“I would rather not,” she responded finally. “It’s a little chilly in here.”
“Your comfort is of no concern to me. If you do not remove your clothing, I will have Mocna do it for you.”
“Why do you want me to remove my clothing?”
The scientist held up a finger.
Footsteps sounded behind her.
Before Ava could turn around, a large hand fisted the back of her shirt and pulled hard.
Buttons popped and clattered to the floor as the shirt burst open down the front and fled her arms.
When Mocna tried to stuff his fingers down the back of her pants, she yelled, “Okay! Okay! I’ll do it!”
The skinny finger lowered.
Mocna’s hand left her.
Gritting her teeth, Ava unfastened her jeans and pushed them down over her hips.
“The shoes, too,” the scientist intoned.
Her mind working furiously, she toed off her sneakers and stepped out of the pants and socks.
Mocna grabbed them and stomped away.
The scientist set his tablet down.
Ava stood there in her bra and panties, feeling infuriatingly vulnerable, trying to cover as much of her bare skin as possible while she sought some way to keep them from doing whatever they intended to do to her.
“Get on the table.”
She shook her head. “If you tell the Lasarans you’ve found me, they’ll give you a generous reward.” She had no idea if that was the case. She hadn’t learned very much about the political side of their planet during her brief tenure on the Kandovar. For all she knew, they could have a “we don’t negotiate with terrorists” policy. However, it was worth a try. This lab and all of the unidentifiable high-tech devices it held might be state of the art, but the rest of the ship—at least the parts she’d seen—had looked old, worn, and out of date compared to the Kandovar, as if they hadn’t poured any funds into its upkeep in years.
On Earth, a hell of a lot of people could be bought off with the right price. If these guys were the same…
“I don’t desire financial reward,” he sneered seconds before his hand shot out and gripped her by the throat.
Ava barely had time to gasp before he picked her up as if she weighed as little as a feather and slammed her down back first on the operating table.
Holy hell, he was strong! Stronger than a human, that was for sure, even with his skinny build.
Within seconds, manacles locked her arms and ankles to the table. Ava struggled against them, her heart pounding in her chest. “What do you want?”
“I want to know why you puny Earthlings are still alive.” Picking up his tablet, he tapped it several times.
A buzz sounded as a mechanical arm descended from the ceiling above her. A long needle protruded from one end.
Oh shit.
“My ancestors helped engineer the virus we released on your planet,” he muttered. “Your race should have long since perished.”
Ava struggled harder. But despite her thin wrists and small hands, could not work free of the manacles.
A cold, wet mist hit her arm. Then the needle pierced it.
Wincing, she watched her blood slither up a tube and into the apparatus in the ceiling.
“You’re going to help me remedy my bloodline’s mistake,” the scientist declared.
No. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. If he figured out where they’d gone wrong when they’d created the vampiric virus, why it only drove most Earthlings infected with it insane instead of all of them… If he found a virus that would work on humans and gifted ones alike…
He could commit global genocide on Earth.
And the blood he currently siphoned from her carried the key.
How long would it take him to sequence her DNA and determine it was far more complex than other Earthling DNA? How long would it take him to understand how it mutated the virus they’d created and morphed it into something positive? To find a way to counter that? Or to create something even viler that would succeed where their previous effort failed?
That will take time, won’t it? she thought desperately.
Hopefully a long time. But would it be long enough for her to find a way to get the hell off this ship or… get a message out to someone nearby?
Was there anyone nearby?
Frustration over her physical limitations and her inexperience with combat inundated her. If Eliana were here, she could single-handedly slay every Gathendien on this ship.
Eliana! she called.
How far did telepathic shouts carry out here in space? Was it different from Earth?
Simone!
Hers had not been the only escape pod the Kandovar had launched into the unknown.
Michaela!
Immortals tended to have much stronger telepathic abilities. The older the immortal, the farther away they could be and still communicate. Seth and David could be on opposite sides of the planet and still speak to each other telepathically.
Dani!
If even one Immortal Guardian could hear her, the woman would move Heaven and Earth to find Ava and kick the crap out of the assholes who had taken her.
Rachel!
And if any Lasarans should hear her…
Well, she didn’t know what they could do for her if they were stuck in an escape pod the way she had been. But maybe they could get a message to Lasara or its allies and send help her way.
Ava hadn’t been able to reach anyone while in the pod. Even after four months on the Kandovar, she wasn’t well versed in the use of their computers. Enabling voice commands in the pod had helped. But no one had responded to any of the messages she’d sent.
She stilled. Or had they?
Had those messages been what led the Gathendiens to her?
Would similar messages lead them to the others?
Would they—as Ava feared—kill any Lasarans they encountered because they had no use for them?
The thought made her want to cry. The Lasarans had been so kind to her. Far kinder than her own people had been back on Earth. The Lasarans hadn’t cared that she was different, because they were different, too.
The needle withdrew and rose, disappearing back into the mechanism in the ceiling.
“While the computer analyzes your blood,” the scientist murmured, “I will take some samples to examine.”
So saying, he picked up a laser scalpel.
Ava swallowed hard. Elianaaaa!
If she could just touch upon her friend’s mind…
CHAPTER FOUR
A hand clamped on Jak’ri’s shoulder.
He jerked awake. The abrupt shift from swimming in bright sunlight with Ava to the grim reality of being locked in a cell on the Gathendien ship left him confused.
He glanced down, oddly alarmed to find his arms empty and Ava gone. He’d fallen asleep sitting up with his back to the bars that separated his cell from Ziv’ri’s. The hand on his shoulder gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“Be at ease,” his brother murmured.
Jak’ri swiveled to face him.
Ziv’ri sat just on the other side of the bars, his features pale and pinched, his silver eyes bright with fever.
Jak’ri shot a quick look toward the adjoining lab. The Gathendien scientists hadn’t returned yet, and the guards still huddled in the corridor.
Slipping an arm through the bars, Jak’ri cupped Ziv’ri’s face. “Brother,” he murmured, relief filling him as he urged him closer until they could press their foreheads together between the bars. “You slept so long I feared they had succeeded this time.”