Nothing on Earth (10 page)

“Not so tough now?” he asked in English. “I had to promise Grieg first allocation just so he wouldn’t retaliate. You sure made a mess of his face.”

He laughed again, but she hung her head lower, straining to remember. She had blurred images of a fight, fuzzy memories of elbowing someone, of Alec’s deep voice. She closed her eyes, the images gray and watery, her recollection poor and incomplete.

She tried to talk, tried to ask what they’d done to Alec, but if felt like her tongue was too big for her mouth, and the words came out sounding like grunts. She growled low in her throat in frustration, and the man in front of her laughed even louder.

“Kind of hard to use that smart mouth now that the drugs are kicking in, huh?” He said it in such a smug voice she wanted to kick the bastard again. She was pretty sure he was the one she managed to double over with a well-placed foot, but considering her current situation, it obviously hadn’t been hard enough.

He stepped closer, and she lashed out with her foot, but even her coordination felt off, and she missed completely. He grabbed her by the hair and bent her backwards so that her entire weight dragged against her bound wrists. He leaned closer to smile into her face and then said words that chilled her to the bone. “Don’t you just love these drugs? You get to understand every word, every emotion, every action but can’t do a thing to control it. I love watching you humans get what you deserve, but I’m especially going to enjoy watching you get yours. Grieg is going to make sure you never forget who he is.”

Tara
tried to pull away, but he pulled harder on her hair until she cried out in pain. “That’s it, bitch. We’re gonna hear a whole lot more of that moaning before we let you get pregnant.”

He released her, and she fell to her knees.
Tara
felt like she was crying, but the drugs in her system made her unsure of anything. Her vision blurred, and she rubbed her face frantically, the stinging itch feeling worse with every moment.

“Now, now, we can’t have you messing up that pretty face.”

Tara
rubbed harder, lifting to her feet as her arms were pulled high above her head. Desperately, she began rubbing the inflamed skin against her upper arms, whatever part of her she could reach, but he stepped closer, adjusted her bonds slightly, and then she felt her arms pulled in separate directions. Before she understood what was happening, her feet were locked into cuffs, as well, and she stood spread-eagle against the wall. She moaned again as the need to claw at her burning skin engulfed her.

“Just wait until the itch makes it to your pussy. You’ll want a hard cock in there so bad you won’t even care who it belongs to.” He patted her cheek, and she almost rubbed against the rough skin of his hand. She managed to stop herself at the last moment, but the need clawed at her insides. “But you get to wait until John can see what happens when he breaks the rules. You and Alec are going to serve as an example to the rest of the crew of what could happen to their loved ones if they break their oath.”

She tried to turn away from him, his words lancing deep into her soul. John had tried to protect them both, and now he would be forced to watch whatever they planned for her and Alec. She felt tears roll down the inflamed skin on her cheeks as she realized how badly it would destroy John to witness the very thing he’d tried to stop from happening. He would surely blame himself for getting Alec involved.

She heard the door slam closed as her tormentor left. She tried to suck in a deep breath, tried to find a small center of calm, tried not to moan as the heat traveled down her torso, and her knees buckled. Her full weight hung on her wrists for a moment before everything tilted. At first she thought she was losing consciousness, and a cowardly part welcomed the promised relief, but a moment later her back pressed against the cool metal wall, and she realized that the wall had slanted almost to a horizontal position.

She sobbed harder as she realized that unlike that first night John had abducted her, this time there was no misunderstanding. These men, these aliens, meant her harm, and under the drug’s influence, she was helpless to stop it.

* * * *

John wandered through the camping equipment, at first fearing that
Tara
had left simply because she feared him and his past. A quick search of the area showed signs of a struggle, and his fear ramped into absolute terror. They had her. They had Alec.

“About time you showed,” a familiar voice said from behind him.

“Altan, where are they? What did you do with them?” John was wishing he hadn’t left without at least putting his pistol into his pocket. He never went anywhere without it, but he’d been in such a hurry to leave when Tara had started asking about what happened to the women they captured that he’d broken one of his most sacred rules—never be unarmed.

“Relax,” Altan said tiredly. The man held a stun gun pointed at John’s chest, so he doubted relaxing was possible at this point.

“What are you waiting for?” John asked aggressively, trying to put Altan off, trying to cover the fact that he was circling toward the work bench where he keep his tools, hoping to find something he could use as a weapon.

“I’m waiting for you to relax so that we can talk.”

“Talk? What’s to talk about? You’re here to arrest me and take me back to the ship. Seems to me that doesn’t require a whole lot of talking.” He continued to inch toward the bench, hoping that his belligerent attitude would cover his true purpose. He had to find a way to get Tara and Alec back, and the only way he was going to be able to do that is if he avoided capture himself.

“We could talk about why you did it. Why you risked everything to protect a human. We could talk about how you can’t find the parts you need to make a dampening field small enough to hide her. Or how about the fact that the breeding council has known exactly where you’ve been hiding for the past six months.” John felt his mouth fall open.

“How?” Words weren’t coming easily, his brain spinning with what-ifs.

“Pure dumb luck,” he said shrugging. “That little asshole, Grieg, spotted you on our last collection mission. Once the council knew where you were, they just waited for you to lead them to
Tara
. I expect that her abduction will be a far worse experience now that they plan to make an example of you.”

