Page 67 of Caged

“With you, there is no easy way,” Sylas says.

“Correct again.” Medius lifts a single digit to the Habosu, who fires a pulsar at Sylas.

He drops to the floor in a heap.

“What did you do?” I yell out, falling to my knees beside him.

“The only thing which can stop a fully grown, fully altered Gryn warrior is a plasma shot. He’ll recover,” Medius says, toeing Sylas’s leg. “Take the female,” he orders the Habosu. “Let’s have her ready for when he wakes.”

SYLAS

Medius thinks he knows who I am, but all he knows is who I was when he put me on Trefa. I lie on the ground, and it takes nearly everything I have not to move or to respond as a pair of holo-bonds are wrapped around Alex’s wrists and she is led away.

If the Habosu had touched her in any way other than binding her, I could not have maintained my feigned unconsciousness. An Oykig healer checks me over, opening each eye, and I do not react. He pulls out a hypo and empties the contents into my arm.

“How is he?” Medius asks, like he should care at all.

He is my enemy, of that I am sure. I fought against him…a battle in space…and then on a planet. Until, I can’t dredge it up past a vague feeling…I was captured, I think. There is so much hovering on the edge of my memory, so much I can almost touch, almost remember, but it’s still out of reach.

For now I have to concentrate on what happens next and getting free, saving my mate, and getting the vrex away from Trefa. I have the credits. Alex and I can go where we like. We should have gone already. I should have taken her away and this would never have happened.

My guts churn.

“He’s in excellent condition. Having a female obviously agrees with him,” the Oykig says. “I’ve given him something to accelerate the memory function. He should have full recall within the next few nova-days and then you can reinstall the implants if you wish.”

“I have other plans for our malfunctioning commander,” Medius says. “Net him, and make sure he’s immobile. There’s no knowing how long the plasma bolt will last, and I don’t want him getting loose. But try not to damage him yet. I have plans for the gladiator, one last time.”

He walks away, his footsteps scuffing slightly because the biped form he has assumed is not his usual one. But I can’t seem to remember what the Zavaro look like when they are not shifted.

I’m rolled into a holo-net, my feet and hands bound, and I’m dumped in the back of a small ground transport. Inside the net, I can open my eyes and take a good look at my surroundings. There is a larger transport in the far clearing from our nest.

If any of these creatures has been in the nest, I will be killing them very slowly. If any of them have even breathed near myeregri, I will be peeling skin from flesh and dipping them in star-fuel until there is nothing left.

My breathing quickens with impending violence and unfortunately one of the Habosu notices. The holo net tightens around me, and I immediately pretend once again to be unconscious. Given both Medius and the Oykig are no longer around, it seems to fool them as I am unceremoniously unloaded and shoved down a chute into a cell. The net chimes as it releases me, and I make quick work of the leg bonds myself, backing up against the smooth metal surface of the cell wall.

I need my Alex. The thought of her, somewhere near me but locked in a similar cell, has my blood raging like molten rockinside. I have to get to her, to find her, to hold her, snuff down her scent, feel her body in my arms.

I have to nest for her.

My need to nest is so bad, my feathers itch. And itching feathers put me on my feet, roaring out in anger and frustration, claws sinking into the metal of the cell wall as I rage at it, at Medius, at the dome, at everything which has put me here.

Which is when everything changes, and my world goes into a flat spin, like having one wing tied up as I fall and fall in training.

I remember training?

I was a commander?

My head pounds as snatches of memories dance there. My steel, my desire to be the best…

Then as quickly as they are there, the memories are gone. And I’m flat on the floor, the scent of blood in my nostrils and the screams of the fallen echoing through my brain.

Did they all die because of me?

My muscles cramp, and I curl up as my scars sear with the pain of thousands until I hear her voice.

“Sylas, my love,” Alex says, and she’s stood in front of me. She looks beautiful, with light radiating from her.

“Eregri.” I stretch out my hand to her, needing to touch her skin, to have her close to me.

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