Текст книги "Alien Tyrant"
Автор книги: Ursa Dox
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Table of Contents
ALIEN TYRANT
PROLOGUE | Buroudei
CHAPTER ONE | Cece
CHAPTER TWO | Cece
CHAPTER THREE | Cece
CHAPTER FOUR | Buroudei
CHAPTER FIVE | Cece
CHAPTER SIX | Buroudei
CHAPTER SEVEN | Cece
CHAPTER EIGHT | Buroudei
CHAPTER NINE | Cece
CHAPTER TEN | Buroudei
CHAPTER ELEVEN | Cece
CHAPTER TWELVE | Buroudei
CHAPTER THIRTEEN | Cece
CHAPTER FOURTEEN | Buroudei
CHAPTER FIFTEEN | Cece
CHAPTER SIXTEEN | Buroudei
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN | Cece
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN | Buroudei
CHAPTER NINETEEN | Cece
CHAPTER TWENTY | Buroudei
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE | Cece
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO | Buroudei
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE | Cece
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR | Buroudei
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE | Cece
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX | Buroudei
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN | Taliok
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT | Buroudei
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE | Chapman
CHAPTER THIRTY | Cece
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ALIEN TYRANT
Fated Mates of the Sea Sand Warlords
Book One
By Ursa Dax
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PROLOGUE Buroudei
It was deep in the night when I heard the sound. Whisper soft and high-pitched, trilling in the darkness. A sound a warrior only hears once in his lifetime. A sound that cannot be ignored.
The Lavrika.
It had finally come.
I rose from my bed of dakrival hides, padding over the sand then lifting the flap of my tent, staring out into the night, over the endless sea of sand. Above me, our many cracked and broken moons glowed in a long line, stretching from horizon to horizon in a shattered band.
The sound trilled again, low, half a whistle, half a warble, and instinctively I crouched, stilling myself, placing my claws to the ground. I let out a long, steadying breath, relaxing, letting my eyes swing back and forth until finally, I saw it. The Lavrika, moving smoothly towards me from a great distance, getting closer every moment.
I had only heard it described before now. Men much luckier than me, lucky to have been called by the Lavrika to learn who fate had chosen as their mates, had told me stories of it. Of its long, starlight body, slipping through the sand like a ghost. And now I was among those lucky ones. One of the warriors the Lavrika had come to.
After all this time.
The descriptions I’d heard fell short. Even now, upon viewing the sacred creature as it reached me, I was hard pressed to find the words to describe it. Its body, long and winding, shimmered, half-here and half-not. I could see the sand, turned deep silvery-black in the moonlit darkness, through its skin. I was one of the tallest of my tribe, and the Lavrika was easily as long as four or five of me laid end to end. It was truly magnificent. My chest clenched at the sight.
It swung its great head, rising from the sand. It had no legs or arms that I could see, but was able to raise its head high off the ground using only the strength of its silvery spine, a structure I saw pulsing beneath its translucent skin. It fixed me with shifting eyes that glowed brighter than any star, and I rose slowly, my tail jerking unintentionally as I did so. I could not help it. My heart was pounding in my chest. I was going to learn of my mate. I was finally going to find out what destiny would make of me. Whom I would bind myself with, always. Whom I would raise cubs with. The future Gahnala of our tribe.
The Lavrika dipped its head, then turned with perfect, curving grace, its long body slithering away from me the way it had come. Quickly, I dressed, putting on my simple hide loincloth, then strapping my ablik knives, long and deadly sharp, to my back. At the last moment, I grabbed my axe, also carved from ablik stone, hefting it in one hand and grasping my spear in the other. I had no need of weapons where the peaceful Lavrika was concerned, gigantic though it was. But there were other creatures out there, in the sand. Ones with far worse tidings for me than the Lavrika.
I stepped out of my tent, letting the flap fall closed. For a brief moment, I wondered if I should wake my right hand man, my closest commander, Galok. But as I watched the Lavrika wind further from me, I decided against it. I would be back by tomorrow. This path was to be walked alone.
And so I left behind the tents of my people and forged forward, every step taking me closer and closer to my future.
