Rebel (The Draax Series Book 3) Read online

  I took a quick peek at the green alien walking beside me. Lord, he was big. He could crush me like a bug if he wanted to. If we had sex, I’d have to ride him, it’d be the only way to…

  What the fuck, Ellis?

  Holy shit, where did that come from? Maybe I should ask Sigan to scan my brain again, it probably had cancer as well. It was the only logical explanation for why I was suddenly imagining climbing the alien next to me like he was a big old tree.

  It’s called sexual attraction, not brain cancer, you idiot.

  Yeah, well it was pointless to be attracted to him, even if he did have an amazing body and the sexiest voice I’d ever heard.

  Don’t forget about his eyes.

  I looked up again, studying the way the light caught the copper in his eyes and made them appear to glow. I’d seen Draax with copper eyes before, but something about Galan’s were…

  His big hand grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. “Be careful, human.”

  I blushed furiously as we started walking again. Fuck me, I’d almost walked into a wall. What was wrong with me?

  You have cancer and you’re going to die?

  Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time.

  I tried to shove away the thoughts of my impending death. What good would it do? I was dead in a matter of months and there was nothing I could do about it. Unless, maybe, I could gorge myself on gallberry juice before they shipped me back to Earth. How much juice did a person have to drink when cancer was in multiple organs and your spine?

  Gallons, probably.

  “What was that?” Galan glanced down at me and I realized I had spoken out loud.

  “Nothing,” I said. “So, uh, is this place a castle?”

  “Yes. You are in the home of King Quillan. He rules the western province.”

  “Do you live here?” I said.

  “I do. I am the head of the King’s Guard.”

  I glanced at the sword around his waist. “So, you protect the king?”

  “And his queen and the princess,” Galan said. “But that is only a small part of my job.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Do you like being the head of the King’s Guard?”

  “Very much. What do you do for a job on Earth?”

  For a moment, I was tempted to tell him the truth – that I sold juice on the black market. I was already going to prison for the next forty years, so what did it matter?

  You’ll be dead in three months.

  “I, uh, repaired havoc cruisers and land vehicles,” I said.

  It wasn’t a complete lie. For a while I worked at a shop with Torra and we had fixed cruisers and land vehicles. Sure, it was only for a few months and only so we could case the place, but it’d been my first and only real job. I’d been oddly proud of working there and the owner, Horace, was kind to me.

  Guilt wormed its way into my guts. I’d almost begged Torra to change her mind about robbing Horace. Hell, I did beg. It didn’t work and I was a fool to think it might. Torra did what she had to in order to survive and, honestly, if it hadn’t been for her, I would have been dead a long time ago. She was the toughest, smartest person I knew, and she’d taught me everything I needed to know about surviving on the streets.

  Yeah, well she lasted how long in prison before she died? Was it two months or three?

  Fear was sending adrenaline shooting through my veins. If Torra, who I’d once seen take down three large men in less than two minutes without breaking a sweat, couldn’t survive prison for more than a couple months, what chance did I have?

  Forget the cancer killing you, you’ll be dead within a week.

  I shuddered all over and Galan stopped in the hallway. “Are you cold, human?”

  “No.” I was cold and my feet had gone numb from the coolness of the stone floor, but if I told Galan that, he’d probably do something weird like carry me.

  “Can I ask you a question?” I trudged along beside him when he started walking again.

  “Yes.”

  “Where is everyone? I mean, for a castle, this place seems really empty.” We hadn’t passed a single alien in the hallway and we’d been walking for almost five minutes.

  “It is the dinner hour,” Galan said. “They are either in the dining hall or in their own living quarters.”

  “Oh,” I said. “How many Draax live in the castle?”

  “Many,” he said. “Quill’s home is large.”

