Chapter Eleven
Rosamund was being hustled along between Darfan and another of his men. They had grips like iron on her arms.
She was boiling over with fury. Darfan had actually said, “This is for your own good,” when he’d dragged her out of the cabin.
She was wearing a slip-like nightgown and a pair of sandals. She’d shouted for Kodran until her voice was hoarse, but who knew where he was right now?
Overhead, shrill caws and strange screeches from alien jungle creatures pierced the air. The jungle was getting louder with each step. There hadn’t been anywhere near this much noise yesterday; the creatures of this world must be most active in the morning.
Any other time, she would have found it fascinating. Right now, she was just angry enough to rip off some faces.
“You guys are in serious trouble. You do not know Kodran,” she snapped. “Ow! I stubbed my toe! My foot is bleeding!”
“Boo hoo, you’ll heal,” Darfan sneered. “Weak humans. Never could understand why anyone would want to mate with one anyway. And we know Kodran better than you think.”
“What does that mean?”
“Not my place to tell you. All I can tell you is we’re doing you a huge favor, and probably keeping your ass out of jail. And furthermore, when Lukan heard you’d been kidnapped, he told me if I didn’t get you back he’d tear my hide into strips, so thanks for making me run halfway across the damn galaxy when I have better things to do.”
Jail? What was that all about? But there was no point in asking, because she knew Darfan wouldn’t tell her.
“You should have let me talk to Lukan, you idiot! I could have told him I was fine! You’re the ones doing the kidnapping!”
Darfan ignored her, grimly dragging her onwards.
The jungle cries were reaching a deafening crescendo.
She raised her voice to yell above the sounds. “Why did you even agree to be the boss of the new Starcrossed agency if you hate humans?”
“Money!” Darfan snapped. “Why else?”
“Oh, I don’t know – to help people, to save races from extinction…” But she was muttering it under her breath, and it was drowned out by the shrieking chorus of jungle creatures.
“We’re almost at the ship,” huffed the man holding Rosamund’s other arm, and then he tripped on a tree branch and lost his grip on her.
She took advantage of the momentary freedom to swing towards Darfan and kick him in the crotch so hard that he let go of her arm and doubled over and gagged.
She knew her freedom was only temporary; he’d brought twenty other Vulfan shifters with him, who had laser pistols and weapons she didn’t even recognize strapped to their bodies.
They were in the jungle, in the middle of nowhere. She’d screamed for Kodran when she was first kidnapped, but he could be anywhere right now. If he were close, he’d have been there already. Nobody else was going to hear her.
She’d tried calling for help on her wrist-comm when the door was first kicked in, but it hadn’t worked at all. She suspected that Darfan and his crew were blocking any outgoing calls.
“You bitch!” Darfan wheezed. “Try that again, and Lukan or no Lukan, I’ll…”
The man who’d tripped was still struggling to get up. Something was wound around his ankle. He began pulling harder.
“What the hell?” he cried. He slashed at it, and it let out a squeal and retreated into the bushes.
All of a sudden, the jungle came alive. Enormous flocks of birds flew out of the trees and began attacking Darfan and his men, viciously pecking and slashing at them. Huge, hard, coconut-like tree fruits were hurled at the men, bouncing off their skulls. A herd of strange warthog-like beasts, bigger than ponies and with thick hides, charged at the men.
“Don’t shoot them! We’re not allowed to kill anything!” Darfan’s voice was a high-pitched wail.
Rosamund scrambled away. For some reason, nobody was attacking her.
She saw why when she dove into the underbrush. A group of Feerbas were crouched there, and they grabbed her by the hand and began pulling her away.
Behind her, she heard Darfan yelling. “Rosamund! The Galactic Federation is investigating Kodran for cooperating with cyborgs! He didn’t buy medicine – he bought machines to repair cyborgs! I’m not lying, Rosamund! He’s a traitor!”
