Was that metal ring really necessary? Savannah thought as she rubbed her throbbing eyes. A nice, conventional bag over the head would have done the trick.
Her head still ached from the ring, but her sight was returning little by little. Though she was uncomfortably warm, Savannah sat curled up in the corner of a cell dug into the reddish-brown dirt. Three filthy walls and one wall lined with bars held her captive. A strange computerized locking mechanism kept the door shut. All she could see from the twin torches mounted to the wall were a small antechamber outside of her cell and a dark hallway leading away from wherever she was.
A strange animal poked its head out of a freshly dug hole in the dirt wall. The bizarre reptilian creature had a short, scaly black body, a bulbous nose, and no eyes.
No need for eyes down here. It must usually be totally dark.
Since the odd animal skittered quickly back into its hole after sniffing at the air, Savannah decided not to worry about it. Instead, she looked around at her surroundings that were coming into clearer focus.
They have fire here, she thought wryly as she watched the flames dance toward the clay ceiling, and dungeons … and dragons. All very interesting—in a horrifying sort of way.
She had tried being scared, since she was completely alone, taken hostage by an alien race. But the fear didn’t come—a side effect of the drugs, most likely.
She had also tried to miss Earth, but that feeling hadn’t materialized either. But that probably had little to do with the drugs. What had she really left behind? Just her mother’s body in a grave. She didn’t miss Earth. There was nothing there to miss.
She missed Ryen.
Thinking his name choked the stale air in her lungs. Ryen. The only thing that mattered anymore.
I should have told him that I loved him when I had the chance, she lamented.
When her mother died, Savannah had completely disconnected. Her fondest wish was to be carried away with the wind or dissolved by the rain, to cease to exist. But a funny thing happened when she saw Ryen. She, for the first time in a long time, was there. Present. Attached. Alive.
A hot tear mixed with the sweat that was already falling from her forehead. Her mind called up his features with precision—the ice-blue of his eyes, almost wintry, endless, the depths of which were warmed by the wild, chocolate brown hair that fell into them so often. Artful eyebrows that spoke his every mood better than he could. A strong Romanesque nose. Full lips that were almost too perfect. A squared jaw that suggested fearlessness. Dangerous to the wrong people, protector of the right. Mind of a scientist, face of a destroying angel—a hero sent to save her.
She recalled the moment Ryen had entered into her life at the International airport in Rome.
She’d had enough of Italy, Rome especially. It was too crowded, and her American dollars weren’t stretching nearly far enough. She had to leave, though she had no idea where to go. Her feet carried her slowly through the long line leading to the ticket counter, dreading the words the ticket agent would ask …
Where are you going?
If only she had an answer for that.
She casually watched people passing by. She envied those who seemed to be in a hurry—people who had a destination, somewhere to be.
She noticed slowly that many heads were turned in the same direction. So she looked too. Then she found the reason for all the staring.
He was truly the most beautiful person she had ever seen. He and an undeniably attractive woman with purple eyes, contact lenses for sure, whisked their way up to the first-class ticket counter, where only three other people waited in front of them. Savannah looked at the man’s perfect face carefully, studying the angles and shapes, as if she were about to sketch it. She took the most time watching his eyes, wondering how she would replicate that color blue with paint, if she even could. The longer she stared, the more she realized those beautiful eyes seemed troubled—on edge for sure. As her line moved, she inched closer to the pretty pair, who were arguing quietly.
“For the last time, I didn’t come all the way … here … only to miss it. We won’t be there long, I promise,” the man said.
“Ugh, but it’s so hot there!” the pretty woman complained. “I was just on weather dot com—”
“Claire, please just do me this favor. Haven’t you always been curious about it?” he asked.
“Fine! But listen, Ryen, as soon as the food starts making me sick, we are out of there,” she said to … Ryen. He had a name. The agent at the first-class ticket counter called the pair forward. She listened as hard as she could to Ryen’s voice. It carried easily over the din.
“We’d like the next flight to Tel Aviv,” he said. Within seconds, the tickets were printed for them. Ryen and the woman, Claire, still quietly bickering, ambled slowly toward the security checkpoint.
