Apparition Read online

  Viciously, the Tonan sliced at Doss. Talons scraped across his armored chest. Between warriors it was purely physical, there were no weapons—the dominant one would win. The stronger of the two would prevail from simple agility and power and normally the loser would back away to fight another day. The two moved so quickly they were a blur. But because of Doss’ pale armor he was more of a blur. The faster he moved the harder it was for his opponent to see him.

  A tail slunk its way up Doss’ calf and he stomped down on it, severing it. The talons of both warriors were pinwheels in action. Doss had another advantage, he was bigger than the Tonan and his arm reach was longer. Doss could smell the Tonan’s rage and frustration. Doss gained a better sense of the battle the harder he fought. It was exhilarating. The little female sat shocked upon the steed. It was apparent she had never watched a battle between warriors. He smelled her emotions, fear, excitement and a small flicker of hope mixed with apprehension. After all, Doss was saving her, but for what purpose?

  Deep-seated memories of defensive attack assaulted Doss until one memory of frontal aggressive assault filled him. Doss managed to hook that single curled talon into the Tonans armor and slice down. The armor was slit open and before it could reclose Doss used his lightning speed to rip into the Tonan’s guts and across his exposed throat. The Tonan gurgled; he was stunned, Doss scented it, as he was sliced almost in half. The human female screamed in horror and stunned disbelief. The stallion pranced, recoiling from the smell of blood as it slid down the Tonan like small rivers undammed. It was too late for the Tonan, Doss cut at him in too many different places for the armor to cover and heal. The Tonan was bleeding out.

  Doss supposed he could have let him live. If he walked away the Tonan would have healed eventually. But he had called him a hybrid. Hybrids were loathed by both Tonan and Castian. He had reminded Doss he would always be alone thanks to both kinds. His lineage wasn’t Doss’ fault. He hadn’t chosen to be born any more than anyone else. Doss never chose to be different. His Castian half made him feel hurt with rejection. His Tonan half discouraged mercy. Alone, Doss separated the two. It had been hard to learn but worth the effort or he would have spent his life battling himself.

  Doss knew the Tonan warrior would never leave the female human alone, she would be captured eventually. The stallion’s life would always be at risk; he would die for her. There really was no other choice. Not that he cared for Tonan filth; they were vile. Doss killed him. The Tonan lay in his own blood. The armor fell away to lay in pieces on the ground. There was no longer a host to take care of. The armor squeaked and squealed in confusion, it didn’t know what to do, there were no vital signs to check and regulate. There was no heart to keep a steady beat. There were no memories or emotional commands, it was useless, it had never been useless and so it rusted into red dust. The dust blew away on the wind.

  The stallion wheeled around and took off. Doss followed from a distance. He sensed the woman’s fear of him. Her urgency to get away. There was a primitive wildness to her. She and the stallion looked perfectly natural together. Once again, she was almost completely covered by her hair and the stallion’s mane, bent over his thick neck. Only her sweet behind and long legs were seen. Those pale legs quivered. The female was tired.

  The female wasn’t directing the beast, he was moving with purpose on his own. At a small clearing, Doss stopped and studied the female and the stallion. There were eight other horses: six mares, a filly and a colt. Doss didn’t know much about horses, but the mares and their young looked like they had been placed in this spot to await the return of their stallion. He had hidden them.

  They all greeted the stallion warmly, and he seemed to assess them. Rearing and calling to them, the stallion led the herd away at a fast gallop. Doss followed. He had no problem keeping up the fast pace. When they stopped at a river, the female slipped from the stallion’s back. She half-dove, half-fell into the water. The other horses drank deeply while the stallion guarded his herd. His ears were pricked forward and Doss knew the stallion was aware of him.

  When the female human climbed from the water she looked exhausted. She stumbled. Her hair when wet hung past her behind. She curled under a tree with the little filly, which lay her head in the female’s lap. The mare and apparently head-female horse stood close to them. She also seemed aware of Doss’ presence and nickered a small sound of apprehension to the stallion.

