Alien Warrior's Bounty Read online

“Don’t panic,” I tell her. “Just get us as close to the roof as you can.”

  She presses one of the buttons, and the elevator lurches as it begins its ascent. The technology is primitive, and it moves slowly. Dull Earth music pumps in through some speakers in the ceiling, almost covering up the muffled sound of screams and blaster fire from beyond the door.

  The female shakes her head as if waking up from a dream and eyes me up and down.

  “Wait, why am I helping you?”

  Her hand reaches for the elevator controls, but I seize her wrist, so tiny and delicate it practically disappears in my gloved fist.

  “Not so fast, little one.”

  I close the space between us. She places a small hand against my bare chest to stop my advance, but immediately she jerks it away like a hatchling who has touched an ion stove.

  “Oh,” she gasps, “you’re…cold.”

  Her eyes flare into wide, white circles of fear and she stares up at me. That oh-so-tempting tremble has returned to her plump, pink lower lip.

  “What are you?” she whispers.

  CHAPTER 4: CLARE

  The giant doesn’t answer my question. He simply towers over me, his face hidden behind the tinted visor of his helmet while cheesy light jazz plays softly over the elevator’s speakers.

  My hand, meanwhile, seems to have taken on a life of its own, and when I glance down, I realize that I’m touching his chest again.

  His teal skin really is cold. Well, okay, not cold exactly, but much cooler than human skin should be. But that’s hardly the only thing that’s weird about it. Although there is a bright sheen to his flesh, it is completely dry and textured with tiny scales like snakeskin. I’m not talking snakeskin boots here. I mean it is soft and supple and shifts slightly over the hard muscles flexing underneath, exactly like the skin of a real live snake.

  There’s no way this could be a makeup job. It’s way too detailed and perfect. But at the same time, it can’t possibly be real, right? Because if it were, that would mean…

  I jerk my hand away again.

  “Can’t make up your mind, little one?”

  Even though his face is hidden, I can still hear the hint of a smirk in his voice. It sends a chill wiggling up my spine. I don’t know what this guy wants from me, but it’s obviously not anything good.

  “Let me go,” I blurt. My voice sounds flat as the paneled walls of the elevator swallow up any reverb.

  I try to sidestep my way around the bulk of his body, but the cramped space doesn’t give me much room to move around in, and the scaly giant easily blocks my path. He steps toward me again, backing me up until my butt bumps the wall.

  “What are you going to do to me?” I whisper as I press myself flat.

  “Right now, I’m going to protect you. And I will require your total cooperation in order to do so effectively. Understand?”

  “Protect me? From whom?”

  My heart is drumming against my ribs, and my brain is still buzzing from what just went down in the lobby. It all happened so fast that I haven’t even managed to process it yet. I try to arrange the scattered events in my mind.

  First, this big guy threw me over his shoulder caveman style. Then somebody started shooting at us. Glass went flying everywhere. People were screaming. They weren’t using ordinary guns either. It was beams of purple energy like something out of a sci-fi movie.

  Shit, some poor guy even got vaporized. I don’t know who was shooting at us, but this teal giant definitely protected me from them.

  Wait. Rewind. Back to the first part where he threw me over his shoulder and tried to carry me away kicking and screaming.

  “You’re abducting me.”

  “I’m apprehending you.”

  “There’s a difference?”

  He glances over his shoulder as the floor numbers above the elevator door light up one by one to mark our ascent.

  “Is all Earth technology this slow?” he mutters with annoyance.

  I try to slip away from him again, but a thick arm corded with muscles and wrapped in that same scaly skin darts out like a teal python, pinning me in.

  “Listen to me, human,” he growls in a low voice that rumbles straight to the pit of my stomach. “You’ve got two choices. You can come with me, or you can go with those assholes who were shooting at us downstairs. One way or another, you’re being taken, and I guarantee you would rather it be by me.”

  I squish my body back into the elevator wall, wishing I could pass through it like a ghost. This guy—if he even is a guy—is really invading my space right now, and it’s making goosebumps flare across my exposed skin.

