The Abduction (14 page)

“
Stop!” Samantha screamed. “Both of you stop it!”

Rikist
shifted his hands, and Krissik twisted away and struck. His claws dug deep into Rikist’s wounded thigh. Rikist howled, releasing his grip, and fell back holding his leg as he let out a guttural yowl that was a mix between a meow and baritone shriek. His amber eyes flashed in fury, and he toppled into Krissik, and together they rolled across the living room floor biting and clawing.

“Rikist, please! You’ll kill him!”

Rikist glanced over at Samantha, his face weary, and stepped to the side as Krissik lunged. He reached out and pulled his brother’s shoulder to redirect his momentum, twisting Krissik sideways and down and to smack his head hard against the stainless steel counter top.

Krissik’s head hit with an audible
crack, and he crumbed backward to the floor unmoving. Rikist stood over him breathing heavy, and then stepped back and sunk onto the couch. He leaned back and pressed on his thigh, blood seeping between his fingers.

“
Raki sutari…” he breathed, his face taut.

Samantha’s hands shook as she stood and crossed the room to Krissik. She knelt down and felt for a pulse in his neck. It was there, strong and steady. She rolled him over on to his back, gasped at the puddle of blood beneath his head, and then spun on Rikist.

“Why did you do that?” she screamed. She clenched her fists and stormed up to him. “You could have killed him!”

Rikist
glared at her. “I saved you,” he said in English. “And you defend him?”

“Saving me? I…” Samantha stopped, and her eyes widened. She put her hands to her mouth. “What
are you…”

“You are stir... sturl… um…” He searched for the right word. “
Can not carry—”

“You mean sterile?”

He nodded.

The bile came up without warning, and Samantha doubled over and threw up on the floor. She shook, and leaned against the counter as she stumbled to the sink and rinsed out her mouth.
She closed her eyes and took a shaky breath.

“
Oh, my God… Is he going to send me away?”

Rikist grunted as he forced himself to his feet. He staggered against the wall, and then limped toward his bedroom
, his brace creaking.

“No, b
ut he is stupid. He wants to plead to our leader to keep you.”

“What will that do?”

Rikist shook his head grimly and disappeared into his room.

Samantha stood, torn between helping Krissik and following Rikist.
Tears slipped down her cheeks as she stood trembling, fear of the possibility of being taken away to a place as gruesome as the pits, or being sold…

Samantha darted down the hall and into the bathroom. She grabbed a hanging towel and wet it in the sink, then hurried to Rikist’s bedroom.

“Rikist?” She poked her head in.

Rikist had taken his
brace and shirt off, revealing the bloody scratches that adorned his right shoulder, and was struggling to step out of his trousers. He groaned through clenched teeth as the pants stuck around the boot of his wounded leg, and he couldn’t bend to pull it off. Blood seeped out of the puncture wounds from Krissik’s claws through the gauze bandages on his knee, and trailed down his thigh and calf. He glanced up as Samantha entered, his face red and eyes misted. His hands shook as he sat on the edge of the mattress.

“I…” He closed his eyes. “I did not want to fight.
I have never struck him before.”

Samantha knelt in front of Rikist and
undid his laces and gently pulled off his boots and then pants. She pressed the wet towel to his thigh and applied pressure with one hand. Rikist hissed, and his claws dug into the mattress.

“Did I kill him?”

Samantha looked up at his question. Saw the dread in his eyes. “I don’t think so.” She used her other hand and the edge of the towel to wipe at the blood dripping down his leg. “What am I going to do?” She looked up at him, pleading. “I can’t go to the pits, Rikist.”

He shook his head and reached behind him to grab a folded pair of uniform pants and bandages from his half-packed bags. He pushed Samantha’s hand away and unwrapped the torn bandage on his leg and applied the new dressing. He shook out the new pants and handed them to her.

“Help me. We need to leave.”

Samantha helped him step into the pants, and pulled them up around his waist as he stood. Rikist’s hands shook as he fumbled with the button fly, and after several attempt
s Samantha shoved his fingers aside and deftly buttoned him up. He grunted in acknowledgement and slipped on a new shirt and then sat again to put on his boots with her help and then attached the brace to his leg.

“Go
see to Krissik,” he ordered. He hesitated, his face clouded. “He loves you.”

“I know.”

Samantha went back into the living room. Her heart fluttered when she saw that Krissik hadn’t moved, and she felt his chest and pulse to be sure he was still breathing. She snatched a towel from the kitchen and pressed it to the gash on his head, wiping the drying blood off his cheek and away from his closed eyes.

Rikist’s uneven, heavy footsteps made her look up. He had a
rifle-like weapon in hand, a laser gun strapped to his waist, and his military cloak thrown over one shoulder. He stared down regretfully at Krissik, and then motioned for Samantha to move.

