"I don't think we should talk about that here," Thane said warily. “There’s more to this than you can understand right now.”
Derrial tried to grab me again to lead me out of the facility, but my feet refused to move. It was like I had been encased in ice.
It was bad enough when I had thought that they had known about the existence of my parents and possibly other human beings on this planet. But to find out that they'd actually been the ones harvesting humans to bring them back to Veon for the Council’s use. And that the Council had then used the human women as sex slaves...
Everything just kept getting worse. It had been awful to think that I was the special human that they had brought back for the first time to try and solve the Vepar’s fertility issues. But I was just one person. The idea of them stealing human women on a mass scale...it was just incomprehensible.
They were monsters. There was no way around it.
I felt something break inside of me at that moment. It was like something snapped, and I was left with an emptiness in its wake that felt irreparable.
“Stop looking at us like that,” Derrial groaned, rubbing his heart like I had mortally wounded him.
“You make me sick,” I spat at them. “How can you even deign to call me your mate when I’m human. What made me different than all of those poor people that you sentenced to a life of unending torment?”
“Just let us…” started Corran.
“There’s nothing you can say to make this better,” I screeched, probably causing a scene to whoever was listening behind closed doors. I expected the facility’s security staff to arrive at any moment, but I didn’t care.
“We’ve changed, you have to admit that,” Thane answered desperately.
I began to back away from them, not sure where I was going to go. I knew I wasn’t safe to be away from them, but in this moment...I wasn’t sure how I could stay.
Just then an alarm started blaring, practically bursting my eardrums with how loud it rang. The guys looked around, immediately trying to analyze where the danger was coming from.
Derrial grabbed me, this time not letting me go as he began to drag me down the hallway. I didn’t fight him this time, I wasn’t a fool.
I noticed that Thane hadn’t moved from where he was standing. He looked torn.
“What are you doing? We need to go!” barked Derrial.
“My mother,” he said. And that was all he needed to say. Whatever this alarm was, it sounded serious.
“Fuck,” said Derrial. “Let’s go.” He turned around and started to move back in the direction we’d come from. He was walking so fast that I couldn’t keep up, so he had to hoist me into his arms as the guys started to run.
His touch made my skin crawl, but what could I do?
We had just reached the wall where I thought his mom’s room lay beyond, when a sudden trampling of hurried footsteps came from the left of us.
I looked up and immediately felt Derrial shudder with panic beneath me.
“Grab her,” he barked, but Thane was already blasting through the wall to escape. Evidently, we didn’t have enough time for him to try and activate the door.
Derrial must have decided he needed to get me out of there because he turned to run back outside.
But it was too late.
Vepar after Vepar came streaming towards us. But they weren’t regular Vepar. Something was wrong with them. The sounds coming out of their mouths didn’t resemble any language I had ever heard.
They lurched like they’d lost control of their functioning body and now it just moved like someone controlled them. Faces pale, clothes torn, limbs inflicted with wounds and bloody cuts. What happened to these people?
An unsuspecting nurse headed out of a nearby room when three of the Vepar lunged at her, dragging her to the ground. She screamed, and Thane charged. He hurled a fist into one man, then lunged for the two other attackers. He flipped one off the men in an incredible wrestling match to the ground. Shoving the last man off the nurse, he dragged the woman back to her feet by the back of her uniform, the poor thing crying, blood pouring from her bites and scratches. She darted back into the office.
I whimpered and recoiled into Derrial. My heart shuddered as I watched them scratch and bite her. They were like zombies.
Please don’t let it be zombies. I can’t handle that on top of everything else.
Derrial pushed me behind him. “Corran take the few at our rear,” he commanded, his voice tense and strained. “I’ll take the rest with Thane.”