Page 24 of Alien Knight Steals the Bride

“I’m not even sure he’s here. He didn’t know I was coming, so he won’t be looking for us. We’re on our own.”

Balinora straightened, squaring her shoulders. “I understand. I’m ready.”

Together, hand in hand, they edged along the wall until they came to the door. Juliette waved her hand at the scanner behind her back, but the door remained closed. They were locked in. Juliette shook her head slightly, letting Balinora know this door wasn’t going to be an option. The only other doors were the ones they’d been ordered to go through for the ‘medical exam’ and the one the blue man had used.

One of the twenty women finished changing into the examination gown and opened the door. Juliette caught a glimpse into the room. Another woman was already inside, lying naked on an exam table, her wrists in heavy restraints, gynecological stirrups holding her legs open. Attached to her head were thin wires, at least a dozen, placed all over her head. She thrashed, her back arching off the table. No way in hell were they going through that door.

Glancing at each other in tacit agreement, they headed for the other door. Seconds passed like hours as Juliette’s heart thundered painfully, fear sending adrenaline spiking through her system.

The door slid open without either of them waving a hand or turning a knob. Stumbling back through the opening, Juliette landed on her bottom alongside Balinora. The door slid shut without a sound.

Balinora was the first to spring back up. “I think we’re in a room finder. See the panel with all the buttons on that wall?”

An elevator definitely made sense. Juliette nodded, rolling to her feet much less gracefully. She wasn’t old, but she wasn’t fifteen, either, and those slimy translation mushrooms she’d eaten earlier were definitely wreaking havoc on her system. She was starting to feel like death warmed over. No matter. She’d just have to push through. Lying down wasn’t an option if they were going to make it out of there alive.

Joining her new friend next to the panel in question, Juliette pushed one of the buttons. They had no way of knowing where each one would take them, so there was no point in debating which one to push. Anything had to be better than staying where they were.

Nothing happened. She jabbed at another button in frustration. Still nothing. “I think we need an access code or something. No wonder they didn’t bother locking it from the other side.”

“The panel sticks out far enough I think I can use my teeth to get it open. Maybe then we’ll be able to make it work. If not, we can at least make sure no one else can use it.” Not waiting for an answer, she opened her mouth, her piranha-like teeth flashing in the light, shredding through the thin metal like it was soft butter.

Behind the panel were hundreds of wires, each no thicker than a silk thread, pulsing with light. Balinora leaned in toward the wires, her mouth open to use her teeth a second time, when Juliette grabbed her arm and yanked her back, her heart in her throat. “No! You might electrocute yourself. Plus, we don’t want to do anything with those wires until we have a way out of here. There’s probably an emergency access panel somewhere. Let’s focus on finding that first.”

Balinora nodded, her eyes wide with fright. Feeling along the walls and floor for the access panel, they made short work of the tiny cubicle. “Nothing,” she said whispered, despair creeping into her voice.

“Don’t give up,” Juliette responded, refusing to give in. “We haven’t checked the ceiling.” Sinking to her hands and knees, she whispered urgently, “Hurry. Step on my back and see if you can open one of the panels at the top. I have a feeling they’re going to start missing us soon.”

Balinora did as instructed, balancing on Juliette’s back and stretching toward the panels in the ceiling. “Oh! This one opens!” She pushed the panel to the side, and before Juliette could caution her, pulled herself up through the opening. Moments later she reappeared, reaching a hand down to help Juliette, a relieved grin on her face. “Come on, I’ll help you!”

Juliette hesitated, looking back at the panel. “Okay, but I want to see if I can yank out some of those wires first.”

Balinora’s look of confusion would have been priceless had Juliette seen it. As it was, all she heard was her friend’s inelegant snort as she responded, “And you thought I was crazy? Why would you yank a few of them out when you could melt them all with poisonous acid?”

Juliette put her hands on her hips and huffed at the girl, “What are you talking about? Do I look like I brought acid with me?”

“Look,” she cried, “I know you’re an assassin, sent here to kill the ‘friend’ you were looking for. I knew it the moment I saw those Targo babies. I don’t care, okay? I just want you to help me find my mother. Please!”

“Assassin?!” Juliette hissed. “I’m not an assassin! Why would you think that?”

“Targos are assassins! The blue ones are the most deadly, and you havetwowrapped around your ankles like it’s nothing! Ofcourseyou’re an assassin! No one else would be crazy enough to walk around like that, so just grab one of them and make it spit on the wires.”

Mumbling under her breath, pulse pounding, Juliette carefully pulled one of the Blue Targo babies from around her ankle and held it over the exposed wires. “Teenagers,” she grumbled with exasperation. “Couldn’t just tell me from the beginning we were carrying around deadly weapons and probably could’ve walked right out the front door. All we had to do was wave them around and everyone would’ve cleared the room.”

“Forget the wires! I can hear footsteps!” Balinora motioned with her arm, urging Juliette to come over.

“Just tell me what to do! Nothing’s happening!” Juliette hopped from one foot to the other as she dangled the sleeping Targo out over the wires, debating about whether to cut and run or stay and try to disable the elevator.

“Rub its belly. It’ll spew acid. But be careful, Ju-Ju. They’re so tiny they don’t have much, so its extra lethal.”

“Extra lethal. Like a baby rattle snake. Got it.” Juliette rubbed the tiny belly as fast as she dared, praying she’d made the right choice to stay and disable the elevator. She wished Torrin was here. Her heart squeezed painfully at the thought of never seeing him again. She hadn’t told him how she really felt. How she’d been afraid for him. Afraid he would leave and never come back, hiding behind her anger like a shield. She was very much afraid she’d fallen deeply, irrevocably in love with him.

The door slid open. The evil blue man with yellow eyes smiled. “Going somewhere?”

Juliette shrieked, whipping around with the Targo still held outstretched. The baby Targo chose that moment to spew its acid, hitting him square in the face.

Bellowing in rage and pain, his face bubbling grotesquely, he fell back through the doorway and the elevator slid shut.

Juliette swallowed the bile rising to the back of her throat. She couldn’t afford to fall apart. Not now. The baby Targo yawned delicately, then curled itself around her wrist and promptly went back to sleep to the sounds of agonized screaming from the other side of the elevator door. “I-I think this one is done. She’s already gone back to sleep.”

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