Mundahlia (The Mundahlian Era, #1) (36 page)

“What?!” I screamed.

“That’s right, Rini. You are going to bare me a son.”

“No! I sure as hell am
not!
”

He pressed me down farther into the bed, “Yes, you are.”

“Why me? Why not a mundahlian?”

“Because
idiot
. I want my kind to forever rule. My clan only consists of me and my father as of now. My mother was killed after I was born. As were my other sibling’s mothers. Mating with a human is the only way the child can become full-blooded from a single mundahlian parent. It doesn’t get diluted and joined together with other mundahlians DNA.”

“Then why does your father have a child of different kinds?”

“That, my dear, is simply because my father is not the dominant gene carrier. The women he’s bred with have all had their genes overpower his and determine the kind. With me, however, it wouldn’t matter wether or not you were the dominant carrier. You have no Mundahlian genes. Our son would still be a full-blooded
Tigarero
.” The way he said,
‘our son’
made it seem as though we’d already had him and he were sleeping in a bassinet somewhere in the room.

“Find another human then, I am not having sex with you! You are not going to be my first!”

Something peeked his interest, and I immediately got struck with regret. “A virgin? How—tacky, but amusing.” He leant in.

“No!” I turned again.

Bane pulled away, a low tiger’s roar rumbling in the back of his throat. “Leo!” he roared. Leo and Angela came into view. She was crying, and his busy hands kept groping her in inappropriate places.

“Do as I say or your friend gets hurt,” Bane said into my ear.

“Please stop it!” I told him. “Please!”

“No. Not until you agree to have my child.”

Leo reached his hand under the white dress, still keeping Angela in his clutch. She tried to wiggle her way out but he adjusted his grip on her. “Quit squirming!” he yelled at her. Angela let out another whimper.

“Stop it!” I pleaded him.

Bane moved a hand to my jaw, “ You’re in our world now,
honey
.”

He placed a sloppy, wet kiss on my lips. His saliva—like venom, salivated over my mouth.

“Stop!” I moved my mouth away, feeling his tongue trail across my cheek. I finally managed to free a hand and strike him in the face. It didn’t hurt him this time. He was stronger now that he was in his world.

He smiled with pleasure. “I like them feisty,” he said, now reaching for my towel.

“No!” I cried, trying to shoo his perverted hands away.

I clenched my arms against my torso to keep the towel in place.

“Yes.” His hands traveled to the bottom of the towel and up my inner thigh. It tickled, but it didn’t feel good.

“No!” I cried again. “Please.” Tears began streaming down my face, faster than ever.

“Leave her alone!” Angela cried in wincing pain.

I looked to her. She was still being fondled by Leo, who was now bending her arms behind her back.

Bane tried again, going for the sides. He managed to grab the corner and pull it away. I was half exposed. Feeling the cool air brush past my naked skin. “Now
that’s
what I’m talking about!” he moved in closer, his hands traveling wildly up and down my hips.

“No!” I pushed him away. “Bane, please. You can be better than this!”

He stopped groping me for a moment to sigh and say, “You evidently don’t know me.”

I punched him again, this time in the side. Still nothing. Like punching a pillow. I threw punches left and right, hoping for a small space to open so I could squeeze out.

“Enough!” Bane bellowed, snatching my arms in air. “Calm yourself!” He shot a look to Leo. “Hold her down,” he said veering to me. “She wants it the hard way.”

Leo clamped a set of new chains on Angela and attached the other side to a metal bar on the bed frame so she wouldn’t escape.

He took my arms and set them under his knees to keep me from hitting. “No!” I bawled. “Please!”

Bane slid the towel off of me and cast it to the floor. I felt the rush of the still air encase me fully. I shut my eyes and thought of other things. Good things. Nice things. Things that made me happy. My family. My friends. Jett’s family. Jett. I tried to convince myself that this was all just a dream. I would wake up in no time, with my head digging into Jett’s chest. Taking in his ever so captivating essence. Tracing my fingers around his skin. And still drowning in the lake of love.

