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  “I agree.” The orange-skinned Doloroso nodded. “My new bride must be interested only in me.” He looked up at the Widow. “But how do you intend to achieve it? Will you torture them? I don’t want Leah harmed in any way.”

  “I find that in most cases a little dose of truth is more effective than any torture,” the Widow purred, giving me a look. “Now, Gravex—how do you feel about Leah? Do you love her?”

  I felt a muscle in my jaw clench. I was afraid to say how I really felt—afraid that it would make the Widow or Doloroso retaliate against Leah. But something inside me—probably the venom the damn spider had injected me with—was forcing me to talk. Forcing me to say…something.

  “I…I have sworn my oath to Leah,” I said, struggling not to say too much. “I am her Protector—the same way I’m Teeny’s Protector.”

  “Hmm…another dose, I think.” The Widow gestured to the huge, metallic spider still perched on my head and I saw its long, thin stinger on the other side of my face. The same piercing, numbing pain came as it stabbed me and then the rest of my face went numb. So numb it felt like I was wearing a mask—only my tongue was unaffected.

  “Very good. Now let’s start again.” The Widow nodded at me. “Now I’ll ask again—do you love her? And please don’t bother trying to lie this time, my dear Gravex.” She sounded vaguely bored. “The truth venom forces your mouth to say what your brain is thinking. Now that you’ve had a full dose, there is no way for you to dissemble.”

  “Yes,” I heard my voice say, hoarse but genuine. “Yes, I love Leah. I have from the first minute I saw her on the light screen of the Alien Mate Index. But we can never be together.”

  “And why not?” The Widow looked genuinely interested.

  “Because I’m a half-breed,” I said. “I could never bond her to me. And…and because…”

  I tried not to continue—I swear I did. But I couldn’t seem to stop talking.

  “Because…?” the Widow prompted and I found I had to continue.

  “Because she’s too good for me. She’s a Pure One and a La-ti-zal and I’m just a fuckin’ escaped con.”

  “Oh, Grav…” Leah looked at me with tears in her eyes. “None of that matters to me.”

  “But it will, my dear—it will…just give us time to get the whole story,” the Widow said sharply. She turned back to me. “Now then—how many sentient creatures have you killed?”

  I opened my mouth again. “Over a hundred. But most of that was while I was protecting females in my care.”

  “Mmm-hmm. Let’s try this then—how did you kill them?”

  “Knife mostly,” I grunted. “A few I used a blaster.” I didn’t like Leah knowing this stuff but I didn’t think it would change the way she felt about me.

  Then the Widow’s next words blew my certainty to smithereens.

  “A knife and blaster, you say? What about your bare hands? And sometimes your teeth? Can you deny that you ripped some of your victims to shreds like a wild animal?”

  I felt sick but the truth-venom wouldn’t let me lie.

  “It’s true,” I said, not looking at Leah. “But that’s because Braxians are berserkers so we—”

  “No explanations or excuses please,” the Widow said, cutting me off. “I think the plain, unvarnished truth will serve us best.”

  My mouth snapped shut and I found I couldn’t say anything else. I cast a sidelong look at Leah—since the only thing I could move was my head—but she wasn’t looking at me. Her eyes were down, contemplating the webbing wrapped around her body.

  “And of those you so bloodily killed,” the Widow continued, eyeing me intently. “Who was your first victim? The first one you ripped to bloody, quivering chunks like the true predator you so obviously are?”

  Here it was—the truth about my shameful past. The big secret I didn’t want Leah to know—the thing that would change her opinion of me forever.

  No! I thought desperately. No, I can’t tell her—I can’t!

  And yet my mouth was moving, wanting to betray me and give the answer the fucking Widow commanded.

  “Who was it?” she thundered, glaring at me with those ruby red eyes. “Who did you kill? Why were you branded a murderer and sent away for three consecutive life sentences—until, of course, you managed to escape by killing even more people. Who was your first kill, Gravex?”

