Abducted Read online

  Al had been busy while we bathed and all the black slime smeared blankets were gone—they had been replaced by a single shiny gold coverlet. I wrapped it around myself, glad to have a way to hide my never-ending nakedness.

  “You know what about them.” Sarden frowned at me as he changed from his own still-damp clothes into a pair of his black silky sleep trousers. Now that I knew he was colorblind, I wasn’t surprised that he limited his wardrobe colors to black and white. At least he could be sure those two shades wouldn’t clash with his skin.

  “No, I don’t know,” I told him. “My feet are fine.” Well, maybe not exactly fine—I had actually cut them up pretty badly in my run from Count Creepy McGrabbyHands—but I wasn’t about to admit that to Sarden.

  “They’re not fine—I followed the trail of blood you left. It’s how I found you, Zoe.” His deep voice was surprisingly quiet and the look in his golden eyes was pained. I realized he still blamed himself for what had happened to me and felt sorry for him.

  “It’s not that bad,” I said, trying to make him feel better. “I’ll be walking around in no time. In fact, I’d be walking now if you’d just give me some Neosporin and some Band-aids.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know what those are. But I am going to heal you.”

  “Oh no—please don’t,” I said quickly, thinking of how he’d “healed” the other parts of my anatomy. “I mean, please don’t tell me you want to lick my foot because sorry, that’s just gross. And please don’t say it’s not gross because you have a foot fetish because that’s even grosser,” I babbled.

  “A foot fetish?” he asked, frowning.

  “You know—someone who gets off to feet? Sexually, I mean?” I thought of some of the weird stuff I’d run across on the Internet. “I mean, there are some guys on Earth who love that kind of stuff. Toe porn and foot bondage, and sniffing dirty pantyhose and…uh…” I trailed off, realizing he was just staring at me.

  Finally, he shook his head. “Your little planet is stranger than I gave you credit for.”

  “What?” I asked, feeling defensive. “You can’t tell me in a whole wide galaxy full of planets that Earth is the kinkiest one.”

  “Not by a long shot.” Sarden was busying himself with a shallow metal basin he’d pulled out of one of his closets. “But we tend to fetishize other races and peoples—not individual parts of their bodies. “For instance, you might say I have a fetish for Earth females.” He shot me a grin that made my insides flip.

  “But not Earth girls’ feet, right?” I clarified. “I mean…how exactly are you going to heal me?”

  “Don’t worry—oral healing is only for…the most intimate areas.” His eyes grew half-lidded and I knew he was remembering the way he’d licked me, right here on this very bed. I could feel my cheeks getting hot but I tried not to show it.

  “Uh-huh,” I said, noncommittally. “So then, how—”

  “With this.” He held out the metal basin and then pressed a button on the side of it. Suddenly it started to fill up with bright blue fizzing liquid. “Here.” Sarden stepped forward, motioning for me to put my feet in. “This will help.”

  “It also looks like it’s going to sting,” I said, keeping my tootsies well clear of the fizzing liquid.

  “It will—but only a little.” Sarden gave me a stern look. “Come on, Zoe—put your feet in.

  “I don’t want to,” I said stubbornly. “Plus, I don’t need to—I’m a fast healer.”

  He frowned. “Wounds like yours will take days to mend without the help of the healing agent. How do you expect to get around? You think I’m going to drop everything and carry you everywhere you want to go?”

  “I thought you liked carrying me,” I pointed out, offended.

  “I do,” he growled. “The Gods know I like it more than I should. But we’re going to be leaving for the port on Giedi Prime soon. Once we get there I’ll need to go down and scout around—gather some information. I don’t like leaving you alone on the ship helpless.”

  “Then don’t,” I said, promptly. “Take me with you.”

  “What?” Sarden stared at me as though I’d lost my mind. “After what just happened on Gallana you want me to take you to another port? I don’t think so.”

  “Why not?” I asked. “Can’t you give me some kind of disguise? Something to cover my hair—maybe some baggy clothes?”

  “But…why would you want to go? After what you just went through?”

  “I want to help,” I said simply. “You’re letting me go even though I’m your best chance of getting your sister back. The least I can do is try to help you gather information.”

  “And what makes you think you’d be good at that? You don’t strike me as the stealthy type,” he remarked sarcastically.

  “Thanks a lot! I can be when I want to be.” I lifted my chin. “Also, I’m small which is more than you or most of the other aliens I’ve met so far can say. Dress me in dark clothes, maybe give me a pair of dark glasses or something to hide my eyes and I can be very unobtrusive. Just a quiet little mouse sneaking around the corners of the room listening to what everyone is saying. No one will even notice me.”

  “Well…” He frowned thoughtfully and I could tell he was considering my idea. Good—I really did want to help. As strange as it sounds, I felt really bad about him giving me back my freedom with no idea of how he’d get his little sister back. Also, I’d be bored stiff on the ship all by myself.

  “Please?” I pleaded. “I really want to help. Look, I’ll stick my feet in the bath and I won’t complain no matter how much it stings if you just let me go with you.”

  “All right,” he said, nodding at last. “I agree—on one condition.”

  “Which is?” I was already getting ready to put my feet in the blue, fizzing basin which he had been holding patiently all this time, but his next words stopped me.

  “I’ll let you come with me and help find information about my sister if you’ll tell me what happened to yours.”

  “What?” I froze, unable to move. “What…what do you mean?”

  “You know what I mean, Zoe,” he said quietly. “You’ve mentioned her several times now and I know she has something to do with why you’re so deathly afraid of being submerged in water. But I want to know why—the whole story.”

  “Why should I tell you?” I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest defensively.

  “Zoe…” He gave me a long look. “I told you about Sellah, about how she was taken.”

  “That’s different though,” I whispered. “Your sister—she’s still alive.”

  “Yes.” Sarden put down the basin and leaned forward, cupping my cheek in one hand. “Please,” he said, staring intently into my eyes. “I need to know.”

  “Fine.” I pulled back from him and he withdrew his hand. “I’ll tell you,” I said. “But I might as well do the foot thing while I do.”

  He picked the basin back up, held it out, and simply looked at me.

  “Fine,” I said again and took a deep, shaking breath. After all these years, it still hurt to talk about it.

  There was silence from Sarden and I knew he was waiting. Well, might as well get it over with. Gritting my teeth, I put my feet into the blue liquid—which did indeed sting like hell—and began talking.

  “I wasn’t very old when it happened—not that that’s any excuse. I was seven and my sister, Angela, was five. We had just moved to Tampa from Minnesota.” I looked at him briefly. “You have to understand—Minnesota is really cold, so almost nobody has a swimming pool. But Florida is really hot so a lot of people have them down there.”

  “A swimming pool is an artificially made body of water big enough to swim in?” Sarden guessed.

  “Exactly.” I sighed. “Anyway, our next door neighbor had one. They had a fence around their yard but we could still see it through the chain link. All blue and inviting…” I swallowed hard, remembering how fascinate