The pressure on top of me was removed.
Could this really be just a really long dream? Am I waking up now?

I heard the flapping of a belt as it slipped from the loops. The sound of pants, and a shirt falling to the floor followed.
This isn’t a dream, this is reality.

Cold hands parted my legs. I gave up the fight. I couldn’t do much now with the heavy man crushing my arms and Bane holding down my legs. There was no winning this one. I felt Bane position himself on top of me again. He started kissing my neck, trying to make this romantic, but it only made things more horrifying. I felt his rough hands wipe a tear from my face. “You should worry,” he whispered into my ear. “I’m going to be as rough as I possibly can.”

Leo returned to Angela once I’d frozen up and just laid there with Bane on top of me, holding me down again. His bare body rubbed against mine and I tried my best to return my mind to thoughts of happiness. “My turn,” Leo said, unbuckling his pants. I saw a question flash across Angela’s face. His pants fell to the floor—his backside exposed to me. He fiddled with the chains, reaching in the pocket of his shirt for the key. Angela watched as he stuck the key in the hole and turned. She flashed a quick glance to me, and hope lined her eyes as the chain fell to the floor.

Click!

And as quick as lightning, Angela looked to me again, then back at him, clasping her hands together and striking him across the face. He went crashing down—taking a chair and a small table down with him. She ran to me, and pushed Bane, who thankfully hadn’t started yet, off. “Up!” she ordered. She grabbed Bane’s button up and tossed it at me.

Bane regained his posture from the floor and tried to grasp for me, I kicked his you-know-whats
,
dangling between his legs and shoved him away. He pummeled on the floor—his hands concealing them. Angela reached for a lamp and threw it at Leo, who’d tried to run after us.

“Come on!” Angela said, unlatching the locked door. I followed her out, buttoning the T-shirt as I ran. I heard the eerie crackling noise again. With a quick glance over my shoulder, just before the door shut behind me, I saw the two shadowed figures changing shape. “Hurry!” Angela said. She panned the long red-carpeted hallway filled with doors lining each side, searching for something. “Ah!” she exclaimed. She tore a metal bar from the wall and stuck it through the handles to keep them from escaping.

Boom!

They was loud banging on the door, as the men were trying to rip it from its hinges. “Where do we go now?” I asked looking down the hotel-hall looking area.

Angela looked to both sides. “That way!” she pointed to the left.

The banging on the door continued. Wood began to chip away and crack, sending a few pieces at me. Angela took my hand and pulled me toward her, “We don’t have much time, now come on!”

We ran down to the end of the hallway and came to a stop. To both sides were continuations of the hall with even more doors—probably leading to more rooms.

“To the right!” Angela said, pulling me with her.

The door behind us burst open. Bane’s thunderous tiger roar echoed down the hallway. Behind him, a different type of growl sounded, almost like a hiss. They were fast. Their footsteps were at the corner in seconds, just as Angela and I burst through a door leading to the main hallway. Guards caught sight of us from the other end and burst into a sprint for us. We ran in the opposite direction.

“Stop!” they yelled.

Angela was practically hovering over the floor. I had to force myself to keep up. The other doors burst open. Bane, Leo and the guards were hot on our tails.

Suddenly, I felt the jolt as Angela ducked us into a small opening in the wall.

“What are we doing?” I asked.

“Ssh!” She shushed.

The group of men chasing us passed by. Unaware of our small hiding spot.

“I think they went through the library!” One of them shouted. Another door busting open sounded. Angela waited a few seconds more to catch her breath. She looked at me. Something was on her mind.

“I need to give you something,” she whispered.

“What?”

She took in a few more breaths before she continued. She looked at her hand, examining it like it was evidence, and clasped her fingers together like a claw, and reached into her abdomen.

“What are you doing!” I said out loud.

“Ssh!” she fished around herself, wincing a few times as she kept digging around. “I need you to take this.” A small neon purple pearl, about the size of a quarter, floated a few inches above her hand in front of me once she’d pulled it out.

