“You do that again, and you’ll regret it.”
I give up, tears flooding my eyes. At my surrender, the Aurelian loosens the pressure of his hand slightly, letting me whoop in breaths through my nostrils.
My stomach lurches as we soar over the walls of my home and up into the unknown.
I’d always longed to see the other side of those walls, without a group of Sentinels escorting and protecting me.
Now, I see the other side more clearly than I’d like to.
This is the dark side my father tried to keep me safe from. The threat of kidnapping, violence and abduction was real all along.
The guilt wells up in me. Because of me, Gerard is now dead. His instincts told him to wait outside tonight and protect us – but while his instincts were right, they cost him his life.
All those years – all that money my father had spent on Sentinels, and surveillance, and all other manner of protective devices and systems.
They were all useless.
Tonight, that alien got past dozens of Sentinels without a single shot being fired.
He crashed into my bedroom as easily as if we’d left the looming, stone gates open.
The veneer of safety my father had hidden me behind – I see how it truly was just a veneer now; an illusion, meant to salve his guilty conscience at endangering me.
I glance over the Aurelian’s huge shoulder, through the plexiglass window on the door of the ship.
Beneath us, I can see the city rushing past. As the Aurelian’s spacecraft banks left, I can see the dull glimmer of the streetlights and windows – glittering like flecks of diamond buried in piles of coal dust.
We’re traveling at an incredible speed.
I know why, too. All that I’d learned from On Aurelians comes rushing back to me.
This spacecraft isn’t just any craft. It’s an Aurelian Reaver.
This Reaver is how the Aurelians were able to get so close to my home without a noise – I know from all my studies into them.
The lightest of the Aurelian attack ships, a Reaver-class vessel is powered by a small Orb – just like the ones my father found huge deposits of in his new mine.
Engines powered by Orb-Material run silently – and produce infinitely more power than the fusion or combustion drives most races in the universe still rely on.
That’s why Orb-Material is so immeasurably valuable – and why my father’s mine has driven these Aurelians to resort to kidnapping – if not worse.
My father’s mine is what started this whole bloody affair. The mine that kept me prisoner ever since my father first discovered it – that now has Gerard’s blood on it.
Gods, how I hate that mine!
I force my thoughts to become logical again. Clinging to logic and analysis helps steel my nerves against the fear and grief.
I consider what might happen next. I’ve been kidnapped by Aurelians – and with an Orb powering their vessel, this Reaver could travel huge distances across space in just a split second.
That means I could be pulled away from Marn and thrown into another solar system at any moment – far from my father’s reach.
Gods…
I tried to distract myself with facts and analysis, but I can’t any longer – they just demonstrate how desperate my situation is.
The one, true fact is that I’ve been snatched up by three hulking, alien beasts – from a species known for two things above all else; their mating rage, and the code honor that holds back their primal desires.
These Aurelians, however, have proven they have no honor.
I can’t make the same assumption about their mating rage. There’s no Aurelian in the universe who is immune to those hard-wired, insatiable desires – why should these three defy biology?
That places me in a very vulnerable situation.
As if to reinforce that, the Aurelian at the controls of the Reaver turns his head. I shiver when his slate-grey eyes fall across me.
The pilot is the Aurelian who’d had that rifle slung across his back. His sharp eyes have hunger in them.
Hunger for what… For me?
These are three brutal, alien men. They’ve survived a thousand life-threatening encounters. They’ve killed Scorp, Toad, and human men like it’s nothing.
They’re three cold, heartless murderers – who took sweet, protective Gerard and ended him.
Now, they have me in their grasp.
The cold fear grips me. It’s like I’m falling into an endless pit of terror. My heart pounds, and I begin to hyperventilate – unable to suck enough oxygen in through my nose.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
The leader of the Aurelians, who still has me wrapped in his powerful arms, speaks in a manner I assume is supposed to be reassuring. His voice is deep and powerful – but anything but reassuring.
How can it be? This Aurelian just killed a man I cared for. How can he tell me he won’t hurt me, when he’s already broken my heart by murdering Gerard?
The alien’s lie curdles in my ear – but my terror does subside somewhat.
It’s replaced with something more powerful.
Hate.
I feel frozen hatred for this marble-skinned, alien bastard.
He’s not a professional. He has no honor. He’s not even like the families of Marn – who at least have set rules when it comes to the business of kidnapping. They’d never kill a guard in the attempt – because to the crime and business families of Marn, kidnapping is supposed to be a clean transaction; a normal part of ‘business as usual’.
On Marn, even dirty business is done through wits and betrayal, not through force of arms.
But these Aurelians are not from Marn – and this towering Aurelian who pins me in his immense arms is nothing but a beast – a brutal murderer.
I want to bite into his hand again – to make him feel pain, just like I do at losing Gerard…
…but I know it’s futile.
I sunk my teeth deep
