Chapter 8

As a child, he had been afraid of the dark. Then, gradually, he had understood fast that he could use shadows to move freely. That wasn’t safety, though. This, what he was experiencing right now, deep in sleep and dreaming nice dreams while Xana’s baby was growing inside him, this was safety.

The sound of a blast startled him, and at first, he thought he had to be dreaming still. However, as his addled brain began to figure out what was going on, old instincts kicked in.

Riordan jumped to his feet. They were inside, whoever the hell they were. “Kyle,” he whispered, although he doubted the bot could hear him. What he truly counted on was the neuronal connection established between him and the loyal machinery he had come to consider a friend.

On Kyle’s side, there was nothing but silence. The bot didn’t wheel in, as usual, to be at his beck and call. That was bad. That meant trouble.

He looked around. Fuck Xana and all the Xenos with their ideas for furnishing their houses like big giant places to fuck and not much else. There was not one place to hide. He was good at thinking on his feet. When Kyle had to recharge or whatever, there was a small closet where the bot went all the time. He dashed through the door that led to that place just as someone was trying the one communicating with the front area of the house.

Where the fuck was Kyle? This wasn’t some neighborly visit. No one blasted your frigging door to ask for sugar.

The closet was in sight. He disappeared through the small hatch in the nick of time. He pressed his ear against it from the other side. To keep the streamlined design of the house, the hatch closed perfectly so that no sign of it could be noticed from outside. However, if some enemy Xeno was leading the charge, they’d know about the bot hatch. They’d search it. Riordan hoped it wouldn’t cross their mind.

“Where the fuck are you?” a rough voice said in a sing-song tone, so close that Riordan had to bite back a scream.

That voice was making all the hairs on his body stand on end.

All Xenos knew how to communicate with humans to make themselves understood, but this voice didn’t belong to a snakeman. Riordan felt it in his guts. Whoever was on the other side, the owner of that heavy step that not even the soft carpets could muffle completely, had to be a fucking Earthian.

“Come out, you little whore,” the voice continued.

So, they were after him. Riordan doubted some Earthian would call Xana Lei a little whore just for sport. Too bad he didn’t intend to show himself. Too bad for that guy, of course.

“Sir, there’s no one in the house,” another voice, younger and unsure, called out. “We’ve searched everywhere.”

“That scumbag’s egg pouch has to be here,” the rough voice insisted. “Look again. Take that bot apart if need be.”

What the fuck? Were they torturing Kyle? Riordan felt his insides churning.

“I hacked his interface, but it just delivers the same information over and over. Its GPS points out that the bearer is somewhere in the middle of the Great Lake.” The young voice hesitated. “And that’s not possible, sir.”

Riordan grinned. Kyle was fucking smart. Not your average bot that one. He was making him so proud. Later, he’d commend his homie for quick thinking under pressure.

“Then the bot must be corrupted,” the rough voice said. “We should do a force reboot. Hmm, where is that place--”

Oh, fuck. Riordan didn’t have time to react, because the hatch was forced open and a pair of hands reached out for him, dragging him away from safety. He came face to face with some military type, a man in his forties, with a nasty glint in his harsh eyes. “Good thing we don’t have to depend on their technology to detect a hot-blooded creature through these walls. Hi there, fuck toy.”

Riordan opened his mouth for a snide comment, but he was promptly slapped so hard that his ears rang. Then, he was thrown over the man’s shoulder. He kicked and used his fists, but that only seemed to amuse the man. He felt a slap over his ass, enough to make the skin burn.

So, that meant he was being kidnapped. “My bot,” he shouted. “I need it!” Normally, he would have struggled until someone bled, but his condition didn’t allow him to be as reckless as usual.

“Shut up,” the man growled.

“Without the seth it synthesizes for me, I’ll die,” Riordan said quickly, forcing his voice to sound meek and frightful. Fighting would bring him nowhere for now. The presence of the egg in his lower belly felt heavier than it should have.

That seemed to sound convincing enough. The young voice from before intervened again. “It’s true, sir. They’re making them addicted to that thing. And if he dies--”

“Shut the fuck up, soldier,” the man carrying Riordan barked. “Grab the bot. Make sure it cannot use any com system. Lobotomize it if need be. All it needs to remain capable of doing is to make that disgusting goo for this whore. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.”

Fuck, this was bad. Riordan didn’t struggle too much as his kidnapper pushed him inside a vehicle that looked like any other in that world, only larger. He couldn’t risk getting kicked and slapped around; he resisted with much difficulty to touch his lower belly. It was better if these fuckers didn’t know he was pregnant. And if they already knew, at least they hadn’t found it from him.

In such situations, the smart thing to do was to keep silent. But Riordan couldn’t keep it in. As he was forced to lie inside the cylinder for fast travel, he asked, “Who the fuck are you and what do you want with me?”

