Defiance (11 page)

“
Rell
, I
don’t want you to be scared, but David and
Laith
are
going to put chains on us.”

“Pretending chains?”

“No, real chains,
but only to hand us over to his friend.”

Her little brow furrowed.
“The friend helping us?”

“Yes, sweetie.
Do you think you’ll be okay?”

“Will you hold my hand?”

“Of course,”
Jordan
murmured.

Rell
smiled at her, and
Jordan
hoped everything was going to work itself out. Her gut, however, churned with
fear.

****

This would be a fight to the death.

He and David were prepared. They’d
been prepared the moment they both swore a blood-oath to bring Kath down. They
put on their armor and activated it.
Laith
felt the
material harden unforgivingly. Once he strapped on his claw arm gauntlets, he
looked at David who held a helmet under his arm. Under the armor and head gear,
no one would be able to tell he was human. It made
Laith
feel a little better that David would have his back.

“We can’t fail,” David said grimly.
“If we fail, he’ll have
Jordan
.”

“I know.”

David held out his hand, and
Laith
took it, intertwining their fingers to hold on
tightly. There was a wealth of feelings he wanted to get out, but didn’t know
how to express everything in his heart.

“You have
been
 
my
rock,”
Laith
murmured. “I would never face Kath without you by my side.”

And then he did something he’d
never done before. He pulled David toward him and kissed him. He put every
single emotion he had into the kiss, all his frustration, fear and gratitude. It
wasn’t a sexual kiss, but it was one of full of love. They may not have known
each long, but they were closer than brothers, and now, with
Jordan
by their
side, he felt like they were finally complete.
Laith
now had his own clan, and he’d be damned if he’d allow Kath to take that away. The
Xyran
had already destroyed part of his family, and
he refused to allow the Commander to take any more. When he broke the kiss, he
leaned his forehead against David’s.

“When this is over, David, we shall
take
Jordan
as our bonded mate,” he murmured. “We shall form our own clan.”

“Yes,” David replied, panting a
little.

“What if you both don’t return?”
Jordan
whispered, and he turned his head to look at her. She had her arms folded
across her chest in a defiant pose, looking angry, but under the tough exterior
he saw her vulnerability.

“We will,” he said confidently.

Her mouth flattened with her fear
and displeasure. “My father told my mother he would return from deployment. He
didn’t.”

Laith
let
go of David, and they both faced her. “What will it take for you to trust us?
To trust
in
us?”

“I trust you to get
Rell
home,” she whispered.
“But nothing
more than that.”

“
Jordan
—”

She shook her head and turned to leave.
“I’m going to get
Rell
ready. When are we meeting
your friend?”

“He is not our friend,”
Laith
told her. “He is a smuggler that my father assures me
we can trust.”

“Fine,” she snapped.
“Your smuggler.
I need to make sure
Rell
is safe.”

“Nobody is safe here,” David told
her.
“Least of all a little girl.”

Her lips pursed. “You’re right. That’s
why I’ve decided to go with her.”

“No,”
Laith
said, shaking his head. “You are our mate—”

“I am not your mate!” she snapped
again. “You may not be slavers anymore, but I have to get back to Earth, and
you’re dismissing me like I don’t have a brain in my head.”

“We’re not dismissing you, Jordan,”
David said soothingly, holding up his hands. “But Earth is a doomed planet. To
stay there is foolish.”

“There are places on Earth that are
habitable, that aren’t affected by the crime and destruction. Earth isn’t dead
yet.”

“I don’t know why you are acting so
selfishly,”
Laith
said impatiently. “You know how
important it is to me, to David, to bring down Kath. Once he is gone, we can
talk more about this.”

“Fine,” she snapped again, anger
lighting up her eyes. “Go ahead and get yourselves killed. See if I care. All I
want to do is return to my home anyway!”

She turned and left as fast as
possible, her posture rigid.

“
Jordan
—” David said, taking a step
toward her, but
Laith
held him back.

“Let her go for now,”
Laith
ordered. “Her anger is masking her fear, and
Jordan
is the
type of person who needs the anger. She cannot handle being afraid. Besides, we
must prepare for Kath.”

“All right,” David said with a nod.
“But once this is over we make her ours.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

****

“Come on,
Rell
,
it’s time,”
Jordan
said. She was in the small cell, looking around. She had no idea what she was
looking for, but her thoughts were scattered.

They had taken her, chosen her for
their bizarre path of vengeance, and yet
she
was the selfish one?
Just because she wanted to back to
her own planet?
Laith
had assured her that
he’d changed, but that was far from the truth. He might not be selling women in
the slave market anymore, but he still wanted to have his harem. Well, she
would not surrender to temptation. She hadn’t known them long, but already
they’d broken her heart. Her throat tightened and tears burned her eyes, but
she refused to cry. It would never have worked anyway because how could she
possibly be happy when her mother suffered back on Earth?

“What is wrong,
Jordan
?”
Rell
asked. “You look like you’re in pain.”

Jordan
shook her head and took a
deep breath in an effort to push down her emotions. She needed all her wits
about her, and blubbering over two
Xyrans
wasn’t
helping.
Rell
was her responsibility. The little girl
depended on her, and she’d be damned if she failed.

“I’m fine,” she said, giving the
little girl a small smile.

David appeared in the doorway,
looking very fierce in his armor.
Rell
shrank back
and moved behind
Jordan
.

