Page 2 of Healer Hunted

My hand closed around a type of glue gun, one I’d more than once used to restore a loose bit of carpet or tiling. It wasn’t heavy, but if I pressed that button, a hot kind of glue would shoot out the tip. Trying to ignore the creepy crawly sensations on my skin, the way my heart was pounding with something close to terror, I readied myself to hot glue Dumber right in the face.

He stepped into the room, his mirror-smooth, black eyes with zero white, laser-focused on my face. “We’re going to have some fun,” he said in a singsong voice. Clunking boots indicated he was joined by Dumb, the guy’s ugly mug appearing over Dumber’s shoulder.

“Idiot,” he rumbled, smacking Dumber in the back of his skull with such force that the guy stumbled forward a few steps. Hmm, I wondered if that was a contributing factor to Dumber’s declining intelligence. “We have a meeting with the Director, we can’t be late,” Dumb said, but his black eyes did linger on my body.

I almost deflated on the spot, if they were here to meet with the boss… They definitely shouldn’t be late, I called her the Dragon in my head for that very reason. She was extremely strict, easy to anger, and she’d happily take out her nasty disposition on anyone who crossed her. Honestly, I was even more scared of her than I was of Dumb and Dumber.

When both of these assholes just kept staring at me I tightened my grip around the glue gun I was holding. I wasn’t about to beg or let them know just how scared I was. Maybe that was stupid, but I found myself saying, “Better run along, don’t want to leave her waiting. She might just slap a collar on you and make you dance as entertainment for her guests.” I had seen her do that once, to someone who displeased her, so I knew the threat was more than valid.

Dumb curled his lips, displaying the filed down needle-like yellowed teeth in his mouth, but he didn’t say anything. He grabbed Dumber by the back of his belt and yanked him out of the laundry room just as Dumber reached out to grab for me. They disappeared down the corridor accompanied by the sound of angry words, thumping boots, and what very much sounded like Dumb hitting Dumber in the head a second time.

I didn’t celebrate my escape from their clutches, but I did stick my head out of the doorway to yell after them. “Make sure to get ready for some ass-licking, she’s in a really foul mood!” But they didn’t respond to my taunt, which was probably a good thing, I wasn’t sure if Dumb would manage to restrain Dumber a second time.

Ducking back into the laundry room, I fingered the fancy lace necklace snugly locked around my throat. The pale white lace was reinforced with metal thread and wire, the locking mechanism at the back tamperproof. It was nothing more than a fancy version of a slave collar, a collar that matched my maid uniform, and was intended to look nothing like one. Hidden in plain sight.

Three months I’d been stuck in this hellhole by now. Three months since I’d been stolen from my home and my crappy job in the crappiest part of Edentown on Earth Colony Four. I needed to count myself lucky that I’d just been selected to be part of this resort’s housekeeping staff, picked to look appealing and pleasant, but also to blend into the fancy surroundings.

Best I get on with my work, I had far too many rooms to clean by myself and not a single break. If I hurried, I would at least avoid being seen by most of the guests, some of these aliens here were just as obnoxious as the Dumb duo just now. I wondered what they were here for, they seemed the seedy type. The Director only to used them for odd jobs, but always out of sight of the guests.

The service elevator up to the top floor rattled so much that I had to drape myself over my stacks of clean sheets so they wouldn’t topple off my cart, but the door opened soundlessly because we wouldn’t want to disturb any sleeping guests. As I pushed the hover cart into the plushly appointed corridor I paused when I noticed a security guard in a neatly pressed suit. He was standing at attention in front of one of the last rooms in the corridor. Unlike the duo from earlier, this guy was not Aderian. He was as I’d learned, a Rummicaron, with a wedge-shaped head much like a shark and rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth.

I checked my list of rooms to clean, noting that the one with the guard was definitely on the list. I swallowed uncomfortably, what was going on now? I wasn’t sure how to proceed so I focused on the rooms I could clean instead. At this hour, most guests were up, either enjoying extravagant breakfast in the fancy restaurant or enjoying one of the many, many spa treatments this resort offered.

Chapter 2

Luka

I woke up with a pounding headache, face down on a soft mattress. When I managed to open my sticky eyes, I noticed that mattress was completely bare, stripped of sheets and pillows. I wasn’t tied up, just thrown onto the bare bed, but as I sat up and surveyed my surroundings I knew instantly that I wasn’t getting out of this one.