“Why?”

“Just please take it. It is a gift.”

“Angela, why?”

She pried my hand open and tucked it in. “I want
you
to have it. You need to swallow it to gain the power within it whenever you feel the need to.”

“What power is it?”

“I am not too sure. They don’t tell us anymore because some Angels were caught selling theirs in the dark market.”

Angela ducked her head out to make sure it was clear. “Come on.”

I tucked the pearl into the shirt pocket as I followed her.

“There’s the door!” Angela pointed to a large wooden door on the floor below. “This one leads out the back, there shouldn’t be many guards there, so we should be able to sneak past them. Once we get outside, we need to head for the ferry to get you home.”

“What about you?” I asked.

Angela peered out of the small wedge we were in to make sure there were no guards. “Do not worry about me, Rini—It’s clear. Come on!”

We ran down the stairs as fast as we could to the door. I could smell the air outside. The soft smell of dirt and flowers.

“This is it,” Angela said.

She threw her hands around the handle and flung the door open. The orange light spilled in. It was sunset. The King and troops were more than likely heading for the other side. This was our time to escape. Now or never. Angela stepped out first, taking in the sight for a moment. I was next to taste the freedom.

“Get back here!” A voice roared. Large, orange and black striped beastly arms wrapped around my body and lifted me up. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?!” I was face to face with Bane in his mundahlian form. A cross between tiger and man. The foulness of his warm breath, blew across my face as he huffed, out of breath. “Answer me!” he shook me violently. My brain rattled inside my skull.

“Let me go!” I screamed hitting him in the face with my fists.

It didn’t affect him. He roared a mighty roar that vibrated throughout my body, and his grip constricted me.

“Stop!” I yelled.

The next second, he tossed me through the air as though I were a rag doll. My back slammed against a wall and I fell onto the floor. Heavy stomps that shook the earth beneath them came toward me. I couldn’t move, my whole body hurt and the wind had been knocked out of me. Angela ran from outside, and jumped on Bane, trying to break his neck. They wrestled with each other, breaking the railing from the stairs and a few nearby tables and chairs until he got his hands around her head and tossed her at the wall as well. Leo and the guards entered the room then.

“Take the Enthiduan to the kitchen! This chase has left me famished!” Bane ordered. The guards walked over to Angela, who looked like a toy, thrown on the floor across the grand opening. Immobile and small compared to them. She was knocked out.

Responding to their touch, and blinking herself awake, Angela came to her senses. “No!” she shouted. “No! No!” I watched in horror as they dragged her away.

“What about the girl?” Leo asked once returned to his human form. They were both standing over me, nude.

“Don’t worry about her,” Bane noted. A grin spread across his sweaty face. It lifted his cheeks and wrinkled the corners of his eyes. “I’ve got something cooking up.”

Jett

35

Mundahlia hadn’t changed.

In the same conditions as when we left. The small village markets, our abandoned huts on the island—and the castle, sitting atop the hill in the distance, overlooking all of it. A vigilant structure that could oversee things happening in even the farthest corners of our hidden world. We’d managed to just get buy with the little sunlight there was keeping my homeland partially hidden. A fading picture that gradually refocused as the night settled in a little more. It’s not that you couldn’t enter during the day, it’s just that you wouldn’t know where to go. Ships and other crafts venture on to our land all the time. But their fate is usually one that results in death. Free game, remember?

The only thing that had indeed changed, was the population. It seemed smaller, almost evicted. Usually the streets were buzzing with other mundahlians, but today it was almost empty. Only the elderly and young children and women remained, it seemed.

“It’s good to see you guys again,” Louis, a friend of Martin and Nicolas’ said. The same friend who wrote to us to tell us that Zuni had been killed. He agreed to ferry us to and from Mundahlia for this trip. It was noble of him. He didn’t seem to care of the trouble he would get into if they found out what he was doing. He looked tired. As though he’d spend a majority of his life never once even resting his eyes for a moment.

