Celestial Beauty (4 page)

Heat scalded her face when her stomach chose that time
to complain its lack of food.

“
We have plenty of food for you, sweetness.” Kue smiled
kindly.

“
And the crash. How did you…” Zeb trailed off, his face
again dark. “How many other humans did they abduct?”

She swallowed as renewed guilt again sliced through
her. She had survived when the others hadn’t, and it was her fault they were
dead. Would they think differently of her if they knew that? She didn’t deserve
this, their kindness, especially after she’d half planned to rob them.

“
There were three others, and three of th-those Jorval
things.”

Zeb’s hand slipped to her wrist before letting her go
completely. “What’s your name, beautiful?”

She lifted her gaze to meet Zeb’s. “I’m Celeste
Coleman, from Earth. I don’t understand how I can understand and talk to you if
… we’re … uh, different.”

“
The Jorvals would have injected a translator just
here.” Kue’s finger touched just behind her ear, before brushing some of her
dirty hair back. The heat of his touch rushed through her body, making her
lower stomach suddenly clench, and she gasped more at the sensations than his
touch.

The others mustn’t have thought so as Kue pulled back
his hand while all of his brothers glared at him as if he’d committed a heinous
crime. “Sorry, sweetness, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“
We know you were abducted by the Jorvals. Those
fuckers are responsible for all the human abductions.” She heard the hard edge
in Zeb’s voice. “They are a greedy self-serving race, only seeking profit.
Human females have become a high demand and rare commodity for them. Until
recently, because our people have been rescuing every human female we can, and
putting a stop to the Jorvals’ activities.”

She blinked, unsure of whether to believe him or not.
“They are?”

“
Yes, but now isn’t the time to talk of such things.
Kue, Celeste is hungry, tired, and in need of care. Raz, finish retrieving that
coupling. Loc, get back to work, and Kue, take Celeste and see to her needs.”
She could see why Zeb was a commander, and the others nodded their consent as if
used to following his orders.

Kue’s grin was one of delight as he held out his hand
for her to take. Hesitantly, she raised her hand and took a step forward,
crying out as sharp pain shot up her foot. Feeling fear and adrenaline
concerning her utterly strange situation, and in bewilderment of these Demos
quads, she hadn’t even realized she’d hurt her ankle. She crumpled, but she
didn’t hit the ground. Kue’s arms shot out, lightning fast, wrapping around her
before scooping her into his arms. It showed an impressive display of strength.
They were strong, tough, ex-soldiers used to dealing with hard situations, in a
very strange galaxy. They had been nothing but forgiving and kind since they’d
discovered her. Her brow dipped in a frown even as she let her arm hook around
Kue’s neck. It irked her to have to admit her need. Feeling herself at the end
of her tether and endurance, surviving on this planet, she wanted to trust
them; only time would tell if they really were true to their word.

“
Damn it, Raz, you did harm her when you attacked!” Zeb
bellowed at Raz, startling her even more than when Raz had tackled her.

“
And you’re frightening her now.” Raz glared back at
Zeb, stepping to his brother, but stopped and turned back to her. Kue had
moved, cradling her as if she was a precious treasure he’d just found.

“
I am most sorry, lovely, for hurting you.” Her jaw
fell open at his heartfelt apology, making her feel even guiltier for kicking
him. She felt her cheeks heat again.

“
Oh, no, no. I’m sorry for, uh, kicking you.” Her gaze
swung to Zeb. “And to you for … the uh, dart. Oh, your knife.” She wiggled in
Kue’s grasp to pull out the knife from her belt, holding it out, handle first.

Zeb’s face instantly softened from the hard, barking
commander she’d seen a second ago. He took the knife, placing it into a sheath
on his belt, and smiled. “Thank you, Celeste, and please don’t apologize. In
your situation, we would have done the same thing.” Zeb nodded at Kue. “Kue is
very good at healing and will take good care of you.”

“
Um, okay.”

“
So, sweetness, you and I?” Kue grinned cheerfully.
“I’ll get you fixed up, don’t worry.”

Oh boy.
Celeste stomach pitched, a sudden sinking feeling
telling her she was falling a lot further down an alien rabbit hole.

Chapter Three

“
So what’s your plan, oh great commander?” Raz was
spoiling to plant his fist into Zeb’s scowling face at his highhanded tactics
from earlier. Celeste. He liked her name as much as the wild, bewildered look
on her lovely rounded and pink face and her big watery pale blue eyes. He half
smiled at how she’d caught both him and Zeb unawares, not an easy thing to do.
She had fire and fight. Even if her clothes were rags and her face a little
dirty from living rough, she was still an utterly lush, exotic beauty. No
wonder the human females were in such high demand on Galafrax. They were so
unlike the women of his species.

He frowned, thinking about her condition, frail human
females, treated like nothing but cargo to the Jorval. He half wanted to go
reanimate the dead traders only to kill them all over again. The pain, fear,
and utter exhaustion he saw in his Celeste’s eyes had felt like a big fucking
laser blast to his chest.

