I Am No Prey

6- No Third Chances

What happened after that was a blur. I got a punch to the skull and blacked out. When I woke up again, I was on my knees, with my hands cuffed behind me. I looked around the room, disoriented. The room was bare. In front of me, the Commander was walking back and forth, his arms clasped behind his back, and once he saw me awake, he smiled. I shivered. Despite being awake, the hands on my shoulders only gripped me harder.

"You say you had no idea that she came here to steal?" he said, voice barely hiding what I assumed was humor.

From the corner of my vision, I saw Brandon as he uttered, "None."

He chuckled darkly. "I know a liar when I see one. Scurry back to your country and tell your President that I do not take kindly to thieves. Consider yourselves warned."

I saw Brandon back out of the room, where Green Wings was already waiting. They must've already checked him and his bags if they were letting him go. I was surprised when he stopped, eyes flicking to me. "And Cerise?"

"Oh, she stays. Can't let her go unpunished."

And with no last words for me, the coward left. Like I was nothing to him, he left. Like he didn't give a damn about me. I would be lying if I said that it didn't hurt.

I knew my stepmother probably had a fit that I was here to use it to her political advantage, but there wasn't anything she could do. I tried to steal something on Drakhenae soil so the Drakhenae would deal with me. I looked back to the Commander and assessed my situation at the same time. My gadgets were gone, and so was the knife I had tucked into my boot. What good that had been.

I watched as his eerily black eyes narrowed. "Where is it?"

I blinked. "Where is what?"

Faster than I could follow, he stood in front of me, his hand gripping my throat. "The file. You don't know what you're doing, little girl. Give it back, and you can go back home."

I bristled. I was eighteen, which legally made me an adult. And being six feet tall, many confused me for twenty-two, sometimes twenty-four. And therefore, I was not a little girl. Most of the hurt I felt from Brandon abandoning me fueled my anger. And yes, it was good cause that would be a better use of my emotions.

But one thing bugged me that his second didn't return it. Why? It took everything in me to not look at where he was standing to my right and give everything away.

Instead, I looked up at the Commander and smiled. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

The hand around my throat squeezed tighter, and I choked.

"Where. Is. It," he inquired, calmly, as if he had no problems with choking a teenager.

"I don't know," I choked out, spluttering. The grip on my throat eased. "Someone beat me to it."

He growled in frustration and stepped back. He turned his attention to his second, a slow smile forming on his face. "What do you think, Everard? What should her punishment be?"

A beat of silence and then, "Make her one of us."

The dread pooling in my stomach turned to ice. No, no, no. Those moronic creatures couldn't make me a Drakhenae. That would be the worst possible punishment because even if I escaped, I'd be stuck here since Drakhenae didn't live in human countries unless they had a death wish. They didn't even take a visit.

The Commander nodded. "Efficient." He looked at the soldiers grabbing my shoulders. "Take her away."

I watched as one of them pulled out a syringe which made me flinch, their grip tightening at my vain attempts trying to get away. I had always abhorred needles and visits to the doctor; hated them like merde. I needed a better word to describe my intense dislike of them. But I was pinned to the spot and couldn't do anything when he plunged the needle into the soft sector between my shoulder and neck, and a moment later, my world went dark.