  “What does… oh wow.” I slowed to a stop in front of a set of open double doors. I stared at the lush garden in front of us. Warm sunlight beamed down, and a light breeze carried the scent of flowers. I took a step inside, ignoring the stone pathway that wound through the garden, in favour of the grass. It was soft and warm under my feet, and I stared upward at the large flock of birds sitting in a tree. They were about the size of a sparrow and bright orange in colour with lime green beaks, and they were the source of the low beeps I could hear.

  “What kind of birds are those?”

  “Caterra,” Galan said.

  “Is that…” I squinted up at the sky, shading my eyes against the bright light, “where’s the ceiling?”

  Galan chuckled and it sent warmth down my spine. “In the warmer weather, the ceiling is retracted in the King’s Garden to give the plants light and fresh air.”

  “Holy shit. He has a garden right in his house?” I said. “How big is it?”

  “Large,” he said. “It would take over an hour to walk from one end of the garden to the other.”

  I blinked up at him, trying to comprehend how big the castle must be. “How often do people get lost in this place?”

  “In the cold season, the king opens the garden to the public so they may enjoy the warmth and the plant life. Occasionally, visitors will get lost and must be rescued. Come, little human, we must keep going.”

  I turned away reluctantly. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life and I wished I could walk through the garden. Maybe if I asked nicely enough, they’d let me take a walk through it before I was sent back to Earth. It would be a good memory to have when I was being raped and murdered in prison.

  Another full-body shudder and Galan frowned at me. “Human, if you are cold, you must tell me.”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “How much further?”

  “We are here.” Galan stopped in front of another set of closed double doors.

  My stomach churned and I hugged my torso. I was naked under the hospital gown Sigan had given me and while I was thankful it was roughly the size of a sheet and billowed around my thin body, I still suddenly felt horribly exposed.

  Shouldn’t a person be wearing underwear when they met a king?

  “When you are introduced to the king, you must bow,” Galan said.

  “Sure, yeah, I can do that,” I said.

  Galan hesitated and then opened the left door, ushering me in ahead of him. The room we were in was on the smaller side. A window along the left wall filled the room with warm sunlight. A wooden credenza with a marble countertop ran along the right wall. A couple of jugs filled with pink liquid sat next to some empty glasses on the credenza and my mouth watered. Gallberry juice. My sudden and intense craving for it was almost overwhelming.

  I took a deep breath and forced my gaze away from the juice and to the middle of the room. A long table with four chairs on either side and a chair at the end took up most of the space. My heart thudded out an erratic rhythm as I stared at the two aliens sitting at the table.

  They stood and I stumbled forward when Galan pushed lightly on my back. We stopped in front of the larger Draax who I knew instinctively was the king. I bit back a strangled laugh. Large was an understatement. Galan had to be at least 6’5” and the king still had a few inches on him. His body was as muscular as Galan’s and his dark hair was cut short. But where Galan’s eyes were a warm copper and had kindness and compassion radiating from them, the king’s eyes were an icy silver that didn’t hold an ounce of compassion. I immediately looked down
when his gaze landed on my face.

  Fuck. I’d be lucky if the king didn’t just kill me himself for stealing from him.

  “Human, this is King Quillan of the Western Province. My king, this is the human Ellis.”

  I bowed, keeping my gaze on the floor even after I straightened.

  “Hello, Ellis.”

  The voice was deep and, surprisingly, more kind than I imagined. I swallowed hard. “Hello, uh, your majesty.”

  “I asked Krey to bring the thief,” the king said.

  “You did,” Galan said.

  There was silence and I diligently studied the cracks in the stone floor.

  “This is Teo. He is advisor to the king,” Galan finally said.

  I nodded to the older Draax. His hair was more silver than dark, and his body was bent with age. He pointed to one of the chairs. “Sit down, human.”

  I sat, my knees unhinging at the last second so that I fell into the chair. Galan sat down beside me as the king returned to the chair at the end of the table and Teo sat in the chair to his right.

  Teo had a tablet in his hand and he scrolled through it. “You are being charged under your Earth’s law for stealing gallberry juice. You will be -”

  “It wasn’t me,” I said.

