Page 6 of Angel Captive

Tears pricked the back of my eyes and I hoped to the universe that Melody had escaped whatever awaited me. Last time I'd seen her, they'd been taking her back the way we'd come.

A headache pounded against my skull and I sat down, leaning against the wall for support. To lessen the pain, I closed my eyes.

First, I had to get out of this cell, then confirm Melody wasn't locked in a cell on another part of the prison, then get us both the fuck out.

4

Xaden

“Where are we?” The human faced me with her hands on her hips. “What planet is this cause I’m pretty sure we’re not on Velmoij anymore with the tranq headache I have.”

Talking meant sharing and I had no intention of entertaining her or the Roulex thinking we were bonding. She’d either figure out the answers to her questions or she’d get bored trying to engage me. Either way, I wasn’t concerned.

“I’ve got to build up my strength,” she mumbled and started to do weird bending and pushing things with her body.

Strength was flying and fighting along with sword fighting. What she was doing appeared to be an ineffective way to clean the floor.

I looked away and after a few minutes, she huffed and stood up, her gaze shifting back to me.

“Can you understand me?” she asked, breathing hard from her gyrations. “We need to find a way out of here.”

The female's constant talking beat against my winged covering like rain and the droning had me dozing off to sleep. But when her talking stopped, I jolted upright searching the cell for her, worried that the Roulex had taken her away during my slumber. But she laid on her side and was fast asleep.

Why should I care?

I ran a hand over my face, trying to wipe away some of the healing sleep that my body had done to mend my wounds though my wings would take several more nights at least to repair.

That was the Roulex’s point. They always wanted me on the brink of not being able to fly, which hindered my chances of escape from this wretched place.That and pumping me with medicine to make my sexual need increase by a hundredfold.

Now they'd put this human woman in my cage with me, hoping to tempt me. I would not give in, no matter how much of an enigma I found her. When I had first grabbed her off the bars, I had thought she was Sofria, but I couldn't taste the lie in her words. All I could taste was a spicy sweetness that made me wonder where she'd come from. Already I knew why she was here, the Roulex wanted me to mate with her and produce offspring for them to complete their vile experiments. If they discovered the secret of our quick healing, it would be that much harder to stop them. My people would suffer along with others in the universe that the Roulex set their sights on. I would die before I gave these monsters anything that would help them.

I looked at the door that stretched from the floor to three-fourths to the ceiling. The top of the gated bar was at least twelve feet tall and there was no opening at the top.

So why was this human trying to climb it earlier? I frowned at her form dressed in the yellowed prison garb. The shirt was three times her size. Her toenails had little designs on them, which I couldn’t tell what the symbol meant from here. Looked like little skulls? But her fingernails were short and clipped with black polish, which I had mistaken for Sofria's claws in one of her shifter forms. I raked a hand through my hair. Gods I hated that chameleon. She was able to change forms and even alter the sound of her voice. Too many times I'd almost fallen for her disguise, if not for my gift of picking up lies.

I sat up further and stretched rolling my shoulders back and ruffling my wings to get the kinks out.

Soft, grumbling noises came from the human, and I chuckled to myself, then frowned. I couldn’t allow myself to get close to this human. Even if she wasn't Sofria, she could still be working for the enemy. How else could someone newly captured sleep so soundly?

I clenched my hands, letting my nails dig into my palms. I should not concern myself with the female. Once the Roulex realized I was not going to mate with her then they would move her to another cell for one of their other captures to rut with.

My throat tightened at the thought which didn't make any sense.

I had no idea how many other creatures the Roulex had imprisoned here, though I did know that two of my kind had escaped recently, but I was on a different floor from them only catching whispers from the guards about them.

When the two had fled, they hadn’t unlocked the doors of the lower levels of the prison and fucking lucky me was stuck in here. Wasn’t their fault, everyone probably assumed I was dead.

Still, the thought of my brethren escaping sent joy through me and I prayed there were no more of my kind here for the Roulex to lure into doing what they wanted.

I would stay strong and resist. After all, I'd been doing it ever since they captured me. The moment they had come to our planet, I had battled them along with dozens of my kind. During the fight, I was gravely wounded and left by my own people for dead. But I didn't blame them for that. The Roulex had their ships and their guns and their fucking tractor beams that kept us from even being able to fly or even move a muscle. Our only way to protect our people was to retreat and have all of our mages put up the protective dome.

Being here for months and then hearing about the two new Angelimirs captured as well had lowered my spirits considerably. There had been no way for me to get word to them of my presence here. Nothing that they could’ve taken back to our people.

Maybe it was my fate to die here.

I glanced back at the sleeping human. Everything in me said to help her. If she was truly innocent, she did not deserve this nightmare. And I found myself staring at her face. The way her brown eyebrows arched in the middle and the way her hair curled at the ends and hung over her shoulders. She had a pert nose with tiny dots across her cheeks and full lips that formed a small pout as she slept. Her skin was tanned and smooth. Something inside me yearned to reach out and brush my knuckles across her cheeks to see if the dots were a splattering of dirt, but I resisted the urge, scooting back further away from her as the cell would allow.

I wondered when the human would wake up because I wanted to find out who she was. If she knew why she was here, and most of all, why she thought she could escape by climbing up the bars making up the door that was three times her height. Unless this was all a clever ruse to gain my sympathies.

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