He relaxed slightly, knowing Kue would make sure she
was well cared for. His younger brother, despite being just as deadly as any of
his brothers, had a deep, tender side, one Raz knew
their human female
would easily draw out.

After having a very bitter taste of just what Demos
females were capable of, he never wanted to deal with them again. Celeste opened
up a whole new range of possibilities, giving him a whole new sense of hope and
purpose.

Mine, ours.

Raz liked how that sounded in his head.

“
For what?” Zeb’s answer was half absent, irritating
Raz more.

“
For Celeste, ice for brains.” He threw back the insult
Zeb had used earlier on him. Zeb’s scowl deepened as he glanced up from
unhooking the other side of the coupling.

“
There is no plan. Get your mind off your fucking rod,
or have you broken the sex droid again?”

Raz set down the laser cutter, clenching his fist.
“What do you mean no plan? We have a very lovely human female.”

“
So?”

“
Are you that stupid? We keep her of course.”

“
No.” Zeb didn’t even bother to look at him.

Raz moved around the dead Jorval engine and planted
himself in front of his older brother.

“
What do you mean no?” Raz couldn’t keep the growl from
his tone.

Zeb chose to ignore him, continuing to tug at the now
loosened coupling. “She’s female, and we don’t need another complication in our
lives. We take care of her, treat her with respect, and then deliver her safely
to the nearest Galafraxian authorities.”

Older brother or not, Zeb was fucking stupid to let
his prejudice against the last female they’d shared get in the way of seeing
the open opportunity right in their laps.

“
Celeste is not Demos.”

“
It doesn’t matter. Females are females. Just because
you can’t look past your rod, doesn’t mean I have to, too.”

“
This isn’t just about fucking!” Raz had reached the
threshold of tolerance for his stupid older brother.

Zeb clearly anticipated his punch, ducking before
Raz’s fist connected with his face. He danced back. “I command this ship, not
you. Get your priorities in order!” Zeb’s usual roar had no effect on Raz.

“
My priorities are in order!” Raz snarled back. “I want
to court Celeste, and no one will stop me.” It was a promise, not a threat.

“
What about her? What if she doesn’t want you?” Zeb’s
words stopped Raz in his tracks. Memories of similar nasty, hurtful words
surfaced into his mind. She had said that to their faces. The one they had once
called “
sheraz
”.

Raz took a step back and drew in several deep breaths
to calm the fire in his blood and the pounding of his heart. He stared at Zeb.
Clearly the dissolution of their family unit had burned his older brother on a
deeper level than he or any of his brothers realized.

The fight faded from Raz. “It’s not the same, brother.
Celeste is human, and I know she will not be the same. She said sorry to us
both and meant it. Would one of our kind have done that?”

Zeb shook his head. “You don’t know she won’t be the
same. I have heard that some of those human females are just as demanding as
our kind.”

Zeb was wrong. Raz could feel it right down to his
soul. Celeste was not the same. He could see just how special she was, in her
big wide eyes.

Pity filled Raz as he stared at Zeb, and he wished
there was a way for his older brother to get over their past, like he and the
others had. “Do as you like, brother, but you can’t stop me or the others from
trying to win her.”

Zeb’s scowl was back, but he said nothing as he knew
nothing would veer Raz from his new mission. Funny how they were all stubborn
like that. Raz silently prayed it wouldn’t be the end of their brotherhood
either.

****

Celeste blinked again at Kue as he ran some small, odd
shaped instrument over her ankle, making it tingle. Kue chatted pleasantly,
carrying her weight without complaint across the marsh and up the ramp of his
big ship, through a maze of corridors and into a large room, with several high
cot-like beds above the floor, clearly for medical purposes.

So far they were true to their word, and nothing bad
had happened. Instead Kue treated her as if she was made from spun glass. It
was kind of shell-shocking and hard to absorb, after so long of being treated
like nothing and no one. Add to that the abduction and weeks alone, just
fighting to survive. Here was this handsome alien man being so sweet and kind
to her. Tears pricked the back of her eyes. She didn’t deserve to be treated so
nice, and they didn’t deserve to be burdened by her. She lowered her head,
swallowing down the lump in her throat.

“
I am sorry we don’t have the latest data upload on
treating humans. I don’t think any of us expected to come into close contact
with one.” He smiled again, placing her foot down. Kue turned his back on her
to put the gadgets he had used to treat her ankle. “It’s a simple sprain, so I
recalibrated the muscle modulator to help heal your more delicate muscle
structure. Is there anything else that hurts?”

She hadn’t noticed him standing in front of her again
regarding her in silent study. She saw his fingers before she felt them move
under her chin, lifting her head, forcing her to meet his worried gaze.
“Beauty, you are not all right, are you?”

She swallowed again. “I … I don’t want to be a burden.
I’ll leave if you’re finished.” She managed to choke the words out. Kue frowned
and glanced around. He hooked a wide stool with his foot bringing it forward
before sitting down. It lowered his bulk to the same height of where she sat,
and he very gently and tenderly brushed her dirty, matted hair from her face.

“
What makes you think you’re a burden? Trust me when I
say all four of us have never been more delighted that we found you. It is an
honour to care for you, and in no way are you a burden.”

