Anubis just cocked his hip with a sardonic smile and waved his hand at the room lazily.
“This will be your quarters for now. I am a gentleman after all, but have no fear, dearest, simply ask and I will permit you into my bed.”
Permit me? Oh, he wasdeaddead.
“Listen motherfucker, either you let me go right now or I’m going to set your whole place on fire.”
Anubis threw his dark head back and barked a laugh, his earrings making little musical notes to go along with his guffawing. It made me want to punch him in the throat.
“Oh you are a delight! Sure to become one of my favorite treasures.” One second he was across the room and the next he was looming over me, his spiced scent washing over me. Yeah, that's right. Come in close. My claws ached to mete out some punishment.
“But you will do no such thing. A driven woman such as yourself seeks answers. You will demand them. And I, being the charming host that I am, will gladly give them. As such, you are my prisoner until I say otherwise. So get comfortable, my dear, and relax. Dinner will be served shortly. Do help yourself to the sanitation unit, and I’ve taken the liberty of picking out something suitable for you to wear. Ta!”
And then he was gone, the door closing with a soft snick behind him.
“What just happened?”
I rushed to the door, slapping the buttons on the control panel, but the display remained dark. He’d locked me inside. I kicked the door, leaving a shallow dent and kept kicking it, cursing the whole time.
“When I get out of here, you’re dead! You hear me? Dead!”
When the door didn’t come off its hinges from the beating I was giving it, I gave up and turned to find another avenue of escape. No goddamned god of the dead was going to keep me in a gilded cage.
The room was very feminine. Swashes of lavender and pinks with accents of gold here and there hid the terracotta clay of the walls and ceilings while the floors had a thick layer of soft rugs. The bed was a carved silver monstrosity with sweeping lines and cloud like blankets and pillows in pink and gold.
There were no windows. The only other door led to a bathroom with a silver soaking tub dominating the space. The pink theme continued to the bathroom. Even the stones that made up the floor here were pink toned. Someone somewhere had told Anubis that human women liked pink and the fool had absolutely run with it. Like yes, here human female prisoner, here is a comforting cell, all dressed up for your liking. Please enjoy your confinement.
I caught my reflection in the silver mirror hanging over the sink and nearly screamed. I was not what I considered a vain woman, but the poor wretch looking back at me was beyond help. I was filthy. Dirty soot, or worse, covered me nearly head to toe. The worst offense was that my beautiful hair was in such a sad state. An angry pulse pounded in my head in time with my heartbeat and I pressed a hand to my temple and felt the sticky wetness there. An outraged fury bubbled up inside my chest.
Blood. There was blood in my hair. I explored the short curls with gentle fingers and found most of the left side of my head had been soaked in blood from a cut above my temple that had mostly healed, but being a head wound it had bleed a hell of a lot and now most of it had dried into a sticky mess. Oh. Oh, no. I could feel the knots where the blood had tangled the two inch long hair on the top of my head. He’d had me kidnapped and trussed me up like a thanksgiving turkey, carted me through a town on display like a war prize, locked me in a room and now he’d fucked up my hair. I’d kill him just for that. No one messed with my hair.No one.I kept it short, buzzed on the sides and about an inch long on the top for faster care, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t an absolute maniac about keeping my hair well cared for. Oh my god, I was going to break his face for this.
I whirled around to march to the storage unit tucked into a corner by the bathtub and jerked open a door. There were bars of soaps in here, but no oils, no conditioners and no combs. I opened another door and felt some of my tension release. In a pretty silver box there were several vials of oils. I pulled one out to open and took a cautious sniff. A slightly nutty scent that didn’t overpower. I was expecting a rose scent to go along with all the ‘all human women love pink’ decor.
“Comb… comb, please let there be a comb in here,” I muttered. I pilfered through the rest of the storage unit, emptying out various silver boxes full of random feminine products but found no comb. There was a brush, but it was one of those old horse hair brushes and wouldn’t work for my hair at all. I also found the “suitable clothing” the arrogant furball left me. I wasn’t wearing it. There was no way in hell that was going anywhere near me. It didn’t matter how dirty my flight suit was.
He’d left me a dress hung up behind a seamless door next to the cabinet that I guessed was supposed to be a closet. If you could even call it a dress. It was more like a series of silk scarvesthat tied in some kind of elaborate pattern that I was never going to figure out because I was never going to wear it.
I would go to dinner, to gather intel and to eat. I needed my strength… and because the hunger pains were back in full force, gnawing at my insides like a half starved, rabid honey badger. But I would do it my way.
Anubis could kiss my ass.
four
Rathal
Thingshadnotgoneaccording to plan… but then they never did. Chaos was and would forever be his element. He’d given simple instructions, truly. Instructions that even the most idiotic could follow. Go to Korsal, take the human unharmed, and leave no trace. The leave no trace was especially important as he did not want to deal with an enraged Rijitera storming his castle gates.
But alas, the moronic crew that his less than competent lieutenant had selected had botched the whole thing. They’d gotten the woman he’d wanted, but they’d been recorded on camera, they’d left a trail for the blasted Anu to follow, and they’d harmed his prize. Harmed her! He’d watched her progress on several of the hidden micro cameras he’d installed onto the ship before the crew had departed.
His newest prize had been involved in a rather serious Fang crash and had been seriously injured when the crew he’d sent had plucked her from the wreckage. They hadn’t botheredtending to her wounds, choosing instead to shackle her and toss her into a cell still bleeding. It went against thevery clear instructionshe’d given them. They hadn’t known that she had undergone a Rijiteran procedure that enhanced her nanos as well as her DNA and that she would most likely survive. So they saw her injuries, shrugged, and tossed her into a cell to live or die. Was this not an act of rebellion against him? It made their negligence all the more egregious.
She’d slept for nearly a week, her body in a healing coma from her crash, but she’d come awake accessing everything around her. Oh, watching her figure out how to escape her cage would have him smiling for days. Ingenious!
She was a wonder to behold. Her body was strong like a warrior and long-limbed. What little of her skin showed under that shapeless sack of black cloth she called clothes was a rich dark brown and glowed with health despite her injured and filthy state. Her short black hair was shaved nearly to the skin on the sides and back, but left the top portion of curls slightly longer. There were patterns shaved on the sides, a series of slashes that he pondered the meaning of. It was lovely, even with the blood saturating it. His ears pinned at the reminder. The sight of her blood had made his own boil even as he teased her.
He scowled down at the body that lay crumpled at his feet. It was the blue Viilae male who’d come in with the red skinned Kubil that Callie had killed. He regretted that he’d killed the Viilae. It had been a moment of weakness on his part, but then his rages were rather unpredictable as of late. His instability was getting worse as time went on. The male had come into his throne room upon his call, to answer for the lack of treatment for her wounds, and for the concerning conversation he and the Kubil had been having before entering Callie’s cell. The Kubil had wanted to “try her out”. He’d wanted to touch what was his. To harm her in such a way that no person should ever beharmed. It was a crime that was punishable by torturous death here on Erral.
He’d questioned the Viilae, his name had been Ghen something or other and he’d blathered on about misunderstandings and apologies. There had been quite a few 'please Lord' thrown in there but it hadn’t had the desired effect. The male’s pathetic begging had sent him into another blackout and he’d come back to awareness with the male’s head in his hands and his unattached body in a heap at the base of the dias.