“
Come,” he said, walking toward the door. “Before he wakes.”

Samantha stood, holding the bloody towel in her hands. She wrung it between her hands. “Where
are we going?”

Rikist
opened the door and turned. “You are going home.”

Samantha sobbed against the window of the transport vehicle as it slid silently across the barren landscape outside of the suburban sector of the island.

Samantha sniffed, wiping at her eyes and looked over her shoulder at Rikist. He stared out the window in silence, his face dark and expression bleak.
He’d just gotten off the phone after spending half the ride in a heated conversation she couldn’t understand, and propped his wounded leg up against the front dash, absently rubbing at his upper thigh.

“Why?” Samantha asked after a moment, straightening in her chair.
“Why are you risking everything to help me?”

Rikist almost jumped, startled from his
thoughts. He swallowed, his eyes swimming with conflicting emotions, and then looked down at his hands.

“
I cannot have a repeat of Lindsey ,” he said. “I could not live with the guilt.”

Samantha nodded, and reached out a hand to rub his arm. She smiled and fought back another round of tears. “Thank you.”

Rikist nodded, tight-lipped, and looked back out the window. His throat bounced and he clenched his teeth, the muscles in his neck and jaw bulging. He took a deep breath and turned in his seat to face her squarely. He held out his hands toward her face.

“Come.”

Samantha leaned forward, and Rikist gently turned her head to the side so he could inspect her translator. She winced as his fingers prodded the metal nub, and tensed when she felt his hand on her jaw tighten so that she couldn’t move. A sharp stab of pain laced down her neck, and she cried out.

“Ouch! What was that?”

She looked down to see the thin translation device between Rikist’s fingers, the smooth metal of the needle end tinged pink with blood. He snapped it in half and lowered his window, then tossed it out.

Samantha gaped. “Why did you do that?”

“It is linked to Krissik’s,” he said. “He can… what is the word… locate you.”

“Even on Earth?”

Rikist nodded. “When we arrive at the jump point, you need to be fast.” He pulled the gun from his belt and handed it to her. “There is a man on the other side. You need to kill him.”

Samantha’s eyes bugged. “What?”

Rikist pressed the gun in her hands. “Like this.” He moved her fingers into the correct positions on the silver weapon, pointing out the obvious trigger and flipping the safety on and off.

“I can’t kill anyone, Rikist!”

He eyed her, annoyed. “Do you want to go home?”

Samantha nodded.

“Then you do not have a choice. The jump needs two ends to work.” He paused at her confused look, and sighed, frustrated. He held up one finger on each hand. “We are here. Jump point is here. Both need to activate at the same time to make the jump. If one is missing—”

“Then the jump point
won’t work and no one can follow,” Samantha finished, her eyes going wide.

Rikist nodded. “Yes.”

Samantha hefted the gun in her hands, turning the shiny contraption over in the light from the window. “I… I don’t know if I can do that.”

Rikist put a knuckle under her chin and tilted her head back to look him in the eyes. “You have to. Or he can
follow.”

Samantha closed her eyes and nodded, hugging the gun to her chest.

The car slowed to a stop near the end of the line of buildings. Samantha sat up, peering out the window at the darkened sky and shadowed ruins. Rikist leaned forward, and held a hand out to silence her.

“Stay close,” he said.

He hefted his rifle and pressed the panel near his head to open the door. He stepped out carefully, and then limped away from the door and held out his hand. Samantha gripped the handle of her gun and took his hand and stepped out of the car. Rikist limped toward the building quickly, pulling her behind.

They circled away from the street to the back of the building, and Rikist led her up a short flight of stairs to a reinforced metal door. He knocked twice, paused,
and then knocked again. He stepped back, shielding Samantha, as the sound of footsteps and clicking panel buttons drifted from the other side of the door.

“
Si ta, Rikist?” came the muffled voice through the intercom.

“Tsi
r,” Rikist answered, his hand tightening around Samantha’s. “Rik stra irk tsi?”

The lock turned, and the door swung open.
A short-statured man with gold eyes and long hair peeked around, his eyes widening at the sight of Samantha, and then stepped back so they could enter.

Samantha pressed up against Rikist as they entered the building, the darkness closing in around them as the short alien closed and locked the door behind them. Rikist led her down the narrow hallway, his limp worsening as they went, and turned down a hall to their left. The walk opened up to a large warehouse-style room, filled with electronic equipment and military weaponry.

Rikist paused, leaning against what looked like a tank, and glanced at Samantha. “Are you well?” he asked.

“I should be asking you that,” she said. She reached up and felt his sweating brow. “You’re hot again.”

“I am fine.” He leaned away from her hand.

