Page 1 of Venomous Lust
Chapter 1
Hazel
Night wrapped its lonely fingers around Hazel’s throat. She tried her best to hide in the deep shadows surrounding the Tower as she scurried along the walls but still felt too exposed for comfort. A fat bush stood in her way as she reached the corner and Hazel had to hunch over, hurrying across a path of harsh silver moonlight to go around it. As she moved in the awkward position, a sharp pain shot through her side and her hand instinctively went to it, but it didn’t help.
Could he have broken my ribs? No, I don’t think so.
Hazel made her way back into the shadows as she turned the corner to the Tower and looked behind her. The beating of her own heart against her battered ribcage hurt, but she barely felt the pain. Fear held her in a vice grip and her entire body shook with heavy shivers as she waited to see if Bobbie had followed her.
Please, let him give up. Let him go back in his rooms and drink himself to sleep.
Dread made her curse under her breath as the shape of a man walking alone, his face twisted with some sick, visceral anger, appeared in the single, illuminated path. The cold rays of the full moon cast a mean light over Bobbie’s crude features, from the square planes of his broad face to the prominent brows that were drawn into a fearsome scowl. As he looked around the vast courtyard, Bobbie’s gaze went directly to the Tower where Hazel was squatting, hidden by the bush.
Shit, I wasn’t fast enough.
She had run as fast as she could, thinking Bobbie would be unconscious long enough for her to escape, but he’d come around faster than she thought. Even from the distance, she could see the misshapen shape of his nose and the lazy dripping of blood from where she had struck him back. She flattened herself against the wall, retreating to the deeper shadows behind the bush, low on the ground. As the lush cover of leaves hid her trembling body, the sound of blood pulsing in her jugular drowned out the chirping of the creatures of the night. Terror invaded her body and mind, the pain rescinded to the back of her consciousness, and all Hazel could do was wait.
She couldn’t let Bobbie find her. He would kill her this time.
The wet sound of footsteps on the grass were approaching and Hazel’s mouth dried up. Panic coursed through her veins and lit up her paralyzed limbs as she prepared to take off. Even injured, she still ran faster than him.
But run where?
“Human,” a voice called, loud and sharp. “Stop walking.”
That voice, it was too deep to be human. Too gravely, too close to an animal’s growl. Too full of itself, and way too unafraid to face someone like Bobbie in the dead of the night in a deserted courtyard. An alien, then. No, not just an alien. An Eok.
“What do you want?” Bobbie’s voice flared, high-pitched and slurred. “I got nothing to say to you, to any of you.”
To Hazel, it was clear Bobbie sounded drunk, but would the Eoks recognize the signs? Drinking alcohol was illegal, like pretty much everything else since the aliens had taken over the planet. She didn’t like the big blue overlords with their gruff manners and superior attitudes, but right now, she could use their interference. Maybe with a bit of luck, Bobbie could end up getting in trouble.
A black eye or two would only be justice, when it came to Bobbie.
“You are outside your personal residential unit past curfew.” The alien’s voice again, unaffected by Bobbie’s angry slur, confirmed what Hazel had already suspected. They didn’t know Bobbie was drunk. They didn’t know what drunk was.
Those Eoks were as thick as they were strong. Big, blue and scary, they patrolled the planet like it was their own and not the humans’. Like humankind was still imprisoned. And, in many ways, it was still true.
Because if the Eoks were stupid, humankind was stupider—for accepting being ruled by another species, for accepting being led mindlessly, like sheep.
Not everyone, of course. There was Jonah, who was working himself to death for all of them. The medical personnel, and the workers in the fields who provided everyone with fresh food. The teachers working in the single school, educating human kids for the first time since the fall of their species.
Lots of people weren’t stupid, but Bobbie alone was enough to tip the scales all the way to as-stupid-as-stupid-goes in the wide balance of things.
Bobbie came closer, his shadow reaching up like a nightmare on the wet grass, his bulky limbs stretched into long, twig-like imprints in the harsh moonlight. Hazel pressed her back harder against the stone of the Tower, flattening herself into a wishful translucence. Of course she didn’t disappear, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
The tips of Bobbie’s boots appeared at the corner of the building and Hazel’s breath caught.
“You’re not the boss of me,” Bobbie answered, his voice rising, his words melting into one another to the point of being barely understandable. “I can go wherever I want, whenever I want.”
Hazel’s eyes grew wide and stung as she held them open, not blinking. Bobbie was standing just there, ten feet away from her. Her lungs started to burn and she fought the urge to breathe in, knowing the slightest movement might give her away.
“The curfew applies to everyone. There is no exception.” The Eok answered in a measured voice, but Hazel heard the tension underneath. Or, more likely, the annoyance. “We will escort you back inside.”
“And what if I don’t want to go?” Bobbie’s voice was belligerent and he took a step toward the Eoks.
Away from Hazel.
Tension leeched from her skin and she breathed in slowly, allowing the air into her screaming, burning lungs as silently as possible.