I followed the Lavrika for some time. I already knew where it would lead me. Everyone in my tribe, and all the other tribes of the Sea Sands, knew where to find the Lavrika Pools, tucked into the caves of the Cliffs of Uruzai. But it was useless to travel there without an invitation from the Lavrika. Only the Lavrika’s presence meant that you would see your mate in the pools. A thrill flooded through me as I thought about what was coming, my hands tightening on my axe and spear as I followed the Lavrika’s winding tail.
Who will it be? There were not so many women left among us now. Perhaps Zanixia. I had lain with her before. There was much amicable respect between us, though nothing that hinted at a sacred mate bond. Nothing of the all-encompassing, soul-crushing wave of brutal love I’d heard mated men speak of. But the Lavrika Pools could change all that. Warriors saw their fate in those pools, those who were called. And once they saw it, everything changed. I tried to imagine my feelings for Zanixia growing that fiercely, changing so completely. Tried to imagine her not just sharing my bed but ruling the tribe at my side, bearing my children. It was a pleasant enough thought, but it inspired no real fire in my belly. At least, not yet.
I will have to let the Lavrika lead the way. Fantasizing and imagining would do me no good now. I’d already been doing it my entire adult life.
Eventually, a jagged black line became visible on the dark horizon. We were nearing the Cliffs of Uruzai. The Lavrika continued its steady path, and I trod silently behind it, my tail swishing long strokes through the sand. The cliffs grew and grew until finally, after what felt like endless walking, they loomed, huge and imposing, before us. I craned my neck back – it was difficult to see the tops of the cliffs in the darkness. They seemed to jut up and then melt right into the sky.
The Lavrika was slithering along the line of the cliffs, and I hastily followed, suddenly worried that I may lose sight of it now that we were so close. So close to the pools. So close to my fate.
The Lavrika paused, then turned, seeming to disappear into the cliff wall itself. But I knew that it had reached the opening in the stone wall that led to the pools. Hefting my weapons, I jogged after it, coming to a stop at the craggy opening.
A Lavrikala, one of the sacred protectors of the Lavrika and its pools, stood tall, spear in hand. She watched the Lavrika disappear into the cliff, then turned to me, her eyes appraising. I did not recognize her. She was not from my tribe, but was of one of the other Sea Sand clans. She was old, past her mating years, but she stood nearly as tall as me, and gripped her staff with a powerful ease. I raised my tail, winding it around my front and bringing the black tip up to cover my eyes. The gesture was sign of immense respect I gave only to the likes of the Lavrikala now. As a Gahn, a warlord and the leader of my tribe, I had not done such a thing for anyone else since childhood. Usually it was others shielding their eyes from me.
“You may enter, Gahn Buroudei.”
My tail relaxed, falling into place behind me. I nodded to the Lavrikala, not bothering to wonder how she knew my name, then moved to follow the Lavrika into the darkness of the cliffside. But then, she spoke again, seemingly more to herself than me, and I halted.
“I should have known the Lavrika would bring a mighty Gahn tonight. This is no ordinary calling to destiny. The air feels... strange.”
I stared at her, but she said nothing more, her gaze locked out on the dark sands.
I shook myself, then finally followed the Lavrika to my fate.
It was too dark to see anything at first. I had to feel my way along the inner stone wall of the cliff, moving ever forward. There was no other choice. The passage was narrow, and there was only one way to go. After a few cramped moments of darkness, a faint glow ahead became visible, and the passage began to widen, eventually expanding out into a large, wide cave. It was cooler in here than it had been outside, and humid, too. The sensation was strange on my skin. I was used to the blistering dry heat of the desert during day time. This moisture was completely foreign to me. Though I knew where the Lavrika Pools were, I had never never actually entered the caves before.
I let my eyes adjust to the light, taking it all in. The cave was large, its floor dotted with milky bodies of glowing liquid, and at the other end I could see other openings that led to deeper caves. But it did not seem we would need to go deeper into the cliff. The Lavrika had stopped here, its long body curled and waiting, watching me.
