I woke with a scream on my lips and I jolted upright. Squinting against the bright yellow light, a strange room with four barren walls came into view. No furniture, no windows, no door. Panic clawed at my chest as I shoved off the floor and recoiled until I hit a wall. I didn’t recognize this room. Breaths didn’t come quick enough. Left and right, I scanned for a way out, for anything that looked familiar, for lines in the walls for a door.
The last thing I remembered was being carried into the black spacecraft, enemies closing in, and Corran jabbing me with something, then I passed out. So where was I now?
My stomach tightened, and all I could think was that the Vepar had played me, and I foolishly believed them after everyone had warned me about catching their attention. Well, I’d done that royally. And now look at me? I was stuck in hell.
“Hello!” My voice seemed to echo, but it went nowhere. “Thane, Corran, Derrial, where am I? Can I come out now?”
The scream in my lungs rushed past my lips, a desperate call for them to hear me, to come for me.
Still nothing.
You're special, Ella. Thane’s earlier words circled in my mind. They hounded me.
Being special in the eyes of the Vepar came with consequences, and I could see them now, clearer than I had before. They were monsters who tricked me.
I frantically checked the walls, running my hands over their smooth surface for a way out. But I knew the truth. They’d covered all potential escape routes, perfected the art of capture and like before, they had no plans on letting me escape. The reality crashed through me… I was trapped. Locked somewhere.
Under their control.
And I hated them for it…
Stumbling away, dread ripped across my chest. My knees hit the ground, and I dropped my face into my hands. A heady blackness swallowed me, and fear choked me. I cried, letting the despair rip through me. I cried for losing my home, for being lied to, for the past I could never take back.
I couldn’t remember how long I wept or waited in that room, but when a mechanical beep chimed, I tilted my head up and wiped my eyes.
The wall in front of me shimmered, and with a small popping sound, two doors slid open in the middle of the wall with a swooshing sound.
Corran strode inside, dressed in black pants and a matching long-sleeve top.
My gaze swept to my escape, to the dark room behind him which vanished in seconds as the doors shut. How long had I been closed up for?
“Is this your spaceship?” I asked, hating the pleading in my voice. Dread spiked in my chest, and I fought against every instinct to run to him and beg him to release me.
The lead scientist studied me, his eyes always reminding me of warm caramel. His thick hair, the color of mahogany, was tucked behind his ears. The black-framed glasses he wore gave him a sexy teacher look, and I shouldn’t have admired him, but I had already stepped forward like his very presence controlled me.
I tried to shake those feelings away because I couldn’t… wouldn’t keep falling for them while they had just stolen my life from me. So I stood my ground and tilted my head up to meet his deep, captivating gaze.
“Tell me where I am,” I demanded, my voice stronger this time.
“You’re safe,” he murmured, stepping closer, studying me like he always did... Me as the experiment that intrigued him.
“I doubt that. Since you three came into my life, I’ve been anything but safe. The Khonsu never would have tortured me or put me on their radar if it wasn’t for you. I would still have my new job at--”
“They would have found you eventually. We saved you.” He moved closer, and I recoiled from his reach.
“Huh, you call it saving, I call it kidnapping.”
“On our planet, Veon, you’d be honored to have us claim you because there are many females who’d kill to take your place.” He said arrogantly, his voice darkened like I should be thanking him… On Earth, Corran would be runway-model material, the hunk on the cover of magazines, and the man every woman fantasized about. Except, many people said their beauty came from the disguises they used to conceal their real appearances, and it intrigued me what they hid behind their masks.
“Well, we’re not on your planet, we’re on Earth,” I snapped. “Without your interference, I could have had a normal, simple, safe life.”
He closed the distance between us in three long steps, shadows dancing under his eyes, the wrinkle across his nose having nothing to do with an oncoming sneeze.
I moved backward, and my spine pressed against the wall.
“You don’t listen,” he growled, hard muscles flexing with his every move.
I should have been terrified, screamed for help, except my body was alive and on fire around him.
“I’m special, I get it. The Khonsu aliens want me so they can continue draining me for themselves, rather than you and your friends doing it, right?” I held my chin high, trying to show him I wouldn’t be pushed around, finding confidence I never knew I had.
He braced a hand on the wall over my shoulder, his body pinning me in place, not saying a word but staring at me.
Something about their presence affected me when I stood too close to them. I loathed that their dominance and controlling ways turned me on when it never should.
“I...is t...that all I am to you,” I asked, lowering my voice, remembering the times I’d spent with him and enjoyed, believing he cared for me… truly cared. But I’d been mistaken. “Someone to please you?”
He leaned down and his lips brushed the skin beneath my earlobe. Soft and tender, the opposite of the way he held me in place. “I’ll never hurt you.”
His words left me shaking, a moan pushing on the back of my throat, and all I could focus on was his body against mine, the swell of his chest, the inferno raging inside me.
“You need to trust me,” he murmured and leaned closer, his lips grazing mine. His mouth pressed harder against mine, kissing me with a fever I never imagined. A light pinch pierced my lower lip, and I pulled back.
“Ouch.”
Corran was licking the drop of red blood… the blood he’d drawn from my lips.
His kiss had been electric, and I almost believed him… almost fell for his hypnotizing words… almost let myself feel something other than fear. But he wanted me to lower my defenses.
When darkness curled behind his eyes, alarm bells blared in my head. I pulled away from him, jerking free from his grasp, and recoiled.
He turned on me so fast, I didn’t see him take the syringe from his pocket until it was too late.
A firm hand caught my wrist in a flash, and I was wrenched toward him. I dug my heels as I twisted to pull away. Intensity rippled over my flesh, and I screamed, struggling against him...but it was useless. I shot a leg out to strike him but missed him.
“Corran, please don’t do this. Please,” I cried, fighting to wrench my arm from his grip, but I might as well have been trying to break free from a mountain.
My heart was pounding and dread was closing in. “Don’t do this. I don’t want to be a baby incubator. Please.” My voice quivered, and I drove my fist into his chest, over and over. Hitting with all my might.
“Ella, please trust me. I don’t want to hurt you,” he kept saying those damn words but I couldn’t think of anything else but escape, my eyes gliding up to the syringe in his left hand.
My breaths grew ragged and rash, and I kicked him again, this time in the shin. His grip softened, and I ripped free before running to the wall where the doors had been earlier.
A cry fell from my lips, and my hands searched for the door, hitting the wall for an escape.
Come on, come on, damn you.
A sudden gush of pain pierced the side of my neck and agony shuddered through me. It hit me so fast, I didn’t remember falling back or landing in Corran’s arms.
“W-what d-did y-you do?” I whimpered.
Heaviness darkened his eyes… but I saw something else behind his gaze… sorrow. “I’m sorry, little bird. We can’t lose you.”
Shadows crowded the corners of my eyes, and the next thing I knew, I was falling into an endless pit of darkness, my world vanishing.