Stolen by the Zandian - Renee Rose Page 0,15

pulls his hand back. Frowns. “Will they ever go away?”

Fear wells up. “Maybe over time, my body would adjust back, who knows? But I can’t bear the pain to find out.”

I think about suffering that kind of excruciating pain for many solar cycles. “I’d rather throw myself into the vacuum of space.” My voice is fierce.

He starts like this surprises him. “Kailani, we have enough medicine for a while.” He pulls the bottle back out of the case and holds it up at an angle to see how much liquid remains. “There’s…” He pauses, clearly doing mental manipulations. “Veck. Only about ten more doses.” His face grows somber. “How did they make it?” He takes my hand.

“We’d need the pollen to start.” My body feels warm and tingly because he said we. We have enough medicine. I swallow hard and press his fingers against my own. “They mix it with a few other things, but the pollen is the main antidote. Once they ran low and gave me crushed heated pollen to eat, and it worked the same way although it took a lot longer and didn’t get rid of the headache entirely. But still, it was remarkably effective even alone.”

“And Dentron? Do you know much about it?” He does something on his wrist holo and pulls up a solar map. “It’s near us.” He sounds surprisingly pleased. “Within a half a planet rotation’s flight.”

“There’s a tribe there who aren’t technical, but they’re hostile. We’d need to avoid them. Apart from that, I don’t know much.”

“They couldn’t grow the plants on your planet?”

“No. I believe the environment wasn’t right. I don’t know much about ag, and they obviously didn’t share much with me. But from what I gleaned overhearing their conversations, that was the problem.” I try to remember every fact I committed to memory about the medicine. “But it probably wasn’t a big priority, either. Without that medicine...Khrys? I’m as good as dead.”

“Don’t talk that way.” His voice is low and fierce. “Look at me. Kailani? I’m going to get it for you.”

“But when?” I shrug my shoulders. “After you take me to your amazing planet as a slave? I don’t have that long.”

“I told you, humans have good lives there. They aren’t slaves.” His voice rises with frustration, and he pulls his hand from mine. He stands and paces.

Then he sits back down and puts both hands on my face. “Listen. Here’s how you know you can trust me. We’ll go right now to Dentron for the pollen, and seeds and plants, and whatever we need to attempt to grow it on Zandia. We have the best ag experts there, I promise. The king’s mate is human and an expert in agriculture. She’s able to cultivate crops originally grown on Earth.”

His voice is so low and persuasive. Honey and steel mixed. His eyes flash purple for a second. He sounds so sincere. “A token of my honesty, Kailani.” He pauses. “I’ll give you control of everything we collect.” He twists to grab the case of medicine and hands it to me. “It’s yours, all right? Starting now.”

I snatch it from his hands and clutch it to my chest, my heart pounding.

“All right? Do you trust me now?”

I squeeze the case so hard my fingers hurt. I don’t trust him, but he just gave me the one gift I require for survival. The thing that my Kraa masters used to control me. He gave it freely. So I nod. ”Yes.” My breath comes fast and tight.

“Good. Listen, Kailani. The doctor on Zandia, Dr. Daneth, he’s skilled. It’s possible he can reverse the damage your owners did.” He adds hastily, looking at my expression, “If you want him to try.”

“I don’t,” I snap.

No more labs. Never again. I hate doctors.

He raises a hand. “On Zandia, we’ll make you enough medicine to last your entire life.”

“And all I have to do in return is…?” I raise my eyebrows.

Is it me or does he look slightly uncomfortable?

He clears his throat. “Become a contributing member of Zandian society.”

“How? By mating a Zandian?”

His horns thicken and tilt in my direction, making my pulse pick up speed. Do they show his interest? His attraction to me? I know he wants me—I saw that thick erection tenting his leggings and tunic before.

He just shrugs and walks to the deck, staring out at the blackness. “In whatever way you choose.”

It wouldn’t matter if he were lying; I still have no other options, unless I plan to attack