“Damn it!” I cursed as I jumped up and started pacing the lavishly appointed suite. I didn’t recognize this space exactly, but I knew whose taste this was, and I knew that view out the window intimately. Knew intimately the purple-tinted sky, the silver gleam of the protective dome that covered this place, protecting it from falling ashes. I recognized the jagged black peaks of the many volcanoes that dotted the landscape. I was on the Jihari resort, back in my mother’s clutches. Whoever those two goons had been, they’d been working for my mother.

I spun around to kick the nearest chair, ready to trash this place and vent some anger. A soft sound brought my attention solidly to my surroundings, and out of my miserable mood. The pinche monkey was sitting on the knob of the wooden headboard, its tiny hands folded around the silvery surface. Big brown eyes were directed attentively at my face.

“What are you doing here, little one?” I asked it, my fingers went to my belt to reach for my handheld scanner and encountered only empty air. Everything from my belt was gone, anything useful. Bereft of technology to gauge his health, I tapped my finely honed empathic senses instead.

The moment I added a sliver of energy to my aura, the monkey made another soft but excited sound and climbed down the bedpost to rush at me. He didn’t look threatening, and my senses told me he was happy, so I moved to catch him as he leaped at me.

“Okay, you seem to be doing better,” I noted, as he cuddled against my chest and patted my cheek with one tiny palm. That’s when I noticed the partially eaten xexces fruit in the other and had to laugh. “You know how to take care of yourself, don’t you?”

He stuck the rind between his teeth and climbed onto my shoulder where he continued eating. As far as my senses could tell me, he seemed to be feeling much better, with no hunger, thirst, or pain. He seemed energetic too and he very much liked me. Well then, I guess I could use the company. I felt a little twinge of doubt, this monkey would have been much better off with Fierce, but I was grateful for his presence.

Obviously, I was without my com, my wrist was bare of the device. It wouldn’t work regardless, Jihara’s strange purple sun in combination with the planet’s atmosphere blocked all conventional signals. Except for the boosted com in my mother’s office, which suites could be routed through to have access for a fee, no signal was getting off this planet.

I was fairly certain that all communication devices inside this suite had been disabled but I went and checked them anyway. I checked the door too, expecting it to be locked, but it slid open smoothly. I stuck my head out and saw more than sensed the Rummicaron guard. We made eye contact and he grinned widely, revealing rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth.

Cold-blooded, Rummicaron tended to run cold on the emotion scale too. Flat, emotionless, cold. Not a surprise to see one as a guard here, they were a common type of employee for Aderian spas and recreational areas. Their emotional tepidness meant that for my race they were rather pleasant to be around, with less noise and fewer emotions to filter out.

This guy didn’t say anything, didn’t tell me to get back inside, so I glanced at the plushly decorated corridor. There was a housekeeping hovercart a little further down, one suite with an open door next to it. Hmm, maybe I’d be getting fresh sheets this morning, that would be nice. I had no doubt I was going to be here for a while and I didn’t fancy sleeping on a bare mattress if I didn’t have to.

As my eyes lingered on the housekeeping cart and the open door, the Rummicaron stepped into my line of vision. His laughing, toothy grin had transformed into something much more menacing, though he registered exactly the same as far as his emotions went. I shrugged with one shoulder and made to move back into my gilded cage when I caught a flash of an aura from the open suite, the housekeeper.

It was this bristling, angry, almost abrasive type of energy though it still held a distinctly female signature. A slender arm covered in colorful patterns reached out the door, a black-capped sleeve cupping the softly rounded shoulder. That’s all I got to see before the Rummicaron blocked my sight again, this time physically pushing me back into my own room with one meaty palm. “You can ogle the pretty maid when she cleans your room,” he said in a deep voice, inflection going up at the end of his sentence as if he was amused. His emotions still read exactly the same, cool, disinterested. As far as Rummicaron went, this one was more than textbook cold.

With a sigh I allowed my door to slide shut, my hand reaching up to pet the monkey clinging contentedly to my shoulder. The guy had curled his long tail around my neck to help him hold on and I tried to imagine it was kind of like a hug.

What could I do? How could I get out of here? If I stuck around, a confrontation with my mother was inevitable. What kind of threats, manipulations, and browbeating was she going to pull out of her hat this time? What did she want from me?

Were my friends on the Vagabond alright? Had any of them gotten hurt? How were they going to treat the animals they intended to rescue when I wasn’t there? Five years ago I was convinced I wanted nothing more than to work at the busiest hospital on Aderia, in the thick of things. I suppose most physicians like myself fresh out of school thought they could handle that.