Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“Please don’t hurt me. I didn’t eat your friends.”
The lizard lets out a laugh. “Of course you didn’t. You’re not capable of that, or anything for that matter. You’re a hostage.”
“Oh. Are you going to hurt me?”
“Yet to be decided,” he says. “If you give me fewer reasons to, that might help. Or it might not.”
He half-laughs as he speaks, enjoying the control he has over me. Life and death are as one to me right now. I am as dead as I am alive, as alive as I am dead. For a second time, I have been kidnapped by something so much more powerful than me. This time there is no generosity of spirit, or kindness, or even the basic urge to save me. I am looking into the vertically slitted eyes of an animal that sees me as nothing more than convenient prey.
“Did we get her?”
“Of course we did. Am I not a rogue?”
“You are,” the voice outside the door says. It is coming closer, traveling with its origin point. I cannot see this one yet. It blocks out the light as it comes toward me.
“I want to see the human the Psyon is obsessed with.”
“Just a human. Fairly standard,” the rogue who caught me says, giving me a quick up and down with his eyes. He sees nothing special about me, because I am nothing more than meat to him. I can feel his disregard like a cold wall pressed briefly against every part of me.
“She can’t be standard. He’s a Master Psyon. Let me see her.”
The creature steps into the light. He is impressive. Another lizard alien. Looks like a leader. He is particularly large and very… gleamy. His scales shine, the edges all gilt with gold. They are very pretty. I don’t think he is trying to be pretty. I think he is trying to be terrible.
He is seven feet tall at least, and his teeth are sharp, in a different way than Freak’s. His eyes are green, and they are set high on his head. He has three thick fingers on each hand with long yellow claws. Any one of them could rend me from nape to navel.
“You have the attention of a Psyon,” he says. “Why?”
“I don’t know. Right place, right time? He was bored? He wanted a pet?” I don’t actually know the answer to the question he is asking. Or maybe I do; maybe he was in a state when he escaped from the torture these things were putting him through where he needed something to save, and I was it.
“Hm,” he says. “She looks familiar. Why does she look familiar?”
“They all look the same to me, your highness,” the rogue says.
The Lizard King is thoughtful. He puts a claw to the end of his protruding chin and taps it for a moment.
“I think we will hear from the Psyon soon.”
“You captured him and tortured him with experiments. What did you think would happen? Did you think he’d just let that go? They don’t let anything go. They wield power over space and time.”
“Some limited power that we are eroding by the day,” the Lizard King says. “The Psyons have their strengths, but nothing that cannot be discovered through science. Soon enough we’ll be able to step into that precious realm world of theirs and then it will all be over.”
“I don’t know why you’d bother. It’s boring there. Feels like being trapped inside an hourglass.”
“You’ve been there!” He laughs. “She’s been there!” he declares to the rogue. “Two minutes of conversation with the little sponge and she’s telling us it is definitely possible for a creature of a human nature to be in their realm…”
“With permission, and not for long,” I say, thinking I am helping.
“We’ve got to ask more questions,” he says. “Are you hungry? I imagine you are. Humans like to eat every four hours or so when they’re awake. Little and often. Like hatchlings even when they’re full grown.”
CHAPTER 8
Freak
It takes me too long to realize that my pet has been taken. Sixty seconds. Far, far too long. We are covered in blood and scales. The bridge is awash in blood, and my pet does not respond to my call. The tracking collar is dead. So much for that.
I go back to find her, leaving bloody footsteps in my wake, and find her absent. I know instantly what they’ve done. The three they sent down were sacrifices. I bet their weapons wouldn’t have fired even if they’d had time to fire them.
My pet has been taken, and the DC ship is hanging at what they consider to be a safe distance, just inside hailing range.
I run to the bridge and smash the intercom with my bloodied fist.
“Give her back!” My voice is rough with rage and fury.
A laugh comes over the speakers.