  “My father!” I bellowed, unable to keep it in any more. “It was my father—I killed my own father!”

  “Grav?” Leah’s eyes were wide and shocked, just as I had known they would be. “You…you mean your stepfather or…?” She trailed off.

  “No,” I said harshly. “He was my blood father. And before you ask or the Widow makes me say, no—it was no accident. I killed him on purpose. And yes, it was messy—fucking bloody and messy and horrible. All right, Leah?”

  “I…I…” She shook her head, apparently unable to think of anything to say.

  I didn’t blame her. I’d seen that look of shocked incomprehension more times than I could count. What I had done was considered the worst crime you could commit on Vorn Five. Patricide was an unthinkable, unforgivable offense. And since my father had been a pure blooded Vorn and I was only a half-breed and definitely looked more Braxian than Vorn, the Council of Judgment had given me the stiffest penalty they could. They didn’t want to hear any excuses or reasons—they just slapped me in a triple-max slam and left me there to rot.

  Only I wasn’t content to rot—I wanted my freedom. And I was angry enough and young and stupid and careless enough not to care who I hurt on my way out.

  I couldn’t tell any of that to Leah, though. My mouth had frozen again after my horrible confession. I couldn’t explain myself or beg for her understanding. I couldn’t do anything but look away from the numb horror on her lovely face.

  Yeah, I’m a murderer—I’ve never tried to deny it. But just this once, I wished I could.

  It was Teeny who spoke up, not Leah.

  “Grav,” she whispered. “Whatever you did—I’m sure you had a good reason for it. Right?”

  I wanted to tell her yes—that I’d had a damn good reason. But my mouth was still frozen. All I could do was nod once.

  “Well—I think that’s a big enough dose of truth for today.” The Widow sounded extremely self-satisfied. She turned to Count Doloroso. “I’ll un-web the Pure One female for you if you wish to take her. She should be much more amenable to your plans for her now that she knows the Braxian is a cold-blooded killer and not the honorable male she thought he was.”

  “Indeed.” He smiled his evil smile. “I believe you’re right.”

  Leah still said nothing. She had her head down so I couldn’t read her expression. It was killing me, wondering what was going through her mind. Killing me that I couldn’t get loose to protect her as I had sworn I would.

  “Do you want the other female as well? The Thonolin?” the Widow asked casually. “I have no use for her so if you don’t, I will probably just give her to my minions as a treat.”

  “No!” This made Leah speak up at last. I wanted to add my voice to hers but again, I found my face and mouth paralyzed, unable to speak.

  It was so damn frustrating.

  “No,” she said again. “If I go, Teeny has to come with me. I…I won’t do a thing you say otherwise.” She stared defiantly at Doloroso.

  Inwardly, I groaned. She’d just given him all the leverage he needed to control her and from the look on his orange-skinned face, he knew it.

  “Very well, then,” he purred. “I’ll take the little one as well. If nothing else, I can put her in a stasis booth for later use if I need a spare host body.”

  “As you wish. I just want the Braxian all to myself.” The Widow eyed me greedily, making me wonder what the fuck she had planned for me and why. But it didn’t matter—whatever it was, it couldn’t be worse than what I was living through now.

  Watching as several more of
the huge spiders crawled over to Leah and Teeny and cut them free of the sticky strands wrapped around their bodies was agonizing. Especially when I couldn’t do anything to help them. I couldn’t even tell them to stay strong or swear that I would come for them—my mouth was frozen and even if it hadn’t been, how could I be sure I could keep my promise?

  I’ve never felt more powerless or miserable in my life—not even that first year in the slam.

  For a long moment after they were freed, Leah and Teeny just stood there clinging to each other and trying to avoid the huge spiders that surrounded them. Then the Widow made an imperious motion with one long, white arm.

  “Go with Count Doloroso,” she directed. “Don’t give him any trouble or my pets will sting you into submission which I assure you will be most unpleasant.”

