SnaredbySaber (10 page)

She continued walking until the roar in the
distance told her the stream took a tumble over rocks. She clambered out and
surveyed the copse of pink and blue trees and the vivid lilac and green bushes.
The bushes bore long, deep-purple pods. A type of nut sold in the market, and
one of her favorite treats.

“Yum, your birthday lunch is served.” She
would pick a few handfuls and eat them on the move.

She limped over to the nearest bush and
started picking the nuts, working her way around…

And coming face-to-face with a trio of
bipeds.

They didn’t look a bit like Eva. Their
brows and facial features were much more prominent and most of their visible
skin was a bright pink-red. Light-brown hair covered their arms, legs and
torsos—too light to be called fur but heavier than anything she’d witnessed
before. The closest one had a nose piercing, and they were obviously female,
since they had breasts like hers. Apart from the fuzzy hair on their bodies,
they wore no other clothing.

“Hello,” she said, focusing on their faces
while trying not to stare. “I’m pleased to see you! Can I purchase transport to
get to the resort on the other side of the island?”

The females stared at her, their mouths
opening to reveal yellowed incisors and fanglike canines. Eva looked more
closely at the one with the pierced nose and swallowed hard. Was that a bone?

She took a step back and bumped into
something.

Damn, Saber was fast, a better tracker than
she’d given him credit for. And he had bad timing.

She stepped away and turned, ready to
glare, and instead found two more bipeds. These had light-blue faces and…oh!

She let out an
eep
of shock and
hurriedly backed away. The ones with blue faces had matching color on their
groins. They were male.
Definitely
males, because they hadn’t bothered
to hide their masculine equipment.

“Um, hi.” She raised a hand, since she
recalled Casey saying it was a universal greeting.

One of the males grunted, the guttural
sound not reassuring. Neither was the way he grasped her upper arm, his sharp
nail-like claws digging into her flesh.

She hoped that was some kind of weird
greeting. Eva took a deep breath and wished she hadn’t. He needed to bathe.
Still, she couldn’t act with rudeness. She reached out her hand, noticed it was
trembling but forged ahead. Her fingers banded his biceps, and she squeezed.

The females gasped in unison and took a
collective step back.

Holy Finnian bats
. Eva’s hand fell to her side. “Um, I guess I’ll be going. So sorry
to bother you.” She wouldn’t ask about transport again. She wouldn’t ask about
the lava flow and how to get around it. She wouldn’t dally to chat. Better not
to ask questions, full stop.

Eva wrenched her arm free and darted around
the group. No birthday lunch for her. She was leaving right now.

The males grabbed her before she passed the
nut bushes. They hauled her to a stop, despite her struggling.
Frying fungus
,
the males stunk worse than a skunk-hen, and those were eye-wateringly bad on
the stinkometer.

One of them jabbered something, the
guttural clicks obviously too much for her universal translator implant. All
she got was gibberish. While she was puzzling over the communication—because
she was
sure
this was a cultural misunderstanding and she could fix
it—the females approached.

The female with the bone through her nose
said something and poked Eva in the stomach. They cackled together in
discordant harmony. One of the males, who also possessed a decorative bone in
his nose, squeezed her butt.

Eva didn’t care what sort of cultural
misunderstanding this was,
no one
groped her without permission. She swiftly
lifted her right knee and kicked backward.

Her foot struck the male’s groin front and
center.

He bellowed and collapsed in a heap, his
clawed hands holding his dangly as if it were broken.

She would’ve snorted, but Eva took the
opportunity to run. Behind her she heard a shout, then thundering footsteps
pounded the ground. Eva pushed harder, ignoring the branches and jagged stones.
Her lungs burned and her breaths came in harsh pants. She sprinted around the
corner and came to an abrupt halt.

The lava stream ran across the track. Hot
and deadly, it had annihilated everything in its path, toppling trees and
burning the undergrowth. The lava carried a load of rocks and moved with pops
and cracks and crunches like a grumpy conveyor belt. The nasty scent of sulfur
and scorched plant materials hung on the air.