  Teo looked up from his tablet. “What?”

  “I didn’t steal the juice,” I said.

  “You were found on a royal ship with juice from one of our shipping containers in your possession, human.”

  “Right,” I said. “But I didn’t put it in my backpack.”

  Teo studied me before turning to Galan. “Does she suffer from a head injury, Galan?”

  “No,” Galan said.

  “Maybe brain cancer,” I said.

  Galan jerked beside me as Teo cocked his head at me. “As I was saying, you are being charged with -”

  “But it wasn’t me,” I said. “I’m innocent.”

  “Who was it then?” Teo’s voice held more than a hint of exasperation.

  “Cheryl,” I said.

  “Who is this Cheryl?” Teo said.

  “Well, I thought she was my friend but then she convinced me to sneak onto a Draax ship and planted some stolen juice on me before running away and leaving me holding the juice. So, to speak,” I said.

  I was talking fast, my mind whirling as I spoke. There was no way in hell I was incriminating myself. I’d be given a lawyer when I returned to Earth and even though the public defenders were notorious for not giving a shit about us lowers, there was still the chance I might get one with a shred of conscious who would actually try and keep me out of prison.

  “Was there another human on the ship, Galan?” Teo said.

  “No,” Galan said. He was studying me with obvious confusion but the king… was that amusement in his gaze? “There was only this human hiding in the storage space.”

  “I told you, Cheryl took off before you guys came on the ship. I’m surprised you didn’t see her in the docking bay. Tall, blonde hair, real curvy?” I said.

  Galan shook his head and I shrugged. “She moves pretty fast when she wants to. Listen, I had no idea her plan was to steal the juice. She told me she just wanted to see what the inside of a Draax royal ship looked like. I said sure and the next thing you know, she’s shoving bottles of juice into my backpack. I told her no, I wasn’t going to steal anything from you guys, but she had a gun and threatened me. But then she heard you guys coming on the ship and, like, took off.”

  “Out the same door that Galan and the others entered into?” The king raised one eyebrow at me.

  “Uh, I’m not sure,” I said. “I wasn’t feeling very well. I was kind of dizzy and a little out of it, to tell you the truth. I’m chocked full of cancer.”

  “Yes, I heard,” the king said. “Go on with your story, little human.”

  “I didn’t have time to put the bottles back in the shipping container so I, um, hid in the storage space. My plan was to leave the bottles and get the hell off the ship, but I passed out, probably because of all the cancer. When I woke up, we were already in space and I was very sick. I vomited on Galan’s shoes.”

  “Not mine,” Galan said. “Krey’s.”

  “Oh. Anyway, as you can see this has all been a huge misunderstanding. So, maybe,” I smiled at Teo, “instead of turning me over to the cops, you could just drop me off somewhere on a beach? I’m not picky about which beach. I hear Mexico is lovely this time of year.”

  “You are lying to us, human,” Teo said. “There is no Cheryl.”

  “You don’t know that,” I said. “There could totally be a Cheryl. In fact, there is a Cheryl and she’s the one to blame.”

  Teo hesitated before shaking his head. “It does not matter. It will be up to the authorities on Earth to sort the matter. You will be returned to Earth tomorrow morning. I have alerted the authorities in your city about your crime.”

  I swallowed again. The urge to cough had returned and I tried to ignore it as Galan said, “Tomorrow morning?”

  “Yes.” Teo was looking over his tablet again. “Hendren and Laos are making a trip to Vokine. They will take the human with them and return her to Earth before traveling to Vokine.”

  “It is out of the way,” Galan said. “The jumpgate to the Milky Way is in the opposite direction. Krey and I could make another supply run to Earth in a few days and return her then.”

  Teo shook his head. “There is no need for another supply run so quickly, Galan. It is a waste of fuel to make an extra trip with another ship when Hendren and Laos are leaving tomorrow.”

  “My king,” Galan said, “if we give the human a few days, we can heal her of her cancer.”