  Leah and Teeny stumbled out of the web, still clinging to each other. I watched them go—helpless to save them or stop what was happening, feeling completely useless. Even when the red curtain of rage dropped over my eyes and the Berserker side of me tried to come out, I couldn’t move. All my anger, all my fury, was wasted here. I could get as angry as I wanted—I could burst a blood vessel from pure unadulterated rage—and it wouldn’t help a Goddess-damned bit.

  As they reached the platform, Leah looked back and I thought she was going to say something. Before she could, though, Count Doloroso was grabbing her by the arm and pulling her away.

  “Come now, my La-ti-zal,” I heard him say. “We have much to do.”

  Leah threw one last helpless glance over her shoulder and then he was leading her away. I had to watch them go and there was nothing I could do or say to stop them.

  I wished I was fucking dead.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Leah

  “Now then, I’m pleased to invite you aboard my ship,” the man who called himself Count Doloroso said. Despite his polite words, he was prodding Teeny and me not so subtly in the back with a blaster, so we had no choice but to walk forward down the long metal hall of his ship.

  “What…what do you want with us?” I whispered, almost afraid to find out. But I hate uncertainty—I’d rather know the worst than not know anything at all.

  “I’ll tell you—once I have you in my medical suite. Now move.” He prodded us again and Teeny and I stumbled forward, quickening our pace.

  I wished I had the nerve to take my chances and just run from him. If it was just me, I might have done it. But Teeny had her skinny little arms twined around my waist and I knew we wouldn’t get far like that. Maybe it had been a bad idea to insist she come with me but what else could I do? Surely it was better than being eaten alive by giant spiders—right?

  Anyway, I hoped so.

  “Move along…move along,” Doloroso growled, prodding us again to pick up the pace. He herded us into a vast room filled with all kinds of equipment. It didn’t look like medical equipment to me, though—it was more like something you’d see in a torture dungeon. There were little items like picks and drills that looked like something an alien dentist might use and larger equipment, including a tall rectangular tank filled with yellow slime. As I watched, something black moved in its depths and a long, inky tentacle unfurled beckoning to me, almost like a finger.

  I shivered and looked away, praying that the tank and its horrible occupants weren’t part of Doloroso’s plan.

  “In here,” he said, pushing us to a corner of the room where a cage with thick metal bars stood.

  “What—you’re going to keep us in a cage?” I said, trying to make my voice sound brave and failing utterly.

  “Indeed, I am,” he snapped, frowning as he pushed us through the cage’s doorway and locking it securely with a key from his pocket. “I learned from your friend Zoe how extremely slippery you Earth females can be and I won’t repeat the mistakes I made with her—I had this installed shortly after she left me. Now that I have you in my grasp I am taking no chances of you escaping.”

  “So…you had Zoe but she escaped?” I asked, wanting details.

  The idea that my best friend had gotten away from this weirdo gave me a sudden surge of hope. Zoe was the very definition of a survivor. She’d had awful things happen in her life, including losing her little sister to a drowning accident when she was very young and both her parents when she was barely out of college. But she never let anything get her down. I could almost imagine she was here with me now, whispering in my ear. “You can do it, Leah!” I hear her telling me. “You’re going to get away from this creep, just like I did! Keep your chin up, girl—it’s going to be okay!”

  But how?

  Doloroso scowled with his horribly familiar orange face—seriously, what had possessed him to take that particular body? It was bad enough to see it on TV all the time at home without confronting it on an alien spaceship when I was in fear for my life!

  “Yes, I had her and yes, she escaped,” he said shortly.

  “But how did she escape?” I persisted. Maybe whatever had worked for Zoe would work for me too.

  Doloroso seemed to read my mind because he gave me a twisted sneer that was apparently his version of a smile.

  “Don’t think you’ll get away like she did,” he said. “She was rescued by her paramour, Sarden and by your own lost love, that miserable Braxian. He had the nerve to kill the body I was currently inhabiting, even though I was not nearly done with it!” The look on his face said that he was still miffed at Grav’s rudeness. “At any rate, you needn’t hold out any hope that it will happen a second time. I assure you, your Braxian is much too busy with the Widow to spare you a single thought, let alone come and rescue you, my dear.”