  The stallion, obviously tired but protective, charged up the hill to where Doss hung upside down in a tree. He reared and snorted a warning. Both front hooves stomped down in a crushing gesture. He tossed his regal head and pranced a few steps in challenge. Doss remained quiet and unmoving hoping to appear unthreatening.

  “You have quite a harem,” Doss muttered under his breath. The horses were beautiful. The little colt was as black as his sire; the little filly was a palomino like her fair dam. Others were gray, brown, one was a stunning white and one pinto. “I wonder how you acquired your little human female.”

  Doss was amazed but it was true. The stallion considered the female to be his. Doss wondered how it was possible the stallion had saved the female from the Tonan slave camp. He had overheard from others that stallions could steal mares. But stealing human females? And from such a high-risk area? Why this female? Why when the stallion had his mares and foals? Something else must be a factor.

  Doss had his mind and thoughts in motion. The stallion wasn’t the only one who could steal a human female. Doss had planned on getting his own. This little female’s scent filled his mind and memories with mating rituals he was eager to perform. Though Doss had never mated, he planned on it now. No more loneliness. Come morning that female would be his. And Doss planned on keeping her…forever.

  The stallion turned and thundered back down the hill bucking, ears flattened to his head. Doss chuckled when the little colt imitated his sire. The mares were milling around the filly and the human female, seeking the shade of the large tree. With their tight circle formed, Doss could no longer see his female. But a gust of wind brought her scent to him. She smelled of need, hurt, weariness. A protective instinct as old as time flared. The smell was compelling, he could give her safety; he could give her everything she needed.

  It had been four hundred years, but his must was building. He had to have her.Soon. Doss felt the pounding of his heart like the horses’ hooves until his shield regulated it. His nostrils flared wide hoping for another gust of her sweet scent. The stallion had to sleep sometime; Doss wouldn’t harm the beast, his little female loved the creature. Doss planned on grabbing the female and he planned on making certain the stallion would have no idea where she went. A plan had already formed. By dawn she would be his. Doss scaled to the top of the tree wanting to give the false impression he had left.

  Chapter 1

  Zoe was dreaming. She knew she was dreaming, but the images wouldn’t stop even though she willed them away. They played out like a TV show on the screen of her mind and she had no control, no remote. The dark walls were all in shimmering shadows down the long gloomy corridor she traversed with the Tonan who was walking with her. Her head barely reached his broad shoulders. The creature was bigger than any man she had ever seen. He was in gray body-hugging armor; his fangs hung from his grinning lips. A black tattoo was etched across his cheek. Protruding bulbs covered his eyes. He looked cruel, ugly and fearsome—as he always did.

  She was nude; her Tonan captor had taken her clothing. Ripped them from her. Making her vulnerable. She was forbidden to lift her arms and cover herself or punishment was swift and painful. Her captor wanted her to understand her fate. Zoe did. She tried to block out the moaning gasps and pleas of the women in each room they passed. Zoe knew the women were human and the men with them were Castian warriors being rewarded for giving away some type of information to their Tonan captors. Tonan captors supervised the sex. The Castian prisoners were not allowed to mate with their female prize, nor could they impregnate them.

  In
one cell a woman was screaming and the Tonan beside her chuckled evilly. “That Castian is in must. It makes his organ grow huge. Sometimes we allow him to bite his victim to give her relief from his agonizing size, sometimes not. Her cries are amusing. Yours will be, too.”

  Zoe felt sick. The endless corridor seemed to stretch and change. The air was pungent. The floor beneath her feet was softer than her cell had been, as were the high walls. She was cold, and being led to a cell not her own. The cell door opened. This cell was darker than hers. Zoe had learned the warriors needed sunlight to generate their strange body armor. Without the sun, they were weak. The Castian warrior in the cell was collared. The collar was made to mask emotion, a pulse sent through it relayed the message to the shield all was well and it was to stay down, making the Castian warriors vulnerable to an attack and imprisonment, even death.