“
Jordan
—”

She held up a hand. “Don’t. I can’t
think about anything but getting
Rell
to safety.”

Frowning, he nodded his reluctance.

“You’ll wear these,” he said. He held
up what looked like a leash of some sort, only it wrapped around the waist
instead of the neck. “We’ll march you through the market, to the bidding tent
where you’ll be taken by the contact. He will shuttle you and the child out the
back to a waiting carriage, which will take you both to a shuttle. You will
leave immediately because you have only a ten minute window of opportunity
before the bidding curtain rises and everyone realizes you and the child aren’t
there.”

“Where will we go?”

“The shuttle will dock with a cargo
ship just outside the atmosphere that will ferry the child to the
Partin
System. The ship will meet up with an
Alphan
star cruiser that will take her to rendezvous with
her family.”

“What about me?”

“
Laith
and I will immediately fly to the
Partin
System and
meet up with you on the cargo ship.”

At his words she
teared
up again, and she turned away so he wouldn’t see
that she was making other plans. Damn it, she should’ve stayed a boy. Her
mother was absolutely right. Men did hurt women.

When he cuffed her in the chain, he
bent for a deep kiss, and despite her morose thoughts, she kissed him back with
every emotion in her heart. Without him even knowing it, she was silently
telling him good-bye. When he pulled back, he kissed her forehead before turning
to
Rell
. First he put a cloak on the little girl and
then put her chain on, making sure her face was hidden with a hood.

“
Jordan
?”
Rell
asked,
her voice shaky with fear.

Jordan
shook off her pain and
grabbed
Rell’s
hand. “Let’s go.
Time
for you to go back to your people.”

David picked up the ends of the
chains, put on his helmet, and led them forward.

Chapter Twelve

Everywhere she looked, vendors were
selling something.
Xyrans
of all colors swarmed
around the
Targin
Market, and most of the black eyes
were focused on her and
Rell
, their hot gazes feeling
like a thousand ants crawling over her skin.
Small rooms with
floor to ceiling windows each had a woman on display, and
Jordan
watched
one
Xyran
give a man standing guard some coins before
heading to the window room.
When he reached the woman, she drew the
curtain closed. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was happening behind
that curtain. A few feet down, she watched another
Xyran
leave a room and the window slide open.
Jordan
’s gaze clashed with the
woman’s. She was
Xyran
, but there was no denying the
emptiness shining from the dead eyes.

Some of the women were human, and
those windows had a line of
Xyran
males waiting their
turn. A pimp negotiated and accepted the payment just outside her door.
Jordan
felt
pity well up inside her because she couldn’t imagine what it must be like to be
used and abused over and over again. No woman should have to endure such
degradation, and she wished she could help them. This place would haunt her for
a long time. Thank God
Rell
had a hood and was spared
seeing the horrors around them. Everywhere
Jordan
looked all she saw was sex
and the inhumanity of it, and it made her want to vomit.

“
Jordan
, I’m scared,”
Rell
whispered.

“
Shh
,
sweetie,”
Jordan
whispered back. “It’s almost over.”

At least, she hoped it was almost
over.

David and
Laith
led them along, down the center of the
Targin
Market
to the end, which held a large pavilion. There was amphitheater seating, a
runway, and large screens to televise what was happening on the stage. As they
drew closer,
Xyrans
began to yell at them, and
although she didn’t know what they were saying,
Jordan
could only imagine the
vulgar things being shouted.

David and
Laith
led her and
Rell
up the steps of the runway where
they proceeded to display her advantageously. She looked around the
Xyrans
gathered around the platform, staring at her with
hunger in their eyes, and it made her shiver a little. Then they pulled
Rell’s
hood off, and a collective gasp rolled through the
crowd. There was no mistaking
Rell
was
Alphan
. Just as David turned them to lead them away,
Jordan
saw a
flash of insignia and her eyes widened.

“He’s here,” she said in a low
voice. “His men are here.”

“Yes, I see,”
Laith
said, satisfaction oozing from every syllable. “They will report to Kath that
we have
Rell
. He will come for us.”

“And we’ll be prepared,” David
affirmed.

Jordan
knew what that meant, and
the thought terrified her. She couldn’t shake the thought that they were going
to die in this God-forsaken den of sin. She and
Rell
were ushered off the runway and into the back where there a whole line of cages
holding females. They were led to the cage at the far end. As she walked into
the cage, she looked at
Laith
and David, knowing it
might be for the last time.

She opened her mouth to say
something, anything, but the words died in her throat. What could she possibly
say to them? That she’d miss them? That she’d wished
Laith
wasn’t quite so alien? That they were perfect? Everything sounded silly, so she
said nothing at all. The cage door closed, locking her and
Rell
in, and she had a momentary flash of panic wondering if David and
Laith
had tricked her. Were they going to sell her, leave
her to face the mob of sex crazed aliens?

“Don’t forget the plan,” David
whispered, looking around to make sure he wasn’t overheard. “We’ll meet up with
you in the
Partin
System.”

David and
Laith
gave her one last reassuring nod before walking away, and for a second, her fear
flared out of control. It left her shaking and breathless, but then
Rell
wrapped her little arms around her, shocking her back
to her senses. With effort, Jordan pushed away the anxiety and took a deep,
calming breath before she began to study the cage. Instinct had her trying to
find a way out, just in case. Then the back door squeaked open, and a man in a
hood stood there, waving at them.