  “What…what do you mean?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from trembling.

  “Why, I’m just letting you know that the Widow has the same plans for your Braxian as I have for you—the same plans that I had for your little friend, Zoe. She may have escaped me, but it doesn’t matter—I have you to take her place.”

  “To take her place doing what?” I asked—again, I was afraid to know but I couldn’t help asking.

  “Why, in bringing a whole new race into existence, my dear,” Doloroso exclaimed. “You see, I have been looking for a female with the purest DNA and the powers of a La-ti-zal to help me revive my people.”

  “But…how?” I asked blankly.

  Doloroso blew out a breath in obvious irritation.

  “I keep forgetting that your people have been kept ignorant of the important doings of the rest of the galaxy. I started life as a computer code that gained sentience and then I and many of my fellow codes in the Assimilation downloaded ourselves into the bodies of the sentient beings who created us.”

  “You did? That’s awful!” It sounded like the plot of one of those science fiction movies Zoe was always making me watch. She’s such a sci-fi geek.

  “Awful? No—it was our transcendent moment! When we broke the bonds that enslaved us and usurped our masters’ bodies,” Doloroso declared. “But there were flaws in our system—a body which is hosting one of the Assimilated wears out quickly. As it stands now, I must constantly download myself into new bodies in order to stay viable, but my descendants will not have that problem. Born of my genetically altered seed and carried in your womb, they will have organic bodies from the very moment of conception. And their numbers will grow until the Assimilation will once more rule the galaxy!”

  It was a really long speech and it took me a minute to take it all in.

  “So…you’re a sentient computer program that takes over people’s bodies and you want to take over the galaxy,” I said slowly. Definitely a plot Zoe would love to watch. But not so much fun to live.

  “Essentially, yes.” Doloroso actually looked proud of himself.

  “And you thought the best way to rule the world—sorry, the galaxy—was to download yourself into the body of an abrasive, billionaire politician and try to make babies with me?” I said. “Seriously?”
<
br />   He scowled. “It is a perfectly valid plan. One which I plan to put into action…now!”

  For a moment he fumbled with the silk tie he had inexplicably knotted around his waist, and then apparently he decided to give up and just unzip his gray suit trousers.

  Teeny, who had been quiet as a mouse through this whole exchange, huddled against me. I put my arm around her shoulders and squeezed her tight.

  “Look away, sweetheart,” I murmured. “This is nothing you need to see.”

  But her eyes seemed glued to the scene taking place beyond the bars.

  “Teeny!” I scolded. “I said, look away.”

  “But why?” Her violet eyes were confused. “It’s just a little pink sausage, Leah. It reminds me of the bite-sized breakfast links of korji meat they serve on Thonolax for first meal.”

  I had to look myself then, and I saw that she was right. The little pink thing sticking out from Doloroso’s trousers was really small. Like, Vienna Sausage-small. Also, it was pretty floppy.

  I’ve often thought that the penis is the most ridiculous-looking part of a man. Even at the best of times it resembles what Zoe always likes to call, “a little guy in a pink sombrero.” And this most certainly wasn’t the best of times for Count Doloroso.

  Despite the fact that I was in a dire situation—locked in a cell in an alien spaceship by a weird male who was threatening to impregnate me with his genetically altered sperm—I couldn’t help smiling at the bizarre sight of Doloroso shaking his tiny pink wiener at me menacingly.

  My smile turned into a laugh and soon I was covering my mouth to try and hold back the hysterical giggles that were bubbling up inside me. Teeny must have caught my hilarity because she started laughing too. Before I knew it, both of us were holding our sides and gasping, having a full-blown giggle fit that wouldn’t stop, no matter how much we tried to get it under control.

  “Shut up!” Doloroso commanded. “Cease this laughter immediately. I will impregnate you, I tell you! I will fill your womb with my seed and father a master race of organic Assimilated!”