Baited (Gladiators of the Gryn #2)

Chrissie

CHRISSIE

“You did well tonight,” Fenek leans back in his chair. It creaks under his weight. “My friends were impressed.”

I’m trying not to sway on my feet. Every joint in my body is screaming at me, my head is pounding and my throat scratchy from over use.

“That’s good.” I respond.

“They want me to share you with some other friends of theirs.” He smiles, showing crooked sharp teeth. “Friends who will be very useful for me.”

“I…” I want to say I can’t, I need rest, the alien virus I caught shortly after I was abducted has ravaged my body and mind.

Fenck’s smile fades which is not good.

“I should be able to sing again tomorrow night, if I can rest.” I say quickly.

The smile comes back and my huge business-alien boss settles himself into his creaking chair behind his huge desk again. He steeples his fingers, each one tipped with a black claw and his usually mauve scaled skin flushes blue with his achievement.

Yes, he’s got a tiny, sick human to agree with him. Great job.

Shame it’s my job. Keeping him happy, being his pet, his party piece, his way of getting contracts and credits where otherwise no one would entertain him.

“Go and rest your voice,” he flicks one hand at me as a dismissal. “And make sure your wardrobe for tomorrow night is appropriate for council members.”

I manage to keep my limp to a minimum as I exit his study and into the darkness of the rest of Fenck’s vast dwelling, but once the door shuts behind me, I heave out a painful breath and lean hard on the stick he deigns to let me have.

Sickness is weakness, . No one likes to see a sick creature.

Fenek dislikes the fact I haven’t recovered from the mystery virus as quickly as he hoped after he heard me singing in a dingy bar on the outskirts of Tatatatunga, the only place I could find which would give me a chance and offered me a job.

He always has an eye for anything he thinks can make him money and that day, he thought I might be worth a few credits.

And I knew I had no other choice. If I didn’t get out of the gutter, I’d have died there.

I creep through the silent house. I can’t exactly do much else. Every step is agony and all I want is my bed, even if I know the pain will still be there in the morning…and the afternoon…and the evening. It’s never ending, exhausting and there appears to be nothing I can do about it.

All I can do is hope eventually my immune system will kick the virus to the wall and I’ll be free of it. Until then I’m at the whim of an alien employer who doesn’t care.

Of course, his study is the furthest from my small quarters. I stop about half way to catch my breath and consider whether I want to go to the kitchens, one floor below, to get something cool for my throat or drink the lukewarm water I can get from the bathroom.

I’m stood next to the floor to ceiling windows which mostly make up most of the walls in Fenek’s dwelling. I lean my head against the cool, clear surface. Outside his large yard is lit up almost brighter than day. It means I can’t see the twin moons of Trefa, or the unfamiliar stars which punctuate the sky. It means I can try not to think of home and my dad.

My poor dad who will be worried sick because I didn’t come in to work one morning. Who will never know I was taken by aliens on a lonely road over Dartmoor on my way to pick up a broken down vehicle. My dad who will never give up trying to find me.

He never will.

A tear slips down my cheek and I bite my bottom lip to stop myself crumbling further when the outside lights wink out and the entire place is in darkness.

I freeze. Fenek never turns out the lights at night. Maybe he didn’t pay his electricity bill? I cough out a harsh laugh because I wouldn’t put it past him given how tight he is, until I see the shadowy figure running down the side of the dwelling.

This is not a mistake. There’s someone out there. Someone swift, dressed in black and whoever it is can’t be up to any good. No one who needs the dark ever is.

My heart pounds in my chest, I feel dizzy and sick. I’m taken right back to the night I was taken from Earth. I wanted to fight, but I couldn’t.

Tonight I couldn’t fight if I wanted to, and I don’t want to. If this dark figure has come for me, then it looks like I’m taken once more. I’d struggle to fight my way out of a paper bag.

The silence of the dwelling crowds in on me. My breathing seems hopelessly loud. My feet are stuck to the floor because running is impossible.

With the same suddenness as when the lights went out, every single light in the house and outside comes on as an alarm rends the air, high pitched and loud. I drop my stick to cover my ears and I’m unable to go anywhere.

It seems like seconds but the air outside is filled with drones. Laser bolts flash randomly, hitting the ground outside with little puffs of dust.

There’s no sign of the black clad figure.

Fenek’s bulk rounds the corner. His face a deep teal as he puffs and blows, feet stomping as he moves towards me.

“Assassin,” he rasps, voice hoarse with the unexpected exercise. “Assassin!”