicky’s warehouse.
Thalia squatted down, wrapping her arms around her legs. The gas had slinked in over her protective walls and that memory seemed too real. The feel of it kept repeating on a loop that would not break, like being trapped in a nightmare.
Paax had sent a message that Nicky had been apprehended, which she knew was a death sentence. If Nicky went into county lock-up, a rival would put a bullet in his head. He couldn’t hurt her or anyone else, but her body hadn’t caught up to her mind yet.
Was the shadowy alien going to demand his lost property? Purchase her again?
Remaining still, she sighed with relief when the shadows shifted. The figure moved away, intrigued by the far more colorful redhead.
Her legs burned in protest from holding a squat, but Thalia stubbornly remained. She teetered and almost lost her balance. Instinctively reaching out a hand to catch herself earned her a shock.
An alien with an unhealthy purple complexion knocked on the tube and waggled a finger at her. With indignation smoldering in her gut, Thalia rose to her feet.
The lights went out.
Chapter 16
Thalia
The room went silent for a moment before erupting into a panic. The auction house employees shouted for people to remain calm. The computer announced the same command in a flat voice, repeating it in various languages. Emergency lighting in the form of yellow stripes on the floor pointed to the exits. The audience scrambled for the exits. In their desperation to reach their private ships, chairs and the displays of unique artifacts were knocked over. Cages filled with endangered animals were tipped on their side. People were pushed down and stepped on.
The squeals and cries of the animals hurt Thalia’s heart. She didn’t care so much about the audience. Those fuckers could trample themselves into a pulp, and Thalia would sleep just fine.
A frantic male, as broad as he
