Part 11 (1/2)

But if it were some kind of disease or bug, then that meant there was a cure. He rushed himself into the decontamination chamber, hoping the various cleansing options would remove the turmoil going through his mind.

While he emerged sanitized and clean, he couldnt purge himself of the illogic that led to him leaving her behind.

Nor did it make his need of the barbarian human lessen.

Subjecting himself to the invasive probing of a medical unit, searching for some deeper reason for his mental incapacity, also came up negative.

I still want her.

And by all the planets hed seeded disharmony on, he would have her.

Frukx her wishes on the matter. Vhyl was the Black Hole of Aressotle. What he coveted, he took. Take her he would, and he knew just where to find her.

With the wrist communication device hed given her during their last moment together to afford her some measure of protection against her own people, he could track her movements. It would allow him to swoop back at his leisure and abduct her. Not give her a choice.

You will be mine.

Just not right yet. First, he needed to take care of a minor problem. Namely Mos s.h.i.+p.

During his quest to regain his cutthroat side via medical and scientific means, the humans had surrounded the dead aliens vessel with a miniature army. Large trucks arrived spilling soldiers. Bright lights were set up and cast a glare on the landed craft. Men in uniforms barked orders while others ran around to no purpose Vhyl could ascertain.

The excitement over their discovery was palpable but would be short-lived.

Despite Vhyls pleasure when it came to rule breaking, even he didnt dare violate the prime directive. Do not let barbarians get their hands on our technology. Mos vessel, even if archaic in design, could not remain in their possession. Humans werent ready for that kind of knowledge yet.

So, Vhyl did the only thing he could. Directing a concentrated beam of energy at the grounded s.h.i.+p, he melted it.

While this method wouldnt have worked on his vessel or anything built in recent times, Mos s.h.i.+p was a much older design, which meant it wasnt constructed with the toughest materials. Under the concerted heat of his laser, it slowly collapsed”despite the screams of the humans running around in a panic”into a slag of junk.

While he performed this task, slowly because he didnt want to accidentally kill any humans”talk about ruining his fun”various aerial crafts tried to penetrate the protective s.h.i.+eld around his s.h.i.+p. Their puny weapons system could do nothing.

The one thing Vhyl could not prevent was the various videos that captured his s.h.i.+ps presence, but, given it had no identifying markers, the council would have a hard time pinning the crime on him.

Perhaps I should send them a memo so they know who to attribute the breach of their rules to.

Tren, a distant Aressotle cousin who sat on the council”and led it after killing those who dared to stand in his way”would probably place a bounty on his head.

Or, as the warriors on his planet called it, crown him with great honor and a promise of fun times.

The procedure to destroy Mos s.h.i.+p took many Earth hours, more than he liked. It meant Jilly had plenty of time to relocate”and get into trouble.

How he liked that facet of her personality.

Setting his sensors to track the signal on the wristband he gave her”which she hopefully hadnt ditched”he went in search of his female. And when he found her, hed take her, even if she protested. He almost hoped she did.

If she wanted to fight his choice, then it would make the coitus theyd indulge in later all the sweeter as he showed her the positive aspect to her abduction.

He ran into a problem though with his plan.

Someone got to her first.

Someone dared to take his human.

SOMEONE. TOOK. MY. FEMALE.

In other words, someone had declared war on Vhyl and was about to die.

Chapter Eleven.

Who cares if its Christmas morning, Jilly-bean. Those cows aint going to milk themselves. ” Grandma, who always acted tough, yet always left a present in the stall with Bitsy their cow.

As Christmas mornings went, Jilly was probably having the worst one ever.

And I thought the year Grandma gave me a Barbie instead of the crossbow I asked for sucked.

Abducted by a s.p.a.ce pirate, which she might add looked like a cross between a crocodile and a man, with stubby arms and an actual tail, who seemed to think he could use her as leverage to get Vile to trade the artifact”not likely given his mercenary code of ethics”or, if that didnt work, sell her as a rare delicacy to some race who craved human flesh, Jilly was really regretting her wish on that false star.

Yeah, her life had changed. Yeah, she didnt have to worry about the farm anymore. But she couldnt say her situation had improved.

My own fault for turning down my purple hunk.

How she wished she could go back in time and replay that decision. However, there was no use crying over spilt milk. Get out there and milk the d.a.m.ned cow again, her grandmother would say. Except, in this case, she didnt have a cow to squeeze, and she certainly wasnt about to cozy up to her captor.

Seven-foot, talking crocs, with plain evil yellow eyes, just werent attractive.

And her second impression of Snaggle Tooth, her name for him since she couldnt p.r.o.nounce the gibberish hed introduced himself with, didnt improve. Ordered from her cell by a gang of pigs, or at least descendants of pigs with their snout noses, black beady eyes, and tusks growing from their mouths, Jilly wondered at her fate.

Will they keep me alive until they deliver me to those aliens who want to eat me as dessert?

Freeze dry me to keep me fresh?

Fatten me up to charge more per pound?

Nothing wrong with her imagination.

Yet she would have never imagined what shed see when she entered the command center of the s.h.i.+p. While replete with fascinating Star Trek-type displays and equipment”lots of flas.h.i.+ng lights, dials and b.u.t.tons, all begging for her to push them”what really caught her attention was the huge view screen on the wall. A live video feed of none other than Vile.

Sigh. How she missed his handsome, purple presence. How she hated him for putting her in this predicament. How she wished, once more, shed not been such a freaking idiot.

His placid expression only twitched for a millisecond when he spotted her.

Was he happy to see her? Mad? Worried?

She couldnt tell. Nor did she dare guess. As far as she was concerned, he wasnt there out of any concern for her. He was only making an appearance because Snaggle Tooth had called him.

He doesnt know how to love. He said so himself. But did that mean he didnt care?