Kaitlyn O'Connor (11 page)

Karen nodded jerkily, but Loren could see she was so frightened she had no idea what she was agreeing to. Disentangling herself from the other woman, she led her over to the corner. The alien woman looked up at them with such a look of incomprehension that Loren felt bad all over again. They
‟
d all been separated and none of them had been able to offer comfort to one another, but at least she
‟
d
known
Karen was there, known there was another woman from her world close by. “Is it alright if we sit with you?”

The woman stared at her blankly a moment and finally nodded jerkily. Loren settled beside the alien woman. Karen settled on her other side, staring at the alien woman warily. “I
‟
m Loren,”

she said, smiling with an effort and holding out her hand, “and this Karen. We
‟
re both from Earth.”

The alien woman stared at her hand blankly and then met her gaze. “Shara. Am from
Mizukera
.” She frowned. “Same world, different color?”

Loren glanced at Karen and saw she was frowning. “Every
damned
where I go,” she muttered.

“I don
‟
t think she meant it like that, Karen,” Loren said. “She
‟
s just curious. It must not be very common when everybody notices.” She shrugged and turned to Shara. “Yes. Same world, different colors. There was an old religious song I remember from a little girl—red and yellow, black and white, we are all precious in his sight….”

Shara
‟
s eyes widened. “Red and yellow, too—yellow like Hirachi?”

“Actually,” Karen said absently, staring with wide eyes at the fighting on the field, “they sort combined the red and yellow. They say now that they
‟
re the same.”

“And the brown with the white,” Loren agreed. “My mother said they used to count the brown skinned people separately.” She glanced at Shara and saw the confusion in her expression.

“Three different races, I guess, but lots of different colors because we
‟
ve sort mixed things up a 50

lot.”

“You mix now wid Hirachi?”

Loren felt her face heat. “Uh…Actually, I really doubt that would happen. We aren
‟
t from the same world and we
‟
re different.”

“Humph!” Karen snorted. “
Never
underestimate a man! I was on birth control pills when I got pregnant the first damned time! You know what the bastards told me? Well, ma
‟
am, they
‟
re 98% effective. You
‟
re just lucky enough to fall in the 2%!”

“You
‟
ve got
children
?” Loren gasped in dismay. “Oh god! You poor thing!”

Shara sniffed. “I hab man—back on
Mizukera
. Did,” she added sadly. “Now I be one deez ting
‟
s woman!” She shuddered. “Maybe not. Make ugly ting mad. Now say he let all fuck me.”

Loren didn
‟
t know what to say. She was afraid Shara was right. “He
‟
s a tightwad. He paid a lot of money for you. Surely he wouldn
‟
t let them…uh…. He
‟
ll want to protect his investment, don
‟
t you think?”

Shara didn
‟
t look like she believed that and Loren could see she was terrified despite her defiance earlier and her determination to try to be brave about it.

They
‟
d all been so focused on the fight and the effort to divert their minds from it that none of them realized they
‟
d provoked Lecur simply by huddling in the corner until Loren felt something hard slam down against her shoulder. Pain exploded in her before her mind could even fully process the attack. She screamed at the sudden pain, lurching away from it. Karen and Shara instantly sprang to their feet, but Loren didn
‟
t know which way to go to avoid the attack.

She was hit twice more before she could evade it as she ducked and tired to scramble out of range with no clear idea of which way to run.

“Stupid
dyrks! Get off ass!”

Loren clutched at the pain in her shoulder as she managed to get to her feet out of range of the long, thin rod Lecur had hit her with and turned to stare at him with a mixture of panic and confusion.

“Stand at front!” he bellowed, beating the rod against the bars furiously when he realized they were out of reach and then waddling quickly around the cage to try to get to them when they didn
‟
t immediately rush to the front but instead cowered on the other side.

Loren had figured out what he was demanding in that length of time, but he was so furious she was afraid he
‟
d hit her again even if she complied. Either Karen and Shara also thought so, or they were just too panicked with the threat of attack on top of the stress they were already under to grasp what he wanted. They raced around and around the cage trying to stay ahead of him, dragging Loren with them.

