Page 40 of Captured
Chapter Twenty
Juliet
The soldiers wait in silence, dread filtering in the air like a heavy, rank perfume. The only sound reaching my ears is the relentless lapping of the waves on the rocky shore.
Rakir stands in front of me, his skin covered in the black scales. I didn’t see it before, but now I can see the tightness of the muscles under the thin, supple scales. He knows our chance of beating them are slim to none, but he won’t give up.
“Down on your knees, Drakian.” Henrick orders, his voice full of satisfaction. “Real slow.”
My chest tightens in pride as Rakir kneels on the rocks, his back straight, his entire body radiating dignity. He is regal, in every way possible, even now.
How he could possibly have found any interest in me is beyond comprehension.
“No sudden move or the little lady gets a big old hole right in the middle of her chest.” Captain Henrick speaks in a controlled tone. His mouth curves down in a cruel grimace as his eyes settle on me. He bends his head to the side, his gaze deliberately traveling down my body. “It would be a pity. Such a pretty chest she has.”
A ripple travels down the length of Rakir’s shoulder and to his arms. He flexes his fingers, which are equipped with the long, deadly black talons that so terrified me a few days ago.
“Mine.” Rakir speaks in his heavily accented growl.
“Yeah, yeah.” A soldier standing behind Captain Henrick chuckles with crude humor. “We get it. That girl attracts you like a bitch in heat. I bet she squeals just like one, too.”
More chuckles spread amongst the soldiers, but they don’t change their stance. They’re too well trained.
Rakir doesn’t react. This is only bait, meant to rattle him and make him lose his cool.
“Settle down, boys” the Captain speaks again and the levity is wiped out of the soldiers like it never existed. “You came out on your own when you saw my little toys.” Henrick shoots a strangely affectionate glance at the firebombs. “No desire to roast inside your ship, hmm?”
Henrick nods to himself. It’s obvious he thinks he outsmarted us.
“You’re not half as stupid as you look. The List. Give it to me and me and my men will be on our merry way.”
They’ll leave, all right. With our dead bodies safely obliterated, destroyed without so much as a DNA trace.
No witness. No proof. Not even a grave.
Rakir turns his head sideways to me, but his eyes never leave the Captain. “Condition,” Rakir answers. “Female lives.”
I gape at what Rakir says. After everything he did, all he sacrificed, he’s willing to give up the List to save me? I try to swallow, but my throat has swelled with emotion and all I can do is croak.
Henrick ignores me, his attention focused on Rakir. He lifts his hand to his chin, scratching the rough skin with an audible sound.
“What makes you think you can dictate your conditions? I can just kill you both right now and comb through your ship, all leisurely like. This way, I get to see your reptilian guts spill on the ground. It would be a bonus. I wouldn’t even charge the Senators for the pleasure of it.”
There’s a pause as the air fills with the precursor to violence. The soldiers move in a subtly threatening way, their hold on their phasers tightening. They’re not going to hesitate to mow us down. They won’t lose a single minute of sleep over it, either.
“No.” Rakir shakes his head. “List hidden. Protected. Useless.”
The words are crude, but their meaning is as sharp as a blade. Captain Henrick stops rubbing his chin. I can see the man is no fool. He knows that behind Rakir’s awkward words hides a simple truth. They will never find the data frame, never extract the information they need.
“Female lives.” Rakir points to me, his face as closed off and expressionless as ever.
“I see.” Henrick purses his lips and I see the visceral hatred in his eyes. “You’re going to make my life difficult, aren’t you?”
The Captain lowers his phaser and in the same movement, his soldiers slide their fingers on the triggers of theirs. It’s like they’re many arms of the same organism, moving in harmony. A perfect killing machine.
I wonder if he’s done it. If he’s been on one of the planets the Senators plundered, wiping the population clean after there was no resource left to steal. Yes, I’m sure of it.
Henrick and his soldiers are killers, murderer. Monsters.
