Page 27 of Dark's Savior

As Ryziel stretched his arm out to touch her, bracing to fight back his Drega in the process, Aly opened her eyes and saw him.

Her face went ashen. She began to shake badly, her teeth chattering, a whimper falling from her mouth, which quickly turned into a shrill cry. She tried to back away, but it was a futile effort as she could barely move from where she sat against a rock. Ryziel feared that if he touched her, she might go into shock (if she hadn't already by seeing him), but if he didn't take her now, she would certainly die.

He went for her again, and the words that escaped her (and the sound she made with them), hit him like a punch to the gut.

"Please, don't hurt me."

Ryziel flinched. This time, he didn't hesitate. Despite her little cries and pleading moans for him not to hurt her, he picked her up as gently as he could, cradling her against him. She placed her little hand against his bare chest, feebly pushing against it, and Ryziel let her because he was more concerned about getting her back to the lair than about his Drega, even if it did rear up just like before. He shoved it back again, taking deep breaths and forcing his legs to move. He began to run fast, maybe a little too fast, but he feared if he stopped, he wouldn't be able to fight back his beast, and he didn't have time to keep her from touching him in that moment, so all he could do was run.

And pray he wasn't too late.

Chapter Twelve

There was darkness at first. A whole lot of it. Then the smattering of dreams or perhaps memories, though Aly couldn't tell the difference. She could only remember parts of these "visions." She remembered Blue; remembered seeing his face contorted with some hard emotion. Maybe anger. Or Fear.

She remembered hearing his voice a lot. Hearing him yelling to someone, then feeling herself being let down on a cold, hard surface. She felt arms on her, keeping her in place, Blue's face once again above her.

Then came the pain. Awful, awful pain.

There was nothing memorable after that. Just one last dream of her standing on the edge of some cliff with Blue there beside her, the sun setting before them. The sun disappeared, bringing the night, and Blue was no longer there. A horrifying monster with sinister eyes and a wide, wicked grin had taken his place.

Aly had started to scream, only to wake up instead. Her eyes fluttered open, her head feeling fuzzy, her vision blurry. She blinked several times and licked her lips, finding her mouth and throat dry.

She turned her head to one side, and the room moved, disorienting her. She squeezed her eyes shut then opened them again and saw a wall full of...well, stuff. Robot parts, sheets of metal, silver coil wires, and broken tools, to name a few. Those were what she could identify, at least. Some of the objects she had never seen before, like a dark green sphere with black etchings across its surface or a strange transparent tray with shiny, grid-like designs. Aly carefully tried to sit up, pausing to let the dizziness pass, until she could sit bent over enough without feeling like she might vomit.

She was in a small bed, lying only a few feet off the ground. Ahead of her was an open doorway covered by a black curtain. Aly straightened and could see a blue light glowing through a crack in the doorway. Carefully, she maneuvered herself into a different position and was shocked to feel little to no pain. She peered down at her torso and pushed the blanket off.

She no longer wore her slipsuit but a dark gray robe instead. Underneath, there were bandages wrapped around her torso, but when she peeled some of them off, she found the skin underneath to be nearly healed. There was no scabbing or crusted blood, just a slick, clear oil that smelled similar to peppermint. Aly took off the robe and unraveled the rest of the bandages to touch at her skin. Someone had used expensive, medical-grade salve on her. And possibly some other advanced surgical tools. She had seen such things used before, when Jamie had been injured after being taken off the tradeship by the enforcers. Her cut had been deep, but they had used strange tools to seal the wound. Aly remembered Jamie's contorted, screaming face at the pain; then after, her look of shock as her arm started to heal before her very eyes. Within only a couple hours, she had been healed completely, not even leaving a scar.

Aly stared down at her own body now and wondered who had done this to her. Then she remembered seeing the face of the nillium above her.

Had he done this? But why? Why, after he had threatened her to never go below?

Her memory started to come back ,and she remembered how she had been attacked by a group of pale, eyeless monsters, thinking for certain she was going to die alone in the dark, when the nillium had appeared. She might have felt relieved then, but after their last meeting, she only felt more afraid, believing him to be some deadly executioner who had come to finish the job.

Maybe if she hadn't been so terrified, hadn't been going into shock from the pain, she might have thought over why he was running so fast to get away instead of ending her where he had found her.

Thinking on this now, Aly's heart did a little flip. She drew the robe back tightly against her then scooted off the bed. She rose and went to stand before the black curtain then slowly pushed it away.

The blue light blinded her for a moment, making her squint. Aly blinked and put up her hand until she was adjusted enough to see. Her eyes widened, mouth gaped open, and she stood there, staring.

Beyond, in the center of the large chamber, was a ship.

It wasn't a huge ship, by any means, but certainly big enough for a decent-sized crew carrying several loads of cargo. Its dark steel shone in the blue light cast on it from above, with four wings stretching out on either side, one missing most of its shell. The front was narrow and the back bulkier, with lights built around the sides like teeth. The design of it seemed familiar to her and, after a moment of staring, Aly realized why. It reminded her of the tradeship that had found her and the team.

Her stomach dropped and Aly's eyes instinctively began searching for an exit out of the chamber. At one cave wall, she saw a large metal door shut tight and wondered where the latch was to open it. Searching around for any movement, she took a cautious step out of the room then slowly made her way down a short set of metal-grate stairs. Clutching her robe close, she winced at the cold ground on her bare feet and went on tiptoe, searching around for any slipsuit or pair of clothing that might give her some warmth from the chilly cave air. Her mind began to race with even more questions as her eyes danced around the cavern. Where was she? Where had the ship come from? Who was keeping it here? Was it the nillium? Or Traders?

She noticed the dull hum of something nearby and a soft knocking coming from a set of large tanks against the opposite wall. As she moved closer to the door, she spotted a large console back by one wall, displaying a map of a cave route she had never seen.

Curious, she went over to it and looked down. She gazed at the pinpoints of colors before her and reached out her hand toward the holographic image.

"Hey, human, what do you think you’re doing there?" someone called out behind her. Aly jumped and whirled around but saw no one.

"Hello?" she called in response. She moved back toward the ship and gazed around its sides. She heard the rattle of something above and looked up to see someone moving across the ship's roof.

"Hello?" Aly called again, craning her neck to see. There was a quick shifting sound then a sharp clang.

"Down here, human."

---