  I stared in shock at Galan as Teo snorted. “It is an unnecessary waste of the gallberry plant. You know as well as I do that the human will not survive for more than a day or two in the Earth’s prison. She is too small and weak.”

  “I’m stronger than I look,” I said. “Plus, I’m innocent, remember? I probably won’t even go to prison once I talk to my lawyer.”

  I liked that I sounded confident, even though I knew that my chance of not being sent to prison was slim at best. Still, if I could be healed by the Draax before I left…

  Maybe it’s better if you die of the cancer, Ellis. The old Draax is right, you won’t survive prison.

  I ignored my inner voice. I might survive. I was small and quick, and I knew how to hide. And if that didn’t work, I’d whore myself out to the toughest guy in my prison block in exchange for keeping me safe.

  My stomach rolled at the thought, but I shoved any trepidations about my survival plans away ruthlessly. I didn’t want to die, and I’d do whatever it took to survive.

  “It won’t hurt to heal her first,” Galan said.

  Teo sighed. “My king, it is a waste of resources. What do you think your people will say if they discover that you wasted juice and ship fuel on a common thief?”

  “Saving a life is not a waste,” Galan said.

  I appreciated his effort, but I could already tell that the king wasn’t gonna go for it.

  The king stared thoughtfully at me for a few minutes before shaking his head. “I am sorry, Galan, but Teo is right. It is a waste of resources.”

  “Quill,” Galan said, “it is not -”

  “Enough, Galan. I have made my decision. I am sorry, human, but you will be returned to your own planet tomorrow morning,” Quill said.

  “Galan, take the human to the west wing of the castle. We will place her in one of the empty living quarters and post a guard outside of the room for the evening,” Teo said.

  “No.” Quill leaned forward. “Return her to the infirmary and have Sigan hook her up to the gallberry serum for the night. Tell him to give her as much juice as she can drink as well.”

  “Quill,” Teo said, “it is a waste. I have read Sigan’s report on the human. The cancer is throughout her body. A night of serum will not be enough to cure her.”

  “I am aware, Teo,” Qu
ill said. His gaze landed on me and for the first time I saw a flicker of compassion in his eyes. “Galan, return her to the infirmary and have one of your men stand guard outside of it.”

  “I will stand guard,” Galan said.

  “No,” Quill replied. “You will return to your quarters and get some rest.”

  “Quill, I -”

  “Enough, Galan,” Quill said. “Return the human to the infirmary and then retire to your quarters.”

  “Yes, my king.”

  Galan grasped my arm and he helped me to my feet. I bowed and said, “Thank you, uh, your highness.”

  “You are welcome, little human. I am sorry your fate is such a grim one.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just nodded and followed Galan out of the room. His hand was still around my arm and he was walking so quickly that I had to jog to keep up with him. His tail flicked back and forth in the air in agitation and his green skin had darkened considerably.

  “Galan,” I puffed, “can you slow down?”

  He slowed, although his tail continued to cut through the air like a striking snake. “Sorry, human.”

  We walked in silence for a minute or so before I looked up at him. “Thank you for your help.”

  He snorted angrily. “I was as useless as a botakin.”

  “What’s a botakin?” I said.

  “A small creature who lives in the forest and has no purpose other than as a meal for the groden,” he said.

  “What’s a groden?”

  “An animal similar to your grizzly bear,” he said.

  “Oh. You were helpful,” I said.

  Frustration coloured his words. “I was not, human.”

  “You were. I’m pretty sure the only reason the king is giving me gallberry serum tonight is because of you.”

  “It will not be enough to cure you,” he said.

  “I know. But it’ll probably give me a few more weeks, right?” I said. “That’s better than nothing.”

  I meant what I was saying. Sure, it would have been fan-fucking-tastic to be completely cured of the cancer but when you were staring down the barrel of a three-month life expectancy, even a few extra weeks were a gift.

  He stopped in the hallway and stared at me. I held out my hand. “Seriously, thank you.”