It waited at the edge of the largest pool, its body glowing with the same white iridescence as the liquid in the pools, the only light in the dim place. We called the liquid Lavrika’s blood. It had many properties, not the least of which was a remarkable healing ability. But on a night like tonight, when the Lavrika led you here, it would show you your future.
My heart pounded, my jaw clenching so hard it felt like my very fangs would crack. Wordlessly, I removed my weapons and my loincloth. I had heard tell from the others that you were to enter the pool pure and naked as a cub. And now that I was here, it felt only right and natural to do just that.
I moved ahead, the claws on my feet clicking against the dark stone floor. The Lavrika watched me for one more moment, then it slipped into the pool, hardly creating a ripple.
It’s time.
Why did I feel like I was about to charge into the greatest battle of my life?
I stepped forward, plunging one foot into the Lavrika’s blood, then another. The incline was gradual, and I moved slowly forward, the liquid reaching to my thighs, then my groin, then my waist. Everywhere the Lavrika’s blood touched thrummed with intense, surging energy. I had no idea where the Lavrika was now. The liquid was milky and thick, making it impossible to see.
How deep do I go?
I stopped when the liquid was chest-high, glancing around the place, unsure what to do next.
When in doubt, follow the Lavrika.
The thought pounded through me and, without another moment’s hesitation, I plunged forward, submerging myself completely.
The sensation was so overpowering that I shut my eyes against it, instinctively raising my arms, as if to fight off a terrible enemy. A Gahn should never close his eyes or hide from any power. Face this, Buroudei. Face this, now. I wrenched my eyes open, allowing my hands to move through the thick liquid to my sides, though it barely felt like liquid, now. Not wet, not hindering my breathing at all. I was floating, floating in a vast emptiness of white, so bright and blinding I felt like a krixel had taken me in its claws and flown me face-first into the nearest star. My chest tightened. Every muscle, every limb, was primed and ready. Ready for whatever may be coming.
At least, that’s what I thought. But nothing could have prepared me for the face that materialized in the Lavrika’s blood.
It was unlike any face I had ever seen before. It was not Zanixia, nor anyone from my clan or even from my people at all. Where our people’s brows were dark and heavy, hers were almost non-existent, tiny strokes across her face. Where our noses were largely flat, hers had a strange, slim, raised bridge to it. Where our skin was deep-coloured, like the Sea Sands of Zaphrinax, hers was pale, almost as pale as the Lavrika’s blood around me. As more of her came into my shifting view, I saw her hands – as pale as her face, and basically clawless. Her ears were soft, round, and low, mostly hidden by long, light hair. She wore strange garb, and, from what I could see, had no tail.
Despite her strangeness, a new longing pulsed through me, lighting up every part of my body. I fought through the thick liquid, fought to move closer to her, to grasp one of her strange little hands, to ask her where on Zaphrinax she came from. I couldn’t stop looking at her eyes, eyes a colour I had never seen before. White around the edges, the centres round and coloured similarly to valok plants, but lighter and brighter, with a dark point in the middle.
At first, it had seemed that I was viewing her from afar. That I was privy to some kind of secret vision. But then those strange, bright eyes locked onto mine, and her face changed, her slim brows rising, her soft mouth opening, revealing tiny, blunted teeth. Shock burst inside me.
Can you see me? Can you hear me?
My words went nowhere. And before I knew what was happening, she was fading, her features growing indistinct, her body pulling painfully away from mine.
No!
I reached one hand towards her. I couldn’t let her go just yet. Not until I knew how I could find her.
But that was not the way of the Lavrika. One did not pull one’s mate from the deep. One only got a single glimpse.
She was gone. My tail thrashed, my legs pumping to propel myself deeper into the pool, to catch any last sight of her I could. But then, a powerful grip wound around me, and I was launched from the pool.
I snarled as my back collided hard with the stone wall of the cave and I fell to the floor.
I stood quickly, tail still twitching, facing the pool once more. The Lavrika’s head was just above the surface and it watched me silently. I quelled an agonized growl, knowing that it would offer me no more tonight. It would throw me back out of the pool as soon as I approached. If it were another warrior I faced, even another Gahn, I’d tear his head from his body for trying to stop me. But one could not doubt the Lavrika, nor could one oppose it. I had gotten all I would receive.