  She felt her hair gripped painfully and her head was yanked back exposing her throat. The Castian before her inhaled her like she was some choice steak. His collar glowed bright yellow, like the planet’s huge yellow suns. No doubt an irony since he couldn’t see the suns. The prisoner looked furious. He was a large man, nude like her. His fists were clenched, as were his teeth. He was glaring hatefully at her captor.

  “Look what I brought you, Loy. Isn’t she beautiful?” The Tonan gripped her hair tighter. He slid his other taloned hand between her legs forcing her to part them lest she be cut. He stopped just short of her mound. The Castian’s jaw twitched, but Zoe had heard him inhale her scent. The Tonan pushed Zoe to her knees onto the hard-as-stone cell ground and she winced. “Just tell me the shield code for Dargon and she’s yours for an hour. You can do anything to her. Break her slender bones. Blind her. Kill her if you wish. I sense your anger. Take it out on her. Screw her, beat her. Or wouldn’t you rather feel those sweet moist lips roam over your cock?”

  The Castian looked down at her. Zoe was terrified. She was less than a captive. She was a captive’s captive. Nothing. Her teeth clamped together. The man before her was a blond gray-eyed giant. Powerful muscles flexed. He was even bigger than her Tonan captor. His chiseled jaw twitched looking for all the world like a Greek God.

  He was pus!

  Zoe gritted her teeth. If his massive cock came near her mouth, she’d bite him. She hated him. She had listened as the cells around her had filled with the sounds of forced sex. Zoe wouldn’t be one of them. She wished he was dead. The bastard was less than the bile building in her mouth. The blond Castian looked at Zoe with as much loathing as she looked at him.

  “You get nothing.” The Castian spat his words as though he had tasted something vile.

  The Tonan pushed Zoe’s face into the Castian’s cock. He flickered to life. Before she could bite him he thrust his hips forward and sent Zoe sprawling backward. She hit the floor, cracking her elbow against the solid ground. She groaned in agony and rubbed at her arm.

  “Aw, now look what you’ve done.” The Tonan’s voice took on a simpering quality. “You hurt the little female when she only wants to please you.”

  “She doesn’t want me.” The Castian sneered and looked like he was ready to spit on her. The thought infuriated Zoe, this wasn’t her doing. “I smell her repugnance, she stinks of it. Her hate leaves a foul taste in my mouth.”

  The Tonan yanked Zoe to her knees again and shook her. “Beg him to fuck you,” he commanded.

  “Go to hell, you ugly, filthy bastard,” Zoe ground out. “No wonder you need to force a woman, you’re all depraved.”

  The Tonan snapped his tail like a whip and it struck over her back. Zoe cried out. Three times he struck her. She remained silent after the first strike, gritting her teeth and clenching her jaw against the pain. Tonans were cruel, evil inhumane creatures; they enjoyed listening to a woman cry. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

  “Why don’t we show him what he’s missing?” The Tonan reabsorbed his armor into his skin. He was nude, smiling. She hated his smile; it’s what a rattlesnake would look like if it had rows of teeth to go with its two fangs. Zoe was infuriated; he actually thought she would let him touch her. She snapped.

  By God somebody’s going to get bit.

  Suddenly her teeth settled over the Tonans thigh and she bit into him for all she was worth. With satisfaction she tasted blood and still she bit harder wanting to rip out a chunk of his evil flesh. The Tonan howled in outrage. She felt smug. Zoe was backhanded into oblivion, but she went into darkness with her mind laughing at the stupid prick, thinking too bad it hadn’t been his cock.

  Zoe woke with a start. She glanced around her surroundings. It was dusk. Caveat was grazing a few feet from the herd. Zoe rose and went to him, waking the filly who had her head in Zoe’s lap. When the filly stirred and rose to her feet, the mare blew softly from her nose. The filly went to nurse. The ground was spongy beneath Zoe’s bare feet. It had been hard to get used to at first, but now she loved the feel of the earth on this planet. When she reached Caveat she sank her fingers into his warm fur. She laid her face against his neck and sobbed.