  He does have a point though. As bad as he seems, those people who were shooting at us must be even worse. I mean, this guy hasn’t vaporized anybody yet. At least not that I know of. And if he meant to hurt me, he probably would have done so already, right?

  There is a cheerful ding as the elevator reaches the top floor and the doors whisper open.

  A massive hand clutches my wrist and yanks me forward so hard I feel like my arm will be ripped out of its socket. I’m forced to run so I don’t stumble and fall. The patter of my bare feet on the cool linoleum floor provides an unsteady accompaniment to the staccato of the giant’s boots as I struggle to keep up. Fluorescent lights buzz overhead.

  “Exit,” he grunts, apparently going back into caveman mode.

  It’s weird. Whoever—or whatever—this guy is, he can speak English, but his literacy skills obviously leave something to be desired. This broad, empty hallway is lined with glowing red exit signs pointing the way, but apparently he hasn’t noticed.

  Out of pure reflex, I almost point this out to him, but I catch myself, remembering that I probably shouldn’t be helping my kidnapper.

  I dig in my bare heels as best I can and resist his tugging hand.

  The teal giant turns around at my defiance. Even through his dark visor I can sense the heat of his angry glare. He seizes me by my naked shoulders and gives me a rough shake that loosens my joints.

  “Exit!” he barks.

  His voice is like a whip crack, and it leaves me about two seconds away from peeing myself. Unable to speak, I point toward the nearest illuminated exit sign as tears start to blur my vision.

  The giant jerks me forward and I stagger after him.

  When we reach the end of the hall, he shoulders his way through the fire exit so hard that it nearly knocks the door off its hinges. Immediately, alarms start blaring and the emergency lights strobe.

  The giant doesn’t care. Still dragging me behind him like a broken doll, he takes the stairs two at a time, and my toes barely graze the steps, only touching down briefly as we round the landing.

  The door at the top of the stairs actually does come off its hinges, and my eyes, already misty with tears, are blinded by the blazing San Diego sun. In the distance, from beyond the edge of the roof, come the panicked cries of people down below.

  The giant catches me as my momentum almost sends me toppling over. He stands me up straight.

  “Don’t move.”

  His voice is stern, but thankfully not the violent bark that he used in the hallway a moment ago. I don’t think I would be able to handle that again. I also don’t plan on testing his patience anymore, and I stand as still as a statue, even though the black tar lining of the roof is cooking my bare soles.

  The giant raises his forearm, which is sheathed in an armored vambrace. With his other hand, he quickly taps a few buttons.

  “You’d better hold on to me,” he says. “This will be…unpleasant.”

  Just then, a dark, metallic form vaults over the lip of the roof’s edge and lands with a clank. It rises, a humanoid robot, dirty sunlight glinting from the streaked and pitted steel of its skeletal frame. Its half-dozen irregularly spaced eyes whir and click as they autofocus like camera apertures.

  The cyborg’s synthetic voice emerges from its steel death’s mask with a curious sibilance.

  �
��Rogar.”

  It raises an evil looking black rifle.

  Almost as a reflex, I find my arms wrapping around the giant’s waist. It’s like hugging the trunk of a tree—a very smooth tree.

  The giant coils one protective arm around my bare back, pulling me tightly against him. His other arm unslings that strange high-tech spear that he keeps strapped over his shoulder. But it’s too late, the droid is already firing.

  Time seems to slow down to a crawl, and I suck air between my teeth as the purple bolts of energy zip toward us. I squeeze my eyes shut.

  This is it. I’m gonna be vaporized.

  CHAPTER 5: CLARE

  As it turns out, getting vaporized fucking sucks.

  At first it’s not too bad. Just a quiver of nausea deep inside my belly.

  But the sensation rapidly grows until it feels like my stomach is being split open and turned inside out. White heat courses through my veins, and my muscles screech with pain as they are stripped from my bones and shredded fiber by fiber, atom by atom.

