Page 49 of Bela's Bounty
When we get to yet another intersection, I’m frustrated and angry and finally decide to stop. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when you’re lost? Stop, so whoever might be looking for you can find you?
With a battle cry, I kick my bare foot into the wall, then hop in a circle when all I do is jam my toes.Goddamn motherfucking sonofabitch!Tears spring to my eyes, and I fall with my back to the wall I just kicked.
This is ridiculous! I have no idea where I am. Who any of these people—or aliens—are. I don’t even know where they took my—I mean, where they took Treto! And there’s an ache in my chest I can’t explain, but I’m pretty sure it’s telling me I should be with him.
My head falls back against the wall with athud,and I just want to scream, but then something to my left grabs my attention. I turn just as a blond head pokes out from the end of a narrow hall.
“Oh, thank god,” the woman connected to the head breathes with relief before shouting back the way she came, “Rovos, I found them!”
I rub my eyes, because this has to be my imagination, but she’s jogging down the hall toward us while Skylar and I stare in shock as she gets closer because… she’s human. As human as we are.
“I amso sorry,” she pants when she gets to us. “I can’t believe he just left you guys like that. I mean, evenhestill gets lost on this damn thing—" She stops abruptly when she notices our stunned expressions. “Um, right, sorry. I’m Anna, from Earth.”
Anna… fromEarth?There are so many questions running through my mind right now… Snapping out of my shock, I point to Skylar and myself. “Bela and Skylar. How—” I’m cut off by a Godzilla-like roar that comes from somewhere in the ship.
“Shit! He’s awake.” Anna grabs my hand and then pulls me down the hall she just came from, with Skylar trailing behind.
“Who’s awake?” Holy shit, that sound couldn’t have come from Treto, could it? A deep male voice, which must be Rovos, bellows from somewhere deep in the ship.
“I promise, all your questions will be answered soon. But first, we need to get you to Treto before he flips out.” She glances back at me when another roar echoes off the walls and adds, “Before he flips out even more.”
I catch myself nodding before I stop and frown at Anna’s back. “Wait. What is my being there going to do?” He sounds like a raging monster!
Anna gives my arm a jerk and starts pulling me after her. For a little thing—she can’t be much over five feet tall—she’s kind of pushy. “Rovos thinks he’s bonded to you. So when he wakes up, and you’re not there… sometimes males go a little crazy.”
The way she says it makes me think she has some experience with this.
“All of this just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” I mutter as I follow her through a literal labyrinth of corridors.
“You have no idea!” Anna snort-laughs.
Just as she pulls us into another narrow corridor, the yelling starts.
“What have you done!” a voice I hardly recognize roars, followed by something metal clanging to the ground. Or maybe against a wall. “Where is she? BELA!”
The sound of Treto screaming my name has my heart stuttering.My quiet Treto,who chooses his words carefully, and who I’ve never heard raise his voice, is screamingfor me. Before I realize what I’m doing, I’ve shoved Anna aside, and I’m bolting down the hallway following the sound of Treto’s agonized screams. When I get to the first doorway in the hall, I freeze.
Treto is sitting up on an exam table. His reptilian eyes are peeled wide, and he has one of his hands wrapped around Rovos’ throat as he snarls into his face. “What have you done with her? Bela! I swear to the Fates, if you’ve touched her…hurt her…I will—”
Before he can finish, I rush inside. “Treto, I’m here.” I grab on to the arm holding the gray alien, but his grip only tightens until Rovos is making choking sounds. “Treto! Hey, you’ve got to let him go!” Letting go of his arm, I grab the sides of his face, trying to get him to look at me. “I’m right here. Let him go. I’m fine. No one has hurt me.”
Treto’s lips curl back from his sharp teeth, and a growl comes from the back of his throat. Behind me Rovos is starting to thrash.
Shit!“Treto, look at me!” I stick my face in his, putting myself directly into his line of sight, but he still doesn’t seem to see me. I’ve got to do something—right now—or he’s going to hurt Rovos. Biting down on the inside of my cheek, I step back and slap him as hard as I can, right across the side of his face. I’ve never slapped anyone before, and I feel awful the moment my palm connects with a sharp crack, but… it works.
Treto blinks rapidly, and his eyes lose some of their sightlessness.
Cupping the sides of his face again, I smooth my thumb over the cheek that must be stinging. Blinking again, he releases Rovos with a curse and then finally turns to look at me.
“There you are.” I smile. “How are you feeling?”
Rovos staggers away, and I can hear Anna talking to him in hushed tones, but all my attention is on my lizard-man. His hands are shaking when he buries them in my hair, and then he pulls me so I’m standing between his spread knees.
“Bela,” he groans.
“I’m here.”
“Oh, Fates,” he gasps, and then he wraps me in his arms and tucks his head into the crook of my neck. “Bela… please. Please tell me it was a nightmare.”
Tears sting my eyes, and I slide my arms around him, pulling him closer to me. “I’m so sorry, Treto.”
“No. Oh, no...” The sound that comes out of him is pure agony, and all I can do is hold him while he falls apart in my arms. I know the pain he’s feeling. I felt it when I was barely an adult, and I lost my mom. I felt it again the day I was abducted, when I found out my sister was gone too. I wish I’d had someone to hold me, so I could grieve in those moments. So at least I can do this small thing for him now.
His sobs rack his lean frame as my own tears stream down my cheeks, and I give him the only thing I can in that moment. I give him a chance to grieve as I gently rock us from side to side.
