Holiday Abduction (Alien Abduction Book 6) (9 page)

What’s mine is mine. What’s yours is mine. What’s his is mine. And if it’s not mine, it’s not worth having. - Vhyl’s personal philosophy on life.

“Mentally stunted, perversely stubborn, frukxing female,” Vhyl couldn’t help but curse as he boarded his ship without Jilly.

He cursed, but not because the human forces had spotted him and his ship.

He cursed, but not because Jilly handed him the XiiX without payment or a fight, which made its acquisition kind of unexciting.

He cursed because he’d left her.

Alone.

Because she didn’t want to come.

Since when did that frukxing matter?

A true warrior took what he wanted. He didn’t listen to the pleading or screaming. He didn’t care about another being’s thoughts or feelings on the mater.

Look at his distant cousins. Tren, Jaro, the idiot duo, his competitive partner, Makl, even that lackwit who wanted to be a hero, Dyre. Most of them had abducted their brides. Each of them saw a female, a human one like Jilly, who would give them what they needed, and they took action. They abducted their woman and didn’t accept no for an answer.

Vhyl, on the other hand, respected her wishes. Probably because some Earth parasite was chewing at what wits he had left,

Stupid alien planet.

But if it were some kind of disease or bug, then that meant there was a cure. He rushed himself into the decontamination chamber, hoping the various cleansing options would remove the turmoil going through his mind.

While he emerged sanitized and clean, he couldn’t purge himself of the illogic that led to him leaving her behind.

Nor did it make his need of the barbarian human lessen.

Subjecting himself to the invasive probing of a medical unit, searching for some deeper reason for his mental incapacity, also came up negative.

I still want her.

And by all the planets he’d seeded disharmony on, he would have her.

Frukx her wishes on the matter. Vhyl was the Black Hole of Aressotle. What he coveted, he took. Take her he would, and he knew just where to find her.

With the wrist communication device he’d given her during their last moment together to afford her some measure of protection against her own people, he could track her movements. It would allow him to swoop back at his leisure and abduct her. Not give her a choice.

You will be mine.

Just not right yet. First, he needed to take care of a minor problem. Namely Mo’s ship.

During his quest to regain his cutthroat side via medical and scientific means, the humans had surrounded the dead alien’s vessel with a miniature army. Large trucks arrived spilling soldiers. Bright lights were set up and cast a glare on the landed craft. Men in uniforms barked orders while others ran around to no purpose Vhyl could ascertain.

The excitement over their discovery was palpable but would be short-lived.

Despite Vhyl’s pleasure when it came to rule breaking, even he didn’t dare violate the prime directive.
Do not let barbarians get their hands on our technology.
Mo’s vessel, even if archaic in design, could not remain in their possession. Humans weren’t ready for that kind of knowledge yet.

So, Vhyl did the only thing he could. Directing a concentrated beam of energy at the grounded ship, he melted it.

While this method wouldn’t have worked on his vessel or anything built in recent times, Mo’s ship was a much older design, which meant it wasn’t constructed with the toughest materials. Under the concerted heat of his laser, it slowly collapsed—despite the screams of the humans running around in a panic—into a slag of junk.

While he performed this task, slowly because he didn’t want to accidentally kill any humans—talk about ruining his fun—various aerial crafts tried to penetrate the protective shield around his ship. Their puny weapons system could do nothing.

The one thing Vhyl could not prevent was the various videos that captured his ship’s presence, but, given it had no identifying markers, the council would have a hard time pinning the crime on him.

Perhaps I should send them a memo so they know who to attribute the breach of their rules to.

Tren, a distant Aressotle cousin who sat on the council—and led it after killing those who dared to stand in his way—would probably place a bounty on his head.

Or, as the warriors on his planet called it, crown him with great honor and a promise of fun times.

The procedure to destroy Mo’s ship took many Earth hours, more than he liked. It meant Jilly had plenty of time to relocate—and get into trouble.

How he liked that facet of her personality.

Setting his sensors to track the signal on the wristband he gave her—which she hopefully hadn’t ditched—he went in search of his female. And when he found her, he’d take her, even if she protested. He almost hoped she did.

If she wanted to fight his choice, then it would make the coitus they’d indulge in later all the sweeter as he showed her the positive aspect to her abduction.

He ran into a problem though with his plan.

Someone got to her first.

Someone dared to take his human.

SOMEONE. TOOK. MY. FEMALE.

In other words, someone had declared war on Vhyl and was about to die.

“Who cares if it’s Christmas morning, Jilly-bean. Those cows ain’t going to milk themselves.” – Grandma, who always acted tough, yet always left a present in the stall with Bitsy their cow
.

As Christmas mornings went, Jilly was probably having the worst one ever.

And I thought the year Grandma gave me a Barbie instead of the crossbow I asked for sucked.

Abducted by a space pirate, which she might add looked like a cross between a crocodile and a man, with stubby arms and an actual tail, who seemed to think he could use her as leverage to get Vile to trade the artifact—not likely given his mercenary code of ethics—or, if that didn’t work, sell her as a rare delicacy to some race who craved human flesh, Jilly was really regretting her wish on that false star.