But all it left me with were questions, one of them rising above all others, pounding inside me like a war drum.
Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?
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CHAPTER ONE Cece
I pulled on a sports bra, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and leggings, fumbling in the dark. The sun hadn’t even risen yet, and I was already out of bed for some God-forsaken reason, readying myself for a run. I clenched my jaw, lacing up my shoes then pulling my long, light chestnut hair, tangled from sleep, into a messy bun on the top of my head. I glanced at my phone. Not even five am. Damn. I was definitely not what you’d consider to be a morning person.
So then why was I up at this unholy fucking hour, getting ready to drag my body though the streets of Toronto on a cold March morning?
Good question.
In all honesty, I wasn’t quite sure myself. I’d woken, drenched in sweat, from the most vivid dream of my life. Everything had been bright, so bright. So bright I could barely see. So bright I was afraid. But then, suddenly, there had been a hand reaching for me through all that white. And though it had been inhuman and strange, I knew that I was supposed to reach out and take it. But I’d woken up before I could do so, and I’d been struck by a bizarre and unshakable sense of loss. I couldn’t stay in bed anymore after that, couldn’t even stay in my basement apartment. I had to outrun this feeling. The feeling of grief.
As I locked my apartment’s door behind me and started running, I ruminated on the dream. I didn’t need a psychoanalyst to tell me what it meant. A feeling of loss, a hand reaching for me, surrounded by white? What other kind of dream could I expect right after losing my grandmother, my last remaining relative on the face of this whole freaking planet?
Shit.
My throat tightened, and I ran faster, pushing my body so hard that I had no time or energy for tears. Grammy may not have left me much – a little money to see me through the rest of my linguistics PhD program at the University of Toronto. But she did leave one giant, old-lady shaped hole, right in the centre of my chest. It had been two weeks since her heart attack, and it was still hard to breathe without her.
Stop.
These thoughts were not helping.
She’d be telling you, right now, to stop the belly-aching and to put your big girl panties on.
After losing her husband decades ago, and her only child, my mother, when I was a baby, she’d dealt with more than her fair share of pain and had come through it stronger than ever. I only hoped I had a fraction of her grit.
I slowed my pace, yanking my phone and earbuds from the pocket of my leggings, shoving the cord into the sound jack and pushing play on one of my Spotify playlists. If I couldn’t outrun grief, I could drown it out in the dulcet tones of Lorde and Lady Gaga.
But those earbuds turned out to be my undoing. Lodged firmly in my ears, music pumping, I didn’t hear them coming. I didn’t stand a fucking chance.
Because before I knew what was happening, I was grabbed from behind, yanked right off my feet, and thrown into the back of a van. It happened so fast I didn’t have half a thought in my head of screaming or defending myself. Those instincts kicked in late – far too late. After the doors to the back of the windowless van had been shut behind me and the vehicle started to move.
Oh, fuck no.
This was why Grammy was always harping on me not to listen to music during runs. Because I’d end up in a real-life version of Taken. Only I didn’t have a Liam Neeson-esque dad ready to save me. I only had... Well... Me.
After taking a moment to get used to the jostling movement of the van, I quickly sat up, bracing my hands on the floor and swinging my head around the dark space. It was like some kind of cargo van – an empty cube with nothing in it. Nothing but me, anyway. There was almost no light, and my breath came in ragged gasps as I willed my eyes to adjust to the darkness. My heart was about to break right out of my poor ribs, and my hands were slick with sweat. Panic threatened to overwhelm me. I’m just a PhD student, for God’s sake. I am not equipped to handle this.
But no. No, that wasn’t true.
The sudden denial, the flood of strength, didn’t come from me. It came from Grammy. She’d always told me I could do anything. That I was smart and worthy and strong. And my Grammy never told a lie.
Think, Cece, think.
My eyes were somewhat adjusted to things, now, though there wasn’t much to see. The back of the van was walled off from the driver’s compartment, so I couldn’t see the motherfuckers who were driving this thing. There was no way to get to them. My only other option was to try to escape. I hadn’t been tied up, thankfully. At least, not yet.
