Page 25 of Alien Knight Steals the Bride

With trembling fingers, she reached down and uncurled the other Targo. This time, the tiny creature spewed its deadly acid over the intended wires before it, too, curled around Juliette’s other wrist and went back to sleep.

The acid melted through the rubberized insulation, causing the exposed wires to spark and short out. The lights flickered, then went out completely, leaving Juliette in the dark. Only a very faint red glow emanating from the opening in the ceiling allowed her to see anything at all, casting everything into a shadowy, alarming red. Hopefully the doors would stay shut now, and no one would be able to use the elevator at all, giving them slightly better odds of getting out of there alive.

“Quick! I can hear running!” Balinora reached down, her hand outstretched. “I’m stronger than I look. I can pull you up.”

Heart thundering, Juliette reached a hand up. Balinora pulled her up and through the opening with ease. Shaking with fright, Juliette closed the ceiling panel as quickly as she could, fear making her fingers stiff and clumsy.

“Look,” Juliette whispered, looking all around the small space, her eyes landing on an enclosed, rectangular shaft just to the side of the elevator. “I bet that’s an emergency escape elevator system. See the door? Let’s use it while we can.”

As soon as they entered the rectangular box, it began a slow descent. Balinora wobbled as the elevator lurched, her face going a sickly shade of green. “We’re going down really fast. I can tell. We’re going to die.”

“We’re not going to die,” Juliette said through clenched teeth. “I bet they’re using a counterweight, so we actuallycan’tplummet to our deaths. This place only had, what, three or four floors? And we were on the second one.”

As the elevator picked up speed, they clung to each other. Balinora shook her head. “That’s just what we could see. We might be goingmilesdown into asecret underground space port, andthat’show they escape with all the people they kidnap without anyoneseeingthem.”

Juliette scrunched her nose at the teenager’s dramatic declaration, then couldn’t hold back a shiver of apprehension. Hadn’t Torrin said good people disappeared here? She really wished she’d listened to him and stayed on the ship. Wished he was there, holding her. She’d been arrogant in her anger. She should have trusted that his reasons for wanting her to stay back were legitimate, instead of assuming he was just being a sexist asshole, thinking she couldn’t take care of herself. Now it was too late. She may never see him again. Never be able to say she was sorry or tell him how she was falling in love with him.

The escape elevator shuddered to a halt, causing both girls to let out a small whimper. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Juliette pulled one of the sleeping Targo’s from her wrist, pointed it toward the door, then looked to Balinora, nodding her readiness. The Targo may not have recovered yet, but perhaps just holding the baby would be deterrent enough to make anyone wanting to hurt them stay back a pace or two.

Whatever they’d been expecting on the other side, they didn’t get it. Balinora whooshed open the door, only to be confronted by cold, dank darkness. No one jumped out at them. Nothing was waiting for them but empty black corridors.

Cautiously, one silent step at a time, they exited the safety of the escape elevator and crept down the deserted hallway, the only light coming from beneath a series of closed doors.

Balinora reached for the first door handle, then hesitated. Carefully pressing her ear to the door for a few seconds, she slowly backed away and shook her head, fear clouding her eyes. They moved to the next door and she repeated the process. Finally, she nodded at the third door. Swiping a hand across the access panel, the door slid open silently and they slipped inside.

Juliette breathed a huge sigh of relief as the door slid shut behind them. Wrapping the Targo around her wrist so that she could more easily look around seemed like a good idea, and the truth was that she was just a tab bit afraid of accidentally causing the baby to spew acid on her.

While the room felt slightly cooler than the rest of the residence, Juliette was surprised to see her breath each time she exhaled. Was it truly that cold in there? She thought the change in temperature came as a welcome relief as cold air blew across her overheated skin. Her body felt like it was on fire.

Sick or not, she couldn’t give in to whatever was going on inside her body. She’d been sick before. Cold and alone out on the streets. She’d survived that. She would survive this, too. They weren’t out of danger yet, but at least they weren’t being chased, either. Relief set in until she got a good look at where they were.

Hanging from hooks were large and small cuts of meat in various stages of preparation, while others were being fed into grinders. Drip pans lined the floor to catch the blood. Large butcher blocks lined one wall, an assortment of tubes, bone saws, knives, and scalpels laid out on each. As Juliette walked farther into the room, a cold chill raced up her spine. Taking the only item that would fit into the pocket of her dress, she grabbed the scalpel. It wasn’t much, but anything was better than nothing at all.

Juliette turned to Balinora, ready to tell the child they needed to leave, then stopped cold. The girl stood transfixed, staring into one of the barrels that had yet to be closed, horror in her eyes, tears streaming down her face.

Spurred into action, she rushed to her side. Juliette peered down into the barrel. Staring sightlessly up at them, swimming in a pool of her own blood, was a woman who looked just like Balinora. “Oh my god.”

She wrapped her arms around her new young friend, tears blurring her vision as she held the sobbing child, gently turning the girl away from the horrific sight. “I’m so sorry. So, so sorry.”

Balinora’s tears slowly dried, only to be replaced by a steely, cold, determined look. “I knew she wouldn’t just leave me behind. I knew it.”

“Of course she wouldn’t, sweetheart,” Juliette reassured her, whispering urgently. “And I’m so sorry, but we have to get out of here. We have to leave.”

Balinora nodded her understanding. In tandem, they turned back toward the door and froze.

A red humanoid, with black hair and eyes, stood in the doorway. Behind him was a huge Vilitos reptilian guard. “So glad we found you,” he said, smiling evilly.

Juliette shoved Balinora behind her protectively before stretching her fingers toward the Blue Targos.

The red humanoid laughed. “I’m afraid they can’t help you. At that size, they can only produce enough acid to hit one target. It will be days before they produce more. As you so graciously used one to kill my man, then the other to disable the room finder, I’m fairly certain you’re out of options.”

Before Juliette could respond, Balinora shoved Juliette aside, racing across the room with teeth bared toward the evil man, a blood curdling scream of rage, pain, and desperation ripping through the room. She was almost on him when he stepped adroitly to the side.

In his place, the Vilitos guard jumped forward, a sinister looking blade gripped in one hand. With one smooth motion, he swung the blade from hip to shoulder. Balinora fell, dead before she hit the ground.

Juliette screamed. Collapsed. Her knees hit the hard tile with a loud thump. She took no notice. She was horrified. Her mind refused to process what she’d just seen, yet the evidence was directly in front of her. Her friend. Gone. Dead. Killed in the most gruesome display she’d ever seen. “Monsters!” she cried. There was no point in running. She was trapped.

The Vilitos guard stepped over Balinora’s lifeless body and headed toward Juliette. Reaching into her pocket, she clenched clammy fingers around the scalpel. Surprise would be her only advantage. The guard was huge. Easily three times her size. When he was directly in front of her, she leaped for his head with a quick jab to his left eye. The scalpel was so sharp, it sliced into his eye with ease. Fluid spurted over her face as she pulled the razor’s edge out, then stabbed him in the other eye as he screamed and reared back, throwing her off.

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