Yeah, her life had changed. Yeah, she didn’t have to worry about the farm anymore. But she couldn’t say her situation had improved.

My own fault for turning down my purple hunk.

How she wished she could go back in time and replay that decision. However, there was no use crying over spilt milk.
Get out there and milk the damned cow again,
her grandmother would say. Except, in this case, she didn’t have a cow to squeeze, and she certainly wasn’t about to cozy up to her captor.

Seven-foot, talking crocs, with plain evil yellow eyes, just weren’t attractive.

And her second impression of Snaggle Tooth, her name for him since she couldn’t pronounce the gibberish he’d introduced himself with, didn’t improve. Ordered from her cell by a gang of pigs, or at least descendants of pigs with their snout noses, black beady eyes, and tusks growing from their mouths, Jilly wondered at her fate.

Will they keep me alive until they deliver me to those aliens who want to eat me as dessert?

Freeze dry me to keep me fresh?

Fatten me up to charge more per pound?

Nothing wrong with her imagination.

Yet she would have never imagined what she’d see when she entered the command center of the ship. While replete with fascinating
Star Trek
-type displays and equipment—lots of flashing lights, dials and buttons, all begging for her to push them—what really caught her attention was the huge view screen on the wall. A live video feed of none other than Vile.

Sigh. How she missed his handsome, purple presence. How she hated him for putting her in this predicament. How she wished, once more, she’d not been such a freaking idiot.

His placid expression only twitched for a millisecond when he spotted her.

Was he happy to see her? Mad? Worried?

She couldn’t tell. Nor did she dare guess. As far as she was concerned, he wasn’t there out of any concern for her. He was only making an appearance because Snaggle Tooth had called him.

He doesn’t know how to love. He said so himself.
But did that mean he didn’t care?

Despite his nonchalant demeanor, she noted Vile’s fingers drumming the armrest to his chair. Unlike what she’d expected, his seat resembled more of a La-Z-Boy recliner than any kind of captain’s chair in a spaceship.

Snaggle Tooth grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her until she stood right in front of the large screen. “As requested, here is my proof I am in possession of the human female.”

“So I see. And?”

“And, if you do not give me the artifact, I will kill her.” Snaggle Tooth said it with way too much relish.

“You do know who I am?” Vile asked, again seeming so calm, but was it just Jilly, or did his eyes harbor a hint of rage?

“I know of you.”

A sigh and a roll of Vile’s eyes made his next words almost comical. “Then you should already know how this conversation goes. You make demands I trade the treasure for the girl. I remind you that she is simply an expendable female. You try to convince me of her worth on the Obsidian market. I nonchalantly reply that I am rich beyond belief and don’t care. Whereupon, you make threats, I get annoyed, and blow your ship to small pieces.”

A sly expression entered Snaggle Tooth’s mien, which meant he went from pretty ugly to really ugly. “The old Black Hole who built a reputation on thievery and killing might have blown my ship up, along with all its occupants. However, I am going to wager the new one won’t.”

“Then you will lose that bet, and your life. I hope your estate is in order, as you are going to die today.”

The certainty with which he said it sent a shiver down Jilly’s spine.

“I think you’re bluffing. I know for a fact you were tracking the girl’s movements. It’s why I took her, and it’s why you followed me out of the Earth’s star system.”

Hold on, did crocodile dude just say Vile was stalking me?

Hope fluttered in her breast.

Vile scowled. “And to think those bastards on Lojica claimed no one could detect me on radar.”

“No one except someone with a Lojica radar system,” said Snaggle Tooth with a wide smile consisting of too many sharp teeth.

“I see I shall have to upgrade my detection system, or eradicate everyone else’s. As to your claim I was tracking the female? I was merely ensuring her well-being so as to prevent an intergalactic war from breaking out.”

Now it was Jilly’s turn to frown. Was it her or did his reply make no sense?

It seemed she wasn’t the only one to find fault with his reason.

“Enough of the lies. You want the girl. I have her. Either you give me the artifact, or she dies.”

Enough of the dick waving. Time for her to step in and see if she couldn’t salvage a way to stay alive.

“Um, excuse me, but don’t I get a say in this?”

The dual-snapped “No!” didn’t shut her up, although, it did incite her temper.

“Fuck you both,” she snapped. “I will not have the pair of you discussing my future as if my wants in the matter don’t count. Is it too much to ask that I get a say in this? It is, after all, Christmas fucking day. A day that is supposed to be about giving, and the only thing you’re both giving me is a goddamned headache.”

“Silence, girl,” Snaggle Tooth boomed, but she didn’t cower.

Fear wouldn’t free her. Neither would stubbornness. But Grandma didn’t raise her to sit quietly by as others decided her fate.

“Oh don’t you tell me to shut up, Mr. Would-Look-So-Much-Better-As-A-Handbag. You,” she stabbed a finger at lizard man, “are the reason why we’re having this discussion. You had no right to kidnap me or to threaten me or offer me as a canapé for some alien buffet. I have rights. Or so some galactic council with all kinds of laws claims. I know for a fact I am a protected species. I demand you return me to my home before I report you.” Which she wasn’t sure how she’d accomplish, but it was the best threat she could think of given she didn’t have access to a gun. How she missed Problem Solver.

