Breeding Ground Part 25

The warriors of Zala had spent the last two days preparing to journey the black waters. In the end, Fija had decided she would trust the task of rescuing the queen to none but herself. Choosing but five of her strongest, deadliest entourage to accompany her, she knew that taking too many would give the wrong result.

The Takuri were not prepared to wage all-out war on the demons. Not yet. At this juncture, she felt it prudent to go in quietly, get back their queen, and return to the fortress. Once Alexandria the Great was safe...then and only then would they ready their troops for the final, deciding battle.

The black-skinned male raised an arrogant eyebrow. Fija found the affectation at once arousing and annoying.

"If you believe she is your queen, then you must believe the story she told you...specifically the story of where she-we-came from." Another d.a.m.ned eyebrow inched up. "We know where Tongor is. You do not."

Fija's nostrils flared, but she said nothing.

"So the way we see it," another male, the one called John intoned, "is we can work together or we can work apart. Either way, you're heading in the wrong direction."

Surely this was a cruel joke of the G.o.ds, Fija thought on a sigh. The last thing any of her warriors needed, herself included, was the distraction of these males. Yet, perversely, their logic could not be refuted.

"Well?" Peac.o.c.k drawled, looking irritatingly bored. "What will it be, sweet thang?"

Fija looked back to her trusted warriors. They frowned, but shuffled their gazes to the ground. Tilting her head back to face Peac.o.c.k, she gritted out, "Fine. But you needs must stay out of my way."

Alex awoke on a whimper, her body weak. She couldn't open her eyes no matter how hard she tried. Every muscle seemed to groan, protesting its use as she stretched. She felt as though she'd been run over by one of those super high-speed automated glider-cabs that used to shuffle her to and from her office at NASA every day.

Sounds a.s.saulted her. Laughter. Happiness. Boisterous clamor. The fact that those same sounds pierced her skull like a knife served as her first coherent reminder that she was on the mend. But healing from what?

She had been ill...that much she remembered with crystal clarity. But why? How? What had caused-

Alex stilled as memories returned. The dungeon. The cage. No food or water...

Her eyes flew open, the abrupt movement nauseating in the extreme. She groaned, her eyelids batting in rapid succession as she fought with her pupils to adjust to the light-and with her stomach to keep from expelling itself.

"She awakens," Alex heard a female whisper.

"We needs must inform His Greatness," another said.

"I shall notify him," a male voice gruffly answered. "The deuce of you see to your duties."

Heavy footfalls walked further and further away. Alex's eyes adjusted to the softly lit atmosphere just in time to watch a male dressed in a thigh-high leather skirt and matching black boots disappear into an adjoining corridor.

Her gaze flicked up to where two naked females hovered, standing over her all but lifeless body. They stood there looking down at her with a tranquility as serene, beautiful, and complacent as two china dolls in a window display.

She frowned. There was something strange about those two.

The eyes. Alex's forehead wrinkled as it occurred to her that their eyes looked...wrong. The irises were light silver, almost opaque. But that wasn't the strange part in this already too-strange world. What chilled her was the fact that their gazes lacked life. They resembled programmed droids, but something told her they were very, very human.

Not Xandi females-Takuri females.

"I-I'm thirsty," Alex whispered, her underused voice gravelly. "Help me."

Their smiles never wavered. "King Malik will see to your needs," one doll cheerfully informed her. "As you will see to his."

"Are you Takuri?"

Still, the smiles.

"My sister and I were born lowly humans, but have found redemption in the beds of the masters we serve." Doll number one inclined her head towards doll number two. The smiles remained hauntingly luminous. "I am Mara and this is Anya. We are here to welcome you to your new home and new life."

Greeeeat. Just what Alex had been hoping to wake up to. The Tongor version of the Stepford welcome wagon.

"You welcomed me," Alex growled. "Job well done. Now leave!" she barked. She began to cough, the guttural sound she'd issued too much for her throat to endure.

"We cannot leave until one superior to ourselves permits us to do thusly."

Kill the f.u.c.king smiles already!

Alex's eyes narrowed. "Who is superior to you?" she asked between coughs.

"Any male," said Mara.

"Any male Xandi," Anya clarified.

"But we needs must listen to only our masters and the awakened king-G.o.d," Mara chimed in.

Alex's teeth gritted. She'd been s.n.a.t.c.hed from a world of matriarchal madness and thrown into a world of patriarchal insanity. She didn't know which was worse, only that she didn't want to end up a mindless, thoughtless doll like Frick and Frack. For that reason, they were simply too horrifying to look at.

"Get," she said distinctly, over-enunciating every word, "away from me." When they made no move to leave, just stood there like two smiling idiots, Alex forced herself to her feet. They were giving her a major case of the creeps. "I said go away!" She coughed, but stalked towards them. "Now! I said-umph."

A sudden and powerful choking sensation forced Alex to stop in her tracks. Her eyes bulged as she gasped and sputtered for air; her hands flew up to her throat.

b.a.s.t.a.r.d. The son of a b.i.t.c.h had put a collar around her neck.

Angry, humiliated, and undeniably shocked, Alex looked down and surveyed herself. She was naked, wearing a collar, and the collar was attached to a chain. Picking up a portion of the lightweight but surprisingly invulnerable chain, she slowly wound around in a circle until she found where the chain led to.

She stilled. The lead had been secured to a post. She, captain and commander of the Methuselah, had been reduced to the status of an exotic s.e.x pet. Her heart sank, hopelessness and semi-hysteria seizing her.

Where is my crew? Please! Please don't leave me here!

Alex took a deep breath and slowly expelled it. She battled with her fraught emotions, refusing to succ.u.mb to them. She knew the crew would come for her. It was just a matter of finding her. Peac.o.c.k, Vlad, and John would keep their promise.

Get it together, Doctor. This will end soon. Don't let them break you.

"Mara! Anya!" an all too familiar male voice boomed. "Your masters await you. Depart."

The dolls bowed and walked off with those serene smiles still plastered on their faces. Alex's eyes narrowed as her light green gaze darted from their retreating naked b.u.t.ts up into the face of the mammoth black reptile king.

"Why didn't you just kill me?" she asked, her voice still raspy. "I'd rather be dead than end up like those two."

"They are quite happy," Malik a.s.sured her. "They live to fulfill the every s.e.xual and physical need of their respective mastersss." His gold-slit gaze raked over her naked body. "Just as you will live to fulfill your king-G.o.d's every s.e.xual and physical desire."

"They are 'happy', if one can stretch the meaning of the word far enough to accommodate the situation, because your people have robbed them of all thinking processes."

He shrugged. "And yet are they happy."