Her vision blurred, and warm wet trails were left down
her cheeks as her tears spilled over the rim of her eyes. “You don’t know what
I’ve done. I don’t deserve this, you being so nice.”

“
I highly doubt there is anything you could have done
to make me think differently. Will you tell me why you think this?”

She couldn’t hold it in any longer. The need to
confess her crime burst out. “B-because I killed everyone on that ship.”

“
Somehow I doubt that, but will you tell me everything
you can remember?”

She closed her eyes, her mind going back to that
horrible time on the Jorval ship. She should have never taken a walk that
moonlit night.

****

Celeste pulled her
drugged, sluggish body up, seeing the bars surrounding her. It was a cage no
bigger than a dog kennel. Under her was a cold metal floor. She was on the end
of a row of cages, along with other women in her same situation.

At first there was
sorrow. Then despair, as the hours passed, turned into anger. But Celeste held
onto her anger, refusing to let it go, even when the other three women had
broken down, defeated by humiliation and gnawing hunger in their stomachs.

Clearly these
alien beings held human women in the same regard as the boxed cargo stacked
around them.

What right did
they have to do this? But who was there to stop creatures with highly advanced
technology? Not her species, who had trouble even getting to the moon.

It was a hard fact
to swallow. She, along with the other three, was lost to Earth and would never
see the blue sky or breathe the human air again. Still, it didn’t stop
Celeste’s mind ticking over, constantly thinking about escape and revenge.

Endless hours
passed with nothing but water, and they grew weak. Her mind edged more towards
giving up as the other women had.

At this point she
weighed up the possibilities in her mind. Where would she rather be? Back on
Earth, suffering at the hands of her asshole ex, constantly being ignored and
told how worthless she was? On Earth at least she had clothes and food. Here
she was naked, half starved, with a fate unknown at the hands of alien
creatures. It was an utter cosmic joke.

She swallowed and
leaned against the door, gasping when it creaked open. She turned, sitting back
on her heels, staring at the open crack for a long moment, trying to understand
if this was real or a hallucination. Tentatively, she reached out and pushed it
wider. No, it wasn’t an illusion at all. Was this the break she’d been praying
for? It must have been an oversight on her captors’ part when they’d shoved
water into her cage.

She glanced at the
other women, sleeping fitfully in the filtered darkness, before crawling out.
Her limbs and back ached, and she stretched them slowly, standing to her full
height, her legs weak and wobbly. Vibrations of the ship shuddered up from the
soles of her feet to the top of her head.

She looked again
at the younger, thinner women. How fragile they appeared. Would they survive
what these aliens had in store for them? They’d been friendly, with only each
other for comfort through this ordeal. No doubt they would be as weak, if not
more so, after being starved for what felt like days. She glanced down at her
naked and ample padding and larger breasts. No doubt her fat stores were
helping her through this period of famine. She drew in a slow breath and took a
few steps forward.

No, she wouldn’t
wake them. They needed to rest. Besides, why give them false hope when she felt
none herself? One or more of her friends might burst into another fit of
hysterics and bring the big eared, wrinkly faced aliens back to subdue them
with more drugs. She couldn’t risk it.

But now what?
There had to be away out, a way to stop them before they got any further from
Earth. Renewed anger fired through her. Even being naked wouldn’t stop her.
Gaining momentum, she ripped off a smaller black cover from a nearby metal
cargo crate and wrapped it around her body in a makeshift toga.
 
She tucked it in tight, but not so tight as
to inhibit her movements. The gleam of several tools scattered around caught
her eye, and she picked up a heavy silver, cylindrical object, rather similar
to a large wrench. At one end it had several little blinking lights.

She slapped her
palm over the door panel, as she’d seen the creatures do. The door hissed as it
slid open giving her access to a very short corridor. She realized the alien
spaceship wasn’t that big, and guessed about the length of a passenger bus,
only wider and oddly coloured with grey, pastel oranges and splashes of green.
It smelled musty and stale.

She shook her head
to remove her curious thoughts, and focused on what was important. Which way?
From the vibrations coming from one end, she surmised it was their engine room.

There was no
logical plan other than to stop them, stop the ship. If she caused enough
trouble, she got the upper hand. She could demand they turn the ship around and
take them back to Earth. Or let her and the other three women go on some safe,
friendly planet?

Her hand shook,
and she closed her eyes. She’d known suffering most of her adult life, and
despite keeping them naked and in a cage these aliens hadn’t hurt them, beat
them. This was the first real taste of freedom she’d had, but for how long? If
they were only cargo, where were they taking them? Would they be sold at some
alien market, turned into nothing but slaves?

Fuck them all! No way will my life to end like this!
In outer space, at the hands of aliens.
Never
would she let someone else have power over her, to control, manipulate and
abuse.

She nodded to
herself, more for self-assurance, and her palms began to sweat as she gripped
the alien spanner tighter.

The door hissed
open, heated smells of odd oils and other mechanical perfumes filling the air.
Lit up panels surrounded the ship’s bulkhead while a central orange, oval
bubble system beat out a techno style rhythm as they sped through the stars.