It didn
‟
t take him long to tire of chasing them around the cage. He moved to the door and began to fumble with the key. Realizing his intent instantly, Loren, Karen, and Shara raced to the back of the cage to cower and watch him. Loren screamed again when he wrenched the door open and surged inside, whipping her head around for some avenue of escape. Karen and Shara were shrieking ear splittingly, as well.

The three of them scrambled to run in different directions all at the same time in the small enclosure, slamming into each other and the bars as Lecur swung the rod wildly, clearly uncaring of where he hit them as long as he did.

Abruptly, a series of bellows loud enough they made Loren
‟
s ears ring erupted. The sound 51

seemed to come from every direction and for a fragment of time, it froze all four of the occupants of the cage. Loren turned with the others to seek the source and felt a paralyzing wave of terror rush through her. Half the men on the field were down on the ground, rolling around and clutching their heads. The Hirachi, their faces contorted by rage, were mowing down the men still standing and racing directly toward them.

In what almost seemed like slow motion, Loren saw Shara and Karen launch themselves toward the door Lecur had left open. Lecur
‟
s arm had fallen to his side. His fish mouth was gaping and his eyes looked like they might pop from his head. Unable to think, Loren charged after Karen and Shara. The three of them collided with Lecur from three different directions. He staggered and flopped down and they leapt over him and kept going.

The bellow sounded again and this time Loren realized it was the Hirachi. The cage shook wildly and began to fall apart. One piece narrowly missed her as she leapt through the open door and charged off after Karen and Shara.

Karen, in the lead, was racing directly toward the dark opening of the corridor they
‟
d followed when they
‟
d arrived. The thunder of feet on the hard surface that the field was made of was enough to galvanize Loren to add on more speed and she began to close the gap between herself and Karen and Shara. Shara, whose legs were longer than hers or Karen
‟
s, passed Karen and disappeared into the shadows of the corridor.

Unable to resist, Loren threw a look behind her as she reached the opening. The field was a churning mass of fighting men. The crowd in the stands were on their feet, all shouting so deafeningly it flickered through Loren
‟
s mind to wonder if the noise would crack the protective shield around the space station. The sight of nearly a dozen Hirachi racing across the field directly toward her, picking the other gladiators up as if they were weightless and tossing them to one side or the other or slamming them to the ground with fists or arms swung like maces, was enough to get her going again despite her breathlessness. Shara and Karen, she discovered, were nearly half way down the corridor by the time she entered. Karen had gained on Shara and passed her.

She didn
‟
t know where they were going, but she didn
‟
t want to be left with the thundering horde of Hirachi bearing down on her. Struggling for breath, she pounded after them. She
‟
d nearly made it to the other end when something slammed into her back hard enough it would have sent her flying forward if an arm hadn
‟
t hooked around her waist at the same time. She would
‟
ve screamed if she could
‟
ve gotten enough air into her lungs to manage it.

A wave of yellow skinned savages rolled past her. Shara and Karen both caught a glimpse of the tide and screamed hysterically, scrambling to run faster. It didn
‟
t do either of them any good.

The wave swept over them and they were both snagged. Karen went into cat-attack mode, snarling, screaming, her arms moving in a blur as she clawed and snapped at the Hirachi that had grabbed her.

Loren caught a glimpse of a familiar face as she was swept up and turned, but it didn
‟
t register in her brain that it was Kael until her belly slammed down hard enough on his shoulder to knock the breath from her. She caught a glimpse of Dakaar
‟
s face, twisted with fury and determination only a few yards behind her. Balen slammed an elbow into the side of his head even as recognition hit her. She gaped at them as they turned on one another, roaring furiously and pounding at each other with their fists.

* * * *

52

Kael knew he was in trouble even as he reached the field and moved into position opposite the gladiator that had been chosen to fight him in the first match. He was accustomed to the rush of adrenaline before a battle, from both before he had been captured and the many times he had found himself on the gladiatorial field. The determination to best his opponent was not new either.

The rage he could feel building was. He had only felt that when some male stood between him and the woman he wanted in the time of the spawning. He struggled with it, knowing if it caught him firmly in its grip that there would be little skill involved in the contest. His primal instincts would take over if the fever claimed him. The adrenaline pumping through his veins would surge to such levels as to double his strength and half his cognitive abilities. In point of fact, when he was fully in the grip of the fever, only one single thing possessed his mind—the determination to remove anything between him and the female he had chosen to breed.