Well, that’s a grim thought.
The van swerved around a corner, tossing me into the metal side, and my shoulder screamed in pain.
“Oh, come on!” I hissed, trying to breathe through the pain. I steadied myself, holding myself against the wall in case we swerved again, gingerly pressing my fingers against my arm and rotating it.
Not broken. But I’m going to have a hell of a bruise.
Crawling along the floor, I found my way to the back doors of the van, feeling along their metal surface. There didn’t seem to be any way to open them from the inside. But there was no way I was going to let that stop me from trying. I had a sinking feeling that I did not want to get to whatever destination was in store for me.
I snorted at myself. I didn’t want to find out where the pedo van that I had been tossed into was going to take me? No shit, Sherlock.
“Alright,” I said out loud to myself, voice shaking. “If I can’t open the doors with a handle, I guess I have to try to ram them open somehow.”
But the only thing available to ram anything with was my own body.
So the question becomes, do I use my good shoulder and potentially screw up both sides of my body? Or use the already sore one?
Neither option was particularly palatable. But I had to do something. The pain in my left shoulder had faded to a dull throb, and I didn’t really want that sensation radiating from both sides of my body.
Messed up shoulder it is, then.
I got shakily to my feet, widening my stance to try to stay stable as we continued driving wherever the hell it was we were going. I took a few clumsy steps back.
Here goes nothing.
I launched forward towards the doors, the side of my body colliding with the metal in a vicious crash. Pain exploded in my shoulder, radiating down my arm, and I collapsed to the floor, my breath half-knocked out me.
Blinking back tears, I was readying myself to stand and try again, and again, to try as many times as it would take, when words echoed somewhere above me, booming in the small space.
“Don’t do that,” a bored-sounding male voice commanded from what sounded to be right above me.
I flinched, then squinted upwards and finally saw it. A black square in the upper corner of the van. A speaker, and, next to it, what looked to be a small camera. I flipped what I assumed to be the camera the bird, then quickly lowered my hand, thinking better of it. Probably didn’t want to piss these guys off any more than was necessary.
“Where are you taking me?” I shouted towards the speaker and camera, trying to will my voice to sound steadier than I felt.
No answer.
“God damn it.”
I stood again, cradling my aching arm.
“Tell me where you’re taking me. Or I’m going to keep ramming up against that door.”
It wasn’t a great plan. But it was all I had.
There was still no answer.
Fine. Have it your way.
I turned, despite the screaming of my shoulder, getting ready to launch myself at the door once more, when the van suddenly screeched to a stop, sending me flying to the floor in a heap. Before I could right myself, the doors were yanked open. Instinctively, I crab-crawled backwards, cornering myself against the front wall of the vehicle. A man, dressed all in black, jumped into the van and grabbed me, wrestling me beneath him as I screamed, spat, and kicked.
I’m not going to die in the back of this fucking van. Not today.
I managed to get my knee up, ramming it between the man’s legs as hard as I could. He gave a choked-sounding grunt, and I took advantage of the moment of surprise, wriggling out from under him and scrabbling for the open doors. I was so close. So close to being able to jump right out those doors -
– when a hand closed around my ankle, yanking me back. My arms slid out from under me as I was pulled, my chin colliding painfully with the metal floor, rattling my teeth.
“No, no, no,” I said, over and over again. It was like that was the only word left in my brain.
A second man appeared at the back of the van, jumping inside.
“Jesus, Hanson, can’t even keep a 25-year-old grad student under control?”
“Shut the fuck up and just give her the damn shot,” the man holding me growled as I fought to pull my wrists from his iron grip.
Shot? Did one of them have a gun?
The thought renewed my strength and I fought as hard as I could, with everything I had left, my teeth sinking into the first man’s forearm.
“Fucking hell, hurry up, man! I’m gonna get tetanus or some shit from this.”
“You’re fine. All of them have clean medicals. Anyway, I got it. Here we go. Nighty night, Princess.”
There was a prick of pain in my neck, then a creeping, liquid burning, spreading under my skin.
And then, there was only darkness.
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