Eva turned to flee in the opposite
direction. A line of blue-faced males stood between her and freedom.

The male with the bone in his nose barked
something and four males stepped forward. Eva released a nervous laugh but it
didn’t hold much in the way of amusement. Four males to retrieve little old
her. She remained rooted to the spot, not willing to make things easy for them.

They approached warily. She glared and
struck out, but ultimately to no avail. Two of them each grasped an arm and
propelled her toward an unknown destination. The other two walked at a prudent
distance behind, close enough to offer aid but far enough away to avoid smashed
danglies.

One of the big birds wheeled through the
air, and their leader shouted another order. The males hustled her into the
trees and followed a less obvious trail through the undergrowth.

Interesting.

These people were wary of the birds too.

After a short distance, Eva spied a group
of thatched huts. Smaller huts circled a much larger one. The males dragged her
to one of the minor huts and thrust her inside. They shut the door after her,
and she heard a series of orders, more rapid-fire clicks that drew a blank from
her translator.

She circled the interior of the hut and
noted the streams of light piercing the walls. Not thick. She’d bet she could
muscle her way through or dig underneath. After examining her options, she
decided on the latter and got to work, digging with her hands. It was
surprisingly easy, and soon she’d made a hole big enough to squeeze through.
She sucked in a breath and squished beneath the gap.

A guttural sound lifted her head, and she
rose to her feet. Bone Nose. He of the smashed danglies. Eva sighed.

This didn’t seem to be her day.

Bone Nose grabbed her arm and dragged her
around to the front of the hut, jabbering in clicks and squawks. Several of the
females scurried off and arrived back with strands of pliable vines.

Uh-oh
.
This
can’t be good
.

Bone Nose dragged her around the largest
hut and she saw two poles driven into the ground. A four-legged creature of a
type she’d never seen before was tied to one pole. They tied Eva to the other,
slapping her when she dared to struggle. Eva ignored the blows to her arms and
legs, the high-pitched jabbers, and continued to struggle until they finished
their job.

As it turned out, the vines were soft yet
very, very strong.
Flying Finnian bats
. She’d need a bloody miracle to
get away from these furry maniacs.

Eva surveyed the area, mind busily working
on an escape plan should a miracle present itself. Even though it meant
backtracking and possibly running into Saber, he appeared the lesser of two
evils.

Movement in the doorway of the large hut
drew her attention. What the devil were they doing? Eva stared at the females
as they dragged out a huge pot and left it beside a blackened fire pit.

The men went into the jungle and came back
dragging bright-green tree branches. Others held armfuls of black logs. Eva
watched them toil, hollow apprehension dancing in her stomach, pressing against
her chest as they lit a fire. The entire time she tugged at her bonds until her
wrists ached and her muscles throbbed.

Once the flames grew bigger and caught the
wood, the males set the pot over the fire. Some of the females approached
carrying pails of water, and Eva frowned when they poured them into the pot.

It was an awfully
big
pot.

Her gaze shifted to the other pole and the
wretched-looking creature that stood with its heavy head down, furry gray sides
rising and falling in rapid pants.

Another female added a platter of root
tubers while a second tipped in a pail of leafy herbs.

The chef in Eva toted up the ingredients
and came up with various dishes. Stock pot, tubers, herbs—a stew of some sort.

The females jabbered amongst themselves and
called over one of the males. They conducted a heated discussion. Eva didn’t
like the tone of their interaction or the way they kept looking in her
direction.

Four of the males broke away from the group
and stalked straight to her, determined expressions on their faces. Eva
stiffened.

“Let me go. I haven’t done anything. You
have to let me go!”

Hope surged when they released her bindings
and dragged her away from the pole.

“Thank you,” she said and turned to walk
away. If she hurried, she could get a good start before darkness fell.

Hard clawed fingers grasped her forearm and
jerked her to a halt.

“
Frozen fungus
, what are you doing?”

Bone Nose jabbered something and the males
bound her and lifted her into the cooking pot.