  Caveat had saved her from hell. He was her hero. The stallion settled his face and neck over her shoulder and they stood pressed against one another, with Zoe’s arms clutched tight to his mane. He whickered softly to show he understood she felt sad and relieved as well. The head mare, Aether, Zoe had named her, because the stunning palomino looked like a piece of Heaven, moved closer with the filly trailing behind.

  The mare took turns nuzzling both Caveat and Zoe. At first Aether had problems with Zoe, until Zoe helped the intelligent horse realize a female human could be enticed to scratch itchy spots and reach high fruits on trees. Aether had started looking at her as though she were a foal. Defenseless, no threat to her position as head mare. Tiny and weak and in need of protection. And Zoe was loyal. To all of the horses. She tended cuts or abrasions, pulled irritants from sensitive hooves. She was able to pull annoying burs and thorns. Zoe loved all of them. She had known Caveat first. They were inseparable on Earth. Zoe chuckled as Winsome, the filly, tickled her waist with her lips. The filly was playfully attacked by the colt when, Tenebrae, who was as dark as his sire, snuck up on them.

  The herd was the only family Zoe had left. Caveat had gathered the mares together when the humans began disappearing. It was no mystery they had been captured by the Tonans. Everything animal was left to fend for itself. All of the human females were picked off as the human men were killed. The Tonans had come in the dark, in the daylight, dusk, dawn. It didn’t matter to them. They were indestructible, huge, without compassion. Human men had tried to reason with them, tried to fight, plead. There was no negotiation, no mercy. The human men were killed, slaughtered like cows, the women enslaved. The battle was laughable. Tonans were encased in gray, impenetrable armor. Nothing could stop them. The Tonans had laughed at any attempt. Tonans hadn’t needed bombs or weapons, their armor was enough. Their tails held and choked while their razor sharp talons shredded human males and older females.

  The packs of children left to wander alone and helpless were left for last. Female girls were rounded up. Using merciful trickery, the Tonans gave them better care. They were being groomed as Tonan mates for later years. The human males weren’t as lucky—forced into a life of slavery. Every so often, Castians attacked and children went missing from the Tonans’ stock pile. Zoe wondered at their fate, she thought the Castians as cruel as the Tonans.

  Zoe thought about the armored man-thing who had saved her and Caveat. He had killed the Tonan. It was astounding. She thought nothing could. But he had. He was different from the Tonans and Castians. His armor was almost white. His talon finger had a claw. Zoe knew he was still out there, watching. She couldn’t see him; it was a feeling she couldn’t shake. Caveat knew it too, which only reinforced her suspicion. It’s why the stallion refused to sleep. He thought Zoe was in danger. Zoe clicked her tongue and Caveat bent a knee. She climbed onto his back. She was still exhausted.

  She knew as long as she was
with Caveat she was safe. The huge armored thing didn’t seem intent to harm her beloved stallion. Caveat was eight years old. Zoe was fifteen when she watched him being born. Caveat’s dam was pure white, stunning; her name was Heaven’s Angel. The brood mare had been her father’s favorite—his pride and joy. Sometimes Zoe felt her father loved the horse more than her. Heaven’s Angel had been sixteen. A perfect producer of champion bloodlines. Her father had been hoping for a pretty little white filly. If not this time, then perhaps the next time. When Caveat had been born his dam had died, pushing him out with her last breath. Zoe’s father was devastated. He had hated Caveat not only for killing his prized mother but for not being the white filly he wanted.

  Zoe had stepped up immediately and begged for charge of Caveat. Her father said if he survived she could have him. The colt had tenacity. From the beginning, he was a real firecracker and those around him had best beware. Zoe had slept in the barn with Caveat the first year of his life. She bottle fed him and took care of him. An only child, Zoe had hated being homeschooled until Caveat had come along. Her mother had been lenient with Zoe’s hours as long as she got her schoolwork and chores done; the little stallion had followed her everywhere. Zoe spent every second she could with Caveat. He had thought of her as his mother. They had grown into the best of friends. There was nothing Zoe loved more, especially since her parents had been killed on Ulsy. Her father, a male, had stood no chance. Her mother was too old for the Tonans’ liking.