A trio of aliens in green and gray uniforms approached them, and Samantha huddled behind Rikist, who stood tall and set his shoulders back
to stand evenly on both legs. Samantha closed her eyes and focused on settling her heart as the four men spoke, knowing she could not follow anyways, and tried to breathe. Her eyes jerked open when Rikist pulled on her wrist.

“They will charge the portal,” he said. He grimaced and shifted his weight. “We… borrow our
Tsiari’s jump site.”

“You hacked into your government’s portal?”

He frowned. “I do not know that word.”

“Hacke
d—tap into.” She shrugged. “Borrow.”

“It will
only take a few moments. It should be ready when we get there.”

Samantha nodded, and looked around at the men milling about the large space. She saw that most of them looked worn and thin; a stark contrast to Rikist’s
strong and solid stature and confidence. She looked at his profile and the etched grimace on his pained face as he fumbled to pull one of the small containers from his pocket. She moved his hand aside and fetched the bottle, opened it, and handed him two pills. He took them and swallowed with a grimace before shoving the container back in his pants.

“What are you going to do now?”
Samantha asked. She waited until he’d turned to look at her. “Once I’m gone, what’s going to happen to you?”

Rikist hesitated, and then shrugged and looked away. “
I am marked now. I will probably have to… converge—uh, convert—fully to…” he used his hand to motion toward the room. “I will not join my ship again.”

“I’m sorry.”

He stared sadly at her, and then shrugged as he pointed to his leg. “I will not pass the interview any way. Even after all I have done, they will discharge me.”

A sudden explosion rocked the building, and frantic yelling and gunfire outside shocked them to silence. Samantha clung to Rikist’s arm, and he pulled her further into the room. Samantha screamed as the front door exploded, sending smoke and debris in all directions.

“We were followed.” Rikist roughly shoved her forward. “We need to go!”

They ran as fast as Rikist could go toward the east corner. Rikist stumbled as they rounded the bend, and Samantha steadied him as they made it down the short hall to another room that held a control panel next to a
recessed, hexagon-shaped space with curved metal rods mounted at each point.

Rikist pushed Samantha toward the green-lit center of the
shape as he stepped behind the control panel and began typing in codes. “Go!”

Samantha
walked to the edge of the ledge, and then spun around and nearly dove at Rikist. She wrapped her arms around him, ignoring his grunt of pain as she squeezed and buried her face in his shirt.

“Thank you so much,” she whispered. “I’ll never forget this.”

Rikist hesitated, and then his arms wrapped around her shoulders and back, and he breathed against her hair. His hug tightened, and then he pushed her back long enough to press his lips against hers.

“
And I will not forget you,” he said, his amber eyes glinting wetly. He forced a smile and pushed her back. “Go.”

Samantha nodded, and jumped down onto the lowered platform. She wiped at her eyes as the metal rods surrounding her began to glow, and a high-pitched whine filled the room. The glowing floor beneath her feet brightened, the green
intensifying. She swallowed and lifted a hand to wave goodbye.

Sharp cracks of gunfire erupted behind Rikist; electric bursts of green currents
shooting out amongst bullets ricocheting off the walls. Rikist ducked and turned, lifting his rifle as men in black uniforms rounded the corner, and he mowed them down as they entered the room.

“Samantha,” Rikist yelled over his shoulder. “Stay there!
Only a few more seconds!”

Samantha crouched down in the center of the platform, the green
glow uplighting against her skin and casting her shadow on the ceiling above. The humming grew and drowned out the men’s yelling.

She screamed as the bullets hit the metal rods and pinged off in all directions, and reached out to Rikist.

“Rikist!”

“Sam
-an-tha!”

Samantha’s head jerked up at the sound of her name, and she gasped to see Krissik entering behind a
trio of heavily armed soldiers with shields. Blood covered his temple and stuck in his hair, and his eyes were wide and horrified in his anguished face.

Krissik
held out a hand, his expression hurt. “Samantha!”

Rikist roared
in frustration and lowered his rifle from Krissik; unwilling to shoot his brother. Krissik shrieked and the man beside him lifted a weapon toward Rikist and pulled the trigger. A bolt of green, electrical energy shot out from the barrel and hit Rikist in the chest.

Rikist
jerked and fell on his back at the edge of the platform. His body convulsed in a seizure, first doubling over and then jerking backward to arch his spine. His hands clenched into contorted shapes and his legs shook, his boots squeaking against the concrete floor. He twitched as two soldiers approached with their guns held at the ready.

Samantha screamed, “Rikist!” The green light suddenly brightened to white in a sudden flash, and without thinking Samantha threw herself at the edge of the platform and grabbed Rikist’s nearest arm. She put her feet against the wall and
kicked with all of her might, pulling Rikist off the edge down onto the platform with her just as the light winked out.