{Enki}
Groggy. Stiff even. Feeling like shit, Chris cracked his peepers and quickly shut them.
Where.
The.
Fuck.
Was.
He?
Unbidden, his heart rate surged and belied his attempt at calm. In that one quick second, he took in a colossal cavern with rock as black as Nox’s Castle. Purple-leafed, orange-blossomed flowers surrounded a small red waterfall that splashed into a basin not far below the rock bridge they laid on.
They.
Para and Karter lay beside him. Presumably unconscious. The strong floral smell should wake them soon. By then, he hoped to find a way out of here.
Where the hell was Pax? Chris was not looking forward to this conversation with Tameka—
“The human male woke first. I am impressed. Especially, given your esteemed company. Guard, open your eyes. Face me.”
Caught, Chris wet his lips and opened his eyes slowly. The light from the cave ceiling blinded his sore sockets. A woman he once saw against Earth’s sky stood over him. Deep, rich skin. Solid purple eyes. Dressed in Mad Max Thunder Dome dominatrix gear, including a wicked two-prong whip and a leather mask.
If he wasn’t certain she was Celindria in T.a.o.’s body, Chris would say this was a nice way to wake up. Again, he wet his lips and swallowed against his parched throat before asking, “Where is Pax? What have you done to him?”
Controlling her, Celindria tilted T.a.o.’s head stiffly. “Done? That is my flesh and blood. I would never harm him.”
Her words left Chris dizzy. Not good. He closed his eyes and tried to reassess. This open land bridge connected two tunnels. Which direction was the way out of this place? He wanted to know for certain before the girls awoke.
“He safely awaits his mother and father in their home until we need him again.”
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A richer voice raised the hair on his arms until Chris fought to open his eyes despite his flight-or-fight, begging him to keep them shut. A truly beautiful black woman stood in the mouth of the tunnel. The light beyond formed a halo around her white-clad body. Ethereal, divine, and oh, so contradictory to the cruelty in her bright blue eyes.
“Eminent. Valkyrie. If you would both please open your eyes.”
Karter, for all the world imitating a coma patient, opened her green and black eyes. His brave woman hopped to her feet and faced Celindria. Para hopped up beside her. Chris really, really wanted to keep laying down. All his instincts screamed it was a bad idea to square off with someone like her. But instinct wasn’t love. He stood with his women as fluidly as a human with a drained nacre could manage.
They met backs and formed a deadly, if slightly weakened triangle. Even with the chilly breath of fear on his neck, Chris felt his nacre restoring. He gripped his chain. This ought to speed up the process—
T.a.o. snatched it from his neck. “These were clever.”
Celindria sauntered over and snatched Para’s away. “But you don’t want to use this here. I’ll confiscate them for now.”
Karter growled. “Celindria, kill us now or regret it later—”
“Uh. Uh. Uh.” From the opposite tunnel, a thirteen-foot Tritan Chris didn’t recognize emerged, wagging his finger. “You don’t want to die before you meet your son.” His robes boasted a compression orb like Tumu.
A Primary.
The man reached to brush a creepy finger down Karter’s cheek. Para darted between them with a war cry. “What do you want, Tritan?!” She spat the last like the word tasted foul to her lips.
Celindria and T.a.o. pruned a flower, forgetting the rest of the shitshow altogether.
No, Remorse was the star here. “A close friend of mine passed away recently.”
Bewildered, Chris dead-panned, “My fucking condolences?” Seriously?
This was surely the Primary depicted in the anonymous Verse. Ignoring Chris and Para, he gripped Karter by the chin. Chris almost lost his shit until he caught the warning glance from her. “Not yet,” it said.
Seething at the contact, she asked in that deep voice of hers, “What does your grief have to do with us?”
The deranged woman and her possessed sister looked up then. Both with wicked smiles.
Chris got the feeling they wouldn’t like the answer to this question.
“Well, you see, that close friend knew an old story that proved you Valkyrie women were excellent stock. And I just happen to be in the market. Using you up will be my gift to him.”
Chris never saw eyes so cold. The sincerity of the Primary’s ugly words chilled him to the bone. “You think I’ll just stand by and let you mistreat them?!”
Celindria’s evil expression glittered with excitement. “That’s why we bothered to bring you, human. The incentive for their consent.”
T.a.o. Seamswalked beside him and held a knife to his throat before Chris knew she was there. “No! Don’t do this!” The knife pressed deeply against his carotid, breaking some skin. Disrupted nacre. Disrupted soft tissue repair.
Both Karter and Para dropped their guards, raising their hands in surrender.
The Primary smiled congenially. “Now. Repeat after me. ‘Under my own will, I forfeit my volition. Perfectly and consensually until he returns me unto myself.’”
While Chris watched in horror, the women he cared for most did as they were told.