The military type showed his teeth. “We’re liberators, little whore. Xenos are going to learn not to mess with us. As for you,” he let his eyes move over Riordan’s naked body, “you’re going to be grateful to us for saving your sorry ass. Don’t worry; we’ll let you earn your keep the only way you know how. But that, only if you keep your mouth shut and obey our every word.”

Riordan made a vague gesture to show how he intended to zip his mouth. Fuck that shit. He was going to be used as a bargaining chip. But if they left him alone with Kyle long enough, they’d learn the hard way that they had chosen the wrong human bearer to mess with.

The owner of the rough voice and his younger companion weren’t acting alone. Riordan felt overly conscious of how naked and vulnerable he was. There was no time for that. He crossed his legs and hugged his knees, making himself small on the chair he had been forced to sit on. Let them think he was some mindless doll scared shitless. In the meantime, he was strategizing, while trying to preserve some body heat.

There were five men in the room with him. Their leader, the guy who had dragged him from his hiding place, and the owner of that gruff voice giving him the willies, was fingering the trigger of his automatic weapon, some model that looked like nothing Riordan had seen before, as if he could barely wait to use it. He was bald, with mean eyes gathered in the center of his face, making it impossible to look away for anyone who dared to stare. Riordan pulled his eyes away.

The youngster looked nervous. He was a pretty face, peeking from a helmet that looked like it had belonged to an older brother. His face was smooth. Were they recruiting kids for terrorist operations now? Riordan wouldn’t have been surprised. But that was no kid. That pretty face seemed at odds with the rest of him, as he was a big guy, at least six foot five, broad in shoulders, and carrying enough equipment for three men. He had to be their mule, since the others carried lighter armor and weapons.

Riordan set his eyes on him. Whatever the reason for which the youngster was in that kind of shit, it couldn’t stand on two legs too well. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there. Interesting. Riordan filed the info away for later use.

The other three looked like drones, with nothing to distinguish them from one another. They ignored the youngster, probably thinking themselves better than him, and had eyes only for the leader, which they obviously feared.

They were inside a square room with sparse furniture. As far as he knew, they were still on Xeno.

“Hey, boss,” one of the grunts began in a nasty voice, “why do you reckon these snake fuckers like to put their weird ass dicks in uglies like this dude?”

Now, that wasn’t very nice. Riordan hid his face in the crook of his elbows to smirk at leisure.

“I don’t think he’s ugly,” the oversized toy soldier said.

“No one wants your opinion, Lewis,” the first grunt retorted.

“Whatever that reason is, it’s going to stop happening,” the boss replied, ignoring the jabs between his subordinates. “We’ll teach them a lesson.”

“What’s the plan?” Riordan asked, ignoring temporarily the fact that he had been told to shut up and made aware of consequences.

The leader of the group eyed him slowly, without hiding his disgust. He spat on the floor. “These Xeno scumbags are going to let go of Earth or we’re going to blow your brains up. What do you say about this plan?”

“I see,” Riordan replied. Since he wasn’t being told to shut his trap, he could fish for more info. “But it’s not like I’m that valuable.”

The leader gave him a long once-over. “You obviously know shit, bird-brain.”

Riordan gave the man a blank stare, like he couldn’t understand what the man was going on about.

“Your owner is very much attached to those holes of yours.” The man pointed his gun in Riordan’s direction with a scornful expression on his face.

“Yeah, what’s so special about them?” The grunt from before neighed like a horse. “Hey, bearer whore, why don’t you show us your ass? I bet you miss having something stuck inside it.”

“Enough,” the boss barked. “Bring the bot. The whore needs to feed, I bet.”

Hmm, that didn’t sound good, Riordan thought. He had mentioned nothing about needing a serving a seth right now, and hadn’t even asked about Kyle. That meant that they hoped he would try to contact Xana. Were they that stupid? They had kidnapped him and had no idea how to get in touch with the person they were trying to blackmail? Now that was one level plus of fucked up.

He didn’t protest, of course. They would sit there and stare at him, so meddling with Kyle’s internal circuits would be a tough call. Nonetheless, while he played the fool, maybe he could pull something.

The young guy, Lewis, disappeared for a moment and returned, pushing Kyle in. The bot looked unresponsive. They must have messed with his system already.

“Can I have a bit of privacy?” he asked. They had to have cameras everywhere. He had tried to scan the room with his eyes, but so far, nothing had stood out. These guys were either real pros, or just a bunch of idiots. It was hard to say which version was true.

The boss didn’t say a thing but he gestured for the others to go out.

“Is he going to suck on the bot’s tit or something?” one of the three idiots asked.

They walked out of the room, single file. The boss stopped Lewis and pointed at Riordan. “You stay here, keep an eye on him.”