  Then, just as quickly as it started, the pain is gone, replaced by a welcome numbness and a feeling of disorientation, like suddenly waking up underwater and not knowing which way is up.

  There’s no light. There isn’t even darkness. Just…nothing.

  Am I dead?

  Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m dead.

  And the only thing my stupid self can think at a time like this is that I died a virgin.

  It’s petty, I know. Whatever.

  To be fair, there are other thoughts floating around in the back of my mind too. Like, for example, did Amber get away safely? Or what about my parents? How will they handle it when they find out what happened to me? Shit, will they even find out? I mean, if I got vaporized, there’s probably nothing left of me except for that stupid space-slut bikini lying on the roof of the San Diego convention center curling plumes of purple smoke.

  I can’t believe that I actually wore that stupid thing out in public, yet somehow I still managed to die a virgin.

  All of a sudden, the nothing starts to become a something again.

  Cool air ghosts over my invisible skin. Odors fill my nonexistent nostrils—the smells of ozone and machine grease. And behind it all is the sound of a young woman screaming, her voice rushing closer and closer until it is inside me, and I realize that the shrill sound is coming from my own mouth.

  “Shut up,” a gruff voice commands, and a heavy hand shakes me out of my daze.

  My vision sparkles as it adjusts to the dim enclosure, and I blink my eyes. The walls are covered in dull metal panelling dotted here and their with blinking lights. Ribbed conduit hoses droop from the ceiling. A low-pitched hum pervades everything, not so much a noise as a felt vibration.

  I tilt my head down and run my hands over my body. As far as I can tell, I’m unharmed. I’ve still got all four limbs, both boobs, and all of my fingers and toes. Even my stupid bikini made it through the ordeal unscathed. The only remnant of the painful experience is a weird electrical itch like bugs crawling under my skin, but soon that fades too.

  “Matter displacement beam,” a voice explains.

  It’s the giant. So he made it too, apparently. I probably shouldn’t be relieved by that fact, but for some reason, I am.

  “The first time is the worst,” he says with a little shrug of his broad, armored shoulders. “but you get used to it after a while.”

  “Get used to it?” I stammer. “We won’t have to do it again, will we?”

  “Not while you’re awake.”

  He turns me around roughly, grabs both of my shoulders and begins pushing me down the length of the enclosure. It’s useless to resist his strength, so I let him guide me, stepping my feet gingerly over the loose cables snaking across the floor.

  “Not while I’m awake? What do you mean?”

  He doesn’t answer. We come to a stop in front of a metal door. The giant reaches in front of me to activate a lighted switch, and the door panel hisses open, revealing a room no bigger than a closet. But there are no coat hangers inside. Instead, there’s a weird, six-foot-tall cylinder of glowing pink glass framed with metal and wires at the top and bottom. It looks just big enough for a person to fit inside.

  “What is that?” I gasp.

  Again, he ignores my question, and shoves me forward. As I get nearer to the pink tube, I realize it’s not made of glass at all. It’s some kind of energy field. Its surface hums with power and little glowing motes drift through its light.

  “Wait!” I scream, clamping my hands onto the door frame and trying uselessly to dig my bare heels into the smooth metal floor.

  “Calm down,” the giant grunts with annoyance behind me. “It won’t hurt you. It’s only a stasis field. There’s no reason for you to be awake for the entire trip back to Rothilian Primaris.”

  Stasis field? Trip?

  I don’t understand half of what he’s talking about right now. All I know is that in the past few minutes, I’ve been abducted, shot at, and turned inside out and backwards by some kind of teleporter, and all of that is more than enough new experiences for one day, thank you very much.

  As I’m on the verge of being shoved into the pink energy field, I let loose the most blood-curdling scream I can manage.

  “What the fuck is going on?”

  To my surprise, it seems to work. The giant stops shoving me. The pressure of his insanely big hand pulls away from my bare back, and I turn around to face him. He stands there silently staring down at me, and I wonder what is going on behind that helmet.

  “Look, I promise it won’t hurt,” he says at last.

  I draw back my hand and throw a punch straight into his chest. I even remember to twist my hips and keep my wrist straight, just like in my boxing fitness class.

