Page 45 of Angel Condemned

Axton

Iwilled my body to heal faster. The less serious injuries had healed, but I still had multiple lacerations and mending bones. My wings were torn up again too, not able to support my weight.

Fuck!

And the Roulex still hadn’t brought Jody back.

I clenched and unclenched my hands as I paced in front of the cell door. Even though I told myself that she had to be okay, a nagging sensation pulled at my core.

One of the guards, Zlyx I think, walked down the hallway.

“Where is she?” I rushed to the bars, squeezing them like I could crush his throat.

“Who?” He made a face like he smelled something foul.

“Jody,” I nearly bellowed. “The human who shared my cell with me. Tell me where she is.”

He flipped his tractor beam on, the full capacity hit me in the chest. The power increased and I grunted as my muscles seized.

“We don’t have to tell you anything, trash.” He drifted closer. “As soon as we have the secrets of your species, we’re going to exterminate you. All of you are no better than space cockroaches.”

Power buckled through me like every muscle in my body was being twisted and yanked off my bones.

The Roulex grinned, the green scales pulling tight around his mouth. “But I heard a rumor that she overdosed on the aphrodisiac. Seemed like she became addicted and took too much.”

My body convulsed as I remained standing, my hands locked on the metal bars that rattled. Fragments of the stone they were anchored to, rained down on me.

The Roulex leaned forward and his grin grew. “I heard she tried to fuck the entire squadron but died from pleasure after having ten of us.”

He eased the tractor beam enough that I could move my clenched jaw.

“Lies.”

“I saw it for myself.” He tapped his communication device on his phone. “Here’s a picture.”

The image he showed me was of Jody on one of the gurneys. Her skin was ashen and she wasn’t tied down. The medic had a scowl on her face with one electrode in her hand, the other on Jody’s chest like she was trying to revive her.

White-hot rage surged through me. I roared, and the Roulex dropped the tractor device, it shattered on the stone floor. Before he could move, I grabbed his shirt and hauled him into the door. Pounding his body and his head against the bars until his eyes rolled up in the back of his head. Black blood oozing from his nose.

Jody couldn’t be dead. Yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that tightened around my chest that he was right. The Roulex didn’t bring captives back from the dead—unless they needed them alive more. Twice they had jerked me from death, but I’d seen countless other species be tossed into a heap as they lay dying. Heard their cries for help or mercy as they died.

The Roulex didn’t care because they had what they needed from them.

But Jody… she was the closest anyone had come to me and the Roulex knew this. They wouldn’t squander their precious commodity. There was some truth to Zlyx’s claim of a possible overdose. I could save her if I reached her in time.

It had been too late to save my sister because the bastards had butchered her. I couldn’t heal dismemberment. I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. I couldn’t lose Jody. I’d been an empty shell inside without her. All that would be left would be rage and revenge.

I yanked the guard closer, searching for his keys to my cell. The cheap bastards had never bothered to upgrade the prison cells to the palm access panels. Didn’t know how I’d get to the upper levels of the prison without a Roulex’s palm. When the Roulex came in a little while to distribute the evening meal, they would have a huge surprise party waiting for them because I wouldn’t be in my cell and neither would any of the other prisoners on this level.

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