She caught Vile’s on-screen snicker, and she turned her glare on him next.

“Don’t be so quick to laugh there, mister. After all we shared, I can’t believe you’d let me die so you could keep some stupid artifact. To think I was actually regretting not choosing to go with you. And even stupider me for believing, for a second when I saw you on-screen, that you cared enough to come save me.”

“You want to be with me?”

“Yeah. Or I did. Now I just want to slap you.”

“Kind of hard to accomplish, given you’re over there and I’m over here,” he pointed out.

“No duh.”

“Don’t give me attitude, woman. It was your choice to stay behind, and I allowed it out of,” he made a face, “respect for your wishes, even if it went against all my planet’s teachings. If I’d behaved like a proper mercenary, I would have abducted you.”

“Why didn’t you? I’ll tell you why. It’s obviously because you don’t care about me. If you did, you would have ignored my protests, swept me off my feet, and carried me off. Or is that flew me away? Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Fact is you left without really any fight. Some warrior you are.”

“Take that back. I am the fiercest warrior you will ever know.”

“Says the guy who didn’t even try to force me to go with him.”

“A mistake. One I intended to fix. I’ll have you know I came back.”

“Too late, which means your change of heart does me little good now.”

“Do you truly wish you’d come with me?” He asked her so seriously.

For a moment she thought of telling him no. But, given she was about to die, what could it hurt to give him the truth? “Yeah, I wish I’d said yes. But like Grandma always said, wishes don’t grow on trees. Apples do, and if I don’t stop mooning about what I can’t have, she’ll throw a bushel of them at me.”

Not exactly the warmest sentiment, but it made Vile grin. “I think I would have liked your grandmother.”

Oddly enough, Jilly would have wagered Grandma would have liked him, too.

“Since we both made mistakes, let us start over. What will it take to convince you that I truly do care about you?”

“What do you think?” She glanced around her, sticking her tongue out at Snaggle Tooth, who seemed utterly stymied by their verbal byplay.

“Very well, my barbarian. Fazird, despite the stain on my reputation, and the tears my mother will cry at my capitulation, I agree to surrender the XiiX to you in exchange for the human. Unharmed.”

“You do?”

He did?

They all seemed surprised. Even Vile. “It is to the shame of my family that I admit a certain affection for the barbarian. Probably a disease I picked up during my time planet-side, one I can’t seem to rid myself of. Nonetheless, my need for her is potent. Possibly terminal and most definitely emasculating. I shall require many deaths to make up for this weakness lest it tarnish my reputation.”

Not exactly the most romantic declaration, but it was a start.

Things moved quickly after that. In no time at all, she was standing in some kind of pressurized airlock, Snaggle Tooth holding her upper arm in a tight grip, which had her on tiptoe, given his short arms but extreme height.

His piggy crew—which weren’t as adorable as the Muppets’ Pigs in Space version—had their guns aimed, half on her, half on the door.

Click. Hiss. Whirr
.

The silence was broken only by the machine sounds as a docking tube was sent from Vile’s ship to Snaggle’s, or so they explained when she asked how they planned to make the trade, given she wasn’t exactly sure they had a spacesuit in her size.

The door slid open, and there was Vile. More handsome than ever, wearing an open-necked white shirt, tight-fitting black breeches, and dark boots that went almost to his knees.

He appeared rakish and completely at ease. The jerk. And here she was dirty and still wearing the same rags.

He held up the coveted disk, which glinted benignly. All this trouble over a stupid ornament that had hung on her Christmas tree for years.

The grip around her upper arm tightened. “How do I know it’s the real thing?” Snaggle asked.

Vile rolled his eyes. “Oh please. Don’t tell me your detection unit hasn’t already scanned it for authenticity.” His expression hardened. “Now release my woman.”

My woman.
How she liked the sound of that.

With a flick of his wrist, Vile sent the artifact spinning in the air.

Thrust from Snaggle Tooth, Jilly stumbled…right into her purple dude’s arms. He hugged her to him, and she hugged him back.

“The treasure is mine,” crowed her lizard captor. “Disengage the ships.”

“Double crossing bastard.” Vile only barely managed to get them in the passageway before the door slid shut.

“Why that two timing, jerk!” she huffed.

“Hate him later. Now we must run before we are sucked into space.”

Excuse me?

No time for questions. Vile tossed her over his shoulder and ran along the connecting tube while air hissed behind them.

“What’s happening?” she squeaked.

“He’s pressurizing the lock. Once it’s done, he’s going to release our passageway.”

“That sounds bad.”

“Only if you’re a flesh-based organism.”

“Then run faster,” she yelled.

“Bossy female,” he grumbled. Yet he did put on even more speed. Just enough, too, because he’d no sooner slid them into another airlock and slapped a button to shut the door than a cold breeze whipped up behind them and then whistled as it tried to suck them back out.

Luckily the door sealed the portal shut before they could become Popsicles in space.

Leaving her with her purple alien.

“Now what?” she asked, as he didn’t seem inclined to put her back down.

“Now we hit the decontamination chamber, barbarian. You reek.”