We stepped off the boat and onto the sand.

“I’ll wait for you all here,” Louis said.

The air smelled the same. Like salt from the ocean mixed with cinnamon. I spotted the small diner I used to go to with my mom when I was smaller. A small stone structure, nestled between a bar and a grocery shop. All crafted of the same material. The same old man who owned it greeted us as we passed. He sat in a rocking chair with a blanket over his legs.

“Well, I’ll be!” he said. “What brings ya’ back down yonder? There’s a bounty on yer heads, ya know?”

“A girl.” I said. “And I’ve come to get my mother back too.”

“Well, now, who’s the pretty ‘dahlian that got’s ya man’in up and being all fearless?” His eyes were slightly cross-eyed and he had a large salt-and-pepper beard. He’d aged and become more wrinkled than ever since I’d seen him last when I was just a young pup.

“She’s not a mundahlian. She’s a human.” I spoke loudly so he could hear.

“A human!” he gasped, nearly choking on his saliva. “Well, isn’t that just the craziest thing! There was a little lady that came down here a few days ago, I think? ‘least I think she was a human. Margie threw some fruit at her. I told her not to, but you know my wife. Always havin’ ta’ do what her sister is doin’. Anyway, is that the human you talking of?”

“Yes.”

A look of dolefulness flashed across his aged face. “Then, I’m sorry for your loss, boy. She prolly’ dead now, ‘least I think so. That’s what Margie said. That she was burnt dead. Heard it right from her sister’s friends’s husband’s mouth. Yes, she did! I was there. In the courtroom with the little lady. I whispered to Danny that she was a human. Young fella didn’t even know the diff’ence. But, I fell asleep and by the time I woke up, she was gone. But, yes boy, she prolly dead. Margie said so.”

“I didn’t say such a thing!” An older woman came out from the cafe. She had an apron on, stained with patches of dried dough from bread making. “I said Daniel told me that he wanted burnt bread for the enthiduans and the girl! Not dead! You old owl! Now you’ve gone an’ scared the life right out of him!” She pointed to me. “Look doll, I’m sorry for throwing food at your pet. But, I’m sure it’s fine. Daniel told me that the King tied her up with the Enthiduans, and that’s all. Your mama talked him outta killing her.”

I tried to hold my anger in when she referred to my girlfriend as my
pet
and
it
.

“Thank you all for your useful information!” Martin chimed. “But we need to get our move on to the castle to speak with the King.”

“You just miss’ ‘im,” The old man said. He shook his head while looking at the castle, “He ain’ up there any more.”

“What do you mean?” I walked closer to the old man and woman. “Where is he?”

“That girl of yours,” he said. “She kill’ one a’ our own. She broke the pac’. The King and his troopers went rollin’ out about four hour’ ago. All that left at the castle is the Queen, some guards, and a few of his chil’ren. Yup. He says he gon’ start slow to make it known that they’s there, juss’ for a few days. You know, a human here and there. He wants ta’ start trouble first. Get em’ all riled up. Then he gon’ move in all them troopers to do the rest. I suppose right now they’s at the other end of Mundahlia waiting for the council to okay it.”

“We’re too late!” Vicktor said.

“We have failed!” Nina followed.

“We’re failures!” Frederick added.

God, how I wanted to punch them!

Nicolas turned to his kids, “Nevertheless, we are here for Rini and Ludenia. And we are not leaving until they are rescued!”

“Good luck with all that folks!” The old man waved as we left.

We were too late. The war had begun again. Or at least it would in a matter of a few days, a month at max. Max being when they start killing everyone with no mercy. This time the humans didn’t have a chance. It’s the beginning of a new era. A mundahlian era. The start of the end of humanity. But either way, I didn’t care about it as much as I did about rescuing my mom and Rini. And we needed to work swiftly. The King and the army wouldn’t be gone for long.

I gazed at the castle in the distance. Still about half an hour of walking to go.
Soon.