Frozen fungus and flapjacks
.

She was
dinner
! The meat to go with
the veg.

She’d stepped from the fire and landed in
the cooking pot.

The water wasn’t hot yet—thank the goddess.
You’re tough
, her inner cook suggested.
They’re intending to cook you
long and slow.

Eva roared and started twisting from side
to side. The pot didn’t budge. She began shouting. “Help! Help! Help!”

One of the females cackled.

“Help!” Eva shrieked louder. The water was
starting to get hot around her feet, and tendrils of steam were beginning to
drift lazily off the surface of the cooking pot.

The woman cackled again, and all the tribe,
including Bone Nose, cracked wide grins.

“Help!” Eva screamed.

Their grins spread and grew, turning into
chuckles and ribald amusement at her expense. The slapped each other on the
back and could hardly stand, so great was their hilarity. They thought her
screams for help were hysterical.

Sweat dribbled down her forehead and into
her eyes.

Oh, goddess. She was going to die in a
cooking pot.

Saber heard Eva’s screams and moved faster
until he smelled something ripe. Rotten. He screeched to a halt and proceeded
cautiously, his nose low to the ground as he worked out the scents. The pungent
trail headed in the direction of Eva’s shouts, and he increased his pace again.

At the edge of clearing, he slowed and
stalked closer, belly to the ground. He halted, partly concealed under a bush,
and took in the scene in one quick glance.

Cannibals.

He’d have to take them by surprise,
distract them. Damn, that cooking pot looked heavy. No way could he knock it
over. He’d have to shift and lift her out.

No other option.

Saber bounded out of hiding and headed
straight for Eva. He roared, his fury exploding into the clearing and causing
chaos. In his peripheral vision, he saw the shock on their blue and red faces,
their fear, and then the anger when they saw he intended to snatch their
dinner.

Several of the taller ones leaped to
action, murder in their eyes.

Time for stage two of his plan.

Saber called up his human form and willed
it to be the quickest change ever.

His wish was granted and an instant later,
Saber stood in front of the pot, the sight of him stunning the males to a halt.
He seized Eva and plucked her from the pot.

“You okay?”

“I am now!”

“Can you walk?”

“I’ll crawl if I have to.”

“Kitten,” he said, feeling something twist
in his chest. God, she was incredible. So brave. “I’m gonna spank your ass the
second we’re in a safe place.”

“Can we discuss this later?” She sounded
testy, a little sarcasm creeping into her tone.

She was alive. His chest constricted at the
idea of losing her. His arms tightened around her damp body. Not gonna happen.

He ran from the clearing, relieved when he
didn’t hear them following. They would, he knew, because that’s what he’d do
once he’d regained his equilibrium. It was clear they’d never seen a shifter
before. They’d reminded him of primitive tribes on ancient Earth, the ones he’d
learned about at school.

Sweet baby Jesus, who cooked people in a
pot? Eva was lucky his gut instinct had told him to return, that something was
wrong. When he’d found Bluebird alone, looking for her too, he’d started to
worry.

A soft, inquiring honk came from the
bushes.

Bluebird.

Saber kept running, eyes scanning the
undergrowth for a hiding place. The bird scuttled past him in a burst of speed
and darted down a path to the right. Saber slowed, glanced over his shoulder
and saw they hadn’t caught up yet, and picked his way through the grasses and
past the bushes to alleviate signs of his passing. He’d leave Eva in a safe place
and lay a false trail to make doubly sure the tribe didn’t find them.

Bluebird led him to a hollow pink tree
trunk and after checking inside, he set Eva down.

“Where are you going?” Tension pulled at
her pinked arms and shoulders while her blue eyes went wide, a little wild.

He brushed her hair from her face and
trailed his fingers over her cheek. He smiled even though the bright-pink
patches on his skin concerned him. “I’m not leaving you for long. Let me untie
you.”

Saber made short work of her bonds and took
care not to hurt her as he checked for injuries. “Are you okay?”