He fought it, struggled to focus on the task ahead of him, repeating over and over in his mind that he must subdue his opponent and the next three and he would win the place he coveted. He would be allowed to take Lau-ren as his lover.

His control slipped several notches when he saw Lecur parade her into the coliseum and lock her into a cage and for several moments the rage threatened to completely overset his efforts to control the fever. He was almost relieved when he heard the horn announcing that the first contest was to begin, telling himself that the contest would help him focus and work off some of the aggression building inside him toward explosion.

Uttering a snarl of rage, he launched his attack furiously.

He thought, later, that he might have been right, that that expenditure might have been enough to prevent him from losing control completely…if Lecur had had more sense than to attack his woman. Lau-ren
‟
s scream of pain went through him like a knife, however, and the moment he discovered what had caused it, his instinct to protect ripped away the last his control, allowing the fever to consume him. A red haze filled his mind and, abruptly, every male that stood between him and Lau-ren was a rival who might prevent him from spawning. His primal urges took over then. He responded to the overwhelming odds he saw against him by summoning the one weapon he had been at pains to hide—his ability to project a sonar blast strong enough to shatter stone. Sucking in a deep breath, he pitched the sound waves across the field. Men screamed, falling to the ground and holding their heads or bellies where the sound wave had slammed into them.

It wasn
‟
t until he
‟
d uttered another bellow of challenge and destruction that he realized, dimly, that the other Hirachi had erupted into spawning fever at almost the same instant. They weren
‟
t brothers at the moment, however. They were rivals and they were standing between him and the woman he meant to breed if he had to slaughter every man that stood between him and her. Determined to reach her first and seed her, he charged across the field, pausing only when he met an obstacle and engaging any potential rival in a brief battle to overcome the rival before he leapt onward. He
‟
d almost reached the cage where he
‟
d last seen Lau-ren when he realized she
‟
d fled.

Pausing to suck in a breath, he whipped his head around in search of his target and spied her racing away. A savage satisfaction filled him. She was testing him! She would only allow him to breed on her if he proved he was stronger and faster than any other.

And Balen, he discovered, was far closer than he was!

53

Zeroing in on Balen, he bellowed a challenge that carried with it the sonar wave. It caught him, slamming him into the ground. Surging into a run, Kael threw his weapon to the ground to rid himself of any impediment that might prevent him from catching his rival. He succeeded in closing the distance while Balen was struggling to get to his feet. Racing down the field at a tangent, he managed to reach the entrance to the corridor close enough behind Balen to launch himself at him. The tackle took them both to the ground, but Kael had been prepared. Before they
‟
d even struck the ground, he
‟
d slammed his fists into Balen
‟
s ribs, knocking the breath from him. He grabbed his scalp lock and used it to pry Balen
‟
s head back and slam his face into the ground twice and then bounded away.

Dakaar flew past him even as he landed on his feet. Launching himself into a run again, he slammed his arm and shoulder into Dakaar as he came even with him, diverting him enough that Dakaar
‟
s momentum took him into the wall before he could right himself. Triumph sang in his blood when he spied Lau-ren only a few yards in front of him. Summoning ever ounce of speed he could, he closed the distance, catching her on the run by hooking an arm around her as his momentum carried him past her.

Her weight was a surprise and one he hadn
‟
t calculated. He
‟
d expected a solid impact.

Instead, she was so light he almost batted her away instead of catching her. Thrown off balance, dismay stabbed at him as he struggled to compensate. He barely managed to retain his grip on her, but he didn
‟
t dare slow down when he knew Dakaar and Balen were probably both right on his heels. Whipping her around, he slung her over his shoulder and kept going, his eyes searching for some place to enjoy his triumph, to seed her before the others could catch up to him and try to take her.

Confusion flickered through him when he
‟
d whipped his head around in search and the familiar/unfamiliar space station filled his vision instead of the terrain he
‟
d expected to find, the pod he was searching for. The screams of the women caught by the others redirected his attention however and he saw the warrior that had captured Ka-ren as he slammed into a door not far ahead of him, shattering it and leaping inside.

An image of his cell filled his mind and he raced after them. It wasn
‟
t his pod, but it was close enough!