Page 85 of Rescued

Just the thought made her feel both nauseated and right on the edge of madness. Also, her ankle was itching terribly. Sonya supposed that was an after-effect of the pain chip that had apparently been implanted there.

She hadn’t known anything about it and finding out had been a nasty surprise—the moment she’d gotten a little way away from the perimeter of the building, she’d felt bolts of debilitating, fiery pain shooting up and down her leg. It had caused her right leg to buckle and she had been frozen in place, making her an easy target for the guards.

Speaking of guards, the Thorian who had her by the arm was taking her right back up to her room on the penthouse floor at the top of the building. She knew that Davrik had promised to come for her, but how could he possibly do that when she was stuck at the tip-top of the alien skyscraper?

As she was thinking this, the guard opened the door to her room and thrust her inside.

“Stay there,” he growled, his slitted eyes narrowing. “Sir Grox will be coming to get you—then you’ll know the meaning of pain!”

And with an ugly laugh, he slammed the door shut behind her.

Feeling completely dejected, Sonya lay down on the bed and gave in to misery. Sobs shook her as she curled into a ball. She’d rather be dead than owned by that horrible Trollox! She—

Suddenly a noise penetrated her consciousness. Looking up with wet eyes, she saw a sleek silver ship hovering just outside the floor-to-ceiling windows that made up two of the walls of her room.

“What in the world?” she whispered, sitting up and swiping at her eyes. “Who—?”

Just then, a burning beam of red light came from the front of the ship. It traced the frame of one of the windows with exact precision as Sonya followed it with her eyes. The next thing she knew, an enormous rectangular pane of glass had fallen inward to shatter on the floor of her room.

“Oh!” she gasped, putting up an arm to shield her eyes. What was going on? The wind from outside suddenly swirled in, whipping her hair around her face and sending a cold chill through her.

The silver ship turned so that it was presenting its side to her. Then a hatchway opened and Sonya saw a familiar figure standing there.

“Davrik!” she breathed. The big Kindred hadn’t been kidding—he really had come for her!

Even as she thought that, a metal rod shot from the side of the ship and buried itself in the building, right below where the window had been cut out. The rod began to expand and flatten out rapidly until it had formed a narrow silver bridge between The House of a Thousand Flowers and Davrik’s ship.

Davrik took a step onto the bridge and she saw that he had a kind of harness strapped around his waist that tethered him to the ship. He held out a hand to her and shouted, but the wind whipped his words away.

That didn’t matter though, Sonya was already at the sill of the broken window, the glass crunching under her shoes. She could see Davrik reaching for her—about fifteen feet away. She was about to run across to him…but then she made the mistake of looking down.

The drop was hundreds of feet to a busy street below. Even the hovercars that were on several different light tracks looked like ants and they were flying far above the pavement.

“Oh God!” Sonya muttered, feeling her stomach lurch. She’d always had a fear of heights—it was one reason she couldn’t be on the swim team in high school—she simply couldn’t make herself go off the high dive. And that was a short distance compared to being on the top of a skyscraper!

“Baby girl, come to me!” she heard Davrik shouting.

Sonya bit her lip and clutched at the empty window frame. The silver bridge looked so narrow.

And then, behind her, she heard the door to her room open.

“…think you’ll find that Sonya is safe and sound and waiting for you, Sir Grox,” Oozle’s voice burbled.

Turning her head, she saw the Sluggorn slime his way into her room, followed by the huge, hulking form of the Trollox. It took them a moment to see what was going on but when they did, all seven of Grox’s yellow eyes widened in angry surprise.

“She’s escaping!” squealed the middle head and then the other two heads began making loud, whooping sounds almost like a police siren, Sonya thought. “Whoo—whoo—whoo!”

“Baby girl, come—hurry!”

She looked away from them and saw Davrik reaching for her. He was out on the metal bridge himself, halfway to her with his hand outstretched. There was a look of anxiety on his strong features.

“Grab her!” Oozle snarled and she saw the Sluggorn was sliding as fast as he could, though he had to pick his way around the shattered glass. The Trollox had no such hindrance—Grox was wearing huge, hobnailed boots so he simply came crunching over the broken window glass, reaching for her with both meaty paws.

For a moment, Sonya felt frozen. Then a low, feminine voice whispered in her ear,

“Go now, daughter! You will not be given another chance to escape!”

Sonya had no idea who was speaking to her, but as the voice spoke, a sudden rush of courage flooded her. Hadn’t she been thinking she’d rather be dead than owned by Grox? Well, here was her chance to prove it! Keeping her eyes on Davrik instead of the horrible drop below, she stepped out onto the silver bridge.

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