  The difference is, in those classes we punch soft leather punching bags. But now, when I drive my fist into this guy’s chest, it’s like hitting a brick wall.

  A brick wall lined with smooth snakeskin that is.

  I don’t care. I know I can’t hurt him, but all of my anger and fear and frustration is finally bubbling over, and I can’t hold it back any longer. I throw punch after useless punch into that broad chest of striated muscles. My knuckles smack weakly against his smooth skin. I refuse to let up. I’m venting all of my frustration on that big stupid chest.

  As I draw my arm way back to throw a haymaker at him. my elbow clips the buzzing edge of the stasis field, and it sticks as if embedded in tar. No matter how I struggle, I can’t pull my arm free. The giant’s broad palm looms in front of me. One little shove, and I’m going to be completely caught in the stasis field.

  But right before he pushes me inside, a heavy boom rattles the walls and tilts the room on its axis.

  The giant loses his balance and stumbles backward, landing flat on his back with a thud. The force of the impact is enough to dislodge my elbow from the stasis field, and I tumble forward, only to find myself sprawled out on top of him, straddling the hard ridges of his abdomen. A few hot angry tears roll down my nose and splash on his chest which is a slightly deeper shade of teal where I was punching him.

  His heart is thundering beneath his breastbone. It seems to be perfectly synced up with mine.

  For some reason, my body is picking now, now, of all times, to get excited. My traitorous little nipples stiffen and strain against my top, and a pulse of wet warmth blooms between my spread thighs.

  When I scooch back, intending to get off of him, something thumps my crotch. Something big and firm and straining against the layers of leather and chain mail that cover it.

  Apparently my body isn’t the only one getting excited. My abductor is feeling it too.

  “Oh,” I gasp.

  I squeal as another explosion rocks the walls. Stacks of crates topple in the rear of the corridor.

  The giant’s smooth, powerful arms wrap around my body, holding me steady. But as soon as the tremor has ended, his protectiveness shifts to annoyan
ce.

  “Get off,” he grunts.

  With a rough shove, he rolls my body off of his and rises to his feet. He staggers toward a door at the corridor’s end, bracing himself against the walls as yet another explosion hits.

  “Hold on to something,” he calls over his shoulder. “This is gonna get hairy.”

  I struggle to get to my feet as the impacts come one after another, shaking the enclosure like an earthquake. Alarms blare. Overhead a hose breaks free of its fitting belching white steam.

  As the door slides open, however, I realize that this is no earthquake.

  On the other side of the door is a cramped, dimly lit room with a pair of seats and an array of blinking controls, and above all of that, a broad windshield looking out onto a vast expanse of stars hovering over the gentle blue contour of the earth far below.

  It’s a cockpit…

  Of a spaceship…

  We’re in outer space.

  “I said hold on to something,” the giant snarls.

  He drops into one of the seats and swivels around to face the lighted panels. His hands move deftly over the controls, flicking switches that bring the craft to life in a series of hums.

  We’re in outer fucking space.

  The ship lurches as it throttles forward. The curvature of the earth rolls out of view. More impacts and explosions rattle the ship. Someone is shooting at us, and I can only assume that they are buddies with whoever was trying to shoot us down on the ground.

  I stagger forward, my heart hammering like a machine gun. My captor said to hang on to something, but there’s nothing in this corridor to grasp. As the ship rocks, I stumble into the wall, and my butt bumps a button there. A panel hisses open on the opposite side, revealing a lighted compartment.

  My heart stops.

  Guns. A whole freaking armory of alien guns.

  CHAPTER 6: ROGAR

  I should not have taken this job. I had a feeling it was going to be a disaster, right from the start. The bounty, however, was too good to pass up.

  The reward, I mean. Not the girl.

  She is somewhere behind me, where I left her in the passageway. I can hear her getting knocked around, thumping into the bulkheads as the ship rocks and shudders under our enemy’s withering cannon fire. I call back to her without taking my eyes from the controls in front of me.