Tel Aviv.
The Middle East.
I can’t go to the Middle East.
What the hell was she going to do in the Middle East?
No, that was ridiculous. There was no way she was going to one of the most dangerous areas on Earth to follow a stranger. She didn’t care how gorgeous he was or how much she wanted to sketch his perfect features. How stupid was she?
And that’s why it had surprised her so much, down to the soles of her old shoes, when the words “Tel Aviv” came out of her mouth without hesitation when the ticket agent asked her where she wanted to go.
She wouldn’t take that decision back. Even though it meant she may die here in this cell, she wouldn’t change any of it. It was because she had made that decision that even now, trapped in this hole, she could imagine his arms around her. Safety. Happiness. Love. She had finally found someone to love—and he loved her. And that was what life was all about.
It was when she thought about everything she had gained in a few short weeks, that she realized how much had been taken away. A tingle of fear started cracking through the drug’s haze, sinking its claws deep into her heart.
If Ryen were dead, she would gladly march into the arms of her captors. She had lost too much. No one would expect her to want to stick around after losing everything—twice.
Except that he had told her to fight, to be resourceful. He believed in her strength. Those were Mom’s last words to me, she thought.
Suddenly, the sweltering heat moved around her, sucked away by some change in air pressure she couldn’t see. A cold draft rushed in, cooling the room by twenty degrees at least. It didn’t last long. The moldering heat returned, but it brought new sounds with it. Footsteps. A woman’s urgent voice, yelling in an unknown tongue. She didn’t know the language that was being spoken, but she knew that voice.
Claire!
Claire. Claire. Claire.
Claire finally appeared, pushed by two intimidating guards. One of them unlocked the door’s device, opened the bars, and shoved Claire through them so hard, she collided with the back wall. The door clanged shut again resolutely.
“Claire!” Savannah caught her around the middle and squeezed tight. She hadn’t seen her since the morning that she had found out what they were. She had called her a monster.
“Oh Savy! You’re alive!” Claire hugged Savannah back tightly. “Hold on a minute.” She broke Savannah’s hold and banged on the bars. “That’s no way to treat a lady!” she screamed at the retreating figures in English. “That’s right! Run away, cowards!”
Savannah had a million questions to ask, but the first one to pop out of her mouth was, “Why is it so hot down here?”
Claire stared at her. “That’s your most pressing question? How hard did they hit you?”
“Are you going to answer me?” Savannah pressed. Claire stared at her warily, but she answered anyway.
“This planet is smaller and younger than yours. You don’t have to go too far underground to start feeling the heat from the core. Judging by the temperature, we are at least fifty, sixty feet underground—the farthest anyone ever goes. Are you sure you are all right?” Claire gathered Savannah’s face into her hands, checking for trauma. She was most worried about the black bruises around Savannah’s eyes that darkened even as she watched.
“Yes, fine. How long have I been down here?”
“It’s been about eight hours since we touched down. Did you talk to anyone? Have you seen anything?”
“No, they took me away from Ryen at the transports and put something over my eyes. It hurt and I couldn’t see anything. When they took it off, I was here.”
“They used a blinder ring on you?” Claire asked, appalled. That explained the bruises. “That’s illegal! Can you see all right now?”
“Yes, it took a while, though.”
“I’m sure it did. The ring creates a vacuum that puts enough pressure on your eyes to stop your optic nerve from firing. When we get out of here, you need to see a healer right away to check for nerve damage.”
“When we get out of here?” Savannah questioned.
“Yes, when we get out of here. But I guarantee no one is going to come looking for us in this maze, so we have to find a way out on our own,” she said, studying the bars.
“Is Claire your real name?” Savannah interrupted. Claire turned around, watching for signs of delirium.
Claire sighed, still examining the bars. “Yes, my parents wanted me to become a researcher, so they gave me a name that I could use on Earth. Ryen, Mateo, and Chase’s parents all did the same thing,” she said, feeling the locking mechanism outside the bars with her hands.
“Do you know what happened to Chase and Mateo?”