John couldn’t quite hide his terror, and he inched closer to the bench behind him. “Or maybe,” Altan continued, “we could talk about how lucky you are that they left me behind to apprehend you.”

“Lucky?” John asked sarcastically.

“Yes, lucky. I know where Tara and Alec are, and I have a plan to get them back.”

John shook his head in bewilderment. “Why would you help me?”

“Because you’re not the only one who thinks what is happening is wrong. You’re not the only one to see that human women are intelligent, and you are sure as hell not the only one to try and change the ways things are. You are, however, the only one who has managed to hide a breeder from them for so long.” Altan lowered his pistol and then dropped into the nearest chair.

“I’ve been a collector for twelve Earth years. I’ve stood by helplessly and watched as intelligent human women are reduced to nothing but mindless slaves. At first I tried to justify it. Tried to convince myself that we were saving our species, but when I learned that the women retain their cognitive abilities even while the drugs are at their peak, I couldn’t stand by and do nothing any longer.”

Oh hell, that was something John didn’t know. He’d always thought that the drugs affected the women’s minds as well. He hadn’t known they retained enough understanding to know what was happening. John needed to do something, needed to move, needed to save his lovers, but he also needed Altan’s help. So he stood there, his muscles tensed, his breathing choppy as he listened to his former shipmate explain his plan.

Chapter Twelve

Alec woke with one hell of a headache. He barely remembered why his head hurt until he tried to move his hand to his face. The cuffs holding his hands in place bought it all flooding back. He closed his eyes as the horrifying scene replayed in his head.

They’d been asleep, curled together, when he heard a noise at the cave opening. He’d barely rolled off the bed when a stun shot hit him, and he went down hard.

Tara
fought them, lashing out with her fists and feet, and he’d smiled when he heard one of them grunt in groin-mangled agony. Alec had almost overcome the effects of the stun shot when a second shot hit him in the lower back.
Tara
shrieked, and he felt her slight weight wrap over his prone form protectively.

“No,” she screamed as the men moved toward him. “I’ll come with you, just…just leave him alone. He’s innocent. He has nothing to do with this.”

He heard a familiar laugh but struggled to place it. One of John’s shipmates? He’d met a few before they’d left for John’s first assignment but couldn’t remember all their names. Grieg, maybe? He wasn’t certain, but he sure sounded like that prick. The guy was a nasty little asshole with a vicious streak, and Alec had hated him even before they’d had a full conversation.

“Innocent? Is that so?” Grieg said, sounding amused. It had to be him. The tone of voice was exactly the same. “Innocent? Such an interesting word. I suppose you expect me to let him go.” The other men laughed, and he felt
Tara
hug him tighter.

“Just leave him here. He’s not a threat to you.”

Alec felt someone step closer to them and lift
Tara
off his back. She grabbed his shoulders, desperately holding on as she whispered, “Don’t risk coming for me. I love you both.”

His chest tightened with anguish. She was willing to sacrifice herself in the hopes of saving the next woman. She would willingly leave John and Alec behind if it meant keeping them safe. God, he loved this woman. His species was so wrong, so misguided. Couldn’t they see that human women should be valued and cherished, not used and destroyed?

“Oh such lovely heartfelt sentiments,” Grieg said mockingly. “So I guess it won’t hurt, then, to offer your innocent friend Alec a ride. He is, after all, a very long way from home.”

“No,” she yelled angrily.

Alec heard a grunt and managed to turn his head in time to see Grieg hit the ground, his face bloodied, his nose looking broken. Grim satisfaction drilled through him at the same time fear for what the man might do in retaliation chilled the blood in his veins.

“Enough,” a commanding voice growled. “Get her back to the ship without damaging her. Sedate her if you have to.”

Alec closed his eyes as he heard
Tara
’s struggles come to an end. He prayed they’d only sedated her, but from his prone position he could no longer see where she was.

“When John catches up with you,” Alec mumbled, “you will regret the day you were born.” He heard an amused chuckle at the same time something warm pressed against his neck, and unconsciousness claimed him.

The sound of a door opening bought him back to his current predicament. He smirked when he saw Grieg’s messed-up face. “Like that do you?” Grieg said as he stalked closer. “Well, it’s nothing compared to what I’m going to do to that whore once the hormone treatment is finished.”

Alec’s fists rose of their own accord, but the tether held him back, and Grieg laughed even harder. “Don’t worry, Alec. You and John are going to have front row seats.”

Alec bit back the groan of agony that twisted his gut, fear for both his lovers stabbing through every part of his body.

He knew it was coming but could do nothing to avoid it without angering Grieg further. The punch landed hard against his nose, the pain exploding out and up across his eyes and cheekbones. He tasted blood but did nothing to retaliate. With his arms bound, he had little hope of doing any more than making this fun for Grieg, so he hung his head low, the actions of a conquered man even as his mind raced with thoughts.

Mistaking Alec’s posture as defeat, Grieg stepped closer and unwittingly gave Alec the opportunity he’d prayed for. Moving fast, Alec used every bit of strength he had to kick Grieg straight in the groin. The man hit the floor hard, coughing and moaning as he held his balls and curled into himself. Alec didn’t care what the bastard did to him, but he prayed he’d done enough damage to keep the sadistic prick away from
Tara
for a very long time.