“No,” she said desperately. “I woke up in Dai’s quarters. I tried to convince Dai that Gideon needs to be stopped. Boy, was I growling up an incorrect tree,” Claire said.
It took Savannah a second to figure out what she was trying to say.
“Oh! You mean, ‘barking up the wrong tree.’” Any other time or place, she would have laughed. Not now. “Who’s Dai?”
“A Master. Brilliant, power hungry, and dangerous. We grew up together in the same tribe. He asked me out a couple of times, but, like I said, he had some very significant character flaws,” she said, dropping her hands from the lock in defeat.
“I’m sure Dai didn’t mean for the guards to put me in here with you. They probably got lost in the tunnels and couldn’t find another one. So there’s some luck!” Claire chirped. Savannah couldn’t match her level of enthusiasm. “But they’ll be coming to take you to Gideon soon. We need to get out of here.”
“There’s no way out. I tried digging in the corners. I just ran into rock.”
“Then we’ll have to find another way,” Claire said, rattling the bars.
“I’m sorry I called you a monster, Claire.”
“Oh Savy, you had every right to freak out. I would have questioned your sanity if you hadn’t,” she said.
A cold rush of air cut the heat in the room again. It carried two female voices with it. Claire’s eyes lit up.
“Oh! Oshun and Ecko are coming for you. Excellent.”
“Who?” Savannah asked exasperated.
“Emani’s sisters. This could work, this could actually work,” Claire whispered to herself. “Pull your hair back and take out your earrings,” she ordered as she pulled out her large chandelier earrings that dripped with amethysts as violet as her eyes. Savannah did as she was told, removing her mother’s small opal studs from her own ears.
“What’s the plan?” Savannah asked nervously.
“You and I are about to be in … I think you’d call it a cat fight … and I don’t want your earlobes getting ripped off,” she whispered.
“I can’t do that!” Savannah whispered. “I’ve just taken self-defense classes. I know how to get away and run for help, that’s it!”
“So defend yourself until she’s unconscious!”
Savannah wanted to roll her eyes, but she kept them trained on the dark hallway, the hair standing up on the back of her neck.
“You take Ecko, the smaller one. When they unlock the door to get you—”
Savannah nodded just as the two women slinked into view on the other side of the bars. Oshun and Ecko pressed themselves against the farthest wall in the antechamber, whispering hotly to each other.
Oshun was tall and lanky, her flame-red hair cropped short and close to her face. Savannah recognized her as Emani’s sister because of the flashing onyx eyes. Ecko was short and wiry, with the same enigmatic black eyes.
Savannah thought as she sized up her opponent. She had long, jet black locks, with streaks of neon blue and green throughout—cheap hair extensions from the look of them. Ecko stood rigidly below the torch mounted on the wall, giving Savannah an idea.
“Hello, ladies! What a pleasant surprise!” Claire said pleasantly.
“We are speaking English for the human trash?” Oshun asked.
“I think it’s only polite, seeing as she is a guest on our planet.”
“You’re not supposed to be in here, Claire of the Haven. Who put you in this cell?” Oshun’s eyes flashed with frustration at seeing the numbers evened up.
“Two of Gideon’s finest, Oshun of the Cailida,” Claire said mockingly.
“We have come for the human,” Oshun stated, looking only at Claire.
“The human has a name,” Savannah snapped.
“The human also has some misplaced courage.” Ecko laughed coldly.
“Come and get her then, ladies,” Claire’s goaded.
Oshun froze in the firelight, vacillating between opening the cell door and running back down the hall for reinforcements. Savannah did the only thing she could think of to keep the sisters there.
“If you don’t think you can handle us, by all means, run for help,” Savannah said mockingly.
“Gideon sends you to do one small task, but if you feel like bothering him with every little problem …” Claire added.
The taunting worked. Oshun planted her feet on the ground and reached for the key around her neck.
“We have no specific orders to keep you alive, Claire. I’ve always disliked you anyway,” Oshun said.
“That’s only because I’m better than you in every conceivable way,” Claire sang. Oshun gritted her teeth, her face turning the same shade of ruby as her hair.
“You’ll regret that, Haven,” Ecko spat, moving closer to her sister’s side. Oshun started to force the key into the lock, but Claire held up her hands.
“Wait. Before we begin, I need to say something.” Everyone paused. “I’ve always thought that you both have terrible taste in men, hair, and, from the looks of it, shoes.” Both sisters looked down at their feet, and then back up, infuriated. “There! Feels good to tell the truth!” Claire sighed in relief.
With a wild growl, Oshun shoved the key into the locking device. The door popped open and swung wide on its rusty hinge. No one moved.
The eerie silence was broken when Claire sprang through the air, landing on Oshun and knocking her backwards. Neither Savannah nor Ecko had moved yet, watching the other two wrestle. Oshun caught a fistful of Claire’s hair and yanked hard. But Claire, obviously a veteran, expertly reached up and jerked two of Oshun’s earrings straight through her right earlobe. Oshun let out piercing howl, soaked in her own blood.
Ecko tried to run to her sister’s aid, but Savannah lunged at her, knocking her sideways. She elbowed Ecko in the nose and stepped away to avoid the fountain of blood she knew from experience would result. Ecko swung her fists, trying to connect with Savannah, but missed. Savannah caught one of her flailing hands by the wrist and heaved Ecko into the dirt wall.
Get her over to the fire, Savannah thought, recalling with perfect clarity a day in high school when a stupid, inattentive boy had lit a cigarette too close to a stupid, inattentive girl with bad hair extensions, and the ensuing fiery disaster.
Ecko lunged for Savannah again, this time catching her around the waist and pinning her arms to her sides. Savannah did what was most instinctive, throwing a knee into her attacker’s groin. Nothing happened.
Would have worked on a man, she thought with chagrin.
Though Ecko didn’t fall to the ground, she loosened her hold. Savannah used the break to push Ecko back onto the wall. She aimed a precise kick into the side of Ecko’s left knee. They both heard the sickening pop as her knee gave way. This time, Ecko dropped. Savannah caught her before she hit the ground and shoved her toward the torches on the wall. Ecko fought back, but with her knee broken, her feet couldn’t find purchase on the ground.
Savannah shoved with all of her might, connecting the ends of Ecko’s fake hair to the fire. The caustic smell of burning hair, real and synthetic, was only overshadowed by Ecko’s shrieks. Ecko threw her shirt up around her head, trying to smother the flames. Savannah cocked her arm back and punched Ecko in the jaw. Ecko hit the floor without another sound. Savannah mercifully stomped out the flames that burned closer and closer to Ecko’s scalp.
Savannah had no time to revel in her victory, though. A second later, Claire’s body sailed through the air. She hit the cell bars with a loud clang and fell to the floor. Both Savannah and Oshun ran to their wounded partners.
Savannah checked Claire’s pulse—it was still strong, but she was out cold. She turned to face Oshun, who was missing most of one of her earlobes and large chunks of hair. She had deep fingernail scratches on her face and arms—tell-tale battle wounds of a cat fight, indeed.
Oshun rose to her feet, seething. She towered over Savannah, panting in rage. Savannah was up against the bars, unable to move. She couldn’t reach the hallway, and even if she did, she couldn’t leave Claire alone. There was no more running.
“It will be my personal pleasure to grind your species into dust,” she said.
“I take it you’ve never been to the Deep South. Where I’m from, you wouldn’t last two minutes in a room full of angry rednecks.” Savannah smiled devilishly.
Oshun growled and barreled toward Savannah like a freight train. Savannah spiraled out of her way at the very last second, catching Oshun’s back and throwing her into the bars. Oshun hit them, face first, and sank to the ground, unconscious.
For a minute, Savannah didn’t move. The room was as silent as it had been when she was alone. Only Claire stirring in the corner broke Savannah’s trance. She rushed over but Claire waved her off.
“Did you finish up for me?”
“I guess I did,” Savannah said incredulously, looking at the two women she had bested.
“Ryen was right. You are some kind of superhero,” Claire marveled. “Get them into the cell, quick.” Claire stood gingerly and helped Savannah drag the sisters into the cell.
“Goodbye, ladies!” Claire called over her shoulder as she and Savannah started down the dark hallway.